Pursuit Speed
For quite some time, one of the first questions that hunters have asked about a new pet has been: "Is it fast?" There are two possible answers to this question, depending on whether the hunter means attack speed or pursuit speed. Starting with Patch 1.9, however, hunters no longer need to ask about the pursuit speed of a pet, because all pets have the same pursuit speed.
Pursuit Speed Defined
First, let's make sure we're using the same terminology. Pursuit speed refers to the speed at which a pet runs to attack a target. Pursuit speed is unrelated to following speed, which is the speed at which a pet runs while following its owner. It is important to understand that whether or not a pet can keep up with its owner while the owner is running or mounted is completely unrelated to pursuit speed. Blizzard made changes quite some time ago to help pets better keep up while following their owners, but these changes did not affect pursuit speed.
Traditionally, we measured pursuit speed in relation to the speed of a running player avatar with no buffs or speed-enhancing equipment. So a pet that pursues at the same speed as a player runs would have a 100% pursuit speed. A pet that pursues twice as fast as a running player would have a 200% pursuit speed.
We used to categorize pets by their base pursuit speed - that is, their pursuit speed without any of the effects that increase pursuit speed. So we might talk about a 145% pet, whose base pursuit speed is 145% that of a running player. But this pet will pursue enemies faster if it has certain talents or abilities.
Now, of course, all pets have the same base pursuit speed of 115%.
Pursuit speed is not affected in any way by the pet's level or the hunter's level, or by the happiness or loyalty of the pet. Pursuit speed can be affected by certain talents or pet abilities, including:
- Bestial Swiftness (a hunter talent)
- Aspect of the Pack (a hunter skill)
- Pathfinding (a hunter talent that increases the Aspect of the Pack bonus)
- Dash or Dive (pet abilities that do the same thing but are available to different pets)
- Charge (a pet ability only available to boars)
It's important to note that the effects that increase pet pursuit speed are all multiplicative: that is, when it says that Bestial Swiftness increases the pet's speed by 30%, it really means that it multiplies the pet's base speed by 1.3, not that it adds 30% to the base speed. So a 115% pet under the effects of Bestial Swiftness actually pursues at 149.5%, not 145%.
It's also important to note that these speed-increasing effects do not stack. If you have Bestial Swiftness and you have buffed your pet with Aspect of the Pack, your pet will still only increase his pursuit speed by 30%. And if he Dashes, that will override the other effects completely.
Let's take a look at each of those effects one at a time.
Bestial Swiftness
Bestial Swiftness is a Beast Mastery talent that players who have invested at least 10 points in Beast Master talents may take. There is only one rank of Bestial Swiftness, and it increases the pursuit speed of your pet by 30% while the pet is outdoors.
Remember, that extra 30% really means that it multiplies the base pursuit speed by 1.3. So Bestial Swiftness will boost the pursuit speed of your pet outdoors from 115% to 149.5%.
There are three very important things to keep in mind with Bestial Swiftness:
- It only applies outdoors. Bestial Swiftness does not affect pursuit speed while your pet is indoors.
- There is currently a bug that causes Bestial Swiftness to stop working if you take your pet indoors, even if you subsequently go outdoors again. This also happens if you summon your pet indoors. You can fix the situation by dismissing and re-summoning your pet.
- Bestial Swiftness does not stack with any other pursuit-increasing effect.
Incidentally, the easiest way to tell if you are outdoors - and therefore if Bestial Swiftness should be in effect - is to attempt to cast the spell Eagle Eye. This spell will only cast outdoors. If you are in a hurry, you can also use the minimap: as a general rule, if the minimap displays any black areas, you are indoors. Remember, however, that indoors/outdoors depends on the pet's location, and not yours.
Aspect of the Pack
Aspect of the Pack is a skill that hunters can buy at level 40. It is an aura; it buffs everyone in the hunter's group who is close by, including their pet, with an effect that increases movement speed by 30%. But if anyone gets hit, they become dazed for 4 seconds. This is basically Aspect of the Cheetah for everyone in your group. Again, the extra 30% will boost the pursuit speed of your pet from 115% to 149.5%.
Because Aspect of the Pack does not stack with Bestial Swiftness or the other pursuit-increasing effects, because it is an aura effect that shuts off if the pet gets too far away, and because of the unfortunate daze effect if you are hit, this Aspect is not often used to increase pet pursuit speed.
Pathfinding
Pathfinding is a Beast Mastery talent that players who have invested at least 10 points in Beast Master talents may take. This talent affects pet pursuit speed by increasing the effects of Aspect of the Pack. There are two ranks: the first rank offers a +4% increase; the second rank offers a +8% increase. With two ranks of Pathfinding, Aspect of the Pack can boost your pet's pursuit speed to 158.7%. Of course, since this talent requires use of Aspect of the Pack, it suffers from the same problems as that Aspect.
Dash and Dive
Dash and Dive are pet abilities that are available to some families of pets. Each increases the pursuit speed of a pet for 15 seconds. Generally speaking, Dive is only available to flying pets, and Dash to some running pets. Other than the names and the families that can train them, these abilities are identical and we can discuss them together.
There are three ranks of Dash/Dive. Each increases the pursuit speed of the pet by a different amount. The following table details the effects of these abilities on a 115% pet.
| Dash/Dive Rank | Speed Increase | Final Speed on 115% Pet |
| 1 | +40% | 161% |
| 2 | +60% | 184% |
| 3 | +80% | 207% |
Remember that Dash and Dive override other pursuit-increasing effects. In particular, Dash and Dive do not stack with Bestial Swiftness.
