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• href="#faq">Pet FAQ
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Pet Information and Tactics

Pets are the thing that
separates hunters from almost all other classes (the one exception
being the Warlock). They are a vital part of the Hunter class but can
prove to be confusing. To help clear up confusion Hunters are provided
with a basic pet at level 1 (4.0.1) to allow them to gain knowledge of
using a pet from the very beginning. Despite this intimate relationship
the Hunter will create with his pet there may be still be some
unanswered questions remaining. That's where this portion of our hunter
guide steps in. It should be answer all your questions and more,
allowing you to make far better use of your pet.

Pet Types

Pets are available in many
different types or families, however each family falls into one of
three categories; Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity. Cunning pets have the
most utility and offer a assortment of offensive and defensive
abilities and are especially useful in PvP. Popular in groups and raids
Ferocity pets are for those who wish to really pump out the damage. And
finally Tenacity pets are the meat shields of pets. Useful in soloing
or even small groups these pets are born to tank.

The animal types that are
currently available as pets are as follows:

id="abilities" name="abilities">Pet Abilities

Pet
abilities, like players, have no ranks, instead the abilities scale
as the pet levels. There are four categories that each pet ability
falls into:

• id="abilities" name="abilities">Basic: The
  pets most basic
  damaging ability. Examples include Bite, Claw, and Smack.

• id="abilities" name="abilities">Special: These
  abilities are
  unique to the pet family (Bat, Wolf, Scorpid, etc)

• id="abilities" name="abilities">Exotic: Extra
  ability
  available only to pets that are considered to be exotic. These types of
  pets can only be tamed by level 69 Hunters specced into the
  Beastmastery tree.

• id="abilities" name="abilities">Extra: Some
  pets are just
  more talented than others and have an extra bonus ability on top of
  their normal and special abilities. 

id="talents" name="talents">Pet Talent Trees

Each
pet has it’s very own talent tree and gains talent
points as it levels up. While most pet talent trees seem similar there
are subtle differences based on the type of pet (Cunning, Ferocity, or
Tenacity) and what family the pet is from (Cat, Chimaera, Raptor). How
you decide to use your pet’s talent points is totally up to
you, however be sure to make smart choices and spec into the talents
that will be most useful for your pet and you.



To try out different pet talent builds head on over to the href="http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?pid=-1"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft Armory where a
nifty pet talent calculator is available.

id="stables" name="stables">Stable Information

As
of 4.0.1 Hunters can have a total of five active pets available to them
at all times. However most Hunters find that they easily end up with
more than five pets. So what is a Hunter to do? The answer to this can
be found at the stables.



Stables are used to store the Hunter’s faithful companions
when they are not in use. To access the stables players must seek out
the Stable Master, who can usually be found near the Hunter trainers in
the major cities for each faction. To place a pet in the stable simply
speak with your local Stable Master. A list detailing your Active Pets
(left side) and stabled pets (right side) will appear. Drag an active
pet into an empty slot in the inactive pets section to stable that pet.
Similarly if the player wishes to make a pet active all they need do is
click and drag a pet from the stable into one of the active slots. Once
pets are made active the Hunter can access them by clicking on the Call
Pet button that can be found in the Spellbook.



As of patch 4.0.1 20 pets can now be stored in the stables, insuring
that Hunters can have a plethora of pets that suit their every whim. It
should be noted however the once a pet is stabled all of its talents
are wiped clean. Also pets stored in the stable do not earn experience
or gain levels, however when you remove a pet from the stable it's
level will be checked against your own. If more than a three level
difference is found the pet will automatically be leveled up to exactly
three levels below you.

id="faq" name="faq">Pet FAQ

id="faq" name="faq">What
is a "Starter Pet"?

id="faq" name="faq">As of Patch 4.0 all newly
made Hunter characters will start out with a pet from the very
beginning. These are considered "starter pets" and each race gets its
own specific starter pet type. This will be the only pet available to
you until level 10 is reached then your starter pet will be considered
a normal pet once the Control Pet ability is learned. Because of this
starter pets do behave a little different than normal pets, for example
starter pets do not need to be feed to maintain happiness.

id="faq" name="faq">What
does the Call Pet ability do?

