WoW Guide to making BoE engineering pets

As we mentioned in a recent patch 3.3.3 update, the Pet Bombling and Lil' Smokey engineering manufactured pets are going to be changed to bind on equip. Pets from almost any source are a lucrative market to be in, and this will provide another way engineers can make a bit of cash from their horrible gold sink of a profession. Hunter ammo was a step in the right direction, and this is too.

First up, you need the schematics

Unless you happened to have them already, you will probably need to go farm the schematics. These were formerly unfarmable and tied to one of the two branches of engineering, but now both goblin and gnomish engineers can get them as a random drop.

• Schematic: Lil' Smokey is dropped by the Arcane Nullifier X-21, among other mobs. The drop rate in Wowhead says 2%, however that includes all the non-engineers who kill these and don't see the schematic. In reality, it should be much much higher.


• Schematic: Pet Bombling is dropped by Mekgineer Thermaplugg, and again, while it shows a low drop rate, that includes all the non-engineers who kill him and can't see the drop. I read comments saying that it's a very high drop rate for engineers. If you kill him, are eligible to get the schematic, and don't see this, let me know in the comments.

In general, the stuff you will need will be in short supply, so you should be prepared to farm or hire a lower level character to farm it for you. Whenever you are farming for something, there's a trick you can use to determine the most effective strategy. Sort the "dropped by" tab on Wowhead.com by "Count" instead of the percent chance. This will indicate where most of the item you're looking at are coming into the market from, and you can either farm them yourself, or identify the people killing the mobs you want, and try to arrange a direct purchase off them.

Making Lil' Smokey

You will require the following mats:

• One Core of Earth, farmable


• Two Gyrochronatom, each made from
  
  
  
  • One Iron Bar
  
  
  • One Gold Power Core, made in groups of three from
    
    
    
    • One Gold Bar


• One Fused Wiring, made in groups of five from
  
  
  
  • Three Delicate Copper Wire, made in groups of three from
    
    
    
    • Two Copper Bars


• Two Essence of Fire, farmable


• Two Mithril Bars


• One Truesilver Bar, made from a rare vein found while mining mid-level areas

Making the Pet Bombling

You will require the following mats:

• One Big Iron Bomb, made in groups of two from
  
  
  
  • Three Iron Bar
  
  
  • Three Heavy Blasting Powders, made from
    
    
    
    • One Heavy Stone
  
  
  • One Silver Contact, made in groups of five by
    
    
    
    • One Silver Bar


• One Heart of Fire, farmable


• One Fused Wiring, made in groups of five from
  
  
  
  • Three Delicate Copper Wire, made in groups of three from
    
    
    
    • Two Copper Bars


• Six Mithril Bars

Pricing

There are two barriers to making these. Some of the mats are really low supply and not easily farmable. Truesilver, for example. The other barrier is that even the "farmable" mats are often not typically farmed on many servers. You might have to either farm them yourself, or hire a lower level character to farm it for you. Either way, this barrier to entry provides you the opportunity to make sure your margins support your time costs. If making these takes a lot of time and generates a thin margin, you're better off doing whatever you currently do for money, and so are your competitors.

When you price these on the auction house, calculate your materials cost, and then calculate your time cost by figuring out how much you could have made doing something else. If you have few competitors, try listing this pet for the same markup you see opposite faction pets going for.

If your competitors undercut you, you have a choice. You can undercut them back, you can ignore them, or you can buy them out.

• Undercutting them back means you will potentially run out of stock faster. If you managed to find a lot of the rare mats for this on the AH, remember that should you increase your production too much, you risk having to farm the mats yourself or hire someone. This will increase your cost.


• Ignoring your competitors means you will keep your margins, but lose out on some potential sales. Generally, since these things are such a pain in the bum to make, I'd suggest this alternative.


• Buying out a competitor is risky-- if they charge you more than you made yours for, you're essentially giving them money. In most markets, this is just inviting them to mass-produce at a profit and undercut you with a buttload of product. Due to the fact that each of these pets depletes a rarely farmed material, however, you might just drive their cost up past the point where you can be profitably undercut. This will be a temporary situation, however, so you'd better hope you sell all your inventory before they find a way to increase the farming of the "choke point" mats.

Warlocks to get a new pet in Cataclysm?

Coming out of the Twitter developer chat tonight was this question and following answer, given by Ghostcrawler and J. Allen Brack:

Q. With the new skins for druid forms, what is the chance that warlocks might see race/faction specific demon skins or maybe a new one?

A. When you look around, there are a lot of say imp or voidwalkers we could use. It's something we talk about quite a bit. As for new demons, I hear warlocks are going to be getting some new spells for the next expansion...

While it's not a direct confirmation that warlocks will be getting a new pet in Cataclysm, I think it's safe to read into this and maybe get a bit excited about this one. I doubt they'd mention warlocks getting "new spells" in relation to getting a new demon if such an addition to the warlock class wasn't planned.So, new demons for warlocks? Probably. My guess is that it'll be a pet lava monster or something related to the elemental plane. Just the perfect kind of thing to pop up into the evil hands of warlocks from the sundered land in Cataclysm.

WoW: to join Mend Pet's SPCA charity drive

The last time we posted about Brajana and her SPCA charity drive over on Mend Pet, she'd only just started it and was revving up to get a nice list of prizes going. Nowadays, she's got a great list of prizes (including a free FigurePets set, a few good loot cards, some custom-made character artwork, and even a custom-designed UI -- you can make yours look just like Turpster's if you want), and she's rolling into the last few days of the drive. It all ends on Friday, July 31st, so if you haven't gotten your donation in to the SPCA International yet (the money will go to volunteer programs, including animal shelters all of the world, and help out with food, shelter, and vaccination costs), do so right away. And make sure to follow the instructions on Brajana's site -- for every donation you make, no matter how big or small, you'll get two chances to pick up some of that great loot, and you'll be helping out real-life pets all over the world.

It's a great way to help out a worthy cause, give some back to the Warcraft community and the hard work that bloggers like Brajana do, and maybe even win some free stuff. Remember, she's asking for your donation before Friday, July 31st, so head over there and get it in as soon as possible.

WoW Cunning PvP Pets

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.


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.

Mining the armory for Hunter pet statistics

With Hunter pet information recently added to the armory, Data Miner Zardoz has wasted no time getting his hands on the raw Hunter pet data and breaking it down. The data is only for level 80 Hunters, and only 10,000 of those at that, but it still gives a very interesting snapshot of what's going with the Hunter's best friends.

It might not be too big a surprise that Cats are far and away the most popular pet at a count of around 9500, nearly doubling again the amount of Wolves, who come in just under 5000, which are in turn used in numbers over twice as much as the next popular choice, Gorillas, who are just above 2800 in number. Now mind you, this information does take into account pets that are in the stables as well, and there's certainly the possibility that a lot of them have just stayed in the stables for a long time.

Still, it's sort of crazy to see a handful of pets blow away all comers. If Cats and Wolves seem to insurmountably blow them all away, is it is a sign of overpoweredness, or just a sign that no matter what new skins and pet families you implement, people will always return to their old favorites? Or does it just mean that a bunch of old Hunters used Cats and Wolves back when they were one of a handful of pets available and just stuck them in a stable for old times sake rather than abandon them? One also wonders how Scorpids and Ravagers got so unpopular so fast. They used to dominate in Burning Crusade. Are we so fickle as Hunters that we just wanted to abandon their ugly faces as soon as we didn't need them?

Then there's the other question: Do the poor pet types at the bottom of the barrel deserve buffs, or are they a lost cause? Does Blizzard even care much about pet "skin" balancing, or do they just assume that no-one loves those ugly Sporebats? We do know they care about pet appearance to some degree, though, thanks to the Worgen debacle and the older slime debacle and the even older Ghost Wolf debacle.

Speaking of Slimes (and Hydras), Zardoz's data on the percentage of pets also includes a listing of what specific pet mobs are the most tamed for each family. For Crocolisks, it looks like far and away it's the now hot fixed to be untameable Hydra and Slime from the quest A Cleansing Song. Again, a lot of these "Crocolisks" are probably hidden away in stables now, but it at least suggests that people like awesome pet looks. You can see this in action with Boars as well, with the Rotting Ama'gar holding a commanding lead over all other comers, and even with the very popular wolves, where the demonic-looking Vargul Blighthound leads the pack.

Of course, other pet types, such as Hyenas and Cats, you'll actually find that the most popular pet mobs are the most high leveled ones. You'd think this would be less of a problem in the modern WoW game, since your pets automatically level to within 5 levels of you anyway when you first tame them, but it seems like people still like to take every slight advantage they can get.

One more interesting thing Zardoz points out is that just under half the pets in his sample have no spent talent points. Now, again, it could be these are just old pets in the stable that haven't been pulled out and talented ever, but there's also that whole weird thing where pets seem to lose their talents when their Hunter switches specs and all that gets a bit annoying. Maybe this kind of statistic will convince Blizzard they need to check into hammering out that pet spec switching stuff, though.

It's probably not completely safe to say too much about this data. It's pretty raw, and doesn't cover frequency of use or style of play for each pet, so we don't want to jump to conclusions too quickly, but at the least it should be fun to check it out and see how popular (or unique) your favorite pet really is.

WoW Raiding spec for Hunter pets

This past week has been an interesting one for Hunters and their pets. If you were like me,

finding out that Hunters could tame Garwal's Worgen form, reminded you of why being a Hunter is

truly awesome. Of course it would last and Zyrhym showed up and had to burst our bubble by

delivering the bad news that Blizzard was removing them from the game. Well, it was fun while it

lasted.

What was nice about this glitch was the passionate responses seen on the Official Forums and

Hunter community at large. It really highlighted how much we Hunters love our pets. Many of us see

them more as companions than just some other weapon in our Hunter bag of tricks.

One way Blizzard has helped foster this idea is by letting us have three different categories

(Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning) and literally hundreds of different pets to go out and tame. But

to me the best part is being able to not only tame my pet of choice, but having the ability to

train him. Doing this makes Hunters and their pets a combination as epic as Nutella and Pancakes.

When you set out to tame your pet, make sure and match your need with the correct category. For

pure DPS you have Ferocity. Need a tanking or good solo pet? Get a Tenacity one. And if you are in

a PvP situation and want to make sure someone has your back no matter what? You could try a

Cunning pet. With dual specs and Call Stabled Pet you can now match up your spec with the right

pet and further enhance your status as the Supreme Hunter! Let's take a moment and talk about

Ferocity Pets and raiding specs, alright?

Raiding Pets

As I mentioned earlier, the Ferocity pet is a Hunter's raiding companion. Just like the Hunter in

a raid, their only job is to help you down bosses faster. There is a down side to all this raw

aggression. Ferocity Pets aren't known for their survivability. This is one reason you have heard

Hunters over on the Official Forums complain about pet survivability and the Blizzard development

team responded with the recent resilience changes.

There are several options out there for the hunter to choose to take along for a raid. However, if

you are really looking to make sure and bring your spec's "A" game to raid you really only have

two. For the Beast Master your best pet DPS choice is the Devilsaur. Yes, I know. It's really just

an overgrown raptor. You're right, because of its size, no one in their right mind would let you

take it in a raid with them. However, even with these issues, the Devilsaur is still the best

raiding pet for the Beast Master Hunter.

Now if you're Marksman or Survival, and or if your raid refuses to let you bring T-Rex along with

you, then your new best friend will be a Wolf. Wolves have earned their preferred raiding spot

with everyone because of their Furious Howl. Furious Howl will increase the melee but more

importantly the ranged Attack Power by a whopping 320. There is no way anyone can just sneeze at

that.

Pet Talent Distribution

You need to be aware of a few things when deciding to spec your new best friend. If you are a

Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you will have only 16 pet talent points to spend. You get 20 pet

talent points if you are Beast Mastery. Let's look at where you will spend those points.

You'll first want to put two points into Cobra Reflexes. I know it does less damage, but the sheer

number of additional attacks more than makes up for it.

Next you will want to put one point into Dash. This will help you send in your pet or call him

back quickly aiding in pet management. Now that you have spent your required 3 points into the

first tier, you can move on to the second.

Time to put 2 points into Bloodthirsty for Beast Mastery Hunters and 1 point for Marks/Survival.

It might not seem all that useful, but remember, every moment you spend casting a Mend Pet means

less DPS. Having Bloodthirsty will hopefully help and reduce the need to cast it as much.

Add to that 3 points into Spiked Collar and you now just gave Fido an additional 9% damage on all

of his attacks.
The tier three talents might look a bit lackluster, but think of putting 3 points into Avoidance

for the 75% reduction in damage from Area of Effect attacks as added insurance for pet

survivability.

Your next choice is going to be three points into Spider Bite for a 9% increase in your pet's

chance to land a critical strike.

You are going to spend two pet talents on the fifth tier. You need to put one point into Rabid.

This will gives your pet a chance to increase its Attack Power by 5% over the next 20 seconds.

What is even better about this talent is it stacks up to 5 times. Now can you see why we added

Dash? Think of it as the pet's version of haste now giving you the possibility of increasing your

pet's Attack Power by 20-25%. (Yes, I know the odds are against me that it would happen, but I can

dream can't I?)

Now skip right over Lick Your Wounds and put a point into Call of the Wild. Right now Call of the

Wild will increase your pet's Attack Power by 10%, lasting for 20 seconds.

On the final tier things change up a bit depending whether you are a Marks or Survival Hunter or

Beast Mastery. The reason is due to Beast Mastery Hunters having Beast Mastery. Speccing into the

51st talent will cause you thave have four pet talent points remaining. On the other hand, if you

are Marksmanship or Survival, you only have one pet talents remaining.

As a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you want to put your final talent into Wild Hunt. Here your

pet will get a contribution from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 10%. (Note: As of right

now MMO Champion reports that in Patch 3.2 we might even see that change to "Increases the

contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 15%.")

If you are a Beast Mastery Hunter you will want to put two talents into Wild Hunt increasing your

contribution to Stamina by 40% and Attack Power by 20%.

Your final two talents should be placed into Shark Attack. Shark Attack is an instant 6% Attack

Power boost. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Recap

Now you have tamed your Wolf or Devilsaur and used up all of your pet talents making your pet one

seriously mean dips machine. And to help make sure you have created either the 16 point talent

spec or the 20 point spec I have included images of both below.

This past week has been an interesting one for Hunters and their pets. If you were like me,

finding out that Hunters could tame Garwal's Worgen form, reminded you of why being a Hunter is

truly awesome. Of course it would last and Zyrhym showed up and had to burst our bubble by

delivering the bad news that Blizzard was removing them from the game. Well, it was fun while it

lasted.

What was nice about this glitch was the passionate responses seen on the Official Forums and

Hunter community at large. It really highlighted how much we Hunters love our pets. Many of us see

them more as companions than just some other weapon in our Hunter bag of tricks.

One way Blizzard has helped foster this idea is by letting us have three different categories

(Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning) and literally hundreds of different pets to go out and tame. But

to me the best part is being able to not only tame my pet of choice, but having the ability to

train him. Doing this makes Hunters and their pets a combination as epic as Nutella and Pancakes.

When you set out to tame your pet, make sure and match your need with the correct category. For

pure DPS you have Ferocity. Need a tanking or good solo pet? Get a Tenacity one. And if you are in

a PvP situation and want to make sure someone has your back no matter what? You could try a

Cunning pet. With dual specs and Call Stabled Pet you can now match up your spec with the right

pet and further enhance your status as the Supreme Hunter! Let's take a moment and talk about

Ferocity Pets and raiding specs, alright?

Raiding Pets

As I mentioned earlier, the Ferocity pet is a Hunter's raiding companion. Just like the Hunter in

a raid, their only job is to help you down bosses faster. There is a down side to all this raw

aggression. Ferocity Pets aren't known for their survivability. This is one reason you have heard

Hunters over on the Official Forums complain about pet survivability and the Blizzard development

team responded with the recent resilience changes.

There are several options out there for the hunter to choose to take along for a raid. However, if

you are really looking to make sure and bring your spec's "A" game to raid you really only have

two. For the Beast Master your best pet DPS choice is the Devilsaur. Yes, I know. It's really just

an overgrown raptor. You're right, because of its size, no one in their right mind would let you

take it in a raid with them. However, even with these issues, the Devilsaur is still the best

raiding pet for the Beast Master Hunter.

Now if you're Marksman or Survival, and or if your raid refuses to let you bring T-Rex along with

you, then your new best friend will be a Wolf. Wolves have earned their preferred raiding spot

with everyone because of their Furious Howl. Furious Howl will increase the melee but more

importantly the ranged Attack Power by a whopping 320. There is no way anyone can just sneeze at

that.

Pet Talent Distribution

You need to be aware of a few things when deciding to spec your new best friend. If you are a

Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you will have only 16 pet talent points to spend. You get 20 pet

talent points if you are Beast Mastery. Let's look at where you will spend those points.

You'll first want to put two points into Cobra Reflexes. I know it does less damage, but the sheer

number of additional attacks more than makes up for it.

Next you will want to put one point into Dash. This will help you send in your pet or call him

back quickly aiding in pet management. Now that you have spent your required 3 points into the

first tier, you can move on to the second.

Time to put 2 points into Bloodthirsty for Beast Mastery Hunters and 1 point for Marks/Survival.

It might not seem all that useful, but remember, every moment you spend casting a Mend Pet means

less DPS. Having Bloodthirsty will hopefully help and reduce the need to cast it as much.

Add to that 3 points into Spiked Collar and you now just gave Fido an additional 9% damage on all

of his attacks.
The tier three talents might look a bit lackluster, but think of putting 3 points into Avoidance

for the 75% reduction in damage from Area of Effect attacks as added insurance for pet

survivability.

Your next choice is going to be three points into Spider Bite for a 9% increase in your pet's

chance to land a critical strike.

You are going to spend two pet talents on the fifth tier. You need to put one point into Rabid.

This will gives your pet a chance to increase its Attack Power by 5% over the next 20 seconds.

What is even better about this talent is it stacks up to 5 times. Now can you see why we added

Dash? Think of it as the pet's version of haste now giving you the possibility of increasing your

pet's Attack Power by 20-25%. (Yes, I know the odds are against me that it would happen, but I can

dream can't I?)

Now skip right over Lick Your Wounds and put a point into Call of the Wild. Right now Call of the

Wild will increase your pet's Attack Power by 10%, lasting for 20 seconds.

On the final tier things change up a bit depending whether you are a Marks or Survival Hunter or

Beast Mastery. The reason is due to Beast Mastery Hunters having Beast Mastery. Speccing into the

51st talent will cause you thave have four pet talent points remaining. On the other hand, if you

are Marksmanship or Survival, you only have one pet talents remaining.

As a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you want to put your final talent into Wild Hunt. Here your

pet will get a contribution from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 10%. (Note: As of right

now MMO Champion reports that in Patch 3.2 we might even see that change to "Increases the

contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 15%.")

If you are a Beast Mastery Hunter you will want to put two talents into Wild Hunt increasing your

contribution to Stamina by 40% and Attack Power by 20%.

Your final two talents should be placed into Shark Attack. Shark Attack is an instant 6% Attack

Power boost. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Recap

Now you have tamed your Wolf or Devilsaur and used up all of your pet talents making your pet one

seriously mean dips machine. And to help make sure you have created either the 16 point talent

spec or the 20 point spec I have included images of both below.

This past week has been an interesting one for Hunters and their pets. If you were like me,

finding out that Hunters could tame Garwal's Worgen form, reminded you of why being a Hunter is

truly awesome. Of course it would last and Zyrhym showed up and had to burst our bubble by

delivering the bad news that Blizzard was removing them from the game. Well, it was fun while it

lasted.

What was nice about this glitch was the passionate responses seen on the Official Forums and

Hunter community at large. It really highlighted how much we Hunters love our pets. Many of us see

them more as companions than just some other weapon in our Hunter bag of tricks.

One way Blizzard has helped foster this idea is by letting us have three different categories

(Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning) and literally hundreds of different pets to go out and tame. But

to me the best part is being able to not only tame my pet of choice, but having the ability to

train him. Doing this makes Hunters and their pets a combination as epic as Nutella and Pancakes.

When you set out to tame your pet, make sure and match your need with the correct category. For

pure DPS you have Ferocity. Need a tanking or good solo pet? Get a Tenacity one. And if you are in

a PvP situation and want to make sure someone has your back no matter what? You could try a

Cunning pet. With dual specs and Call Stabled Pet you can now match up your spec with the right

pet and further enhance your status as the Supreme Hunter! Let's take a moment and talk about

Ferocity Pets and raiding specs, alright?

Raiding Pets

As I mentioned earlier, the Ferocity pet is a Hunter's raiding companion. Just like the Hunter in

a raid, their only job is to help you down bosses faster. There is a down side to all this raw

aggression. Ferocity Pets aren't known for their survivability. This is one reason you have heard

Hunters over on the Official Forums complain about pet survivability and the Blizzard development

team responded with the recent resilience changes.

There are several options out there for the hunter to choose to take along for a raid. However, if

you are really looking to make sure and bring your spec's "A" game to raid you really only have

two. For the Beast Master your best pet DPS choice is the Devilsaur. Yes, I know. It's really just

an overgrown raptor. You're right, because of its size, no one in their right mind would let you

take it in a raid with them. However, even with these issues, the Devilsaur is still the best

raiding pet for the Beast Master Hunter.

Now if you're Marksman or Survival, and or if your raid refuses to let you bring T-Rex along with

you, then your new best friend will be a Wolf. Wolves have earned their preferred raiding spot

with everyone because of their Furious Howl. Furious Howl will increase the melee but more

importantly the ranged Attack Power by a whopping 320. There is no way anyone can just sneeze at

that.

Pet Talent Distribution

You need to be aware of a few things when deciding to spec your new best friend. If you are a

Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you will have only 16 pet talent points to spend. You get 20 pet

talent points if you are Beast Mastery. Let's look at where you will spend those points.

You'll first want to put two points into Cobra Reflexes. I know it does less damage, but the sheer

number of additional attacks more than makes up for it.

Next you will want to put one point into Dash. This will help you send in your pet or call him

back quickly aiding in pet management. Now that you have spent your required 3 points into the

first tier, you can move on to the second.

Time to put 2 points into Bloodthirsty for Beast Mastery Hunters and 1 point for Marks/Survival.

It might not seem all that useful, but remember, every moment you spend casting a Mend Pet means

less DPS. Having Bloodthirsty will hopefully help and reduce the need to cast it as much.

Add to that 3 points into Spiked Collar and you now just gave Fido an additional 9% damage on all

of his attacks.
The tier three talents might look a bit lackluster, but think of putting 3 points into Avoidance

for the 75% reduction in damage from Area of Effect attacks as added insurance for pet

survivability.

Your next choice is going to be three points into Spider Bite for a 9% increase in your pet's

chance to land a critical strike.

You are going to spend two pet talents on the fifth tier. You need to put one point into Rabid.

This will gives your pet a chance to increase its Attack Power by 5% over the next 20 seconds.

What is even better about this talent is it stacks up to 5 times. Now can you see why we added

Dash? Think of it as the pet's version of haste now giving you the possibility of increasing your

pet's Attack Power by 20-25%. (Yes, I know the odds are against me that it would happen, but I can

dream can't I?)

Now skip right over Lick Your Wounds and put a point into Call of the Wild. Right now Call of the

Wild will increase your pet's Attack Power by 10%, lasting for 20 seconds.

On the final tier things change up a bit depending whether you are a Marks or Survival Hunter or

Beast Mastery. The reason is due to Beast Mastery Hunters having Beast Mastery. Speccing into the

51st talent will cause you thave have four pet talent points remaining. On the other hand, if you

are Marksmanship or Survival, you only have one pet talents remaining.

As a Marksmanship or Survival Hunter you want to put your final talent into Wild Hunt. Here your

pet will get a contribution from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 10%. (Note: As of right

now MMO Champion reports that in Patch 3.2 we might even see that change to "Increases the

contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and Attack Power by 15%.")

If you are a Beast Mastery Hunter you will want to put two talents into Wild Hunt increasing your

contribution to Stamina by 40% and Attack Power by 20%.

Your final two talents should be placed into Shark Attack. Shark Attack is an instant 6% Attack

Power boost. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Recap

Now you have tamed your Wolf or Devilsaur and used up all of your pet talents making your pet one

seriously mean dips machine. And to help make sure you have created either the 16 point talent

spec or the 20 point spec I have included images of both below.

That wraps up this issue of Scattered Shots. Does your raiding spec look like this? Do you have

any recommendations or changes for the readers? If so, I know I would love to hear them and am

sure our readers would also.

Hunters discover "new" Worgen pet

As the holiday weekend rolled around, we started to get a number of tips that Hunters were

successfully training themselves a...Worgen pet? Worgen?!? How was this level of cool allowed into

the game without anyone knowing about it until now?

Well, it turns out that the Worgen pet is in fact a very clever use of game mechanics somewhat

akin to those used by Hunters in order to tame the (now sadly vanished) Grimtotem Spirit Guide.

Garwal, a warg NPC in northern Howling Fjord who can turn into a Worgen as part of a questline

(the link is the Horde version, but it's the same for both Horde and Alliance) can actually be

tamed and kept in Worgen form if the timing is right. Mania's Arcania has a look at the process

used here, which involves a little math, a little guesswork, and the strategic use of Wyvern

Sting.

Regrettably, you can only get Garwal to transform into a Worgen if you haven't done the questline

concerned, so I would imagine most Hunters at 80 who leveled in Howling Fjord are out of luck

(unless you can snag someone who hasn't done it yet -- and even then I'm not sure you'd see him in

Worgen form without the requisite quest item).

Neither of my Hunters are close to Wrath content yet, but I'd absolutely kill for this pet. That

said, I'm not confident that Blizzard's going to let this stay in the game, but they did let

people who had already tamed a Grimtotem wolf keep them. Even if the Hotfix Hammer is falling,

your Hunter may want to try this for the sheer awesome of having a Worgen pet for a little while.

Patch 3.2 PTR: Finding the Raptor Pets

For those of us who like to collect stuff in WoW, one of the cooler announcements for patch 3.2

was the inclusion of a whole new set of raptor hatchling pets, dropped around the world by rare

and elite raptors. Of course, it was also an announcement of dread for serious collectors who can

tell horror stories of killing thousands upon thousands of slimes and dragons for rare pets

before. But will it be all as bad as that? WoW fansites have been on the case.

Mania, maven of Hunter pets, has also been looking into the drop rates and drop mobs, and has

compiled a handy chart on her blog. Between Mania and the news on Warcraft Pets, it seems we can

mostly confirm that the rare raptors (such as, for example, Takk the Leaper) will always drop

their pets, while those that drop only off elites have a very rare drop rate more similar to the

aforementioned slimes or dragons.

Of course, this is all according to preliminary reports compiled by Mania and Warcraft Pets from

player submissions and Wowhead comments, and it is a PTR, so things may change. Still, if you're a

hardcore collector, or want to get a jump on the inevitable 100 pet achievement when it comes, or

just want your own cute baby raptor to squeeze, you may want to start making raptor hunting plans

now. And remember, if your rare pet farming luck is horrid, Breanni will be selling a raptor pet

as well.

New Tauren cat forms in WoW revealed

As you probably know by now if you play a druid, new feral form graphics are finally coming in WoW patch 3.2. Druids will have their choice of five different versions for each race and form (bear/cat); what form you get corresponds to your hair color for Night Elves and your skin tone for Tauren, both of which will be changeable at the barber shop.


So far we've already seen the bear forms for Tauren and Night Elves. Today, Blizzard unveiled the replacements for the much-maligned Tauren cat form. You can see the results above. My initial reaction is that they're still a bit ugly, but way better than the previous Tauren cat form (which is marked "Old Cat form" above).

Here's what a few of our staff members thought:
Elizabeth: "A million times better. Still not as cool as night elf, but better."
Allison: "The eyes are way too small. Still going to be glad I play a bear."
Lesley: "Those horns are evil."
Alex: "I'm gonna roll a Tauren Druid so I can play that black one with the grey mane. I'm going to RP an old grizzled war vet Druid."

What do you think?

WoW Night Elf cat forms coming tomorrow

We've already seen the graphics for three out of the four new feral forms we know are coming for druids in patch 3.2: Tauren bear and cat forms, and Night Elf bear forms. This only leaves Night Elf cat forms left to be seen. (They might be redesigning moonkin and tree forms too; they're being cagey about that when people ask. My guess would be no.)


I've been anxiously refreshing pages all day to see if the Night Elf cat forms would come. In vain, apparently, as Zarhym has just posted to let us know that the forms in question will be unveiled tomorrow "later in the day," which probably means mid-afternoon (PST) sometime. In the mean time, we've got the other three sets of forms in the gallery below. What would your ideal Night Elf cat look like?

WoW Pets for raiding

It's no secret (or shouldn't be!) that Ferocity pets are where it's at for raiding pets. They provide the most overall damage of the three pet types, and for Hunters there's no bigger priority in a raid environment than delivering dps like it's Dominos. There are a wide variety of Ferocity pets to choose from, though, and each have their own unique abilities. Which is the best type to give you the biggest boost to your damage? Let's do a quick comparison and find out.


There are a total of eleven different Ferocity pet types to choose from in the game, three of which are Exotic and only available to Hunters with the Beast Mastery talent. Each pet has a unique ability, some more appropriate for a raid environment than others.

Demoralizing Screech: Blasts a single enemy for 85 to 129 damage and lowers the melee attack power of all enemies in melee range by 410. Effect lasts 10 seconds. 10 second cooldown.

Rake: Rake the target for 47 to 67 bleed damage and an additional 19 to 25 damage over 9 seconds. 10 second cooldown.

Tendon Rip: Tears at an enemy's legs for 49 to 69 damage and reduces the movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. 20 second cooldown.

Serenity Dust: The moth's wings produce a cloud of dust that increases its attack power by 10% and heals it for 825 over 15 seconds. 1 minute cooldown.

Savage Rend: Slashes the enemy with the Raptor's talons for 59 to 83 damage, and causes the target to bleed for 21 to 27 damage every 5 seconds for 15 seconds. Successful critical strikes with this ability temporarily boost the Raptor's damage by 10% for 30 seconds. 1 minute cooldown.

Dust Cloud: Your Tallstrider kicks up an obscuring cloud of dust, causing all enemies within 10 yards to miss their next attack. Lasts for 8 seconds. 40 second cooldown.

Sting: Your Wasp stings for 64 to 86 Nature damage, and decreases the armor of the target by 5% for 20 seconds. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. 6 second cooldown.

Furious Howl: Increases melee and ranged attack power by 320 for the Wolf and its master for 20 seconds. 40 second cooldown.

Lava Breath: Your pet breathes a double gout of molten lava at the target for 128 to 172 Fire damage and reduces the target's casting speed by 25% for 10 seconds. 10 second cooldown.

Monstrous Bite: Your Devilsaur ferociously bites the enemy, causing 91 to 123 damage, and boosts its own damage by 3% for 12 seconds. This effect stacks 3 times. 10 second cooldown.

Spirit Strike: Burns the enemy for 49 to 65 Arcane damage and then an additional 49 to 65 after 6 seconds. 10 second cooldown.

Right away, we can eliminate abilities that are obviously not entirely geared towards pure PvE damage output such as Tendon Rip, Dust Cloud and Lava Breath. Abilities like Sting and Demoralizing Screech are also of questionable usefulness, particularly when you take into consideration that neither will stack with other armor and attack power reducing buffs you'll likely have in a raid environment. This puts Carrion Birds, Hyenas, Tallstriders, Wasps and Core Hounds out of the running for viable raiding pets.

In order to determine a relatively accurate case study comparison of the remaining pets under ideal circumstances using a controlled data set, I used Shandara's Spreadsheet to compare pet dps for the remaining pet types. For the sake of simplicity, I used the character profile that loads by default (Shandara) when you first download the spreadsheet so that it would be easy for you to follow along with these figures yourself to check the math if you so choose. By simply swapping out which pet is active on the "Pet" tab of the spreadsheet, you'll see how each type of pet's dps differs when all other factors remain constant.

For Hunters not specced into Beast Mastery, you'll find that Cats still provide the most overall dps (1115.46 in our spreadsheet example), followed by Raptors (1099.30), Wolves (1087.99) and Moths (1080.06). This means a 16.16 dps gap between the highest dps pet and second highest dps pet, and a 35.4 dps gap between the best and worst. Some could argue that a difference of 16 or 35 dps is negligible at best, and in that case it merely becomes a matter of personal preference. For the Beast Masters out there, you'll find Devilsaurs are the best Exotic pets in terms of dps, with Spirit Beasts coming in at a relatively distant second. So, while Rake may deal less damage per swing, it's significantly shorter cooldown gives it the edge over a Raptor's Savage Rend. For Exotic pets, the stacking percentage increase to a Devilsaur's damage gives it a distinctive advantage that will scale nicely with your gear.

New pets and mounts found in the patch 3.1

MMO-Champion strikes again! So far they've already brought us undocumented changes and glyph information from the patch 3.1 PTR; now we have a whole long list of new non-combat pets and mounts. I'm pretty excited about the Enchanted Broom, myself, as far as the pets go, and...what's that? "Rideable mechanical gnome head?" Holy cats, I gotta get me one of those. Disclaimer: this is data files stuff. Some of it may change, and some may never surface at all.

New Pets

• Spring Rabbit - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Spring Rabbit.


• Plump Turkey - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Plump Turkey.


• Teldrassil Sproutling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Teldrassil Sproutling.


• Tirisfal Batling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Tirisfal batling.


• Dun Morogh Cub - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Dun Morogh Cub.


• Durotar Scorpion - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Durotar scorpion.


• Alarming Clockbot - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Alarming Clockbot.


• Elwynn Lamb - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Elwynn lamb.


• Mulgore Hatchling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Mulgore hatchling.
  

• Ammen Vale Lashling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Ammen Vale lashling.


• Strand Crawler - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Darkspear Strand crawler.


• Enchanted Broom - Right Click to summon and dismiss your enchanted broom.


• Argent Squire - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Argent Crusade squire.


• Mechanopeep - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Mechanopeep.


• Argent Gruntling - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Argent Crusade gruntling.


• Curious Gorloc Hatchling - Right Click to call or shoo away a Curious Gorloc Hatchling.


• Curious Wolvar Pup - Right Click to call or shoo away a Curious Wolvar Pup.


• Gorloc Orphan - Right Click to summon and dismiss the orphan you've agreed to look after for Children's Week.


• Wolvar Orphan - Right Click to summon and dismiss the orphan you've agreed to look after for Children's Week.


• Murkimus the Gladiator - Right Click to summon and dismiss Murkimus the Gladiator.


• Sen'jin Fetish - Right Click to summon and dismiss your Sen'jin fetish.

New Mounts

• Aquatic Riding Ray - Summons and dismisses an Aquatic Riding Ray. This is an aquatic mount.


• Swift Stormwind Steed - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Stormwind Steed. This is a very fast mount.


• Great Azuremyst Elekk - Summons and dismisses a rideable Great Azuremyst Elekk. This is a very fast mount.


• Swift Darnassian Mistsaber - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Darnassian Mistaber. This is a very fast mount.


• Swift Silvermoon Hawkstrider - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Silvermoon Hawkstrider. This is a very fast mount.


• Great Mulgore Kodo - Summons and dismisses a rideable Great Mulgore Kodo. This is a very fast mount.


• Turbostrider - Summons and dismisses a rideable Turbostrider. This is a very fast mount.


• Swift Ironforge Ram - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Ironforge Ram. This is a very fast mount.


• Swift Sen'jin Raptor - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Sen'jin Raptor. This is a very fast mount.


• Forsaken Warhorse - Summons and dismisses a rideable Forsaken Warhorse. This is a very fast mount.


• Swift Orgrimmar Wolf - Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Orgrimmar Wolf. This is a very fast mount.


• Mimiron's Head - Summons and dismisses a rideable mechanical gnome head. This is a very fast construction. This construction can only be summoned in Outland or Northrend.

The Future Soon: Hunters in patch 3.1 and beyond

Welcome to Scattered Shots, the weekly Hunter column which is written by a guy who doesn't generally spec for said talent.

So. I'm here. I'm not completely wrapped up in Wrath, I promise. In fact, just to show how much I am not wrapped up in the here and now, in the long lines for the queues and prospect of getting a beautiful worm pet and all that good stuff, I'm going to predict the future!

Let's look at some of the promises and perils that Patch 3.1 and other future patches will bring for the Hunter.

Trap Mastery

So as you may recall, Blizzard outright admitted that they didn't have time to finish Trap Mastery before Wrath hit, leaving Survival Hunters with a talent that, while not completely useless, also leaves a lot to be desired for its position in the tree. But when they get back around to it, what could they do with it?

I have to say up front that my favorite option is just adding a complete removal of the arming time on traps. This would help Hunters out immensely in PvP to start with, and make a Survival Hunter with Freezing Shot a strong threat in Arenas. Of course, there's some who argue that trap arming time needs to go altogether, at least on Freezing Shot itself.

It may be that Trap Mastery would work best as a sort of general trap buff, removing most of the weaknesses that plague traps, if not arming time, then resist chances (which it already does), low radius (by buffing the radius), and perhaps even providing a general damage boost. Unlinking Ice-based traps from Fire and Snake traps would also be an incredibly worthy ability. Of course, they could just throw us for a loop and redesign the talent from the ground up with a new name and a new aim, but we'll have to wait and see.

Bear Trap Mechanics

There's probably not much to say here that I haven't already said. They took away the ability to do damage through Freezing Trap because of pet problems. I still say I would have rather kept the mechanics until they found a solution, but here's hoping they find one by 3.1 or so. I liked that ability.

Dual Speccing

We know dual talent specs should be here in Patch WoW 3.1, but there's probably sense that they're meant mostly for the tanks and healer type classes, the Moonkin and Retribution Paladins and Fury Warriors compelled to take up the healer's gavel or the heavy armor for the good of the raid or the group or what have you.

However, that doesn't mean the thing is completely useless to we pure DPSers. The most obvious use is probably for PvErs who like to do a little PvP on the side. You might be surprised at how swapping out a few pure DPS talents for some survivability and PvP utility talents can help you out. Beyond that, if you've always wanted to try out a new talent spec or a whole new tree, you might be able to take that Survival build and have that Marksmanship safety net a click away.

Finally, if nothing else, we know they want to let us switch glyphs and possibly even Hunter pets when we switch specs, so if you want nothing more than to keep another glyph set ready for specialized situations, you could do that too. Overall, there's plenty of reasons for Hunters to be excited as the next class about dual specs.

Pets

With the new pet system revamp, the dev team has not only done a pretty solid job of adding variety and fun to the pet system, they also seem to have set a pretty solid ground for adding new pet skins and types with much less fanfare. Because of this, I like to think we could easily see more pet types coming in in future patches. Maybe not a whole family, but take Spirit Beasts: One whole pet family for one intentionally hard to get pet?

I still think this would be the perfect time to bring back tamable Grimtotem Spirit Guides, for example, and you could easily find a few more spirit beasts to implement. The idea of spirit beasts that are technically of different leads to the idea of creating a pet family specifically for undead beasts as well, perhaps. I'm also still pulling for a Rhino that looks a little bit more like the modern beast. The woolly ones just don't do it for me.

PvP Improvements

Yes, I still believe these will come. Call me an eternal optimist. Disengage, now that it's nearly free of restrictions, is shaping up to be very useful, but I still believe we'll need a little more help. Traps, of course, could stand to be a lot more usable in PvP. The primary problem remains that between kneeling as a giveaway of when the trap is set and the arm time on the trap, it's far too easy to dodge the things. Trap Mastery might help, but there's a strong argument for removing the arming time altogether so that we have an easier time using traps. If nothing else, consider it a way of giving us some decent utility outside of drain teams.

The other thing we could use is some help against casters. Now, I admit, before 3.0 came along, we were pretty tough on casting classes. Once I got some good armor penetration, I could tear through a mage's robe like it was made of tissue paper. However, these days, armor penetration has been nerfed quite a bit, and changed to a rating, and my arrows feel just a little bit blunter. In the meantime, those fireballs are hitting as hard as ever, and in a firefight, I have a very strong chance of losing. In this case, I think bringing back the magic resistance that was on Deterrence near the beginning of Beta may be just what the doctor ordered, just to give a Hunter a chance to survive a barrage of spells long enough to do some damage, deploy some crowd control, or duck for cover.

Time Keeps On Slipping...

But regardless of where we're going, we should probably get back to the present and start in on the level grind. Luckily, with new pets, no more shot clipping, and a good supply of Mammoth Cutters or Saronite Razorheads, it should be a breeze. Good Hunting, and I'll see you all in the future.

Hunters in patch 3.1 and beyond

So. I'm here. I'm not completely wrapped up in Wrath, I promise. In fact, just to show how much I am not wrapped up in the here and now, in the long lines for the queues and prospect of getting a beautiful worm pet and all that good stuff, I'm going to predict the future !

Let's look at some of the promises and perils that 3.1 and other future patches will bring for the Hunter.

Trap Mastery

So as you may recall, Blizzard outright admitted that they didn't have time to finish Trap Mastery before Wrath hit, leaving Survival Hunters with a talent that, while not completely useless, also leaves a lot to be desired for its position in the tree. But when they get back around to it, what could they do with it?

I have to say up front that my favorite option is just adding a complete removal of the arming time on traps. This would help Hunters out immensely in PvP to start with, and make a Survival Hunter with Freezing Shot a strong threat in Arenas. Of course, there's some who argue that trap arming time needs to go altogether, at least on Freezing Shot itself.

It may be that Trap Mastery would work best as a sort of general trap buff, removing most of the weaknesses that plague traps, if not arming time, then resist chances (which it already does), low radius (by buffing the radius), and perhaps even providing a general damage boost. Unlinking Ice-based traps from Fire and Snake traps would also be an incredibly worthy ability. Of course, they could just throw us for a loop and redesign the talent from the ground up with a new name and a new aim, but we'll have to wait and see.

Bear Trap Mechanics

There's probably not much to say here that I haven't already said . They took away the ability to do damage through Freezing Trap because of pet problems. I still say I would have rather kept the mechanics until they found a solution, but here's hoping they find one by 3.1 or so. I liked that ability.

Dual Speccing

We know dual talent specs should be here in 3.1, but there's probably sense that they're meant mostly for the tanks and healer type classes, the Moonkin and Retribution Paladins and Fury Warriors compelled to take up the healer's gavel or the heavy armor for the good of the raid or the group or what have you.

However, that doesn't mean the thing is completely useless to we pure DPSers. The most obvious use is probably for PvErs who like to do a little PvP on the side. You might be surprised at how swapping out a few pure DPS talents for some survivability and PvP utility talents can help you out. Beyond that, if you've always wanted to try out a new talent spec or a whole new tree, you might be able to take that Survival build and have that Marksmanship safety net a click away.

Finally, if nothing else, we know they want to let us switch glyphs and possibly even Hunter pets when we switch specs, so if you want nothing more than to keep another glyph set ready for specialized situations, you could do that too. Overall, there's plenty of reasons for Hunters to be excited as the next class about dual specs.

Pets

With the new pet system revamp , the dev team has not only done a pretty solid job of adding variety and fun to the pet system, they also seem to have set a pretty solid ground for adding new pet skins and types with much less fanfare. Because of this, I like to think we could easily see more pet types coming in in future patches. Maybe not a whole family, but take Spirit Beasts : One whole pet family for one intentionally hard to get pet?

I still think this would be the perfect time to bring back tamable Grimtotem Spirit Guides , for example, and you could easily find a few more spirit beasts to implement. The idea of spirit beasts that are technically of different leads to the idea of creating a pet family specifically for undead beasts as well, perhaps. I'm also still pulling for a Rhino that looks a little bit more like the modern beast. The woolly ones just don't do it for me.

PvP Improvements

Yes, I still believe these will come. Call me an eternal optimist. Disengage , now that it's nearly free of restrictions, is shaping up to be very useful, but I still believe we'll need a little more help. Traps , of course, could stand to be a lot more usable in PvP. The primary problem remains that between kneeling as a giveaway of when the trap is set and the arm time on the trap, it's far too easy to dodge the things. Trap Mastery might help, but there's a strong argument for removing the arming time altogether so that we have an easier time using traps. If nothing else, consider it a way of giving us some decent utility outside of drain teams .

The other thing we could use is some help against casters. Now, I admit, before 3.0 came along, we were pretty tough on casting classes. Once I got some good armor penetration, I could tear through a mage's robe like it was made of tissue paper. However, these days, armor penetration has been nerfed quite a bit, and changed to a rating, and my arrows feel just a little bit blunter. In the meantime, those fireballs are hitting as hard as ever, and in a firefight, I have a very strong chance of losing. In this case, I think bringing back the magic resistance that was on Deterrence near the beginning of Beta may be just what the doctor ordered, just to give a Hunter a chance to survive a barrage of spells long enough to do some damage, deploy some crowd control, or duck for cover.

Time Keeps On Slipping...

But regardless of where we're going, we should probably get back to the present and start in on the level grind. Luckily, with new pets, no more shot clipping, and a good supply of Mammoth Cutters or Saronite Razorheads , it should be a breeze. Good Hunting, and I'll see you all in the future.

Wrath of the Lich King Hunter Roundup

So, Wrath of the Lich King is here, and it is awesome . Make sure you have all the tools you need to oil your guns, string your bows, and feed your pets.

Let's take a moment and review all the basic sources of information you can use to help propel your level 70 Hunter into Northrend, on to level 80, and then on to greatness!

GENERAL TIPS

• Scattered Shots offered some basic tips for Hunters getting ready for Northrend, including some suggestions for levelling specs


• There's a few tweak still needed for the sake of Hunters even at release time, but Scattered Shots shows you how to handle those bugs in the mean time .


• Make sure you understand the new defensive setting for pets


• BRK display Green Arrow's oldest trick in Freezing Arrow and a new Wolf .

TALENT TREES

• Take an in depth look at Beastmastery from Scattered Shots


• Don't forget to read BigRedKitty's Patch 3.0.2 Talent tree guide

PETS

• What is the best looking pet ? David Bowers has you covered with a list of the most beautiful critter-killers available.


• Our Beast Mastery and Exotic Pet special features covered some of the specific families you may want to use: Bats , Chimaera , Core Hounds , Devilsaur , Silithid , Spiders , and Worms .


• BigRedKitty takes it a step further with videos of Hunter animals in action: Gorilla(din) , Mammoth (it counts, in BRK's mind), Crocolisk, Bat, and Raptor , the Rhino , the Sporebat, Wind Serpent, and Worm , the Crab, Cat, and Serpent , and everyone's favorite screen-shaker, the Core Hound .


• Yeah, Petopia was updated


• Experimenting with pets is now a little easier, since pets level faster than in Burning Crusade

PROOF OF AWESOME

• How about a Hunter pet tanking Gruul ?