Some PvP Theorycrafting: Back To The Pet

Classes Hunter
1

As you know, MM Hunter is getting slapped here in a couple hours, and they’re not minor changes.

Lowdown: Our burst, which is probably our biggest benefit to any PvP scenario, is getting slapped, and slapped hard. Our Epic BG damage is also getting slapped with the AoE nerfs. The biggest slap is Spotter’s Mark and Improved Spotter’s Mark, which combined give a total of 20% bonus damage.

Our raw damage for Aimed Shot and Arcane Shot are buffed, and those are unconditional buffs. This got me thinking: If Spotter’s Mark is going to be less impactful, how much will a pet help?

Hear me out.

The choice node is between Imp. Spotter’s Mark and Unbreakable Bond, which brings your pet of choice back. This pet also gets 15% more damage while outdoors. (And 15% reduced damage taken but who cares)

This is important because almost all PvP scenarios are outdoors, both BGs and Arenas. That 15% buff is near constant.

A pet’s damage is minor, but not ignorable. Since Imp. Mark is now 20%, why not stick with the basic Mark for 10% and then use the pet to make up the difference? This also comes with the benefits of things the pet brings: We can now have Harrier’s Cry with Fortitude of the Bear or Master’s Call. We can get a pet that applies a free 50% snare at all times without speccing into Concussive Shot. We get another target they are forced to switch to if we Feign.

There’s still a large number of benefits just having a nearby body brings. Because Mortal Wounds is tied into Aimed Shot directly, we no longer need a Mortal Wound pet. This gives us a lot of flexibility. Fortitude pet, eagle gets Cunning, best of both worlds?

(I don’t know if you can get both buffs at once, documentation is real spotty concerning this)

I’m going to test it as soon as I get home from work, but with the raw damage of Spotter’s Mark getting hit hard and Trueshot also getting slapped, I feel more unconditional damage may be the key. And nothing says ‘unconditional’ like the unconditional love an animal friend brings.

I’m not the best PvPer, but this is maybe sounding like the way forward once these changes go through. I’m going to give it a stab when I can.

2

You don’t have passives/actives from pets as MM. These are replaced by the new eagle utility from the tree. So, unfortunately, you can’t have Fortitude of the bear any more :frowning:

The uses for pet as MM are:

  • mortal wounds when you can’t aimed shot consistently in some lobbies
  • keeping constant slows on people
  • chasing rogues behind pillars in 1v1

After the nerfs tomorrow using pet will be a little more damage in PVP, but with the downside of slightly slower aimed shot cast time

1 Like
3

Ah, that stinks. I’ve seen something saying that you could but then other things saying you couldn’t and I really couldn’t find out one way or the other while at work.

Still, yeah, I think those latter two uses could be nice to try to compensate for the weaker Marks. I always wanted the solo MM thing for so long but…man. That is a heavy nerf bat.

Good week to just mess around in Unrankeds to feel it out, though. Skirmish week and all.

4

Has anyone tried this out yet to see if its more damage playing with Pet now?

5

Testing it now! Will be back soon with my findings.

For context, almost all WM/Conq gear, just need a Conq ring and trinket. No Tier.

1 Like
6

Alright. Some rough numbers from my end and my current gear. PvP Ilvl 675. All tests were done with Badge of Ferocity 665.

Aimed Shot W/ Norm Mark and Pet
W/ TS: Average 1.9 mil crits
W/O TS Average 1.6mil crits
Pet DMG: 27k autoattacks, 20k special attacks, 43K autoattack crit 34k special attack crit

Aimed Shot W/ Imp. Mark
W/ TS: 2.1 mil crits
W/O TS: 1.8 mil crits

So. That’s my test dummy findings. It’s…bad, dawg. It’s real bad. There’s almost no reason to use Imp. Mark. You get so much more with a pet now. And keep in mind, those test results are if Mark even PROCS. I’m having it only sometimes proc during Trueshot!

