I see so many hunter running around with their pets tanking rares or elites and their pet gets destroyed, so I though I’d put out recommendations to help keep a pet alive as my pet hold out a lot better than most of the hunter’s pets I see tanking stuff.
Use a ferocity pet, preferably one that has either damage reduction or dodge on a short cool down, so Core Hound or Scalehide for damage reduction and Cat, Courser or Wind Serpent for Dodge. Done right, the heals through Leech will be better than the extra % heal for a Tenacity pet. I wish Tenacity pets also had the Leech benefit as the % extra healing does not cut it for a Tenacity pet to be able to survive.
Use one pet as your primary pet doesn’t benefit from Leech from the 2nd pet and with multiple pets, your primary pet does less overall damage so less Leech healing by them.
Pick talents that increase your pet’s DPS/damage or that allows Barbed shot to do more damage/be used more often since Barbed shot increases your pet’s attack speed.
Use Barbed shot often. Don’t wait for the bleed to be done. If it’s available, use it as it reduces the cooldown of Bestial Wrath.
Use legendaries that increase your pet’s damage, thus their Leech, such as Rylakstalker’s Piercing Fangs. I’ve noticed the 15% Leech from using a Ferocity pet definitely applies to the pet but not so much to the Hunter themselves.
Keep Mend Pet in your rotation.
Use an addon that shows your pet’s health. Since I heal on other characters, i still use Healbot Continued to be able to better visually see what my pet’s health is.
Don’t forget to use Tranquilizing Shot to remove buffs/enrages and Intimidation (if possible) to let mend pet/leech help catch up healing on your pet.
One thing to keep in mind is that while clefthoof is the tankiest, that’s not until 60. Before 60 it is corehound/scalehide.
I am in the camp of running animal companion though. The loss in leech is better than the loss in dps to me. Just keep that mend pet going on big pulls and it’ll be fine.
The clefthoof size and 2 minute cooldown is why I don’t use it as 2 minutes is too long to wait for a defensive, especially if you run a pug with a consistently bad tank. While many people would just leave, I feel the chaos of a pug makes you have to play a class to the fullest and I like to try and have a successful run if I can.
I shall keep Frank the Tank a.k.a Murder Mittens a.k.a G.O.A.T thank you.
Frank has been my companion since WoTLK, if he dies, pop turtle, rez, rinse and repeat. there aren’t any rares i have ran across i can’t solo, even those with 1mil+ health and hits like a truck.
The key is knowing how to play BM to its max in world content.
if you’re out in the world fighting an elite that’s being tanked by a hunter pet, and you have a healing spell. It’s possible to heal the hunter pet! When it dies that hunter is gonna feign death and let the rare kill you while he rezzes it.
Definately use animal companion, it seems to double up the leech healing YOU get from mend pet. I have 22% leech and I heal for 1700 a tick every 2 seconds for 10 seconds when I cast mend pet, my pets themselves are healing for 4k each pet each tick.
Adding Mend Pet to my rotation made such a huge difference at the start of the expansion. Someone advised me to do that and my survivability really increased.
if you’re out in the world fighting an elite that’s being tanked by a hunter pet, and you have a healing spell. It’s possible to heal the hunter pet! When it dies that hunter is gonna feign death and let the rare kill you while he rezzes it. "
Exactly ! So many healer’s fail to think of this.
Those that do? LIVE !
