WotLK Classic Survival Hunter Pets Guide (2024)

Last updated on Oct 08, 2023 at 12:00by Impakt7 comments

On this page, you will learn about the Pets system for Hunters in WotLK Classic. You will also find out how to get the bestpets and use them efficienty.

Pets are perhaps the most iconic part of the Hunter's toolkit. At Level 10,you will be able to pick up a quest from any Hunter trainer that will allow youto learn how to tame a beast. After completing the quest, you will be able to goout and tame whatever pet you would like, allowing the pet to fight by your sidein combat.

In Wrath, pets are still a significant portion of the Hunter's damage.Pets in Wrath gain a portion of a Hunter's ranged Attack Power as their melee Attack Power,allowing pets to scale their damage with our gear. This enables pets to be a significant portion of ourdamage, especially as Beast Mastery, for the entire expansion. One of the most importantthings to remember for scaling pet damage: pets only gain a portion of your AP. Theydo not benefit directly from any of your other secondary stats.

The single biggest change for pets is that all pets now have talent trees. Thereare three possible talent trees, which correspond to the three categories of pets: Ferocity,Cunning, and Tenacity. The vast majority of Hunters will always use a Ferocity pet for all PvEcontent, so that is the tree we will focus on.

Taming pets can be quite dangerous. The cast is long, and you are leftcompletely vulnerable during it. It is recommended to either have a friend helpearly on by tanking the animal while you tame it, to slow it usingConcussive Shot before starting the cast, or most preferably to have aFreezing Trap set up ahead of time to freeze it while you castTame Beast.

Pets are separated into different families based on their types, such as cats,boars, or spiders. Each of the different pet families also falls intoone of three categories: offensive, defensive, or general. As the names wouldsuggest, offensive pets deal more damage while taking more damage, defensivepets take less damage while dealing less damage, and general pets are morebalanced. Unlike in past expansions, this is now done through pet-specific talent trees.Pets will have one of three talent trees based on if they are Ferocity, Cunning, or Tenacity.

When deciding on a pet, there are only two important things to consider. First,what category does it fall into? In almost every possible situation in PvE, you will wanta Ferocity pet. The Ferocity pets not only do the most damage, but they have an exceptionalcooldown as a talent that is too good to pass up. Second, you will also notice that somepets have unique abilities, such as a Wolf's Furious Howl. These can be very usefulabilities to have and it is worth having one such pet for whenever you might want that ability.Again, for most Hunters you will just use a Wolf the majority of the time.

For leveling, basically any pet will do just fine. For solo-levelers, your best bet willprobably be a Tenacity pet such as a Bear because of the durability and ability to tankmultiple enemies at once. For anyone in a group or if you are more sure of yourselfwhile leveling, Ferocity pets such as Wolves will be the best.

It is also worth noting that you do not need to worry about what level of pet youchoose to tame. Pets will now always be at minimum 5 levels below you. If you tame a Level10 wolf at Level 80, it will immediately jump to 75. Even then it will quickly catch up toyour level as you kill enemies.

Wolves are the best pet for all PvE content as a Hunter, regardless of spec. Thisis entirely due to their ability, Furious Howl, which gives both the Wolf and you an APbuff with 50% uptime. It is easily the strongest pet ability there is, as it is the only one thatalso increases the Hunter's damage too.

Unlike in TBC and original Classic, you no longer have to micro-manage yourpet's training. Regardless of what type of pet you tame, it will start with the correctabilities, and it will automatically learn all of its ability upgrades as it levels with you.No need to tame new pets just to learn new abilities.

Pet training points are completely gone. Instead, pets now have talent trees. Theyearn 1 talent point every 4 levels starting at Level 20, which they can spend in theirtalent tree. The tree they have is determined by the class of pet. As a Hunter in PvEcontent, you should use a Ferocity pet, so we will cover the Ferocity tree below. Theexact ordering of points that you should always use is below. The tree does not changeever for PvE.

1. 2/2 in Cobra Reflexes;
2. 1/1 in Dash;
3. 3/3 in Spiked Collar;
4. 3/3 in Culling the Herd;
5. 3/3 in Spider's Bite;
6. 1/1 in Call of the Wild;
7. 1/1 in Rabid;
8. 1/2 in Bloodthirsty, or 1/2 in Boar's Speed;
9. 1/2 in Wild Hunt.

The single most important point is Call of the Wild. It is the primaryreason that we use Ferocity pets, as it gives Hunters another powerful cooldown.

Pet loyalty is completely removed in Wrath; you will never again need to worry aboutyour pet running away. Pet happiness is still in the game, in basically the same form.Pets have three distinct moods that they can be in: happy, content, orunhappy. You always want your pet to be happy, as their mood affects the damagethey deal. Happy pets deal +25% damage, Content pets deal normal damage, and unhappypets deal -25% damage. Unhappy pets are also in danger of running away if theyremain unhappy for too long.

For more information on specific pets or abilities and where to find them,you should check out Petopia.