If you're coming from the modern game, this will surprise you: in WoW Forever your pet doesn't learn abilities on its own as it levels. It works like Classic. For your wolf to get the next rank of Bite, you first have to learn it yourself by taming a beast that already knows it, and then teach it to your pet. It's one of the things new hunters forget most, and one you feel most in your pet's damage.
A friend of the site asked us: "do you have to tame every beast to learn its abilities? Does that stay in Forever?". The short answer is yes to both. This guide explains how it works, what each family can learn and what changed in the beta.
In short
| Does Classic's system stay? | Yes: the beta client ships Beast Training and Tame Beast just like Classic Era |
| How do you learn an ability? | Tame a beast that knows it and fight with it until a yellow message appears |
| How do you teach it to your pet? | With Beast Training, spending training points |
| Where do the points come from? | Your pet's level and loyalty; loyalty rises slowly if you keep it happy and fed |
| What does the pet trainer teach? | The general stuff: Growl, resistances, Great Stamina, Natural Armor… also for points |
| Beta change | Since 24 September you can't tame beasts above your level |
Step by step
- Get a pet. At level 10 you do your trainer's quest chain, which has you tame several different beasts before granting Tame Beast and Beast Training.
- Find a beast that knows what you want. Every beast in the world knows certain abilities at a certain rank: a level 8 wolf may know Bite 2 and a level 24 one, Bite 4. With Beast Lore, later on, you can see what it knows before taming it.
- Dismiss your pet, tame the beast and fight with it. While the beast uses the ability, you "study" it. When you learn it, a yellow message appears in chat, without the rank, so it's easy to miss.
- Go back to your usual pet. Abandon the one you just tamed (or stable it) and call yours.
- Open Beast Training and teach it. Each ability costs training points. If you don't have enough, you'll have to wait for your pet to gain a level or loyalty.
The key point: what you learn is yours, not the pet's. Once you know Bite 4, you can teach it to any pet that can use it, without taming anything again.
Loyalty, happiness and training points
- Happiness goes up when you feed the pet food from its diet, close to its level. Dismissing it costs happiness.
- Loyalty rises over time while the pet is happy. No loyalty, no training points, and beta players say it rises very slowly.
- Training points grow with your pet's level and loyalty. Every rank of every ability costs its own, so it can't have everything: you have to choose.
In the 24 September beta update Blizzard fixed a bug where happiness stopped dropping at full loyalty. In other words: keep feeding it.
What each family can learn
Not every pet can learn everything. These are each family's abilities according to the beta client; the ones marked (new) weren't in Classic. The last column shows the pet level each rank needs, up to 20, the beta's cap.
| Family | Abilities | Ranks up to level 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Wolf | Bite, Dash, Furious Howl | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Furious Howl 10 |
| Cat | Bite, Claw, Dash, Prowl | Bite and Claw 1, 8 and 16 |
| Spider | Bite, Dash (new), Web (new) | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Web 12 |
| Bear | Bite, Claw, Dash (new), Swipe (new) | Bite and Claw 1, 8 and 16 · Swipe 12 |
| Boar | Bite, Dash, Charge | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Charge 1 and 12 |
| Crocolisk | Bite, Dash (new), Dismember (new) | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Dismember 12 |
| Carrion Bird | Bite, Claw, Dive, Demoralizing Screech (new) | Bite and Claw 1, 8 and 16 · Screech 8 |
| Crab | Claw, Dash (new), Pinch (new) | Claw 1, 8 and 16 · Pinch 12 |
| Gorilla | Bite, Dash (new), Thunderstomp | Bite 1, 8 and 16 (Thunderstomp from 30) |
| Raptor | Bite, Claw, Dash (new), Savage Rend (new) | Bite and Claw 1, 8 and 16 · Savage Rend 12 |
| Tallstrider | Bite, Dash, Dust Cloud (new) | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Dust Cloud 12 |
| Scorpid | Claw, Dash (new), Scorpid Poison | Claw 1, 8 and 16 · Poison 8 |
| Turtle | Bite, Dash (new), Shell Shield | Bite 1, 8 and 16 |
| Bat | Bite, Dive | Bite 1, 8 and 16 |
| Hyena | Bite, Dash, Tendon Rip (new) | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Tendon Rip 12 |
| Bird of Prey | Claw, Dive, Mine! (new) | Claw 1, 8 and 16 · Mine! 10 and 20 |
| Wind Serpent | Bite, Dive, Lightning Breath | Bite 1, 8 and 16 · Lightning Breath 1 and 12 |
| Core Hound | Bite, Lava Breath | Bite 1, 8 and 16 |
| Fox (new family) | Bite, Dash, Trickster's Dance | Bite 1, 8 and 16 |
Each family, with the text and numbers of every rank, its diet and how it changes from Classic, is on hunter pets.
What the pet trainer teaches
Anything that doesn't depend on the family doesn't need taming: the city pet trainer sells it, also for training points. These are the commands and upgrades every pet shares: Growl and Cower, Great Stamina, Natural Armor and the resistances to each school of magic.
New in Forever: every pet attacks every 2 seconds, and each family brings a passive that adjusts it (Faster Attack or Slower Attack). So the beast you tame still decides how fast your pet hits, even if you no longer see it in its attack speed. We explain it on hunter pets.
What changed in the beta
- You can no longer tame beasts above your level (Blizzard's 24 September notes). Some guides, written before that, still say "up to two levels above".
- Pets from the Skyborne zone (the Vuldren foxes and others from Zephras Isle) have caused trouble in the beta: some players report on the official forums that they can't be trained. The fix they share is to abandon that pet and tame another.
- Beast Training doesn't show up for some players with controller support enabled, according to the same thread.
What we don't know yet
- Whether the new abilities are learned the same way. Web, Swipe, Savage Rend, Mine! and the other new ones are in the client as family abilities, but Blizzard hasn't said whether you learn them by taming or the beasts of that family come with them. In the 24 September notes, for example, it simply says bats "now have" Sonic Blast.
- Which specific beast teaches each rank in Forever. The client doesn't ship what each beast knows: that's decided by the server. We'll add it with verified data.
- The training point formula. Blizzard hasn't published it for Forever.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to tame beasts for your pet to learn abilities in WoW Forever?
Yes, as in Classic. You tame a beast that already knows the ability, fight with it until you learn it, and then teach it to your pet with Beast Training.
What is Beast Training?
The hunter spell you use to teach your pet the abilities you've learned. Each one costs training points.
Why can't I teach my pet anything?
Almost always a lack of loyalty or training points: feed it and give it time. In the beta, pets from the Skyborne zone also fail.
Can I tame beasts higher level than me?
No. Since the 24 September beta update, Tame Beast no longer works on beasts above the hunter's level.
