By Axe and Arrow

[Rinnhart]

I'm bad at preambulation, so we'll skip to the meat, eh?

Part 1: The Scrapper
Levels 1-10

You've got an axe and a gun or bow. All set to take on the world!

These early levels give a hint of the future. You can go toe-to-toe with opponents, but certainly not as well as a Warrior. Thusly, learn to do your damage before the opponent reaches you.

Basic fighting:

Always open fights with shots from your bow. This is free damage with no risk to you (besides spell casters, but they're even better as they don't close rank and force you to melee). As soon as you get the "Target is too close" message, mash Raptor strike so it applies to your first swing. You want to maximize the use of special attacks. More = better, early on, and always when you're soloing.

Your bow will only "auto-attack" when you're immobile. While special attacks do alright damage, those mana-free arrows are what really pull things down. Kiting is not an option.

Two-handed weapons VS. One-Handed weapons?
The eternal question. I broke it down to; what works? What weapon does the most damage, now? Two-handers were the answer, for me.


Skill Block:
1 - Weapon proficiencies, Raptor Strike, Track beasts
4 - Serpent Sting, Aspect of the Monkey
6 - Hunter's Mark, Arcane Shot
8 - Parry, Raptor Strike (2), Concussive Shot
10 - Track Humanoids, Serpent Sting (2), Aspect of the Hawk (as well as a slew of pet-related abilities)



At level 4 your first skill to help you with this, Serpent Sting, becomes available. Serpent Sting is a short duration nature damage damage-over-time (DOT) spell. I suggest you open your fights with it to maximize damage potential. Wasted time on a DOT is wasted mana. It is not a free attack as the initial 'shot' does no damage; hitting a target already afflicted with Serpent Strike refreshes the timer (15 seconds at rank 1).
Aspect of the Monkey grants an 8% dodge bonus. Learn to love that icon, you'll have it a while.


At 6, you get your second ranged attack, Arcane Shot. This is a free attack that does Arcane damage; spam it whenever it refreshes.
Also granted at level 6 is Hunter's Mark; the legendary, the feared. In addition to a small physical damage debuff, the Mark prevents its target from stealthing and marks the target on your mini-map with a red circle.


Level 8! So close to that pet, yet so far. Train Parry immediately. And Raptor Strike 2, and Concussive shot. Then, go give the nearest pig/bat/spider a concussion. Concussive Shot slows the target by 50% for 4 seconds. That's alot of spare time! Whatever will you do? I usually mixed up a salad, wrote a few more pages on my novel, or fired a couple more Arcane shots and learned to burn through a quiver of arrows in an hour.


Level 10. Finally. Track humanoids is handy for PVE and a necessity for PVP. Aspect of the Hawk is a nifty + to attack power, but I personally don't use it unless I know, for sure, that I will not be in melee.

At this time, your trainer will either direct you to another trainer, or give you a quest to go out and Tame various beasts.
Taming goes like this: you cast the ever-so-slow channeling spell, the monster aggros you and attacks. If you survive the attacks long enough for the spell to finish channeling, the beast will become your pet. You will gain a second, smaller skill bar that sits over your own. Commands can be issued by clicking an icon or hitting ctrl and the icon's corresponding number.

Finish the entire quest immediately. You gain some abilities from the trainer who gives it to you and some from visiting another trainer within your race's primary city.

During the quest, animals tamed will have their racial abilities. Boars have a charge, scorpids have a poison attack, frost bears have a claw attack with a slow component. If you tame that same creature later with the actual taming skill, it will not have any racial abilities.

The only abilities in right now are Growl, Claw, Bite, and Cower. Growl is taught by the "Pet Trainer" and the others are learned by taming and fighting with a creature. Once you learn an ability, it can be taught to other pets (so long as it's a logical ability, scorpions can't learn bite but can learn claw, for example). The only pets that can learn all the abilities right now are Bears, Cats, and Raptors.

Here's a list with what creatures have what rank of what ability

Feed your pet often. Do not look at "happy" as being a +25% damage bonus, look at it as normal damage, Normal as 80% damage, and Unhappy as 60% damage. Also, you must keep your pet happy for it to gain Loyalty. The more loyal the pet is, the more training points available, the more abilities you can teach your pet (this will be more important when they finish pet abilities... if they finish pet abilities). What foods your pet will eat can be identified by hovering your pointer of the "Happiness" icon on the pet screen. Bears and boars will eat virtually anything; most other pets are a bit pickier.

Train your chosen pet in all available abilities ASAP. The Skills are compulsory. No arguments. With just claw and bite, my raptor can pull aggro off me. With growl, he gets himself frequently killed. You can turn off the pet's auto-cast of the skills.

