Retired Pets
On this page we spotlight creatures that could be tamed in the past -- and which you may still see around, as the loyal pet of a lucky hunter -- but which can no longer be tamed for one reason or another.
Grimtotem Spirit Guide
The Grimtotem Spirit Guide, aka ghost wolf, is perhaps the most famous retired pet in WoW.
This little wolf was an unlikely hunter pet from the beginning: it is summoned by an NPC and only lives for about 8 seconds before falling over dead. And Tame Beast takes 20 seconds to cast ...
But despite this, the ghost wolf could indeed be tamed when it was first introduced in Patch 2.3. Excited hunters spared no expense, buying equipment and recruiting friends to help shorten their cast times so they could complete Tame Beast before the wolf died. And many were successful.
Unfortunately, after several weeks Blizzard decided to correct their mistake, even though they had previously said that they would leave the wolf alone. A hotfix temporarily removed the wild Grimtotem Spirit Guides from the game, although hunters who had already tamed one did not lose their pets.
These wolves reappeared in Patch 2.4 as Grimtotem Spirit Wolves, but they can no longer be tamed.
Similar Pets: The Grimtotem Spirit Guide has a unique appearance. If you have one, you probably want to hold on to it.
Hawkbane
Hawkbane was only available in-game between the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion and Patch 2.1, but in that short time he was a favorite of many a high-level hunter.
His disappearance has never been adequately explained, although it appears that the revamp of Skettis in Patch 2.1 interfered with his spawn points, and that rather than fix him Blizzard decided to remove him from the game entirely.
Similar Pets: Hawkbane's appearance is not unique: it is shared by King Bangalash and the Frostsaber.
Death Ravager
Killing the Death Ravager is the objective of the quest "Strength of One", a level 10 Warrior quest on Azuremyst Isle. Most of the time, the Death Ravager sits quietly in a cage, unattackable, but during the quest he is 'released' and becomes aggressive and attackable.
Something in this scripting, however, carries over after the Death Ravager is tamed and makes him a very odd pet. As a tamed pet, he cannot be buffed and can only by healed by his owner via Mend Pet. In addition, a tamed Death Ravager has severe difficulties attacking players in PvP.
For these reasons, Blizzard removed the ability to tame a Death Ravager in Patch 2.1. Hunters who had already tamed one got to keep it, odd behavior and all.
Similar Pets: The Death Ravager has a unique appearance. If you have one, you probably want to hold on to it.
Hunting Windrocs
When the Burning Crusade expansion first launched, the skies above Nagrand were populated with roving flocks of Windroc Hunters and Windrocs Huntresses who would occasionally dive out of the sky to attack an unsuspecting talbuk.
Sometime before Patch 2.3, however, those windrocs disappeared. An explanation has never been forthcoming.
Similar Pets: Luckily, there are a decent number of other black owls and brown owls available.
Assorted Dustwallow Marsh Creatures
In Patch 2.3, Blizzard made major changes to Dustwallow Marsh. In addition to adding a boatload of new quests and a handful of new creatures, they also removed a number of redundant creatures.
Similar Pets: None of the creatures removed from Dustwallow Marsh in the revamp had unqiue appearances. You can click on the pictures below to find other pets like these that can still be tamed.
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Early Retirement
We also have a couple of well-known creatures that could be tamed in testing but which could not be tamed by the time they made it out of testing. You will sometimes hear hunters talk about these pets, however -- reminiscing about the gorgeous bear mount/pet that they once owned on the PTR, for instance.
The Amani Bear is a Zul'Aman creature that could briefly be tamed on the Public Test Realms.
Similarly, Torgos the green two-headed carrion bird could only be tamed during the Burning Crusade beta test.
Similar Pets: Both the Amani Bear and Torgos have unique appearances that are not currently available to hunters.
Out of Retirement
And finally, it makes sense to mention the Sandfury Guardian here even though the Sandfury Guardian is, today, a perfectly normal pet.
See, before Patch 2.0 and the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion, the serpent family could not be tamed. Like basilisks or zhevras, serpents just weren't pets. However, way, way back in Patch 1.2, the Sandfury Guardian was somehow accidentally classified as a wind serpent -- and it could be tamed!
Unfortunately Blizzard fixed this bug in Patch 1.3 and the Sandfury Guardian became an untameable serpent once again. Hunters who had already tamed the serpent got to keep it -- with a very big catch! During this period, the Sandfury Guardian could not be fed any food at all. So if you took it out hunting, eventually it would get unhappy enough to run away and you'd lose your unique pet.
Many hunters held onto their serpent anyway, leaving it in the stable except for very special short appearances. When the change was made so that dying in a battleground refilled our pets' happiness, some resourceful hunters started using this method to 'feed' their Sandfury Guardians. But it was still a very inconvenient pet.
Then came Patch 2.0 and the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion, and lo and behold the serpents had become a true tameable pet family! Existing Sandfury Guardian pets could once again be fed, and hunters could tame new Sandfury Guardians as well. And that's where we are today: with the Sandfury Guardian out of retirement and once again available to hunters.