Hunter pet families

How families work

Every beast you can tame belongs to a family: wolf, cat, bear and so on. The family decides what it eats, which abilities it can learn and how its damage, armour and health compare to other pets.
In WoW: Forever each family has one ability of its own, like the Wolf's Furious Howl or the Bear's Swipe.
Most families can also learn Bite or Claw (some both) and Dash or Dive. Every family can learn Growl, Cower and the trainer abilities (see Pet abilities and training).
Two beasts of the same family share the same abilities and diet. The look is up to you.

Every family at a glance

Damage, armour and health are compared with an average pet (so +10% damage hits 10% harder). The numbers match Classic; beta testers report the same values in WoW: Forever. Family abilities are from Blizzard's class deep dive and beta testing.

Family	Own ability	Eats	Damage / Armour / Health
Bat	Sonic Blast (added to bats on September 24)	Fruit, fungus	+7% / 0 / 0
Bear	Swipe: hits up to 3 targets	Everything: meat, fish, cheese, bread, fungus, fruit	−9% / +5% / +8%
Bird of Prey (owls)	Mine!: a disarm	Meat	+7% / 0 / 0
Boar	Charge: rushes in and stuns briefly	Everything	−10% / +9% / +4%
Carrion Bird	Demoralizing Screech: weakens enemies near it	Meat, fish	0 / +5% / 0
Cat	Prowl: stealth, with a bonus on the first hit	Meat, fish	+10% / 0 / −2%
Crab	Pinch (from beta testers)	Fish, bread, fungus, fruit	−5% / +13% / −4%
Crocolisk	Dismember: cuts healing on its target	Meat, fish	0 / +10% / −5%
Fox (new)	Trickster's Dance: more dodge and faster attacks for 12 seconds	Meat	0 / +5% / 0
Gorilla	Thunderstomp: nature damage to enemies around it	Fruit, fungus	+2% / 0 / +4%
Hyena	Tendon Rip: slows its target	Meat, fruit	0 / +5% / 0
Raptor	Savage Rend: a bleed	Meat	+10% / +3% / −5%
Scorpid	Scorpid Poison: stacking poison	Meat	−6% / +10% / 0
Spider	Web: roots its target in place	Meat	+7% / 0 / 0
Tallstrider	Dust Cloud	Cheese, fungus, fruit	0 / 0 / +5%
Turtle	Shell Shield: halves damage taken, but slows its attacks	Fish, fungus, fruit	−10% / +13% / 0
Wind Serpent	Lightning Breath: ranged nature damage	Fish, cheese, bread	+7% / 0 / 0
Wolf	Furious Howl: more attack power for your party (cut by 40% on September 24)	Meat	0 / +5% / 0

Damage families

Cat and Raptor hit hardest (+10% damage). Cats can Prowl to open fights; raptors bleed their target.
Bat, Bird of Prey, Spider and Wind Serpent all have +7% damage with no penalty to armour or health, so they're strong all-rounders.
High damage families die faster when they tank. Watch their health while levelling.

Tough families

Bear has the most health (+8%) and Swipe holds up to three monsters, which makes it the best pet for pulling more than one monster while levelling.
Boar and Turtle have heavy armour. Turtles can halve damage with Shell Shield when things go wrong.
Crab, Crocolisk and Scorpid are armoured too, with less damage.
Bears and boars eat anything, so they're the easiest pets to keep fed.

Support families

Wolf: Furious Howl gives your party more attack power. Popular in groups with melee players.
Carrion Bird: Demoralizing Screech weakens what's attacking you.
Gorilla: Thunderstomp hits everything near it, handy when your pet tanks a group.
Hyena and Spider slow or root enemies, which helps keep monsters and players away from you.

Tips

Not sure where to start? A cat for damage or a bear for safe levelling are both easy picks.
Diet matters more than you'd think: a pet that only eats fruit and fungus needs food you won't pick up from kills.
Families are fixed, but the beast you tame decides how fast it attacks. See Choosing a hunter pet.
A Core Hound family has been reported in the game files, but no one has tamed one yet.

Sources

Written by ONN from the WoW: Forever beta and Blizzard's notes, last checked October 8, 2026. The beta is still changing, so details may be different at launch on November 4. Something wrong? Tell us in #help.

Type	Hunter pets
Families	18
New in Forever	Fox, and Owls renamed Birds of Prey
Faction	Both
Time	About 6 minutes to read