Scattered Shots: Cunning PvP Pets
by Eddie Carrington 
Jul 23rd 2009 at 6:00PM
Good day folks and welcome to Scattered Shots. The column that takes a good look at what it takes to be a Hunter in the World of Warcraft. I am Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from the Hunting Lodge. This week we'll be discussing the best pets to use while playing solo. So grab your traps, check your ammo and let's go Hunting!
This is our last installment in our series exploring the different pet families. In the first post we explored raiding with a Ferocity pet. We identified the current recommended raid pet for each raid build. The next post in the series discussed why Tenacity pets have become the pets of choice for while grinding and farming.
This week I'm going to talk about Cunning pets. I like to think of them as the "Fun Pets."
I think of Cunning pets as fun because of the different abilities they have. If you're lacking a particular ability or need an extra debuff, stun, even snare, the Cunning pets are there to help fill in the gaps.
Because of this utility Cunning Pets have often found it difficult to secure a regular place in the PvE world of raids. However, some of the more popular ones are starting to see some success in PvP. So let's take a closer look at these unique pets.
Cunning Pets
The Birds of Prey are a great example of how a pet can help supplement your own abilities. They can disarm your opponent for 6 seconds using Snatch. That might not sound like a lot but if you happen to be in a battleground or 1 on 1 in an Arena battle, 6 seconds can see like an eternity when all you can do is run and take damage. And thanks to your pet, that's about all that pesky Rogue can do as we fire shot after shot.
How about keeping that Blink happy Mage in place for once. Well you got a couple of choices. You could go with a Bat that can emit a Sonic Blast. This little nasty inflicts Nature damage and stuns the target for 2 seconds to boot!
Maybe you don't like the flapping noise of the bat. Well another good option is the Spider. Spiders use their sticky Web to prevent the target for moving for 4 seconds. Both of these are almost like having an extra trap.
You could almost look at Nether Rays as our own version of having a pet Shaman. Okay, maybe not really! But their Nether Shock is a good way to inflict a similar effect like Shaman's Earth Shock. But more frustrating to any caster will be its ability to interrupt spell casting and preventing the target from casting a similar spell back at you 2 sec. Take that you shifty Shaman!
Plate wearing classes are a pain. They have a ton of Armor and Resilience reducing the damage our shots can do to them. And add to that, one Warrior can ruin our whole day by using Sunder Armor and weakening our defenses as they charge into our (yes smaller than before) kill zone.
The Spore Bat, a funny looking creature that can give those Warriors a small taste of their own medicine for once. By casting a Spore Cloud and dusting the nearby enemy. The Spore Bat causes Nature damage but also reduces their armor by 3%. That may not be a lot, but enough to make our shots sting a little more that's for sure.
With all this talk about normal pets available to everyone don't think I've forgotten about the Beast Master Hunter and their ability to tame Exotic Pets. Beast Master's have a couple of options available to them in Chimaeras and Silithids.
I'll grant you that having this monstrous flapping pet with you might seem intimidating, but really it's just painting a huge target on your back saying, "Here I am!" That aside, I do think Chimaera's have a pretty neat ability called Froststorm Breath. Basically they can lay a combination Frost and Nature damage attack slowing your target. Sounds pretty good, but I'm not entirely sure if it makes up for painting a bulls-eye on my back as I try to navigate battlegrounds.
My personal favorite of Exotic is the Silithid. This one is just too creepy not to be fun. First, who doesn't want to have their very own Starship Trooper bug? Besides that the Silithid can spray Venom Web Spray at your enemy. It'll superglue them into one spot preventing movement while also causing Nature damage. The Silithid is as Moomkin at Arena Junkies put it, "...a crab with remote pin." Definitely worth considering if you're going to PvP as a BM Hunter.
Cunning Pet Talent Allocation
It seems that Cunning pets are extremely situational. Even over on Arena Junkies and Elitist Jerks the overwhelming school of thought seems to be to just use a Ferocity pet. That being the case, here's my crack at what seems to make sense for a either a 16 point or 20 point Cunning Pet talent build.
