The Felhunter is the fourth pet available to a warlock after a succubus.

Given many anti-caster abilities, the Felhunter can be a feared pet to those casting. Modeled after the larger Fel Stalker, it is available at level 30.

Background

The most intelligent of fel stalkers are selected and trained specially to hunt spellcasters. They look much like a normal fel stalker, except for a golden band placed around one of their horns marking them as hunters. Normal fel stalkers prefer spellcasters, but fel hunters are so well trained that they ignore melee opponents entirely in favor of spellcasters, especially arcane casters. A fel hunter has the same abilities as a fel stalker. It also manifests demonic spell-like abilities - brought out due to its higher intelligence, coupled with the intense training it undergoes to become an elite spellcaster killing machine.^[1]

Abilities

The felhunter possesses four abilities, each handy in specific scenarios:

Icon	Spell	Min Level	Description
	Devour Magic	38	Purges 1 beneficial magic effect from an enemy. If an effect is devoured, the Felhunter will be healed for (1283 + (($SP * 0.5) * 0.3)).
	Fel Intelligence	32	Increases party and raid members' maximum mana by 2126 and causes them to regenerate 326 mana every 5 sec.
	Spell Lock	52	Silences the enemy for 3 sec. If used on a casting target, it will counter the enemy's spellcast, preventing any spell from that school of magic from being cast for 6 sec.
	Shadow Bite	30	Bite the enemy, causing (142 + (1.228 * ($SP * 0.5))) Shadow damage plus an additional 30% damage for each of your damage over time effects on the target.

• Demonic Empowerment dispels all magical effects from the Felhunter.

Acquiring a felhunter

The felhunter is a pet available to the warlock at level 30 after completing a series of quests. One of the warlock NPCs in any warlock trainer area in a major city can give the player the "Seeking Strahad" quest (although this quest isn't required, it acts as a signpost for where to begin), which directs the warlock to Ratchet to speak to another warlock named Strahad Farsan. Strahad then starts the player on the "Tome of the Cabal" quest sequence, during which he/she must find two parts of an ancient book, one of which is in Hillsbrad Foothills and the other of which is in Thousand Needles, then acquire three summoning rods in Wetlands, before returning to Ratchet, summoning and subduing the felhunter, and acquiring the new spell.

Quest chain

Talk to warlock trainer Strahad Farsan to obtain these quests:

•  [30] Seeking Strahad^ω τ ϖ
  •  [30] Tome of the Cabal^ω τ ϖ
    •  [30] Tome of the Cabal^ω τ ϖ
      •  [30] Tome of the Cabal^ω τ ϖ
        •  [30] The Binding^ω τ ϖ

Felhunter tips

• Take Spell Lock off auto-cast. If you have auto-cast on, the AI will cast this at an enemy caster as soon as possible; it won't wait until it's casting a spell, wasting the Spell Lock for the next 24 seconds. Until this is fixed, hit the button yourself or get a UI add-on (such as Servitude, although this mod is no longer being developed).

• Devour Magic is a powerful tool that can be used both offensively and defensively, since it can be cast on both enemy units and allied units (including yourself and the Felhunter). Use it to strip off shields and buffs from enemy players or mobs before beginning to deal damage. Since the cooldown is fairly short (six seconds) you can remove quite a few buffs from your target with ease (and without triggering your own global cooldown).

• Devour Magic really shines, however, when used defensively. It works just like a Priest's Dispel Magic in terms of what it can remove, with the added bonus that Devour Magic can be cast while the Warlock is feared, silenced, stunned, or otherwise unable to act. This makes it possible for the Warlock to remove fears, slows, sheeps, silences, and magical stuns and roots (such as a Paladin's Hammer of Justice or a Mage's Frost Nova) without popping a PvP trinket, as long as the Felhunter itself is not incapacitated or out of range. For this reason, in PvP situations it's a good idea to remove Devour Magic from auto-cast and instead use a macro to cast it on yourself when necessary. Plus, being able to strip off Shadow Priest's (or other Warlock's!) DoTs is a great help at mitigating incoming damage. In Useful macros for warlocks you will find a great macro that will cast it on your enemy on a left-click, or on yourself with a right-click.

