RFC: Chimaeras and Froststorm Breath
RFC stands for “Request For Comments” — which basically means that I need your help. I’m getting a lot of questions about the pros and cons of each pet family and in particular the pet family skills. But there’s no way that I really test all the pet families in every situation myself, so I want to hear about your experiences with them!
Today’s RFC: The Chimaera family and their family skill Froststorm Breath.
Chimaeras are the first exotic pet family we’re hitting in this RFC series. As exotics, they can only be tamed by full Beast Mastery hunters starting at level 60 (because that’s the earliest level you can take the 51-point Beast Mastery talent). And Chimaeras are certainly exotic! They have two heads — which apparently each breath a different elemental damage, since Froststorm Breath does both Frost and Nature damage — and big flappy wings. There are only four color variants of chimaera, but all four are lovely in their own right (and many hunters are particularly fond of the white and purple variants).
So if you’ve had any experience hunting with a Chimaera in a post-Patch 3.0 world, take a moment to comment and let me know what you think. In particular, I’d like to know:
- What are the pros and cons of Chimaeras in general?
- What are the pros and cons of Froststorm Breath in particular?
- Are Chimaeras particularly good (or bad) for soloing, grouping, raiding, PvP, tanking, damage-dealing, etc?
- What talents do you suggest for Chimaeras? Are there any required talents, or talents you should definitely skip?
- Do you know any clever strategies for hunting with Chimaeras and Froststorm Breath, or are there any particular gotchas to watch out for?
- Would you recommend a Chimaera?
(These are just guideline questions — you need’t try to address each one in turn. And yes, this post looks a lot like the other RFCs — after all I’m asking the same questions!)
I’m especially looking for input from people who have been hunting with Chimaeras since Patch 3.0, but even if you haven’t, feel free to throw in your theorycrafting — just let us know whether your advice is based on experience or spreadsheets (or both)!
This post will remain here as a reference for the future, and additionally I’ll try to distill the basics down into a brief summary for use on Petopia.
As always, thanks for your help!
43 Comments
I tamed the lovely purple Chimaera of Outland only to discover that Froststorm breath suffers from the dreaded stutter walk glitch. Send my pet in only to watch it pause at least 3 times before finally finding the sweet spot to cast in before running up to a mob. My Spirit Beast has no problem with running in and only stopping for a split second to fire off Spirit Strike, so why must the Chimaera still be borked?
Sadly this pet will remained stabled until i figure out what I wish to try out next. Sigh.
From my experience, Chimaera’s are fairly competent pets. Like worms, they suffer from stutter walk, but if they’re close enough, they will cast on the run.
With Longevity, the 5 second slow from the Chimaera keeps most enemies at bay, especially those pesky death knights. Coupled with all of our other tricks, Hunters should have no problem kiting with these beasts at their side from my experience.
Running with a chimaera on my hunter-alt I’m leveling now and don’t regret switching to it one bit (except when I sic it on something from too far away, damned stutter step. Not as squishy as a “DPS” pet and better DPS than a “tank” but that’s just cunning in general. More of a “get out of the way of my mouse” target than most pets which is a minus but a minor one IMO. Once you pick up longevity froststorm breath is wonderful, an armor-ignoring snare that does pretty decent damage (as “froststorm” damage does it get the same “I’m not either source of damage, I’m *special*” gimmick as frostfire…?) and is off cooldown almost right as it finishes. Can’t speak for PVP (blech) or instancing (haven’t 80ed out yet) but for grinding/soloing the chimaera is wonderful. Mine’s HP only has issues when I end up with a few too many mobs on me but I’ve not spent any points on HP or armor (gogo Gift of the Naaru). It’s not particularly noisy, as flying pets go, and it doesn’t have any repetitive idling sounds other than a quiet flapping. Only talent point recommendations I’d make would be the same for any cunning and that’s one in Carrion Feeder (who needs food?) and 1/2 in Mobility with max Longevity (perma-dash/dive).
