Update: Now with Zul'Aman bosses!

Table of contents:

Introduction
Controlling your pet
Choosing a good raid pet
- Cats and ravagers
- Owls and Bats
- Wind Serpents
- Scorpids
- Wolves
Talents
Raiding encounters
- Karazhan
- Gruul’s Lair
- Magtheridon’s Lair
- World bosses
- Zul'Aman
- Serpentshrine Cavern
- Tempest Keep
- Mount Hyjal
- Black Temple
Feedback, flaming, questions and the author

***Introduction***
A long, long time ago, even before I played a hunter, I would team up with hunters in parties. They would be doing damage, and all that they were supposed to, yet I would notice that most didn't use their pet. When I asked them why, they said the pet didn't do much damage. My theory has always been that all damage, even the slightest bit, would be beneficial, and concluded that the lack of pets was either because the pet was at danger of dying or that it was hard to control. Granted, before The Burning Crusade, pets were much less strong than they are now, but I still hold on to the claim that using the pet is always beneficial, no matter the spec - even in raids.

This guide is all about raiding, and is mostly aimed for beast mastery hunters, although a hunter with any spec should try and keep his or her pet active and healthy for as long as possible. But since beast mastery hunters rely on their pet, and many seem to spec away from beast mastery for fear of losing their damage when their pet dies, it's important for a beast master to know what to do and what to expect in raids.

This guide will provide tips and tricks to keep your pet, and thus your contribution to the raid, up.

***Controlling your pet***

There are many means for which hunters can control their pets. Some use key bindings, some use macros. Of the popular macros there are the classic hunters mark/pet attack macro, but I personally feel it limits me when I want to do either one of those. But in the spirit of teaching, here it is anyways:

/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack

Instead of this, I prefer to use key bindings. Two simple buttons: Q and E. My "Pet Attack" key binding (default is shift + T) is bound to Q, and my hunter's mark is bound to E, meaning every time I want to attack something, I press those buttons simultaneously, and the pet runs off while I apply hunters mark. I can then proceed to use whatever skill I want after that, and if I should want to make my pet attack something else, I can quickly send it to that target without losing my hunter's mark on the first. Use whatever method you prefer to, but remember that it is important that you are able to keep your pet completely under control during a raid.

Positioning is also fairly important. At no point should your pet be attacking a boss from the front. Not only does this put your pet in the line for some heavy beating, it also means that the boss can parry an attack from your pet, reset his auto attack, and chain-hit your tank for normal damage instantly after each parry. In patch 2.3, pets will always try to get behind monsters that they are not tanking themselves.

***Choosing a good raid pet***

There are many pets out there, and lots of fun ways to use them, but not all are great for raiding. If you are new to raiding, you a probably best off by getting a pet that focuses on DPS (cats, ravagers etc) rather than utility (owls, wolves etc) rather than that cool looking bear. Here is a list of pets that I would recommend for raiding:

Cats, raptors and ravagers: High in damage, these pets are often the prime choice for hunters. They can learn high damage skills as well as dash, and have a lot of cool and unique skins.

Owls and bats: Although we don’t see many bats and owls in Outland, they can still be a good choice for damage and utility. Both have the ability "Screech" which does somewhat low damage, but lowers attack power of all enemies in melee range by up to 210, which is a considerable amount. You might drop a tiny bit in damage, but 210 attack power off an enemy is still significant.

Wind Serpent: Though the wind serpent is past its glory days, it’s still a viable pet for some hunters. A survival hunter combined with "Go for the throat" talent, will cause your pet to spew out lightning breath like it was born to, and will rack up the damage quite nicely. Sadly it falls behind on fights where the enemies have a lot of nature resistance.

Scorpids: Scorpids has been a good alternative for beast mastery hunters because of the neat "bug" concerning their scorpid poison. This has been fixed in patch 2.2, yet it is still a malicious little pet. If you want to use a scorpid, pop all trinkets and bestial wrath before it applies the first poison and the strong effect gained from this will stick on the target as long as the scorpid can reapply it.

Wolves: Although the damage from wolves is lower than that of cats and ravagers, some might find its ability "Furious howl" a nice treat. Furious howl, which is on a 10 second cooldown, increases the damage of nearby party member’s next physical attack by 45-57 damage, which is effectively another 5 DPS for each melee in your raid. You will most likely not be in range for the buff, however.