id="faq" name="faq">Call Pet is a new ability
added in Patch 4.0.1 and will allow players to call forth one of five
active pets from their stable no matter where in the world they are.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do you know if a Beast is Tamable?

id="faq" name="faq">In order for a Beast to be
tamable it needs to fall under one of the families listed above in the
pet type section. To make this a little easier the Beast Lore ability
(available at level 10) can be used on any beast found in Azeroth. When
used it will tell the Hunter if that particular beast is tamable, what
abilities the beast possesses, what it eats, and other important
information.

id="faq" name="faq">What
level can I start taming beast?

id="faq" name="faq">The actual taming of a pet
cannot be completed until level 10 is reached. However as of Patch
4.0.1 Hunters are given a starter pet at level 1. Once level 10 is
reached simply seek out your local Hunter trainer and he will teach you
the Tame Pet ability as well as several other useful pet related
abilities.

id="faq" name="faq">Is
there a difference between Unique, Elite and Normal beast after taming?

id="faq" name="faq">No, there is no real
difference between Unique, Elite, or Normal beasts except Unique and
Elite beasts may possess more desirable skins. Anyone telling you
different is basing this off old information.

id="faq" name="faq">How
long does it take to use the Tame Beast ability?

id="faq" name="faq">Previously the Tame Beast
ability took a full 20 seconds to complete, however Blizzard has
mercifully lowered that time down to 10 seconds making taming a beast
easier than ever!

id="faq" name="faq">Is
there a difference between a leveled up pet or one that is tamed at
higher level?

id="faq" name="faq">No there is no difference
in base stats between leveling up a pet or getting a new one at high
level.

id="faq" name="faq">Do
any beasts have resists?

id="faq" name="faq">At one point in time
several types of pets had natural resistances to certain types of
damage. However, now they must all be trained using training points to
gain the resistance abilities taught by the pet trainers.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I gain pet Loyalty?

id="faq" name="faq">You gain loyalty by
feeding your pet and keeping it happy. Form my experience you do not
need to do anything else. I have had pets gain loyalty when sitting in
town making potions. I have also gained loyalty by fighting with my
pet. Some pets seem to gain loyalty faster then others so the
personality of the pet might effect how fast it gains loyalty.

id="faq" name="faq">What
does Happiness do for my pet?

id="faq" name="faq">Happiness level affects
the pet's dps. Unhappy pets do 75% damage, Content pets do 100% damage,
and Happy pets do 125% damage. Keep the pet feed to keep it happy. Also
Happy and Content pets gain Loyalty. Unhappy pets lose loyalty and if
they lose enough they will lose loyalty levels and eventually run away.

id="faq" name="faq">What
does Leveling go for my pet?

id="faq" name="faq">Leveling will increase
your pet’s stats, health, dps and armor and will also
sometimes provide a talent point which can be spent in your pets talent
tree.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I level my pet?

id="faq" name="faq">Level your pet by simply
killing mobs and having the pet participate. The best way to achieve
this is by going out and soloing mobs. Leveling your pet in a group
setting is not suggested although not impossible.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I learn skills form the beast I tame?

id="faq" name="faq">First put your pet in to
the stable. Then go find the beast with the skill you want to learn.
Tame it. I feed them and get them happy, others only feed them to
content and others don’t feed them at all. Then fight some
mobs with the pet. It seems that if you fight close to the pet you will
learn the skill faster. In other words get in there and melee next to
the pet. You can have the skill on auto or manually trigger it, but
make sure the pet uses the skill. You will get a message when you learn
the skill, but you can also check in your beast training to see if you
have learned it. Once you learn the skill you can let the pet go or
keep as you see fit.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I teach my pet new skills?

id="faq" name="faq">To teach your pet a new
skill, have your pet active. Make sure the pet can learn the skill,
that it is high enough level to learn the version you are teaching and
that it has training points available. Then open the beast training
icon. You can open it form the spell book or move it to your hot bar.
Then select the skill you want to train and push the button. The icon
should appear on the pet’s hot bar.

id="faq" name="faq">I
have a dead pet in my stable/ that I can not revive, what do I do?

