Do I have to take Animal Companion BM?

So I just boosted a Hunter to 50. I played Hunter back in Legion, so I have some idea what I am doing as I relearn the class.

This Hunter will only be for solo play. No raid stuff, just exploring and soloing.

That being said, I am used to having just one pet. It looks weird to run with two. I know that sounds funny. Since I am solo, do I have to take Animal Companion? Am I hurting myself by not taking it?

Also, for a low geared 50, what pet types should I take. I am thinking Turtles and Crabs for defense.

Thanks for reading!

~Cuby

No, you don’t need it for solo casual play. As far as what pet to get, a clefthoof is the go to for tanking.

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Thanks for your reply.

For solo play, just pick what talents/covenants/gear/mog and such based on what YOU like/want. Even when BM wasn’t great, I still played BM and enjoyed it. Doesn’t impact gameplay and since you’re solo no one will tell you that you’ve picked the wrong things.

As for the pets turtles are good, I haven’t tamed any crabs, Clefthoof are good too like Gunrunner said. Spirit Beasts offer some healing and a health boost. Petopia has a great list of all the different beasts, their families, abilities, looks, and where to find them!

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  • Don’t need animal companion. BM is a solo/open world machine without it, no prob.

  • Core hounds are my BM go to pet. Great pet family abilities, plus ferocity leach makes for a solid tank (I know you’d think tenacity but that leach is just insane).

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Do you HAVE to? No

Is it very recommended? Yes

If your just soloing, no animal companion is better imo. Get a pet with leech and he can tank almost anything.

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no u dont and i wont in DF…as far as BM pets core hound/clefthoof for Lust…sprit beast for tanking/ extra heal

I find it better without Animal Companion, because your single Ferocity pet does more damage for itself, thus healing itself more. I see so many hunter where their pets can’t hold up and they die while tanking something, but I have no issues or less than one with Animal Companion. I generally stick with a cat because they can prowl and as a Ferocity pet, they have Primal Rage (Bloodlust/heroism) available to them, plus they do more damage because of their initial from stealth bonus damage. If I want a Ferocity pet to tank, I stick with a Core Hound or Scalehide because their damage reduction is every 1 minute vs the Clefthoof’s 2 minutes and it’s massive size. I’ve also found pathing on 2 pets to have more issues than with one.

Tenacity pets suck as tanking pets as Leech on the Ferocity pet keeps them alive better, but you have to put more focus into talents that enhance your pets damage, thus its leech. The Spirit Beast heal is terrible now and it’s a Tenacity pet, so not worth fielding.

No you do Not.
Animal Companion has a hidden de-buff of -35% Damage and Healing output Via pet leach for all Summoned companion pets.
So Crows, Dire beasts, Trinket proc creatures, PocoPop, Quest NPC helpers. all do 35% less dps when you talent into Animal Companion Quite noticeable in Torghast when solo-ing.

I thought the debuff only affected your summoned pet. Never thought it did anything to Murder of Crows, let alone Pocopoc.

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Nope Every Damn one ! That.s why you Take Killer Instinct’s for Torghast And or Solo Tanking tough Open world Mobs. It reduces All Pet Ability’s by 35% Including the Individual % of Leach on your Primary and Secondary Pet.

And so far No definitive Blue Post other than they are looking into the issue and supposedly working on a fix.

I dunna like no menagerie. You get extra quest npcs, companions as it is. Place gets too crowded. So far BM works fine with one pet.

Anyways, WoW hunters…

aura is supposed to go away…if so then AC is a damage increase to all summoned pets including Dire/wild but we shall see…haven’t checked lately if thats so in DF…if not then skip the point