A Guide for Hunter Pets - World of Warcraft Classic

My source can be found below. All credit goes to Navaren who originally created this spreadsheet. Navaren's website is no longer availalbe, so I've saved my own copy to preserve the data:
docs.google.com/document/d/14...
Enjoy thrilling tales of adventure? Check out my novel. Available on Amazon and Kindle now. www.amazon.com/Cord-Bue-T-J-M...
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Twitter: / classicazeroth

[@classict.j.1311]

Hey guys, my info on the Gorilla pets were wrong. Thunderstomp has a much longer CD, making them a decent pet, but no near as good as I stated. Because of this, I recommend a Carrion Bird as the AoE tank.

Thank God. I fuckin hate gorillas and monkeys. Birds are much cooler xD

[@Jive33]

You mentioned that Bats have aoe damage. They don’t. They just Screech, which is an aoe ability that lowers all mobs’ melee attack power.

[@neytiritetskahamoatite7688]

These abilities of pets goes the same with WOTLK clasic update of wow ???? I doubt that, cause there, the wolf is the prefered DPS pet :| on any type of hunter, raiding dungeons or solo lvl-ing :|

[@TheCrispyChip]

Question. im findin differnt reports on BC about attack speed is it true all cat species etc now have normalized atk speeds?

[@vonn9737]

Claw R8 = 51 dmg every 5s (focus capped) which is 10.2 dps. Bite R8 = 90 dmg every 10s (cooldown capped) which is 9 dps. These numbers line up with your dps tests. 44.65 base + approx. 10 dps from claw/bite = 54.65 dps. It's not a big difference, but Claw is 1.2 dps better (sustained). In a sustained dps case like a dungeon/raid, you will have growl turned off so growl is not a factor. However, if you send your pet in on a mob with 100 focus, it will do 4 claws in 6 secs. During that 6 secs it will regen 30 focus which is enough for a 5th claw. So it can do 5 claws back to back in 7.5s which is way better than the 1 usage of bite in that time.

[@Newbtuber]

The depth in acquiring which pet is better in classic has more depth then the entire hunter class in retail.

[@LeCaptRage]

Shut up plz

[@Ashanthala]

@@LeCaptRage can't handle truth about a videogame lol

[@LeCaptRage]

@@Ashanthala Not really, i play and love classic aloat. Its just soo annoying when people talk shit retail or classic lol. They bothh have their strong point .

[@dtczyk8976]

Ok no body say anything negative about either game. I don’t want this person to cry.

[@LeCaptRage]

@@dtczyk8976 funny guy you are lol.

[@fufu1405]

16:58 those 8 seconds rhymed beautifully

[@entrap-bloodfang4872]

holy shit lmao

[@ludvigborga5708]

When taming new pets for abilites. Send them into battle so you ACTUALLY learn the new pet ability.

[@pathfinderdan9395]

Wow. This was an excellent guide. Great job. Thank you for taking the time to make it.

[@koddakjrell5148]

Hot dang I cant wait till launch! Brings back the memories of my hunter days, the feels are reals. Thanks for the great videos and feels!!

[@Katonycross]

Thank you so much for this comprehensive video! I’m one of those Broken Tooth Night Elf hunters that uses stealth on myself and Broken Tooth. Makes for great flag defending.

[@isaacrodriguez407]

great guide! you went thru all the families and the best pets in the families well done.

[@buns5412]

Amazing guide man helped so much. Linking it other that need help.

[@jacobjarrell6108]

And great video, Classic. I played a hunter as well and I always grabbed the worg's in Shadow Fang keep for their 1.2 attack speed. It's great for nom nom on caster's. I also loved wolves bc of the furious howl. it was great help for my up close melee friends.

[@classict.j.1311]

I'm certainly making a troll hunter as an alt!

[@hollystringer7639]

Absolutely fabulous. Thank you so much!

[@silenciummortum2193]

This is flatout the BEST pet guide I have ever seen. Relevant information, great description, awesome addition of personal thoughts and well edited. Puuhhllleeeaasseee make more!

