That's only a good solution when the macros work. I'm trying my best to micro-manage, but when the targeting bugs thwart that, where do you go from there?

I had a simple and awesome macro pre-shattering. And I don't use many macros. It allowed me to cast Hunter's mark, fire a shot (not spell just regular shot) and have my pet attack. Haven't got this to work since cata but my hunter is not my main.

GOOD pet stances have options. If pet stances were well-designed, there would be a proper time to use Passive, Defensive and...whatever else we have. I liked the recently-departed Defensive. Most of the time it did exactly what I wanted. My pet attacked when I attacked, it attacked things that attacked me, when it's current target died it would pick a new one and best of all, it would STAY on it's target until I told it otherwise. It was my favorite stance!

Sometimes I'd want the pet to NOT attack unless I specifically told it. Nef was one situation, Maloriak too. In those situations I would use Passive. It was a good option sometimes. So I disagree. A good hunter knows how to use his tools...if those are any good. Defensive was such a tool. It was very useful. Now...not so much. I can deal, I did for years, but it's annoying.

@ Noyou -

I use the following macro on both my hunters, and it works like a charm:

/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack

I simply target my, erm, target, hit the macro, and it's marked and my faithful bundle of teeth and claws is on its merry way to wreak havoc. Granted, I haven't played my hunters a whole lot since the change, so it's entirely possible that I just haven't done enough to fully realize the impact of the stance changes. But I wanted to share what works for me.

I keep my pet on Passive 90% of the time, and I also have a /cast Hunter's Mark /petattack macro. I just hit it and my pet switches right over without any problem, dashing and everything if that is available. That's after 4.2, and it still works perfectly.