BigRedKitty: Gorilladin 101
by Daniel Howell 
Oct 24th 2008 at 9:00AM
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.
One the one hand, we've received truckloads of emails asking for help with Gorilla-pets. And we can understand that, as the Gorilladin (Gorilladin = Gorilla + Paladin AoE attack) version of this pet deviates from the standard hunter-pet model of single-target destruction. This guy is an AoE-tank and the way to properly utilize him is different than every other hunter-pet. Thunderstomp and Volley are your friends with a Gorilla, foshizzle.
But on the other hand, the hunter-community has had to "endure" two of our movies about the Gorilla already, and doing another seems to be a little overboard. Can one have too much Gorilla? We really don't want a backlash.
We decided to do one more Gorilladin movie, but this is the last one. We're going to try to cover, in fine detail, a successful way to train and utilize a Gorilladin for use with farming multiple mobs. We chose Talbuks because we love leather, but the methods herein work with any non-caster mob: humanoids, beast, demons, etc.
The two macros we discuss in this movie are:
The Simple Pet-Misdirection Macro
/cast [target=your_pet's_name] Misdirection
The Pet-Attack Macro
/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack
There are many variations of these, but we're aiming for simplicity here. This is a 101 class, not graduate studies.
And because we're sure someone will ask, we're using Perl Classic Unit Frames, Bartender4, ButtonFacade, Chatter, OmniCC, and FuBar3.5 addons.
You are invited to download the YouTube version (95MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (154MB) here.
As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!
From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Big Red Kitty
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Axolotl Oct 24th 2008 9:09AM
Can't be too informed ...
Yada Blah Oct 24th 2008 9:12AM
Sweet mother of god ... there is no pet that is as awesome as the gorilladin. It's got more awesome than an actual paladin. The only thing better would be a murloc made of Chuck Norrisses.
Seriously, I'm still trying to figure out what the upper limit on mobs is for my little Saurfang.
Gungadine Oct 24th 2008 9:50AM
Indeed. Even as a marksman, I am able to gather 4-5 lvl70 mobs (Netherwing Mine) and this guys handles it all. Here is my sequence.
Macro for MD
Cast Pet Heal
Macro for Hunters mark / petattack
Gather them all in one place, Volley, (Because im marks one or 2 will break off and go for me)
FD
2nd round of volley
Loot/Skin/Profit.
Ive been waiting ALLLOOOONNNGG time for gorillas to get buffed. He's also great for breaking up that 3-4 man group trying to cap a flag in AB too, if only he could stealth, imagine the possibilities.
faradhim Oct 24th 2008 9:22AM
You can't have too much information. Great job!
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WOW Blog: http://doctorsofphilosophy.blogspot.com/
Azu Oct 24th 2008 9:34AM
Always good, keep up the good work
Oldgirl Oct 24th 2008 2:08PM
Your column is always great and this was fun to watch.
Keep it up!
Evias Oct 24th 2008 9:41AM
#showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [target=focus,help][help][target=pet,exists,nodead]Misdirection
This one still works for me beautifully in raid and solo settings. If you've got a focus target, it'll MD that always as a priority. Any pet? It'll MD him to, no name required.
Zub Oct 24th 2008 9:43AM
I know BRK is all about the BeastMastery, but you might enjoy survival (even better as an engineer) with a Gorilla.
There's nothing quite like rounding up a mass of mobs just like in your vid, but then misdirecting into an explosive trap , dropping a frost grenade (which was critting for 5K on the whelps when I did the Jenkins achievment. Yummy!), unloading 3 explosive shots thx to lock-n-load from your trap, and then finishing off anything alive with volley. It's a great way to farm scholo for runecloth ;)
Night Eleves also have the benefit of shadowmeld as an extra agro drop which is helpful because agro does quickly build up.
Wish I had the tier set pet healing bonus as I do need to rely on mend pet heavily for huge pulls however.
Jesse Oct 24th 2008 9:54AM
I use my gorilla for single mobs aswell, I simply made a macro for /cast Thunderstomp and put it on my action bar.
Now when I'm fighting a single mob (or tanking the HH, hehe) I simply add the Thunderstomp key into my rotation. Works really well, and half the cooldown of growl.
Salty Oct 24th 2008 9:55AM
One thing I noticed about Gorillas is that sometimes they won't cast Thunderstomp unless they're in defensive stance, and they may not cast Thunderstomp with only one mob attacking them.
You may need to macro it into Steady Shot. The same bug affects Rabid for Ferocity pets.
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Thunderstomp
Lythrdskynrd Oct 24th 2008 9:55AM
First time I've watched a BRK movie ... really amazed to hear that he gets Ray Romano to do the voice over for his movies.
Totally Wicked!
:D
Everybody Loves Raymond!
Salty Oct 24th 2008 10:00AM
OMG, yes. The new frost grenades are ridiculous. They took the crappiest explosives they've ever made (like 125 damage and a break-on-damage snare) and increased the damage 10x (and they can crit) and made it a 6 second slow. They're cheap too! One Primal Water and 40 fel iron bars for 50 grenades.
Hydden Oct 24th 2008 10:12AM
[target=pet] means you don't have to remember your pet's name if you swap out often.
Blackhorn Oct 24th 2008 10:18AM
QUESTION: Why is this referred to as the "Gorilladin" when clearly, with his Thunderstomp and Melee actions, he's more of a warrior?
ANSWER: Gorilladin sounds cooler.
But you could also call him a "Gorrior" or a "Gorillior"
Blah. Gorilladin sounds cooler.. it's just a horrible misnomer. Unless we start calling Warrior tanks Warradin.
Rugus Oct 24th 2008 11:05AM
It was originally called "gorilladin" by BRK because at that time warriors still did not have an AoE aggro ability. Now that warriors can AoE like Palas, that would make sense ofc.
Malkie Oct 24th 2008 2:03PM
Warilla?
MikeMachine Oct 24th 2008 10:33AM
I use a Gorilla as a MM hunter, couple of things I've noticed.
Someone mentioned that he won't cast thunderstomp single target. He won't unless you toggle it, but there really is no reason to toggle it for the Gorilla because between taunt and his normal damage, the Gorilla holds plenty of aggro by himself. Multi-target people keep talking about aggro dropping off, I'm not having this issue unless the fight runs on (multiple elites).
I send the Gorilla after an add first, than after he has taunted and attacked that add, I switch him over to my real target, have him attack that target, taunt, then I sting, and volley the group. Off of the crits, the Gorilla gains the focus necessary to thunderstomp. This is key, if you don't have Go For the Throat, I highly suggest you change your spec or drop slap out of your pet skills and put taunt and thunderstomp on toggle.
The Gorilla uses way to much focus, and in order to use him at maximum capacity, Go For the Throat is key.
Osi Oct 24th 2008 11:10AM
Youtube claims video is no longer available.
Miroo Oct 24th 2008 12:20PM
Unrelated but what do you think about this PVP spec for the moment . . .
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/hunter/talents.html?tal=010000000000000000000000000053050310300100000000000002303032510200330530100300000
Kar On E Oct 24th 2008 12:25PM
I'll have to admit, I've thus far been very resistant to trying out a Gorilladin. This one is pretty convincing though...gonna have to try one now. Not sure if it'll be quite as cool at 52 as it is at 70, but worth a try nonetheless.