WAIT WAIT WAIT! THERE’S GOT TO BE MORE. HOW DO I SPEND MY TALENT POINTS?
Oh gosh. Right. Talent points. Go beast mastery.
REALLY?
Yeah. Look, you can go marksman (don’t go survival until might later on). Marksman or MM is fine. But BM is much better for starting hunters. Make you pet really tough and hard hitting. That way it will hold agro better and last longer, allowing you to remain at range doing what you do best, shooting (and not meleeing!).
Put 5/5 in Endurance Training.
Put 3/3 in Thick Hide.
Most spend the next points 2/2 in Focused Fire. Some do 2/2 in Improved Revive Pet, but this is usually for pvp. Do Focused Fire.
Then 5/5 in Unleashed Fury. This is a newbie guide, so that will get you started. Don’t spend a point here, a point over there, and another point over there. Concentrate your talent points in one area.
WHY?
Just trust me. Scattered talents means weak and ineffectual powers. Focusing them means much more. Again, just trust me on this one. Only huntards scatter their points like pollinating bees.
I WANT TO BE A NIGHT ELF OR DRAEINIE AND GET A BOAR LIKE YOU SAID, BUT YOU ALSO SAID IT’S HARD FOR THESE RACES TO GET TO PLACES WHERE YOU CAN TRAIN A BOAR.
It’s not that hard. You can sit in Darnassus or Exodar begging a teleport for three hours and not get one. Or you can be tough and just go there yourself. Draenies need to find the dock near Exodar and take the boat to the Night Elf port of Auberdine. Night Elves get to Darnassus and find the purplish teleportal thingie behind the bank to Rut’Theran, then take the boat or hippogriff to Auberdine. Get the flight link in Auberdine if you don’t have it (to the right as you enter the inn).
Now take the “south docking boat†to the human town of Menethil in a zone called The Wetlands. Get the flight link near the docks. Take the main road east. Oh, you might die a lot, so you may want to put your armor and weapons in the bank before you leave – to save money not having to repair them. (or bag them - if you are killed, items in bags do not take damage provided you return to your body and rez normally ---- if you spirit rez, all items you wear and have in bags take a big hit - so if you know you have to spirit rez, consider leaving items in the bank ---- that said, repair bills at low levels aren't that big a deal; this is another reason you learned to mine, skin and/or pick herbs, so you don't have to sweat the small stuff financially).
Go east, east, east (on the main east-west road). Have track beasts on and avoid the crocs and raptors. If you die, just run past your body as far as you can, rez and keep going. Eventually this east-going road will curve south, and you enter a series of tunnels going up into the mountains (called Dun Algaz). Orcs will kill you. Rez and keep going. Eventually you reach Loch Modan. There are boars here! Tame one. If they are too high level for you, get the flight link to the south in the little town, then follow the road to Dun Morrow. You will see a tamable boar pretty soon. Take the west road all the way to the center of the zone and go north to Ironforge. Get the flight link in the center area of the city. Take the tram in Tinkertown (hit m for map) and go to Stormwind. Right click a guard to find the flight master.
You can go south into Elwynn Forest, then west to Westfall, where there are yellowish boars you can tame (Elwynn has low level boars). Check Petopia for levels and whatnot.
OKAY, I SAW SOMEONE WITH A DRAGONHAWK PET. I WANT ONE.
There is only one low level dragonhawk you can tame. It has “weak caster stats†– read up at Petopia on this (basically they have lower hp and ac their whole lives). It looks cool, and you need to tame a lvl 7 or so dragonhawk if you want one your whole career. Otherwise you must wait until lvl 62 or so to get one (and these do not have weak caster stats).
Beasts with mana bars tend to have weak caster stats and make poor pets. They aren’t so bad that they’re unusable. If you get Beast Mastery talents to buff up a dragonhawk, it will work okay.
Horde hunters just take the zeppelin to the UC, then take the teleporter in the front of the UC (to the right as you enter, before you cross the moat) to Silvermoon. Go out into the BE newbie zone and find the highest level one you can find (seven, I think).