[@Adrenaliinz]

Exactly what I came here to write! Best guide ever for classic! :)

[@tuborg38]

I used the black widow from duskwood, all the way up to legion. I liked having the web abbility as a marksman hunter, in order to pin down my targets, it was especially good in PvP 🙂

[@Zetasphere]

I remember discussing 'caster' pets (like many wind serpents) many years ago on a hunter forum. If memory serves, taming a pet with a mana bar will likely net you a caster pet. Caster pets tend to have fewer stats and raw damage output. But, like many world mobs, those caster pets were coded as paladins with higher Int stats and an increased crit chance gain from Agi (because it uses a paladin template instead of the warrior template). Nothing ever came of the discovery except for it might sometimes be better to use a caster wind serpent, but in general they were seen as inferior.

[@curiousfishie]

They are part of the Cunning family. Meaning they are meant to be support type pets like Carrion Birds, Bats. I usually go for the Tenacity types like Crabs, Turtles, Bears for their better armor values. But I have found that there are many greys too for example Scorpids are technically Cunning because their poison is meant to be a support mechanic but their armor is quite good and closer to Tenacity(Tank pets). I miss taming the serpents tho, they had a beautiful ability down the versions where they would apply a 12% armor reduction through their Poison Spit special (they were also in the Cunning family but held up a lot better than those glass Spiders)

[@Cevarial]

Just found your page today. Freaking love it! Subbed! ❤️

[@classict.j.1311]

Thanks a ton! Glad I can provide useful content.

[@Caperfin]

Luv the mention of the Wind Serpent!

[@izidor]

Raptor and Boar are my favourites so far. Raptor dmg seems to be superb and the Boar charge is just a easy opening.

[@Carnidoom]

Cat just a better raptor th

[@SearedBite]

20 min vid just to explain pets for one class i love how deep this game is lol

[@kacperkeska5939]

I picked bear like Rexxar in warcraft 3 and it's amazing. We couldn't find a tank for Uldaman so I tanked it with eyes of the beast! I'm so proud of her :D

[@nwavette]

Another thing I will say for Boars, is they will eat almost anything! Big plus as you're leveling up.

[@U70590]

Personally I think that if your not gonna speed level I recommend picking what pet you like games are for fun remember that

[@joeleafty]

The thunderstomp CD is one min.

[@erikbrunemeier4977]

I laughed a bit at the thunderstomp portion, great guide nonethless. However you are correct on 99% of the stuff so good job. Blood frenzied bats from zg, while an absolute pain to tame, I think are the best for aoe tanking. They have a 1 second attack speed, same as Broken Tooth, as well as an aoe spam that has a very short cd. I find them ideal for clearing out sm bosses while I farm fadeleaf / grave moss.

[@27Zangle]

I remember wanting a hunter in vanilla (got one to the 30's) but because of the bad reputation they had it was decided against finishing one. Didn't level one till Cata and learned they were a lot of fun. On a side note, I did play hunter on the test realms and did rather well in every dual. Also, had access to a friends hunter and did well on live. Edit: Meant to say with classic out, I have a hunter alt that may become my main for pvp.

[@Vyomesh839]

I was just normally leveling my Hunter and spotted The Rake. Immediately abandoned my Wolf and tamed that kitty. My setup is going to be: Cat(The Rake) DPS , Wind Serpent DPS/Nature damage vs High Armor targets, Wolf DPS and Howl with Melee heavy groups.

[@Humanaut.]

really well done.

[@brodelnaz]

You can take ursius in winterspring with a 2.4 I believe

[@jkirkcraw]

I have always used cats except on my 29 twink which I used a boar. Was just recently playing Classic SoM and was having great fun leveling with the boar. We had several close calls but we both pulled through. Once I switched to a cat he kept getting wrecked. Mend pet just wasn’t cutting it. I’m switching back to the boar because they are more fun. Charge is great and they are way more tanks. Never have to pull back and avoid DPSing with the boar. Go Go Piggy Power! Haha.

[@Omegalux]

It's also worth mentioning that Bears make excellent raid pets, as because they have a high amount of health, they can survive hits that would otherwise kill other pets. Allowing more DPS in the long run.

[@VeteranoNoob]

tyvm, nice video!