***Talents***

There are tons of good suggestions for raid specs on the various forums all around, so I am not going to post suggestions of my own. I am, however, going to name some key talents to pick if you are speccing beast mastery:

Improved revive pet: If you are a beast master, and your pet dies, you lose about 35% of your total DPS. You need to get it up again fast.
Improved mend pet: Cheaper healing and an easy way to clean your pet from that nasty poison.
Frenzy: A pet with frenzy as well as serpent’s swiftness and cobra reflexes will attack incredibly fast, which is also nice for the next talent.
Ferocious inspiration: 3% more damage to all of your party members is arguably one of the best buffs out there. It scales perfectly, and increases not only the damage of you and your pet, but also your party members. With a fast attacking pet, this will be up most of the time, giving you a great damage boost.

For most fights, massive resistance on your pet is not needed.

***Raiding encounters***

Here follows the main point of this guide - the raid encounters you will meet on your way to defeat the mighty Illidan and what you should expect to do to keep little Fluffy alive. This is based largely on my own experience, and of tips from other hunters.

***Karazhan***
The Tower of Medivh, and the first raid instance you will meet. One some encounters, arcane resistance will help your pet survive. This is fights such as The Curator and Shade of Aran, but it shouldn't be too hard keeping your pet alive without any resistance talents.

Attumen the Huntsman
Pet danger: None
Boss notes: This is a pretty straight forward fight. The only time you have to call your pet back is when Attumen jumps his mighty steed, in which case he will clear all aggro, putting your pet in a vulnerable spot. Just call your pet back, wait until the tank has a bit of aggro, and send it back in to rip Attumen to pieces.

Moroes
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: From time to time, Moroes will vanish and garrotte a member of your raid, and sadly, Mittens can be a target of this. You won’t be able to keep your pet up with mend pet, and your healers are sure to neglect your pet altogether and see it as a free card. I tend to sacrifice my pet and then resurrect it unless the boss is nearly down.

Maiden of Virtue
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet will be a benefit here, but it will take damage. Maiden's AOE damage, which affects all melee, is spread out among the people that are affected by it, meaning your pet will lower the damage even more. With Avoidance rank 2 and a mend pet once in a while, you will have no problem keeping your pet alive.

The Curator
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: While Curator doesn't pose a threat to Barney, the Astral Sparks that he summons are very dangerous. Not only will they target your pet, but your pet will also chain the lightning to other members, and your pet will be at high risk when killing the sparks. I suggest leaving your pet at the door, and only send it in to damage Curator during his evocation. Other people prefer to stick the pet on Curator for the duration of the fight, but beware that your pet will take at least one hit from each Astral Spark when it spawns.

Terestian Illhoof
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: While this boss is more or less safe for your pet, you might see it aggro Illhoof's imp if its tank isn't fast enough. Once in a while your pet will also take a hit from a small imp, but that damage is hardly anything to note.

Shade of Aran
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Aran can be a nasty old bugger if you don't keep your pet under control. When he teleports you to him, just before an arcane explosion, you must be sure to drag your pet along as you run to the wall, or your pet will surely take a lot of damage. When he does blizzard, you should recall your pet for a second or two while you dodge it yourself, which will position your pet on the same side of Aran as you, and usually keep it out of harms way. Your pet can move freely when Aran does flame wrath, as it will not trigger the explosion.

Netherspite
Pet danger: None
Boss notes: Surprisingly, your pet won’t take any damage on this fight at all. He isn't affected by the constant damage, and can even stand in the black pools of death without being hurt.

Prince Malchezaar
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: While your pet won’t be affected by Enfeeble, it will be hit by his Shadow Nova, but with Avoidance rank 2, your pet will only take 1500 damage. The only other thing you have to look out for then, is the infernal spawns - your tank might not be in range of their fire AOE, but your pet might, so keep and eye out for that and reposition if needed.

