WoW Classic – DPS Pets Guide

by Falagar / Articles, World of Warcraft Classic / 27 Aug 2019

Bats

Health: Medium

Armor: Low

DPS: High

Diet: Fruit, fungus

Abilities: Bite, dive

Family ability: Screech

Bats are often considered a good PvP pet. Screech is a useful debuff to have when you’re flapping over the flag where everyone’s clustered, and many players enjoy the large obstruction to visibility caused by the wingspan and hover height of this pet.

Special Mobs: The bat family has one great hero: the Bloodseeker Bat, a resident of Zul’Gurub. With a blazing 1.0 attack speed and a lighting fast pursuit speed, this was once the must-have beast for endgame PvP. Since the speed normalization, he chases only as fast as Dive can take him, but his attack speed remains and is nothing to sneer at.

Cats

Health: Medium

Armor: Low

DPS: High

Diet: Fish, meat

Abilities: Bite, claw, dash

Family ability: Prowl

Cats are a perennial favorite, and looking at their stats it’s easy to see why. They can learn more abilities than any other pet by picking up all three of the general abilities. They dish out a lot of damage and are easy to feed. Prowl appeals to night elves who can shadowmeld along with their pets, and even to other hunters who just want to feign dead and take a quick bathroom break undetected. And visually, cats offer more selection than any other family, with detailed body renderings, dozens of skins, natural and varied animations, and several models. The only reason not to choose a cat, apart from RP reasons, is that everyone has one, if that’s the sort of thing that bothers you, and a lot of players, particularly other hunters, will give you a lot of crap with “oh, another moonstalker. How nice.”

Special mobs: Wow, there are so many cats of note I’m hardly sure where to start. Most famous is Broken Tooth, the badlands cougar with the incredible 1.0 attack speed. Then there’s the Rake, a level 10 Mulgore lion who clocks at 1.2, and Humar, the unique and beautiful black lion of the Barrens with a 1.3 attack speed. Then there’re Echeyakee and Sian-Rotam, who share the otherwise unique luminescent white lion skin. Araga, a cougar in the Alterac Mountains, has a unique skin as well. And finally, in Winterspring you’ll find Rak’Shiri, Shy-Rotam and Frostsaber Pride Watchers, which have a 1.5 attack, unusual skins, and the same high-shouldered mesh as the night elves’ mounts. Shy-Rotam and Echeyakee are both spawned only by Horde-exclusive quests, so it can be a bit of a coup for an Alliance player to have one.

Owls

Health: Medium

Armor: Low

DPS: High

Diet: Meat

Abilities: Claw, dive

Family ability: Screech

Owls, much like bats, are valued for their ability to get in people’s way in PvP. They’re also a popular choice because they’re simply quite beautiful, even though there are only two skins. They’re also oddly rare in the gameworld for about thirty levels, living in Teldrassil at less then ten and then not appearing again until Felwood in the forties. Thus, an owl is a sign of some prestige for young Horde hunters, who have to travel to the most protected place in Azeroth to get one.

Special mobs: The only unique owl is Olm the Wise. He’s just an ordinary owl after taming, but it can be kind of entertaining to do so, as he has membership with the Cenarion Circle. You must be “at war” with them in order to tame him (which doesn’t hurt your rep with them). Name him Olm and parade him in front of the druids, just for fun.

Raptors

Health: Low

Armor: Medium

DPS: High

Diet: Meat

Abilities: Bite, claw

Family ability: None to date

No one is quite sure why raptors don’t have Dash, but so long as that’s true, they’ll remain less popular than cats. Still, if you want to rip something to shreds, the raptor will serve you well, with high DPS and the capacity to learn both bite and claw. They also seem to have a modicum of draconic intelligence, since most of them wear jewelry. I find this weird, and it’s the reason I’ve never had one. The only real reason to recommend against them, though, is that they’re a little flimsier than other DPS choices due to a low health.

Special mobs: Takk the Leaper is a sleek raptor in the Barrens with a mostly unique black skin (it’s also found on raptors in WC). He used to be prized for his fast pursuit speed, but since normalization, he’s just another raptor.

Spiders

Health: Medium

Armor: Low

DPS: High

Diet: Meat

Abilities: Bite

Family ability: None to date

Spiders have only marginally less visual variation than cats, with “spindly” and “furry” variations and brilliant, colorful skins. Despite a lack of combat abilities, they can actually be an unexpectedly strong asset in PvP. First, spire spiderlings have a 1.5 attack, good for casters, but more because the spindly spiders look so damn real that they do freak out players who are IRL afraid of spiders, and can throw them off their game. I’ve seen it happen. Of course the flip side is, having the thing with you all the time might freak you out a bit. Not a pet for the phobic.

Special mobs: There are two spiders of note. The Spire Spiderling, in Blackrock Spire, has a fast 1.5 attack speed, and a startling blue skin found only on one other spider. The level 27 Naraxis, of Duskwood, is a spindly creature with a unique red skin.

Windserpents

Health: Medium

Armor: Low

DPS: High

Diet: Bread, cheese, fish

Abilities: Bite, dive

Family ability: Lightning breath

Windserpents are sort of an odd man out, when it comes to hunter pets. They have this ranged attack that isn’t really ranged, because they can’t stand next to you and spit. They’re widely believed to be “weak” – this is partly true, because most wind serpents seem to suffer from what Petopia calls “caster stats” – a pet with above-average Int and Spirit but unusually low Stamina and Strength. And then there are the sons of Hakkar, which change skins every time you summon them (although there’s a possibility that this behavior will be changed in an upcoming patch). Altogether they’re a generally weird pet.

But they do have the ability to attack from range, something available to no other pet. And they’re flying snakes. So they’re not a pet without substantial merit. Just do yourself a favor, and before you tame one, swing by Petopia and make sure it doesn’t have caster stats.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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