Hunter Pets
Choosing a Pet
With a huge selection of beasts to tame in World of Warcraft people often ask “What`s the best pet?” or “What pet should I choose?” The answer depends on your situation; for example, are you leveling, PVPing or raiding? If leveling, a pet with 
a higher amount of health or armor is preferred as your pet should be sustaining most, if not all the damage from enemies. If PVPing, high damage pets are recommended. For raiding and instances, virtually any pet is fine but be warned that flying pets often annoy melee class players. If you are a new hunter starting out, any pet is fine as you can abandon it later on and tame another.
High damage: Cats, serpents, spiders, bats, raptors, wind serpents and owls
High health: Bears, gorillas, striders and nether rays
High armor: Boars, turtles, birds, wolves, scorpids, crocodiles, warp stalkers, hyenas and crabs
The pet “dragonhawk” fits into its own category of all-round
Another factor to consider when choosing a pet is pet skills. While some skills are available to certain pets, others are not. Each pet can equip up to 4 active skills, costing a certain amount of training points depending on the level of the skill with the exception of “growl”, which is free to learn. Again, the “best” skills depend on your situation - PVPing, leveling or fighting a particular boss. Below is a list of the active (highest available rank) and passive pet skills available.
| Pet Ability (active) | Description | Focus | Pet Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taunt | Taunts the target, increasing the likelihood the creature will focus attacks on your pet. Lasts 3 seconds - essential for leveling | 15 | This skill is available to all pets and is learned from pet trainers |
| Charge | Charges an enemy, immobilizes it for 1 sec, and adds 550 melee attack power to the boar’s next attack. Extremely useful for leveling and PVP | 35 | Boars |
| Prowl | Puts your pet in stealth mode, but slows its movement speed by 40%. The first attack from stealth receives a 50% bonus to damage. Lasts until cancelled. Perfect for an ambush as a Night Elf | 40 | Cats |
| Dash | Increases movement speed by 80% for 15 sec. Can be used while your pet is stealthed | 20 | Boars, cats, hyenas, raptors, ravagers, striders and wolves |
| Claw | Claw the enemy, causing 54 to 76 damage | 25 | Bears, birds, cats, crabs, owls, raptors, scorpids, warp stalkers |
| Bite | Bite the enemy, causing 108 to 132 damage | 35 | Available for most pets |
| Gore | Gores the enemy, causing 37 to 61 damage. This attack has a 50% chance to inflict double damage | 25 | Boars, ravagers |
| Screech | Blasts a single enemy for 33 to 61 damage and lowers the melee attack power of all enemies in melee range by 210. Effect lasts 4 seconds | 20 | Bats, birds and owls |
| Scorpid Poison | Inflicts 55 Nature damage over 10 sec. Effect can stack up to 5 times on a single target | 30 | Scorpids |
| Dive | Increases movement speed by 80% for 15 seconds | 20 | Bats, birds, dragonhawks, nether rays, owls and wind serpents |
| Furious Howl | Party members within 15 yards of the wolf receive an extra 45 to 57 damage to their next Physical attack. Lasts 10 seconds with a 10 second cooldown | 0 | Wolves |
| Lightning Breath | Breathes lightning, instantly dealing 99 to 113 Nature damage to a single target | 50 | Wind serpents |
| Thunder Stomp | Shakes the ground with thundering force, doing 153 to 177 Nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards. This ability causes a moderate amount of additional threat. 1 minute cooldown | 60 | Gorillas |
| Shell Shield | Reduces all damage your pet takes by 50%, but increases the time between your pet’s attacks by 43%. Lasts 12 sec. 3 minute cooldown | 10 | Turtles |
| Fire Breath | Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 111 Fire damage over 2 seconds. 10 second cooldown | 50 | Dragonhawks |
| Poison spit | Spits poison at an enemy, dealing 96 Nature damage over 8 seconds | 35 | Serpents |
| Warp | Teleports to an enemy up to 30 yards away and gives the pet a 50% chance to avoid the next melee attack. Lasts 4 seconds | 25 | Warp Stalkers |
| Cower | Cower, causes no damage but lowers your threat, making the enemy less likely to attack your pet | 15 | This skill is available to all pets |
Pet Skills (Passive) - Available to all pets
- Avoidance: Reduces the damage your pet takes from area of effect (AoE) attacks by an additional 50%. Primarily a raid skill as many bosses have AoE spells and abilities.
- Cobra Reflexes: Increases the attack speed but reduces the damage inflected by your pet - ideal for interrupting casters.
- Great Stamina: Increases your pet`s staminia by up to 64. Great for any situation where your pet may take damage, especially while leveling or raiding. The drawback is the amount of training points it costs for higher levels.
- Natural Armor: Increases your pet`s armor by up to 1600. This is primarily used while leveling and rarely seen once reaching level 70.
- Resistance (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow): Increases your pets resistance to a school of magic by up to 140. Note that resistances are trained separately.
The last things you may wish to consider when choosing a pet is it`s diet and looks. Cats for instance, will eat meat and fish which are the most readily available food sources in the game. While leveling, having a pet that eats fish will save you money and time as you can fish for food instead of buying it. Gorillas on the other hand, only eat fruit and fungus which are less commonly available, yet still purchasable from vendors within towns and cities. Boars and bears are great as they will eat just about anything you place under their noses. If you are unsure of a pet`s diet, use the “beast lore” skill (a level 24 skill) to uncover a wide variety of pet facts. Alternatively, tame a pet, open the character sheet (press c), select the pet tab and hold the cursor over the green icon.
The pet I tamed and currently use is the elite tiger “King Bangalash” found in Stranglethorn Vale (STV). My reasons for using this pet are simple:
- It looks neat (although overly common amongst hunters)
- High DPS (damage per second)
- Eats meat and fish
- Has prowl.
Since my hunter`s race is Night Elf, the skill prowl compliments the elf`s racial trait Shadow Meld nicely. Whether I`m laying in wait for an unsuspecting victim, either in battlegrounds or the open world, or scouting ahead using my pet, prowl is my skill of choice. Having charge would be great, but prowl is more suited to my style of play, which in my opinion is the most important factor to consider when choosing a pet.
Learning Pet Skills
A common question among hunters of all levels is “how do I learn pet skills?” or “I can`t teach other pets new skills, why?” Simply taming a pet with the skill you want and hoping to teach that skill to another pet isn`t enough. In order to learn the skill yourself, you must use the pet with the skill you want for a short while (usually a couple of minutes). Once learned, you will notice a message in the general chat box saying “You have learned x skill (level y)”
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