Nightbane
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Unless you manage to get your pet behind Nightbane, you won’t have to worry about it getting hit by Nightbane's tail. You should move your pet out of the Charred Earth, as it will do some 400 DPS to your pet, which can burn the fur and give you a cranky pet. When Nightbane goes up into the air, be sure to notice that he can target your pet with Rain of Bones. Park it away from the main group if this happens, and throw it a mend pet.

***Gruuls Lair***
Gruul's Lair is fairly safe for your pet. No special resistances should be needed.

Maulgar & Co.
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: As a hunter, you will probably be charged with tanking the shaman. Be sure to not send your pet to attack him, however, as this will trigger his AOE attack and knock you back, as well as damaging your pet. Send it to another target instead. Your pet should also keep far away from the mage, and you should have a timer (such as Deadly Boss Mods) to show you when Maulgar will do whirlwind, and get your pet out a few seconds before.

Gruul the Dragonkiller
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet will not trigger shatter on other players, but it is affected by cave-ins. Usually a mend pet will take short notice of that, but you should watch out for several cave-ins on the melee, and compensate for that - Skip wont hold out long after a few of those.

***Magtheridon's Lair***
Magtheridon's Lair is fairly safe for your pet. No special resistances should be needed.

Magtheridon
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: When doing the 5 channelers, your pet may be damaged by a stray shadow bolt volley or infernal. When Magtheridon is released, your only pet concern is to make sure that Fang is behind him, and to keep him clear of the fire that will erupt on the floor.

***World Bosses***
There are quite a lot of world bosses on Azeroth, but only two in Outland. Both are fairly safe for your pet.

Doom Lord Kazzak
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: Consider your pet a rogue on this fight. He should be attacking Kazzak from behind, but your tank should turn Kazzak around anyways. When Kazzak does his shadowbolt volley, be sure to have mend pet up. It is considered an AOE attack, so Avoidence will lower the damage, but your pet will still take up to 7.000 damage. It should be able to survive that, at least with a mend pet on, and if you are afraid that you will get a second volley, keep mend pet up all the time after the first.

Confirmation needed: If your pet dies, it will not heal Kazzak. (?)

Doomwalker
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Your pet will be damaged by his earthquake for a total of 4.000 damage, and it will also help chaining the chain lightning which hits your pet for around 1.000 damage. There is a good chance of your pet getting smashed, but you should still use it for as long as you can, and keep mend pet up when its alive, especially if you are a beast master, so you can take advantage of beastial wrath.

***Zul'Aman***
Ya mon, da Zul's are back in da town. No signifigant resistences seem to be needed here.

Please note that i havent had much time to test Zul'Aman on the PTR. Much of this is gathered from WoWwiki and Elitist Jerks, and the rest is guesses on how Blizzard would normally code the fight. Corrections will be made accordingly.

Nalorakk
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: This is a very easy fight. As long as you make sure that your pet is behind Nalorakk, you shouldn't be concerned about it. Then again, when wouldn't your pet be behind him?

Akil'Zon
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet should be relatively safe here. I will need some confirmation, but i don't think your pet will be affected if it is not under the cloud when Akil'Zon does Electrical Storm. If you notice your pet getting hit, be sure to call it back and try to position it on top of the little shadow from the cloud, set it on stay and stand on it yourself.

Jan'Alai
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Your pet will take damage from the fire bombs, so be sure to keep your pet topped off constantly. Your pet might take some damage from his Flame Breath, but this will only be about 2,5k at most, so you shouldn't worry too much about that.

Halazzi
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: You don't want your pet to take a lash from Halazzi, but then again, you never want your pet to be attacking from the front. The only real danger here is the corrupted lightning totem, that can chain to and through your pet, damaging it for about 2,5k damage whenever it's hit. A mend pet should be enough to keep your pet alive and healthy.

Hex Lord Malacrass
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only danger here, would be if your pet aggros one of his adds. Don't worry about that.

Zun'jin
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Generally in this fight, you must remember that he clears his threat at the start of each phase. He changes phases every 20% of his hp. In phase 1, you should be ready to call your pet back so it doesn't get pounded. Phase 2 is safe for your pet, but it might catch a tornado in phase 3, dealing about 500 damage to your pet. Phase 4 offers yet another - though weaker - whirlwind, and the rest after that is cake.