I love watching my chimaera dart towards a mob through the cloud of frost from its attack, something about that just makes me smile. I just kind of wish the brown chimaera’s tail wasn’t mottled pink and brown, though it does save me the trouble of deciding between the white and brown ones. :-p
I also have Nuramoc. (I have Spirit Beast also!) I’ve found the Chimera to be very fun in Battlegrounds. If a melee is coming after me I let the Chimera spam Frost Breath and it slows them down while I keep firing. Or when someone (very rare these days) is actually trying to get away from me, Frost breath slows them down.
Damage is mediocre, but the fun of frost breath makes up for itl
I played with a Chimaera for a while before going back to my rare spawn Silithid. The DPS is good, but the stutterbreath hurts… I’d prefer a silithid.
My Nuramoc is certainly beautiful. But the damage output keeps it in the stable. All pets die too easily in bgs, so might as well have a ferocity pet doing more dps for you. Spirit beasts are the exception as any cat is better as Spirit beasts are nerfed badly. Pick any ferocity pet you like as long as the cooldown for its special ability is low. For example, some beautiful new raptors out there, but the cooldown makes them a joke.
Too big, gets on the way.
I tamed a Chimera on my highest lv hunter alt, then 61, even going so far as to the island off Feralas to obtain one, now that was a real challenge, ooh boy. And while I had to abandon her, to many pets and I saw there are lv 71ish in northrend, I am not intending it to be permanent.
Now, PVP wise, as said usually most pets do die easily, and especially when you’re a lv 61 running in a higher level bg even had a rogue slag her yet she lived longer and only died once, none of the healers liked the rogue, they liked me :D
Anyways, the problem you guys are saying about the pause to attack IS THERE, but hunters, there is one solution to the problem!
Manual. Attack. I did that, and blam, my Chimera was tearing down the terrian with dash and pewpewing lightning breath when I commanded, eating the faces of alliance, especially the casters. And the flag carriers- the speed reduction is something to good, to turn down.
To be honest it was more fun and rewarding for my hunter alt, imo, with the chimera than her devilsaur or cat.
Pve wise I didn’t use the chimera much, but then again each hunter alt has so many pets lol. Anyways, from what I did use with it, it wasn’t that bad imo, mean all cunning pets are pretty much the same, pve wise and seeing how my lv 77 WS on my main hunter tanked a couple of elites, as long as there’s a healer handy any pet is useable pve wise for any occasion. But that’s just my opinion.
As I mentioned in the forums, as of 3.0.8, the “stuttering” bug is thankfully gone, making Chimeras excellent pets. :-D
I’ve tried the chimera myself, and I find them rather annoying to control. Their wingspan makes targeting difficult, and the constant flapping can get on one’s nerves.
The slow and special damage does have its limited uses, but I’d recommend a Slithid for that.
I wouldn’t take one of these in an instance or raid, but they are very good for soloing and pvp.
For talenting, I’d go both ranks of Nature Armor, one of Great Stamina, all ranks of Spiked Collar and Owl’s Focus, one of the 3rd tiers, and Cornered and Feeding Frenzy. The rest of the talents I leave to playing style.
I love my Chimaera both for PvE and PvP.
PvE: you never run out of mana becuase of the cunning pet skill Roar of Recovery (ofc your Aspect of the Viper helps too). Also, it does more damage on mobs with less than 35% health, which can be very good when fighting hard elites and bosses in instances/raids or outdoors. And if you can manage to keep the pet down at 35% health, it will do even more damage (ofc it’s pretty hard keeping your pet at low health, especially if the mobs you’re fighting does much damage.
