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Managed to get a couple of hours in yesterday and I'm up to level 8 with my night elf hunter now, although, according to that quest helper, all bar one of the quests I've got now are a couple of levels above my character. One thing I've found is hunters aren't too hot at going into caves etc as you can't use your distance advantages so you just have to slash at things with your weak dagger, and a few of my quests now involve going into dungeons.
Gun said:
Managed to get a couple of hours in yesterday and I'm up to level 8 with my night elf hunter now, although, according to that quest helper, all bar one of the quests I've got now are a couple of levels above my character. One thing I've found is hunters aren't too hot at going into caves etc as you can't use your distance advantages so you just have to slash at things with your weak dagger, and a few of my quests now involve going into dungeons.
The quests are colour coded to give you an indication of how easy/hard they'll be at your current level. Red ones you'll probably find impossible anything less and you should be ok although it may take a few goes. If you want to level quickly then always push to do the hardest quests you can. Try and collect multiple quests at the same time (the log can hold 25 IIRC) - don't be afraid to abandon quests that you've not done if they've gone green.Gun said:
One thing I've found is hunters aren't too hot at going into caves etc as you can't use your distance advantages so you just have to slash at things with your weak dagger, and a few of my quests now involve going into dungeons.
Concussive shot is your friend. Aggro / crowd control are acquired arts and key to progression as a hunter. Having said that, your pet arrives in 2 more levels, so you could just wait and blitz the cave quests then 
Fane said:
Gun said:
One thing I've found is hunters aren't too hot at going into caves etc as you can't use your distance advantages so you just have to slash at things with your weak dagger, and a few of my quests now involve going into dungeons.
Concussive shot is your friend. Aggro / crowd control are acquired arts and key to progression as a hunter. Having said that, your pet arrives in 2 more levels, so you could just wait and blitz the cave quests then Let them tank the mobs and shoot them from a distance.
You pet will have Growl which increases threat. The Mob will attack the thing it can see with most threat. If your threat goes past your pet's then it'll come and attack you!
Hunters are great fun and slightly 'easy mode' but not as easy as Ret Paladins!
With a hunter, the levels below 10 are a bit of a slow grind and so quite misleading. Once you get a pet at level 10 then things change and become less frustrating. They also speed up a bit because you aren't forever dying or eating/drinking.
For obscure reasons (not least that my hunter actually started out as a banker alt) my Nelf levelled up in the human starting areas (Elwynn forest, Westfall) so this probably won't help non-humans too much. All starting areas will have places like these:
When levelling my alts, I found it easier at level 5-7 or so, to go to Stonefield Farm (33,85 Elwynn Forest) and just kill loads of boars. You don't need to run around much after them, and they are passive until you attack them so the chance of dying is less. They also drop meat which you can use to level up your cooking skill (and provides free food).
At level 10-15 or so (with a pet), killing loads of those Harvest robot things was quite efficient. Check their levels though, there are clusters of ones at different levels.
Similarly, there is an area just to the north east of Sentinel Hill (in Westfall) which spawns lots of boars and fleshripper birds and is good to level from level 15-18.
Undoubtedly grinding up levels like this is VERY boring unless you are in the mood. Now Blizzard have re-jigged experience points, you don't need to do all the available quests by any means, so don't be afraid to drop it if it is proving too hard or too boring. For me, running group dungeons (called instances) is more entertaining because of the human interaction, but finding a good set of people to do these with can take forever.
When you get the knack of pet use, you will find yourself just doing the same thing over and over again. Which reminds me, to get your pet you will need to go to a pet trainer near your starting point (Google it to check where). I *think* all pet talents are automatically acquired now? I haven't levelled one since they changed things. In ye olde days you had to learn most of them from other pets you trained (and the pet trainer). Anyway, a typical attack goes like this:
1. Set pet defensive mode, make sure pet's Growl is on, turn your Aspect of the Hawk on (these only really needed once)
2. Hunter's mark
3. Send in pet
4. (Optional concussive shot)
5. (Optional serpent sting)
6. Auto-shot should start up on it's own
7. >Mash the arcane shot button<
To speed up 2 and 3, most hunters have them on a macro. Go to the Macro interface (main menu) and click New, select an icon you like. Then paste in the box:
/petattack
/cast Hunter's Mark
Drag the icon to your tool bar (I have it in position 1 so the key is easy to hit). Click exit. To use it, right click the beastie, and press 1. If the Hunter's mark doesn't show or your pet doesn't run, press it again. As they say on the BBC "other hunter macros are also available" (and very handy).
If you find that the beastie you are attacking loses interest in your pet and starts attacking you, check your pet has Growl turned on. Stop firing Arcane Shot and your pet should distract it again in a few seconds. At level 20 you get Freezing Trap, which you can drop in front of you and, should you attract an unwanted attack, it will freeze the animal until hit again (or 10 seconds times out). Enough time to get some distance and do a quick potion heal.
For obscure reasons (not least that my hunter actually started out as a banker alt) my Nelf levelled up in the human starting areas (Elwynn forest, Westfall) so this probably won't help non-humans too much. All starting areas will have places like these:
When levelling my alts, I found it easier at level 5-7 or so, to go to Stonefield Farm (33,85 Elwynn Forest) and just kill loads of boars. You don't need to run around much after them, and they are passive until you attack them so the chance of dying is less. They also drop meat which you can use to level up your cooking skill (and provides free food).
At level 10-15 or so (with a pet), killing loads of those Harvest robot things was quite efficient. Check their levels though, there are clusters of ones at different levels.
Similarly, there is an area just to the north east of Sentinel Hill (in Westfall) which spawns lots of boars and fleshripper birds and is good to level from level 15-18.
Undoubtedly grinding up levels like this is VERY boring unless you are in the mood. Now Blizzard have re-jigged experience points, you don't need to do all the available quests by any means, so don't be afraid to drop it if it is proving too hard or too boring. For me, running group dungeons (called instances) is more entertaining because of the human interaction, but finding a good set of people to do these with can take forever.
When you get the knack of pet use, you will find yourself just doing the same thing over and over again. Which reminds me, to get your pet you will need to go to a pet trainer near your starting point (Google it to check where). I *think* all pet talents are automatically acquired now? I haven't levelled one since they changed things. In ye olde days you had to learn most of them from other pets you trained (and the pet trainer). Anyway, a typical attack goes like this:
1. Set pet defensive mode, make sure pet's Growl is on, turn your Aspect of the Hawk on (these only really needed once)
2. Hunter's mark
3. Send in pet
4. (Optional concussive shot)
5. (Optional serpent sting)
6. Auto-shot should start up on it's own
7. >Mash the arcane shot button<
To speed up 2 and 3, most hunters have them on a macro. Go to the Macro interface (main menu) and click New, select an icon you like. Then paste in the box:
/petattack
/cast Hunter's Mark
Drag the icon to your tool bar (I have it in position 1 so the key is easy to hit). Click exit. To use it, right click the beastie, and press 1. If the Hunter's mark doesn't show or your pet doesn't run, press it again. As they say on the BBC "other hunter macros are also available" (and very handy).
If you find that the beastie you are attacking loses interest in your pet and starts attacking you, check your pet has Growl turned on. Stop firing Arcane Shot and your pet should distract it again in a few seconds. At level 20 you get Freezing Trap, which you can drop in front of you and, should you attract an unwanted attack, it will freeze the animal until hit again (or 10 seconds times out). Enough time to get some distance and do a quick potion heal.
I agree with that to a point, but if you're new to the game, exploring underground rather than farming easy mobs up top is much better at getting the old adrenalin going, and it's more productive in the long run when you're running instances with friends.
Edit - Blood Elf Hunter on Draenor here. Why are you all boring alliance?
Edit - Blood Elf Hunter on Draenor here. Why are you all boring alliance?
Edited by Fane on Friday 16th January 20:26
Zad said:
I *think* all pet talents are automatically acquired now?
Hunter pets got overhauled in 3.0, there are 3 major pet talent trees now, tenacity, ferocity and stealth (i think). DPS pets have ferocity, and so on. Also some pets have built-in talents (e.g. spiders have a web skill they use) in addition to the talents their tree's grant them.I use steady-shot + viper sting (glyph dmg bonus) rotation, pushing 3.5k dps in raid (i am BM/MM spec'd) Apparently this is being nerfed in the next patch
Edited by scorp on Saturday 17th January 17:33
Fane said:
Gun said:
One thing I've found is hunters aren't too hot at going into caves etc as you can't use your distance advantages so you just have to slash at things with your weak dagger, and a few of my quests now involve going into dungeons.
Concussive shot is your friend. Aggro / crowd control are acquired arts and key to progression as a hunter. Having said that, your pet arrives in 2 more levels, so you could just wait and blitz the cave quests then Also there is another skill i forgot the name of which you can use in melee range (detterence?) which drops your threat.
Make sure you pet has auto-cast on growl, disabling cower also so your pet gets the most threat.
Edited by scorp on Saturday 17th January 17:35
Edited by scorp on Saturday 17th January 17:36
Zad said:
If you find that the beastie you are attacking loses interest in your pet and starts attacking you, check your pet has Growl turned on. Stop firing Arcane Shot and your pet should distract it again in a few seconds. At level 20 you get Freezing Trap, which you can drop in front of you and, should you attract an unwanted attack, it will freeze the animal until hit again (or 10 seconds times out). Enough time to get some distance and do a quick potion heal.
