World of Warcraft Hunter Pet Guide

Pet Information and Tactics

Pets are the thing that separates hunters from almost all other classes (the one exception being the Warlock). They are also the thing that most confuses most new hunters. While the quests prepare you for a pet, and walk you through training your first pet, they leave you unprepared to make the most of your new ally. That's where this portion of our hunter guide steps in. It should be answer all your questions and more, allowing you to make far better use of your pet.

Pet Types

Pets are available in many different types or families. Each type of animal has different modifiers to their core stats (Damage, Armor and Health) as well as access to different abilities. Check out each of the pet types to find the one that fits your play style best.

The animal types that are available as pets are as follows:

Pet Skills

Pet skills are special attacks that you can teach your pet. There are a few basic ones that pretty much every pet can learn such as bite, growl, cower, armor, health and the resistance abilities. In addition there is a huge list of ones that can only be learned by specific pets.

All of these abilities fit into two basic categories: Active and Passive. Active abilities must be activated and consume focus when used. Passive abilities are those that are always on and affecting the pet.

Active pet skills:

Passive pet skills:

Pet FAQ

The following information comes from many posts on the Blizzard WoW Hunter forums, other forums around the web and time spent playing a Hunter.

How do you know if a Beast is Tameable?

In order for a Beast to be tameable it needs to fall under one of the families listed above int the pet type section. If you have the beast lore spell you can use that to see if the beast has a diet listed. If there is no diet listed it is not tameable. Note that if you do use the beast lore skill the pet’s stats will change when you tame it.

What level can I start taming beast?

You can start taming beast at level 10 after you complete your Hunter quests. You will need to talk to your local hunter trainer and they will give you a quest to go talk to the hunter trainer that will teach you how to tame beast. You will then receive 3 taming quests each one has you tame a different beast that is local to the area you are in. After you complete the taming quests you will receive Beast Taming, Calling and Dismiss skills, these are in your spell book under Beast skills. You will then receive another quest to talk to the trainer in the main city for your race. After talking to that trainer you will have the Feed, Revive and Training skills. These are also under Beast skills except for Beast training which is under general skills.

Is there a difference between families of beast?

Almost all same level pets have the same stats with a few exceptions. The main differences between pets are Health, Damage/DPS/Attack Speed and Armor/Damage resist. Most beast will have one high, one med and one low stat, though a few are med in all three. This divides them in to their basic groups: Tanks, DPS, All Purpose.

Is there a difference between mobs of the same family?

There maybe differences between mobs of the same family. The main differences between members of the same family are attack speeds. Families with different attack speeds are Cats, Wolfs, Tall Striders and Scorpids. If the attack speed is different then the dps will be different.

Is there a difference between Unique, Elite and Normal beast after taming?

No, there was earlier on in WoW's lifecycle. However, this changed prior to the release of the Burning Crusade. The only reason to tame a unique, elite or named beast instead of a normal one now is the coloration. Anyone telling you different is basing this off old information.

Is there a difference between a leveled up pet or one that is tamed at higher level?

No there is no difference in base stats between leveling up a pet or getting a new one at high level.

Do any beasts have resists?

At one point in time several types of pets had natural resistances to certain types of damage. However, now they must all be trained using training points to gain the resistance abilities taught by the pet trainers.

What does Loyalty do for my pet?

Loyalty level affects how much food you need to feed your pet to keep it happy. The higher the loyalty levels the less food. Loyalty also is where most pet training points are earned. Each time a pet gains a level of Loyalty it also gains its level in training points, ie. a level 20 pet gaining a level of loyalty will gain 20 training points. A pet with level 6 loyalty will have 5 times its level in training points minus any used for learning skills, this includes any it came with. One other thing I have noticed, pets with higher loyalty gain exp faster.

How do I gain pet Loyalty?

