So if your cat does 25% of your damage ...then going to a bear would be a 4.32% reduction in your overall dps.* I take it this is a horrible thing? I'm asking this because bears are COOL. Not sort of cool but wow I'm awesome.
But I don't want to level up a bear to 70 and get all attached to the bugger only to find out that a 4-5% reduction in dps is amazingly huge. P.S. I'm incredibly for T.C.N.O.H.P.**
Being the incredibly introspective, but not insightful person I am I wonder what other bloggers think my style is....this thought comes from Megan and Matt doing their 'how to blog' posts. I've decided that my personal blogging style is "vacilitate a lot and change subjects and misspell things".
So I shall continue. Vent makes me speak funny. I'm constantly realizing that I haven't thought out my sentences in advance. Also I talk a lot. At least when I type I think about 3 words in advance and don't "UHM" so much. I have a very hard time finding words to fit what I'm trying to say. Ask Abuto, and Ess, and anyone else who has heard me in the last 4 days of having a Mic. I'm grasping for words all of the time. This is something I wish to work on.
Also I have to slow down and speak clearly. Because I mumble a lot and drop the volume towards the end of statements.
Almost level 30. This feels a lot faster than my shaman. So much faster with so much less effort, but looking back on my shaman leveling I notice that I spent a lot of time also working on my warlock....basicly I leveled two toons to 40 before stopping and leveling my shaman to 58. This time I've only done the hunter and it will also be my 4th toon to hit 30...every time it gets easier.
* Based on Mania's site saying bears have -9% dps and cats have +10%
**The Complete Normalization Of Hunter Pets(ie: all pets are the same but just look different)[I'm a warlock at heart you can tell]
3 comments:
A bear is not a bad pet, but it is in most circumstances inferior to a cat. There are three factors that are most important for hunter pets:
1. Focus dump, i.e. claw, gore, lightning breath, screech
2. Speed ability, i.e. dash, dive, charge
3. Base DPS
Armor, health, and other special abilities are not very important. Due to the way pet's gain stats from their owner, BASE armor and health result in only minor differences in TOTAL armor and health. Special abilities can be fun and useful, but you usually have to give up one or more of the three important factors to get a pet with a special ability. For example, a gorilla's Thunder Stomp can be situationally a life saver, but gorillas have no focus dump and no speed ability.
A focus dump is an instant special ability that uses focus as fast as you can generate it. With the talents Beastial Discipline and/or Go for the Throat, your pet can generate a lot of focus. Depending on your spec and gear, a focus dump may add up to 30 or 40% of a pet's total damage. Bears have Claw, which is a great focus dump. Cats can Claw too -- you get the same damage from claw on either pet, but the cat gives you higher base damage to start with, resulting in higher total damage.
Base damage is important but not critical; for example, boars make pretty good pets even though they have low base damage because they can learn Gore and have an incredible speed ability, Charge
Bears can't learn a speed ability. This means they will reach their target slower in PvE, usually not a huge problem. But in PvP, speed is critical.
For PvE, a bear is a decent pet, but under most circumstances will be slightly out-preformed by a cat. For PvP, a cat is unquestionably superior. But if you really want to run with a bear, go for it. It is more important to enjoy your pet than to live with a pet you don't like because it has better stats.
I found it really hard to go from a pet with Dash/Dive to a pet without. You really should try it to see the difference.
You already stated that you know about the difference between the damage output of a Cat/Ravager/Raptor and a Bear. Just decide for yourself if you want to cut your pets damage by 17-19%
Bears are cool looking but that's about as far as it goes. Style points count for something but you have to judge for yourself whether it's worth it.
Dots doesn't have dash yet sadly so I can't compare.
I spent a lot of time thinking about it since I wrote this post(which was a couple days before it posted) and I think I'm going to keep Dots(my leopard).
I imagine that once I'm able to learn/train Dash it will simply be icing on the cake confirming this choice.
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