please help a 70 noob with equipment issuesFollow

Look to the left side of this page. Find the link under Quests which reads "By Tradeskill". Click it. Click "Leatherworking". This will show you all of the LW quests, including those for each of the LW specializations for both factions.

Yes. If you're fully BM spec you might clip some shots, but it's still a nice gun for the level.

It's common for people to see drops/quest rewards they can't use and to feel that the itemization deck is stacked against them. Use the Armory or other tools to find upgrades you want and seek them out. There are plenty of nice items for each class and spec in the game.

Some leather items are very good for Hunters. Yes, your Armor contributes to your Pet, but solo grinding in PvE the game is easy enough that it shouldn't make a real impact. Grouped, neither you nor your Pet should be taking many hits, making Armor not terribly valuable for Hunters.

There are a lot of items which have very desirable stats for Hunters which also have a decent amount of MP/5. To be effective in long running fights a Hunter needs both a decent amount of INT and a decent ampunt of MP/5 for mana regeneration. SPI is useless for Hunters since even the slowest weapons don't allow a shot rotation slow enough to allow SPI mana regen to kick in. Don't pick an item only for the MP/5, but do take Hunter suitable items with MP/5.

It's a game. If you're afraid to play it, there's not much to say other than you might want to look into something a little less scary. Disney has a lot of games which might be suitable for you. Or find a group, follow where they go, do what they tell you to do (i.e. "Trap the blue square", "Kill the skull first and the X second") and you'll do fine.

Yes and no. Your Pet gains both more AP and a more effective Growl from your AP. Stack your AP as best you can and your Pet will hit harder and Growl more effectively, which will help it to hold aggro better. You might still pull aggro from your Pet, but you've got skills such as Feign Death, Disengage, Intimidate, Scare Beast, Misdirection, Scatter Shot, Concussive Shot, Wyvern Sting, kiting, strafing, and all out fleeing for your life with which to cope with any such situation.

You can easily get it solo without fighting or even getting near a single aggressive mob. Just look for the wandering merchant. Use this site to look up exactly who you need to look for if you like. I wandered in there with no clue what I'd find and stumbled across him, but I'd have found him faster if I'd have known what I was doing.


Edited, Aug 13th 2007 9:49pm by Kompera

Consortium Blaster is one of the best non-epic pre-heroic/pre-raid guns you can get. I invested the time into getting Revered with Consortium in large part for that gun. As a side bonus, you get a better gem salary based on your rep standing with Consortium (I got 2 rares and some trash from my first salary @ revered).

Having said that, I currently use a Recoilless Rocket Ripper X-54 that dropped on my first (and thus far, only) Steam Vaults run. It's ~2dps less than the Consortium Blaster, but it has a slightly higher delay which really helps manage the Steady Shot rotation (I now have ~0.6 seconds to queue Steady Shot between Auto-Shots instead of ~0.3...the difference is amazing for a nice, consistant shot rotation).

I found Outlands isntances to be a bit intimidating to start. I started playing WoW well after TBC was released and ran very few instances on my way through levels 1-60. Heck, even after I got to Outlands I ran very few instances until I hit 70. In solo play, we engage our pet, dps the mob down, heal our pet as necessary, and trap adds etc. Even when things go sideways in an instance, that's still really all we do. The only difference is that maybe we're also tossing a Misdirection on the tank at the start of a fight, and maybe when your trapped mob has been engaged by the tank (or is dead), you'll drop a trap in front of your party's healer for a little insurance. That's about it. There's a learning curve and you'll ***** up lots as you work through it, but eventually you'll get the hang of it.

I agree with everyone else. Yeah, the instances might seem somewhat intimidating at first, but you will catch on. Run them all as much as you can. I must say, after running Kara, all the normal 70 instances (non-heroic) seem almost boring at times. I know I won't get 2 shotted by any non boss mob and there isn't that "thrill factor" anymore on them. Basically it will just turn into a long rep grind session for you. Just run as much as you can to get comfortable, and learn the bosses from each instance and you will be fine in mediocre gear.

As far as your LW and gear goes. You being BM, you really dont need to much mp5. Yes it helps, but also with the new patch aspect of the viper is supposed to be improved. About the only time you might need to worry about your mana regen is 1)your already gimped in that area (>5000 mp) or 2) on long drawn out fights. You won't encounter many of these pre Kara or heroics though. Even if you dont have a decent mana pool, focus on stats and use pots until you can get better gear. Yes, the felstalker crafted is uber nice. Use it until you can craft your ebon netherscale trash. It will be a nice up for you being BM, as it stacks lots of crit and AP. Its garbage for SV hunters like me cause it lacks agility, but its rather good pre-Kara for BM or MM hunters. You will need some nethers to craft them, but if you run a lot of instances it shouldn't be a problem.(nethers can drop from normal end bosses in SL I know for sure)

As far as you pulling aggro and what not, thats easy. One, make sure you have highest growl...I know this seems basic, but I know I forgot to train my pet forever with the highest growl. It will help out a lot. Two, you being BM you really shouldn't have to much a problem with aggro unless you are nuking the hell out of the target. Use your BM skills and you will be fine! I mean, if anything you have the best aggro dump in the game.....just FD ftw! If you know the mob has higher hp than most, why not burn an MD on your pet to start? You will catch on as you go.

Hope this helps ya out...

V

Thrashering,

- are you in fact a beastmaster? I'm not sure where people are getting this.

- the riding crop plans are sold by a travelling salesman in the Old Hillsbrad instance. I imagine you can just go in there by yourself, head to Southshore, and he'll show up there eventually. No need to actually run the dungeon - although it is a pretty fun one, and there are very good mail pants that drop there.

- MP/5 is good but personally... meh. I'll switch to Aspect of the Viper if I need more mana. Don't neglect your Agi/AP entirely to get more endurance.

- The neutral room in Scholomance will only aggro if someone does something stupid. Someone in your group must have done something stupid. And then, yes, you'll probably wipe. :)

- I don't think that much of the Consortium Blaster. It has a very fast firing rate. If you're a Beastmaster, I think it will be too fast.

- Some solid level 70 ranged weapons: the Valanos Longbow which is a BOE blue you'll find on the auction house. Or for starting out, the Bow of the Torn-heart which is from a long quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley. That also gets you pretty good blue gloves. If you are not a Beastmaster, another weapon that might be good is the Ornate Khorium Rifle. Very slow (3.1s).

- If you don't care about an UGLY weapon, you can get an epic crossbow from being exalted with Ogri'la. The other advantage of this over the Consortium is you'll get the reputation from daily quests instead of grinding stuff until you go crazy.

Edited, Aug 14th 2007 5:26pm by seroster