Hunter pets: taming and care

Your first pet (level 10)

1. At level 10, talk to the hunter trainer in your starting area. They start the taming quest chain for your race.
2. The chain sends you to tame three beasts with a special taming rod, one after another. Each one only stays with you for a short while.
3. Finish the whole chain. The last step teaches Tame Beast, Beast Training, Feed Pet and Revive Pet. Skipping it leaves you without the tools to look after a pet.
4. Now pick any beast to keep and use Tame Beast on it. It's a channel of about 20 seconds: stand still and don't let anything break it.
5. Your new pet joins you at loyalty 1 with low happiness. Feed it straight away (see below).

Taming tips

Since the September 24 beta update you can only tame beasts at your level or lower.

1. While you channel Tame Beast your armour drops to nothing, so the beast hits you hard. Start at full health.
2. Open with Freezing Trap or Concussive Shot so the beast is slowed or frozen when you start, and turn on Aspect of the Monkey for extra dodge.
3. The tame fails if the beast stops attacking you or takes damage while you channel. Ask other players not to help.
4. You can't tame while you already have a pet out, dismissed or dead. Stable it or abandon it first (see the stable section below).

Happiness and feeding

Happiness changes how much damage your pet does: about 125% when happy (green), 100% when content (yellow) and 75% when unhappy (red).

1. Use Feed Pet and click a food in your bags. You can't feed in combat.
2. Hover over the happiness icon on the pet frame to see which kinds of food it will eat. Each family has its own diet: see Hunter pet families.
3. Feed food close to your pet's level. Food far below its level gives little or no happiness.
4. Happiness drops slowly over time, a lot when your pet dies, and some each time you dismiss it. Feed it after every death.
5. Keep a stack of food in your bags at all times: Tough Jerky or Haunch of Meat for meat eaters, Shiny Red Apple or Tel'Abim Banana for fruit eaters, cooked fish for fish eaters.

Loyalty and training points

From Classic: loyalty has 6 levels, from Rebellious (1) to Best Friend (6). Beta reports say it works the same in WoW: Forever.

1. Loyalty goes up slowly by itself while your pet is happy. Keep it green and the rest takes care of itself.
2. An unhappy pet loses loyalty, and a pet that stays unhappy at the lowest loyalty can run away for good.
3. Loyalty and level give your pet training points (TP), which you spend to teach it abilities. In Classic it's pet level × (loyalty − 1), so a fresh pet at loyalty 1 has none.
4. A newly tamed pet that already knows abilities can start with negative training points. They catch up as it levels and gains loyalty.
5. Check loyalty and points in the pet tab of your character window (press C).

Levelling your pet

1. Pets have their own experience bar. They get a share of the experience from the monsters you kill (about a quarter, by beta reports), but no quest or rested experience.
2. A pet can't pass your level. If it's at your level it stops gaining experience until you level up.
3. A pet tamed well below your level is slow to catch up. Tame one close to your level when you can.
4. In WoW: Forever pets get stronger with your gear: Blizzard says they gain stats from what you wear. Stat buffs from other players no longer work on pets.

Stables and abandoning

1. A stable master in most towns keeps pets you aren't using. You can buy two stable slots, so up to three pets in all: one with you and two stabled.
2. Swap pets at any friendly stable master. Stabled pets keep their level, loyalty and abilities.
3. To get rid of a pet for good, right click its portrait and choose Abandon. It can't be undone.
4. Hunters often tame a beast just to learn its ability, then abandon it. See Pet abilities and training.

Controlling your pet

1. The pet bar has Attack, Follow and Stay, and three modes: Passive, Defensive and Aggressive.
2. Aggressive mode came back in the October 1 beta update. Use it with care in dungeons: the pet attacks anything near you.
3. Right click an ability on the pet bar to turn its autocast on or off. Turn off Growl in groups so your pet doesn't take the tank's monsters.
4. Use Mend Pet to heal it and Revive Pet if it dies. Revive costs happiness, so feed it afterwards.

Tips

• Feed your pet before a long session and after every death. A happy pet does a quarter more damage than a content one.
• Pets solo-tank very well while levelling: let it hold the monster and shoot from range.
• In the beta, pet happiness and some abilities have had bugs. If something looks wrong, check Blizzard's notes before you abandon a pet you like.

Sources

• Blizzard: Beta development notes
• Blizzard: Druid and Hunter class deep dives
• Warcraft Tavern: WoW Forever hunter pets
• Petopia Classic: how to train your pet