Play with your pet. Love your pet. Understand, however, that your pet is expendable and can always be revived. Your death isn't as negligible.



Part 2: The Skirmisher
Levels 11-20

My fights at this point went something like this: Concussive Shot, Arcane shot, Serpent sting, sick the pet, continue firing until either the leggy-snake grabbed aggro or I was in melee. If the former, chain arcane shot as it refreshed, if the later; chain Raptor strike.


Skill Block:
12 - Arcane Shot (2), Distracting Shot, Wing Clip, Mend Pet
14 - Scare Beast, Eyes of the Beast, Eagle Eye
16 - Raptor Strike (3), Immolation Trap, Mongoose Bite
18 - Serpent Sting (3), Multi-Shot, Track Undead, Aspect of the Hawk (2)
20 - Growl (3), Polearms, Dual Wield, Distracting Shot (2), Arcane Shot (3), Mend Pet (2), Freezing Trap, Aspect of the Cheetah, Disengage

12
I don't use a custom UI. At level 12, I had to make a second skill tab to remain effective: one for ranged fighting, one for melee. Wing clip is a handy ability being a longer-lasting melee form of Concussive Shot. Distracting shot is nice for picking aggro off the softer groupmates, but when solo there's not much use. Mend pet is a channeled pet heal over time. First rank heals 20 damage a second for five seconds. Sometimes it will save your pet; but usually it's better just to try to kill your opponent before they kill your pet.

14
Scare beast, a Beast fear, could be useful for crowd control, Eyes of the Beast puts you in control of your pet and is a toy at best, Eagle eye is a sight zoom and very handy for scouting areas. It creates an "area of effect" pattern circle, where you click that circle is where your perspective will "bind" while you're channeling the spell. So far, I haven't found a range limitation. Outdoors only, though.

16
Immolation Trap is a nice fire-based damage over time, though a bit tedious to use. You place a bear-trap looking object on the ground. The first enemy to wander near it gets blasted with a little fire and burns for a few seconds. Traps can only be laid when out of combat. Mongoose bite is a free melee attack that can only be used after you dodge. Can be skipped if you're short on cash or never melee. It's nice to have free damage, but I forget to use it half the time.

18
Multi-shot's a joy. There's just something amusing about hitting three targets at once. Fantastic for those dock-ship brawls that occur so often in Rachet. It's also useful as an additional attack when playing hit-and-run PVP. A bit hard on the mana, though.

20
Dual wield is a matter of what weapons you have available, as is Polearms.
Freezing trap is basically a 10 second polymorph and can be a nice way to park anticipated adds for a few seconds. Aspect of the Cheetah changes your life. It's 30% faster run-walk, just don't get hit or you'll be instantly dazed. Disengage removes you from combat, which definately has possibilities, I just need to play around with it more.



At level 20, a well-planned fight went like so: enter bow-range with the target, take a couple steps forward, lay an Immolation Trap. Step back a couple yards to maximum bow range, fire a concussive shot, arcane, serpent, arcane, sick pet so that the pet meets the target after it has hit the trap, chain arcane, refresh serpent if needed. Of course, I spent a good bit of time in melee as well. Well-planned fights get old. Quick.




Part 3: Head-hunting 101
Early Player vs. Player Combat and the Hunter's Role

As you might have noticed, you don't hold up too well in melee. Yeah, the Hunter can hold it’s own for a short while, but generally you want the better-armored pet to be taking the heat.

Players will ignore the pet. If they don't, you'll have an easy win and should rightfully proclaim "wtf noob!"

First, one on one combat.

Hunters do not do well in hand-to-hand combat with warriors. We just don't. Keep 'em at an arm's length. Kite them as much as possible and use concussive shot and wing clip liberally. A rogue, once marked, can be effectively kited and your pet can eventually wear them down. Robe casters are candy if you get the drop, as are you if they get the drop. Hybrids, I haven't had a great deal of experience with outside of mass combat. Against other hunters... the first shot and the better bow wins.

Hunters do their damage slower than other "DPS" classes. We do not, innately, have any heavy hitting attacks. We've got gobs of little, fast attacks, but that's not our real edge...

Above all else, the Hunter's biggest asset is Situational Awareness.

What is Situational Awareness?
Situational Awareness refers to the degree of accuracy by which one's perception of his current environment mirrors reality.

