The ability to train a pet (Beast Training) is one of the few abilities that is never really explained, in my opinion, sufficiently to the new Hunter. The actual excerpt from the manual reads as follows:
"After you gain a new pet, you can train it in new abilities you acquire with the beast training ability."
Unlike taming, which is taught through a series of quests given at level 10, Beast Training is simply an icon that shows up in the general tab of your spellbook at the finale of the taming series. There is no great fanfare or explaination provided and it is left up to the Hunter to puzzle it out on their own. However, Beast Training should not be considered daunting in any way and with understanding comes being able to have you and your pet performing together like a well-oiled machine.
Pet abilities are broken down into two major categories, and four subcategories. First, there are two major classifications - skills that are taught by Pet Trainers found in major cities as well as several world zones and skills which are learned from animals in the wild. Currently, there are four subdivisions of skills available: offensive/defensive, movement, pet augmentation and threat management.
Learning pet abilities from a trainer is no different than how a Hunter learns their different skill ranks. Be sure to remember that these skills are based both on your level (your ability to purchase them from the trainer) as well as your pet's level. For example, to first purchase Rank 3 of the ability 'Growl' you have to be level 20. However, you cannot actually teach the ability to your pet using Beast Training until your pet has also attained level 20. It is also worthwhile to mention that skills taught by pet trainers have the pre-requisite that requires a Hunter to have obtained the previous level of said skill. So, for example, you could not learn Growl, Rank 5 without already having learned/purchased Growl, Rank 4 from the trainer (exactly like any other skill taught by a trainer). HOWEVER, the same is not true for your pet. If you tame a LV40 pet, there is no need to teach it Growl, Rank 1 through 4. You can skip ahead and teach it Growl, Rank 5.
All other abilities (Bite, Charge, Claw, Cower, Dash, Dive, Fire Breath, Furious Howl, Gore, Lightning Breath, Poison Spit, Prowl, Scorpid Poison, Screech, Shell Shield, Thunderstomp and Warp) are learned by taming different animals that a Hunter finds on their journeys through Teldrassil, Kalimdor,Azeroth and the Outlands. Some important things to remember:
* Abilities are taught, through Beast Training, using Training Points. The bulk of training points are obtained through gaining loyalty levels. All newly tamed pets begin at Loyalty Level 1 (Rebellious) and have no points (or, if a pet already comes with a skill, they can be in the negative column, depending on how much that skill would cost to teach normally). Each new Loyalty Level (Unruly through Best Friend) nets more Training Points. The maximum number of training points you can have is 350 - you won't be able to afford to buy everything, you will need to pick and choose.
* Every type of beast cannot learn every type of ability. For example, Lightning Breath is an offensive ability that deals nature damage to a single target and is only available to a Wind Serpent. So, unless your pet is a Wind Serpent, Lightning Breath will not be available to them.
* You can have a maximum of 4 'active abilities'. Active abilities are the skills that can be toggled on and off. So, for example, Growl is an active ability - Avoidance is not.
* Not every animal begins life with abilities already learned. Sometimes, when taming a new pet, an ability will automatically show up on your pet bar, without you having taught your pet anything. That means your new friend already knows how to do that ability without prompting from you. If your new friend has no abilities, never fear! Old pets can be taught new tricks.
* Learning new abilities means taming new beasts during your travels. Unless you want to switch pets often, this means that you will need an 'open' or 'empty' stable slot - one to move your 'old' pet into and one to temporarily house your 'new' pet.
* Unlike weapon skills, beast abilities do not improve with repeated use. So, if your new pet has Claw, Rank 1, over time, it will not suddenly become Claw, Rank 2 - you will have to find new wild animals with higher levels of said ability.
There are two steps in the training process for Bite, Charge, Claw, Cower, Dash, Dive, Fire Breath, Furious Howl, Gore, Lightning Breath, Poison Spit, Prowl, Scorpid Poison, Screech, Shell Shield, Thunderstomp and Warp.
First, you need to learn the ability. This entails, as mentioned above, finding animals in the wild with skills and taming them. You can either do this by trial and error or by consulting this list and taming one of those specific animals. For example, let's assume our Hunter is a Night Elf and they choose, as their first pet, a Webwood Venomfang. Webwood Venomfangs already know Bite, Rank 1. But our Hunter doesn't - not yet! Once the taming process is successful, a new icon will appear in the pet bar, representing Bite, Rank 1. Now, to learn this skill, to teach to future pets down the road, our Hunter must fight battles with the Webwood Venomfang while activating the Bite icon (either by allowing the skill to autocast, or manually selecting it with the mouse.) Once this has been done over a span of time (the amount of time varies), our Hunter will receive a message in their 'General' chat window stating: You have learned a new skill: Bite (Rank 1). This means that the ability Bite, Rank 1 is now available to teach new pets.
In keeping with our example of the Night Elf Hunter, our hunter decides that they would much rather have a Feral Nightsaber as a pet. After right clicking on the spider's pet portrait and selecting 'Abandon', the Hunter sets off to find the Feral Nightsaber.