You gain loyalty by feeding your pet and keeping it happy. Form my experience you do not need to do anything else. I have had pets gain loyalty when sitting in town making potions. I have also gained loyalty by fighting with my pet. Some pets seem to gain loyalty faster then others so the personality of the pet might effect how fast it gains loyalty.

What does Happiness do for my pet?

Happiness level affects the pet's dps. Unhappy pets do 75% damage, Content pets do 100% damage, and Happy pets do 125% damage. Keep the pet feed to keep it happy. Also Happy and Content pets gain Loyalty. Unhappy pets lose loyalty and if they lose enough they will lose loyalty levels and eventually run away.

What does Leveling go for my pet?

Leveling will increase your pet’s stats, health, dps and armor. Each time a pet levels it gains its loyalty minus one in training point. Leveling also will let you pet learn newer versions of the pet skills.

How do I level my pet?

How I level my pets is to fight things that I can solo that give me exp. Things slightly lower to slightly higher then my own level. I also have the pet on defensive so that I will aid me in the fight. I have successfully used this method to level very low level pets. I got a level 8 vampire bat when I was 20. I leveled it to level 13 fighting level 18 to 21 things.

Do beasts come with innate skills?

Some beasts in a family will have a skill when you tame them. In general the beast must be of the same level or higher then when the skill can be taught. For instance Strigid Owls have claw 1, they are level 5-6, Strigid Screechers do not have a skill they are level 7-8, Strigid Hunters have claw 2 they are level 8-9, Claw 2 can not be trained till level 8. So when looking for a new skill try taming a beast of the right family type in the level range of the skill you are looking for.

How do I know if the pet I tamed has an innate skill?

Open the pets stat page. If they have a negative number in training points they have a skill. I would imagine it would also show up in the pet spell book. Also it will show up on the pet bar.

What skills are there and which beast have which skills?

There are many skills that pets can have and the list continues to grow. The basics are: bite, growl, claw, dash, prowl, swoop, gore, charge, and more.

How do I learn skills form the beast I tame?

First put your pet in to the stable. Then go find the beast with the skill you want to learn. Tame it. I feed them and get them happy, others only feed them to content and others don’t feed them at all. Then fight some mobs with the pet. It seems that if you fight close to the pet you will learn the skill faster. In other words get in there and melee next to the pet. You can have the skill on auto or manually trigger it, but make sure the pet uses the skill. You will get a message when you learn the skill, but you can also check in your beast training to see if you have learned it. Once you learn the skill you can let the pet go or keep as you see fit.

How do I teach my pet new skills?

To teach your pet a new skill, have your pet active. Make sure the pet can learn the skill, that it is high enough level to learn the version you are teaching and that it has training points available. Then open the beast training icon. You can open it form the spell book or move it to your hot bar. Then select the skill you want to train and push the button. The icon should appear on the pet’s hot bar.

How do stables work?

When you first go to the stable you will not have any stable slots. When you open the stable there are 3 slots, one to the left, this is the active pet slot, and two to the right, these are the stable slots. The stable slots will be grayed out, to buy the first slot cost 5 silver and to buy the second slot cost 5 gold. After you have purchased a stable slot you can move your active pet into the first slot on the right. To switch pets in and out of the stable just drag one of the pets over the other and they will trade spots.

I have a dead pet in my stable/ that I can not revive, what do I do?

Ok go to the stable if the dead pet is in the stable. Make the dead pet your active pet. Now you need to force the game to recognize that you have a dead pet. There are a few methods, zoning to a new continent has worked for me, other methods are logging out and back in or zoning to an instance. Now you should be able to revive the pet.

How do I use the pet bar?

The pet bar has 10 slots on it. The first slot is Attack, left click on this and the pet will attack your target. The next two are Follow and Stay, left click to make active, the active one will be highlighted. The next four slots are for your pets skills, growl, bite, claw and cower. Right clicking on these will set them on auto, you can tell they are on if there is a flashing ring around them. You can also manually tell a pet to use a skill by left clicking on it. The last 3 are Aggressive (attacks reds that are close), Defensive (attacks anything that attacks you) and passive (will not attack until told to), the one that is highlighted is the active one, left click to change these.