id="faq" name="faq">Ok go to the stable if the
dead pet is in the stable. Make the dead pet your active pet. Now you
need to force the game to recognize that you have a dead pet. There are
a few methods, zoning to a new continent has worked for me, other
methods are logging out and back in or zoning to an instance. Now you
should be able to revive the pet.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I use the pet bar?

id="faq" name="faq">The pet bar has 10 slots
on it. The first slot is Attack, left click on this and the pet will
attack your target. The next two are Follow and Stay, left click to
make active, the active one will be highlighted. The next four slots
are for your pets skills, growl, bite, claw and cower. Right clicking
on these will set them on auto, you can tell they are on if there is a
flashing ring around them. You can also manually tell a pet to use a
skill by left clicking on it. The last 3 are Aggressive (attacks reds
that are close), Defensive (attacks anything that attacks you) and
passive (will not attack until told to), the one that is highlighted is
the active one, left click to change these.

id="faq" name="faq">I
lost my pet skill buttons how do I get them back?

id="faq" name="faq">Open the pets spell book
and drag them back onto the pet bar. You have to have your pet active
to do this.

id="faq" name="faq">How
to I name my pet? How to I abandon my pet?

id="faq" name="faq">Right below your health
and mana bars there is a smaller set of bars for the pet, its health
and focus bars. If you right click on the picture of the pet you will
get a drop down. There are several options on that drop down. Name pet
(only shows up till you name the pet), Abandon pet, Show pet Stats.
Clicking on Name pet will pop up a window where you can type your pets
new name in. Once you name a pets it can not be renamed. Clicking on
Abandon pet will release the pet never to be seen again. Do not Abandon
the pet unless you are sure you don’t want that pet anymore,
it can not be undone.

id="faq" name="faq">The
base damage reduction goes up with level.

id="faq" name="faq">Base damage reduction
starts out low and increases until about level 16. Then it will stay
the same until about level 36 where it will start increasing again
until in the low 40's when it will stabilize again. The base damage
reduction for the beast family will be the same for leveled up pets or
newly tamed higher level pets.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I feed my pet?

id="faq" name="faq">A commonly asked question
from new pet owners is how do I feed my pet. To feed you pet open up
your pack to see the item you are going to feed them. Then click your Feed
Pet skill and then click on the
item you wish to feed them. If you select your pet you should see an
eating icon under their bars and their happiness level should increase
if you have fed them enough. If you try to feed them food that they do
not like a message will appear on the screen stating this and you will
have to try again with another food item. Cooking can help provide you
with pet food that requires less bag space. Clam meat for example will
stack to 10 per slot. These can be cooked into stacks of 20 clam
chowder, thereby freeing up 1 inventory slot.

id="faq" name="faq">What
is the best behavior?

id="faq" name="faq">Pets can be set to three
behavior modes: Aggressive, Defensive and Passive. A pet set to
aggressive can be very dangerous, expect to have a very exciting time
in an instance. Defensive pets will require attention when it runs to
attack ranged targets and can cause some issues if not careful. Passive
pets only requires attention after you command it to attack. This
requires the most attention but is the safest setting. There is no best
setting, a lot depends on your preference.

id="faq" name="faq">How
do I heal my pet and control aggro?

id="faq" name="faq">You heal your pet by using
Mend Pet. Since mend pet became a cast instead of a channel spell, you
can put it up on your pet and go back to DPS. In difficult fights you
should ensure you recast it every time it expires.

id="faq" name="faq">How
does AFK affect my pet?

id="faq" name="faq">If you go afk, you may
want to dismiss your pet first. While you are AFK your pet continues to
require feeding and care. There's nothing like coming back to find an
angry pet, or worse, no pet.

id="faq" name="faq">Which
is the best pet?

id="faq" name="faq">There really is no best
pet. It all depends on your play style. If you solo alot, then a tank
type pet may be best. If you PvP then a DPS pet is best. If you raid
then you may not even use a pet. It's all personal choice.

id="faq" name="faq">For even more detailed
information regarding Hunter pets head on over to that fantasic
resource for all things pet related; href="http://www.wow-petopia.com/" target="_blank">Petopia
!
id="faq" name="faq">

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Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been
missed? We would love to hear from you! Please post in our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=152">Hunter
Class forum.