Pet Tanking for Solo Instance: Many Questions

Hi,
Since few weeks I'm trying to make a Tank Build, first for soloing instance. Then may be later tanking in wotlk heroics.
But I have many questions and issues I can't really solve.

1. Hunter Build

Here is my Armory:

Question:
- Should I put 1pt or 2pt in "Go for the Throat" ? A Survival hunter should put 1 because of many Crits but a BM ?

2. Pet

I have 2 Tanking Pet:

2.1 Turtle
That should tank many trash and resist with it's shield.
http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#Mc0G0dhzboor
Goal: Many HP, Armor and Resist and heal Ticks to handle multiple targets

2.2 Wrap Stalker
That should handle Boss with Wrap talent.
http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#Mc0G0dhzboor
Goal: No silverback but better threat ti handle a big boss with less attacks

Question:
- Silverback or Great Resistance ? My goal is to main tank in solo or instance.
- How can I up threat on multiple target ? I try to switch target but it is not really straight.
- Should I take charge for the turtle ?

3. Gears

3.1 About T5 Gears

I throw away my T5 gears and it is really difficult to get it back. Nobody wants to rush SSC or TK.
But the bonus seems to be a must have ?

3.2 Stamina

It seems the items with :
- Resist Frost have MANY Stamina.
- Then PvP stuff have a good Stamina stats

But full stamina means very few DPS. What should be the Target Pet Stamina ?
Actually I get 23K HP and 21K Armor Unbuff.

4. Questions

- How to handle boss doing AOE damage ? Like Vexallus (I will try resist Arcane) ?
- What kind on instance can we do solo ? Wotlk Hero ? I know there is many tips about soloing instance on Elitist Jerk.

Thanks for you answered

What instances you can solo: Some TBC heroics, as good as all TBC normal (haven't tried all so can't say for certain). WotLK intro instances normal are hard, mid to high level normals next to impossible, and heroics impossible as of now.

You can solo some vanilla raid content, most of ZG, at least some MC, most of AQ20.

T5 is for me a requirement for soloing. If you don't have it, you can't survive longer fights. For tanking it's not as important, but it's nice to even out the incoming damage. Your healers have +54% more healing on your pet, so they should be capable of healing it themselves.

Silverback or great resistance is on a case to case basis. With dualspec you can easily shift your pets talents to suit specific fights.

For AoE threat, Thunderstomp is the only ability to use. And Misdirect on secondary targets instead of main target. If you have a croc or bear you'll get more AoE threat though.

I love charge, especially when tanking instances. I hate when the pet takes too long to get to the mobs to build up aggro.

A boss that does AoE damage can only be handled by one thing. Kill before getting killed. Use pots and bandages when necessary.

My own answers here are potentially going to be different than Nordh's, but that's not because I'm questioning him. It's a personal view of things since, when it comes to hunter tanking, there's no real 'only one way' to do it.

nextone wrote:
1. Hunter Build
Question:
- Should I put 1pt or 2pt in "Go for the Throat" ? A Survival hunter should put 1 because of many Crits but a BM ?

For me, I put both points in. The more focus the pet has, the more it can use its focus dump and keep clustering the threat and damage. Focus dump isn't as important as Growl, but for me, every little bit helps. Besides, where else would you put the 1 point?

2. Pet
Question:
- Silverback or Great Resistance ? My goal is to main tank in solo or instance.

Since respecs are free, I would actually consider tempering this one by instance and boss. If they're all physical, then those 3 points in Great Resistance are going to do dick all. I would spend them elsewhere. If you're going up against a boss that has plenty of magical damage, Resistance would do you well.

Remember, to respec your pet, all you have to do is change to Survival, change back to BM, and you can move the points back around as you need.

- How can I up threat on multiple target ? I try to switch target but it is not really straight.

Multiple target threat is... very difficult to keep as a hunter. Thunderstomp is necessary, obviously. Thunderstomp alone should give enough incidental threat to hold the mobs away from healers (unless they have to do a *ton* of healing), while some MD'ed multishots and/or Explosive Traps can be a big help as well. Mark your pet's primary target so people know who to nuke first, and if they insist on using a lot of AOE, they get what they deserve. Think of us as old-time warrior tanks: we do well on single-target, but leave multi for the pallies.

- Should I take charge for the turtle ?

For soloing, almost definitely. You're going to get pretty bored watching it shimmy slowly up to its target otherwise. But for MTing, I feel that point can be better spent in another location. 'Charge' is handy for DPS, but as the tank, you can afford to be a bit slow and instead keep armor, HP, and threat focused. That's a personal opinion, though; Panzer isn't usually specced with Charge.

