Many World of Warcraft hunters wonder, “How Many Pets Can A Hunter Have Wow?” While the game allows you to tame and stable numerous pets, the real question is how many you can effectively manage and keep happy in your active rotation. This article delves into pet happiness, based on a player experiment, to help you understand pet management in WoW.
Understanding Pet Happiness Decay: An Experiment
A dedicated player conducted an experiment to observe how quickly a hunter’s pet becomes unhappy and potentially vanishes due to neglect. Starting with a level 41 hunter, they tamed a level 7 wolf just outside Ironforge. The experiment tracked the pet’s happiness levels over time without active feeding, except when happiness visibly decreased.
Experiment Timeline and Observations
- 5:01 AM: Level 41 Hunter tames a level 7 wolf.
- 5:01 AM: Pet is fed level 5 Haunch of Meat immediately after taming.
- 5:05 AM: Hunter stops moving in Ironforge.
- 5:17 AM: Pet turns yellow (unhappy). Fed again.
- 5:35 AM: Pet turns yellow again.
- 5:49 AM: Pet turns red (very unhappy).
- 6:04 AM: Hunter is disconnected from the game.
- 6:19 AM: Pet disappears (“poofs”) after logging back in.
This timeline shows that even without active feeding, a hunter pet has a considerable amount of time before becoming completely unhappy and disappearing.
Feed Happiness Analysis
The experiment also recorded the happiness gained from feeding at different stages:
Tame Feed (Initial Feed):
- Feed 1: 9 times 35 happiness
- Feed 2: 9 times 35 happiness
- Feed 3: 7 times 35 happiness, then diminishing returns (20.5 and 1.9)
- Feed 4: Minimal happiness gain, indicating it was unnecessary at this point.
First Yellow Feed:
- Feed 1: 9 times 35 happiness
- Feed 2: Diminishing returns again (24.1, 1.9, 2.2, 1.9, 1.9 happiness).
This detailed breakdown illustrates how quickly the effectiveness of feeding diminishes as the pet’s happiness is already high.
Stable Pet Happiness
Interestingly, the experimenter also checked a level 40, loyalty level 6 cat that had been stabled. After being stabled for over an hour, and fed just before being stabled and checked immediately after being retrieved, it was observed that:
- Level 5 food provided significantly less happiness (8.8 x 3 times) compared to a newly tamed pet.
- The stabled pet did lose some happiness over the hour but remained green (happy). This suggests pets in stables lose happiness at a much slower rate and likely do not drop below the green happiness level.
Conclusion: Responsible Pet Management in WoW
This experiment provides valuable insights into managing hunter pets in WoW. While you can technically have many pets in your stable, actively managing a smaller, focused group ensures they remain happy and effective. The findings debunk the idea that pets will quickly run away even if their happiness dips slightly. Hunters have ample time to feed their pets before they become critically unhappy.
Ultimately, “how many pets can a hunter have wow” depends on your ability to dedicate time to keep them fed and happy. This experiment suggests that with regular attention, managing several active pets is entirely feasible, allowing hunters to enjoy a diverse stable of companions.
