Hunter 101: Hunter pets and how they scale with hunter stats

• Comments [12]
• Digg it!
• Facebook

Hunter 101: is a series posts on The Hunting Lodge for the Hunter that is just starting out or is now returning back to the class.  Each week we will review how you can help improve your skill playing a Hunter in WoW.  So grab a desk, class is about to start.

I’m starting to think that the new crop of hunters don’t truly appreciate their pet. This is really sad because even if you’re Marksmanship or Survival, you’re pet is free DPS.  (Okay, maybe not entirely free, you still need to feed it sometimes.)

If you doubt me, when was the last time you heard anyone talking about pets? (Besides Mania of Mania’s Arcania and Petopia. See, I know that’s where you were going.)

Well, this week for Hunter 101 I thought we’d talk about pet scaling. I know it’s a sensitive topic and that at the moment, pet scaling isn’t perfect. But I think if we take a moment to see how our pet’s DPS works maybe we’d see how they’re critical to every hunter and not just Beast Mastery ones.

Pet Family Tree

First let’s quickly go over the pet families. I’m not going to go into too much detail here. (Go check out Petopia if you want more detail info.) I just think a quick overview of the different pet families and their traditional roles would be good.

Cunning

The Cunning tree has traditionally been referred to the PvP pet tree. I think I’d prefer to call it the Pet Utility tree.

Some examples of their special attacks are the Bird of Prey’s Snatch (Disarm), the Nether Ray’s Nether Shock (Shadow damange and interrupts), and the always fun to say Silithid’s Venom Web Spray (Prevents movement and causes Nature damage).

Tenacity

Tenacity pets are your tanking pets. Their talents help increase their health while increasing their ability to generate and maintain threat.

Some of my favorite special abilities of Tenacity pets are the Turtle’s Shell Shield (50% Damage Reduction to self), the Bear’s Swipe (Damages all nearby enemies), and the Crocolisk’s Bad Attitude (Damages any target that strikes you.)

Ferocity

Yes folks, our DPS pet. The one you will typically set your identiy with. It’s also home to some of the most controversial pets, Spirit Beasts. Either way, if you’re raiding and need a pet that can strike fast and add to your DPS, this is the pet family for you.

Right now, the Wolf with it’s Furious Howl (Increases Hunter and Pet’s melee and Ranged Attack Power) is everyone’s darling. But there are some other good Ferocity pets. For example, Devilsaurs with the Monstrous Bite. (Yes, I’m aware of their size and disdain to be used in a group. But they really are good DPS pets.)

Or if you don’t like that check out some other favorites, Spririt Beast with Spirit Strike (Does Arcane Damage and adds an Arcane Debuff), Wasps with Sting (Does Nature Damage, prevents targets from stealthing, and applies a 5% armor debuff for 20 seconds. Not bad eh?)

So there you have it. Every pet family has their strengths and weakness. Sure, there’s always a Top DPS pet and if you’re running in a group where you need to bring your “A” game then make sure you have one at the ready. But don’t feel like you can’t experiment. Maybe you’re a Marks hunter running with ArPen instead of Agility, then the Wasp’s Sting could be extremely beneficial.

Or maybe you’re a BM hunter, well then try a Spirit Beast or Devilsaur. You might be suprised at how well it really performs. Besides, Swing Arcturis swiping away as a ferocity is full of win and awesomeness!

Pet Stats

There once was a time (Way, way, WAAAAAY! Back for most of you probably.) when individual hunter pets had different base stats. Today, they’re all standardized.

