For the most part, I ranked them as such:
- S Tier has the strongest combinations of abilities, and are overall better than their peers as a result.
- A Tier houses pets with Mortal Wounds, powerful defensive skills, and unique combinations that make them better than their peers on lower tiers.
- B Tier houses pets that mostly use Slow skills, which are not as useful due to Hunters already having a wide range of crowd control abilities. That's not to say they're useless, of course.
- C Tier houses self-dispelling pets. This is significantly less of an issue as pets tend not to be the target of detrimental abilities outside of PvP, and even then, the hunter is the primary target most of the time.
- D Tier houses pets that have on-use dodge skills. Pets that dodge gamble their lives, and CAN get lucky to where they just avoid all damage, but the RNG makes it highly unreliable.
- F Tier solely houses crabs due to the extreme detriment their ability brings to the player.
Otherwise, here are my justifications for specific pet families that may not be obvious:
- Clefthoof and Spirit Beast are S Tier for very obvious reasons. These are by far the most useful pets due to the high value they bring for solo content, and Spirit Beasts are always a valuable choice in raiding and mythic+ content.
- Carapid is S Tier because it takes less physical damage than other pets while also having a good defensive skill. They're surprisingly good tanks as a result.
- Raptor is S Tier because of the undead options. Undead Raptors are very popular PvP pets due to them being considered Undead rather than Beast in regards to player skills, and Mortal Wounds is a very strong effect in PvP.
- If not using an Undead Raptor, then Raptor would still be an A Tier pet due to the Mortal Wounds effect.
- Bear and Rodent are S Tier because Rest is a very strong self-heal that can be used after leaving combat. Bears have a defensive skill while Rodents apply Mortal Wounds, both of which are incredibly useful.
- Aqiri is A Tier because its bonus run speed is incredibly useful when chasing down fleeing opponents that other pets would not be able to keep up with.
- Blood Beast and Worm are A Tier because ranged abilities are rare on pets, and a ranged slow is incredibly helpful when you can't reach the target. These are just as good as Aqiri.
- Chimaera is A Tier because its channeled frost is both the only ranged hunter pet attack and a way to give hunters frost damage when it's needed.
- Core Hound is A Tier because it provides a unique damage reflect.
- Devilsaur is A Tier only because its heal has a requirement. If it could heal from any corpse, it would be S Tier as the heal is just as good as Rest is.
- Feathermane, Pterrordax, and Water Strider are A Tier because they bring a very useful on-use ability, being either slowfall or water walking. These are incredibly useful in a wide range of content.
- Lesser Dragonkin is B Tier only because its magic damage reduction is incredibly high. Magic AoE effects are almost entirely negligible, and directed spells can be soaked with a well-timed Growl where possible.
- Cat is C tier because Prowl can be situationally useful, but like other dodge pets, it would be D tier if Prowl is not used effectively.
- All pets with a Dodge ability are in D Tier because of the high risk and low reward that Dodge brings. This is highly unreliable, and these pets should probably be avoided outside of animal companions.
- Crab is the sole F Tier pet purely because it requires the crab to remain stationary for six seconds. Crabs become dead weight for the duration as a result, which is very much an undesirable trait.