***Serpentshrine Cavern***
Serpentshrine Cavern has a lot of nature based attacks and some bosses uses frost attacks aswell. If you find that you are stilling having problems keeping your pet up on some encounters, spending a few points getting nature and frost resistance up could be a solution.

Hydross the Unstable
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet wont be tombed, and he is usually safe on this encounter. However, since Hydross resets aggro at each transition, you should call your pet back before he changes, and don't send it in before the tanks have aggro on him again.

The Lurker Below
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only attack that your pet is in danger of is whirl, which can be healed easily, and a cleave from a stray add when Lurker goes down underwater. You should position your pet to stay on the outer edge of the circle around Lurker, and just send it to attack when he emerges. When Lurker submerges, your pet will run back to his spot and wait there. Don't recall the pet, since that will cause it to teleport to the outer islands where you will probably be standing, and it wont be able to run back again, meaning you have to spend time on repositioning it.

Leotheras the Blind
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Leo clears his aggro at every switch and after every whirlwind, meaning your pet will be moving a lot. You should call it back a few seconds before each phase transition, and about 5 seconds before a whirlwind. Even worse, if you should happen to get an inner demon, you will be mind controlled if your pet gets the finishing blow - this applies to snakes as well, if you are using snake trap to get over your internal struggles.

Fathom-Lord Karathress
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet can take a hit from a stray enemy pet, the whirlwind or the Spitfire Totem, but it's not much to worry about.

Morogrim Tidewalker
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only thing you should worry about here is to make sure your pet is behind Morogrim and out of the way of his little bubbles when you get him to 20%. Recalling him for a few seconds as you reposition and sending him back in will take care of that.

Lady Vashj
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Although high sounds a bit ominous, it might be a bit drastic to mark it as such. Your pet cannot get static charge, but it can be damaged by nearby raid members that have it. It will also be hit by Vashj's forked lightning, as well as the poison attack from a Tainted Elemental, and the poison on the ground from the Spore Bats. Watch out for that health, and keep your pet far away from any striders or nagas that can hit it.

***Tempest Keep***
Lots of fire and arcane mobs - heck, nearly all mobs here have some sort of magic spell that can rip your ravager to ribbons if you are not carefull. If Tumbler dies too often, consider training some fire/arcane resistance on him.

Al'ar
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Lots of things going on here, some which can instantly kill your pet. When Al'ar switches places, your pet might get aggro if it attacks straight away, and trust me, your pet can't hold up to the mighty phoenix. You might want to stop your pet as its running to a new position, just to give the tank some time to gain a bit of aggro. When Al'ar does his Fire Quill, be sure to recall your pet. When you get into Phase 2, you are probably best off dismissing or sacrificing your pet. It can be targeted for flame patch, which can hurt your tanks, it can be blown away by the phoenixes as your raid kills them, and it can be smashed by a meteor. Don’t let Wolfie die!

Void Reaver
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: While your pet wont be targeted for an arcane orb, it will be hit by pounding, doing around 2700 damage over 3 seconds to a pet with avoidance, every 15 seconds. A mend pet is usually enough to keep your pet up but you might want to recall it if it gets dangerously low on health. Be sure to make sure your pet is on the same side of Void Reaver as you are, so it is in range of mend pet and kill commands.

High Astromancer Solarian
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet can be targeted for arcane missiles, but is otherwise pretty safe in this fight. Wrath of the Astromancer was changed in 2.2, and is no longer a risk to your pet.

Confirmation needed: Im truly not sure. I did TK last week, and my pet didnt get targeted by wrath, and i cant imagine that the spell has been designed to blow your pet up into the air, but if somebody has seen otherwise, please let me know.

Kael'thas Sunstrider
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Boy, Tempest Keep isn't a very pet-friendly place, and the fight against Kael is no different. Your pet *can* attack Thaladred the Darkener, but is in risk of getting a nasty rend on him. Your pet can go all out on Lord Sanguinar, but not on Grand Astromancer Capernian. It might help the raid on Master Engineer Telonicus, as it can be the recipient of remote toy. When the weapons spawn, keep it clear of the bow, and make sure that your pet attacks the shield from behind, which is actually the "outer" side of the shield. Steer your pet away from any AOE'ing phoenix', and at gravity lapse, be sure to recall your pet. If it keeps attacking Kael, it will die from the clouds around him.

