Pet abilities
From WoWWiki
- For warlock minion abilities, see Minion abilities.
Hunter pets can learn different abilities, similar to abilities learned by player characters. Most are active combat abilities, used to improve combat effectiveness, but there are also passive abilities. A hunter can specialize his or her pets, to some degree, by the choice of pet abilities, for example to make a pet a more effective tank vs a damage-dealer.
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Training Procedure
You get the Pet Training skill from the Pet Trainer NPC along with the Feed Pet ability (the 2nd piece of Taming the Beast quest). It goes on your main character skill screen not on the beast mastery screen. The icon looks like a slingshot. Using that ability brings up a skill pane with a list of things you know how to teach a pet to do.
You should first stable your current pet (if you wish to retain him) at a Stable master before setting out to tame a new pet to learn a new pet skill. The abilities learned by taming pets can be seen below.
Once you tame a beast which possesses a desired pet skill or ability, you can learn the ability and afterwards train the new ability to other pets (that can learn the ability). It takes a little while after taming a pet to learn their special ability. The pet has to use the ability a few dozen times for you to learn it, so its recommend to fight in melee close to your new pet.
- Untargeted abilities (Furious Howl, Dash, Dive, Prowl, etc.) can be learned outside of combat by simply clicking the skill icon every time it's available as you go about your other business.
Once you have learned an ability from a pet, you can train it to any other pet capable of learning it, once the pet has built the required training points, which they get with increasing loyalty and by leveling up. Some pets can only learn certain abilities.
Low level beasts have no innate special abilities. Level 8-10 beasts start to have the Level 1 abilities. 'Strider' class mobs have Cower, 'Cat' type mobs have bite, 'Bear' type mobs have claw for example.
You can teach your pet growl level 1 as soon as the pet has gained some loyalty, and level 2 as soon as it has reached level 10. Pets which have skills already start with negative training point values, so it takes a bit longer to get them to positive training points. Keep feeding them and they will get there (by increasing their loyalty). Once your pet reaches level 20 you can teach it growl 3. Starting with growl level 3, you need to buy levels of it from the pet trainer.
Pet Skill Calculators
Just like the many Talent Build Calculators out there for classes, there are a few Hunter Pet Skill Calculators to help you plan how to spend your pets training points and minimize leftover unusable points.
These calculators are all third-party, not Blizzard's, and therefore can fall out of date with content patches. Current as of July 15, 2008:
Skills
| Ability | Description | Ranks | DPF | Learned from | Trainable by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Great Stamina | Increases Stamina by 3-40 (Health points gained = Stamina * 10 ). | 1-10 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Natural Armor | Increases Armor by 50-1000. | 1-10 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Resistances | Increases Arcane resistance by X. | 1-4 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Resistances | Increases Fire resistance by X. | 1-4 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Resistances | Increases Frost resistance by X. | 1-4 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Resistances | Increases Nature resistance by X. | 1-4 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Resistances | Increases Shadow resistance by X. | 1-4 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Avoidance | Reduces the damage your pet takes from area of effect attacks by an additional 25/50%. | 1-2 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Cobra Reflexes | Attack speed increased by 30%, but damage done is reduced. | 1 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Growl | An important aggro-management tool and the opposite of Cower. Generates threat (but no damage) against the target. Helps the pet function like a tank and to keep aggro away from the Hunter with his high DPS. Higher ranks generate more threat and function against higher-level mobs. | 1-7 | n/a | Pet Trainer | All |
 | Bite | An instant attack that is more powerful than Claw but has a cooldown and costs more focus points. Causes X to Y damage, 10 second cooldown. | 1-8 | 3.428 | Taming | All except: Scorpids, Crabs and Owls |
 | Charge | Functioning like a Warrior Charge skill, it allows the boar to charge his target (at the range of 8-25 yd), immobilizing it for one second and delivering a single attack with a bonus to attack power. Higher ranks grant more attack power. | 1-6 | n/a | Taming | Boars |
 | Claw | Causes X to Y damage, 5 second cooldown. Is claimed to produce more Threat than bite. | 1-9 | 2.6 | Taming | Owls, Carrions, Crabs, Cats, Raptors, Scorpids, Bears |
 | Cower | An important aggro-management tool and the opposite of Growl. Functions like Disengage in that it generates no damage but lowers the threat the pet has (thus encouraging the target to attack a different mark). Higher ranks reduce threat further and against higher-level mobs. This skill is useful in PVE for fine-tuning aggro control. | 1-7 | n/a | Taming | All |
 | Dash | An instant burst of speed that increases the pet's movement rate for 15 seconds. Very useful in PVP and stopping runners in PVE, as well as special pulls combined with the Eyes of the Beast skill. Increases movement speed by +X% for 15 seconds. | 1-3 | n/a | Taming | Tallstriders, Boars, Wolves, Hyenas, Cats |
 | Dive | Similar to Dash. Increases movement speed by +X% for 15 seconds. | 1-3 | n/a | Taming | Birds |
 | Fire Breath | Targets in a cone in front of the caster take X Fire damage over 2 sec.  | 1-2 | DPE | Taming | Dragonhawks |
 | Furious Howl | Increases the damage of the next attack made by all party members in range (15 yd). The attack must be made within ten seconds. Party members within range receive an extra X to Y damage to their next Attack. | 1-4 | n/a | Taming | Wolves |
 | Gore | Gores the enemy, causing X to XX damage. This attack has a 50% chance to inflict double damage. | 1-9 | 2.94 | Taming | Boars, Ravagers |
 | Lightning Breath | Ranged attack, Breathes Lightning, dealing X to Y damage to single target. | 1-6 | 2.12 | Taming | Windserpents |
 | Poison Spit | Spits poison at the enemy, dealing X Nature damage over 8 seconds. | 1-3 | DPE | Taming | Serpents |
 | Prowl | Allows the cat to go into stealth mode and to backstab on the next attack, similar to a Rogue. Stealths the pet. Movement is reduced to X% of normal. First attack out of Stealth does Y% of normal damage. Can be used with Dash. | 1-3 | n/a | Taming | Cats |
 | Scorpid Poison | Allows the scorpid to poison the target, applying a poison that deals X nature damage over 8 seconds and can stack up to five times. | 1-4 | DPE | Taming | Scorpids |
 | Screech | Launches an AoE attack against all enemies within range (5 yd). Also reduces attack power of effected enemies. Blasts a single enemy for X to Y damage, and lowers the Attack Power of all enemies in range by Z. | 1-5 | 2.35 | Taming | Bats, Carrion Birds, Owls |
 | Shell Shield | Reduces all damage by 50%, but decreases attack speed by 30%. Lasts 12 sec. | 1 | n/a | Taming | Turtles |
 | Thunderstomp | Shakes the ground with thundering force, doing X to Y Nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards and causing a large amount of threat. | 1-3 | DPE | Taming | Gorillas |
 | Warp | Teleports to an enemy up to 30 yards away and gives the pet a 50% chance to avoid the next melee attack. Lasts 4 sec. | 1 | n/a | Taming | Warp Stalkers |
- DPF : Damage per focus, or threat per focus.
Past changes
Originally, there were 6 basic pet abilities: Bite, Claw, Cower, Growl, Dash and Dive.
See also
Wowhead Pet training calculator
Good Intentions Hunter Pet Guide
