Hi all, I’m new to hunter and wondering which ability should I learn on my pet cat (No specific guides on Petopia). I read that we can have 4 active skills on a pet and it shows Bite/Claw/Prowl/Dash so which skills should I prioritize and I also read that The Rake has a special ability (Muscle Tear) which was not mentioned in Petopia…is it still in game?
Appreciate your guides, thanks!
The unique abilities a creature has before being tamed, like muscle tear, are not carried over when you tame them.
Growl, Bite, Prowl and Dash, rest of the points into health/armor while leveling. The mob unique abiltiies were removed, which is why you don’t have every hunter after lupos (The rare wolf in duskwood that did shadow damage)
Why no Claw? Claw is a focus vacuum for your pet, and unless you’re really undergeared and leveling as beastmaster will ensure that your pet won’t be able to keep aggro, because Growl uses Focus as well, and more of it. (Focus basically generates like a rogues energy)
Thanks, I’m not sure how can I get Muscle tear, which mob should I be taming to unlock the skill?
Also which are the 4 skills I should be prioritizing? (Is grown considered as one?)
Muscle tear is not an ability a tamed pet can use in Classic. All the available abilities are listed on Petopia.
Growl is considered 1 of the 4 active abilities even though it can be taught without using TP.
Use it and the pets damage abilities to hold threat on a target. Prowl isn’t really necessary.
Thanks!
Thanks! So no muscle tear for The rake.
If prowl if not necessary then what do you recommend to go? Bite Claw Dash Growl?
Use those 4.
Yea I thought so too about Prowl, coz it -50% movement speed and I thought Charge was super good for leveling, so it kinda defeat the purpose, or I could be not entirely sure how it works…it’s unique though coz it’s Cat exclusive skill 
Btw I also read that it has Leaping Rush, was that removed as well? Is the unique attack speed still there for The Rake? Or he is just like any ordinary cats now?
Also I felt Dash is not necessary coz it’s 5min CD for a 15 secs buff…
ADD: do I need to tame new pets every time when there is an upgrade of rank to pet skills? Or it will auto update in the list?
In PvE while solo’ing/leveling keep bite and growl on autocast, keep claw off autocast
In PvP keep claw and bite on autocast
(I keep dash on autocast for both)
Prowl and cower are crap. Maybe prowl is good if you are a night elf and want to set up some stealth ambushes in BG’s
And yes you need to use petopia site to find the mob that has the rank of pet ability you want and tame it to get the upgrades. Meaning if your cat has claw 3, then you will need to stable it, find an animal that has claw 4, learn claw 4, and then teach that to your cat. It doesn’t learn the upgrades on their own
tyvm!
you didn’t keep all 3 (bite/growl and claw) on coz of focus issue? or also coz claw doesn’t do as much damage as bite? or both? 
I have 2 hunters, and have rarely ever used Prowl. Even my Night Elf hunter doesn’t use it (or the racial ability if NE stands still). It just isn’t that useful.
It’s excellent in conjunction with shadowmeld in PVP.
Don’t train bite.
It gives slightly more immediately damage when starting a fight, but then will never cast again because claw uses all the focus before there is enough to cast another bite.
So your pet gets a tiny little sliver more threat when opening a fight…which matters not at all with disengage/feign death.
The Rake has a very fast attack speed 1.2, so I would recommend that you teach it Bite, Claw and Dash. Prowl is much better for slower hard-hitting cats (2.0).
Special abilities, alas were not carried-over till much later iterations.
While leveling, the import 2 abilities are bite and growl, and you’ll want those for every pet you have until maybe time for raiding. Claw is a good way to burn through your pet’s energy to maximize his DPS, but it doesn’t leave energy available for growl, so your pet can’t hold aggro as well. You may want claw on a pet when it is time to take your pet raiding, but not while leveling.
The 2 abilities other than bite and growl are fillers that you use for utility. Cower is of very marginal usefulness, and you can get pretty much the same effect by just turning off growl. Your pet isn’t going to take aggro over a tank if growl is turned off. So that leaves dash and prowl, both of which can be useful. Prowl is obviously more useful for night elves, but there are still situations where it can come in handy. Dash is pretty much useful for every open world mob you engage while out leveling.
thanks all for your input.
is 1.2 attack speed for a hunter pet considered best? i heard another higher level cat also fast attack speed…
Broken Tooth is a Badlands rare mob with a 1.0 attack speed. He is considered optimal against casters. However, the Rake and other 1.2 pets (Shadowfang Worg) are extremely effective caster-killers.
If you are willing to invest the time camping BT you may consider it worthwhile. But I find the .02 seconds negligible. 1.2 is an excellent and effective speed.
thanks… whats the average atk speed on other pets?
I will eventually get BT but if not mistaken it is level 50+…
Permit me to introduce you to a marvelous website that probably can answer every single one of your hunter pet questions. The site provides pet information for every iteration of WoW. Here is a link to the Classic section: