I did some DPS comparisons between Loque’nahak and King Krush on the Heroic Target Dummy in Darnassus. I figured the least populace Alliance city would be best, but let me tell ya… it’s still pretty difficult trying to find a dummy that no one else is beating on. I tried a few previous tests, but they all rendered inaccurate due to other players’ debuffs.
My initial tests were somewhat surprising, because although Loque’s DPS didn’t seem too hot, he was beating out Krush by a decent margin. I was scratching my head at this, so I clicked Krush’s talent window only to realize I had Aspect of the Noob active. Krush was untalented. 🙁
I went to the trainer and spent his points like this, to match Loque’nahak’s. I then went back to the dummies and let my two pets hack away at them. After several inconclusive tests, one of which had Krush at almost 1k, I finally managed to get a dummy all to myself for 15 minutes.
My highly advanced and scientific testing consisted of five minutes of sustained DPS and button mashing. I figured five minutes would be a good figure since it’s the same duration as the new Hunter’s Mark and comparable in length to a boss fight. I marked the dummy, started the stopwatch, sent my pet in and burned Bestial Wrath right away.
My rotation was pretty much the standard BM rotation, with the exception of Aimed or Multi. I just kept Serpent Sting up, and fired off Arcane Shot and Steady Shot when available. All of the pet specials were on auto-cast and my pet and I were both unbuffed. I switched to Viper when necessary, and popped Bestial Wrath and Kill Command as soon as they were available.
My talent spec looked like this at the time of testing. I didn’t want to have IAotH affect things too much, so I went without it for the sake of science. I didn’t use my trinket, burn Rapid Fire, or do anything else remotely fancy; I was just mainly looking to get a somewhat ballpark comparison of Devilsaur and Spirit Beast DPS.
The result of the tests show that Spirit Beasts are still sucking even in 3.1. While the + Spell hit issue has been addressed, it seems that Spirit Strike is still not on par with Monstrous Bite damage-wise.
After looking at the reports from the two tests, I’d say it was a fairly accurate measurement. My rotations didn’t vary too much and my DPS was relatively close. Although the only truly accurate way to test this out would be to try them in actual raids, I still don’t see Loque closing the gap too much on Krush’s 12-13% increased damage.
I was hoping for a little more parity between the two than we have now, but I guess not.
My next tests will involve my Chimera and wolf. I’m actually more anxious to see how those pets pan out. I’ll try to conduct more of this highly scientific testing later on tonight. 😉 I’ll keep you posted on the findings.
Hey thanks for your post and science 😉
I’m really torn about whether or not to get Loque. I love the looks, but then I think about all the work of getting it and then the DPS isn’t that awesome after all. Of course, DPS is not all. I got my dream pet at lvl 60 (or as soon as it’s possible to tame them, I don’t remember when it becomes available), the pink and white devilsaur from Un’Goro. Since I started my hunter and saw someone walking around with one of those I wanted it so bad. And it was quite difficult to tame it at lvl 60-something, so I’m quite proud of that 🙂 AND it happens to have great DPS too. So, I did get my pet because of passion, but at the same time I got the best dps pet in the game (which I found out later). So yeah…. now I don’t know… maybe I’ll get Loque one day… but I gotta say I grew very attached to my dino after lvling beside her for about 20 levels.
I know what you mean. The elitist Hunters on the WoW forums aren’t really open to ideas like, having a pet because you like it… omg!
To me a pet’s always been a companion, as opposed to just another weapon. Sure I want to have worthwhile pets, but I’ve never been one to jump on the latest “it pet” trend. I go with what I like for the most part. Yet, I do hope they give Spirit Beasts a bit more of an advantage over other pets, instead of making them a liability and the target of other players’ criticisms. At the very least they should be able to out dps any non-exotic without question, and be comparable to a Devilsaur.
Thanks for the compliment on the blog hunterD. Although I’m relatively new to the World of Wow Blogging and still getting a feel for things, I’m enjoying it immensely. I’m glad others such as yourself find something of value here.
Yes i agree its unfortunate. I’ve been on them about buffing the Spirit Beast in suggestion forum but only to get bashed by hunters without Loque in their stable.
Thanks for a good blog!
Well lets hope so cuz I still need Mr Krush. Especially with Gondria coming, this needs to be adressed by Blizzard. Yes, i do see what you mean with the damage…..very unfortunate indeed with how rare these beasts are
For the special attack it is, but being that Monstrous Bite buffs all of the Devilsaur’s damage, Spirit Strike falls way behind.
You can see Loque only did 177K physical damage compared to Krush’s 208K. This is because of the stacking Monstrous Bite buff.
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55499
Spirit Strike damage needs to be buffed, plain and simple.
I looked at your numbers and I see what you are saying about King’s bite over the spirit strike. My question to you is; If you take in account the spirit strike and the spirit strike dot, isnt Loque’s damage greater?