After taming The Razza and letting him spread his wings in a few BGs, I was off to Tanaris to gather my next PvP pet experiment. My target… Harakiss the Infestor.
I decided to go after Harakiss the Infestor because he’s rare and unusual looking. Harakiss shares the blue ‘brain bug’ model with only one other tamable Silithid in the game – Princess Yauj in Ahn’Qiraj.
Harakiss patrols throughout the Gaping Chasm in southeastern Tanaris. I used a /tar Harakiss macro to get a bead on him once I was near the Chasm. He’s not difficult to spot though… Harakiss patrols above ground, is bright blue and freaking huge. You don’t really need to go hunting for him. If he’s out, you’ll see him within a few seconds of flying over the Gaping Chasm.
Harakiss is level 47, so there’s obviously no trick to taming him apart from making sure you don’t accidentally kill him. 😉 Just drop a Freezing Trap in front of you, start taming… and done.
After taming this new blue beastie, I went ahead and started giving Silithids another PvP test drive in Cataclysm.
The Silithid… a Beast Master’s Spider
Silithids are essentially the Beast Master’s version of the spider. They have a talent called Venom Web Spray, which apart from the name, is exactly the same as the spider’s Web ability.
What makes a Silithid a better choice for a Beast Master is mainly their added Qiraji Fortitude aura, which boosts stamina by 584 at level 85. Qiraji Fortitude provides the same stamina boost as Power Word: Fortitude, but it’s an aura rather than a casted buff, so as long as you have your Silithid out – all teammates within 100yds will receive the buff without the need to apply it.
It’s not the ‘greatest’ of PvP hunter buffs, but it’s decent. Fort and Commanding Shout can fall off due to death, duration or dispel, but Qiraji Fortitude will remain on you at all times unless your pet dies or gets out of range. I could also see this being a nice buff for 3v3 and 5v5, if a similar buff is not available.
Unbuffed and in full PvP gear, Qiraji Fortitude provides me with 9,422 additional hit points. This is definitely not going to be a lifesaver, but again… for me it’s kind of a throw-in buff. The main reason for rolling with a Silithid is for its Venom Web Spray and Cunning family abilities – including Roar of Sacrifice.
Alright… so now that I’ve brought it out into a few BGs, what do I think of the Silithid as a Beast Mastery PvP pet..?
I like it, but I’m not crazy about it. I guess I still feel about the same as I did back in WotLK… I think Silithids are great, but I prefer the uptime of the Chimaera’s ranged slow over the cooldown on the Silithid’s ranged root. Chimaeras apply a 50% movement speed debuff for 5 seconds, on a *7 second cooldown. Silithids apply a 5 second root on a *28 second cooldown. Personally, I prefer the constant slow over the root. (*with 3/3 Longevity)
I’m speaking mainly in terms of BGs, however. Were I to start up with arena again, I’m sure the Silithid would trump the Chimaera in some cases – especially if the stamina buff was needed.
Now some of you may really like the blue brain bug model and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I’m thinking I may have to do a trade-in. Harakiss definitely has the ‘unusual’ cool factor, but he’s also unusually large. I prefer a low-profile pet for PvP, which Harakiss is not. These types of Silithids stick out like a sore thumb.
For those of you that prefer a larger, more intimidating looking pet — this guy fits the bill perfectly. Otherwise, for the rest of you I might advise throwing a Glyph of Lesser Proportion in to try and trim this bug down a bit.
After using both of these Cunning pets, I’m still a staunch Spirit Beast fan, with my distant second choice being the Chimaera.
My next non-Spirit Beast PvP trial… the Shale Spider.
Hurry up and get that shale spider review in! I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
Re: the silithid, I think I agree with your sentiments. The two pets I keep coming back to as BM are spirit beast and spider.
Spirit Beast and SPIDER as BM?
A Silithid basically IS a spider, that also gives everyone on your team 10K extra health. A spider is not a good choice as BM, but is great as MM or SV because they can’t get the Silithid.
Sorry I meant to type shale spider!
Thanks for another interesting post Gar.
It might be interesting to do some number crunching on the pros/cons of pet classes in a future post.
My preference would always be go for a pet with ROS. I play other classes and know that many of them have mechanisms that give them a hugely increased crit chance and they aim to line these up with other abilities and procs to get kills. If you can counter these with ROS its an effective damage shield of around 50K (e.g. during rogue shadowdance, warrior reck), that works on you or your partner and can be used when stunned. Use a tenacity pet and you have Intervene for a bit of extra protection as well. Spirit mend cant keep up in this situation and I don’t get the sense the increased damage from the agility buff is worth losing ROS for. However I might well be wrong and it may worth carrying out some tests of DPS gained by the agility buff especially during our burst vs DPS reduced by ROS/Intervene.
The Agility buff gives a substantial DPS boost, but is a buff often covered by other classes. If the Agility buff is already provided, then the Spirit Beast heal is probably not good enough to outweigh the benefits of undispellable 10K health for everyone on your team (especially when there are 5 or 10 of you), and a web ability.
I actually have the purple one from Un’goro Crater (Gorishi Fledgling Colossus), which also shares a skin with another Ahn’Qiraj boss: Buru the Gorger. Interesting how the AQ bosses have world boss counterparts. =)
Silithid is certainly not my favorite pet either, but it does have its uses sometimes.
First, it’s great anytime you’re missing the Stamina buff, or when it’s being dispelled. This is especially true if you’re on a larger team (like RBGs), where you’re adding 10K health to 10 people, not just one or two. This can help your teams flag carrier, as their dispellable stamina buff will almost certainly be removed.
Second, it’s great for a when a well-timed web is superior to a slow. My favorite is to web someone in a rogue’s smokebomb, then follow that with intimidation, all the while nuking them with Bestial Wrath while the healer can’t reach them for heals. Web can be good in a few other situations (someone about to escape around a pillar, for example).
Generally, the constant slow provided by the Chimera is VERY convenient, but if I really need to slow someone I can always do it with Concussive Shot.
My trend is to use the Silithid more on Flag running RBGs (Warsong and Twin Peaks), and the Chimera more on Flag defending RBGs (Arathi, Eye, and Gilneas).
Spirit Beast is far and away my favorite for regular BG entertainment when I can’t expect heals and agility buffs from teammates, so I would agree with your analysis if you’re limiting your testing to solo running regular BGs. Spirit Beast is also prefered for 2v2 and 3v3 Arena, when the heals and Agi buff outweigh the benefits provided by Silithid. (Chimera doesn’t seem to ever be a good option in Arena nowadays).
Anyway, that’s my two cents. I’m glad you’re experimenting with other pets!
Kaz
Guide dangit. I didn’t think of this. I always bring 2 PvP pets around: a Spirit Beast and a Shale Spider, for whatever the occasion demands. I think I’ll haul those two (silithid and chimaera) along now as I keep forgetting it. Thanks Kaz! =D
I love my silithid in pvp, i tamed one of the smaller greenish blue ‘twitchy’ kind… named him Twitch. haha
Yeah, I like the smaller ones myself. I used to have the Silithid Ravager (now Krkk’kx) back in WotLK. I think I may go grab him again, or maybe one of the green ones. At first I didn’t care much for their dancing animation, but then I kinda liked it.
The bulbous ones are less spastic, but they do this weird kathunk sound every now and then, as if they’re dropping a load of laundry on the ground.