Trying to figure out which pet to use as a first time Hunter.
I’ve read that the Rake has a fast attack speed which is why he’s recommended. I want something tanky. Was thinking a bear or boar. Does the Rakes fast attack speed trump armor/hp?
I tend to use Deathflayer. He does a pretty good job tanking especially when I remember to train him in growl. : )
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I looked him up just now.
Does he come with a poison ability? And where/how am I able to teach him growl and other basic abilities?
IMO, grab any bear or boar for now. They’ll eat almost anything.
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Under general abilities there’s an option called “beast training” which will allow you to train your pet growl etc (after you’ve learned the ability to train that ability from a trainer or another beast in the case of specialized ablities)
Its not intuitive at all so I even missed it initially when I first started a hunter in classic after having played one back in the day.
I’m not worried about food costs. Maxed out Cooking in this guy. Have tons stocked up.
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Yes, he comes with scorpid poison 1 and claw 1. You can teach him growl once you visit a trainer. Growl is always free. Once you start loading him up with natural armor and great stamina, he is a force to reckon with. To get higher levels his innate skills, you need to tame other critters and learn from them before you can teach him. E.g.,
claw (2–strigid hunter, 3–clattering crawler, 4–elder ashenvale bear, 5–drywallow snapper, 6–scorpid hunter, 7–ironbeak hunter, 8–elder shardtooth)
scorpid poison (2–scorpid reaver, 3–scorpid hunter, 4–firetail scorpid)
It’s not about cost. It’s about convenience. They’ll eat whatever crap drops off of whatever mob.
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If you want the best option you generally go for cat or owl due to threat/dps being more important than anything else.
If you don’t care about playing the absolute best option then just pick any pet that you like. The differences are minor and probably won’t be noticed if you aren’t trying to speed level.
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What’s the difference between Owl and Cat?
Cat has higher damage (1.1x base iirc) and access to both bite and claw which gives slightly more dps. In exchange they are slightly less tanky.
Owl has good damage (1.07x base) and access to claw and screech which gives decent damage as well as aoe threat generation and a slight attack power reduction.
Now that I am looking it up it seems bats are the same as owls. I believe the only problem with bats is that screech is learned earliest by taming a vulture in westfall which is naturally far more difficult for horde.
until you get a gorilla to fund out he only eats fruit and fungus.
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Using a pet with screech is the best leveling pet imho (either Owl or Buzzard of some sort).
Screech lowers attack power which makes the pet take lighter hits.
- Screech also generates threat like a mini growl.
- Screech also generates AoE threat which means if you get an add they’ll both be on your pet. You could even squeeze in a multishot or two without needing to feign death.
- If they have a dps ability like claw, turn off the auto casting of it or it’ll waste your focus. And make sure growl and screech are on auto.
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Owl is the best because it has screech for cleave threat but its not game breaking if you don’t get one and it’s a pain in the butt to get one as Horde or to go back and train if you are past the starter zone for Alliance.
I would say the two reasonable paths are;
- Just get a cat. Only stat they are lacking is health but imo health is the least impactful stat for your pet. Damage and Armor are much more important and cat has great damage and good armor.
or
- Just get a pet you will use in TBC and level it now and get it out of the way (Scorpid if you PVP and Wind Serpent will eventually become the BIS pet when you get enough gear due to the Go For the Throat talent and Lightning Blast having no cd for PVE).
feel free to look at the stats.
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I’ve tried bear and boar,I picked up the wind serpent and I just love her I think she holds aggro damn good,when I started in BC when it first came out the wind serpent was my choice then also
For leveling I’m almost always using buzzard. Screech is amazing, does aoe AP reduce, good threat by itself, and is spammable. Unlike owls, buzzards get claw, screech, AND bite, which makes them do slightly more damage (but require more focus management), and they have more armor and hp than owls, making them very tanky. Close 2nd is The Rake/Broken Tooth for the wicked fast attack speed, which is good in pvp for caster pushback
Sporebat 
No wonder Jennifer only feeds me fruit and fungus …that B , ima gonna have a talk to her tonight
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One is a bird. The other is well… a cat.
I might pick one up. Sounds pretty solid.