Allies wanting a dragonhawk must suffer hell. Get to Wetlands and take the main road north into Arathi Highlands. Get a flight link at the refugee base in the middle, then follow the main road west. Zone into Hillsbrad and go southish to get a flight link at Southshore. Then follow the river in the east part of the zone north until you zone into the Western Plaguelands (WPL). You can go west to get the flight link if you want. This is a high level zone, but it’s safe here in the south, for the most part. Go east until you zone into Eastern Plaguelands (EPL). Get up to the road. You will die as many as 20 times here. Just ghost walk past your body, rez, and run as far as you can. You may have to “death hop†out of bad areas. Keep going until the road curves north. Go north until you can go up to a swirly “zone†– take that into Ghostlands. Take the road north, circling around the town in the middle (it has Horde guards) – and go north into the green, verdant Blood Elf zone. Look for the highest lvl Dragonhawk you can find and train it.
Or head up and get a little bright red lynx. There are tan lynxes of higher level, but the red one is killer. You’ll have to tolerate it being low (highest is level 5 or so?). But this is the only place to get a red lynx, and the only place to get any lynx for many levels.
WHAT OTHER COOL PETS ARE THERE?
These pets are mostly good for vanity or show. Remember, there is no best pet. But if you want a pet that stands out and is somewhat rare, consider one of the below.
There is a pink tallstrider, a rare “silver elite,†named Mazerache, in Mulgore.
There is a blue-green, pretty and rare tallstrider in Night Elf lands.
Takk the Leaper is a cool, black raptor in The Barrens. Get a map from the bestiary. He’s kind of rare; you might have to wait for him to spawn.
There is a rare, white bat in the Undead area, not too far from Brill (where*, look up).
There is a horde quest-summonable white lion (echiyake, sp?) in The Barrens (Allies must get a Horde friend to summon it for them). And there is a black male lion, very rare, near Ratchet.* (look up his name). This lion requires “camping,†i.e. you have to wait there for many, many hours until he shows up.
You can summon a cool “see through†leaopard (called a ghost saber) just north of Auberdine in an area of Naga ruins (lvl 19 or so). You click on cat statues on the ground, and every once in a while one causes a ghost saber to attack you. He will die for no good reason about five minutes after you tame him. Just rez him, and he’ll be okay. He remains transparent forever.
If you want a bug-like ravager, you must go to Draenie lands, where you have a choice of several colors (see Petopia). Ravagers arguably are the highest dps pets, given that they are high dps to start, can use gore and can use bite. But between lvl 15 and the low 60s, there are no Ravagers to tame. If you want one for your whole career, I’d train one early. Dwarf hunters should just backtrack the directions I gave – get to Auberdine, take the boat to Draenei lands and find one.
Horde players wanting a ravager must go to the Barrens, then go north into Ashenvale. Find the main road west. Circle the alli town of Astraanar, and get a flight link at Zoram Strand if you want (also hit the east flight point for Horde when you first enter – find a map*). At last the road turns north. Enter the next zone and go north until you see the Night Elf town of Auberdine. Swim out to the far end of the dock and drown yourself. Ghost run out there and wait for the boat to Draenie lands to arrive. Get on board and rez. Take the boat to Draenie lands and find a ravager.
A Horde player can also use this method to get a low level owl pet (owls are not available until after level 50). Low level owls are only in the Night Elf newbie zone. Get to Auberdine as outlined above, but take the northish docking boat to Rut’Theran. Jump off before the dock and swim towards the purple glow teleportal. You will die before you make it. You appear at a graveyard way back in the other zone. Just take the boat again and rez as close to the glow as you can – zone into Darnassus before the guards get you. In Darnassus you will be killed. Spirit rez at the graveyard outside town. You may want to wait until you’re not pvp-positive (five minutes) – so Ally players can’t gank you. You became pvp+ by entering an ally main city. Okay, find an owl and train it.
White bears exist at low levels only in Dun Morogh. They are lvl 11 and hard to train. I’d go after Mangeclaw, because he’s always up (the other one is rare). Mangeclaw’s in the Northeast. He’ll stun you and break your first train attempt. You’ll want a healing potion to drink, and then you just try to tame again. Hopefully the second time you’ll get him tamed before he stuns you again. If you get hurt, run away from him, let him reset, and try again. The other white bear stuns, too, so just do Mangeclaw.
