Beast Mastery Hunter Pets Guide — Dragonflight 10.1

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 Dragonflight, you should look towards Spirit Beast (Tenacity) pets primarily. We do not want Ferocity pets because the Leech they offer will primarily heal your pet since it is doing most of your damage.

Additionally, Spirit Beasts offer Spirit Mend, a self-heal every 30 seconds for around 10% of you or a friendly player's maximum health. Most Hunters do not use this manually but macro it into defensives like Exhilaration or Survival of the Fittest. Leaving it on "auto-cast" will automatically pick a low-health target in the group to heal.

While a Spirit Beast will serve you well in most situations, Healing Reduction pets like Hyenas, Rodents, and Raptors can be situationally useful. These will reduce enemy healing, and this effect works on bosses that heal themselves and can be invaluable in niche scenarios where no one else is providing this effect.

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 a Mortal Wounds healing reduction pet, such as a Carrion Bird, Devilsaur, Ravager, Scorpid, or Wasp. There are several mobs throughout Mythic+ in Dragonflight that heal themselves, as well as bosses. Since none of the other pet utilities is typically relevant for Mythic+, having a Ferocity healing reduction pet as your "default" is a safe bet.

If you do not need to Bloodlust for your group, then I recommend the same as for Raiding, a Spirit Beast. These do not provide healing reduction, however, so in dungeons where this is a concern, swap to a Tenacity Healing Reduction pet, like a Direhorn, Hydra, Lizard, or Riverbeast.

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 Dragonflight, Ferocity pets are incredible, as all of their Beast Cleave damage will contribute to healing itself. 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.