Leveling Instances & Pets

I PuG most instances and the Bloodthunder Tribe is a bit scarce on Hunters, so I don't often have the chance to group with other hunters while playing Nadie, especially not those still leveling. As a resto druid, however, I do! I'm glad for it because I love having a hunter around, of course, but it also gives me a chance to see the class from the outside and hear how its players feel about it.

A few nights ago, I was getting ready to heal Gundrak (for which one should always have a hunter) with a group of very friendly people, and we were chatting away while waiting for people to make their way to the stone. We were on the topic of PuGs in general, and the level 77 hunter in the group lamented having been booted from a PuG earlier that day for having a level 76 pet, rather than a level 77 pet.

While we didn't hear the other players' side of the story, it struck me as odd to go so far as to boot someone from a non-heroic, 5-man instance for having a pet one level lower than himself. Now, it takes a whole lot to convince me that someone needs a boot in general, but even so... Trying to see this from the other side, I can only guess that the party leader must have been familiar with the importance of having level 80 pets in heroics and raids, and must have applied the same sensibility to his leveling party.

It's a fact of leveling that your pet will spend the first 20% or so of your next level being one behind, but if you're doing non-heroic instances your own level, this shouldn't be an issue. This isn't to say that pet levels don't matter. They do. They matter a lot. The difference between a level 79 pet and a level 80 pet is huge. The difference between a level 78 pet and a level 79 pet, on the other hand, is fairly minimal. Allow me to illustrate:



Chance-to-hit
In a raid setting, it's imperative that pets be max level. In heroics, pets really ought to be max level, but if the group is okay with a hunter knocking out that last level, and you can absorb the DPS loss, a level 79 pet is alright. 78 is pushing it. For regular instances, it's nice if the pets are their master's level, but it shouldn't really be an issue if the pet in question is the one the hunter has been leveling with, since it should never be but a level behind the hunter.

Why the difference? In part, it's the mobs you're facing off against - a level 78 pet is going to miss heroic Keristraza's big, red, level 82 hide a whole lot more often than a level 80 pet will. The same goes for any pet four levels below the mob it's attacking. Missing 15% of your attacks is missing 15% of your DPS. If your pet is ~40% of your total DPS, that's 6% of your DPS down the tubes. Ick.

Trash mobs in raids are levels 81 - 82 and bosses are 83. In heroics, trash mobs are 80 - 81 and bosses are 82. In regular, level 80 instances, trash mobs are level 79 - 80, and bosses are 81. So, the hit cap for a level 80 instance is 5.2%, or 165 hit rating. If your pet is one level below you, his hit cap against a level 81 mob is 5.4%. Problem though: pets only inherit full percentages of hit from their masters and Focused Aim does not apply to pets. So, unless you're astonishingly well-geared for having just hit 80, and you have 197 hit rating (granting 6% hit), there's very little difference from your pet's perspective. In fact, there is a .2% chance-to-hit difference. If you're Beast Mastery, the expertise from Animal Handler should go a long way toward limiting the other worrisome factors of glancing blows and parries.

This can be applied to lower-level instances as well. Boss mobs are usually one level above the instance level, meaning you and Fluffy have about a little more than a 5% chance to miss them, regardless of whether he's your level or one behind.

Pet Skills
The other important factor is pet skill ranks.

Just like us, hunter pets learn new skills and new skill ranks as they gain levels, with the last set of skills being learned at level 80. Unlike us, though, they do not gain new ranks of one skill or another every level, or even every other level. Take Cats, for instance. A new rank of Claw is learned every eight levels, while a new rank of Rake is only learned every sixteen levels!

This holds true for all of the pet family skills. Each family (such as Bears, Ravagers, Crabs, etc) has two skills.* The first is a DPS skill, while the second is either a DoT or a utility skill, depending on the family. The DPS skill gains a new rank every eight levels, while the second skill gains one every sixteen levels.

For a Ferocity pet, these special attacks comprise about 40% of overall DPS, so those shiny new ranks are a big boost. The last ranks of both abilities are learned at level 80. Between 72 and 79, however, the pet learns nothing new. The only difference will be the relative levels and base stat improvements. These are nice improvements, of course, but handing Fluffy a sack of Spiced Mammoth Treats would go a long way, too.

