In World of Warcraft: Forever, each of the 18 tameable Hunter families keeps one ability nobody else gets, and pets pull stats from your gear instead of stacking group buffs. Fill stable slots around those abilities first, then spend training points and WoW Forever Gold on food, repairs, and kit that lifts both you and the animal on the bar.
What Forever changed for every companion
- Gear, not buffs: pets gain increased stats from the Hunter’s gear. Mark of the Wild or Blessing of Kings on the pet does not raise those stats the way Classic Era players expect.
- Shared kit + one unique: every family can learn Bite or Claw (sometimes both) and Dive or Dash, then stacks one family-unique ability on top.
- Loyalty loop: Happiness still drops after max loyalty, so diet and feed windows stay part of play. Aggressive mode sits under the pet tab in the spellbook.
- Combat stats: pets benefit from Expertise and take whichever of your melee or ranged critical strike chance is higher. Untraining no longer strips innate attack-speed passives.
- Tame cap: Tame Beast fails on beasts above your level. Rare skins and unusual swing timers change look and feel; they do not add a separate stat tier beyond the family’s hidden damage, armor, and health modifiers.
All 18 tameable families and their unique abilities
Client family tables also list Core Hound with Lava Breath and zero currently tameable beasts—leave it untameable until a live spawn appears. The working roster is the 18 families below.
| Family | Unique ability | What it does | Diet snapshot |
| Bat | Sonic Blast | Damage plus casting-speed slow (30% slow, 20 sec, 60 sec cooldown) | Fungus, fruit |
| Bear | Swipe | Damage that hits up to three nearby targets | Meat, fish, cheese, bread, fungus, fruit |
| Bird of Prey | Mine! | Damage plus disarm (3 sec disarm, 90 sec cooldown) | Meat |
| Boar | Charge | Gap close, brief immobilize, stronger next pet attack | Meat, fish, cheese, bread, fungus, fruit |
| Carrion Bird | Demoralizing Screech | Nearby damage and reduced enemy melee Attack Power | Meat, fish |
| Cat | Prowl | Stealth and a stronger opening attack from stealth | Meat, fish |
| Crab | Pinch | Damage and movement slow | Fish, bread, fungus, fruit |
| Crocolisk | Dismember | Damage plus healing reduction (25% for 6 sec, 15 sec cooldown) | Meat, fish |
| Fox | Trickster’s Dance | Higher dodge and attack speed for 12 seconds | Meat |
| Gorilla | Thunderstomp | Area damage around the pet | Fungus, fruit |
| Hyena | Tendon Rip | Movement slow plus Bleed over time | Meat, fruit |
| Raptor | Savage Rend | Bleed damage over time | Meat |
| Scorpid | Scorpid Poison | Stacking Nature damage over time | Meat |
| Spider | Web | Immobilize plus damage over time | Meat |
| Tallstrider | Dust Cloud | Reduces the target’s armor | Cheese, fungus, fruit |
| Turtle | Shell Shield | Less damage taken and slower attacks for 12 seconds | Fish, fungus, fruit, raw fish |
| Wind Serpent | Lightning Breath | 20-yard ranged Nature damage | Fish, cheese, bread |
| Wolf | Furious Howl | Party melee Attack Power buff | Meat |
Family passive numbers match the Forever client’s Classic Era-style hidden modifiers. Attack speed still belongs to the individual beast, so a rare with a 1.0–1.2 sec swing timer plays differently from a slow family mate even when the ability kit is identical.
Selection by job: leveling, dungeons, hard solos, PvP
Match the family ability to the pull pattern, not the skin.
- Open-world leveling kill speed — Cat or Raptor: Cat (+10% damage, Prowl openers) or Raptor (Savage Rend) when you want the pet carrying personal damage. Boar Charge still wins early zones because engagement is one button and the diet accepts almost anything you loot.
- Multi-mob pulls — Bear or Carrion Bird: Bear Swipe (three targets) or Carrion Bird Demoralizing Screech when packs hit back. Gorilla Thunderstomp covers the same AoE lane once you reach Stranglethorn-level gorillas.
- Tough elite or quest bosses — Turtle or Boar: Turtle Shell Shield or Boar armor profile when the pet has to hold while you reset or bandage. Crab and Scorpid bring high armor modifiers if you need a sponge that still contributes a slow or poison.