[@greenchilistudioz4537]

9:46 funny my wind serpent got bugged out and didn't get abilitie as I died, he is now just melee dps lol

[@jameslane2326]

Thunderstomp wasnt 7 second cooldown till TBC

[@chuck21222]

Thanks! Great video!

[@zyonhunter]

i reed Learning charge 6 from the boars in EPL was bugged in the past and you could not learn it. is that fixed in Classic?

[@Josh-fv9ml]

watching this video makes me want to play classic. I was an undead mage back in 2005 up till Wrath then I turned my hoard alliance and left wow

[@GreatBanzo]

I caved in and download it

[@IPIay01]

That scorpid dot tip is gonna be huge for me in PvP :D can't wait to make rogues rage with the Dot as well :D

[@ea.mp3]

dude, imagine screech + scorpid sting XD

[@IPIay01]

OMG yes, I was looking at grabbing a carrion bird or bat to help with warriors and rogues. This is 200 IQ plays.

[@curiousfishie]

I wish the spiders had their netting ability. Without it, they are extremely useless.

[@IPIay01]

@@curiousfishie RIGHT!!! so many pets are useless.

[@Vedioviswritingservice]

Hey, I use the Carrion bird as my main pet. Maybe people just don't like the looks. I think they are a great pet. If you go full BM, later on, you can use both bite and claw and you don't have to worry about losing pet focus. They are pretty big too which is useful in PVP for obstructing your opponent's vision. They have this in common with bats. Finally, Spiteflayer will give you a 1.2 attack speed and pretty cool looking skin. I played in Vanilla just before BC and I seem to remember carrion birds also getting an ability called swoop. A knockdown ability. Was really fun to see other players get knocked down on their ass. Maybe that might be added in a future patch.

[@SlingshotFooty]

Great video!

[@CommanderTavos99]

As dwarf, u already see the intro/the picture u used. U just have to use a bear its the only thing looking good with a dwarf! :D

[@thenerdbeast7375]

That 1.3 attack speed is also shared with the Durotar Tigers, meaning Horde hunters can pick up a pet with a great attack speed very early on.

[@tysej4]

Horde can Pick up Rake in Mulgore for 1.2 instead.

[@thenerdbeast7375]

@@tysej4 Trying to find a rare to tame while things are this chaotic? You must be dreaming.

[@tysej4]

@@thenerdbeast7375 A decent macro and a 15-20 minute walk around the right area is all it takes. Really isn't a big deal.

[@thenerdbeast7375]

@@tysej4 Tell that to the Mage that killed the Rake while I was trying to tame him. I am speaking from experience here, rares are not trying to track down to tame while leveling.

[@tysej4]

@@thenerdbeast7375 And I've tamed the Rake on my character, and also helped like 5 other hunters tame it, really no problem.

[@ibdustin15]

Subbed...... such a great video!

[@kinggrantking]

Pets are only half a level behind because they are unable to gain xp towards, say, level 34 until you are level 34 yourself. Meaning while you are 33.9 they are 33.0 xp-wise, and simply catch up because their xp bars are smaller.

[@speckchef9283]

Don't forget "The Rake" in Mulgore. 1.2 Speed. Rare-Mob.

[@rogeravila7682]

Cats are bad pets. Pet cant go faster than 1.0 so cat doesnt really benefit from atk speed buffs

[@itsdanschannel]

For your Bite vs Claw calculation did you have the increased focus regeneration talent?

[@FranRojo91]

if you could answer this it would be awsome

[@kimmern999]

I approve of this video. Good work, mister!

[@jaybirdflyin]

The rare black scirpid "Death Flayer" (I think) in durotar has increaed attack speed. 1.3 (again, I think.)

[@jeffagain7516]

Actually, it was 1.6 but later nerfed and normalized by the time of patch 1.12 (Classic). I still love him and have ALWAYS had him as part of my stable. :)

[@kolbesharples4629]

GREAT NOW I GOTTA GO TO DUSKWOOD FOR 3 WEEKS

[@TeamKuukiFoodGames]

At level 15 I trekked from SW to the barrens, just to get a turtle :) my dream pet

[@kimreed5160]

😂

[@faydee20]

Is the Raptor any good for leveling as a troll hunter? If not, which pet is best for leveling`?

