World of Warcraft has changed so much since 2004. Even if you played back in Vanilla, you'll probably have trouble remembering all the differences, so here's a cheat sheet of what we know. If you have any additions or amendments, please report them on our forums!
Pet handling.
You can only own three pets (at a time).
You can own a maximum of three pets: two with the stablemaster and one with you. You can't bring extra pets with you in the field, so if you're heading out to tame something new you have to leave your current pet with a stablemaster. But we recommend you only keep two pets until you've learned all the pet ability ranks that you can from wild pets, as you'll need to be free to tame temporary pets to learn new abilities. See our guide for more info on these.
Pets have happiness and loyalty, which must be maintained.
Pets are very unhappy when you first tame them, and have no loyalty towards you. You must increase their happiness (by feeding them an appropriate food) quickly and regularly, or they'll decide you're a deadbeat owner and leave again. See our family pages for lists of what different pets will eat. Fortunately as your pet's loyalty towards you increases they will require less to keep them happy. Pets probably won't need feeding when lodged with a stablemaster.
You must level your pets.
Unlike the retail game, newly-tamed Classic pets remain at the level they are when you tame them. You have to use your pet in combat so they gain levels and experience, just like you do!
You don't start with a pet at level 1.
Until level 10 you're on your own! At level 10 you'll be offered a quest chain with two parts that teaches you how to tame pets and how to feed them. Make sure you complete that second part (a delivery quest to your capital) before you rush off to tame your new companion, because if you don't know how to feed it you may find it's run away before you can learn how.
Pets must be trained in their abilities.
Some pets know a few abilities when you first tame them, but most don't. Furthermore, abilities have ranks, so your pet must be trained in higher ranks as it increases in levels. The amount your pet can learn is limited by its level and by the number of Training Points (TP) it has gained (through levels and loyalty). It can't learn everything, so think carefully about what you want to teach it. To train your pet you must first learn the ability yourself. Some abilities can be learned from the pet trainer, but others must be learned from wild beasts that you tame temporarily. See our pet training guide for the fundamentals.
Pet families and appearances.
There are seventeen pet families in Classic.
See our home page for a full list, and click on any icon to see the full set of family looks that can be tamed. All of the Classic families should be familiar to you, except perhaps Owls which evolved into Birds of Prey. Sadly, Serpents aren't included in Classic because they were added in Patch 2.0, even though this was prior to the release of Burning Crusade.
There are no Exotic families.
There are no families restricted to Beast Masters.
Some families are better at offense or defense.
There are no formal specializations or talent trees in Classic, but some families are better at damage, or defense, or are well-rounded. Our home page indicates which role each family is better suited for, as do our specific family pages.
Not all family looks are tameable.
It was only in Cataclysm that a large number of previously-unavailable looks became tameable (thanks Muffinus!), but there are still loads of really lovely Classic pets to enjoy. See our Tameable Looks Gallery for all 116 available looks.
Pet abilities.
Most abilities are available to more than one family.
A few abilities are tied to individual families - like Thunderstomp for Gorillas and Shell Shield for Turtles - but most aren't. You can search for pets with specific abilities on our search page, or check the lists in the abilities guide.
Pets must be trained in their abilities.
Some pets know a few abilities when you first tame them, but most don't. Furthermore, abilities have ranks, so your pet must be trained in higher ranks as it increases in levels. The amount your pet can learn is limited by its level and by the number of Training Points (TP) it has gained (through levels and loyalty). It can't learn everything, so think carefully about what you want to teach it. To train your pet you must first learn the ability yourself. Some abilities can be learned from the pet trainer, but others must be learned from wild beasts that you tame temporarily. See our pet training guide for the fundamentals.
Pets can't know everything.
Your pet can't learn every ability / rank that it's qualified for. This is for two reasons: (i) even at maximum level and loyalty your pet will never have enough TP to learn everything, and (ii) pets can only know four active abilities at once (though they can learn all the passive ones - our abilities guide will tell you which abilities are passive).
Pet abilities have ranks.
The rank your pet can learn depends on its level, and available training points to spend. When you train your pet in a new rank, the TP spent on the previous rank are reimbursed. You can also skip ranks if your pet is qualified to learn an even higher one. If the ability must be learned from a wild creature you'll have to check our guide (or search form) to find one that can teach you the desired rank.
Inferior 'caster' pets aren't a thing in Classic
Back in original WoW there were a number of pets, which we termed 'caster pets', that had substandard stats. This was technically a bug and fortunately the issue doesn't appear in Classic!
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