IV. TRAINING & SKILLS

IV. TRAINING & SKILLS
Date: 05/18/2007

This is the fun part and also the part that Blizzard doesn't explain at all and leaves up to you, as a hunter, to discover: training your pet with skills, higher ranks of skills and new skills. First things first though;

A. in order for your pet to learn a skill of any type, you must learn and know it first, then you teach it to your pet. Pet trainers do not actually train your pet, they teach you a skill that you can teach to your pet; and

B. With the exception of growl, all pet skills have a training point cost. As noted above, around level 35 or so you'll find you don't have enough TP to train your pet in the max rank of everything and you'll have to pick and choose.

1. What are the skills I can train my pet in?

Pet skills come in two varieties, those available from the pet trainer at a small cost and can be taught to any pet and those you learn from other creatures that are limited in the pets that can learn them (i.e. some pets learn claw, some don't, etc.). Note also that with a few exceptions, all skills have various "ranks" the higher level you and your pet are, the higher rank of a skill your pet can learn. Typically (as you would expect) higher ranks are better and do more damage/provide more stealth/provide a faster speed/give a greater resistance etc. than lower ranks. Also, as you should expect, higher ranks of a skill cost more TP to teach your pet than lower ranks do.

A. Pet Trainer skills

Pet trainers know and can teach you the following skills:

i. Growl (various ranks - based on level)
ii. Avoidance (as of patch 2.1, two ranks, trainable to your pet when he is level 30 (Rank1) and 60 (Rank 2).
iii. Cobra Reflexes (as of patch 2.1, one Rank – trainable to your pet when he is level 30)
iv. Natural Armor (various ranks - based on level)
v. Great Stamina (various ranks - based on level
vi. Nature, Fire, Arcane, Frost & Shadow resistance (various ranks - based on level)

B. Skills Learned from Creatures in the Wild

Various creatures in the wild also have skills and various ranks of those skills you can learn and then teach to your pet. Not all creatures have all skills nor can all pets learn all skills (you can't teach a boar "Claw" or a owl "Dash" for example). You will have to search out the ones that have the skill and/or rank of a skill you want to learn (this is a major purpose of the "Beast Lore" spell). A handy reference to use for finding a beast in the wild that has a skill you want and what skills your pet can learn is found at http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html .

The skills available to be learned from creatures in the wild are:
i. Claw
ii. Bite
iii. Cower (all pets can learn this all but useless skill)
iv. Dash
v. Dive
vi. Charge
vii. Furious Howl
viii. Lightning Breath
ix. Prowl
x. Scorpid Poison
xi. Screech
xii. Shell Shield
xiii. Thunderstomp
xiv. Fire Breath
xv. Poison Spit
xvi. Gore
xvii. Warp

2. How do I learn a skill?

As noted above, you have to learn a skill first and then teach that skill to your pet. There are 2 ways to learn a skill based on where the skill is coming from; the pet trainer or a creature you have tamed.

A. The Pet Trainer

Go to the pet trainer and right click him/her and then click on the line that says "train me in the ways of the beast" or something similar and a window will open. All the skills you are high enough level to learn that the trainer teaches should be there in green (make sure the drop down box in the upper right corner of the window has "all available" checked if you don't see anything). Click on a skill or rank of skill you want and click the button to learn the skill (note you have to pay to learn stuff, its not free).

B. Learning from other Beasts

To learn a skill from another creature you must first find a creature that has the skill or rank of skill you want (again, head over to http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html for information on what creatures have what skills or use your "Beast Lore" spell on creatures you encounter). Once you have identified the skill you want and the creature that has it, put your current pet in the stables (or be prepared to abandon it if you no longer want it) and head on to where the creature you've identified is.

Once you find the creature, tame it and then use it some and make sure during the use that it uses the skill you want to learn. For example, let's say you want to learn "Prowl, Rank 1" Using http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html you determine that this skill is found on level 32 mountain lions north of South Shore in Hillsbrad. You make sure you are level 32 or above and then stable your current pet and head on to the area. Once you find a mountain lion, use the "Tame Pet" skill and tame the mountain lion as your new pet. On the mountain lion's action bar there will be an icon for "prowl." Click that icon several times to turn Prowl "on" and "off" as you use your new lion to kill a few things. Keep watching your chat log and eventually a message (default yellow text) will pop up that says "You have learned a new spell: Prowl, Rank 1)." As a general rule you should learn most skills with 10 or fewer uses (I've learned them the very first time the pet used it and I've had to have the pet use the new skill as many as 15 times before I learned it). Once the text shows up saying you've learned "Prowl, Rank 1" you can abandon the mountain lion (or keep it if you wish) and you are ready to train the newly learned skill, "Prowl, Rank 1" to your favorite cat (only cats can learn prowl).

The process described for "Prowl, Rank 1" in the foregoing is the same process used to learn all the pet skills that come from creatures in the wild - find the animal that has the skill/rank of skill you want, tame it, use it and the skill some and bingo, you'll learn the skill yourself and be ready to move to the next bit on teaching the skill to your favorite pet.