PvP: becasue your Chimaera keeps the enemy players away from you with Frostorm Breath, and ofc there’s this damage-thing at targets below 35% health, as mentioned in PvE. Yeah, Ferocity pets maybe does that much damage all the time, but give it a try :) (sorry for my short comment on PvP, I don’t do much PvP myself)
~Icecrystal
I’m currently using a Chimera(Nuramoc) for bg pvp and my arena team. I’m terrible, but that’s not my chimera’s fault. In fact, we lost our first 27 games until I started using the chimera, since then we are 8-12 this week. I find the chimera HUGE and in the way for all indoorsy-crowded instances. But in pvp, the size seems to be an advantage, hogging opponent’s screen space, as well as looking more threatening,tempting them to try to kill the pet first(people go after my chimera much more often than my wolf when i use it). With Longevity, Froststorm breath is ready to go every 7 seconds. And the slow lasts 5! So its almost always up. I dont know what % it slows by, its noticable, but seems less than that of wingclip. I know venom webs for silithid is a complete lockdown, but its not ready as often. This can be a good family of pets just for the fun factor also. The froststorm breath just plain looks really cool when it goes off. For talents, i’d recommend 1 in Mobility, take carrion feeder for convenience, and owl’s focus. the name escapes me, but also the talent that causes extra damage on low health targets. sorry for the book. x_x
The chimera is the only pet I use for PvP, and I PvP a good bit (about 10K honor per day, on average). It is by far the best pet I’ve tried.
1) One of the few pets with a ranged attack that also slows. The bonus here is twofold: first, you get the damage of the special attack early, since your pet doesn’t have to close with the player. Second, the slow starts immediately, so your opponent doesn’t have a chance to close much distance before sticky feet sets in.
As a note on slow, this is the best ability I’ve found for PvP. Hunters have zero problem with caster classes since we murder anyone wearing cloth or even leather. The real problem in PvP is with plate classes, which shut down our primary asset (dps) via high mitigation and hp: Paladins, DKs, Warriors, and Feral Druids. However, all of these classes are mostly melee, so the more slow we can get the better. With froststorm breath being active for 5 out of every 7 seconds (!), there is almost no other alternative for one-on-one PvPing.
In larger BGs, it’s true that the chimera dies quickly, mostly because opponents can’t help but target those lovely, clickable wings. But while he’s alive, friendly ranged/caster units also appreciate the slow.
2) The wingspan. I am a dwarf, so I am nigh-unclickable underneath a bestial-wrathed chimera. For PvE this is annoying, but for PvP is it a godsend. Many times, it takes 2-10 seconds before a melee class even notices that I’ve disengaged out of range, because the chimera obscures so much.
3) Cunning is the best tree I’ve found for PvP. Owl’s focus (in addition to turning off growl) leaves an insane amount of focus for specials, especially with the hunter talent Go for the Throat. Avoidance is a must for the larger bgs, but this leads very nicely to Wolverine bite, which is a staple for PvP damage against our toughest targets. Feeding Frenzy gives more killing blows and helps finish off those healers before they can pull of a save. Roar of recovery is just icing on the cake.
For PvE there are definitely better pets, but for PvP nothing else leaves my stable.
When the patch hit, the first pet I went to tame at 70 was the Chimera. I snagged a white one from Winterspring because of the look and the fact that every BM hunter was camping the rare in Netherstorm. I leveled with it, doing everything PVE-wise but instances because my normal raid group prefers that I not use a flying pet, and aside from the stutter step cast of frostbreath, I felt that it was a fine pet.
Then the expansion came out and I have replaced my chimera for a couple of reasons. I prefer a wolf for any raiding for the buff, and the ZD wolves look sharp. I have kept my original cat in my stables for a while now and, call me a sentimental sap, will probably always keep it. I have the spirit cat, and cross my fingers that 3.0.8 will fix the DPS problem because it is flat out a gorgeous pet. I have a worm because I have not replaced it yet with a PVP pet as I am still deciding on which one to use and I wanted to try out it’s tanking ability, and I have a gorilla for when I want to AOE farm for eternals.
All that said, the chimera was a casualty of stable space. I’m not sure that I will go back to one, but that is more of a personal decision. In the end, I would recommend one, if asked, as I rarely had problems with mine aside from the aforementioned stutter step casting.
the thing i like about the chimera is that it has a ranged attack and can still hit things that are flying away that is a trait shared by very few other pets, in PvE in instances some bosses fly off but the pet can still be put on them and it will still fire off its spells regardless. I play a dwarf hunter so it is too big for me. ( my raptor is almost too big) I would really love to personally see smaller and less ‘thumpy’ Exotics I was clicking my chimera almost more often then the mob, but i really liked it for the ranged casting
As mentioned above the new patch deals with the ‘shufflebutt syndrome’ Chimaeras unfortunately suffer from, which is great news as this is the only bad thing I can find to say about the pet.
