Beast Mastery Hunter Pets Guide — 12.0.7

Note that as of Patch 11.1, all Pets can now have their pet specialization changed. This significantly opens up customization and reduces the gaps between Pets in terms of usefulness. While some Pets are still better than others, it matters far less than it used to, and you can pretty much always get away with playing the pet you want.

In the following sections, we describe the best Pets for various situations. We make some references to their abilities. If you want to know in detail about all the pets, specializations, families, and special abilities, scroll further down to our table covering this information.

For Raiding in Midnight, you should look towards Aqiri Pets (Tenacity). They have +30% Movement Speed over all other Pets, which can indirectly improve their DPS as they will spend less time chasing after teleporting or moving bosses and mobs.

While Tenacity is generally the best Raiding Pet Spec for its defensive capabilities, it is wise to keep multiple Aqiris available, one of each spec, in case an encounter demands a Ferocity, or more likely, a Cunning Pet.

It is also worth keeping a Feathermane around. These have the Updraft ability, a manually activated, 30-second slowfall with no cooldown that also applies while you Disengage. In other words, this will extend your Disengage distance, which can be cool (and helpful) for mobility. You probably do not want Updraft on all the time, however, so we recommend using this macro setup for it:

Swap out your Disengage button with this macro:

• /use Disengage
• /use Updraft

Then, in order to ensure that you do not have Updraft enabled outside of your Disengages, macro this single line into other abilities, or keybind a macro with this line separately. Since you will doubtless be pressing other buttons between your Disengages, you can seamlessly and automatically toggle it on and off with this macro setup.

• /cancelaura Updraft

For Mythic+, the first consideration you need to make is whether you need to be the Bloodlust for the group. If you do, then you are locked into using a Ferocity pet. The best Ferocity pet you can use for almost all Mythic+ purposes is an Aqiri Pet. Their extra movement speed helps them chase down mobs and close distances more quickly, leading to a small DPS increase over other pets. With that said, you should DISABLE the auto-cast feature on their Tendon Rip ability. Otherwise, they may slow mobs that the tank is trying to gather up, preventing them from getting stacked properly and just generally being annoying.

If you do not need to Bloodlust for your group, then we recommend the same Pet, an Aqiri, but specced Tenacity instead. You can change your pet's specialization at a Stable Master, but we actually recommend grabbing multiple Aqiris, ideally 3, one of each Pet Spec.

In some dungeons, you may fight mobs that heal themselves. It is not often talked about, but some classes and specs provide a debuff that reduces enemy healing taken, like Warriors with their Mortal Strike. If no one else is providing healing reduction in the group, you should use a Pet that can! Several Pets provide this effect, like Carrion Birds, Devilsaurs (Exotic), Direhorns, Hydras, Hyenas, Lizards, Raptors, Ravagers, Riverbeasts, Rodents, Scorpids, Wasps, and Whiptails (Exotic). The Pet Spec does not matter for this effect, but Tenacity should be your default when you are not providing Bloodlust.

Finally, you should also have a Damage Reduction Tenacity pet prepared. These can be used to taunt mobs for heavy tankbuster mechanics to spare your tank a lot of damage. With their 50% damage reduction on a 1-minute cooldown and 5% extra max health, these pets can take heavy hits regularly.

For open-world content and soloing in Midnight, Ferocity pets are incredible, as all of their Beast Cleave damage will contribute to healing themselves. The best Ferocity pet for tanking things is the Clefthoof. Their Blood of the Rhino means that their Leech will heal themselves for more, and the increased Armor will reduce Physical damage taken substantially.

There are 3 different pet specializations. These specializations are initially determined by your pet family but can be changed freely at a Stable Master. We recommend having a variety of pets of each spec, so that you can cover any situation.

Pet Spec	Passive Effect	Active Ability
Ferocity	Predator's Thirst gives you and your pet 4% Leech. Leech heals you based on how much damage you do.	Primal Rage, which provides the Bloodlust/ Heroism effect, increasing Haste for you and all nearby allies by 30% for 40 seconds. This shares cooldown with Bloodlust/Heroism and similar effects.
Tenacity	Endurance Training increases the maximum health of you and your pet by 5%.	Fortitude of the Bear is a passive effect that reduces your damage taken by 3%.
Cunning	Pathfinding increases the movement speed of you and your pet by 8%.	Master's Call removes all movement-impairing effects from your pet and a friendly target, and makes them immune to movement-impairing effects for 4 seconds. The friendly target can be you. It has a 45-second cooldown.

Every Pet Family has a special ability. We recommend having at least one of every special ability. If you want to be ultra-prepared, grab 3 pets of each Special Ability — one for each spec.

Special Ability	Description	Pet Families
Damage Reduction Cooldown	Reduces the damage taken of your pet by 50% for 12 seconds. This has a 1-minute cooldown.	Beetle, Boar, Carapid (Exotic), Core Hound (Exotic), Mechanical, Scalehide, Shale Beast (Exotic), Turtle
Damage Reduction On Low Health	Reduces your pet's damage taken by 60% for 15 seconds when your pet falls below 40% health.	Bear, Camel, Clefthoof (Exotic), Gorilla, Gruffhorn, Oxen, **Pterrordax (Exotic)
Dodge Chance Cooldown	This ability increases your pet's Dodge chance by 30% for 20 seconds. It has a 1.5-minute cooldown.	Cat, Courser, Dragonhawk, *Feathermane, Fox, Hopper, Monkey, Serpent, Wind Serpent
Healing Reduction	Reduces the healing taken of your pet's target by 25% for 10 seconds. This has a 6-second cooldown, which means that it will be active all the time.	Carrion Bird, Devilsaur (Exotic), Direhorn, Hydra, Hyena, Lizard, Raptor, Ravager, Riverbeast, Rodent, Scorpid, Wasp, Whiptail (Exotic)
Magical Damage Reduction	Shimmering Scales reduces your pet's magical damage taken by 70% for 8 seconds, on a 1.5-minute cooldown.	Lesser Dragonkin
Self-Dispel	Removes 1 Disease, 1 Magic, and 1 Poison effect from your pet. 10-second cooldown.	Bats, Moth, Rays, Spirit Beast (Exotic), Sporebat, Stag, *Water Strider (Exotic), Waterfowl
Slow/Snare	Reduces the movement speed of your pet's target by 50% for 6 seconds. It has a 10-second cooldown.	Aqiri (Exotic), Basilisk, Bird of Prey, Blood Beast, Chimaera, Crab, Crocolisk, Hound, Mammoth, Spider, Tallstrider, Warp Stalker, Wolf, Worm (Exotic)

*Feathermane pets also have Updraft, a manually activated Slow Fall for you and your pet that lasts 30 seconds with no cooldown, allowing you to fall safely from almost any height. It will also extend the distance of your Disengage.

*Water Strider pets also have Surface Trot, a passive ability that lets you and your pet walk on water while out of combat. Damage will break this effect.

**Pterrordax pets also have Updraft, a manually activated Slow Fall for you and your pet that lasts 30 seconds with no cooldown, allowing you to fall safely from almost any height. It will also extend the distance of your Disengage.

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