What Pet Do I Level?

A good friend and regular gaming buddy decided to work on a hunter alt and wanted to avoid the normal "huntard" mistakes. So, he asked me to give him a rundown on the best pet to level. Here's what I told him...

With the ready availability of Ravagers in your starting zone, it's probably the best & safest bet to start. Where do you go from there? If it were me...

1) Your first pet should be the Ravager Specimen on Azuremyst. It comes w/ Bite 2 & Gore 2. It can also learn Dash.

2) Around 16-17 go to Red Ridge (Great Goretusk) OR Loch Modan (Elder Mountain Boar.) They have Charge 2 & Gore 3! You can choose to switch full-time to the boar if you like charge, or stick w/ your ravager with the knowledge that you've learned the better gore. You've got 3 slots in your stable. You'll be keeping at least one empty until level 70.

3) Around 19-20 pick up Bite 3 from the Greater Tarantula in Red Ridge. (Or one of several other sources of bite 3.) You simply want the rank on your inventory. Don't bother keeping the spider. If you think your pets are lagging behind, just wait until level 24.

4) At level 24 go find Bellygrub in Redridge Mountains. He comes with Charge 3 & Gore 4. He can also learn Dash and/or Bite.* And wait, you got Bite 3 at level 20! Build up his loyalty and train him. He's a keeper! I recommend the name Potroast!

At this point, unless you find you just dislike Boars, you should work at leveling Bellygrub/Potroast with you the whole way. Stop from time to time to pick up higher levels of Charge, Bite, Gore & Dash. It's important to note that the highest tamable boars are right around level 50. Follow a guide like the one found on Petopia to know when to stop and get new abilities. Going back to tame sucks ass!

Now skip ahead...

5) As soon after level 63 as you can, go to Blades Edge Mountain and get the coolest pet in Outland. The Rip-Blade Ravager. It knows Dash 3 (best) & Gore 9 (best.) It also randomly changes colors (3 options) every time you summon it.

Now you have a solid PvP pet in Potroast (Charge stuns) & possibly the best PvE pet in the Ravager.

6) At level 68+, you'll need to find an Owl with max ranks in Dive. Once you've done this AND verified that you have max ranks in Charge, Dash, Dive, Gore, & Bite, go find the Eclipsion Dragonhawk in SMV. It will give you Firebreathing 2. Firebreathing is a directional AOE attack! (Kinda like Cone of Cold.) If I didn't already have a full stable, I'd have one. It's different, and it'll hold solid aggro on multiple mobs for farming.

At level 70: You should have something like the following:

Main DPS pet: Ravager or Cat.
Multipurpose PvP/PvE Pet : Boar or Scorpid
3rd Pet for fun: Dragonhawk

What do I have?

Raid DPS pet: Slash (Ravager)
General Purpose PvE: Shred (Cat)
PvP pet: Grabhr (Scorpid)

Next time we'll talk about how to spend pet training points...

* Note: Your Boar will not be able to know all 4 (bite, dash, charge & gore) at once since you need a slot for Growl. (I think Owls are the only pets that can actively train 5 abilities.) You should have max Growl, Charge, Gore & then play with Bite/Dash until you know what you like for the 4th. Different schools of thought related to pet energy consumption and maximizing dps come into play here.