Newb wondering about learning pet skills

[Jakjak]

Hi all, I'm new here, and have only played WoW for a couple months now. Hunter was easily my favourite class though, and just recently I noticed that when I try another class, I feel lonely (And I did try warlock, but it's just not the same. She's all about being the cutest pink-haired gnome who can suck your soul out through your nose anyway.)

My main is currently a level 64 Orc hunter, and I've had my raptor Lily since Durotar. /hugs Lily I'm strictly a solo character, never wanted to do any kind of groups with him, and only paired up with a couple players for the brief time it took to complete a quest here and there. I make a lot of alts though to take different professions, and they're nearly always hunters, and have a few Allies because I have some friends who have an Alliance guild.

I don't worry much about detailed stats either, I just go with whatever gives me good stats for my level. However, now that I've passed 60 and am becoming more interested in defending territories (and myself from the ocassional idiot whom I let get to me), and since I might want to group with my alts, I've started taking a closer look at my stats. One thing that's had me curious over the levels is the skills that Lily learns. So far she knows a few like Rend and Claw, and I added Charge shortly after seeing it in action.

After all that, I think what I'm wondering is: after all the patches and such, do we still need to tame other pets in order to gain certain unique skills? Like, should I tame something that comes with Bite, so Lily can learn that skill? And what about upgrading her skills? Rend and Claw are around 7 or 8 or so, just on their own -- do I need to be finding other pets so she can learn a higher level of a skill she knows, or is everything fine the way it is?

I guess I'm mostly curious about how learning new skills works, in simple, Sesame Street language. Just wanna make sure Lily's as strong as possible

[Dulanie]

As far as I know they just learna bilities as they level now. So no more taming random beats to learn their abilities. To my knowledge you only gain new pet abilities by talent points now.

[Rajil]

Your pet will always have a couple of standard skills. a standard attack (claw, bite or smack), a pet-specific attack, growl and cower (level 30+) The other skills he can get are all from the talent tree. Each skill will be upgraded as soon as he hits certain levels, so there is no need to tame other pets to get higher ranks. You can just focus on Lily while leveling.

[Jakjak]

Awesome, thanks So at this point, taming other pets is just to have another pet, like for looks or certain situations?

[Dulanie]

yeah basicly it's either because you like thier look, or for thier special ability.

[VelkynKarma]

Don't forget that there are three branches of pets too; Cunning, Ferocity and Tenacity.

All pets, when tamed but not given any skills in their talents panel, will have the exact same initial stats; that is, +5% to damage, armor and health. However, each branch is capable of doing something totally different due to the talents that they CAN learn when you start choosing where to put your points. Cunning is good for PVP, Ferocity is good for Damage-dealing, and Tenacity is good for tanking and holding enemy monsters' attention/keeping them off you. Depending on what role you want your pet to fill, you pick a pet from a certain tree and tailor it to that role.

But yeah, no taming random beasts for skills anymore.

~VelkynKarma

[Ryno]

after all the patches and such, do we still need to tame other pets in order to gain certain unique skills? Like, should I tame something that comes with Bite, so Lily can learn that skill? And what about upgrading her skills? Rend and Claw are around 7 or 8 or so, just on their own -- do I need to be finding other pets so she can learn a higher level of a skill she knows, or is everything fine the way it is?

Yeah, no need for this anymore.

Used to be such a hassle to do this back in the day, when there were only three stable slots... I still kinda enjoyed it though...

[Rarako]

Ah the old days.... had to go to Mulgore on a PVP sever at level 13 to get a rank of gore for my cute little Shorstack (my first pet, a Young Thistle Boar) and then to Southshore at 32 to get prowl for my Ghost Saber...