I lost my pet skill buttons how do I get them back?

Open the pets spell book and drag them back onto the pet bar. You have to have your pet active to do this.

How to I name my pet? How to I abandon my pet?

Right below your health and mana bars there is a smaller set of bars for the pet, its health and focus bars. If you right click on the picture of the pet you will get a drop down. There are several options on that drop down. Name pet (only shows up till you name the pet), Abandon pet, Show pet Stats. Clicking on Name pet will pop up a window where you can type your pets new name in. Once you name a pets it can not be renamed. Clicking on Abandon pet will release the pet never to be seen again. Do not Abandon the pet unless you are sure you don’t want that pet anymore, it can not be undone.

The base damage reduction goes up with level.

Base damage reduction starts out low and increases until about level 16. Then it will stay the same until about level 36 where it will start increasing again until in the low 40's when it will stabilize again. The base damage reduction for the beast family will be the same for leveled up pets or newly tamed higher level pets.

How do I feed my pet?

A commonly asked question from new pet owners (level 10 hunters) is how do I feed my pet. To feed you pet open up your pack to see the item you are going to feed them. Then click your Feed Pet skill and then click on the item you wish to feed them. If you select your pet you should see an eating icon under their bars and their happiness level should increase if you have fed them enough. If you try to feed them food that they do not like a message will appear on the screen stating this and you will have to try again with another food item. Cooking can help provide you with pet food that requires less bag space. Clam meat for example will stack to 10 per slot. These can be cooked into stacks of 20 clam chowder, thereby freeing up 1 inventory slot.

What is the best behavior?

Pets can be set to three behavior modes: Aggressive, Defensive and Passive. A pet set to aggresive can be very dangerous, expect to have a very exciting time in an instance. Defensive pets will require attention when it runs to attack ranged targets and can cause some issues if not careful. Passive pets only requires attention after you command it to attack. This requires the most attention but is the safest setting. There is no best setting, alot depends on your preference.

What is better Claw or Bite?

For a short battle, claw will deal much more damage than bite. However, over a long battle bite will deal more damage. Claw uses up pet energy (focus) very quickly, while bite gives more damage per focus point. Use the one (or both!) that fits your playstyle.

How do I heal my pet and control aggro?

You heal your pet by using Mend Pet. Since mend pet became a cast instead of a channel spell, you can put it up on your pet and go back to DPS. In difficult fights you should ensure you recast it every time it expires.

How does AFK affect my pet?

If you go afk, you may want to dismiss your pet first. While you are AFK your pet continues to require feeding and care. There's nothing like coming back to find an angry pet, or worse, no pet.

Which is the best pet?

There really is no best pet. It all depends on your play style. If you solo alot, then a tank type pet may be best. If you PvP then a DPS pet is best. If you raid then you may not even use a pet. It's all personal choice.

My preferance is a DPS bet, but it's just that, a personal preferance.

Which pets are High Health pets?

The Health category is Gorilla, Bear and Tallstrider. These pets will have High health, med or low armor and med or low dps. They make good tanking pets, good against non melee damage.

Which pets are High Armor pets?

The Armor category is Turtle, Crab, Scorpid, and Crocilisk. These pets will have High armor, med or low health and med or low dps. They also make good tanking pets, good against melee damage.

Which pets are High DPS pets?

The DPS category is Raptor, Cat, Bat, Owl, Spider, and Wind Serpent. These pets will have High dps, med or low health and med or low armor. These pets don’t tank as well but they kill faster making up for the lack of tanking.

Which pets are the Jack of all trades?

The Jack of all trades category is Boar, Wolf, Carrion Bird and Hyena all have med for health, armor and dps. They can tank better then the dps pets and do the same or better damage then the tanker pets. They are generalist where the other pets are specialist. These are great for people that want their pet to be able to do it all good rather then one thing great.