Tier One
Great Stamina (Recommend 3 points/2 points Optional) adding 12% more stamina is always nice. The only trade-off that I can see on this would be if you decided to put 1 point into Cobra Reflexes. Having a faster attack speed even with the reduction might be worth it. But I'll stick with the extra stamina for now.
Tier Two
Boar's Speed (1 Point) Here is where I increase my pet's movement speed. Boar's Speed is more beneficial by giving a consistent 30% speed increase trumping the individual 18% from Dash or Dive given up in Tier 1.
Spiked Collar (3 Points) Adding 9% additional damage with all attacks is a nice little bump.
Tier Three
Avoidance (3 Points) Being able to reduce the damage your pet takes by 75% on AOE's is a pretty nice bonus. Some might think this is a waste of a talent point, but you need to put 3 in here in order to eventually unlock Wild Hunt.
Lion Hearted (1 point) One of the most annoying things I run into is when someone smacks a stun on your pet and then charges into you. Using Lion Hearted will help reduce this by 15%.
Tier 4
Feeding Frenzy (2 points) There is nothing like the joy of seeing a target panic because your pet is taking huge chunks out of its hide with each attack. Feeding Frenzy does just that. With each attack doing 16% additional damage they'll stop worrying about you and try to get the little bugger off their back.
Cornered or Great Resistance (BM Only 1 point) I like Cornered. In PvP Pets seem to run out of Health faster than normal anyways. So why not take advantage of that last gasp and do 25% more damage, while at the same time reducing their chance of suffering a Crit by 30%.
Cornered is purely a manifestation of my offensive, "Gotta eat some Warlock faces" side sneaking out. The more defensive and careful side says take the point into Great Resistance and reduce the damage from those pesky casters by 5%. But this is PvP right? So I'll stick with Cornered.
Tier 5
Wolverine Bite (1 point) This attack brings back the days where Bestial Wrath couldn't be stopped. By doing, at level 80, 405 points of damage (Pet's level * 5 + 5) from a single attack that cannot be dodged, blocked or parried has to be enough to make anyone a bit weak in the knees. The only caveat I see is the target must dodge the initial attack. Which one would think in PvP really shouldn't be that difficult.
Roar of Recovery (1 point) One of the historical problems for Hunters in PvP has been Mana. Our only hope to survive for any length of time was to play the drain game. Now we have a way to help combat that. Maybe not the most efficient, but Roar of Recovery will restore 30% of your Mana over 9 seconds. This can be the difference from shooting blanks or firing of that ever fulfilling Kill Shot.
Grace of the Mantis (BM Only 2 Points) The 2% reduction on critical hits to your pet is not really that great. The main reason for speccing here is to open up Roar of Sacrifice.
Tier 6
Wild Hunt (1 point) This is just a pure pet buff. The one point will get your pet an additional 20% of your Stamina contribution, as well as a 10% Attack Power increase.
Roar of Sacrifice (BM Only 1 point) This is purely a selfish point for the BM Hunters. It's your pet's way of taking one for the team. By swooping in and absorbing 30% of damage for 12 seconds it can give you a second chance to get your revenge.
That brings us to the end of our review of Cunning Pets. I'd like to hear what you have to say. Have you used a Cunning pet in PvP? Maybe you have a suggestion on the proposed 16 point or 20 point specs? Maybe you can shed light on how Silithids compares to Crabs for pining down the enemy? Let's find out more about these unique and curious cunning pets and leave a comment below.
