I’ve never played Hunter, but I’m planning one out because I like doing things that others can’t, and hunters are the rulers of solo. I want to solo dungeons at 60 and even while leveling. I want to solo group quests. I want to kite tough enemies into populated leveling towns. I don’t give a damn about efficiency. I wanna pull off all kinds of crazy crap, and I’m thinking about pets. Please comment with any of your thoughts regarding pets.
wow-petopia . com/classic/ lists the information I’ve been using to choose a pet. I assume (hope?) it is accurate.
Basically I’ve narrowed down a few relevant pets for my needs.
Owl/Bat these types have a total stat modifier of 3.07 and Screech as an additional focus burner. Screech is useful in group and solo PvE for the attack power debuff and AOE threat. For soloing group content, the Owl/Bat provides defensive and offensive bonuses. Later on, a ZG bat can be tamed for a 1.0 attack speed, useful in PVP for spell pushback but also useful for superior Frenzy uptime.
Cat/Raptor These types have a total stat modifier of 3.08, the highest possible, and are generally the highest damage, which is useful for group damage dealing roles, holding threat, and acting as damage while the hunter solo kites a mob. Cats in particular also sport extremely high attack speeds, allowing for superior PVP spell pushback and Frenzy uptime. A high attack speed cat is available from the mid 20s.
Turtle/Scorpid/Boar These types have godawful stat modifiers. Turtle and Boar in particular have a total stat mod of 3.03, the lowest possible. They also have terribly slow attack speeds. However, they have special abilities; Boar charge (immobilize + extra damage on next attack), Turtle Shell Shield (reduce all damage taken by 50% for 12sec, reduce attack speed by 43% 12sec), and Scorpid Poison (DoT over 10sec, stacking 5 times for a total of +20 DPS at max rank). Boar’s charge is an additional possible kiting tool for PvE or PvP, the Scorpid Poison is useless in raids but would add additional dps to killing an elite/boss solo. Finally, Shell Shield may be of particular value for an elite or boss that inflicts magic damage or has an enrage state that makes it immune to cc or is otherwise unkiteable. This category also has the most fun possible bugs/exploits (to abuse for a few hours/days after reporting them and before they are fixed). I would greatly appreciate experienced input on pets in this category.
The above 3 categories are what I am personally most interested in but for the sake of completeness I will include others that seem relevant.
Wolf Huge for raids and melee groups in particular due to the group buff. Also useful for Aimed shot abuse and macros.
Wind Serpent Has a niche use as a range damage dealer if melee is not an option and can penetrate armor to some extent. Good 3.07 stat modifiers.
Please comment with any of your thoughts regarding pets.