Some things I found while testing in the Mists the other day:
Malicious Training
This trait in marksmanship line is quite overlooked I think in many builds over the expertise training because most BM builds stress survivability but it’s actually quite powerful. I tested it on the running heavy golem and it seems to almost double the chill duration from my snow leopard. This should apply to cripple, bleed, daze and knock-down or immobilize from the other pets as well but I didn’t have time to try all the pets yet, will do so today.
Chill with Snow Leopard, Owl and Alpine Wolf
So I think most people use felines for the dps and canines for the cc and they are awesome for that but I think the chill F2 skills of the Ice region pets(above) are not as appreciated as others such as drake breath bursts and jaguar’s amazing stealth crit or fern hounds regen.
With the above Malicious training the snow leopard can chill for about 8 seconds on a 30 second cooldown(24 with commanding voice trait) in those 8 seconds you can pop your sick’em QZ RAO SoW for a huge 4 second burst. Of course there is condition removal in pvp but here is where pet choice matters. The Owl has chilling slash a similar chill F2 ability which has 16 seconds cooldown(16 with commanding voice) this chills for 3 seconds but with Malicious training you get that to 6 seconds.
So you will have Axe 3 chill for 3 seconds(10sec CD), Owl chill for 6 seconds and Snow Leopard chill for 8 seconds. If they don’t have any condition removal then they will be almost always chilled, not that you need them chilled for that long anyway as your snow leopard has a strong burst which coupled with the extended duration bleeds should kill anything. The wolf has a howl chill for 4 seconds so similar in duration to leopard but its AOE as a consequence it takes ages to howl and won’t hit anything but the thief sneaking in for a BS
Fortifying Bond
This is a great trait to have for your pet especially if you have some allies that are combo field lovers as they will get all your boons. Another thing with this trait is that you pass on your boons from any source including Healing spring and any F2 ability, which are AOE. Therefore these skills with double the boon duration/intensity for your pet.
Example: Mighty Roar from Jungle Stalker gives 5 stacks of might for 15 seconds, pretty ok, with this trait that jumps to 10 stacks and if you had mighty swap then you could always start off with your Jungle stalker with 13 stacks of might and 2 secs of quickness, pretty awesome. Another thing is regardless of the pet HS will also double in duration, so with extended boon duration/sufficient points in NM you can have perma regen for your pet coupled with SoW and Natural Healing your pet should be good against any condition stacking.
Healing Spring
Ok so HS which I recently discovered and am using is pretty cool with extended boon durations. One thing that many people don’t like is that you have to stay in the field and that’s kinda a half truth. HS pulses every 3 seconds to make it seem like you have constant regen while in the field. You don’t have to stay there. Just chuck it down and move away and then maybe roll into it every 3 seconds to get that refresh and then leave, so yes you do need to be in it but not always.
sorry for the wall of text!
Happy Ranging!