Hi, I used to main MM back in Legion and early BfA. Never played BM, tho, and since I was a Lone Wolfing, I never cared much about pets.
Been levelling a BM hunter for a couple of days, and I need to ask:
you really just need one ferocity pet, one tenacity pet, and one cunning pet. i would suggest going to petopia to check which pets have dispels as part of their kit. spirit beasts are the go to tenacity and i know bats are ferocity and can dispel.
edit: the only meaningful pet spec is ferocity because they have lust. otherwise it’s personal choice but it’s just super useful to have a pet with a dispel since tranq shot isn’t back yet. spirit beasts are the go to for tenacity because they have a dispel and a decent heal on a 30 sec cd.
What I do is use Stamina pet until boss, check if I need to cast Primal Rage and switch or not, then switch back to stamina pet. I never ever use Speed pet.
So basically only use Stamina and Primal Rage pet, and tamed some cool ones.
There’s a questline for Hati, the pet given in Legion expansion. You can pick any variation of Hati to tame too. Hati’s spec gives stamina buff, heals and dispells rage or magic effect. Hati is useful in dungeons to dispel mobs and heal, as well as to use for raiding. A dinosaur/t-rex pet can be useful to cast Primal Rage (30%) haste. Depending on the haste pet you pick, they can be useful in PvP because of (web) or (healing reduction) specials.
Your go-to soloing tank pet is the Clefthoof. Blood of the Rhino and a 2 min Shell Shield is very potent. Spirit Beasts are what you use for dungeons and raids as they have a heal and soothe. Keep a Bat or Ray on you in case you get into a dungeon without any players that can provide Bloodlust/Heroism. They have Lust through Ferocity and have a soothe.
Thanks for the tips, fellow hunters.
This, btw, is my hunter. I’m the OP.
I tamed a spirit beast from Suramar (Loony, my purple manasaber). I don’t like bats or rays so I’m delaying hunting for one while just farming item levels now that I reached 120. Since I like my feathermane, I put him on my stables so Animal Companion summons him for me.
So far I’ve been enjoying the spec a lot, been I while since I played hunter and I’m considering maining it in Shadowlands. (If MM is fun and viable, the chances are 99%)
On another note, I’ve never used macros before. How do I macro Misdirection to target my tank or my pet?
#showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [target=focus,help] Misdirection
That’s my misdirection macro. Uses older syntax, this macro is probably 8 years old now lol.
Casts on my focus target first, then a friendly target. Since Misdirect auto casts on your pet, I didn’t need to specify a pet target.
There’s plenty of pets with the soothe functionality. Cranes and stags also have it.
So, I must have the tank on focus all the time ? I usually don’t mind these things so I have no clue
Best all-around pet is a spirit beast. You get extra stamina, a purge, an extra defensive cooldown, and an amazing automatic heal.
Pet spec does not matter in terms of your DPS, but it can make a difference in terms of extra utility you may need.
In addition to a spirit beast you of course should have at least one ferocity pet for heroism. The ideal BM ferocity pet is a clefthoof, as they have amazing tanking abilities - even if your pet is not tanking a clefthoof will still be easier to keep alive than other ferocity pets. If you for some reason need to have heroism and a purge at the same time, you can also tame a bat.
And you should also have a cunning pet if you need the movement speed increase. My choice here is a water strider because they can also give you water walking. Granted now that I have flying pretty much the only place I use this is in Siege of Boralus on M+, but during leveling water walking can be quite useful. Feathermanes are also useful for the slowfall, though you can get around that most of the time by just keeping goblin gliders on you.
Used this one for as long as I can remember. I did clean it up a bit in…Legion I think.
Also added a mouseover-condition.
/showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists,nodead][@focus,help][@pet,exists] Misdirection
Priorities:
Prio 1: Cast misdirection on a friendly unit(in-game character or unitframe) that your cursor is placed on top of.
Prio 2: If the above does not apply, you will cast misdirect on a friendly unit set as your Focus-target.
Prio 3: If none of the above applies, then misdirection will be cast on your pet, if alive and within range.
Considering you’re playing Beast Mastery and play with a Spirit Beast pet, I would recommend for you to put together a macro for your Spirit Mend ability as well.
It’s a strong heal on a fairly short CD and you’d do well to use it on CD if either you or anyone else that you play with is missing a lot of health.
I created this one during Legion and it works perfectly for me. Same as with the one above, I added a mouseover-condition to it, to more easily allow me to use it on whoever I want to.
#showtooltip Spirit Mend
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists,nodead][@player]Spirit Mend
Priorities:
Prio 1: Cast Spirit Mend on any friendly unit your cursor is placed on top of(incl your own pet if needed).
Prio 2: Cast Spirit Mend on yourself.
Very helpful! Thanks mate
I love casting MD on a healer or DPS that pissing me off.
Well you’ve kind of touched on the current problem, what you “like” doesn’t really matter… its what they do.
This is the current issue many of us have with the current “meta” as it wasnt this restrictive in previous expansions going almost all the way back to the beginning.
As others have mentioned there are certain key skills you need in your stable and they are available only on certain pets. Also if you PvP you’ll want a mortal strike and a slow option as well as the others listed.
Petopia is the go to source for these things and has been forever 