Froststorm Breath is (imo) one of the strongest exotic pet skills around. There is a part of me that wishes Blizz would move Chimaeras into Ferocity for the improved DPS, but they are definitely a solid choice.
I don’t have a chimaera, but my core hound also does the stutter walk. I got around it by macroing /petautocastoff Lava Breath to my Hunter’s Mark/Pet Attack button and putting /petautocaston Lava Breath in my shot rotation macro.
Now he’ll scoot into combat quickly and when I start firing, he’ll start roasting the bad guy.
I imagine the same would work for the Chimaera
Keep in mind, Peloquin, that serpents also have the casting speed slowing effect, and are non-exotic.
anyone with a talent in Exotic Beastmastery should at least try a Chimaera to see if it soots them. when my hunter had it, I had a Chimaera. They did good dps and had a nature/frost attack mix! they slowed the target in BGs and did awesome damage in Raids and Instances. Not to mention, They are SWEET looking! I would recommend a Chimaera!
I snagged Nuramoc about a month ago and haven’t been disappointed. She’s so big that she definitely gets in an opponent’s way (which I love). Froststorm Breath doesn’t do a ton of damage, but then it doesn’t matter with Longevity and the added movement debuff. Great pet.
IMO, three words: useless PVP pet.
After trying a handful of exotics to see if any suited my play style, I found myself strangely attached to the Azsharan chimaera I tamed just for kicks. I had always thought them a rather homely, scruffy creature, but somehow his tattered golden wings and spiraled horns won their way into my heart. I brought Ashmane to level in Northrend, and love the short cooldown and slowing effect. Plus the frost cloud is just FUN! Tack on Carrion Feeder so he can grab a quick meal, and it’s a great solo pet. Considering I had been waiting on silithids for months, I’m still confused, but pleased, by the pet I never intended to have.
Rilgon, uh, what? Frost storm breath is amazing for bugging the snot out of caster, especially healers, and wolverine bite I can’t rave enough about, ESPECIALLY in PvP. Try to keep it CONSTRUCTIVE. That goes for everyone actually, try your best to stay on focus, the pro’s, the con’s, and be as specific as possible.
Mania, I’ll come back and do one of my long run downs when I’ve had some rest, feeling very sick right now.
Seems every half decent explanatory post on here is from pvp players.
I would love to hear of peoples experiences with a Chimera (and in fact any half decent offensive Cunning pet) in pve raids.
I can appreciate the first and main reason why there are limited comments is probably the size/flapping getting in the way of the mobs/boss means many raids dont like flying pets. However there must be a few and some others must use cunning pets in raids.
In theory the Owls Focus and Feeding Frenzy talents should be a nice buff to damage on bosses so was curious if this was a sound theory and how different their DPS is to a Ferocity pet.
The first pet I tamed when the exotics became available was a chimaera and I levelled with him until about 75 or so.
I did find that the higher level we got the more he seemed to struggle at keeping aggro, even though most of the time I solo with AoV on to eradicate downtime, so I swapped to my old faithful raptor to get to 80.
I’m now thinking about getting the chimaera back out, levelling him and seeing what he’s like in PvP at 80.
I am now survival, but when I first started raiding I was BM. When I first saw the chimaera breath cirt at 80 and seeing how they did more damage on targets 35% or lower, I figured they had to be a pretty good pet, I was wrong. Many pets, including a cat out-dps’d him, and even when a boss got below 35% and he started hitting harder, it could not compensate(spelling?) for the overall dps ferocity pets were doing throughout the fights. And the mana roar… with viper that is what just a few seconds of mana regen, the long cooldown also makes it hardly worth while.
First off, an apology. I got frost storm breath and lava breath mixed up. Frost storm breath is good for slowing down anyone, not just casters, though in particular I love to use it for slowing down runners. Now, on to the meat!
Chimeras are a cunning pet, and thus go under the ‘utility’ category. In general, this means that the chimera can deal better damage then a tenacity pet, and bring a few interesting abilities to the table. Con’s include lower damage then the ferocity family, no way of restoring happiness mid-battle without a corpse, and less overall raid utility due to the lower damage and not so useful raid ability frost storm breath, wolverine bites usefullness goes down as your hit rating goes up.
