Hunter Pets in WoW Classic: Mechanics, Taming, Happiness

How to Tame a Pet

Tame Beast unlocks at level 10 after the "Taming the Beast" quest chain from your hunter trainer. Taming is a 20-second channel during which the beast attacks you, so tame creatures no higher than your level and heal the pet afterwards.

Tame BeastHunter, level 1060% of base mana30 yd rangeChanneled (20 sec)Begins taming a beast to be your companion. Your armor is reduced by 100% for 20 sec. If you lose the beast's attention, taming fails. A freshly tamed beast is unhappy and disloyal - feed it right away.

• You can only tame Beasts of your level or lower.
• Only one pet is active; the rest wait at the stable master in a capital city (2 stable slots in Vanilla, each bought separately).
• The pet earns experience alongside you and can never outlevel the hunter; a beast tamed below your level has to catch up.

◆Happiness and Feeding

Every pet has three happiness states: happy (green), content (yellow) and unhappy (red).

Raise happiness with Feed Pet: give food that matches your family's diet. Carnivores eat meat and fish; omnivores also eat bread, cheese and fruit. The food level should be close to the pet's level.

Feed PetHunter, level 1010 yd rangeInstantFeed your pet the selected item. Feeding your pet increases happiness. Using food close to the pet's level will have a better result.

Feed Pet

◆Loyalty and Training Points

Loyalty grows from playing together and drops when the pet starves. There are 6 loyalty levels, from "Rebellious" to "Best Friend". As loyalty and level rise, the pet earns Training Points spent on learning and upgrading abilities.

• Higher loyalty and level = more points available.
• Points are needed to teach pet abilities of the ranks you want.
• Abandoning a pet loses all invested points, so choose your beast deliberately.

Basic abilities pets learn with training points (rank 1):

BiteRank 135 FocusMelee RangeInstant10 sec cooldownBite the enemy, causing 7 to 9 damage.ClawRank 125 FocusMelee RangeInstantClaw the enemy, causing 4 to 6 damage.GrowlRank 115 FocusMelee RangeInstant5 sec cooldownTaunt the target, increasing the likelihood the creature will focus attacks on your pet.Furious HowlRank 1, wolf60 FocusInstant10 sec cooldownParty members within 15 yards receive an extra 9 to 11 damage to their next Physical attack. Lasts 10 sec.

Healing and Reviving

• Mend Pet — heals the pet in combat (channel).
• Revive Pet — resurrects a dead pet out of combat.
• Call Pet / Dismiss Pet — summon or store your active pet.

Mend PetRank 150 Mana20 yd rangeChanneled (5 sec)Heals your pet 20 health every second while you focus. Lasts 5 sec.Revive PetHunter, level 10100% of base mana10 sec castRevive your pet, returning it to life with 15% of its health.

DPS or Tank: Which to Pick

• DPS pets (cats, wolves, raptors) — top damage, fragile. Built around attack speed and buffs like Furious Howl.
• Tank pets (turtles, bears, boars, scorpids) — hold targets, tanky, lifesavers when solo farming and leveling.

Boars are tanks with their own charge:

ChargeBoar35 Focus8 - 25 yd rangeInstant25 sec cooldownCharges an enemy, immobilizes it for 1 sec and adds melee attack power to the boar's next attack.

Detailed picks are on the best DPS pets and best tank pets pages. Iconic rare beasts are gathered in rare hunter pets.

Tips for x5

• Levels fly by on an accelerated server, so tame a "grows with you" pet from a rare beast instead of swapping every few levels.
• Keep a couple of food stacks matching your pet's diet: happiness converts directly into damage.
• For level 60 raids keep a cat (Broken Tooth) or wolf; for farming, a turtle. How to connect is in the connection guide.