[@cameronmills7058]

I have looked and looked. No one seems to answer does a pet level like a toon. So if i tame a pet 24 levels below me does it get limited xp like the reduction if i was a 24 hunter with a level 60 warrior?

[@HazMattyGaming]

Going Broken tooth and then it’s all about the blood seeker bat once ZG opens

[@frantisekjilek9198]

and how about in tbc there is broken tooth best pet too or something else ?

[@Hifcrea]

Fucking great video. I always stay with the boar because that charge ability is just too good to pass up

[@alexoest2]

I think the gorillas Thunderstomp is 60 focus and 1 min cooldown, so not sure how well they would tank. Current tooltip says nothing about additional threat either. Bats/CarrionBirds/Owls screech is still nice, though they recently fixed a bug making it generate WAY too much threat. Still nice.

[@Denny_Dust]

Now I want to play a Hunter.

[@puffin-onehandedgamer1164]

I think Humar the pridelord, the rare cat from the barrens that is level 22 or something like that has 1.3 attack speed

[@sheppo]

Great guide. Question is, will i spend another 12 hours camping Uhk'loc, like i did in Vanilla wow?..... probably.

[@CalaVdarivdavd]

Mangeclaw the bear and Rake the lion are my pets ❤😻

[@zandercon_3010]

PvP spider info would’ve been nice

[@AKYAR84]

Can Boar Charge Crit? Can it benefit from the Devilsaur Tooth Trinket Buff?

[@MicDubTV]

GREAT video, dude! Thanks for the info. I was already hooked on cats, but this confirms that I should be!

[@wiegraffolles9822]

I'm confused by your bite vs claw data. Can you explain it in more detail, because the numbers to me seem to show claw is better than bite.

[@cmLMolde]

My 50 cent, seems that as long as the pet does not run out of energy, claw is better. In combination with Growl (taunt) bite seems to not use up all the energy. So if you're lvling/questing and need a tank. Growl/Bite on auto If you're attacking a boss/elite (dungeon) and don't use Growl: Claw on auto If you're PvP and nuking an opponent: Bite on auto and Claw on hotkey for when you nuke.

[@dariollanos]

@@cmLMolde yup, thou im lazy to bind anotther hability i already binded growls, now not sure where to bind claw at

[@Spoteddy]

What you didnt mention, the charge from boars also makes the growl do more threat (as far as i know).

[@meegeehrabgahaaa313]

Thank you very much

[@shiukaze5489]

learned a lot nice vid

[@josetejeda5627]

I have 2 questions....1) it is possible to farm the demons in Darkwhisper gorge with a hunter? 2) what will be the right spec, pet, pet abilities, recommended gear.... Thanks!

[@zachwithnok]

I think you missed the Owl. Which is odd, while you really liked the carrion birds, the owls have 7% attack increase and the same move set. It's a good starter pet for Night Elves and can pick up Screech in Westfall.

[@zachwithnok]

@xd pperfect Cat will have a faster kill time since it has bite and claw, but the aoe threat and damage reduction can save you if you're chain pulling mobs

[@zachwithnok]

@Robertson Thirdly You information is incorrect, you can easily verify this on live. They will autocast both claw & bite. I'm currently lvl 42 on classic.

[@zachwithnok]

@Robertson Thirdly I run growl manually which is likely why this has always worked, but it also works with sf. Keeping growl on auto is a waste of focus and dps as a result your pets threat through the gained dps is enough and increases your ttk. Manually cast growl if your pet loses aggro. So your issues isn't that it won't cast claw and bite, you're just auto casting too many abilities and lack the focus regeneration at lower levels. If you turn off growl, you should be fine. Also as a side note, Broken Tooth is very easy to get atm if you manually hop layers.

[@Vyngraven]

@@zachwithnok Manual grow, I never thought of that.

[@attinger117]

You didn't mention Takk the leaper for Raptors? I tamed him back in vanilla I'm pretty sure he has different stats than other raptors

[@Zamolxes77]

How does Humar the Pridelord rank among the cats ? I had The Rake as a pet forever back in 2005.