***Mount Hyjal***
We travel back in time, to meet up with a lot of old friends. Shadow resistence can be helpfull, but it is not overly needed. Fire resistence can help aswell, but if your pet is caught in a fire attack, it wont matter much in the long run.

Rage Winterchill
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: On the waves before Rage Winterchill, keep your pet away from those nasty abominations. When fighting Rage Winterchill himself, make sure your pet isn't standing in the Death & Decay (red bubbles) but that shouldn't be a surprise.

Anetheron
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet is pretty much safe here. It will take hits from Carrion Swarm (which is migraded by Avoidence), but it wont be that difficult to keep it up. The only real threat would be AoE from the Towering Infernals if it would happend to spawn near the pet. Whiskers will not be targeted by the infernal spawn.

Kaz'rogal
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: This is a pretty straight forward fight, at least for your pet. Make sure that your pet stays behind Kaz'rogal to avoid his cleave, and you should be in the clear.

Azgalor
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Azgalor's Rain of Fire will be the big issue here. Azgalor will target a random raid member and rain down fire (hence the name, her her her). In addition to the initial damage, it will place a dot on the target dealing some 1700 damage each second for five seconds, meaning your pet will take a total of 4250 damage from the dot. Your main priority should be to pull the pet out of Rain of Fire if it is cast on melee, and start mending. Your pet shouldnt be in any of the danger spots unless it has at least 50-75% hp and has a mend pet ticking on it. I suggest recalling it and keeping it near you until its healed, or until you have gotten a feel for the fight. Be sure to stand at max range so your are unlikely to get rain of fire while your pet is standing next to you. We wouldnt want Whiskers to be hit by another rain of fire when he runs to you, would we?

Archimonde
Pet danger: Insanely super humongusly high
Boss notes: Roll a dice. If you roll a six, you have probably wasted what little luck you had of keeping your pet alive on this fight. If you are a BM hunter, improved revive pet, and improved mend pet is a must here. The danger comes from Doomfire, a spell that Archimonde loves to use, and does so frequently. If your pet is hit by this, it will take 1200 damage, and a non dispellable dot that deals 20400 damage over the next 45 seconds.* Your pet will surely die from this, so if you are dependant on your pet, be sure to get it ressed again. Improved Mend Pet cant dispell the doomfire dot, but it can dispel Grip of the Legion, an attack that does 250,000 damage over 5 minutes. Your pet wont grant Archimonde a soul charge if it dies, but it will take damage once he uses that (2000-2500 damage).

* I am going to assume that the Doomfire is an area of effect attack, and thus lowered by avoidence, but the dot probably is not, so your pet will take the full damage. Confirmation on this is needed.

***Black Temple***
You made it. You are finally here. Illidan is cowering in his little castle, and you come in at him hard, from the sewers. If you made it this far, then congratulations!

Some of the fights in The Black Temple can be punishing for your pet. If you want to ease your stress a bit, pump your pet full of shadow resistence and perhaps a bit of frost.

High Warlord Naj'entus[/b]
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet can take damage if it's standing next to somebody getting hit by a needle spine explosion, and it will take 4250 damage when his Tidal Shield is broken. Two mend pets should be enough to get it back to full health most of the time.

Supremus
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet will be completely safe during phase 1, unless your offtanks are sleeping and your pet pulls aggro - which it wont. Suprisingly, the scary blue flames will not hurt your pet at all. When he goes into phase 2, however, thats an all different matter. Your pet will take damage from the volcanos that spawn, but while your pet will never be gazed, he will be killed if Supremus charges someone. For some reason, he does some AoE damage whenever he charges to a new target (if that target is within 40 yard range), which is sure to make short process of the pet. Keep him at your side in phase 2, and let him go all out in phase 1.

Shade of Akama
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: If you are in one of the groups taking care of the Spiritbinders, Elementalists and Rogues, your pet might take aggro on one of them and get hurt, but if your tank is fast enough it shouldnt be a problem. I suspect that the pet might be able to tank the Spiritbinder while it gets burned down, which would let the tank build aggro on the Elementalist and the rogue - that all depends on what your kill order is, naturally.