Froststorm breath deals two types of elemental damage and acts like frostfire bolt in that regard ((Meaning if the target is stronger to one, it deals the other damage. This also bypasses immunity to one type or the other, as I found out last night. Keep in mind that a target that is immune to both frost and nature damage, or magic in general will still be immune.)) is a ranged spell on a fairly low cooldown, and slows the target. Cons are a low damage and a less useful ability for a PvP setting.
Chimera’s are your average solo pet. Nothing special to make them stand out, nothing detrimental to make them unusable. Middle road damage, moderately useful skill set from cunning, with froststorm breath to help with runners. For a raid or group setting, you’ll be bringing the chimera for roar of recovery to help your mana pool. Note that roar of recovery is set to go off automatically when your mana dips below the twenty percent or so mark, but you can ((And probably should!)) monitor it yourself. Froststorm loses its usefulness in these settings, aside from being a ranged attack that your pet can use in situations where being in melee isn’t optimal. Wolverine bite maintains its usefulness here because the dodge, last I checked, doesn’t have to be from the chimera. PvP is where the chimera shines. A properly timed Froststorm breath can work as a life saver, or a stall tactic, allowing you the hunter a few more moments to deal damage or the chance to run like #@$$. Wolverine bite is perfect for the dodgier classes like rogues, shaman, and other hunters, while still being moderately useful for any non-caster since, like the raid setting, the dodge doesn’t have to be from the hunters attacks. Damage dealing it can hang in there thanks to skills like owl’s focus and feeding frenzy. Your chimera should never try to offtank anything. Ever. As for a solo tank, just watch your threat and you’ll be fine. Nothing wrong with having to feign death then disengage back into ranged….uh, range.
Cobra relfexes. I can’t think of a single reason to not take cobra reflexes, ever. Less damage per attack, but a LOT more damage over time. After that, it all depends on your preference. For PvP, I’d suggest going dash then down into mobility. For all other intents and purposes, great stamina or natural armor will help keep your pet alive a little longer in solo, group, or raid settings. OWLS FOCUS is a must. I can’t rave about how nice it is for roughly on in every three bites to trigger another bite ((Milage will vary depending on your luck….))FOR FREE. ((Keep in mind I still don’t know what the internal cooldown on Owls focus is, if any.)) Spiked collar is a good way to squeeze out a bit more damage. Carrion feeder is just a good way to not have to feed your pet anymore, highly suggested. If your raiding, AVOIDANCE. That one is a must for raiders, while lionhearted can help in PvP. I’d still suggest avoidance though, to help with abilities like seed of corruption or other volleys. Feeding frenzy is AMAZING for raiding or groups for that last push on bosses, and okay for PvP to help finish off a nearly dead target. ((This loses some usefulness due to kill shot, mind you.)) HOWEVER for a raid enviroment, great resistence can help to knock down some of the nastier, non-physical or holy AoE damage even further. Roar of recovery is probably the best of the top tier talents, as much as I love wolverine bite. I can’t think of any situation where it isn’t useful to give yourself back 30% of your total mana every every fourish minutes. ((With longevity. You did take longevity, right beastmaster?)) Wolverines bite…. the only talent’d attack for a bit, and just about my favorite talent overall. I’ve seen this puppy critical for upwards of 3,000 damage before. I don’t find it completely nessecary, play style pending, but it never hurts to have another attack! Finally, Bullheaded. An okay PvP tool, coupled with the new masters call ((Pet becomes immune to roots and snares for the duration as well)) can make your pet unrootable for a while. I find this one to be less nessecary because of improved mend pet, but if you didn’t take mend pet and find your pet being rooted or snared a lot, then it can be a good buy. I can’t suggest cornered, since if your pet is that low on health then it is likely going to be very dead very soon. It is a HUGE boost in damage, but unless you like keeping your pet at low health, then skip this. Only consider boars swiftness if you didn’t take dive and mobility.
