Pet A pet is any creature that a player can summon or tame , like companion s and mount s . You may have no more than one combat pet and one companion pet summoned at a time . There is no limit on simultaneous guardian pet s ; a Blood death knight could potentially have 16 at once ( 10 Army of the Dead ghouls , one Risen Ghoul , four Bloodworms , one Dancing Rune Weapon ) . Aggro . All pets , with the exception of non - combat pets , will set their owner in combat when they pull aggro . However , if the owner can break combat through effects like Feign Death or Flask of Petrification , they will remain out of combat until either they or their pet take another aggressive action . This is true even if the owner mounts , which will dismiss the pet and send any attacking mobs into Evade . Combat pets . " World of Warcraft " provides two primary combat pet classes : hunter pet s and warlock pet s . Rare hunter pets . Rare pet s are the hunter pets that are : Hard to find , hard to tame , have long respawn times , and / or are just really rare . These type of pets can be worth quite a lot or just look cool . In Burning Crusade . In the Burning Crusade , other classes can summon pets . druid s could summon treants , mage s ( all specs ) could summon water elemental s , priest s can summon shadowfiend s , shaman s can summon spirit wolves ( shaman - only ) as well as create fire elemental s and earth elemental s by summoning totems , and druid s can summon treant s . In Wrath of the Lich King . In Wrath of the Lich King , the Death knight class was introduced and the talent tree was given the ability to make their ghoul combat pet permanent . In Cataclysm . In Cataclysm , the mage ' s water elemental was moved to the talent tree and made a permanent pet . Combat pet abilities . Combat pets have their own abilities . Once a pet is summoned , its action bar appears above the player ' s action bar . All combat pets share six commands ; they are Attack , Follow , Stay , Aggressive , Defensive , and Passive . " See also : Pet commands " Each pet can have a maximum of four unique abilities . These abilities are either learnt automatically , or , for Hunter pets , acquire through pet talent s . Mind Control . While not strictly pets , humanoid s may be controlled to act like pets by players or creatures via Mind Control or the Gnomish Mind Control Cap . While controlling , the player will gain a pet action bar , allowing him / her to command the humanoid . Mind Control on players in PvP only lasts for 10 seconds and the priest will not get a pet actionbar either . There are other mind control - like effects : Companions . Companion s are sometimes called " small pets " , " minipets " , " player pets " , " trophy pets " or " vanity pets " to distinguish these pets from the pets in the game that can directly help characters in some way ( usually by attacking ) . Companions generally do not fight or respond to commands and are summoned ( or dismissed ) by right - clicking on an associated item ( pet - carrier , collar , stone , etc . ) . Wrath of the Lich King will introduce Pet Supplies vendors ( such as Breanni in Dalaran ) that sell Fetch Balls and Rope Pet Leash es . Small pets can be acquired in the following ways : For a more complete list of vanity pets , see . Guardians . Certain items can temporarily summon a pet that will fight for you until it dies or its time limit expires . Some guardian pets are trinket s ; these are usually reusable but limited by a cooldown time . A couple of guardian pets are offhand items , ( e . g . Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire and Book of the Dead ) . One is a sword , Dragon ' s Call , which summons Emerald Dragon Whelp s . Others are usable from your inventory but will either be consumable or have a limited number of uses . Guardian pets can be acquired in the following ways : An early one that many people see is the Dog Whistle in Scarlet Monastery / Library , which drops off of Houndmaster Loksey , with 3 charges . Unlike Hunter and Warlock pets , there is no way to control a guardian pet other than by summoning it and / or waiting until it dies or its time expires . The pet will defend its owner , attacking whatever its owner attacks or whatever attacks the owner , which can lead to its attacking unintended targets before the party is ready for them . Caution is necessary before using such a pet in an instance . Use one only in confined spaces or areas where all but a few enemies have been killed , or just don ' t use it .