WoW: Ultimate Pet Guide

So you have your ultimate pet, or so you think. Many people don't realize this, but as a hunter you can train your pets in skills other than "growl". How you ask? That is the purpose of this tutorial!

So for instance, let's say you trained a standard brown bear from an area such as Loch Modan. Did you know that same bear can learn THREE other HIGHLY useful skills? Unfortunately, you can't learn these skills from the standard pet trainer, you have to learn them "yourself" by training other pets around Azeroth.

Pet Skill Descriptions/Purpose

1. Growl: This is the standard skill which all pets can learn from the pet trainer. Essentially this skill makes your pet draw aggro from the mob, forcing it to attack it and keep you at a safe distance where you can continue to pelt it with your ranged weapon. This skill is best left on "auto-cast" where your pet will continually growl until it is out of focus.
2. Bite: This is a "special skill", which causes much more damage than your standard attack. Unlike your standard attack, this special move uses some of your pet's focus points so when set on auto-cast along with growl it can sap up your pet's focus rather quickly. However, using bite/growl along with your ranged weapon you'll be able to kill mobs much more quickly.
3. Claw: This is the rolls royce of all pet attacks. It is widely considered to be far superior than bite, due to its quick recast time (just a few seconds compared to bite's 10 seconds). In addition to the quick recast time, it takes up significantly less focus than bite. Keep in mind however, when combined with growl the quick recast time will have your focus disappearing very quickly. That being said, your pet causes so much more damage your mob will likely be dead when combined with the power of your ranged weapon. This is a MUST have pet skill.
4. Cower: This causes your pet to "disengage" from the mob it is currently aggroed on, however to get the mob to leave your pet and aggro you instead you need to start blasting it with your ranged weapon. It's extremely useful in the following fashion:

a. Have your pet attack the mob, while you stand back at maximum range.
b. Once your pet has aggroed the mob with growl, and used claw/bite a few times start blasting.
c. Let your pet get close to death, and turn off the growl/claw (or bite) skill, and enable cower. The mob will soon aggro you instead.
d. Continue blasting the mob, and switch to your melee weapons once in range.

e. After you've hit the mob a few times turn claw or bite back on your pet, and have it attack the mob once again. You can completely dominate mobs a few levels higher than
you in this way.

"Keeper Pet"/Eligible Pets

First thing you'll need to do is determine your "keeper" pet, or the pet you wish to use throughout the game. At this point there are really only a few options.

I highly recommend going with a pet who can use Claw/Cower/Growl. Unfortunately the following pet types do not support the "claw" special move.


Boars
Crocolisks
Gorillas
Hyenas
Spiders
Striders
Turtles
Serpents
Wolves
Worgs


This may seem very inconvenient, but I assure you the growl/cower/claw combo simply can't be touched by other combinations in the game. Try it and you'll be shocked. So that leaves you with the following choices of pets for your "keeper" pet.

Bats
Bears
Birds
Cats
Crabs
Owls
Raptors
Scorpids

The 6 pet types above can attain the coveted growl/cower/claw combo I continue to praise thus far in this tutorial. So go get one! Now onto how to actually train your new best friend in the ultimate 3 skill combo.

How/Where to Learn these New Skills

As mentioned earlier, your local pet trainer only teaches you one skill...."Growl". So how can you learn the other skills such as bite, claw and cower? Here are the details.

First things first, after taming your "keeper" pet, go to your local stableman/woman and buy a stable for your pet. Throw him in there, and head back out to the wild and tame an animal which already has the skill you desire in their arsenal.

After taming one of these animals your character can "learn" their individual skill by having it attack an opposing mob. For instance, after taming an "ice claw" bear in the Dun Morogh area, feeding it some food (to make sure it doesn't run away) and having it attack another mob with its claw skill, you will receive a message saying "you have learned a new skill: claw". So at this point, when you access your "best training" area via the general skills area you now have the ability to teach any eligible pet the claw skill (in other words your keeper pet)! Not the most obvious thing in the world, and a feature somewhat hidden by the dev staff.

So, now that you know the method to learn these new skills, you need to know which pets innately have these skills in the wild, here is a list of mobs (sorted by skill/level/area)
which you can use to start the taming process.


Skill: Bite

The following mobs have the "bite" skill in their arsenal immediately after taming.

Bite Level One (9-11 Damage, Requires Pet Level 1)
- Dun Morogh: Snow Tracker Wolf, Winter Wolf
- Durotar: Dreadmaw Crocolisk (9-11)
- Mulgore: Prairie Wolf
- Teldrassil: Webwood Venomfang

Bite Level Two (16-18 Damage, Requires Pet Level 8)
- Barrens: Eycheyakee, Highmane Huntress, Highmane Prowler, Oasis Snapjaw
- Dun Morogh: Starving Winter Wolf, Timber
- Ellwyn Forest: Prowler
- Loch Modan: Forest Lurker, Loch Crocolisk
- Mulgore: Prairie Wolf Alpha
- Redridge Mountains: Tarantula
- Teldrassil: Giant Webwood Spider, Lady Sathrah, Webwood Silkspinner
- Tirisfal Glades: Worg
- Westfall: Coyote Packleader

Bite Level Three (16-18 Damage, Requires Pet Level 16)
- Ashenvale: Ghost Paw Runner
- Duskwood: Green Recluse
- Hillsbrad Foothills: Spider
- Loch Modan: Wood Lurker
- Redridge: Greater Tarantula
- Silverpine: Bloodsnout Worg
- Stonetalon Mountains: Besseleth
- Tarren Mills: Forest Moss Creeper
- Wailing Caverns: Deviate Crocolisk

