Marksmanship Hunter Pets Guide — 12.0.7

In Raids, using a pet is universally suboptimal, since dropping Improved Spotter's Mark to get a Pet via Unbreakable Bond is a large DPS loss.

That said, if you do want to use a pet anyway, while any good-looking Ferocity pet will do well in most situations, Healing Reduction pets like Carrion Birds, Direhorns, Hydras, Hyenas, Lizards, Raptors, Ravagers, Riverbeasts, Rodents, Scorpids, or Wasps 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.

In Mythic+, using a pet is universally suboptimal, since dropping Improved Spotter's Mark to get a Pet via Unbreakable Bond is a large DPS loss.

Since we can provide the Bloodlust effect via Harrier's Cry, there really is no reason except for fantasy to use a Pet in Mythic+. If you do want to use one, we recommend a Ferocity Pet for the Leech bonus, especially since the Tenacious Talent already offers most of the best benefits of a Tenacity pet.

For open-world content and soloing in Midnight, Ferocity pets are preferred, as their Leech will allow them to heal themselves for a bit of their damage. The best Ferocity pet for tanking things is a Scalehide, as they have 50% reduced damage taken on a 1-minute cooldown.

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.

In The Same Category

Survival Hunter PetsMarksmanship Hunter Spell List and GlossarySurvival Hunter Easy ModeSurvival Hunter Spell List and GlossaryBeast Mastery Hunter GearBeast Mastery Hunter Guide