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Scattered Shots: Leveling a Cataclysm hunter, part 1
Every Monday and Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. Each week, Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of dwarven stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Mail your hunter questions to Frostheim. It's common knowledge that hunters are not just the best-looking players in WoW, but they are also the best class in the game. In the words of Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer), "Hunters are just awesome." Thus, it comes as no surprise that Cataclysm is bringing with it a host of new hunters, taking advantage of the new class combos (everyone but gnomes can be hunters now) to start a brand, spanking new hunter from level 1. We've already covered leveling your hunter from 80 to 85 for those of you already at the level cap, so today we're going to talk about that haul from level 1 on up. Ah, the joys of the fresh young hunter -- I remember them well! Taming your very first pet that will stay with you for the rest of your days. The moment you first truly understand that nothing in the game should ever hit you. The funny falls and failures of first learning to kite. I am almost envious of all you new hunters out there, getting to explore the greatest class for the first time. Join me after the cut for the rundown of what you need to know to grow into the good-looking, radiant beacon of death that you deserve to be.
Levels 30-40: How to level a hunter and stay sane at the same time
(Hunting strategies + Hunter tips) love of pets - discombobulating misinformation = Scattered ShotsShall I compare hunter leveling to a summer's day? It is as long and as sweaty. Oh, how many days ago it was that we began the journey from level one to level seventy. How the weeks and months have passed us by! Do we forget the long stretches of time casting the same repetition of spells over and over? Can we disremember the times we ran out of mana while our pet took all the damage on our behalf? Indeed some of us have gotten bored in this journey across the desert of time, and have charged forth into the enemy to do melee damage.Dearest hunters, do not despair! Do not raise your two-handed axe in anger at your enemy! Do not give into the temptation that speaks within your heart: "must... charge in... must... use eviscerate!" Hunters are an endurance class, not in the time it takes us to level, but in the way our leveling doesn't change unless we push ourselves to the limits, bend and break the boundaries of space and mana. Take heed, lest ye give into complacency and huntardiness! Beware, lest ye give into your non-hunterly instincts and rush into melee range of your enemy with as much effectiveness as wet noodle! Consider, on the path from level 30 to level 40, all the new spells which you may add to your arsenal of death and destruction, and decide how you may use them in your quest for ever-more interesting forms of damage-by-distance.
Scattered Shots: Leveling 20-30
Scattered Shots = hunter stuff Two weeks ago we covered some of the new abilities you get from levels 10 to 20 while you progress as a hunter, as well as how to use them to keep your skills sharp. The journey from 20 to 30 is a bit less topsy-turvy. At level 20, of course, you get to start playing with Aspect of the Cheetah and Freezing Trap, which can be a lot of fun, but other than that the new skills you get don't totally change the way you play until you get to level 30 and learn Feign Death. Nonetheless, they deserve a mention.If you're following the Beast Mastery talent path I laid out last week, then reaching level 20 doesn't give you any super-exciting new abilities either. Your pet will be able to run a bit faster, and will start doing more damage. Once you get the hang of using your Freezing Trap for crowd control, it's pretty much just a straight shot till you reach 30. It may feel a little boring sometimes, but it's really better than a lot of classes have it -- often many classes feel that the 20s are the levels at which the going seems roughest and the class seems weakest because it still lacks a major portion of its abilities. For hunters, it's just more of the same stuff we've been doing up till now.
Scattered Shots: A talent for leveling in Beast Mastery
The Scattered Shots hunter bears his or her teeth and says "RAAAWR!" to the mirror every morning in an uncouth, beastly manner -- thus affirming the beast within, which yearns for a way out to express itself.Which talents you should get as you level up is a tricky question with many different answers, many of which can turn out just fine or absolutely horrible, depending on how you play. Today I'll be taking you along on a journey through the first 40 levels of talent spending, and explaining why I think certain talent choices are better than others.One of the most important things to remember about talents is that, in spite of all their mathematical precision, they are open to poetic interpretation. Some talents give clearly superior advantages, while in other cases it's mostly a matter of opinion as to which one fits your play-style best. Sometimes the talents that look best on paper aren't the ones that will really help you the most when the going gets rough. Likewise, some talents are designed more for endgame use at level 70, even though they appear early on in the talent tree, while others are better for leveling up, and you may wish to drop them later on once you finish leveling.Most of my talent choices today are going to be in the Beast Mastery tree, for instance. Some people may say that they like Marksmanship or Survival best, and certainly that's their right. But from most of the people I've talked to, the general consensus is that Beast Mastery is best for both leveling and early endgame raiding, too. While talking about these talents, I'll list your level and the number of talent points you have at each stage, so that it's easier to keep track of your talent resources.