Bite Level Four (31-37 Damage, Requires Pet Level 24)
- Ashenvale: Ghostpaw Alpha
- Blackfathom Deep: Ghamoo-Ra
- Duskwood: Black Mastiff, Naraxis
- Hillsbrad Foothills: Giant Moss Creeper, Snapjaw
- Tarren Mills: Elder Moss Creeper
- Wetlands: Giant Wetlands Crocolisk

Bite Level Five (40-48 Damage, Requires Pet Level 32)
- Arathi Highlands: Giant Plains Creeper, Plains Creeper
- Badlads: Crag Coyote
- Dustwallow Marsh: Darkfang Lurker, Drywallow Crocolisk
- Thousand Needles: Turtle

Bite Level Six (49-59 Damage, Requires Pet Level 40)
- Feralas: Longtooth Runner, Snarler, Undead Wolf
- Hinterlands: Witherbark Broodguard
- Swamp of Sorrows: Deathstrike Tarantula

Bite Level Seven (66-80 Damage, Requires Pet Level 48)
- Felwood: Felpaw Ravager
- Hinterlands: Saltwater Snapjaw, Vilebranch Raiding Wolf
- Western Plagueland: Diseased Wolf, Plague Lurker

Bite Level Eight (81-99 Damage, Requires Pet Level 56)
- Blackrock Spires: Bloodaxe Warg

Skill: Claw

Claw Level One (4-6 Damage, Requires Pet Level 1)
- Dun Morogh: Ice Claw Bear
- Durotar: Pygmy Surf Crawler
- Teldrassil: Strigid Owl

Claw Level Two (8-12 Damage, Requires Pet Level 8)
- Darkshore: Thistle Bear
- Dun Morogh: Bjarn, Mangeclaw
- Durotar: Encrusted Surf Crawler, Venomtail Scorpid
- Ellwyn Forest: Young Forest Bear
- Orgrimmar: Scorpid
- Silverpine: Bear
- Teldrassil: Strigid Hunter

Claw Level Three (12-16 Damage, Requires Pet Level 16)
- Ashenvale: Ashenvale Bear, Clattering Crawler
- Darkshore: Den Mother
- Hillsbrad Foothills: Gray Bear
- Loch Modan: Black Bear Patriarch, Ol' Sooty
- Tarren Mills: Gray Bear
- Westfall: Crab

Claw Level Four (16-22 Damage, Requires Pet Level 24)
- Ashenvale: Elder Ashenvale Bear
- Desolace: Scorpions
- Shimmering Flats: Scorpid Reaver
- Thousand Needles: Scorpion

Claw Level Five (21-29 Damage, Requires Pet Level 32)
- Desolace: Scorpashi Lasher

Claw Level Six (26-36 Damage, Requires Pet Level 40)
- Feralas: Ironfur Bear
- Swamp of Sorrows: Silt Crawler
- Tanaris: Scorpid Hunter

Claw Level Seven (35-49 Damage, Requires Pet Level 48)
- Burning Steppes: Deathlash Scorpid
- Felwood: Angerclaw Mauler, Ironbeak Hunter
- Feralas: Ironfur Patriarch
- Winterspring: Shardtooth Bear, Winterspring Owl

Claw Level Eight (43-59 Damage, Requires Pet Level 56)
- Western Plaguelands: Diseased Grizzly
- Winterspring: Elder Shardtooth, Winterspring Screecher

Skill: Cower

Cower Level One (Requires Pet Level 1)
- Barrens: Elder Plainstrider, Fleeting Plainstrider
- Darkshore: Foreststrider Fledging, Moonstalker Runt
- Dun Morogh: Juvenile Snow Leopard
- Durotar: Durotar Tiger
- Mulgore: Elder Plainstrider, Flatland Cougar, Mazzranache
- Teldrassil: Mangy Nightsaber, Nightsaber
- Tirisfal Glades: Greater Duskbat

Cower Level Two (Requires Pet Level 8)
- Barrens: Ornery Plainstrider
- Darkshore: Giant Foreststrider, Moonstalker Sire
- Hillsbrad Foothills: Starving Mountain Lion
- Stonetalon Mountains: Panther, Twilight Hunter, Twilight Runner

Cower Level Three (Requires Pet Level 16)
- Arathi Highlands: Highland Strider
- Hillsbrad Foothills: Feral Mountain Lion
- Razorfen Kraul: Kraul Bat
- Stranglethorn Vale: Stranglethorn Tiger, Young Stranglethorn Panther, Young Stranglethorn Tiger
- Thousand Needles: Crag Stalker

Cower Level Four (Requires Pet Level 24)
- Badlands: Ridge Huntress, Ridge Stalker

Cower Level Five (Requires Pet Level 32)
- Eastern Plaguelands: Noxious Plaguebat
- Stranglethorn Vale: Jaugero cat near Booty Bay

Cower Level Six (Requires Pet Level 40)
- Eastern Plaguelands: Monstrous Plaguebat
- Winterspring: Frostsaber Cub

Skill: Growl

This skill can be learned from any local pet trainer, for all levels 1-8. No need to tame any pet to learn.

Growl Level One (Required Pet Level 1)
Growl Level Two (Required Pet Level 8)
Growl Level Three (Required Pet Level 16)
Growl Level Four (Required Pet Level 24)
Growl Level Five (Required Pet Level 32)
Growl Level Six (Required Pet Level 40)
Growl Level Seven (Required Pet Level 48)
Growl Level Eight (Required Pet Level 56)

Conclusion

Hopefully this will help clear up some of the more confusing aspects of pet training as a hunter. I assure you by following the directions laid out in this tutorial, you can achieve the most potent pet/hunter combination in the game.

Have fun.