You want to be a Hunter, eh? Well then you came to the right place. Scattered Shots is the one column dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a Hunter. Each week Scattered Shots will cover topics to help you Fix Your DPS, Choosing the Right Spec, Gear Selection, Macros and Pet Selection, Pet Specs and Management. Filed under: Hunter, Arena, Battlegrounds, Talents, Classes, Guides, Features, PvP, How-tos, Analysis / Opinion, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Frapter Jul 23rd 2009 6:11PM
No ravager love? I think my ravager, Billy, is the bomb for BG's. The 2 second stun is nice when coupled with Intimidation and its a pretty short cooldown. I prefer the stun over the snare or the spell interruption effect because it can essentially act as both. With Dash and Mobility the little bugger gets anywhere fast and sticks on everything unless it's chasing someone on an epic mount. He's my favorite pet.
Of course, my interests are very different from someone who is playing in the Arena, but I figure Ravagers deserve at least some attention as they are Cunning pets as well.
dpoyesac Jul 23rd 2009 7:34PM
Rogue hits me with Cheap Shot, my Ravager returns the favor by knocking them down -- not only saves me a bit of damage (2 GCDs worth) but also puts the Rogue behind on combo points for the Kidney Shot. That sometimes means I can save my trinket for a Blind instead of blowing it to get out of (what would have been) a 6-second stun.
Yeah, my Ravager is the King of BG pets.
dr_pr0ton Jul 23rd 2009 6:14PM
You keep a mage from blinking by stunning it? that's pro.. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1953
Wither Jul 23rd 2009 6:28PM
In the open, mages fighting hunters should always be hugging them and staying at melee range, they won't win in a range DPS fight. The only time they should definitely use blink is when the hunter uses disengage, so that they stay on top of them. 15 seconds cooldown in a DPS race equals a lot of damage that neither class can heal, so they shouldn't just auto-blink without thinking.
So in summary, yes, having an extra stun ability on a mage will definitely make it harder for them.
falkong4 Jul 23rd 2009 6:34PM
Above Post is Win.
Arais Jul 23rd 2009 8:22PM
I dont think the mage would blow it to counter a disengage considering the hunter would most likely be snared...
halophoenix Jul 23rd 2009 6:23PM
Not a bad roundup! :D
I keep my chimera around for specifically this reason - froststorm breath was one of those things I was thrilled to hear about when it was in the beta, and then when it was broken for so long I had almost given up hope. When it was fixed, I found it can be pretty useful for slowing down advancing enemies if it's used correctly, and nothing's better than getting jumped by a rogue, having your chimera hit it, disengage away, and fill the poor guy with arrows while he trudges over to you.
I don't know if I could ever get over the horribleness that nether rays used to be though to tame one. It's a shame though; seems everyone is going for the big bad ferocity pets these pets and missing the utility of the other types.
Kidneystones Jul 23rd 2009 6:28PM
You have a cunning plan?
Krick Jul 24th 2009 11:36AM
Yep. I'm going to name my pet "Linguist".
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
Ringo Flinthammer Jul 23rd 2009 6:43PM
Blizzard needs to cut down on the cooldown for a lot of these abilities. An auto-firing effect for six seconds every minute isn't likely to inspire as much fear as it ought to.
Michael Jul 23rd 2009 7:15PM
"The Spore Bat causes Nature damage but also reduces their armor by 3%."
Try not to use 'but also' without 'not only'.
Correlative conjunctions should always be used in pairs.
Otherwise, use 'and' instead of 'but also.
Eturyu Jul 23rd 2009 10:32PM
You must be really bored mike
Tom Jul 24th 2009 12:51AM
To my understanding, Sonic Blast is being changed to cost a nasty 80 focus on all ranks. I guess they don't like a ranged stun that is rather short with a minute cooldown too much. Interesting also because bats are now very underused (unless it's a ZG bat on a hunter that hasn't been touched for a few years...)
The Nether Ray I find demands much skill to use it's ability in pvp. Haven't gotten to that point of effectively using it, and even found more success with Serpents. Then again if I spent more time with other classes I'd be more used to interrupts.
Some people swear by Chimeras in pvp, just for the large wings filling up view on more inexperienced players, along with a ranged snare.
