Shaman what are your go-to pet buffs?
 

I normally just throw on sow, a talisman, and haste but I was killing the oasis specs last night and with the ac buff (18 ac I think) he was not really losing much health to a Togor'd spectre, he was actually gaining it back almost as fast as he was getting hit.

To my eyes the ac buff was very effective but I could have just been getting a long run of weaker specs too. Before using that buff the pets were ending the fight at 50% health, and after they were at 90%ish. (was level 39 pet, 35 hitter).

Are there any other buffs that actually have benefit? I don't bother with stat buffs since I'm pretty sure they have no effect..

Just haste, but I don't pet tank.

Personally the only buff I ever bother with is the strength one from my Jaundiced Arms. I haven't done extensive log parsing or anything, but subjectively I found the different between a hasted pet and an un-hasted one to be ... almost non-existent. Certainly not enough to justify spending that mana every time the buff runs out (which is often).

But YMMV.

Once you can click epic and get paralyzing earth, it tends to be more efficient to kill 4-6 things at a time with just PE + epic than to bother ever casting slow. This was true for me in CoM ramparts and now in HS ent. I doubt I'll use a pet while soloing again until I get torpor, unless its as a sacrifice to help me get roots down on a whole bunch of mobs.

I suppose that changes against casters or summoners, but I'm not there yet.

Weird I have buffed pet with strength buff before but he didn't hit for more damage - does it still give more atk power then?

PE hammer, str, celerity, avatar if there's rogues around just to get a rise out of them.

-Only mana buff I use on the pet is the low lvl haste 'quickness'
-The others are the jaundiced clicky str, dex, agi. Not that they need it, but no mana cast buffs? why the hell not. Haste is the most effective.

I could have sworn I did see him hit for more, but I wasn't being methodical when I tested so it's entirely possible the dog got killed and I summoned a newer (higher-level/higher damage-dealing) pet and mistook that for an increase from the strength, or something like that.

Does anyone know for sure if str makes the pets max hit higher?

for what it's worth, I do know that when you cast sta on the pet it's hp doesn't go below 100%, so sta does nothing.