Of course, if you're doing Halls of Lightning at level 76, well, that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

*Cats and Spirit Beasts are special. These families have Prowl, as well, which ranks at levels 30 and 50. Spiders, Tallstriders, Warp Stalkers, and Tutles are exceptions to the sixteen level rule, as their utility skills, Web, Dust Cloud, Warp, and Shell Shield, have only one rank.

Tier 8 Set Bonuses

The indispensable MMO-Champion posted the newly available Tier 8 Set Bonuses this morning. Us hunters weren't left out of the fun:

(2) Set: Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 10%
(4) Set: Your Steady Shot has the chance to grant you 600 attack power for 15 seconds.

Here are the 25-man and 10-man set screen shots, if you'd like to take a peek, too.

The two-piece bonus, I have to say, is not terribly exciting. It's undeniably nice, but it's the four-piece bonus that's really the nice one. This one is like having a third "proc on attack" trinket, rather than a set bonus - and a none-too-shabby trinket at that! It's not unlike the Mirror of Truth, although the proc is bound to Steady Shot alone. The real measure of this bonus will come when its proc rate and internal cooldown can be determined. It's safe to say, though, that since the Mirror of Truth and Grim Toll stack, the set bonus will probably stack as well. 1600AP plus 612 armor penetration? Gimme.

Jerry has a new icon!

This falls into the category of truly inane PTR novelties, but several of the existing pets and mounts have new icons. Most importantly, the humble Cockroach. Jerry, my cockroach, was the first pet I picked up on Nadie, so I'm glad to see him get some love. The new icon really says "KA-BLAM-O!" - a pleasant reminder that Jerry and his fellow cockroaches will probably be the sole survivors of the goblins' next "super safe" invention...

The windriders have unique icons now as well, distinguishing the swift from the not-so-swift, and giving them a bit of color, too. It's the little things, right?

Apologies for the lack of updates, it's been a very busy week. I am still working on the Pet Stats post! It will be up soon :)

Gondria's Spawn Locations

Gondria is our newest Spirit Beast, revealed earlier this morning by Flatty over on the WoWHead Hunter Forums. Mr. BRK has already managed to tame her, too! For now, she's relegated to the PTR, but it looks like she'll hit live with patch 3.1.

As of this writing, three spawn locations have been found, and here's a map from WoWHead with the coordinates included (the map below is the same). I'll keep this map updated as I come across new reports! Happy hunting!

Here's a quick macro for easy targeting:
/tar Gon
/stopmacro [noexists]
/w (your name here) You've FOUND >%t<

Current known coordinates:
62, 42
69, 48
66, 77

Gondria, like Loque'Nahak is a Rare Elite. At the moment, her spawn timer remains unknown.

Update: I've updated the list of coordinates slightly to zero in on what seems to be the most common spawn point: 66, 77, just southeast of the Temple of Har'koa, right near the border with the Grizzly Hills (I suppose I'd have expected to see Loque lurking around here, rather than this pretty lady, but, hey, I'm not picky...!). I saw her spawn there this morning (April 20th) at 8:36am on The Venture Co. & tagged her. Post to follow, of course :D

Some have suggested that there may be multiple spawn points in the area, as she's been seen a bit north of the 66, 77 position. It's definitely a possibility, though it may just be that Gondria has a very large patrolling range.

Wild Hunt vs. Shark Attack for Survival

So far, choosing pet talents has been pretty clear cut for the Ferocity Tree. Come 3.1, however, this is not quite so clear.

Between Wild Hunt and Shark Attack, there are four fresh spaces to spend talent points, each requiring 15 points in pet talents. For Survival and Marksmanship Hunters, this leaves one point. For Beast Mastery, all four can be taken, but there are some significant costs to doing so.

For Survival, that one point is best spent in Wild Hunt. The scaling benefit from Wild Hunt outstrips Shark Attack's 3% damage increase right around 2500 hunter attack power.

Here's an illustration:


The blue is the pet DPS you're likely to see now, based on your attack power, although this chart does not include the bonus from Hunter vs. Wild (which grants 30% of your Stamina to your pet as Attack Power). Currently, my 1050 Stamina grants 315 Attack Power to Imeut, granting an additional ~22.5DPS - yours is probably similar. This chart does include the benefit from the two piece set bonus, but the results aren't drastically different either way.

