just wondering which pet is best as a tank. Let’s say you’re going solo and need the ultimate meat shield.
Tenacity for sure, but there are 3 types with abilities which may make it last longer.
thoughts?
Tenacity is good for soaking specific burst abilities and the higher health pool, but they aren’t the strongest all around tank, that’s Ferocity.
Triggered defense is literally just a worse version of regular defense, as regular defense autocasts when the pet hits 50% health in addition to using it in demand, and with half the cooldown.
Dodge is garbage.
That means you want Scalehide as MM or SV.
For BM, Clefthoof is strongest due to Blood of the Rhino increasing all healing received by the pet, including Leech and Mend Pet heals, despite having triggered rather than active defense. Core Hound is an honorable mention.
I use terrorpene (turtle) as MM. He tanks everything I’ve run into, esp if I use heal pet a bit.
Hmm interesting.
Haven’t mained hunter a few expansions, but back when I did play them last Tenacity was hands down the way to go for pet tanking. I always used to run a turtle for tanking needs.
What changed? Is it simply the damage of a ferocity pet helps it keep aggro?
If this is true, then a Tenacity Pet has no place for a hunter…correct?
No, Tenacity pets give you a bigger health pool and on-demand 20% damage reduction for Hunter and pet. If you are fighting difficult enemies and need to survive specific telegraphed large hits, rather than needing to sustain against lower but more consistent damage, Tenacity is king.
Why Scalehide over Clefthoof for SV? Nvm… Just saw that they are exotic.
This is actually wrong, triggered defense is the best - Clefthoof is generally the best tank pet if you are BM. You get armor buff, healing received buff, and lots of leech. This is key. The best tanking pet is not just how much damage is reduced, its how much it can heal itself and how resilient it is to NOT die under heavy beat downs.
Triggered defense gives you plenty of time to heal pet up with mend pet. When you see the shield pop, you know the pet got too low if you weren’t paying enough attention. So you can heal pet to full when it shields, again with Exhiliration, and you can turtle+pet rez+md+feign for a pet reset. During this time you have huge DPS (leech) including Heroism if needed.
Clefthoof is tops.
Clefthoof is best, but triggered defense is worse than regular defense.
Compare Saclehide and Gorilla, or Bear and Turtle, for an example of what I’m talking about.
Clefthoof is the exception because of their exotic ability, which has nothing to do with their triggered defense ability.
I think there’s something really wrong with pets at the moment.
I know that people say that the clefthoof is the best, and that may be true, but I don’t want to use an ugly pet like that.
That having been said, I can solo Torghast with my firefly (Ferocity) easily, but my hippogryphs (Tenacity) don’t do well at all.
Aren’t Tenacity pets supposed to be the tanks?
The Leech of ferocity is atm better then the Tenacity…
So i use Ferocity (either Clefthoof or Core Hound) for soloing stuff or in Dungeon if no one as LUST
If there is another player that can LUST i use Tenacity for survival of the fitness it give you another defensive CD
Eh, not really. Hasn’t been that way since like Legion. Tenacity is more about improving the hunter’s defenses.
That said, I’m still sharply critical of the advice to use a Scalehide for MM. MM gets like 10% of its total damage output from its pet, so the leech healing on that pet is basically irrelevant. BM gets closer to 2/3rds of its damage from their pet, and gets a 50% boost to the leech from Aspect of the Beast, so their pet leech is like 10x as strong as it is for MM.
The only real advantage a Scalehide has for MM is a pet that gets a defensive and gives the hunter leech. But that’s a bit nonsensical, as the defensive implies the pet is taking most of the damage, while the lean into leech on the hunter suggests the hunter is. The 5% max HP bonus from Tenacity also buffs Mend Pet healing, which is the overwhelming majority of an MM hunter’s pet’s healing taken, so I’d tend to argue that Tenacity is better for MM unless they are expecting to personally tank things a lot.
Also, worth noting, the clefthoof exotic ability Blood of the Rhino doesn’t just boost healing intake, it also reduces all physical damage taken by 10% (despite claiming it boosts armor by 10%, which would be rather less than 10% DR). It makes all healing effects 33% stronger on that clefthoof relative to physical damage, compared to other pets.
Clefthoof, there is no debate about it.
So, for non-Beast Master Hunters we should be using a Gorilla (triggered defense)?
so confusing.
Pet families in order of tankiness (exotics not included):
Note that the Active Defense abilities are set to autocast by default, fire at 50%, reduce damage by 50% for 12 sec, and have a 1 minute cooldown. Triggered Defense abilities are passive, triggering only when the pet reaches 40% health, reduce damage by 60% for 12 sec, and have a 2 minute cooldown.
I use a spirit beast with this macro:
/cast Mend Pet
/cast [target=pet] Spirit Mend(Exotic Ability)
is a massive heal for your pet every 30 seconds and I’ve never felt my pet was “squishy.”
You’ve never pulled as much as BM can handle, then. The leech from a Ferocity pet combined with Beast Cleave and Aspect of the Beast absolutely destroys Spirit Mend for pet healing.
Worth noting, the “tankiness” of Ferocity for MM is rather questionable, since the pet does so little damage. Most of the leech is on the hunter, not the pet. I personally prefer Tenacity as MM, as the 5% max HP also boosts Mend Pet by 5%, and Mend Pet is like 95% of MM’s pet healing even with Ferocity’s leech.
Not remotely questionable for SV though, and the question was just non-BM pets.
Yeah I have. I always pull big.
I mean, it’s a mathematical fact that Ferocity leech heals more than Spirit Mend in AoE. So if your pet hasn’t had issues tanking as a spirit beast, by corollary you’ve not pulled as much as BM is capable of pulling.