You might want to disable 'rake' for the pet also, added in 3.0 and the bane of any hunter trying to trap something your pet has had a go at.Unfortunately you only get Feign Death at level 30 (steady shot at level 50) although it would be very useful to have it available at lower levels! It used to be seriously bugged and was often ignored by whatever was attacking you, but since 3.0 it seems to be much more reliable. I have it bound to Ctrl-Q because when it is needed, it is needed quickly! It is very useful when attacking end of level bosses in dungeons, because you really don't want to be generating more threat than the tank is doing (feign death drops all your threat). I use the Omen 3 addon which flashes the screen when my threat gets near the level where the boss would switch it's attention to me.
When you are in a group though, turn your pet's growl off. This makes sure it doesn't drag threat away from the main tank, which will (or should) have much much better armour than your pet.
It is >very< annoying about them nerfing BM hunters! I'm doing 2900dps or so with good buffs, but am seeing others do 5000+ in raids, with 'locks and DKs doing far more than I can ever hope for. Quite why they think we should be doing less than these people, I don't know. they do seem to have been trialling it on the Test Realm for a considerable amount of time now, so let us hope that by the time 3.0.8 goes live, they will have moderated it.
When you are in a group though, turn your pet's growl off. This makes sure it doesn't drag threat away from the main tank, which will (or should) have much much better armour than your pet.
It is >very< annoying about them nerfing BM hunters! I'm doing 2900dps or so with good buffs, but am seeing others do 5000+ in raids, with 'locks and DKs doing far more than I can ever hope for. Quite why they think we should be doing less than these people, I don't know. they do seem to have been trialling it on the Test Realm for a considerable amount of time now, so let us hope that by the time 3.0.8 goes live, they will have moderated it.
I'm liking all these advanced tips! I've managed to get a few hours in today and have jumped up to level 12, you were right it's so much easier with a pet! I also now have a much more powerful bow and dagger so can kill most things from a distance, which is good.
I can see this being one of those games that will sap a lot of my free time!
I can see this being one of those games that will sap a lot of my free time!
king queues!I've finally managed to get to level 21, thank God for rested XP! I've been reading a lot of conflicting advice on building up my rogue, some are recommending daggers, other saying they're rubbish at DPS, and to stick with maces. The thing is, my best attacks like Ambush and Backstab require daggers and stealth. Is there a big difference between building for quests, and building for fights?
I've also had a go at macros, but I'm having trouble finding good info on them, I'd like to map a button to equip a dagger, then ambush, then switch back to maces, is there a good tutorial on macros with a full list of commands I can follow? The official forums are either too specific for spells, or too generic.
Cheers!
I've also had a go at macros, but I'm having trouble finding good info on them, I'd like to map a button to equip a dagger, then ambush, then switch back to maces, is there a good tutorial on macros with a full list of commands I can follow? The official forums are either too specific for spells, or too generic.
Cheers!
I have only played a rogue to level 19, so I am not an expert. Only ever played him with daggers or swords and don't remember seeing any mace wielders. By fights, do you mean dungeon instances? The difference in these is that you shouldn't need much armour, as your group tank should be absorbing the hits.
I totally agree about the Macro thing. All the tutorials I have seen are either super simple or massively complicated. I get the feeling that the people who write them don't totally understand them either. In the early days, macros were much more like a proper programming language. Unfortunately people used them to automate much of their character's work, which Blizzard didn't like. As a result, they seem to regularly nerf Macros.
I totally agree about the Macro thing. All the tutorials I have seen are either super simple or massively complicated. I get the feeling that the people who write them don't totally understand them either. In the early days, macros were much more like a proper programming language. Unfortunately people used them to automate much of their character's work, which Blizzard didn't like. As a result, they seem to regularly nerf Macros.
vdubbin said:
I've also had a go at macros, but I'm having trouble finding good info on them, I'd like to map a button to equip a dagger, then ambush, then switch back to maces, is there a good tutorial on macros with a full list of commands I can follow? The official forums are either too specific for spells, or too generic.
Cheers!
Don't think you can swap equipment in combat, can you? My mate has a 72 rogue and goes subtlety spec for questing, then has to change to combat for dungeons.Cheers!
I'm guessing people use daggers for questing and maces for DPS in dungeons, which is where the differnt opinions come in.
Yes, but it isn't possible to train every character to use every type of weapon (e.g. no hammer type weapons for hunters, no ranged weapons for paladins). I haven't used the trainers for ages - try asking the guards in the major cities. There is one opposite the auction house in Stormwind, but trainers are spread around the place in Ironforge. Strangely, your equipped melee weapon actually as an effect on the amount of damage your ranged weapon delivers. You will have to skill-up your new weapon skill before it is as effective as your existing skill. That is to say, don't expect your new weapon skill to deliver much damage in early fights.
JonRB said:
Why is it acceptable to go on WoW / Eve / Star Wars and the like and to talk about it, yet admit to going on Second Life and you're called a "saddo" and told to "get a real life"?
Because WoW etc are designed as games and as such there are things like quests to do, in Second Life you just aimlessly walk around doing nothing in particular.I will admit though both are quite geeky, but Second Life is more geeky than WoW.
Edited by Gun_840 on Tuesday 20th January 21:39
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