Charge
Charge is a skill, available only to boars, that was added in Patch 1.9. The main effect of Charge is to immobilize the target and add extra attack power on the boar's next attack, but Charge starts with an increase in pursuit speed.
At this point, I have been unable to collect consistent data on the pursuit speed of Charge. My normal methodology is not sufficient because in order to trigger the Charge, you must have a target and you must be between 8 and 25 yards from the target. As soon as you trigger Charge, you go charging off to the target and attack it. I haven't been able to control my Charge at all while using EotB, and I haven't yet been able to line up a handy target in the middle of the track, not too close to the end, who doesn't attack back. But research is ongoing!
Unless you are particularly interested in the history of pet pursuit speeds, feel free to skip the rest of this page. I promise that there is no useful imformation past this point.
The Old System: Patch 1.8 and Before
In Patch 1.8 and before, pets fell into four basic categories with regards to pursuit speeds. Those categories were:
- Slow: 100% base pursuit speed
- Average: 115% base pursuit speed
- Fast: 145% base pursuit speed
- Very Fast: Varied, but usually represented as 200%-260% base pursuit speed
Most pets had an average (115%) pursuit speed, including:
- Most non-newbie level bats
- Most bears
- All non-newbie boars
- Most carrion birds
- Some cats
- Most crabs
- All crocolisks
- All gorillas
- Most hyenas
- All non-newbie owls
- Most raptors
- All scorpids
- Most spiders
- Some tallstriders
- Most turtles
- Some windserpents
- Most wolves
The very fast (200%+) category held just a few pets: namely the Frostwolves from Alterac Valley, and the Bloodseeker Bat and Spawn of Mar'li spider from Zul'Gurub.
The New System: Patch 1.9 And After
Starting with Patch 1.9, all pets have a base pursuit speed of 115%. There are no more slow pets, no more fast pets, no more very fast pets; they all have an average pursuit speed.
The speed of existing pets is affected as well as the speed of newly tamed pets. If you had previously tamed a Frostwolf, that pet will now pursue a good bit more slowly than it did before. On the other hand, if you had previously tamed Mazzranache, then that pet will now pursue more quickly than it did before. Most pets, which were already at 115% pursuit speed, were not affected at all.
Testing Methodology
I do my serious pursuit speed testing at the Thousand Needles Salt Flat race track, using Eyes of the Beast and a stopwatch.
Eyes of the Beast (EotB) is a skill that allows the hunter to take over their pet and act through them. In this way, I can run my pet down the racetrack for a set distance and then compare the time that took to the time it takes my avatar to run the same distance.
Using EotB in this way does not give a direct measurement of pursuit speed per se. That is, we are not directly timing the pet as it runs to attack an enemy. However, the collected data of the hunter community over the past year strongly suggests that the speed we see while using EotB is equivalent to the pet's speed while in actual pursuit. And because there are so many, many difficulties with directly timing pursuit speeds - from getting monsters to hold still at a set distance, to pathing issues, to the relatively shortness of the distances involved - the EotB method provides a more precise measurement of pursuit speed than direct measurement would.
Indeed, I use the Salt Flat race track because it is straight and flat - so no pathing issues - and because it is almost the perfect length. I use marks on the ground to stake out a course of known distance: there is a salt splotch at the south end and a handy shadow at the north end which are almost exactly 56 seconds apart at player run speed. This gives me a long enough course distance that edge effects are minimized.
I run each trial a minimum of 4 times pet set, and I use the player run speed to make sure that sets run on different days stay calibrated. As I mentioned above, I use a stopwatch and then average the times of all of the runs to get an average set time. It is this average time that I use in my calculations. Generally speaking, if a trial time is off from the average by more than a quarter of a second, I re-run the trial an additional 4 times to make certain that my data is solid.
This method works fine for testing base pursuit speeds, and for testing pursuit-increasing effects that are always on. For Dash/Dive, however, I had to modify things a bit. For these trials, I used Dash or Dive exactly once, near the middle of the course. This meant that I knew exactly how long I was dashing (15 seconds) and exactly how long I wasn't dashing (total time - 15 seconds), and thus allowed me to work out the speed during the dash.
The following table summarizes parts of my data and calculations. Some of this data I've posted previously on various forums, but it has been reinforced with more trials since then. I've tested more creatures than are listed here, of course -- these are merely the highlights -- but all of that data reinforces the conclusions above.
| Trial | Time | Speed |
| Player | 56.175 | 100% |
| Player, Aspect of the Cheetah | 43.185 | 130.10% |
| Mounted Player (non-epic mount) | 35.13 | 159.90% |
| 1.8 Mazzranache (slow) | 55.955 | 100.40% |
| 1.8 Stonelash Flayer (average) | 48.895 | 114.90% |
| 1.8 Twilight Runner (fast) | 38.855 | 144.60% |
| 1.9 Mazzranache (was slow) | 48.705 | 115.30% |
| 1.9 Stonelash Flayer (was average) | 48.855 | 115.00% |
| 1.9 Twilight Runner (was fast) | 48.87 | 114.90% |
| 1.9 Twilight Runner w/Bestial Swiftness | 37.55 | 149.60% |
| 1.9 Twilight Runner w/Dash 3 | 36.75 | Dash: 207.8% |
| 1.9 Twilight Runner w/Dash 3 & Bestial Swiftness | 30.367 | Dash: 206% |