Choosing the best pet can be quite a difficult choice if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Through the 10 iterations of WoW (plus the re-released versions and private servers), the amount of knowledge about the various hunter-pet options in the game has dramatically increased. This can be confusing for those who are new to hunters and how they work, and it can be downright overwhelming for those who are just getting started.

We’ve put together a list of our top 5 best Tenacity pets to help guide you through all this information. There are 3 types of best specializations at this point in the game; Cunning, Ferocity, and Tenacity. Tenacity, currently, is the best choice for end-game PvE content i.e., Mythic plus dungeons and raiding. Since damage by pets has largely been normalized, the difference between hunter pets comes from both their specialization and from the special ability offered by their pet “family” or two abilities if they are classified as exotic pets.  

Tenacity Specialization Bonus:

Endurance Training: +5% max. health passively

Survival of the Fittest: Reduces all damage you and your pet take by 20% for 6 seconds (3 min cooldown)

5. Mammoths

You may have ridden a mammoth into battle, but now it's ready to stay for the battle!

4. Beetles

Protect yourself and your pet with these tough-shelled guardians!

Beetles were first introduced in the Cataclysm expansion; they have a defensive ability that is both useful during leveling and during end-game content. 

“Harden Carapace” is on a 1-minute cooldown and grants a 50% damage reduction for your pet for 12 seconds. This is useful out in the open world when leveling if you’re pulling large packs or doing elite quests and during high-level Mythic+ dungeons or raiding. If your pet is dead, then it can’t be doing any damage!

Best Place to Tame One: Multiple Continents and Zones

Rare Spawns: 

Silithid Harvester - Southern Barrens

Maw Roach - The Maw

Diet: Fungus, Fruit

3. Carapids

No matter which name you call them by, these exotic pets are hard to find and even harder to kill!

Carapids are “Exotic” pets which means that they can only be trained once you go all the way down the Beast Mastery talent tree and learn the ability to tame the “Exotic” pet family. You might recognize them under a different name as they were introduced in the Battle for Azeroth expansion as “Krolusks”. 

Like Beetles, these pets have the defensive ability “ Bulwark” which also reduces damage taken by the pet for 50% for 12 seconds, on a 1 min cooldown. However, because of their classification as “Exotic”, they also get the passive ability “ Calcified Carapace”. This is a passive physical damage reduction that scales off the pet's total health. This gives it a slight advantage when tanking for you while leveling or fighting AOE physical damage fights.

Best Place to Tame One: Zandalar Continent

Rare Spawns:

Enraged Krolusk - Vol’dun

Egg-Tender Tiom - Ardenweald

Diet: Meat, Raw Meat

2. Direhorn

Nobody has ever said that dinosaurs weren't cool!

Direhorns are a cool pet family because of the way you have to tame them. Introduced in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, you have to obtain an “Ancient Tome of Dinomancy” which is a rare drop off of Zandalari Dinomancers, in order to learn how to tame them. Unless you are a Zandalari Hunter of course.

These pets have the ability “Gore”, an offensive ability that reduces the effectiveness of any healing on the target for 10 seconds. And it’s only on a 6-second cooldown. So it’s a permanent effect essentially. This is great for PvP or in certain cases where the boss or mobs have a self-healing mechanic. This can be the difference between a kill and a wipe if it’s a significant self-healing mechanic. I still have nightmares about a 1% pre-nerf Vash wipe because our rogue let wound poisons fall off his weapons mid-fight!

Best Place to Tame One: MoP and Zandalar continents

Rare Spawns:

Zandalri Dinomancers for the training tome - Isle of Giants

Primal Direhorn - Isle of Giants

Diet: Fungus, Fruit

1. Stone Hounds

For those that can find them and tame them, these stalwart pets are the best you can find!

Coming in at number 1 is the Stone Hound family. These are exotic pets, so you can only snag them if you are a Beast Mastery hunter. They are excellent because they provide two survivability talents, so you don’t have to worry as much about them when doing fights. This is great in end-game raids because things undoubtedly get chaotic. And if you lose track of your pet and it dies, that can be a major DPS loss.

The first ability is “Stone Armor”, which automatically occurs when your pet’s health falls below 40%. It immediately reduces damage taken by 40% over the next 15 seconds and regenerates 3% of its maximum health back every second for that duration as well. It’s only on a 2-minute cooldown, making Stone Hounds very durable and independent, so you can focus on your own positioning and damage during those tense moments. 

The second is the ability “Eternal Guardian” which is an automatic pet resurrection at full health on an 8-minute cooldown. So even if you do lose track of your pet and it goes down, you have a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card.

Best Place to Tame One: Mists of Pandaria and Shadowlands continents

Rare Spawns: 

Portent - Vale of Eternal Blossoms

Maximus - Revendreth

Diet: Meat, Fish, Cheese, Bread, Fungus, Fruit