People keep talking about that they have no means of armor. They have natural damage reduction(when tamed) and pack leader (and rest of pack if howl buff is enabled) gets a reduction per pack member. (They can also be mate boosted)
I was bringing a lv 90 back for taming when i had to drop at redwiods and before i can pick it again it liloses to a bear. Went back and picked next alpha wolf i see and it is a 125. Tamed it and it is around 167 to 170 in level.
I found a lvl 50 dire wolf and tamed him up with raw prime to lvl 83 and trust me they are super powerful and can easily take 2 carnos thx to there extremely high DPS.....upgrade health and stamina.
Find a low level one tame it level it when level 33 or so you can kill saber tooth tigers scorpions and pretty much any creature that isn't a rock elemental or stuff like that