The usual: Pop wrath, kill command, and a trinket right before froststorm breath is in range to see some pretty numbers fly. If fighting a rogue in PvP, immediately beastial wrath and feel free to kite or just run away. Wolverine’s bite will make said rogue feel very, very sorry for having so much dodge after a while, and if they don’t have some way out of snares, all they’ll be able to do is waddle after you while being eaten.
I recommend a chimera, but not for the min/maxers. Even with owls focus and wolverine bite the cunning family can’t match ferocities DPS. That being said, I do feel like cunning has a lot to bring to the table. Use them if you like a ranged snare that goes around immunties and resitances and having a free third of your mana back every four minutes.
only talented attack for a pet*
And for my triple! The pause/attack problem is fixed in the test realm, last I checked. So that shouldn’t factor into this pet. NOR SHOULD SIZE. Don’t let’em push you around, use what you want to use, geez. Having tanked, DPSed, and HEALED with large pets in the party, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.
I have only one complaint about the Chimaera is that it’s constantly slicing off my ankles when it’s nearby. if it didn’t sit inside of you, it would make a very nice pet.
Pardon my grammar.
I tried one.. it was to big for my liking and would get in the way of clicking on targets, plus gave me a huge blind spot on the left side that you can’t see squot that may be running head o to you cause of it blocking your view.
Says me who got ganked badly in wintergrasp by a war that I couldn’t see right away or see it come up to me cause that dumb big pet was blocking my view!
When I first heard of these beauties being tamable; I jumped for joy. However when I was finally able to try one, it wasn’t truly what I expected ._.;
This may be just me but I find that they hit Chimeras with a bat a bit before they decided to give us this pet. Their skill is very good! It’s fast, ok damage, and slows! But i’ve noticed so many problems with the poor thing itself.
One being as many stated that it sort of lags before it does its storm so it loses dps every time. The slowing is good but i’ve found that a lot of people can break out of it! But at least it does damage right? Well.. I thought chimeras did good damage in the first place. However after I calculated a damage meter with all my pets which were all the same level with all the same buffs, Chimera was last… I even tried again to see if maybe I messed up somehow, but even my bat was doing more damage and we all know it has horrible skill time.
It’s also even harder to keep a cunning pet these days because they don’t have the amazing skills of reviving instantly from ferocity or gaining 30% of their hp like tenacity. Sure they have the mana spell but lately it seems that the mana issue was easily solved with aspect of the viper. Don’t get me wrong though the skill is still useful but…
This is only my opinion, I love chimeras and i think they’re great pets! Just.. They need a little buff.
@Lamra
They did “good damage” during beta becuse of a bug. It wasn’t really “good damage”, more “broken”. I think there was about 3k Froststorm crits at lvl 70. That simply wasn’t balanced, at all :p.
Cunning pets as a whole do need a buff though, right now Im gimpin myself everytime I bring my lovely Serpent or Ravager to an instance =(
Having had good results from a hyena on my dwarf SV hunter, I just tamed a white chimera the other day for my male nelf hunter, and am looking forward to trying it out; I love being able to “frontload” the damage on a slowed mob rather than always having to do it the slow/prudent/boring way of charge/sting/autoshotx5/arcane shot finish. My only concern here is whether a BM spec’s firepower can easily pull aggro from a mob, even at “maximum”… but I suppose that could be easily remedied by simply turning off growl…
For PVP, as we’ve seen so much of, these babies are EXCELLENT. I find that I prefer the slow effect to a true root because people usually won’t react to it or break out of it as quickly. But, I’m gonna add my two cents about PvE, since we’ve had so much PvP talk already.
Chimeras in PvE settings are very situational. They are at their best (and I’ve been saved by this in the past) when you are fighting mobs that tend to ‘run for help,’ since it gives you more time to finish the kill, or fighting trash mobs in instances. Normally, I wouldn’t reccomend bringing your Chimera to an instance due to Cunning DPS and its large size, but, on more than one occasion, I’ve seen a mob break form the tank and head for the healer or a squishy DPS and I’ve sent my Chimera after it. Between Froststorm and Intimidate, the time he can buy the party to react is very valuble.
