So I have started an Orc Hunter. I would like to know more about this class, as this will be my very first hunter… ever. Never have played hunter when I played back in TBC and Wotlk. Quit shortly after Cata came out. So, first and foremost, I’ve always played as a Druid and/or caster. Mainly mage. For both of these classes it’s very important to use the down ranking strategy with a lot of spells. R1 frostbolt for quick slows, r4 healing touch for best mana efficient heal, etc.
Do hunters ever use any lower leveled spells?
I have read and seen videos about the rank 2 focus dump pets… can someone explain to me what this means? What would be a good all around pet to level up with? Also, with that being said, do hunters usually go from one pet to another every “x” amount of levels? Or is that all preference?
I’m only a level 8, so I haven’t even tamed a beast yet, but I hear you must feed them to keep them happy. Is this completely viable to just level fishing and cook (or raw - this possible?) to use as the food for all of my pets? Or do certain pets only eat certain meats?
Can answer some but not all. I played a couple hunters to 110 in retail but the one I have in calssic is my 1st with that system. She is currently level 33 and has an ape and a tiger.
Your pet can leave if it’s not happy. Not happy comes from not being fed or from not spending time, grinding, questing, even just hanging out. I’ve had pets gain loyalty level while fishing for example. I also had a cat leave when I stepped onto a boat. was it the water, or something else? I still don’t know.
It should list the foods they will eat over their picture. Wolves will only eat meat. That one was kind of a pain but I discovered that spider meat counts, so that helped. I saw someone on my realm say that turtles were hard to please, yet they will eat fish cooked or raw. You don’t get easier than that. d’oh.
with ramping up dmg, I just start out with a basic, white shoot for a few seconds before going to mana eating talents. when alone,. ammo can be an issue if running low or the pet getting beat up. It don’t earn xp or points if it’s killed and will soon get angry if that keeps happening.
Cats are pretty good all around/dps pets and easy to feed. I like apes for tank pets. THey will only eat friut and fungus though.
I’m trying different pets so I am not buying skills from the pet trainer yet, just assigning he basic ones in the spell book with points they earn until I decide what my forever pets will be.
There is no focus in classic. You would be concerned with conserving mana. You can idle along with basic shoot for free. experiment with the other talents to see what are most efficient.
If you level with a cat, which is an excellent leveling pet, yes it can happily get by with only what you fish up (and meat as well). Other pets eat other things. Boars will eat anything so a lot people love them for that.
Oh and you don’t have to cook the food you give them, no.
You should buy the pet spells immediately and train your pet.
The spells are permanent once you learn them, and you just need to select which ones to teach the individual pets based on how many training points they have. Also, you can reset your pet abilities for 10s every time meaning you can respect your pet based on what your planning to fight every time you visit a pet trainer.
I don’t think I ever used a low ranking spell as a hunter, unless maybe there was something specific happening in some encounters, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
To know what kind of food the pet eat once you have tamed it, just open its window, and drag your mouse over the top left corner, a list should appear.
Happiness is easy to see, as soon as you see yellow, feed it. You lose DPS otherwise.
You biggest problem as a hunter will be the deadzone management, i.e. you can’t fire ranged weapon up to 8 yards, which sometimes makes you backpedal and put you in close proximity to other mobs behind. Be aware of your surroundings.
Go to wowhead classic and look for hunter guide, very detailed.
The only spell I have used which is lower level is Mend Pet to get the cure proc from Improved Mend Pet. Its a tier 4 talent in the BM tree & 1 of 2 Point gives a 15% chance to cure per tick and 2/2 is 50%. It works with the lowest level of Mend Pet so its an easy way to remove a wicked 30 min debuff from the pet for a low mana cost.
Downranking. Always useful under two conditions: A. You’re low on mana; B. Mob doesn’t need top rank damage spell to die. It all comes down to mana conservation.
Pets. Any pet you like is a good pet. Here is the skinny on wow pets:
A. YOU have to teach it any offensive spells it learns (other than growl – that’s free at the pet trainer). You do this by taming a pet than already knows the move you want to teach your pet. Fight with the temporary pet till you get a message in the chat frame that you have learned X move. Check your pet training interface (General tab looks like a slingshot) to make sure it’s in there. Release temporary pet, teach move to your pet.
B. you have to feed your pet periodically. I highly recommend that you get this addon: Weak Auras. Then visit this site https://wago.io/classic-weakauras/classes/ and get yourself a good hunter pet feed macro. This will periodically remind you when your pet needs feeding. You will need to feed your pet less often once it gains higher loyalty levels (there are 6). You gain loyalty levels literally by spending time in game with your pet out, whether you are fighting or just hanging about. If you fail to feed your pet it will run away. Each pet has different food likes/dislikes.
C. Leveling: You cannot tame a pet higher level than you. Your pet cannot and will not gain any XP if it is the same level as you. If it is lower, it will gain XP as you fight mobs with it, but only if YOU gain experience from the mobs you are fighting.
For the very best information on WoW Classic pets, I recommend you visit this site https://www.wow-petopia.com/classic/. Exceptional site has tons of information.
