Im a lvl 60 hunter and was wondering which ability gives the most dps end game. I’m sorta leaning towards Claw but I’ve seen some hunters use both claw and bite so I don’t know which method would be better.
Bite, uses less focus and does more damage.
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Claw does more damage than Bite because Bite has a few second long cooldown. Claw also costs less focus per attack btw. However, if you use any other abilities with focus costs, they will be hard to use as Claw eats up your pet’s focus.
Depends on your pet and their set up for instance pvp you’d want claw for the burst with prowl and dash, pve you might prefer having bite on auto with a claw macro for focus dump but give up dash. Claw would technically do better with out auto growl especially if you have broken tooth.
you can use both if you’re good at managing your pet’s resources and making sure it always has enough focus for bites while preventing focus cap with claw.
doing this is what seperates cats and raptors from other pets in terms of raw dps for the hunter
instead of mashing claw whenever i want to focus dump, i find it easier to just alternate between these 2 macros:
/petattack
/petautocastoff Growl
/petautocastoff Claw
and
/petattack
/petautocaston Claw
/petautocastoff Growl
i leave bite toggled on at all times since there’s not really ever a reason to not want to bite when it’s off CD, and just turn claw on and off whenever i see fit
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Back in BC I seem to recall being advised to only use Claw for PVP. I don’t recall the reasoning.
Bite uses 35 focus and claw uses 25. You get more pet attacks per 100 focus with claw which is useful for push back on PvP casters. With a 1.2 or faster attack speed pet, tings can gt difficult for the caster.
What’s the math on damage done per minute for the two?
With no other abilities active, I believe the dps works out to abut the same, but don’t know how attack speed factors in to overall dps.
Assuming, you ae not using growl or some other focus eating ability, Claw’s pretty much non-stop whereas bite does have lag every third attack to tic enough focus but it compensates with higher damage than claw.
IMHO, the determining factor when leveling out-in-the-world content would be how growl affects the ability to get enough focus to proc claw/bite.
One of the Classic WoW youtubers did the math, Bite giver a better over all amount of damage, and is better since it costs less focus over all since it has a CD.
I might be over simplifying here, but twice the damage for less than twice the focus cost isnt tricky math
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How about 25 focus, no cooldown, and (5/9)X Damage verses 35 Focus, 10 sec cooldown, and X damage. The only thing that can make Bite pull ahead is comparing how often claw can be used when your pet is focused starved.
Normally I do not PVP or Duel, but a Warlock in the Guild wanted to PVP me. I Disabled bite and Growl and let claw run by itself. I was advised that he could not or had extreme difficulty in casting anything other than instant casts.
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Claw 2 had something like 9-16 damage
Bite 2 has something like 16-25 damage
25 focus on no CD means that four hits and your pet is focus starved
Bite cost 35 focus but has a 10 second CD so it will not cause your pet to be focus starved.
If you don’t need your pet to cast other abilities like growl, what is the point of pooling/saving focus?
Focus not used is dps lost if you are not using other abilities. In an instance or PvP content, I want that pet’s focus bar to always be on the low end.
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The pet has 100 Focus, Clawx4 and your pet is just auto-attacking.
There’s a difference between not using focus, and managing it.
But if you are not using other abilities, what are you managing it for?
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Who said I wasn’t using them?
Bite is stronger. Claw offers something in PvP, but Bite offers more damage per hit and is easier to manage. Unless your Pet has faster regeneration than a Rogue, Bite’s going to be my go to. I might marco Claw, but I’ll rarely have it on autocast.
I guess I’ll edit again just to ask: Why doesn’t anyone else think about the long term of something and just go straight to what looks the quickest?
I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading about this and mulling it over. I think there are a number of circumstances that alter the value of claw vs. bite.
According to wowiki, which I think is accurate, pets regen 5 focus/second without the Bestial Discipline talent. So if you only spend 35 focus every ten seconds while gaining 50 you would be capping and:
In a situation where DPS is your only priority you would need to fill the spaces in-between bites with claws to maximize output. Not impossible or anything, but certainly less convenient than leaving your focus dump on auto. I feel like we’d need to get mathematical about it to figure out how significant the DPS difference really is between bite/claw weaving and flat claw spam. My guess would be that the longer a fight goes, the more the bite/claw combo would pull ahead if you could avoid focus capping reliably.
In favor of bite generally, I can definitely see it’s synergy in conserving focus to be used with other abilities. Not having to worry about having enough focus for growl and bigger hits on the open with prowl are something to consider.
Personally, I find managing my pets targets and pulling him in and out of combat is about as involved as I want to get with him right now so I have stuck with claw. Granted I’m also not raiding yet, but most of the fights and encounters I’m dealing with right now are fairly short so I don’t mind front loading my pets DPS by dumping all his focus right away.