Hunter pet tanks Gruul the Dragonkiller
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 22nd 2008 at 8:00PM
Durante of Hydraxis-US did what many Hunters have been dying to do since the changes for Wrath of the Lich King were announced: He tanked a raid boss. Or more specifically, his pet tanked a raid boss. His Gorilladin (dubbed thusly by BRK) Bubbles smacked Gruul around for a raid made up of members of the guilds Snuggles, Redemption, Gone Casual and Unemployed.
I'm not sure if this video displays how powerful Hunter pets are after patch 3.0.2, or just how much raids were nerfed. A little from column A, a little from column B? In the thread on the official forums, Durante mentions that the raid's DPSers didn't really need to hold back on threat much at all, nor did they need to stand around forever as you can see in the video above. A few seconds was more than enough time for Bubbles to hold aggro, and the raid only had four healers. I'm willing to bet things would have gotten a little more dicey if Gruul lived long enough to stack more Growths, but he didn't, so it's kind of moot. If you're interested, Durante has also posted his 'tanking' spec as well as his pet's spec.
I'm willing to bet we'll see a lot more Hunter pet tanks in level 70 content, but it'll drop off dramatically (perhaps completely) at level 80. Time will tell!
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Bosses, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kunstbanause Oct 22nd 2008 8:27PM
Double http:// in the Links.
To the actual topic:
I think thats great and I cant wait to see my Hunter 80 and tank a lot of Raid bosses!
Michael Oct 22nd 2008 8:25PM
That guy needs more crap filling up his UI.
Vertinog Oct 22nd 2008 8:26PM
The links to the talents are a bit messed up. You have an extra http:// at the beginning of each and you forgot the : after the second http.
shinken Oct 22nd 2008 9:06PM
I think hunter pets being able to OT raids and MT 5 mans is a great idea. DPS classes need more roles. I wish there was a pet healing class.
PeeWee Oct 22nd 2008 9:43PM
I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.
deviationer Oct 22nd 2008 9:48PM
Nerf bat inc.
Falcio Oct 22nd 2008 9:54PM
I don't see why they should...they designed the pet to tank and we have it tanking.
Tanking a raid boss, yeah...but let's not forget that it's a nerfed raid. And the raid is most likely way above it to let a pet tank it.
jealousROUGE Oct 23rd 2008 3:20PM
eff that, nerf the DST.
I swear to god if I see one more stupid gruul video with everyone at the end yelling ZOMGA DRAGONSPINE i will seriously hang myself.
NERF DST GAH!
emptyrepublic Oct 22nd 2008 10:10PM
Sweetness. I'll send me Turtle into Hyjal then.
shumanfu Oct 22nd 2008 10:17PM
LF1M MT Gruuls.. Pref hunter. WTF?!
Keynes Oct 22nd 2008 10:52PM
It is obvious that some non-hunters are commenting :)
A lot of times there is a shortage of tanks, and most times an abundance of hunters. Allowing a hunter pet to tank was a brilliant addition to help alleviate both of these issues. It would be worthy of 'WTF's if this was in a true endgame raid but come on. The hunter specced himself and the pet for exactly this task and surely his DPS was less than normal.
Way to go Durante, from a former Hydraxis hunter.
shumanfu Oct 22nd 2008 11:34PM
Allowing hunters to be self sufficent and provide roles outside of what they should be able to does not alleviate the shortage of tanks. It increases the number of retarded hunters.
Hunters from my experience fall into 3 categories.
1) Extremely naive on how to run instances, dunno about traps.. scattershot.. threat. etc. because they spent all their time soloing everything.
2) Extremely arrogant and stubborn and do not follow group dynamics in instances... because they spent all their time soloing everything. The type that like to md.. fd.. drop group.. hearth..
3) Actually not bad and play their class extremely well and bring some solid dps and cc abilities.
Sadly 99% of the hunters I've encountered fall into the first 2 categories.
I guess it's personal. I just dont hunters.. and I think it's because of how Blizzard has designed the class... It's a haven for antisocial retards. Of course there are exceptions to the rule...
If i have to bear with a hunter as the tank in my grp i'd rather bubble and hearth. Heal my pet.. Heal my pet.. LOL
killerhobo Oct 22nd 2008 11:17PM
as sweet as that is it does make the role of tanks say warriors for instance not really needed
sure its a nerfed raid but even then their only going to get stronger
as a warrior its really hard for us to do anything besides tank or pvp...our damage will never be close to say a rouge or mage so why bring them when we dont even have CC
there may be a shortage of tanks but you cant have dps classes doing everything
Tigerfeet Oct 23rd 2008 9:30AM
I'm sorry... what's wrong with warriors?
http://wowwebstats.com/nzkki465ujisa
Take a look at Tokrishi
Trust me, tanks will still be absolutely needed for raids. Take a nerfed raid and an over-geared team and there's not going to be a whole lot of challenge. I for one think it's great that hunters could be a raid OT in a pinch, and a 5-man MT if needed. If the hunter's an idiot the group will figure that out quickly and get a 'real' tank in his place, simple as that.
Stop worrying, flexibility = win, it's the way of the druid ;)
Zayd Oct 23rd 2008 7:16AM
I'd have thought a Turtle would have been the single mob tanking pet of choice, gz though. I
Durante Oct 23rd 2008 10:45AM
A gorilla was used because of the very significant amount of threat that Thunderstomp, the gorilla family spell, produces. Turtles and their Shell Shield would be an excellent choice in situations where they had time to build threat, as an off-tank tanking the last target in a kill order for example.
- Durante & Bubbles
Clbull Oct 23rd 2008 12:37PM
@ Durante
Does Thunderstomp autocast, or even cast at all when there is just one target attacking the Gorilla? Because I remember in the 3.0.2 PTR, it didn't.
Does it do that now?
Banukab Oct 29th 2008 10:36AM
Thunderstomp does not autocast against single targets or when there is a non-aggro mob in range. It can be cast manually obviously.
Andrew Oct 23rd 2008 10:07AM
Why do people constantly post these tiny videos where you can't see what the heck is going on?
Gameplay videos on YouTube is a waste, and now this is also too small. I couldn't find a button to change the video resolution either.
I find myself wanting to actually SEE the game interface sometimes to learn what the people are doing (maybe not in this video but in others).
Where can you find larger gameplay videos on the net?
Oh..and Hunters are the bomb :) Just accept it and move on!
*Disengage!*
Galla Oct 23rd 2008 10:34AM
Where's the Voidwalker MT?!?!