For a horde hunter to get a low level white bear is quite hard. Go to Tarren Mill (go from Sepulchre in Silverpine south, go east across Hillsbrad to TM, get flight link). Go east on road to Arathi (go to northeast part of zone to Hammerfall if you want flight link here). Take main central road south to Wetlands. Go down until road turns east. Follow it east until it curves south. Go through Dun Algaz and be killed by mean orcs who don’t like you, even though you are Horde. Enter Loch Modan. Go west through another tunnel and enter Dun Morogh. Look up where to find Mangeclaw on the bestiary (get a map). You’ll want your armor to be in your bags, by the way, so it’s not all “red†and useless when it’s time to train. You might want to be level 12, and you’ll want several healing potions. Find Mangeclaw and train him.
Wind Serpents and Vipers are available in the Barrens. The best ones are in an instance called The Wailing Caverns – and are elite (low to mid teens). Be sure you check Petopia and get one that does not have wimpy caster stats.
Use aspect of monkey whenever training; it will help.
I HEARD THAT SOME PETS RUN FASTER THAN OTHERS, WHILE SOME COME WITH FASTER ATTACK SPEEDS.
No, that’s old, old, old information. That was zilched in a patch ages ago. All pets are “equalized†now. Taming an elite pet doesn’t make it stronger, either.
WHAT’S BETTER, A GUN OR A BOW?
Most hunters use bows. Guns are for the most part just fine, however. Dwarves get a +5% bonus for guns. Trolls get a +5% bonus for bows. You can make your own shot with engineering for guns, not for bows. Later on, some crossbows are quite good. Don’t fret over this for now.
WHERE DO I BUY AMMO?
Any general merchant. Bowyers sell arrows, and gunsmiths sell bullets.
WHERE DO I TRAIN TO USE A GUN OR BOW?
Right click any weapon master in a major city, and they’ll tell you. Right click a city guard to find a weapon master.
Look, you know just about all you need to know to be a good hunter – save the important part: learning from experience. Go hunt! Go play! When you hit your high teens, try a Warsong Gulch Battleground! Twinks might stomp you, but it’s great experience (and you can learn how to kite twink rogues, actually, and kill them in wsg even if you aren’t twinked or super-geared).
WHAT ABOUT FOOD? I'M HAVING TROUBLE FINDING WHERE TO BUY IT?
Some hunters learn the fishing skill and fish a lot to get free food (cats, bears, boars, carrion birds, turtles and several others eat fish; see Petopia).
There are meat and fruit venders in many major cities. Ironforge has a roaming meat vendor in the military ward, just outsie where the hunter trainers are; a fruit vender walks around in the magic (outside the wizard and Priest trainers area) section.
Once you find a vender, it's a good idea to buy extra stacks of food and mail them to an "alt" (another character you make on the same server). This alt mails them back to your hunter, and the food stacks are in your mailbox for a month. Any time you need more food, just find a mailbox. You can use the bank for this too, but there are way more mailboxes in the world than there are banks, which are mostly in major cities and a few goblin towns.
I hope this guide provided the basic information you need to get started on a fun and exciting career as a hunter in WoW. There’s a lot more to learn, but that’s not for a newbie guide to cover.
Remember, don’t obsess on getting “the best pet.†There really isn’t one.
Don’t be a huntard! Shooting > meleeing. Only melee if you’re forced to (like you have a snaring effect on you, and you just can’t get away from your target). Buy ammo. Always top off your quiver when you see a merchant who sells ammo.
Have fun. Remember, what you do reflects on the rest of us. We hunters have a “bad reputation†(caused by the myriad of huntards out there) to overcome. So play smart! Have fun and good luck!
Edited, Oct 30th 2007 9:04pm by IponemaGirl
Edited, Oct 30th 2007 9:17pm by IponemaGirl
Edited, Oct 31st 2007 12:57am by IponemaGirl
Edited, Oct 31st 2007 12:57am by IponemaGirl
Edited, Oct 31st 2007 4:03am by IponemaGirl