I would suggest against using a Sporebat as an offensive pet in pvp. If you're dealing with a warrior, you shouldn't be letting them in melee range in the first place. A 3% reduction of armor that requires them to stay in one spot (most likely, say, a huntard standing in place in pvp,) that removes itself about 3 seconds after leaving the cloud will not compensate for any lost snare, or interrupt or even contributed dps of a ferocity pet. Pending on the situation, lingering clouds would more likely break polymorphs, freeze traps, sleeps, fears, etc. I don't know if the cloud breaks stealth, and even if it did, would be much to situational.
While depending on the BG, I tend to find Dash/Dive more useful than Boars Speed. Any snaring creature with dash is great for tagging stragglers or scouts more mobile games. Neither are going to catch up with a mount, but sometimes with a dash, is generally easier to intercept and apply a snare.
I'm not sure if I'd spend points in Feeding Frenzy for BG games. perhaps in lower levels, but generally, if a players is down to 35%, they're going to be one-shotted by your Kill Shot, or whatever Execute-cooldown your teammate would have. You'd be better off dropping the points into Cobra, because, I dunno, you want those Wolverine bites I guess... Even a point into Owl's Focus may be more helpful in some setups (say if your crit is somehow far too low to send into GftT effctively.)
I had thought a Roar of Sacrifice macro script to you or your healer (pre 3.1) should be mandatory if you roll with a cunning pet in BGs, regardless of spec. Granted there are more changes coming to the skill next patch. I'm not on the ptr, so I'm not sure if it's still transfering a fraction of all incoming damage now or just granting immunity to critical strike damage. If it's the latter only than it's a pretty nasty nerf (along with the slight increase in cooldown.) Otherwise it may be getting slightly more of it's use back for pvp and pve. A build or two ago, it was also chaned so that the damage the pet recieved was counted as Nature damage: honestly I'm not sure if this was a tweak to reduce a fraction of the fraction from the pet's inherent resistances or if it actually increases damage to them somehow...
Between choosing a a disarm, a slow, or a stun, it's really a toss up. It all comes down to what balance of classes come to that BG game. You have 5 slots, and can call your pet from most anywhere now for those games - grab a couple you like, one for anti-melee/burst one for anti-casters/healers. Or a Ravager. I'd use one if they weren't so damned ugly.
patricia01 Jul 29th 2009 3:18AM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Patricia
http://largepet.info
Horde_hunter Jul 24th 2009 10:26AM
I would propose a totally different build
Tier One
Cobra Reflexes 2/2 - self explanatory (the quicker the pet hits the more damage he does)
and
Dive/Dash 1/1 - nice bonus of speed - besides we're gonna make it more beautiful :)
Why not using the increase Stamina? - u'll see later :D
Tier Two
Mobility 2/2 - well, this one is a beauty :] considering the 32 cooldown time for Dash/Dive and the time the ability last (16s) we got 16s between super speed for our pet - but this 2 talents reduce the cooldown of Dash/Dive by..... 16s!!!!! No more to say here :)
Spiked Collar (3 Points) Like said in the article adding 9% additional damage with all attacks is a nice little bump.
Tier Three
Just the same as in article
Avoidance (3 Points) Being able to reduce the damage your pet takes by 75% on AOE's is a pretty nice bonus. Some might think this is a waste of a talent point, but you need to put 3 in here in order to eventually unlock Wild Hunt.
Lion Hearted (1 point) One of the most annoying things I run into is when someone smacks a stun on your pet and then charges into you. Using Lion Hearted will help reduce this by 15%.
Tier 4
Feeding Frenzy (2 points) For Feeding Frenzy it's the same so: There is nothing like the joy of seeing a target panic because your pet is taking huge chunks out of its hide with each attack. Feeding Frenzy does just that. With each attack doing 16% additional damage they'll stop worrying about you and try to get the little bugger off their back.