Every pet family has the following base stats:

• Health Bonus = +5%
• Armor Bonus = +5%
• Damage Bonus = +5%

Focus Costs

• Growl and Cower = 0 Focus
• Special Moves (e.g. Swipe) = 20 Focus
• Focus Dump (e.g. Bite) = 25 Focus

Happiness Damage Bonus

• Happy (Green): 125% damage
• Content(Yellow): 100% damage
• Unhappy (Red): 75% damage

Pet Expertise Cap

• 8% Hit without 3/3Focused Aim = 6.5% or 214 Pet Expertise
• 8.5% Hit w/ 3/3 Focused Aim = 6.5% or 214 Pet Expertise (7% Itemized Hit and 1.5% from 3/3 Focused Aim)

(Note: There seems to be a bug with how Pet Expertise handles Focused Aim. If your hunter is at 8% Hit using Focused Aim, your pet will be Hit Capped but not Expertise Capped. This means your pet can still be Dodged. These won’t show up in the logs as misses, but as Dodges, Parries, or Blocks.)

Level 80 Growl Threat

• Level 80, Rank 9 Growl = +1234 Threat

Pet Scaling

You’ll hear many people say that hunter pet’s don’t scale with hunter stats. This isn’t an entirely accurate statement. It’s better to say, “Hunter pets don’t scale with every hunter stat.”

Really it’s true. Below is a quick explanation of how our hunter’s stats affect our pets.  In an effort to help all specs I’ve arranged the stats into to categories: With and without 2/2 Wild Hunt.

Without 2/2 Wild Hunt

• +1 Hunter RAP = +.22 Pet AP
• +1 Hunter RAP = +.1287 Spell Damage
• +1 HUnter Stam = +.45 Pet Stam
• +1 Hunter Resistance = +1 Resistance
• +1 Hunter Armor = +.35 Pet Armor
• +1 Hunter Resilience = +.4 Pet Resilience
• +1 Spell Pen = +1 Spell Pen
• +1% Hit = .82% Pet Expertise w/o 3/3 Focused Aim
• +1% Hit Rating = .72% Pet Expertise w/ 3/3 Focused Aim

With 2/2 Wild Hunt

• +1 RAP = .338 Pet AP
• +1 RAP = .18 Pet Spell Damage
• +1 Stam = 0.63 Pet Stamina
• +1 Hunter Resistance = +1 Resistance
• +1 Hunter Armor = +.35 Pet Armor
• +1 Hunter Resilience = +.4 Pet Resilience
• +1 Spell Pen = +1 Spell Pen
• +1% Hit = .82% Pet Expertise w/o 3/3 Focused Aim
• +1% Hit Rating = .72% Pet Expertise w/ 3/3 Focused Aim

(Note: The Hit % is only an approximation. Actual numbers haven’t been reported. But Zahara from Femaldwarfhunter.com has reported that Focused Aim only seems to be transferring at a 1:.5 vs a true 1:1 Hunter Hit:Pet Expertise ratio.)

You will note that the pet doesn’t recieve any benefit from Agility nor does it receive any benefit from the Hunter’s Critical Strike Rating. These are the two main issues with Pet Scaling at this time.

Many hunters (myself included) feel that it’s not really right for hunter pets to not benefit from the Hunters Crit%. Especially since almost everything else is transferred.

Also, because it’s only the raw Ranged Attack Power that is transferred to your pets Beast Masters should really stack Attack Power over Agility.

If you look at everything you can really see how important it is that we use our pets when we raid. With every For every 71.4 base DPS we receive from our Ranged Attack Power, we get an additional 19.63 DPS if our pet is Happy and 15.71 if he’s just content. I don’t know about you, but that makes me want to give Elvis an extra treat at his next feeding.

Well there you have it. That’s what makes our pets work. Or at least I think I got everything. Did I miss something? Or maybe I got one of the formulas wrong? Or maybe you just never thought of it in that way. Either way, drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Eddie Carrington “aka Brigwyn” is the owner/operator of The Hunting Lodge. He created The Hunting Lodge blog and Hunting Lodge Forums in response to players requesting a safe spot to talk about their class.  Don’t forget to join Eddie on The Hunting Lodge Podcast that you can find broadcasting live on Ustream each Sunday at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific.