by Durok » Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:26 pm
The best tank pet is a bear. I used one from level 10-52. That thing could hold aggro better than most tanks, and it absorbed damage extremely well. It has the most hit points of any pet in the game, and only the turtle has higher mitigation. While it is true that a turtle can absorb slightly more physical damage, the bear does better absorbing spell or mixed damage, and the bears claws give it some nice first-contact aggro that the turtle lacks.
The best DPS pet is a cat. I used one from 52-60. Simply stated, the cat does about 20% more DPS, which means about 10% more aggro (growl aggro is about half of pet aggro and would be the same in both cases). I picked up the cat to use in groups for DPS when there already was a tank. The next closest DPS pet is a raptor, but when comparing DPS "best" is very straightforward.
I switched because my (mark speced) DPS got so high that the bear was sometimes having trouble holding aggro, the little bit of extra damge the cat did made a significant difference. When soloing, I generally killed the mobs with plently of health left on the bear or cat, so their total hitpoints was generally irrelevant, and the bears mitigation was only a few percent better.
Right now, I have the cat at 60. I am waiting for a chance to pick up a warg to learn bite8, then I'll pick up a 58 bear to level up to 60 so I have a tank option in the stable. And I am levling up a Snarler (currently 45) to have a resist pet for raids.
Hope this helps!
- Durokk
Level 60 Hunter on Stormrage server