Enjoy. The Hunter class has some issues, but it is a very fun class to play.
P.S. Don’t forget to buy ammo! Also, periodically the game removes your ammo from the slot on your paper doll and you will get a message that you have no ammo. Sometimes this is because you’re out, or because of the little bug I just described. LOL
Do not underestimate turtles. They get Shell Shield, which makes them far and away the best tank pets. I saw a BM hunter turtle pet tank a 5 man UBRS run in vanilla one time and it went fine.
It’s a winnah. Then when your pet has aggro, open with Autoshot. You can add stings and AS and other fun stuff after you get your autoshot timer going.
The best pet to get until after level 40 is a rare spawn cat called ‘‘The rake’’ near thunder bluff because his attack speed is slightly faster than other cats. This helps verses any caster/ranged mobs you fight.
You need to learn claw from another mob, then bite from a wolf in muldgor, dump those pets, then tame the rake. Teach him growl, bite, and claw. With orc racial and the fact that you are leveling as beast mastery having a cat makes sense, it’ll do more than half your damage. Don’t take improved aspect of the hawk because while it’s nice to shoot fast sometimes, that’s more arrows you waste.
Your goal is to kill things easily and fast while conserving your cost in gold. Buy low level food from the innkeeper, it can be used to keep the cat happy and is cheap.
Take skinning, and engineering, level eng up just a tad for the flying tiger goggles because no head gear is availiable for you that actually gives stats until like level 30. Just dump all skins and all meat/green items you get on the auction house.
Crafting professions and fishing and even first aid can wait. It’ll slow you down leveling. Once you get to 60 you can max all those quicker as you’ll be able to make gold easily and quickly compared to at lower levels where you need that gold for training up skills. You can skip some skills, just keep your pets skills maxed, serpent sting, and arcane shot.
Get the 2h staff from wailing caverns quest chain, its a good mana/spirit stick thatll last you like 20 levels. Keep your weapon updated. I’m level 25 on my huntard and I have 20 gold so far, all my abilities learned, my skinning is level 190/225, and I have like 5 blue items equipped and i’m doing quests in the orange easily. Hunters are the master leveling class.
Awesome. With that being said, can I just buy cheap food and use it on my pet? Let’s say I get to level 30, am I restricted to using level 30 food or can I use anything to keep it happy?
The rake is a good pet and available at 10. And there are merits to having a DPS pet as Flick described them. Yet. . .
For a new hunter I recommend a good tanking pet initially. OP is new to the class and might benefit by having a pet that is better at holding aggro straight off.
Bears, boars, turtles, are all excellent tanky pets. And there are plenty of boars in Durotar for an Orc hunter. Boars also uniquely have the “charge” ability and most know it when you tame them so it’s kind of a 2 in 1.
Ultimately it’s your choice. Your taming quest will provide you with the opportunity to experiment with 3 different types of pets. Take the time to play/kill mobs with each one before turning each phase of your Tame quest in.
One more thing: After you complete Tame Part 1 (you have tamed 3 different pets) you will get a follow up to see the hunter trainer in your main city. DO NOT FORGET TO COMPLETE THIS or you will be missing essential tools for your pet.
I like wolf pets. They are great all around pets. Better do’s than tank pets, better survivability than dps pets.
Visit petopia for pet questions and where to learn different ranks of spells.
Focus dump was a thing when hunters were switched from mana as a resource to focus. In classic, the hunter uses mana, your pet uses focus. Keep an eye on your pets focus. Too many abilities and your pet can be focus starved if you don’t have focus increasing talents. especially with cats when you get dash/prowl/bite/claw/growl.
As far as downranking. I only use rank 1 wing clip. It’s doesn’t debuff for as long as higher ranks, but does the job.
Yes, that is pretty much the reason. I probably kited those demons for the Rhok bow using that method back in the days. But for a new hunter frankly I don’t see much situations where you need to worry about this.
This thread has all the info a new hunter needs. I will add leveling in the BM tree will turn a dps pet (i prefer the rake until i get Brokentooth) into a healthy tank.
Buy extra ammo and send them to your bank alt. Return them to your hunter(return mail is instant btw) and this will be your stash ammo. There’s a few places that don’t sell ammo but have mailboxes. Ido this with food, water, and other consumables too. Yea. I know. Crazy right.
Also. I carry a few extra stacks of ammo in my bag. As my quiver empties i put them in the quiver.
Get a good pair of boots as soon as you can. The ones from the quest in Ashenvale: Warsong supplies can last quite a few levels. Get minor run speed enchant. The mats are around 5g. Kiting being a very important skill to a hunter this helps. Immensely.
Your question about down ranking food is debatable. You can feed them lower food but it gives less happiness. It’s cheaper but you use more. If it’s too low of a level they won’t even eat it.
Also cooked food gives more happiness than raw. Fishing and cooking play into the hunter fantasy quite well. They are worth leveling and there’s a nice guide to do both together. So i recommend.
Hunter is a very enjoyable class. Have fun with it.