The Worm Post, continued…
Alright, so what’s with the worm you ask..? Acid Spit, that’s what. After peaking at 1846 in 2v2 and getting knocked around by Death Knights and Rets in the 1800-1850 range, I decided to do a little research to see if there was perhaps a pet that might help out there. Enter the worm.
The worm’s Acid Spit ranged attack not only does about the same damage as a Chimaera’s Froststorm Breath, but it also reduces its target’s armor by up to 20%. That’s a pretty huge advantage when it comes to trying to focus down plate wearers. Combine that with high health, Blood of the Rhino, Charge and Roar of Sacrifice, and you have an unstoppable debuff machine.
I have had great success with the worm in BGs and found it to be quite useful in arena as well. I’ve only had the chance to do skirmishes with it so far, as my 2v2 partner decided to hop the express train to 1850 by teaming up with a notorious Gladiator Rogue from our server. He’s claiming that he did it so he could get his 2H and then help he and I to reach 2050. We shall see… 😕
This game does funny stuff to people, and causes some to get so obsessed with shiny pixels and game code, that they forsake their friends for this stupid crap and go play with trade channel spammers. Oh well…
At any rate, hopefully he’ll return to the team and we’ll continue our ascent to 2050 in Season 6. If not, then I’ll just have to find someone else. Either way, I foresee my worm as being the arena pet of choice. He’s nearly impossible to take down, not to mention I can actually use Roar of Sacrifice without fear that he’ll get nuked afterward.
I’m using an usual macro right now, which has actually come out aces for me. I was often forgetting to use Roar of Sacrifice, and since it’s available every 21 seconds, it’s an ability I should try to use as much as possible. Whether it be in arena or BGs, I’m almost always one of the first to get targeted. Everyone wants to kill the Hunter… why is that..? Because we do crazy damage if left alone, but we’re pretty squishy and easy to take down when piled on. So anyway, I put RoS into my Disengage macro.
My though behind this was anytime I Disengage, which is a lot, I am usually trying to escape damage. Chances are if I Disengage, then I am probably targeted and will more than likely be getting beat on. Secondly, RoS and Disengage have similar cooldowns, so whenever I Disengage RoS will be up as well. So far it’s worked like a charm. The worm is ridiculously hard to take down, and with the introduction of pet resilience in a future patch, I don’t see any problem with keeping him up. Therefore, casting RoS whenever it’s up hasn’t been a problem, and definitely won’t be one when pets gain some resilience.
Here’s my uber-survivability, OH S**T! macro I’ve been using:
#showtooltip Disengage /cast Wing Clip /cast Disengage /cast Roar of Sacrifice
The full on pros may scoff at a macro such as this, but for a weekend warrior like myself, it does the trick. Give it a shot if you like and let me know how it works for you.
What’s nice about the worm, is you get the added survivability of the Tenacity family along with the Charge interrupt, but you don’t have to sacrifice much DPS by using it. The 20% armor reduction from Acid Spit makes up for a lot of the lost pet DPS that you miss out on by not using a Cunning or Ferocity pet.
I still like using the Chimaera in some battlegrounds, especially Warsong Gulch, but I’ll be rolling with my worm most the time when I PvP from here on out. All I know is, I had been struggling to get Wrecking Ball for a few months, but the first BG I was in after getting my worm I went 34-2. A few battles later… Wrecking Ball.
I think it has to do with using a pet that people don’t want to waste time trying to kill, being able to utilize RoS as much as possible, and having a good ability in Acid Spit to use vs plate.
I give the worm my highest praise as a PvP companion for BM Hunters. If you like to BG or arena, try one out. You might like it.
Tamed a worm; loved it. Never put down so many DKs and pallies so fast before. Only problem was keeping them off me, so it’s back to my flying purple people eater for now. But with 3.2 changing Roar of Sacrifice, the oh crap macro doesn’t work for me anymore. How can I modify that to always cast Roar of Sacrifice on myself?
@ Doli
I forgot to remove that macro. I meant to pull it off the page, so thanks for the reminder.