[@keving.6851]

Thank you.

[@michaelbailey797]

i tamed Echyeyakee as my pet. How do i teach him dash theres no space on his abliity bar

[@Syiler]

Hey, anyway of getting in contact with you?

[@classict.j.1311]

I'm in the Classic.wow.live discord. I should really include this link in my video info. But you're welcome to join and message me. I'm under "Cabe (Classic Azeroth)" discord.gg/6gBw942

[@lorenburns1422]

owl screech ap reduction is a higher amount of damage reduction than any armor bonus available to pets(look up how ap and armor scaling works, 100 ap is huge btw), also generates aoe threat thatll let it tank multiple mobs, combined with the +7% damage and dive = best pet .... lawl cats.

[@Cohortash]

Question. I have Echeyakee (cat)since lvl 16 and now I'm lvl 60. Atm he only have Bite rank 3 somehow. So do I have to go to lvl 20 area again and learn all the ranks 4,5,6,7 then 8, or can I skip it and only tame pet on lvl 60 to learn that max ability?

[@classict.j.1311]

You can skip and just learn the highest rank ability.

[@Cohortash]

@@classict.j.1311 Thank you very much. I was afraid that my loyalty from 16 -60 was in vain.

[@hi14993]

3:50 thats incorrect they do cost training points 10:30 they increase physical damage meaning hunters benefit from it too if within the 15yrd effect range

[@HerculeSatan]

Incorrect, they benefit melee dmg. Only benefits hunter if Melee attacking instead of Ranged

[@hi14993]

@@HerculeSatan they benefit from it on the auto shot try it you will see it in action

[@seproh0]

@@HerculeSatan Definitely affects the hunters basic long range shots aswell. Tested and confirmed.

[@gking1022]

Completely skimmed over the owl class. +7% Attack, 0% Health, 0% Armor and Screech, which is an instant cast (no C/D) AoE attack that also reduces the targets attack power by 25 (@ Rank 1) and that it can stack with Tank and Paladin Attack debuffs as well making it a pretty tanky pet.

[@ultimatalien]

I'm using the cat from darnassus lol

[@Burlehmangus]

Cool down on thunderstomp is 1 minute in classic/1.12, not 7 sec...which honestly makes using carrion bird/owl and just giving them some time to spam screech and build threat better than gorilla for aoe threat

[@EmberwindTale]

This felt so much more insightful than Wowhead or Icyviens. They pretty much say that the only pets that matter are low attack speed pets, even while leveling, and Tanking pets are virtually useless

[@raptoraurion]

wowhead is right

[@maliklewis8487]

Hey guys please pin so that other Hunter's wont waste time, Lupos is patched out and does the normal amount of physical. If you are going to take a long trek to get a dps pet go to teldrasil and get a owl or get a bat. Did train broken tooth and it does have the 1.0 attack speed so pick him up if you plan on doing any pvp.

[@Buffalo_ill]

How do you check the atk speed?

[@maliklewis8487]

Mouse over your pets damage in the char screen

[@BIGIFANDYELLOWCARD]

Can confirm Broken tooth has 1.0 speed. Just got it

[@curiousfishie]

I honestly prefer the double dotting from the Scorpid Poison along with my Serpent Sting for PvP. To each their own :)

[@velonaut303]

FYI - Lupos doesn't do Shadow damage in classic.

[@BullRed07]

I use a bat for leveling and screech does not do AoE damage. It does AoE debuff and single target damage

[@GgGTeMpLaR]

ok what about cats who have both bite and claw? should you leave bite on auto cast and manually cast claw to avoid running out of focus for bites?

[@Vyngraven]

Thats what he said in the video..

[@jacovanderschaaf3044]

so what i keep hearing is that pets dont learn rank 2 or higher, like charge for boars, and there for have to tame higher boar to keep or to release after they tamed to learn there higher ranking ability?

[@CommanderTavos99]

You said that the brown bear from the human realm was one with the slowest attack speed and that there are "reasons you mentioned earlier" of why should take a pet like that ... But you never mentioned anything on why I should take a slow attacking pet specifally?