The issue with taking this talent point, however, is that you'll lose some pretty substantial benefits from elsewhere in the tree. This build, with Rabid and Heart of the Phoenix is a nice one, but something has to give in order to fetch that last point in Shark Attack. I'll go with this build, exchanging the points in Rabid for Spider's Bite and Call of the Wild. For a spec without Improved Mend Pet or Improved Revive Pet, HotP is tough to pass up - even if your pet is a measly 14% of your DPS... I'll still be doing some DPS tests to see whether the loss of Rabid is made up for in Call of the Wild.

I imagine the same holds true for BM if you don't choose to go for the 51-point talent, Beast Mastery - but, given the shiny new talents, why do that? I'll take a closer look at the scaling with Beast Mastery's talents in the next few days, but I'm guessing it will be similar.

Dual Spec: PvE/Pv... E?

I'm going to come right out and say it, before more than, like, five people stumble across this blog: I'm terrible at PvP.

I could blame it on being left-handed and bereft of Nostromoness. I could blame it on playing on a laptop and having no numpad. I could blame it on playing the Hunter class. But, no, it's really that my AAAHHH RUNAWAY! It's gonna EAT ME! /panic instinct is just too strong. I do pretty well on Damage Done in the BG-meters, sure, but I die a lot. ...And Arenas terrify me - I'm pretty sure I'd die a lot there, too. Dying is still bad, right? I'm relatively certain you're supposed to avoid that whole Spirit Healer ordeal.

And, seriously: Why can't I Misdirect the stupid Paladin to the Warlock? Hm? Why? /grumble

SO. Dual Specs for me will not be PvE/PvP. PvE/PvE, though? Now we're talkin'.

On the PTR right now, Nadie has a Beast Mastery spec and Raid-Survival spec set up, and that's pretty much what I intend to do for her when Dual Specs go live. Why spend 1000g on this? Malygos, Sartharion, Maexxna, Heigan, and Gluth. These five are examples of encounters for which one spec will perform significantly better than the other.

Malygos: Favors Survival. During the Vortexes of Phase 1, instant casts are still available, meaning that Lock and Load procs can be taken advantage of during the time when the Beast Mastery pet would be out of commission. Furthermore, when the Vortex drops the raid in the center, a trap can be dropped before running away from Maly, allowing for another LnL opportunity. Phase 2 is Survival-friendly as well, since the last of the scions will be in the air, leaving Fluffy to lick his fur for a while (unless you're really good with Eyes of the Beast...?).

Sartharion: Favors Survival. This one is less clear-cut, but the extra six yards of range from Hawk Eye make staying out of the Tsunamis while still pew-pewing more realistic. Calling a Beast Mastery pet back when the Tsunamis rise, and sending him back in once they've passed also takes a large chunk of DPS-time that isn't as painful when your pet is 15% of your damage, rather than 45%.

Maexxna: Favors Beast Mastery. The role of ranged DPS in this fight is to not only DPS the boss, but also, and more importantly, to pull people from their Web Wraps on the back wall. Spec'd for Beast Mastery, the hunter has an advantage no other ranged class shares: 45% of your DPS gets to stay on Maexxna for the entire fight.

Heigan the Unclean: Favors Survival. While it's fun to keep Fluffy alive during this fight as a Beast Mastery hunter, the number of GCDs spent on making use of that Improved Mend Pet is stupendously high, and Fluffy's tiny, tiny brain will send him to the back of Heigan, right into the plague waves every time. Survival, on the other hand, can take advantage of LnL procs during the entire Dance Phase.

Gluth: Favors Beast Mastery. Stick with me here. This is one that may actually change with 3.1 and Resourcefulness becoming part of the Survival raid build. For now though, the most common Survival and Beast Mastery raid builds have the same cooldowns on traps, so, for kiting the Zombie Chow, the build choice is pretty inconsequential. The advantage for BM, however, is that Fluffy can fight Gluth while the hunter kites mobs around. As one of the kiters, you're not going to show prodigiously on the meters either way, but a BM pet will still rack up some reasonable numbers. On a side note, Tauren are the best.

Then there are plenty of fights where the spec won't make too much of a difference: Patchwerk, Grand Widow Faerlina, Thaddius, The Four Horsemen, etc. Each has a few supporting arguments one way or the other, but they're pretty even at the end of the day. It's a good thing, too, because that 30 minute cooldown on Call Stabled Pet would be cumbersome, were it otherwise.

All told, I'll be speccing... EvPet/EvPewPew!

Woo! Head buckets!

I love PUGS.

Now to go to sl--/snore