To always cast it on yourself, you’d need to script it like:
/cast [target=player] Roar of Sacrifice
Due to its longer cooldown now, I don’t recommend macro’ing it to anything. I’d just stick a keybind on it and use it when you get in a scrape.
See if you can find a Holy Priest or maybe a Resto Druid. Either of them would be pretty good for 2s.
Ok i might aswell get both as you said and try them both out, 🙂 im looking for a nice friendly and patient arena partner/s atm to practice arena with and aim for the 1850 weapons.
Maybe i’ll let you know how things went later 🙂 thanks for fast an great reply!
Hi hunterD,
Crab and Hyena are both excellent choices for SV PvP. I’d try each one and see what you like. They both have their advantages of course.
Hyena
More DPS
Dash
Heart of the Phoenix
Tendon Rip
Crab
More survivability
Roar of Sacrifice
Intervene
Pin
For BGs I’d say Hyena or Crab, but for Arena definitely Crab. The Hyena would get pooped on pretty quick in arena, where as the crab would not. In BGs though, I’d be apt to try a Hyena first. It should be easier to keep up in a BG and it’s going to be snaring, interrupting and doing decent damage.
Plus they’re just awesome. I used to want one so bad back in vanilla WoW. I kept Ravage for weeks before I finally let him go, since back then they had no special skills. 🙁
Gorilla isn’t bad, but I prefer Pin over Pummel. Other pets worth a mention are Ravager and Spider. They both have great abilities too.
If you do try BM out for PvP at some point, I would definitely try a Chimaera. They are OP as hell. Obviously I like the worm too, but overall it’s hard to beat Froststorm Breath for BGs.
If your gear is well tuned for SV, then I’d stick with that. SV is great in PvP and arguably better than BM in a lot of cases. A lot more burst.
Perceuss,
My worm build: http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#mVdhubh0b0oM
Hi Garwulf, hows things going?
I was thinking of starting pvping abit more/serious now becouse of the boredom when me guild clearing Ulduar in one or two sittings and having almost a whole week until reset.
I was hoping to get some expertese guidence with my pet choice questions: 😛
Chimeras seems really sweet, but i was thinking of trying on survival pvp first if you cant convince me to go BM 🙂 and i would like some thoughts of good pet choices, i was thinking Hyena, similar talent as Chimera only weaker and longer CD, otherwise maybe a Grab or maybe some good spell interupter pet? Man i feel kinda lost and having a hard time choosing. Make me a list of top choises it would me much appreciated 😀
What’s the build you use for your worm?
Hi Klinderas,
I think both pets are great and have their advantages for both arena and bgs.
Personally, I am liking the worm right now because it is making it easier for me to s**t on plate wearers. I don’t play defensively in arena, so the kiting advantage isn’t all that missed. The Chimaera is used as more of a snare for me so that I can lock down opponents. The worm’s charge helps to make up for losing the 50% slow of FS Breath.
With TBW, Master’s Call, Disengage and Traps, I don’t find it too difficult to create distance when needed.
A lot of it comes down to personal preference, team composition and play style. I say both pets are good myself. I just happen to be liking the worm for the time being.
I’m convinced that the Worm is a great pet for BGs, but for Arena? The Chimera seems to help so much in that environment, thanks to the slow. Kiting melee classes has never been easier.
So why is an armor debuff better than uber kiting?
I’ve got a similar “Panic!” button, I love it :). Back on topic: I love rares too, I’ve been thinking about the [Frostbitten] achievement but damn… it’s hard as hell (much more than taming Loque heheeh) so I don’t think I’ll be ever able to do it 😐
I’d love if hunters had infinite stable slots, that would be awesome for pet collectors like you. But with few spots to keep your animals… it’s BAD when you trash one in favor of another one.
OFFTOPIC
I’m currently using a wolf for raiding and I’d like to ask you what talents are you placing for maximum dps (ferocity). Got a tree/link?
I’ve debated worm vs chimera a fair amount. The acid spit debuff is certainly very powerful, and the tenacity survivability is great. In the end though, the high uptime undispellable snare from the chimera is so valuable for both kiting and helping a partner stay on a target that I can’t pass it up. Roar of Recovery is really handy as well, although it’s tough to find the points for it.