Pet related, but not exactly pet management question.

Does a crab's 'pin' ability prevent the pinned target from turning as well as moving? Or can they still spin in place?

Just leveled up a crab for pvp purposes and I'm wondering if pin might allow me to run to a postion of advantage.

Thank you.

@seridosgunner: That build is viable for any ferocity pet. The only reason not to use it would be if your gear was so low that 3% pet damage (Shark Attack) produced greater total DPS than Wild Hunt. But if that was the case it really wouldn't matter anyway as you would not likely be going end-game content.

If you're still uncertain, use the spreadsheet to model the difference between the two pet specs (holding everything else constant).

I'm curious to know what you think about Moth for a MM. I know this ain't the best pet, but this hunter is my alt (so I'm not on progressing raid and such) and I really don't want have the same pet than everyone else.

The Moth has been considered several times for solid Ferocity pets. It won't be the best, but it will definately be a very solid choice. It's ability isn't going to go off on it's own however (unless it has taken a certain amount of damage), so you would be well adviced to macro it into Steady Shot and/or other shots/abilities you use a lot.

It's a good pet for the less petreliant specs if we are only talking an alt. If you are serious about your best performance it will not be up there, but still within what I would consider acceptable limits for non-BM.

If you really want to have a unique pet than just go for it. No one is going to stop you. However, a wolf is much better choice as an MM because it will increase your DPS. Remembers Your DPS > Your Pets DPS. Unless your a BM.

For Mimiron hardmode, I had some trouble with keeping my pet alive (a lot actually). I started using this macro:

/petpassive
/cast dash

Then if you turn dash autocast off, it should be up for every single shock blast. With dash up, your pet comes back to you almost instantly (roughly 1 sec), and without dash, you need to react very quickly in order for your pet to survive, especially if the tank is in a bad position relative to you. Just make sure you don't accidentally hit the macro and put dash on cooldown when you don't need it.

In P2, all I did was make sure my pet wasn't in the path of a laser barrage and pulled him back if there was excessive fire.

P3 is pretty easy. Just make sure your pet doesn't stand in fire, and make sure he's alive for when the head comes down. You really need as much deeps as possible at that point.

In P4, you're going to want to focus the base so you can see when it's casting shock blast. There's an extremely good chance you're pet will die in this phase, but there's really not much you can do about it.

Simply use master's call each time you want it back fast. Usually it'll be up next shock blast. Although in fairness your pet doesn't need dash or master's call to get back in time if you're actually watching for shock blast (its on a timer so hard to miss).

Using Master's Call is an interesting idea, but the cooldown is too long and it has a maximum range. Shock blast is casted every 30-35 seconds and Master's Call is on a 60 second cooldown whereas Dash will be up 100% guaranteed. The reaction time required is also significantly faster without dash, and I did find my pet dying in the early attempts when dash was still on cooldown.

There is a DBM option, that isn't selected on default, that will give an audio warning(Run away little girl!) for Shock Blast. Hit passive as soon as you hear this warning and your good whether dash is up or not. Then send your pet back in as soon as its finished.

There is no reason for your pet to die in phase 1 ever unless you are not paying attention. There are several cues that you can use for Shock Blast. The first is the charge building up shown by lightning around him. If you pull your pet out then, even w/o dash or master's call, it will be out in plenty of time. I also use DBM and watch the timer for Shock Blast so that I know when it is coming and can be ready to call my pet back.

Not always though, if he is not being tanked completely stationary your pet can sometimes reposition and end up on the other side. Even if you spot the shock blast being cast almost instantaneously, it will not make it in time without dash. So it's a good idea when you think shock blast is incoming soon to check and see if your pet is on your side. If not, pull it back and re-engage it when it comes to your side.

I tried a special pet spec similar to that as well, but I found that it made very little difference. Napalm will still own your pet regardless of the 10% reduced fire damage and little bit of stamina. I eventually just speced my pet back to a full dps spec. After 200+ attempts, you become really good at keeping your pet alive, even throughout p4.

As for the others who've posted that you don't need a dash macro, it's a little bit easier to concentrate on shock blast when you're not kiting doomfire. When you're trying to stack the doomfire in a neat little pile, you can sometimes get distracted.

I tried to call my pet back to me for shock blast, but I found my pet would end up dying to someone running over a mine or my pet running through an unlucky napalm. I decided to try to keep him on the boss and he could absorb the blast and healed himself up through talents and Seal of light before the next blast.

Edit: I've only tried this on 25 Man normal and 10 hardmode.

Does anyone know if there has been any kind of detailed analysis between Cunning and Ferocity? My hunter alt has had a Wind Serpent for ages and ages - it would be great to see some numbers to see if it's at all viable outside of soloing, like for heroics. I do plan on getting her a wolf for endgame content, but her gear is questing greens/blues right now...
I am beginning to do a little bit of analysis myself, but I figure why repeat what has already been done? (That is, if it already has been done!)

I use a Devilsaur since I'm a BM hunter, and they look sweet (although I had to have the help of an 80 hunter to frost trap him long enough), and I use Bloodthirsty through Lick Your Wounds. I am still leveling to 80, but are those pet talents considered worthless after you're 80, for Raid environments mostly?

I really love not having to feed my pet (although the phoenix talent has NEVER gone off for me... not that I usually need it, but is it not an ability that can be autocast?), so I'd really like to not have to while raiding.

The standard, non-BM raid build for a ferocity pet includes 1 point in Bloodthirsty, mostly because there is nowhere better to put it, although its effects are handy. The extra 4 points in a BM build are best put to use filling out Shark Attack in addition to Wild Hunt, leaving one floater point to either fill out Bloodthirsty or take charge or boar's speed.

You shouldn't need Heart of the Phoenix or Lick Your Wounds in a raid setting with vaguely competent healing. If you're worried about it though, take the points from Shark Attack to fill out those talents.

As far as I know, Spirit Strike is considered a spell. Which means it uses spell hit, which is 17% rather than the 8% for normal hits. If you're hit-capped against the target, that'll result in roughly one out of 10 spirit strikes missing, thus burning focus on doing nothing. Which isn't happening with it off, letting the focus dump gobble it all up. You're also not shooting yourself, so you are effectively also starving your pet for focus, which amplifies this problem. You might also be having problems with resists, but I'm not sure about that part of it, so someone else should weight in on that.

Switching specs currently does reset the Call Stabled Pet cool down.

Has anyone else had a problem with their pet not being able to attack XT's heart post patch? Found a work around?

Yes, I had to switch him from passive to defensive in order to get him to attack again.

This should no longer be true in 3.2. I did tests on the PTR while just at the hit cap, and Spirit Strike wouldn't miss on the heroic dummy. Pre-3.2, it would, however. So turning on Spirit Strike should be a dps increase now.

I have read somewhere in the patch note that wolf's Furious Howl is fixed to not provide a higher boost than it is intended. Is this just a tooltip fix or an attempt to dethrone wolf from the pet that provides highest overall DPS to the hunter?