Now, our Hunter can teach a previously learned ability to their new pet. This is done using the Beast Training ability, under the 'General' Tab of the Hunter's spellbook, once the pet gains a Loyalty Level (raising them to Unruly - because the new pet must have Training Points to learn abilities with and all pets start their life in captivity as Rebellious with either zero points, or negative points if they already know skills, like the Webwood Venomfang. Growl is the only exception, it is free and can be taught immediately to any pet.
Open the Spellbook. Select the 'General' tab. The icon for 'Beast Training' is labelled and resembles a slingshot. Click on the icon. A new menu will appear with a list of skills available. Skills in green indicate that those skills are available to teach your pet, provided they list a Training Point cost (or TP) after them and that the pet is of high enough level. Skills without TP cost listed cannot be taught to that specific pet. Skills that have already been learned are greyed out, and filtered down to the bottom of the list. Our hunter highlights the skill that they are trying to teach the new Nightsaber, Bite, Rank 1. At the bottom of the new menu, select the button labelled 'Train' and voila! The new Nightsaber now knows the old trick taught to the Hunter by the Venomfang.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: You mention the term 'Autocast'. What does that mean, exactly?
Answer: 'Autocast' means that every time the skill becomes available, your pet will
perform that action, assuming they have enough Focus to do so, without you specifically
clicking on the icon to trigger it. Skills that are set to Autocast have a gold/silver
swirl rotating around the ability. Autocast can be turned off by right mouse clicking on
the icon, and back to Autocast with another click.
Question: And what is Focus?
Answer: Think of Focus as spell points for pets, with each skill costing a set amount
to activate. All pets come with a set amount of Focus, and unfortunately there is no
way to increase this amount (although you can purchase the talent 'Beastial Discipline'
which will increase their focus regeneration). Pets also regenerate Focus during battle.
Question: So, why turn skills on and off? It seems like Autocast is the way to go.
Answer: This is really up to the player. Because your pet has a limited amount of Focus,
Autocast is not always be the best idea because they might, depending on what abilities
the pet is using, use up their focus too quickly. For example, you do not want a pet
using Growl (adds threat) and Cower (reduces threat) at the same time - their effects are
negating each other. Using offensive skills too often (like Claw) might not leave enough Focus
for your pet to Growl. The more you fight with your pet and have them using skills, the more familiar
you will become with how to manage those abilities effectively.
Question: Pet Loyalty is sort of confusing. How does it work in relation to Training Points?
And why does it seem like sometimes it takes new pets forever to gain loyalty, even if they are Happy?
Answer: There are six levels of pet loyalty. When first tamed, all new pets are Rebellious. From there, it goes
Unruly, Submissive, Dependable, Faithful and Best Friend. The number of Training Points
your pet can have is equal to its level multiplied by its loyalty level minus one (so, loyalty - 1 * level) for
a maximum of 350 points. How pets gain loyalty seems to be somewhat tricky - when a player is lower level,
loyalty seems to come fairly quickly, but at higher levels, the gain seems to be slower with new pets, especially
if the pet itself is Level 70 when you tame it. The general concensus is that you need to be fighting
NPCs that would give you experience for pets to make any sort of loyalty gain. This seems to work the best
for most people.
Question: Will my pet have more training points if I keep the same pet I first tamed at Level 10?
Answer: No. There is currently no benefit from levelling up a pet with you, perhaps besides the fact
that your chosen pet doesn't have a 'high level' counterpart, making it unique looking. All pets will
have 350 Training Points at Level 70.
Question: Do abilities like Great Stamina or Natural Armor stack, if you train up each rank as you go?
Answer: No. Every time you train a new level of a skill, it replaces the old one. So, for example, your pet does
not gain 8 stamina if you train both Rank 1 and Rank 2 of Great Stamina - it will gain 5. However, the price
for the previous rank is "refunded" or "credited to" the purchase of the next rank. Continuing our example,
if you purchased Rank 1 Great Stamina for 5 points, you will only need to have an additional 5 points available
to purchase Rank 2 Great Stamina (which costs 10 points).
Question: I screwed up with how I wanted to train my pet. Is there a way for me to re-train it?
Answer: Yes. Visit a pet trainer - they will have an option that allows you to unlearn all your pet's current
abilities (for a fee, just like when a hunter unlearns their talents). This fee increases each time you
re-spec your pet but each pet is considered a seperate entity - so if you re-spec Fluffy the Cat once and
then want to re-spec Barky the Wolf, the previous Fluffy re-spec won't count against the cost for Barky. The
points reimbursed are based on loyalty levels, so even if your pet came with previously learned abilities (for example,
Sons of Hakkar come with Lightning Breath) and you re-spec it while it's still at R1 loyalty (Rebellious), you
will not receive the points spent on Lightning Breath. That pet will have 0 Training Points at R1 loyalty after
a re-spec. Additionally, if you wait a day, the price to re-spec your pet returns to the original amount (10s).