Teron Gorefiend
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: This fight has a lot of factors and sadly, you cant control any of them. Your pet can be attacked by the blossoms, but it seems that it is safe for the Incinerate. Your pet can also be a target for the Shadowy Construct, but that is more of a blessing than a curse. Seeing how a Shadowy Construct severely gimps your group, it's better that a pet dies to it than a raid member. If you get Shadow of Death, keep your pet attacking while you run away and wait for your doom - your pet will despawn perfectly as you die, so your pet bar is free to display the ghost abilities.

Gurtogg Bloodboil
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Gurtogg Bloodboil is a nasty boss, that has a lot of area, cone and cleave attacks, and your pet can suffer most of them. In an ideal world, your pet wouldnt have to take any damage at all, but the world is hardly ideal. Gurtogg Bloodboil is most dangerous in phase 1, so if you want to use your pet you have to plan ahead a bit. After a few tries you should see where your main tanks are tanking him, and in what direction he is facing. Then you have to make your pet idle so that when your tanks has aggro, your pet is directly behind him. About 5 seconds before he changes to phase 2, you should click passive on your pet bar, which will make it run back to the spot you assigned to it. This is a dangerous spot aswell, though, and your pet might be hit by both acid and geysers while Gurtogg Bloodboil runs for his target in phase 2. A much safer way is to have your pet by your side in phase 1 - or at least standing in the caster group since it shouldnt move with you when you move out to take the bloodboil. This will lower your damage output, but allow you to keep your pet up for longer if you are having problems. Be aware to make your pet stay at his original spot if you get Fel Rage. If your pet is standing next to you when you are tanking Gurtogg Bloodboil, it will surely die.

Reliquary of Souls
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Nothing to worry about here. Yoshi is completely safe here.

Mother Shahraz
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: While your pet won't ever be teleported, it can very well be damaged by people that are teleported to it. Your pet can also be the target for one of Mothers dots, so all in all a bit of shadow resistence helps out here. Be quick with your mend pet as soon as you see your pet taking damage.

Illidari Council
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only danger here is AOE damage. If your pet is standing in an area that is currently rained with enemy AOE, call it back, throw it a mend pet and send it right back in once it's healed up.

Illidan
Pet danger: ???
Boss notes: Still to come :)

Feedback, flaming, questions and the author

I will try to update this guide as often as possibly, fill in the blanks and add more information as the game evolves. I hope you found a few tips, and that the guide has helped you just a little bit.

If you have comments, feel free to post them here :)

Reporting for Sticky

Reported for reporti... oh wait! :P

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Q u o t e:
Reported for reporti... oh wait! :P

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=D very informative guide for pets for each boss. the "danger" part for each boss also seems to fit good.

Reported for sticky bacon!

on curator send your pet in on curator and leave him there, chuck him the occasional mend pet, the sparks almost always come for me anyway (no idea why, I thought it was random initially but i know i have no luck :P) even if they go for pet once their non aggro times are up they aggro highest threat anyway which is going to be anyone but your pet :)

on illhoof / netherspite I don't think my pets ever died on either, nice fights for pets both of those.

shade is nasty, as mm spec my pet doesnt have the hps to last if shade decides to focus on him and mend pet cant handle the hits of an arcane volley if its following up one of his frostbolts, some people respec pets before specific raids for resistance and it does seem to make a difference if you can afford to do it everytime.

One place to be very careful in kara is when fighting the nasty mobs before you get to prince, two of them overlapping their frontal melee cone attacks will tear your pet up fast and even one is tough to heal with mend pet as they do it constantly. Try and position pet behind the mob and hope your tanks position them away from each other (ofc that should be a given)

In TK again watch out for your pet when taking the large mob groups at the start as the melee likes his whirlwinds, same applies in SSC.

On voidreaver I've heard arcane resistance really does help your pet survive, personally I just wait till hes low then pull him out let him tick a few mend pets and send him back in (better yet when SP is in group i just wait till vampiric has regenned him)

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Q u o t e:
On voidreaver I've heard arcane resistance really does help your pet survive

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It does, but its usually not a problem to keep the pet up anyways. Im against having to respec pets for different raids, and i dont really want to keep several pets for different raids - if it can be avoided, ill spend my pets otherwise :)

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Q u o t e:
on curator send your pet in on curator and leave him there, chuck him the occasional mend pet.

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ye thats the only thing i would want to be changed :)

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Q u o t e:


ye thats the only thing i would want to be changed :)

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It really depends on how lucky you are with sparks. If your pet is unlucky, it will take massive damage from the sparks, and then id rather keep it out of the fight until evocation.

EDIT: Never the less, i have added your tactics to the curator.

Won't a BM pet be targetted by hateful bolt if you set him on the curator?

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Q u o t e:
Won't a BM pet be targetted by hateful bolt if you set him on the curator?

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Nah, it shouldnt take aggro over the offtank - if it does, you are either running with growl on, or your offtank sucks :P

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Q u o t e:
Second boss in hyjal is quite friendly for pets. Your pet should be able to survive 2 aoe things, and I don't think your pet can be targetted for the infernal. The waves before are the same mob wise as before, iirc.

The third boss is the most pet friendly out of the 4 first. No danger at all.
On the trash we had a hunter tanking the frost wyrms and when you're tanking them you can't have your pet next to you since the wyrm does aoe frostbolts if someone is near the tank. You can either send your pet away to dps another mob, or set it attack the wyrm from behind (this works if your pet is attacking the wyrm from far away of you, so you need to be at max range from the wyrm)

The fourth boss hates pets. The aoe is huge aswell as the dmg from it. Your pet might be better off standing next to you just so you can get tbw for dmg. You can also send it to the demons once the ot/s have enough aggro to get ferocious inspiration.


We only did hyjal one week, and that is the little I picked up :P I might remember sumtin wrong, but emm.. yea.

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Thank you - ill take your tips into consideration once i check them up :P

if your pet beats the offtanks aggro then sack the offtank :D (we normally use a warlock and it would be embarressing for him if he lost out to a pet ! ) .

Ive never seen my pet take repeated spark damage I must admit. Normally theres only one spark up at any point, but thats just about raids dps, a lower dps raid and yep maybe your pet could start taking multiple sparks so does depend on your raidforce.

About the curator fight. I wouldnt sugest to keep your pet safe if your guild is on progress and are at curator. Pets, especialy BM pets can help out at this fight alot. Pets with high arcane resistance will absorb a decent chunk of the damage without lots of heals and will help keep the sparks in possition so that melee can dps easily and casters dont get interrupts. Mend pet + druid hots here and there will save lots of healers mana when tanking sparks with pet.

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Q u o t e:
Maulgar & Co.
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: As a hunter, you will probably be charged with tanking the shaman. Be sure to not send your pet to attack him, however, as this will trigger his AOE attack and knock you back, as well as damaging your pet.

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You might want to rephrase that as it seems like you've confused the shaman and the mage. The shaman will largely ignore the pet and focus on you so you can safely leave pet there. Its the mage who is the real bane of all melee, including pets.

Mains issues to watch out for:

- Maulgar's whirlwind attack.
- Your pets pathing as you send it to attack something while the mage is still alive. Safest bet is to keep it next to you untill the mage is dead.

For the curator fight:

You can best stick it on the curator for the entire fight, sure it will take a few hits but thats nothing that can't be healed with a mend pet or 2 parts of the T5 set. You dont want pet on sparks as you indicated.

Lurker Below:

Sometimes the MT and OT are knocked back and your pet becomes the Lurkers new meal. Insta gibbed dead pet. While you can send it in and out I personally leave it on the ring so I can still use my BM abilities and gain the benefits (2% extra dmg, spirit bond). Your choice.

Al' ar:
Phase 1: either keep it with you or send it to kill adds. Be sure to recall at about 15-20% as to avoid the explosion.
Phase 2: you can stick it on al' ar (worked for me). Just be sure to recall it once Al'ar ascends to become a meteor as your pet with just stay put looking stupid. If you leave it standing there it will be the target for a flame patch.. and thus be bbq'd. Its quite a bit of control but you'll manage :)


I skipped imp revive pet, its really a matter of choice though as you generally want to do all you can to avoid losing your pet :) Knowing the fights and what to do should go a long way in preserving your pet, hence 2 thumbs up for the guide.