I enjoy them for soloing because of their usefulness in unexpected situations.
To borrow from Rilgon, who’s really a good guy despite being a spacegoat.
3 words.
Beautiful PvP Pet.
I wouldn’t bring it in a PvE environment, but the uses for a Chimaera in a PvP environment are staggering.
I’d like to confirm what others have said about Chimaeras. Having an unholy, unnatural obsession about rare spawns, I finally went and found Nuramoc once I got to L80.
PvP-wise: Even at L75, the chimaera was doing fantastic in PvP (wintergrasp FFA PvP). Rarely resisted, my chimaera was constantly slowing players. Froststorm Breath + Intimidate is a fierce combination. Very excellent lock-down pet, and help augment a Hunter’s ability to kite. The large visual space it occupies is wonderful- just don’t keep the pet terribly close to YOU to obstruct your view if possible!
PvE-wise (I reside on a PvE server): Solo’ing and in instances, however, the chimaera lost a bit of his shine. Roar of Recovery is a godsend at times, although any Cunning pet can obtain this skill. With the mediocre damage (though typical of most Cunning pets), and very situational uses of Froststorm Breath in an instance (Concussion Shot, though on a longer timer, is usually enough to slow a runner, no need for another slow that I’ve found so far), and taking up a lot of visual space makes it my least favourite Cunning instance pet. I much prefer my Nether Ray for it’s focus-free “earthshock” ability in instances.
My two cents: Excellent, bar none, PvP pet. Mediocre in PvE, although I could definitely see uses for solo’ing on a PvP server. Very happy to have the Chimaera available to BM Hunters.
I have Nuramoc and I can tell you this guy is a beast in PvP. He rocks harder than my core hound or my devilsaur. I just send this guy into the mix in the bg and watch the fun commence as it slows the opponent that is fighting another bg ally as i focus fire him as well. My bg ally loves it because whomever he was fighting is now moving at a permenant 50%, giving them more time to kite and cast spells, and if they run toward me even better for him and i can still move and shoot. Best PvP pet imo.
the chimera is ok…
The stutter is a pain and it’s dps is mediocre(SP) it is about 100 dps short of my trex… i used him, her, it w/e against king magni and tyrande and he probably didnt top 100dps
if you are getting exotic pets i’d go with ANY others except for the coolness factor…
Hi! Long time reader, first time poster. Its about chimeras, I had to!
I have Nuramoc, and this is the best pet I’ve used for pvp so far. I dont arena on my hunter, but bg a whole lot while leveling, and chimeras have been my most favorite pet to take to bgs.
Froststorm Breath: A 50% slow that’s up 5 seconds on a 7 second CD. Its a 20 yard range slow, and its (almost) un-dispellable! Froststorm doesnt count as a magic effect, so paladins cant freedom or cleanse it, and priests cant dispel it. I can always count on my target being snared, and topped off with concussion shot and frost trap, kiting is incredibly easy.
Wings: Chimeras are big and annoying, and have the wingspan of a bus. One of my ways to get away from rogues is to hit feign death after the stun so he auto targets my big pet. Being a dwarf hunter, he covers me completely. Out of PvP, the wings get in the way, so I usually put him in the corner of the bank when I’m busy with the bank or mailbox.
It’s a shame not all hunters can use chimeras…they are just so amazing for kiting! A highly recommended pet!
I had a chance to finally use my chimaera on my male nelf hunter last night, and it is turning out to be everything I hoped for – still 2 levels below me, but already it’s slow effect is going off reliably, and allowing me to cut loose with dps rather than hold back and try to stay below pet’s threat level all the time.
As others have said, big wingspan can be annoying once in a while but it’s a small price to pay.
Also on a side note, thanks to the change to pet gcds, I can now use his roar of recovery reliably without it getting locked out by gcd of bite/growl/etc. Nice.
Is it just me or the chimaera and all the other “caster” pets have had their crippled casting bug, where they had that stutter walk problem, been fixed? Yesterday it was so good to realise that yesterday!!
Has anybody noticed that?
Chimaera was a very good pet for me, but for this reason from the bug, it did not make it to 75 with me.. :(
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