- Since I get the pet I've been continuing with the levelling guide and finished off Dun Murogh. I died once, in a troll cave where there was no place to run but that's the only time I can remember. Colin may have died a couple of times but that does not seem like a big deal since bringing him back to life is so easy. I did have one situation where I ressed him in a dangerous area and he got involved in another fight while his health was still at 15% and he died again. Have to be careful with that, he is very enthusiastic about defending me.
- With myself at level 11 and Colin at level 10 we managed to kill Vagash, a level 11 elite. I remember that I couldn't manage this when I played the paladin at level 11. The fight mainly consisted of me running away and occasionally turning and shooting with Colin clawing at his back. It wasn't pretty by any means but a kill is a kill.
- I decided on Herbalism and Alchemy as professions. I made a large supply of health pots, some armour pots and health dribble pots. Then I realised, the pet needs these more than I do but I don't think I can give them to him. I made 10 or 20 health pots and so far I've only used one or two. Is alchemy all that useful to a Hunter?
- Herbalism is now at level 54, the cooking even higher and I will have to visit the trainers to raise the ceilings.
- I've done some fishing, got that to 20. It's not so bad and Colin likes the fish. I think I'll set myself a target of at least five fish every now and then when I go near water. I set Colin to aggressive mode while I fish so he'll attack anything that tries to sneak up on me. When I've finished I have to remember to turn this back to defensive and also swap the fishing rod for an axe (we've all been there, no?).
- I've continued with Boston's 12-20 Alliance Leveling Guide which has again been very helpful. So far it is mainly in Loch Modan which I'm finding far easier than I did before. I've got to level 14 (Colin 13) without dying myself yet I wiped out two trogg camps that I don't think I could have managed with the paladin. The hunter has more tricks than a paladin and if I send the pet into a camp and things go pear shaped it is much easier for the hunter to run away as she is already 35 yards away when she starts running.
- A couple of times I've seen Colin draw too much agro and I've got some myself so I've run. When I've stopped running I've assumed Colin was dead so I've started a revive and been told he's not dead. I use the 'Summon' command and he appears next to me, safe and sound. Once I tried going back to the camp to find him and see what he was doing but he wasn't there. I wonder if the pets vanish if you go outside a certain range?
- With all the killing I've been having big inventory problems already. I bought two 16 slot netherweave bags for 8g each which seemed reasonable and a 12 slot herb bag for 5 silver. The herb bag actually seems like a waste, it only ever carries about three different herbs, I may be better off with another netherweave bag. I autoloot a lot to speed things up, hence the bag problems.
- On the advise of the levelling guide I installed the Titan panel add-on and it's very good. It adds bars at the top and bottom of the screen, including the time, coordinates, experience so far this session, experience per hour, predicted time to level, durability, bag slots available (but this can be set to slots remaining which is more useful), all kinds of useful stuff.
- To get to level 14 I went into a ruthless killing spree, the hunter is very good at this: kill anything in the area and don't always bother to waste time running and looting it. According to the titan panel I was on 8500 XP/hr which is about 100 kills an hour with no rest bonus. I finished 20 minutes earlier than the estimated time to level due to quest turnins. At level 14 I equipped a green gun I had already bought which will double (yes double) my gun dps.
- In summary, I'm having too much fun as a Hunter to go back to the paladin just yet.
WoW Daily News Issue 88
Submitted by Peter on Sun May 06 2007 05:24
about 1 year ago
Nibuca Says:
Sun May 06 2007 19:36 about 1 year agoYour Milage May Vary. When I started my hunter she was a herbalist/alchemist but I found that very frustrating (reason detailed in blog post here: htp:/warcraft.fibergeek.com/?p=22)
Highlights: - Hunters already have limited inventory due to the ammo bag/quiver taking up a bag slot. Adding a herb bag only further limits her available inventory. - Hunters are able to track many many different beasts.. but they can't do this and track flowers at the same time so it limits their effectiveness either as a hunter or as a herbalist.
My hunter is a skinner/leatherworker. At the moment it's working great. She is able to make leather armor that is better than her drops. That said, at 40 I believe they start being able to wear mail.. so I'm not sure that LW is useful after 40 except as a potential money maker.. and I'm not sure how lucrative it is.
Nibuca Says:
Sun May 06 2007 19:48 about 1 year agoIf Colin is attacking mob#1 and mob#2 attacks you, you can finish killing mob#1 and then set Colin on Mob#2.. if you know that mob#2 isn't going to kill you before Colin can kill Mob#1.
Another choice would be to set Colin on Mob#2(dragging both mob#1 and mob#2 over to you). Hopefully Mob1+Mob2 won't be able to kill Colin (or you'll be able to use Mend Pet or Bandages to keep him alive). This would mean mob1 and mob2 are hitting Colin. As long as you shoot at whichever mob Colin is hitting they should both stay on Colin.
Another hunter friend of mine will set his pet on mob1 until mob1 is mostly dead.. then he'll change his pet to mob2. The hunter will keep firing at mob1 until mob1 is dead then he'll change to shotting at mob2. Sort of a faster way to burn through mobs.
Praxis Says:
Mon May 07 2007 12:48 about 1 year agoNow that you have a hunter as well as a paladin, I can read about two classes I've never played. I started reading your blog when my main character (draenei shaman) was low 40's; now I'm level 57, just four exp. bars shy of level 58 and everything that Outlands has to offer. I've already found a few of the Outlands flight points, mainly because I wanted to get training from the grand masters on mining, first aid, and engineering. But because I am not yet eligible for any quests, I left. Grinding without quests is too boring in my view, even in Hellfire. I'm glad you rolled a new alt to make things interesting for you again.
Happy hunting... Prax
Peter Says:
Tue May 08 2007 07:41 about 1 year agoI'm not sure a pet is equal to another player. The hunters melee dps is poor: ok for one on one but after a health pot no more healing, its time to start running. Colin has more health and armour than me so he is a great tank but his dps is weak. Maybe if you add together our armour, dps etc it comes out the same as another player.
Peter
Peter Says:
Tue May 08 2007 07:55 about 1 year agoI normally run around with the herb radar going unless I am hunting a particular type of animal or the territory seems dangerous.
I agree on the inventory problems: about ten minutes after a vendor session they are full again. Continual frustration. Ammo, meat, herbs, quest stuff, greens etc.
The alchemy isn't as useful as I thought it would be except for the healing pots that have saved my skin a few times. I generally have three one hour buff pots running, I'm not sure how much difference they make but it means I work through the pots and free up inventory space.
Already got to level 18 so I would only use LW for 22 levels.
Peter
Peter Says:
Tue May 08 2007 08:04 about 1 year agoI normally use your first plan, the hunter can kill mob# 1 with the gun much quicker than they can kill mob# 2, if both Colin and I are melee then that's the worst possible dps.
I'm starting to experiment with redirecting Colin, ctrl-1 to get him to attack a different mob if I have to much attention on myself.
There are a lot of possible tactics here.
Peter
Comments are Closed
Peter's Moblog
Seem a Hunter & Pet is a ready made group of 2 at pretty much same level vs a mob. Compare that to a pally back at that same level, well it 1 pally vs a mob, not a duo group like a hunter and pet vs a mob. A Hunter don't even get to feel the heat up close in combat like a pally have to in close quarter melee. Imagine how much faster a Pally could be if we had our own avenging pet or spirit like a Hunter's Pet or Warlock Minion. Sounds fun though.