3. Gears
I throw away my T5 gears and it is really difficult to get it back. Nobody wants to rush SSC or TK.
But the bonus seems to be a must have ?

T5 is massively useful, yes. If you can get it, get it. See if you can poke some groups for it. HOWEVER! I wouldn't call this bonus a 'must-have'. I have done a lot of tanking, and my tanking gear is mostly T7, for the high stamina and the pet damage bonus (good TPS). So T5 good, but if you don't have it, you can certainly still tank.

3.2 Stamina
But full stamina means very few DPS. What should be the Target Pet Stamina ?
Actually I get 23K HP and 21K Armor Unbuff.

I'm not sure if there's a 'target stamina' exactly. Unbuffed, Panzer has nearly 23K HP and tops out at 21999 armor (don't you just hate that?). 'Target stamina' should go by the instances you plan to be soloing and tanking. At 23K HP unbuffed, you should be fine to handle most basic heroics and probably some raids.

4. Questions
- How to handle boss doing AOE damage ? Like Vexallus (I will try resist Arcane) ?

Avoidance + Great Resistance makes a HUGE difference in the damage the pet takes. Other than that, as Nordh said: just kill it before it kills you.

- What kind on instance can we do solo ? Wotlk Hero ? I know there is many tips about soloing instance on Elitist Jerk.

If you are level 80, then you should be set on soloing all normal instances up to level 70 without any issue at all, up to and including Magister's Terrace (although the arena battle may give you some trouble) and, as Nordh said, most of the old world raids (don't try AQ40; you won't get past the first boss as he MCs). The heroics are likely soloable as well, though with a little more effort and potentially some extra buffs, depending on your gear levels. For WotLK, UK has definitely been soloed, and I would think Nexus could be soloed as well, though having never tried it, I'd be more cautious about saying that for sure. I've not done any WotLK instances solo, so I'm not positive on this one at all. Hopefully there's others who can give more info!

Kurasu, I think that for the questions I answered, we pretty much answered the same things

Nordh wrote:Kurasu, I think that for the questions I answered, we pretty much answered the same things

Hah! Maybe there *is* 'one right way', then? Nice to know that we definitely do agree. Sorry if it sounded like I was taking the piss.

Not at all, just found it funny that we did seeing that there really isn't a one way to go to tank. It all boils down to personal preferences.

Thanks for all your answers,
I think the same way, but to explain my post I needed a 'usecase'.

From my little experience, Heorics of BC are not so difficult, and few try in Utgard let me think I can did it. Utgard Hero is impossible in solo.

About Magister's Terrace Hero, with an heavy stamina gears or heavy dps gear I can't kill Vexallus, I need more tricks like Resist Arcane and i'm really afraid abour PvP boss let's later ^^

I hope Blizzard will let us Tank a little bit more instances

nextone wrote:About Magister's Terrace Hero, with an heavy stamina gears or heavy dps gear I can't kill Vexallus, I need more tricks like Resist Arcane and i'm really afraid abour PvP boss let's later ^^

The PVP boss is definitely the hardest of the bunch. Use your CC where you can. For Vexallus, definitely try arcane resist. Kill the adds with your pet and yourself; don't let them gather because they will do way too much damage. Arcane resist helps for sure, though; I don't know if it can be fully resisted, but it can definitely be partially resisted. Maybe some resistance elixirs and/or pots would help out with this attempt, too.

Bon chance!

I thought he was hard on normal, so I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna handle him on heroic if I ever go there.

The arena boss however is a lot about kiting. Just make sure you clear out everything so you don't pull any extra packs. Take out melee first, they hurt the most since your level means you will be resisting a lot of the caster damage. Plus it's easier to kite a melee compared to a caster.

Hi,
With about 150 Arcane resist Vexalus is really easy.

The PvP boss is too hard, the warrior charge me and even if I use cc, it's really too difficult. I'll have to find an other strategy.

But I'm a little bit disapointed, we are not so good for PvE Pure DPS compared to other classes and we are not good at tanking On the other side Druids can do better in all jobs. I do not understand Blizzard.

nextone wrote:Hi,
we are not so good for PvE Pure DPS compared to other classes and we are not good at tanking On the other side Druids can do better in all jobs. I do not understand Blizzard.

I disagree. On certain fights a boomkin can lay out a lot of dps, but we can more consistently do more. You might not be able to as BM, but you have other options. And yes, Druids being able to excel as tanks, melee dps, ranged dps, and heals does make a pure class player self-QQ a bit about hybrid classes.

Boomkin perhaps, but not feral dps. Those can be insane. They are often at the level of Surv dps.