Cornered 2/2 - considering it's a PvP build, this one is much better in my opinion - your pet just bursts with damage and it's a lot harder to crit him!! (50% more dmg + 60% reduced chance to be crit hit!!!!!) THIS ONE IS MUST HAVE ^^
Tier 5
Here i admit i did the same - so lets stick with this :
Wolverine Bite (1 point) This attack brings back the days where Bestial Wrath couldn't be stopped. By doing, at level 80, 405 points of damage (Pet's level * 5 + 5) from a single attack that cannot be dodged, blocked or parried has to be enough to make anyone a bit weak in the knees. The only caveat I see is the target must dodge the initial attack. Which one would think in PvP really shouldn't be that difficult.
Roar of Recovery (1 point) One of the historical problems for Hunters in PvP has been Mana. Our only hope to survive for any length of time was to play the drain game. Now we have a way to help combat that. Maybe not the most efficient, but Roar of Recovery will restore 30% of your Mana over 9 seconds. This can be the difference from shooting blanks or firing of that ever fulfilling Kill Shot.
But i didn;t use talents for the grace of mantis - u won't have time to use the Roar of Sacrifice in fight (imho), so this 2 are used somwhere else
Tier 6
Well..... HERE WE HAVEI would propose a totally different build
THE ANSWER FOR THE QUESTION SET IN TIER 1 :)
Wild Hunt 2/2 - Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 40% and attack power by 20%. So comparing to 3 talents from Tier 1 we have here not only stamina burst but also (what's super important in PvP) dps burst :)
And thats my build for cunning pets - also i;d like to admit that i'd rather use chimera or serpent because of small cooldown of their abilities (i'd prefer chimera - Nuramoc :) )
Gimmlette Jul 24th 2009 1:28PM
Hmmmm. I got a chimera when BM's could first tame them. I always thought they were stunning animals when I encountered them in Wintersprings. I did not like the skin anywhere else. But, after taking the pet around, I found I really didn't like it for soloing, instancing or PvP. After reading this article and the comments, I'm wishing I had another stable slot open to try it out.
(sigh) Adding to my wish list with the 100 slot bags, the extra guild bank tabs and rank slots, 2 more stable slots.
Nikolaj Jul 24th 2009 6:19PM
I am sorry, but your talent suggestions are just awful.
Roar of sacrifice should be the _first_ thing you spec any pvp pet into.
Horde_hunter Jul 25th 2009 3:19AM
well, just because i didn;t put those 3 points for roar of sacrifice u say it's awful....
i checked the dmg pet does on this build and u know what - my just tamed 77lvl serpent pet with 100% normal dmg buff does more dmg than a 80lvl 150% dmg buffed devilsaur.....
i prefer killing another player as fast as possible that;s why i don't use roar of sacrifice.
of course it's useful but then ur pet dies a lot faster and for BM hunter it's game over. without pet ur survavility drops dramaticaly = that;s why i didn;t decide to go for roar of sacrifice
where is it said that a roar of sacrifice is a must have?? like said in article - it was used to belive that a ferocity pet is much better than a cunning pet for pvp - i used to belive that too - now checked it and changed my mind for 180 degrees
Troggles Jul 25th 2009 8:44AM
My bat and I are currently grinding Battlegrounds for PvP-armor while the Wintergrasp-quests cool off, so instead of hopelessly trying to kill mountains of arena-armored beef, I aim to annoy and hinder (Wyvern, Freezing Arrow, Scatter, Readiness, Run Away/Repeat) while others do the heavy lifting.
For this purpose, I buy Cobra Reflexes and Dive with Mobility 2 (If I were a Beastmaster, Longevity would let me skip one here) instead of Great Stamina and Boar's Speed.
I also buy Carrion Feeder instead of Avoidance. I prefer to think of my flat-nosed companion as a one-shot smart bomb, and this along with Imp. Revive Pet 2 cuts the reloading-time in half.
My green bar usually runs out long before my blue bar, so I skip Roar of Recovery as well.
I admit it's not the best choices for a bloodthirsty killing-machine, but good for tipping the odds in the team's favour while harvesting honor.