The question: Being a lvl 56 survival hunter with a Crab/Owl pet (depending on my mood), what would you feel is the best technique to grind/farm with him? (such as farming Mageweave for our alt FirstAid, Tailors, etc).
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Farstriders&n=Nookni

Currently, I have a macro to cast Hunter’s Mark, and send in the pet. I wait until a growl+claw/screech goes off, then /cast Serpent Sting. Afterwards, I generally just let Autoshot PewPew with the occasional Mend Pet or a Arcane Shot to finish something off quickly.

If I expect a multiple pull mob, I tend to toss a freezing trap before the initial pet runs in, and fire a multishot after the growl to pull one of the adds into the trap. With a few weeks of practice, I can now comfortably trap this extra mob three times, though usually the first mob is dead before the first trap wears off, so it’s not necessary unless a 3-pull.
(Kiting a mob around the zone is a bit beyond my skill-level now, and needs practice.)

However, this method seems slow, boring, and pretty ‘automated’. Click a button, wait a second, click another, go get a drink while autoshot kills mob.

Is there a better way to grind at this level, that does not suck mana like draining water through a sieve? My reasoning for the Serpent+ Auto is that if I use a basic +8mp5 oil on my weapon, I can generally grind pretty quickly with only needing to stop and drink every 10 mobs or so.

My research so far with survival tends to result in end-levels information, where a Steady Shot rotation, Snake traps, Misdirection, and such are all ‘given’ skills. Levelling up (slowly) there’s not much info other than “get to lvl XYZ, when you can be using ABC skill”.

My hunter, Nookni, is currently lvl 56 and will probably be sticking around under lvl 60 for quite a while, mostly to help guildmate alts group up through this pre-Outlands stretch of questing. Nookni is meant to be my ‘farming’ alt.

(I do not PVP much other than to grind tokens for a black Raptor when I eventually ding 60)

For the longest time, I had been a beastmaster, before they were the current “favorite” of MQoSRDPS flavour for raids. Then, a few months ago, I respecced Survival to try something different. I fell in love with the Hunter again. Trapping, was easier, I learned a bit more about aggro and could actually survive getting the periodic melee-your-face Add-mob. I started collecting a bit more agility on my gear, etc. I also dropped alchemy sine our guild had a large number of them, and figured I’d go to [Dis]enchanting to help feed our guild enchanter materials from random drops I get while farming.

I know I can enchant my gear a bit better, and probably upgrade some things with a few quick instance-runs from guildmates, but for now, I’m mostly concerned with the “how/why” of Survivalism, and being less of a “Huntard” as far as methodology.

Thanks,
-Nate
Nookni, Kanandi, Denahi (Farstriders Realm)