[@acex3075]

I am stuck with the Bite progress. i started with a low lvl turtle who has max rank 2 bite, I kept it until it was lvl 44 then tamed a turtle who has the ability of Bite rank 6, I am lvl 46 so is the turtle, have max loyalty of 6 and fight with it for a week and bite is still at rank 2. I can't find a way to get bite rank up. The Turtle is a tamed Mudrock Snapjaw listed in Petopia with rank 6 bite and also the spell Beast Lore confirms this, but at spellbook---pet Bite is Rank 2 as it is at the pet ability bar. I was even standing beside the turtle at fights for hours as some1 said if you are too far away might not learn it. i spend a huge amount of time on this and nothing works, its always Rank 2, what to do?

[@pijafinocchio]

So what happened to the attack speed in WOW ?? I haven't played yet. Also, in Vanilla I remember taming Echeyakee(the white lion lv16) and used him till level 60! I wanted Humar the Pridelord but I was too late when I found out about him and many people were looking for him... I think it was the most searched pet in vanilla but I am not sure!

[@bfunkydunk]

I still have Humar from my Vanilla days on retail!

[@murph1337157]

Wasn't there a rare spawn raptor in barrens with some special attack speed or something?

[@albernard180]

Talk the leaper. Fastest footspeed in game

[@curiousfishie]

@@albernard180 Takk but yes, that would be the one. It has a nice skin too.

[@jeffagain7516]

Great tips Buddy. Though I'm famil with the majority of your points, it's still good to drop back and review this before considering another additional pet. Personally, I think Pets were given the short end as time progressed, with Blizz not really caring about any unique or key aspects the individual critters had. Maybe it was part of the "dumb it down" aspect they seemed to focus on for a while to attract more casuals but personally, I think if they had provided focus on unique pet abilities as opposed to just giving us Hunters more pets (which honestly was just a vanity project with no benefit) it would have been a wonderful experience. But, Blizz wants more money and if that means making things stupid easy for stupid players, well, that's where they'll focus. Pretty much Retail in general in other words. (except for Raiding, I'll give them that).

[@user-kn4js7dv1r]

wait a cat can dash? Mine sure as hell cant i cannot learn it to dash only charge wich it says is for boars??

[@michellejensen7638]

i wish someone could help me as im a hunter and my pet crazed dragonhawk has run away as it was unhappy and im level 59 wanting to tame a new pet do you know where i could tame a new pet at the level that im new at playing a hunter

[@InnuendoOutTheOther]

Is it better to leave a wolf on passive to benefit from furious howl in your rotation, or have the wolf attack and potentially die during the fight?

[@rich10811]

Benedetto Bruno leave on passive and time the howl with every Aim shot

[@srmatrong]

Did anyone ever find out if the wolf Lupos does shadow damage?

[@KyleSeaman2015]

Deathstalker has changed looks like a normal stalker now

[@curiousfishie]

Yeah, Duskstalker has a nice look to it pre-tame but once it's yours, it looses that Rare look. Don't bother with it.

I will seriously think about scorpions when I get into pvp

[@flowmastaflam]

it's important to note that a lvl 60 tamed pet will never gain loyalty levels and therefore training points without killing high level mobs

[@ooduhwinningoo7783]

Wasnt takk the leaper a unique raptor with its high run speed?

[@marcusTeak]

It definitely WAS but it may have been patched out before 1.12.

[@CrashGordon75]

Takk was an absolute pvp monster. You could run down Lvl 60 mounted enemies in pvp. I hope they let him keep his speed.

[@curiousfishie]

I really like that Raptor. According to classic db, there is a comment complaining about Takk being nerfed on his run speed back in 2006 for patch 1.9.4 Blizzard may have killed another one ladies and gents. Damn.

[@rber5737]

what about the devilsaur?

[@Alex68Bucs]

Thunderstomp has a 1min cooldown... so pretty much useless for AoE tanking... :((

[@montanafreedomhomestead3949]

Untrue

[@montanafreedomhomestead3949]

works fine

[@marinbros2882]

Where i can take Wind Serpents?

[@classict.j.1311]

If you want one early, grab one of the elites in Wailing Caverns. They're around ~17. It won't be easy to tame, so I recommend learning the Ice Trap method.