I do not understand pet ability “cower”. The in-game text says, “Cower, causing no damage but lowering your threat, making the enemy less likely to attack you.” Who is “you” and “your”? Since this is a pet ability, does “you” and “your” refer to the pet? I want to increase the threat my pet generates not reduce it! I want the pet to tank. I have not yet figured out how to do that in classic. Any ideas?
Cower is good to use while in raids/instances. Simply turn growl off and turn cower on, especially since they share the same CD.
What it will do is reduce your pets aggro so they don’t pull off a tank.
When out in the world, turn cower off and growl on.
~https://www.wow-petopia.com/classic/abilities.php#cower~
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Growl is for solo play or when the tank fails to grab the mob that is attacking the healer. Cower is what I use with bad tanks to help with their threat.
Simple.
- go to pet trainer
- unlearn abilities
- Do not teach it cower and forget it exist.
Cower cost focus. The only scenarios where cower could be a use is
a. your tank is bad or
b. You suck at controlling your pet.
Remember your pet can only learn 4 abilities. Cower has pretty much the lowest priory.
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Note that since only warrior tanks are able to taunt, you kind of want cower as a last priority. It beats having a dead pet.
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Managing aggro against your pet can be good practice for managing threat when with a tank. Growl is the first step. Learned from the pet trainer and taught to your trusty sidekick via the pet training menu, it is not exactly a flat out taunt but rather a threat generator. Sort of like a warriors sunder armor.
So if you want your pet to take the abuse instead of you:
-Send your pet solo for the first few moments.
-Open with auto shot, and maybe serpent sting if the mob is tough or will live fifteen plus seconds.
-Watch your pets bar and wait for a growl to go off before laying on arcane or multi-shot.
-Wait longer than your next GCD to use whichever of the above two shots you didn’t just use. Maybe even until the next growl goes off depending on how long you need your pet to tank.
-Heal pet if necessary.
-Repeat until mob is dead or you pull aggro anyway from growl getting resisted or from some good auto-shot crits.
This is what works in my experience anyway. I was able to solo Frostmane at 31 using this mentality, patience, and a little bit of kiting too.
On the other hand, your average same or lower level mob dies quickly enough that this practice to manage threat becomes unnecessary. For the level I’m at I can usually just open up hard after the first growl, drop a concussive as I pull aggro, and then maybe have to finish the mob off with a raptor strike.
On a final note, the pet trainers (located near the hunter trainers) will teach improved ranks of growl at certain levels. Make sure you stay up to date!