Scattered Shots: Levels 10-20 and the art of staying smart
Scatered Shots is for da inteligent peepul who knows what hunters is good at.We started off this column talking about the very first levels you go through as a hunter, from one to ten, and from there we got off onto other topics, such as getting your first pet, controlling it well, managing your threat, using crowd control, and other things all hunters must learn as we level up. But we talked about all these things in the abstract, not in the context of actually leveling up, the specific abilities you'll get, and how that'll change the way you play.So today I'll start up the leveling train again, from levels 10 to 20, and we'll have a closer look at how these general ideas fit in to that period of your hunting career. Except for the sheer time investment involved, the hardest part of hunter leveling is already over once you reach level 10 and get your pet, and that makes this the most dangerous time for a hunter, when we are most likely to fall into lazy hunting habits and neglect the opportunity for complexity that shows up later on. Whereas before you had to work hard to stay out of your enemy's melee range, now it's a simple three-step process: Send in your pet for the attack. Shoot. Profit. It is so incredibly simple that idiots can do it. In fact, idiots do do it, and therein lies the problem. We have to do something while leveling to keep our complex hunter brain synapses firing fast don't we? Just what can you do with all the abilities you get at this stage?
Scattered Shots: Pets at level 10
Every week, Brian Karasek and David Bowers bring you help, tips and advice for the leveling Hunter in Scattered Shots. For those veterans looking for high end Hunter goodness, BRK is back on active duty. This post is part of the Hunter Leveling Guide. You probably know by now that Big Red Kitty refers to himself as "we" in all his articles. For the longest time I thought this was just him being silly, but with his return to WoW Insider after a long hiatus, he explained that this is actually a kind of philosophical statement as to the oneness of hunter and pet.You needn't worry that we (being Brian and I) will start trying to mimic him, but he really does have a good point. When a hunter reaches level 10 and gains his or her first pet, your pet becomes an extension of yourself, and an incredible source of power. The game suddenly gets very easy, and enemies start dying very fast. In effect, with a pet at your side, you become your own tank-damage-healing group all by yourself, able to finesse the control over your character and pet alike to achieve all sorts of neat stuff.
Scattered Shots: Your first levels as a new Hunter
Every week, Brian Karasek and David Bowers bring you help, tips and advice for the leveling Hunter in Scattered Shots. For those veterans looking for high end Hunter goodness, BRK will be returning to active duty next week. This post is part of the Hunter Leveling Guide. [Also, it was actually written by Brian Karasek, not David Bowers.] Hunters have it easy. They get a pet to hang around with and keep them company. They don't get hit that often (or at least for very long, one way or the other), and they have one of the best ways to shake off foes in the game. Furthermore, and most tellingly, Hunters can pretty much get to the level cap without ever working in a group or running a dungeon. It's our blessing and our curse, our boon and our bane. We have a built in tank that we can heal, and we're our own DPS support. What this means is that we can reach the heights of leveling in a multiplayer game, without once needing to play with multiple players.A problem for hunters often comes there: a level 70 character is often expected to know how to do things in a group, with multiple players. And many a hunter has gone into a level 70 instance as their first dungeon run, resulting in less than optimal outcomes.In this column, which I'll be sharing duty with one of my colleagues here at WoW Insider, I'll be discussing the Hunter class from the ground up, from a casual point of view. Starting from level 1 and going all the way to the level cap, I'll share my experience and advice, and ask for yours as well. For new hunters, I hope this column will let you avoid some stereotypical mistakes Hunters make. For old hunters, I hope this column will let you point out my shortcomings, offer your own advice, or notice some of your own.We ding level 2, after the jump!
