The hunter pet of your choice?

Over on WoW Insider Jessica Klein wrote a post about the best hunter pets as of right now.
Jessica puts cat pets on top as the one who puts out the most DPS and this made many hunters cry silently inside.
Well i'm getting a bit off topic here but her article got me thinking. what i would like to put up for discussion is this:

Should we (the hunters) choose a pet for raiding because of it giving us the best possible DPS or should we choose the pet with the skin we really love or should we bring our trusty companion that followed us since we first felt the dusty winds of the barrens.

I know what my choise would be. My trusty companien Stevie will always be by my side. Even if he didn't become mine before i entered Zul'Drak he have been the pet i have expirienced the most with and the pet i feel will bring me the best luck in raids. It just so happens that Stevie is a Cat ( more specific a cursed offspring of ha'koa).

Discuss til your fingers start bleedin and prefereably after.

Ultimately, you should choose the pet that you want, without influence from any outside sources. However, if what you want it completely maximize your dps, then you're not going to be particular to any one pet because you just want to get those numbers as high as you can. I've never really been a min/maxer so I don't choose my pets based on their overall DPS. Granted, I'm not going to take my gorilla on raids because he's a tank pet, but I've used a wolf the majority of my WoW career, and probably will continue to do so. Long story short, min/maxers will get whatever pet the hunter gurus tell them to get and the rest of us will take the friend we've had since lvl 10 with us every time.

i think you should just get multiple pets:
the one for maximum dps for raiding
one with the best skin
and any other you like

I use whatever pet i feel will bring the raid sucess. I usually start out with my trusty Spike (Iron Devilsaur) or CAT (Ghost saber) (and yes i need help naming him), but if we seem to have problems downing bosses i bring in Slinky (jormunger worm (sp?)) his acid spit is a 10% armor debuff and it stacks twice. He is also a tank pet. I use Magilla (gorilla) when we fight primarily casters b/c of his pummel.

That's my though progression on a raid. mostly spike and cat go on 10 and 25 man raids. 5 man heroics i usually take slinky or magilla.

My main pet is a nightsaber I tamed the second I was able to, and have used almost exclusively since. Min/maxers will always go for the pet flavor of the month, and as nice as it is that my cat is apparently where it's at for pet DPS, that's not why I originally tamed her or keep using her in raids (not to mention my guildies love her to pieces, and she's taken to logging on vent and DJ'ing for us during raids). Keep in mind that that same article points out there's a difference of ~36 DPS between the best and worst PvE pets, and while that might definitely be magnified somewhat depending on whether Lassira was testing things in a BM spec or not, it's not game-breaking in any way, shape, or form. Pick the pet you enjoy hunting with - if that means you go tame a cat right now or stick with your wolf, gorilla, or Giant Enemy Crab, go nuts, I say.

Let me say this first before I say anything else, I really enjoy Lassirra's site and her posts. She is a great blogger and a great asset to the hunter communtiy. But her post yesterday on WoWInsider was a little misleading.

Cat's do have the highest DPS for non BM Hunters, but if you are raiding and not using a wolf, you should really thing about trying it. It's true that they do contribute less dps than a wolf, but with the change to Furious Howl, they provide for the highest aggregate Hunter + Pet damage currently available.

As far as what pet you should use for raiding, I am of the school that you should use what ever maxes your dps or is going to provide the most utility to your raid. For example if you are running 10 mans and there isn't a warrior or boomkin in your group, a Wasp might be the best pet to take in that situation. Sting is a 5% armor debuff that can pretty much have a 100% uptime on the boss if you are able to manage it right.

Personally I lean more toward the min/maxing school of raiding, so I would have a little chuckle if someone showed up for a raid with a gorilla. I figure that only about 1/4-1/3 of my total in game time is spent raiding so I can live with using the ugly ass wolf for just those times.

And in regards to the seemingly narrow gap in the article, keep in mind that the difference being explored is between ferocity pets, if you are trying to raid with a tenacity or cunning pet the difference will be rather significant. Best idea if you want to see how your dps will vary depending on the pet, just download Shandra's spreadsheet or the spreadsheet from the HuntingLodge and see for yourself.

Generally speaking for MM and SV Hunters it doesn't matter. As long they are handled properly, they will provide a decent amount of DPS.

For BM Hunters, the pet provides a much higher amount of damage so the gap between Tanacity, Ferocity and Cunning is much wider.

For raiding I'd say it depends. Cats are always good, Wolves have recently gotten a nice boost. As previously stated, Wasps can provide an armor debuff. Even Tallstriders can be good to raid with as they give an on-demand miss.

Don't miss our HUNTER-PALOOZA, this weekend with Brigwyn of the Hunting Lodge. Taffybag, Brigwyn and Hafrot will be discussing this, and other topics LIVE - Saturday @ 4PM, CST.

Shameless... I know. lol

LOL as if shame stopped you from doing anything.

I don't care as long as its on passive. ^_^

Stupid Mage wrote:

LOL as if shame stopped you from doing anything.

true... you all know me so well

Karazak wrote:

I don't care as long as its on passive. ^_^

so fucking right

I, like most hunters, have multiple pets. I most enjoy my spiders, (in game) Naraxis, that I've had since 27 and (in game) Forest Lurker, that I've had since 10. But its not really effective except to scare the crap out of people in pvp. I just can't bring myself to part the my Lurker...something about the graphics of his walking that is "cute?". He's also the only spider I've had that will actually climb walls and just kind of hang out....at eye level....beside me. LOL

Next would be my Scorpid, (in game) Krellack, that is actually a lot better job since 3.1 in holding aggro than my Gorilla (in game) Unk'loc. Before 3.1, it was actually hard to pull aggro from my gorilla, now though...after the first round of volley....here they come. We'll see how these guys do when I add dual and spec in BM.

If you are raiding and not using a wolf then you are crippling yourself from a large DPS boost. As for arena or PVP, well it doesn't matter right now because your pet will die in about 3 seconds anyway.