Depends on how well the Warlock manages his pet, but most of the time it's too far away for any AE to be able to hit it since it's usually on a healer and they don't typically stand on top of the melee DPS since thats asking to be feared or take unneeded damage.

For 3vs3 and 2vs2 if they're attacking your pet chances are nobody else needs heals that urgently that you can't keep the pet up.

Yeah, I dont know why but in my battlegroup so far everyone seems to clump up in a small ball, I think it stems from one group being determined to hold their ground and the other advancing via mount to try and get the "first hit".

Have you noticed if this depends upon the group's makeup? I know that in my 3v3 team which occasionally has a Shaman and Hunter in it, we'll stand on top of each other hoping to catch a melee class in a trap or get them close to the totems.

That really depends, spell lock yes, devour not so much. Setting it on autocast and sticking it on say another warlock essentially strips all their buffs to the point that as soon as nightfall/backlash procs for them it is eaten off before they can use it. Against a priest it strips them of every buff leaving them vunerable to everything you got. Sure eating a fear off is nice but if you are already dotted up chances are its not gonna eat the fear off and simply eat one of the other dots off. You'd be suprised what a difference it makes when halfway through the fight you still have buffs and the other guy doesnt. Unless they are watching it closely the wont reapply and if they do thats just mana they wasted on that instead of dps'ing you. Also not micro managing that aspect of the pup allows you to be more responsive to your dots and overall strat.

Spell lock on the other hand is entirely different and it should be saved. But like I said dont count on eating a fear off when you have four other dots/debuffs on you.

In most arena fights I'll leave devour magic on auto and spell lock on manual. The exception is when its a team that is obviously trying to spam CC my priest, such as a mage + partner combo.

Removing those sheeps can be critical when two dps are going after me and my priest is out of commission due to the CC.

That could be pretty substantial since PVP items are lacking in the hit department.

Especially vs teams with 2+ physical dps.

I've seen a warlock Felhunter spell lock sac him instant summon and spell lock again for 2x spell locks. If that answers your question. Warlock pet abilities reset on summon since its technically a new creature.

Felguard Intercept/sac insta summon intercept etc.

If the other team is busy killing your pet, they're not busy killing one of your teammates.

Takes 1-3 seconds to kill a felhunter. Killing one doesn't exactly take a lot of effort to the point where you are "Busy killing one"

Felhunter lifespans obviously vary wildly. In 5s it may be a waste to keep him out if he's just assist-targeted immediately (though if you took the time to quick summon him somewhere in the middle of the match, the opposing team might forget about/not care about targeting him and he could go do his own thing). I've never really had him targeted in 3s, ever. In 2s, he's frequently gunned after by warriors and rogues. That's where killing the felhunter has a large impact, in my opinion, the smallest bracket where he makes the biggest difference. Like someone said before though, only melee has a reliable chance at killing him, and they'll suffer around -900 ap for their troubles during the effort if the team is on the ball. Combined with the fact that the puppy will have anywhere from 6-9k hp, chain-quality armor, and -15% damage from talents, he can stay up under assault if the healer is aware of him being targeted. He'll be just as "easy" to keep up as the soul linked warlock that commands him, if not more durable. Simply more prone to bursts.

That makes it a lot longer than 1-3 seconds. And those are times when the warlock is free to harass and run amok. And that's bad.

I had a match where the other team wasted like 15 seconds or so trying to kill my felhunter, our paladin could barely heal through their dps (but he could!), though in the end he just BoP'd it lol, I bet they didn't see that coming.

But yeah, a 5v5'buffed and properly specced felhunter is very durable.