WoW Classic – Tank Pets Guide
Bears
Health: High
Armor: Medium
DPS: Low
Diet: Bread, cheese, fish, fruit, fungus, meat
Abilities: Bite, claw
Family ability: None to date
Bears are a classic tank choice. The ability to learn both bite and claw means they can generate more hate than their low base DPS suggests, and there’s nothing you can carry that they won’t eat. They’re also available at pretty much every level of the game, making them easy to pick up at any time. Their main weakness is the lack of Dash, and they’re still waiting on a defining ability. Also, if you care about that sort of thing, their animations are pathetic. No idles, no sitting, and their jaws never close. Go ask a druid friend to take his form and get a look at his face. Yeah, bears look like that.
Special mobs: In Winterspring lives the white bear Ursius, with an amazingly slow 2.4 attack speed, and even slower are the young forest bears of Elwynn at 2.5. This means a pet that hits less often but for bigger crits, which can make for better aggro control.
If you really like the white bear look and can’t wait ’till Winterspring, there are two white bears in Dun Morogh – Mangeclaw, a level 11 quest mob on a maybe 40 seconds respawn timer, and Bjarn, a level 12 rare spawn. If you’re Horde, this is one hell of a long walk, good luck.
Boars
Health: Medium-high (baseline +4%)
Armor: Medium-high (baseline +4%)
DPS: Low
Diet: Bread, cheese, fish, fruit, fungus, meat
Abilities: Bite, Dash
Family ability: Charge
Boars are the fast tank. Both charge and dash let them pick up the pace to catch or pre-empt an opponent, and the AP bonus from charge can provide a nice opener. There’s a lot to be said for a pet who can root your foe anywhere you want. Their broad diet is another nice plus. And if you want a unique pet, boars are completely unique among beasts for their medium-high armor and medium-high health. Auzduk would also like me to remind you that boars have more idle animations than average and generally show a fair amount of personality, comparable to tallstriders, wolves, or cats (although, like most pets, they don’t have a swimming animation).
Special mobs: In Razorfen Kraul, there are a particular set of boars that wear armor. This is just a visual thing, it doesn’t actually affect their stats at all, but many hunters find the idea of an armored boar really damn cool, and they can be pretty imposing at higher levels. These are the Rotting, Raging, and Plain-Old Agam’ar boars.
Crabs
Health: Low
Armor: High
DPS: Medium
Diet: Bread, fish
Abilities: Claw
Family ability: None to date
Crabs are rare but have a few things to recommend them. They hold their own well in a fight with Claw and moderate DPS. They’re very easy to feed if you like fishing, and they have a low profile making them easier to see over in combat. Plus, they’re huge at 60, which is kind of nifty to see. Their low health makes them less effective defensively against casters, though, and they suffer from a lack of distinctive abilities and relative world rarity.
Special mobs: All crabs are created equal. The only restriction to picking one up is that you should try to do so by your mid-40s, as they disappear from the game world at that point.
Crocolisks
Health: Low
Armor: High
DPS: Medium
Diet: Fish, meat
Abilities: Bite
Family ability: None to date
You won’t see many hunters with crocs, and it’s mostly for one reason: they make this noise, sort of a broken-vacuum-y rasp, ALL THE TIME. It’s like this CONSTANT Darth Vader-cum-Iron Lung thing following you around. Most hunters hate it, and those who don’t mind often get grief from raid buddies who do. If you don’t mind it, though, you’ve got a unique pet with a low profile and a nasty bite.
Special mobs: Crocs all have the same stats after taming. However, a white croc skin is found only in three places: the Wailing Caverns, on a rare in Dustwallow, and on a simply huge creature called the Sewer Beast, a level 50 croc who lives in the Stormwind Canal. No seriously. He’s very, very rare, but a great deal of fun to tame, because hey, you’ve tamed a croc that grew to enormous size in the sewers, and how many hunters can say that?
Gorillas
Health: High
Armor: Low
DPS: Medium
Diet: Fruit, fungus
Abilities: Bite
Family ability: Thunderstomp
Gorillas are a late-level pets, not showing up until STV. They’re unusually good tanks due to their AoE and medium DPS and can often hold a group of mobs against a Volley or Multishot. They also have more animations than average, which annoys some and pleases others. Con-wise, their diet is a pain in the ass, but the biggest drawback IMO? You can’t tame A-Me, the quest robot gorilla in Un’Goro. How cool would that be? CYBER-APE OF DOOM!
Special mobs: There aren’t any really special apes, apart from A-me, who, as I said, you can’t tame. /sad But worthy of note is the red-skinned U’cha, a named quest mob found in a cave in Un’goro crater. I bring him up because he’s the highest-level ape in the game, and not a huge hassle for a 60 hunter who decides she wants some simian artillery, and because he’s not mentioned on Petopia, so those who stop looking there might miss him.
Scorpids
Health: Medium
Armor: High
DPS: Low
Diet: Meat
Abilities: Claw
Family ability: Scorpid poison
The big thing to be aware of with scorpids is scorpid poison, which will break crowd control and keep things chasing you longer than they otherwise would, should you choose to run. A low profile and some very slick skins make this a visually enticing choice, however.
Special mobs: Death Flayer, a scorpid in Durotar, has a fast 1.6 attack speed. If you’re Alliance and interested in him or any other scorpid at that level, you’re in for a bit of a hike, as they live in mostly Horde areas until the 30s.
Tallstriders
Health: High
Armor: Low
DPS: Medium
Diet: Cheese, fruit, fungus
Abilities: Bite, dash
Family ability: None to date
The key to the tallstrider is dash. They’re fast and durable, with medium DPS to keep the attention of your enemies. They also have some neat idle animations and some bright, attractive skins. On the flip side, they suffer from an annoying diet and a lack of a family ability.
Special mobs: Tallstriders have a couple of interesting variations. There are two unique skins, the bright pink flamingo-like Mazzranache of Mulgore and the blue and orange Clutchmother in Darkshore. People may warn you off Mazz, but it means they missed the last patch – he used to have a slower-than-normal pursuit speed, but pet pursuit has been normalized, so have no fear about picking him up. Also worth checking out are Ornery Plainstriders, which dwell in the Barrens and enjoy a 1.3 attack speed.
Turtles
Health: Medium
Armor: High
DPS: Low
Diet: Fruit, fungus
Abilities: Bite
Family ability: Shell shield
Turtles are durable, and shell shield gives them that last extra bit of life against a particularly brutal opponent or when you need them to off-tank for just a few seconds more (although if you’re going to use that skill, please wait until 1.10. Trust me). And who doesn’t love to say “chelonian”? But there are a few things to keep in mind. Turtles are bigger than you think they are and can block your view, and though their listed DPS isn’t meaningfully lower than a scorpid’s or a boar’s, they don’t have charge or poison to make up the difference. This means they can have trouble keeping a mob’s attention, especially if you use shell shield.
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