Of course there are things we can't be certain of until we get access to the Classic client, but we should have a good idea of most things. Thanks Pet Families
- there are only 17 or 18 families in Classic. The final number will depend on whether they decide to include Serpents, which were added before Burning Crusade, but were actually in 2.0 so may be left out. I've put them up for now.
- Owls are a family, instead of Birds of Prey. The rest of the families are the same as modern ones.
- there are no exotic families.
- there are no family talent trees in the modern sense, but there are three types of family, which result in some being better at tanking, some at damage, and some in between. Petopia used to call these Defensive, Offensive and General, but I'm still unsure if these terms were ever official or if they were just terms of convenience that Mania used.
- There are tables of how these three "specs" affect stats. Depending on the family type, the pet's health, armour and dps are modified by a set amount. See this table.
- most families don't have a unique ability, but the abilities a family can learn do vary. I've already documented those on the individual family pages.
- pet family diets in Classic aren't that different to modern ones - some family diets change a little, and there are also no mechanical bits, raw meat or raw fish. I've already documented those on the individual family pages.
Pets
- you can only ever have three pets: 2 in the stable and one active! So if you're heading out to tame something you have to leave your other pets at the stable in town.
- because you need to tame wild pets purely to learn certain abilities you're better off keeping only 2 pets, as you'll need that third slot for temporaries. Once you've learned all the ranks of wild abilities you can fill that slot.
- pets have loyalty that must be maintained by feeding (and other things?). If your pet drops too low in loyalty it will eventually leave you for good. You have to feed the pet soon after you tame it or you'll lose it again!
- feeding is important!
- pets don't automatically level up to your level. They start out at (their original level?) and you have to use them in combat to level them up.
- pets don't automatically know all their powers. Some know a few and it depends on the individual NPC rather than the family what they know and what rank. I've already added most of that info but it's not up on the site yet. I'll discuss that more in the Pet Abilities section.
- only some pet looks are available. Lots aren't, and never will be in Classic. I'll still add them to the site so that players who see an untameable look in the wild can at least know they can't get it anywhere.
- hunter player stats affect pet performance, like this old page
- there were some NPCs that had what were termed "caster stats" when tamed, which meant they had sub-standard abilities and performed poorly as pets. I have data on all these. Time will tell if Classic has this issue too, as it could be considered a bug and they did say they might fix bugs that existed in 1.12.
Pet Abilities
- the abilities a pet can learn depend on the family, but most aren't family-specific (link to old info)
- abilities have ranks and most have multiple ranks, but the max. rank number varies a lot between abilities. I think I've already got this info, but it's not up on the site yet.
- you spend the pet's Training Points (TP) to teach them ranks of abilities. Higher ranks cost more TP, but (i) you get refunded the TP cost of the lower rank when you learn a higher one, and (ii) when training you can skip ranks, so you can teach a pet Claw 4 without it knowing Claw 3. (link to old pet training info)
- Your pet can't learn every ability, even if it technically has access to them, so you have to choose wisely when training. This is for two reasons: (i) pets can only learn 4 active skills at once (though they can learn all the passive skills), and (ii) pets only gain a certain number of TP a level, also linked to loyalty by the formula: (level)*(loyalty-1) and that total TP at level 60 and max loyalty still isn't enough to learn it all.
- some pets come with abilities when tamed, but whether the pet already knows an ability (and at what rank) depends on the individual NPC. Most have to be taught their abilities by the hunter, or taught higher ranks.
- hunters have to learn an ability first before they can teach it to their pets. They also have to learn higher ranks before they can teach them.
- some abilities are taught (to the hunter) by trainers, but others have to be learned from tamed wild pets. Can some be learned from both? I have a feeling this is the case with some, and learning it from a wild pet can save you some gold.
- if you want to learn a certain rank of an ability from a beast in the wild, you have to find one that knows that rank from Petopia's list, tame it, and run around with it for a little while until the game says you've learned that rank.
- for ability ranks learned from wild pets, you don't need to learn every rank in between. You can learn a rank 5 ability without already knowing rank 4. I don't remember if that's the case for trainer-taught abilities.
- Gore (an ability of Boars, and also Ravagers in BC) probably won't exist, as I think it was added in 2.0.
Healing were channeled then hehe
