(NB: Guide Below!)
How To: Pet Tanking Nefarian Adds in Phase 1
Encounter: Nefarian 10-man Normal
Raid: Blackwing Descent BWD
Guild: The Cuppy Cakes
Realm: Whisperwind (US)
Faction: Horde
PoV: Bragaul - Orc Hunter
Spec: BM

WCM Channel: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/pv.php?l=bragaul
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Bragaul

Music: Immediate Music - Lacrimosa (Choir)

Tags: Nefarian Blackwing Descent BWD Normal HD Bragaul Hunter BM SV MM Beast Mastery Survival Marksmanship Marksman Cuppy Cakes Whisperwind Cataclysm Cata WoW Warcraft Raid Pet Tanking Adds Skeletons

********GUIDE********

As you make your way through the bosses of Blackwing Descent you will find yourself facing Nefarian as the final boss. While there are different phases of this fight this guide will only deal with the first phase.

Shortly after the first phase begins, five Animated Bone Warriors spawn in quick succession and will become inanimate when their energy is drained. Since the adds die on their own, there is no reason to try and dps them down like typical adds in a fight; they only need to be controlled. Since this is a 10-man encounter, traditionally tanking the adds involves bringing a 3rd tank which is not ideal. Most 10-man strategies involve crowd control or kiting the adds using a frost mage, frost death knight, or even a rogue as our guild had done often in the past.

The duty of kiting the adds may fall upon your shoulders as a hunter. While possible, it is much easier to offer up an alternative. In truth, what I�m proposing is one of the easiest ways to control the adds in phase one and, in addition, one of the most reliable ways to control where the skeletons become inanimate. As a hunter in this encounter, there should be no reason to have any class kite the adds at all.

While I am a Beast Mastery hunter, it is only because my raid lacks a ferocious inspiration buff. This strategy can be used by marksman or survival hunters too. You should start this fight with a tenacity pet with thunderstomp and the other tanking talents trained but if you have a turtle you will gain a second damage reduction ability in shell shield. In addition to the pet tanking talents there is a glyph that makes this entire strategy possible and it�d be very hectic without it: Glyph of Misdirection. This will allow you to chain misdirects to your pet. Misdirect should be up on your pet as often as needed to ensure it never looses aggro.

Even though your pet will have the tanking talents trained and you�ll be keeping up mend pet, it will still require some heals from one of your healers. It is not difficult to keep the pet alive, however, have shell shield on autocast for emergencies and macro cower to mend pet to reduce the damage the pet takes.

Begin the fight with your pet on passive because you don�t want your pet to run off to Onyxia when the fight begins. While you can take a couple shots at Onyxia when the fight begins remember that your first priority is add control so when you jump down begin looking for that first skeleton spawn. Once the add spawns you can send your pet to attack it and set its behaviour to defensive. Putting your pet on defensive once the adds are up prevents your pet from running out of position later when its target dies.

The other adds will begin to spawn one after the other and it�s your job to misdirect those adds to your pet. It�s best to select a spot for the adds to die near one of the skeletons� spawn points. That way you can send your pet to that skeleton when it spawns and have little worry about repositioning after your pet has aggro on all the adds.

When your pet has aggro on all the adds and is in position your responsibilities are keeping up mend pet and ensuring it keeps aggro on the adds by using misdirection. A misdirected multi-shot is useful here. You can probably return to dpsing Onyxia or Nefarian but your first priority is add control.

When the adds have become inanimate, dismiss your turtle and summon the dps pet which provides the most needed buff to your raid.

I hope that helps. Despite all my commentary, this is very easy to do and is probably the best way to handle phase one in the 10-man version of this encounter.