From Level 10 to Beast Training Hit level 10, run the three quick taming trials from your class trainer, and then report back. Travel to your capital to meet the pet master who unlocks the Beast Training ability. That window becomes the place where all pet skills live and where you manage your companion.
Faster, Safer Tames with Trap and Food Always start a tame through a Freezing Trap so damage won’t interrupt the cast, a lifesaver when every second matters on rares. Bring the right food for the family you plan to tame; a freshly tamed beast is unhappy by default. If you don’t feed it within 20–30 minutes, it can run away.
Happiness Controls Damage and Loyalty Happiness has three states shown by the icon: unhappy hits for 75% and may flee, content hits for 100% and stays, happy hits for 125%. Feeding maintains the green state, which is mandatory for raids. Keep the icon green to lock in maximum damage and prevent desertion.
Loyalty Ranks and Training Points Timeline Pets progress through six loyalty ranks; higher ranks cause mood to decay less frequently. Expect roughly 30–35 minutes to reach rank 2, another 30–35 to rank 3, about 45 minutes to rank 4, 60 to rank 5, and 90 to rank 6 while the pet is out. Each new rank grants +50 Training Points, plus small gains per level, ending at about 300 points to allocate.
Training Abilities: Trainers, Families, and Slots Spend Training Points in Beast Training on resistances, stamina, and armor learned from pet trainers. Offensive, control, and speed skills are learned only by taming beasts that already know them. Families are restricted to their own ability lists, and any pet can run only four active abilities at once.
Finding and Learning Higher‑Rank Skills To learn a higher rank, stable your main pet, tame a beast with that rank, and adventure with it for about 20–30 minutes until the rank appears in your pet skill list. Petopia shows each family’s diet, learnable skills, and where to find creatures that teach specific ranks. Use this loop to upgrade your main companion’s toolkit efficiently.
Patch Gating and Private Server Differences At launch only six of thirteen pet abilities existed; patch 1.7 added four more plus trainable stamina, armor, and resists; patch 1.9 added further options. On many vanilla private servers every ability is available from day one, unlike Blizzard’s progressive unlocks. Knowing your server’s patching prevents hunting ranks that don’t yet exist.
Damage Pets Ranked and Why (Pre‑1.9) Wolves lead early thanks to Furious Howl (a +50 next‑hit party buff every 10 seconds), Bite, and Dash, plus numerous standout rares. Cats deal 10% more damage than most families and bring Bite, Claw, Prowl, and Dash for superior mobility and control. Serpents carry a 7% damage bonus and strong skills with Dash; raptors also hit 10% harder but lack Dash; spiders add +7% but only one offensive skill and no mobility. With patch 1.9, cats take first place and wolves shift to second.
Tank Pets for Leveling and Farming Boars are premier tanks: +9% armor, roughly +4% health, −10% DPS, Charge to open, Bite and Dash, and an almost omnivorous diet that eases bag pressure. Bears trade mobility for threat tools, running Bite and Claw with similar armor but no Charge or Dash. Turtles boast +13% armor, Bite, and a damage‑reducing shield, perfect for soloing elites and Maraudon farms. Crabs and crocolisks lack mobility and key tools; gorillas add Thunderstomp and Bite for reliable AoE threat in grind spots.
PvP Standouts with Mobility and Utility Boars dominate openers with Charge and relentless mobility. Cats combine dual damage skills, Dash, and fast variants that smother casters with constant pushback. Bats pack +7% DPS, Bite, and Screech to lower enemy attack power; owls mirror Screech with Claw instead of Bite; carrion birds stack Bite, Claw, and Screech for a potent mix.
Functional Rares and Spawn Highlights A handful of rares provide real power; the rest are cosmetic skins. If top picks are camped, solid substitutes include fast 1.2‑speed wolves, Mist Howler with two spawn points and ~5½‑hour respawn, Humar the Pridelord with an ~11‑hour timer, stealthy cats like Shadowclaw and Duskstalker, and a Barrens quest lion that draws add packs during the tame. Notable non‑cats include a web‑casting rare spider (~5¾‑hour respawn), a fiery spider in Searing Gorge, a striking rare bird in Tanaris, bears such as a level‑43 black‑skinned variant and Ursol’lok with a 10–16‑hour timer, hyenas with Dash and very long timers, a red 1.2‑speed scorpid in Searing Gorge, and Cranky Benj the long‑timer Alterac turtle.
Lupus and the Armor‑Ignoring Edge Lupus deals shadow damage that ignores armor, lifting raid DPS and spiking hard on vulnerability windows like Chromaggus. This trait punishes armored PvP classes as well. He shares three spawn points, can be heavily camped, and sees respawns around two hours on some realms and up to eight on others; exact timers vary by server.
Fast‑Attack Cats: The Rake and Broken Tooth The Rake swings at 1.2 attack speed in early patches and becomes a menace to casters when stacked with Frenzy and Bestial Wrath; expect roughly 5½‑hour respawns. Broken Tooth attacks at 1.0 with three spawn points and about 3–8‑hour respawns, making it a premier pre‑1.9 PvP pet. Patch 1.9 normalizes pet speeds and converts special damage to physical, removing these extreme edges.
Tools, Tricks, Respecs, and Resources Use a rare‑scan command to watch for named beasts; after each alert, re‑add the name so it notifies again. An addon that lists Hunter Pet skills can, via a slash command, tell you which beasts teach a higher rank, though you must cross‑reference coordinates in a database. For risky jumps, take control with Eyes of the Beast, hop your pet over, cancel the buff, and spam a Stay macro so it doesn't path around and wipe the group. Before each raid, respec pet Training Points: stack Fire resist for Molten Core, Frost where appropriate, Nature for Ahn’Qiraj, and adjust others as needed; Petopia and bestiary sites are invaluable references.