Coincidentally, just after posting my thoughts on BM PvP pets, I’ve finally decided to try out a Core Hound for arena.
I’d been contemplating the idea for awhile now, ever since I’d first heard about pets getting the hunter’s full resilience, but I just couldn’t justify using one over a Chimaera. However, after hitting our proverbial wall last week in 2v2, I’m thinking a change is in order.
My partner and I kept going back and forth last week, gaining only 2 points after about 50 matches. I’m hoping the Lava Dog may provide the additional punishing power and caster annoyance which will help get us over the hump. Although we’re really just a “semi-casual” pair of PvPers, we would like to make a push for 1900 or even possibly 2k at least.
I’d been thinking about trying one ever since Blizz announced that pets would be gaining full resilience benefits from the hunter. Yet, I just couldn’t see the benefit over that of a Chimaera, for 2v2 arena anyway.
Now I’m thinking that if our Ret/BM team is going to make a push for 2K, we’re going to need some extra juice. Along with the ferocity pet, I’m also going to shift a few points around with my spec. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the casting debuff works out for us.
Another thing that caused me to consider a Core Hound, was one of our defeats at the hands of a BM/Prot-Ret team last week. We’ve only lost maybe a handful of games this season to any teams with a hunter on them, so losing to one with a Core Hound really made me take notice. It didn’t help any that Prot-Ret is pretty op atm.
Lastly, some of your comments to my posts really caused me to analyze things a bit. As I’ve said many times in the past, one of the benefits of having this site is all of the great ideas I get from all of you. Sharing helpful tips and information is my main focus, but I really enjoy the helpful feedback I get as a result of those posts.
I probably won’t do anything with him until Monday night, but I’ll be sure to let you know how the Lava Dog works out for us. Hopefully he pans out well, otherwise I may go back to Survival until the season’s over. I’d rather not however, as I love the idea of representing an under-represented spec. 😉
By the way, the BM PvP posts are nowhere near over. I’m just taking a little break from the guides until the commotion of the holidays and additional house guests are behind me. I’m planning on going over BM and hunter mechanics in general, as well as addons, macros, etc…
Just to let everyone know who may not know already, the Marksman/Survival equivalent to the Core Hound is the Serpant. Same special ability (25% increased cast time), but its in the Cunning talent tree, not Ferocity.