Claw

As of patch 4.0.1 Pet Basic attacks appear to be an important attack for a hunter pet. In previous patches (3.3.5 in this view) they were focus dumps as they had no cooldown (other than the GCD, ofc), and costed 25 focus. They didn't hit that hard so I was a bit unpleased about it.

Now, they scale with their master's ranged attack power (idk if they also did in the previous patches), have a quick cooldown, and still cost the same amount of focus. The cooldown is implemented since the basic attacks hit much harder (if you ask me)

Also, there are some talents that make basic attacks have no reason why not to turn off its autocast.

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• Invigoration, a talent that gives you focus when your pet critically hits with its basic attack, is much more useful in the current patch. In 3.3.5 I find that pet crits give you 1% mana isn't really worth taking, as I don't mind having a decreased dps with aspect of the viper.
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• Frenzy and Focus Fire : FF generally replaces Imp. Aspect of the Hawk as well as giving your pet focus at the cost of consuming your pet's frenzy. The benefit increases per stack. Frenzy now will proc for 100% when your pet's basic attack hits the enemy. Solid dps increase if you ask me.
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• Sic' em : a tier 2 talent in marksmanship, meaning you can only get them once cataclysm is released. When Arcane shot, explosive shot or chimera shot crits, your pet's next basic attack will cost no focus. Not really that good though since a basic attack costs just 25 focus but then again they hit hard now so you have a wider window for your pet to use basic attacks.
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• Cobra Strikes : Arcane shot hits have a 15% chance to proc and make your pet's next 2 basic attacks to crit. This is a nice complement to Invigoration. Again, pet basic attack hits fairly harder now so a crit from it would make the damage output better.
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Concerning hunter's pet, it is exactly the same spell than Bite or Smack.