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We get this question at least once a day on the forums: "What is the best pet?" The answer is complicated and it's silly to be saying "it depends" all the time, and tiresome to continually point people at Petopia, so I thought I'd make this thread to lay the question to rest. It's a culmination of data drawn from experience, the data collection of the Good Intentions Guild and Petopia, and the input of the many hunters on this forum. Hopefully, it will finally be some kind of definitive response to the question, "I've got this new spell, now what should I tame?"
The answer, as so many do, begins with another question: What kind of pet do you want? Hunter pets break down into three basic categories.
Tank pets take a lot of hits without flinching, while you lay on the damage. They're a good choice for leveling, because they don't have much problem surviving long battles or adds.
DPS pets deal more damage than other pets but tend to be a little flimsy. They're nearly a must-have for serious PvPers, because in PvP people don't really attack your pets, so their tanking function is basically moot and you want to squeeze out as much damage as you can.
Middle-of-the-road pets are pretty sturdy and decent damage-dealers, but not exceptional at either. They're good pets for players who ask a lot of different things from them - solo PvE one day, guild Warsong game the next - and need them to perform well whenever.
Keep in mind that these are general inclinations, not hard and fast laws. An owl can tank perfectly well if you spec it for that - it's just that it will never be able to take quite as much punishment as a tank-specced bear. That's important so I'll say it again: The difference between different classes of pet is less than 5%, so the most important thing is to find something that suits your playstyle, that's easy for you to feed and that you don't mind looking at.
MY OVERALL, BROAD SWEEPING RECS
If you don't have the patience to consider all the info I'm about to dump on you and then pick your own pet, here's my advice.
If you want something that will take a beating for you while you do all the damage, get a bear or a boar.
If you want something that will chew off faces in PvP, get a cat. Probably the Rake, Broken Tooth or a Frostsaber Cat, depending on your level.
If you want something that will do pretty well in any situation, get a wolf or a vulture.
SOME INITIAL CONCERNS
There used to be two other things we worried about when choosing a pet - attack speed and pursuit speed. Pursuit speed has been negated by the 1.8 patch, so if you care if your pet can catch something, all you should look at is the ability to learn Dive/Dash. If you're a serious PvPer this is a skill you MUST have.
Attack speed is still around, though, at least for now, and here's what it means. Most pets attack at 2.0. Some, mostly cats, have faster attack speeds, making them great for caster interrupts in PvP. There is a school of thought, however, that favors 2.0 attack cats, because Prowl multiplies the first hit the cat makes out of stealth, and a slower cat gains a greater bonus from this.
A BREAKDOWN OF THE SEVENTEEN FAMILIES OF PET
The following sections owe a great debt to Bamoo and Mania of Petopia, whence much of this information is drawn. Their dedication and generosity in gathering and sharing pet data with the hunter community is humbling and awesome. Some data is also taken from the Good Intentions Guild, who also rock.
Health: At 60. "High" is around 3300, "medium" around 3000, and "low" around 2800. Remember that magic ignores armor, so health may be more important to your tank or raid pet than armor.
Armor: At 60. "High" is around 3900, "medium" around 3700, and "low" around 3500.
DPS: At 60. "High" is around 54, "medium" around 50, and "low" around 47.
Diet: The more things a pet eats, the easier it is to feed, particularly at low levels when getting an appropriate vendor is hard. Meat, fish and bread are the easiest foods to come by, in that order, because meat drops and most innkeepers sell it, fish can be fished, and bread can be conjured. Fungus is very hard to find Alliance side, and fruit in general is rare.
Abilities: Of Dash/Dive, Bite and Claw, what this pet can learn (all pets can learn Growl and Cower).
Family ability: The special attack only this type of pet can learn.
Special mobs: Any members of this family that stand out from the rest, for one reason or another.[ post edited by Meenachari ]
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