FEROCIOUS INSPIRATIONS

     This post started out a little differently with a lot more explanation on talent point placement.  But that was covered in detail in another excellent article.  I suggest you first read Furrious Raiders: The Ferocious Mk.2 by Slow Wolf before continuing.

NON BM PVE TREE

BM PVE TREE

       Ok so now you're back and you've got a good idea on where to put all those points and why.  We're concentrating this time around on ferocity pets in a PVE environment.  I was hoping for maybe some kind of a debate with this but PVE pet talents are really very straightforward.  As you read in Slow Wolf's post we are a dps machine.  When we're not trap dancing and helping to CC mobs or save the healer, our job is to lay down the damage fast and heavy.  And as you should already know, especially in BM, a good chunk of damage is coming from your pet.  And just like us our pet's have optimal and not so optimal talents.  Now in the article Furrious Raiders: The Ferocious Mk.2 you got a nice full explanation on what your points are doing and why you're putting them there.  Ok so why wouldn't you want the ones left out?
 

• Great Stamina and Natural Armor: At fist glance you'd think "Hell, why wouldn't I want better armor and more stam for my pet? You guys are telling me I need my pet alive!"  Short answer is yeah,  you want to keep your pet up, but the percentage of health and armor gain from wasting points in these talents isn't going to give you the kinds of life saving returns you're hoping for. Certainly the returns you'll get from putting the points in dps talents far outweigh the minimal returns you'd get from these two abilities.   If that tiny extra bit of stam and armor is what is separating your pet from ripping a boss's head off or the pet pushing up daisies then you're in an "oh shit" moment and it's not going to make a difference.  Better to spend those points down the road to maximize your dps.
• The rest of the unused talents, like Slow Wolf mentioned, are geared towards pvp.  Lionhearted, charge etc. none of the unused talents are going to offer ANYTHING beneficial in a PVE environment.   Just mouseover the talent and read 'em carefully and you'll see when something is geared towards stuns, movement impairing etc. it's for pvp.
• Lick your wounds can lick my b*@#s, it's useless and you've already got mend pet.

   
        BM Alert!  Now Heart of the Phoenix is one hell of a talent.  I really want to emphasize this one because you're going to need it and you're going to be happy as a fat kid in a candy shop when you use it.  We've been pushing through content for awhile like nothing could stand in our way, mainly because for awhile, nothing could.  Speed runs were common and healers could keep up with whatever was being dished out.  Well new content has brought us back to heroic wipes and having to think and sometimes struggle a bit.  So I tell you now friends, your pet IS going to die.  But with Heart of the Phoenix you can get him right back up and into the mix.  A dead pet is a big loss for any hunter and HUGE for BM.  You just can't afford to get halfway into a fight and have Fluffy explode and hope to keep your numbers up. Specing BM is so pet dependent you just can't afford to lose your best friend.  Popping this ability isn't the same as revive pet at all, your pet will return instantly (no cast time) with FULL health.  

      The one thing I'd like to add is the use of macros.  Macros are beyond easy to do and you can find tons of useful hunter macros by just doing a hunter macro google search.  Personally I have a macro set up for each individual pet and swap em out depending on the pet, wolf, cat, core hound etc., onto a keybound space.  Here's an example:

#showtooltip Pet Attack

/petattack

/cast Dash

/cast Rabid

/cast Furious Howl

/cast Call of the Wild

/cast Kill Command

 
     Now the first line is pretty standard in any macro the #showtooltip Pet Attack just labels your macro, you can name it what you like.  This one is for my wolf.  It's not something I constantly spam in a fight but gives a nice beginning burst along with your own starter cooldown abilities like rapid fire or beastial wrath.  When you hit it your pet will attack target full speed ahead with dash.  You force furious howl and call of the wild for the extra damage buffs.  And finally, pay attention BM, Kill Command.  Now you will have to hit this button again once the pet gets within melee range of the taget for Kill Command to work but that's fine, for me it frees up a button spot for just Kill Command on it's own.  Even if the other abilities are on cooldown, when Kill Command is up hitting the macro will set it off.   Plus you'll be kicking off the fight with some nice opening burst damage.  Combine this with an explosive trap launched in before the pet and you'll be sitting pretty.  Now certain pets have different abilities such as rabid that you can add in the /cast lines to make that macro specific to that pet.


Now the next installment of the pet talent tree post should be very interesting.   I hope the curious side of you raised and eyebrow at the end of Slow Wolf's post about cunning pets in PVE.  Oh yes they have their uses to be sure.  Remember in my post 3,2,1 Trap! when I talked about the spider and hyena in Lich King fights?  Hmmm, well has blizzard improved some of the cunning pets to do better dps while still keeping some nice pvp abilities that are useful in some fights?  Stay tuned..... MMUUHAHAHAHA!