- Dungeon groups heavy on melee — Wolf or Tallstrider: Wolf Furious Howl for party Attack Power. Tallstrider Dust Cloud helps physical teams when boss armor matters. Swap to Cat when the group already has AP buffs and you want pet DPS instead.
- PvP anti-healer — Crocolisk: Dismember on the heal window. Line it up with your burst rather than pressing it on cooldown.
- PvP anti-caster — Bat: Sonic Blast for the cast slow. Fast swingers such as The Rake or Duskstalker still help with spell pushback through auto attacks.
- PvP vs melee — Bird of Prey, Spider, or Hyena: Mine! for the disarm, Web for the root, Tendon Rip when you want a slow-plus-bleed kit.
- Burst or save windows — Fox: Trickster’s Dance for twelve seconds of dodge and attack speed once you have a fox in the stable (Gray Fox appears around levels 22–23 in Duskwood).
Current stable slots are limited, so park one leveling damage pet, one dungeon utility pet, and one PvP control pet before you start collecting every rare skin.
Early tame routes by family
You unlock Tame Beast at level 10 through the class quest chain. Race-specific rods exist for Human and Skyborne Hunters; the level cap on the target still applies to every race.
| Family | Early practical tame | Zone |
| Boar | Mottled Boar | Durotar |
| Wolf | Ragged Young Wolf | Dun Morogh |
| Cat | Nightsaber | Teldrassil |
| Spider | Night Web Spider | Tirisfal |
| Tallstrider | Plainstrider | Mulgore |
| Scorpid | Scorpid Worker | Durotar |
| Raptor | Bloodtalon Taillasher | Durotar |
| Crocolisk | Dreadmaw Crocolisk | Durotar |
| Crab | Pygmy Surf Crawler | Durotar |
| Carrion Bird | Wiry Swoop | Mulgore |
| Bat | Duskbat | Tirisfal |
| Bird of Prey | Strigid Owl | Teldrassil |
| Hyena | Kolkar Packhound | The Barrens |
| Wind Serpent | Deviate Coiler | The Barrens |
| Gorilla | Mistvale Gorilla | Stranglethorn |
| Fox | Gray Fox | Duskwood |
Rare skins worth a detour
Rare beasts keep their model and often a distinct attack speed. A rare still uses that family’s unique spell—it does not override the family ability table.
- Duskstalker — Cat, Teldrassil, ~1.4 sec swing
- The Rake — Cat, Mulgore, ~1.2 sec swing
- Timber — Wolf, Dun Morogh
- Death Flayer — Scorpid, Durotar
- Humar the Pridelord — Cat, The Barrens
- Broken Tooth — Cat, Badlands, ~1.0 sec swing
- Dart — Raptor, Dustwallow
- Ripscale — Crocolisk, Dustwallow
- Olm the Wise — Bird of Prey, Felwood
Training points, loyalty, and the gear loop
- Spend order: family ability ranks first, then Bite/Claw and Dash/Dive, then Growl or Cower based on whether the pet tanks or peels.
- Food: Happiness continues to fall after max loyalty—keep the correct food type on the bar. Omnivores like Bear and Boar forgive thin bags; Cat, Wolf, Raptor, and Fox need meat (or fish for Cat).
- Gear share: every weapon, armor, and crit upgrade raises companion damage and survivability. That is the same economy that drives repair bills and consumable stock—whether you farm it or pick up cheap WoW Forever Gold to keep the kit current, the pet rides the same upgrade curve.
- Focus: Focus and pet Focus management still gate how often you can fire the family ability in a long pull.
Beast Mastery hawks and Lone Wolf
- Summon Hawk (Beast Mastery): instant damage, then a hawk stays on the current target for 18 seconds; you can have two hawks out, and the cooldown is shared with Arcane Shot. Unleashed Fury and Ferocity also feed those hawks.
- Lone Wolf (Marksmanship): 20% more damage with all attacks while no pet is active—use it when the fight wants pure ranged output and an empty pet slot, not when you need family utility.
Park the Cat or Boar for the next leveling stretch, keep a Wolf or Tallstrider ready for melee dungeon nights, and leave one stable slot for the Crocolisk, Bat, Bird of Prey, or Spider that matches the brackets you actually queue. Swap on the content, keep food and training ranks current, and let your next gear upgrade lift both you and the beast on the bar.