Some further tests, running a random BG. I have a Tenacity pet out and running Cunning for the eagle. You don’t get both passives, BUT you get Fortitude of the Bear! That’s huge! So running a pet, you get that big defensive back.

I’m running one of the bomb crabs. It has Pin so it constantly snares while I can plink away. It worked alright, damage was overall good, was able to chunk down a Disc pretty reliably.

My conclusion, yours may differ, it’s just not worth taking Imp. Mark anymore. That extra 10%, in the grand scheme of things? Not worth it. You get so much more out of just having a pet now, and while it may be a little behind in damage? It sure ain’t much, if any.

I guess it felt more consistent since I was still doing chunks outside of TS? But with TS it really just feels like a slight buff as opposed to the spec defining CD it’s supposed to be. It feels REAL anemic.

So, yeah, at least for now, I’m running PvP with a pet. Not happy about it, this was supposed to be the time we moved away from it, but guess they changed their mind.

1 Like
7

wow great information! thank you!

With Fortitude of the Bear using a tenacity pet, do you still have access to pathfinding and masters call?

I like having a pet, feels more thematic for me, but I can understand not wanting to have a pet. I am glad theres actually a choice here. You lose some minor damage but gain utility, seems like a fair trade off and comp dependent as to which is the best choice.

Did Aimed Shot feel any slower using a pet?

8

Yes! If you are running your Eagle as Cunning and rock a Tenacity pet, you will get both Bear and Master’s Call, and they don’t share a CD. However, you won’t get the % HP buff and the -3% damage doing this. So a choice between survivability or Bear and Call.

Not in the slightest. Granted, it already chugs in PvP even with all the talents to speed it up, but it wasn’t any slower this week than it was the last.

Last thing: It seems it’s kinda bugged where if you immediately call your pet, it won’t do Bear? However if you mount and dismount it seems to fix it.

9

Why would using unbreakable bond make your aimed shot cast slower?

10

I was thinking that too??? I have no idea where that came from, because I haven’t seen anything saying otherwise. The reason it wasn’t taken was because Imp. Mark did a lot more than whatever your pet could do.

That’s not so true anymore. In PvP, anyway, PvE, absolutely you still take Imp. Mark.

11

Yeah but there’s nothing related to aimed shot cast time with your choice between unbreakable bond and imp mark.

12

This is really low. I’m routinely critting the dummy for 4m+ with aimed shot and black arrow.

13

That’s what I got on the PvP dummy. Actual PvP targets may vary depending on gear and Vers.

Like I said, results may vary. Just that for me Imp. Mark were marginal increases.

14

I’m talking about the pvp dummy. Actual pvp targets get hit harder than the dummy.

15

Guessing it’s a DR thing? I should’ve mentioned I ran Sentinel and that was without Lunar Storm. I’ll add that in.

I…may have to try DR if it’s hitting that hard, though.

16

Sentinel aimed shot gets more modifiers than dark ranger. They will be bigger than dark ranger aimed shots.

17

:dracthyr_shrug: I dunno what to say then! The BG I did I was second in damage and those were the numbers on the dummy!

Guess the big point was Imp. Mark didn’t do much for me.

18

I mean, it is 10%. Your numbers are pretty aligned with 10%. Play pet if you like it better. It’s not that big of a difference but 10% is 500k or 600k damage off your biggest aimeds so just proceed with that knowledge. I also don’t know what you’re doing wrong on the dummy because those values are about half of mine and presumably you’re also in 670+ il pvp gear. I am not even using a lot of mastery.

19

I’m not either, so I have no idea! I’m just rolling with the numbers I’m given. Really the point is to try to get info on a wider basis because I can only go off what I’m getting. That’s why I’m posting this to see what others are getting.

That’s why I got the disclaimer up there. I like to think I’m ‘okay’ but there are people much better than me in PvP. My goal is to find out if a pet is the proper way to go until further changes.

I’m just sharing my own results, is all.

20

How hard is your pet hitting? What percent of your damage in the epic bg was it around? I think it would be funny if it got to benefit from marks mastery and ended up being super potent lol.