• The felhunter also has the second highest health (third if you include the felguard) of all four(/five) pets, making it a great candidate for Soul Link as well.

• In PvP, the felhunter is highly useful against caster classes, but it's much less effective against melee classes. Few melee classes will try to kill off your felhunter if you have soul link; most of the time, they will probably ignore it.

Strengths

• Useful when fighting casters, particularly those that rely on magic based buffs and debuffs, which the felhunter can devour.
• Make excellent Soul Link candidates, as they can use Devour Magic to heal the damage they take from Soul Link.
• Highly resistant to magical damage which helps it tank caster mobs and resist damage in pvp situations while still being an annoying presence on the field of battle.
• Fel Intelligence is a great buff in a caster-heavy group.

Weaknesses

• Relatively low base damage output, boosted by Shadow Bite but still inferior to that of the Succubus or Felguard. With the Improved Felhunter talent the Felhunter will do more DPS than the Succubus.
• No taunt ability means it can only be used to off-tank a mob when there is nothing else present to draw aggro away (e.g., healers).
• Risky to use in PvP, since the only utility against melee opponents is limited DPS output.
• Long cooldown timer for Spell Lock.
• Spell Lock "auto-cast" functionality is suboptimal. It will auto-cast against any opponent as soon as possible without regard for whether the target is actually casting a spell (it will also Spell Lock non-casters!). Consequently, Spell Lock should be manually operated.
• Fel Intelligence can be overwritten by other class buffs such as Power Word: Fortitude, at least in 3.0.3.

Felhunter stats

Felhunters have innate magic resistance, equal to twice its master's level.

Most of the felhunter stats through its levels taken using a human warlock player. Level 80 stats taken from naked untalented Undead Warlock

(List not complete. If you're interested in updating, (as of Patch 2.0.1) all Buffs and take off all items have to be turned off, because now pets stats get bonuses from player stats. Patch 2.0.5 pets don't have Weapon Skill and Defense.)

Trivia

• When in water, the felhunter swims similarly to a shark using its tail.
• The felhunter unmistakably resembles a Zergling from Starcraft, Warcraft's sister series.
• The felhunter is often called a "fel puppy" by some players.

Patches and hotfixes

• / Patch 3.0.2 (14-Oct-2008): Paranoia and Tainted Blood have been replaced with Fel Intelligence and Shadow Bite. 
  

Notes

As with all minions, this minion can make use of Soulburn to be summoned instantly at the cost of a Soul Shard.

References

v • d • e Warlock minions and Minion abilities Imps: (Firebolt · Singe Magic) · (Felbolt · Sear Magic) · (Flee · Cauterize Master) Voidwalker/lord: (Shadow Shield) · (Void Shield) · (Torment · Shadow Bulwark · Suffering · Disarm) Succubus/Shivarra: (Lash of Pain · Seduction · Whiplash) · (Bladedance · Mesmerize · Fellash) · (Lesser Invisibility) Felhunter/Observer: (Shadow Bite · Devour Magic · Spell Lock) · (Tongue Lash · Clone Magic · Optical Blast) ( Demonology) Fel/Wrathguard: (Legion Strike · Felstorm) · (Mortal Cleave · Wrathstorm) · (Threatening Presence · Pursuit · Axe Toss) Doom/Terrorguard: (Doom Bolt) · Infernal/Abyssal: (Immolation) Removed abilities: (Phase Shift · Fire Shield) · (Sacrifice · Consume Shadows) · (Soothing Kiss) · (Fel Intelligence · Paranoia) (Demonic Frenzy · Anguish · Cleave · Intercept) · (Rain of Fire · Dispel Magic · War Stomp · Cripple) Minion abilities category

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