In other words, being aware of what and who's around you at all times. Noticing of an enemy before they notice you. Seeing, without being seen. See that little "-" symbol by the mini-map? Click it until it greys out. Never adjust it again. Humanoid Tracking, Hunter's Mark, and eventually Track hidden are your greatest assests. Learn what kind of monsters stalk an area, learn their usual wandering patterns, then pursue anything abnormal. Stalking a group of raiders for twenty minutes until one wander's off by himself and never knowing that that lonesome humanoid is a gnome warlock until the moment you draw a bead and fire is certainly an experience.

Watching his friends circle back in search of you's fun, but how about doing it from behind a tree within /say range of them?

You do not fight players, you hunt prey.

That, is the Hunter's edge.

In mass brawls, just sit back, pick your targets, and fire away. You're not a priority like mages and priests, and you're not as visible as warriors and paladins.



Part 4: ...Back to the Bows and Axes.
Talents


On my Troll, I've gone all Marksmanship tree for talents. Aimed shot gives a nice heavy hitting opener, but the "casting time" on it's too long for continuous use. Better off just plinking out regular shots after that first smack.

On a whole, I'm quiet impressed by the Hunter talent trees. The Survival tree is the best warrior passives on one tree, and Marksmanship's just fun stuff. The Beast Mastery tree's all good, but the whole pet system needs to be finished, still.



- My first shot at something like this and it's pretty late. Forgive any discrepancies, please. Corrections will be made as soon as I can.

[swirly]

I haven't played retail, but I played a troll hunter in the open beta and am going to comment based onthat experience.

Part 2: The Skirmisher
Levels 11-20

My fights at this point went something like this: Concussive Shot, Arcane shot, Serpent sting, sick the pet, continue firing until either the leggy-snake grabbed aggro or I was in melee. If the former, chain arcane shot as it refreshed, if the later; chain Raptor strike.

For my hunter, fights didn't go quite like that. What happened with me was that I would hunter's mark a mob and then fire one shot at it, usually serpent so its timer can get started, then I would sick my pet on it while I back up a little bit. Usually after I back up a few steps my pet had taken the mob's attention and I am still far enough to shoot arrows. With this setup, the mob usually died without me ever getting hit.

My pet to start was a tiger found on the echo isles around the troll starting area and then later switched for a black lion (unique). He had bite level 2 on auto-cast and growl on auto-cast as well. I found that he held aggro for me very very well. Most mobs never got within melee range of me. So with this being the case, I found that I used concussive shot very little once I had my pet. There was just no reason to slow a mob's speed when he wasn't going to get to me anyway. I also found that I only ever used aspect of the monkey when I was trying to tame a mob. That would be the only time I was ever getting swung at. In normal fights, my pet held all the aggro and so additional dodge rate was pretty pointless. Thus I used aspect of the hawk pretty much all the time. More damage being a good thing in my mind.

So basically fights went with me like this: Serpent sting, sick pet, back up a little, arcane shot, keep firing, use the instants when they come available. On the occasions when an add wanders into the fight in the middle of it I would simple tell my pet to attack it a little bit if the mob is on me. This will get the mob's attention and then my pet and I can go back to finishing off the first mob. If the mob went after my pet first, then I simply ignored it. Once the first mob dies we then switch to the second one and finish it with no problem. Basically my pet takes all the damage. Which is why mend pet became very useful against some tougher elites.

I'd start a fight with one of those elites like all my other fights. They would be hitting my pet a bit too hard for my liking though and thus if I didn't do something I would find that I was 1 on 1 with the elite. Not a situation that I wanted to be in. So I would switch to using mend pet. This way my pet doesn't die, but instead it kills the elite for me.

This play style also made me take a different path from what I hear others taking with talents. I basically just put all of my talent points into beats mastery. Here was my plan:

5 improved aspect of the hawk
5 endurance training
1 bestial swiftness
5 unleashed fury
2 improved mend pet
5 ferocity
1 intimidation
1 thick hide
5 frenzy
1 spirit bond
4 thick hide

I was a strictly PvE character and so I figured that my pet was the most important thing to me. Having my pet like this made things seem pretty simple. He would tank and do a bunch of damage and I would sit back and shoot. I don't believe that my pet ever did more dps than me, but he did quite well. : )

Freezing trap is basically a 10 second polymorph and can be a nice way to park anticipated adds for a few seconds.

I never really used freezing trap during normal fights. If I knew a fight was going to be tough I would lay an immolation and let the mob get to it before sicking my pet on it. Freezing was useful for taming pets though. You can lay a freezing trap between you and the pet you want to tame. Then when you start taming the mob it will charge at you and hit the trap. Thus it will be frozen there for a bit, giving you a good chunk of time where you are not getting hit while trying to tame it. I found this very useful. : )

Dual wield is a matter of what weapons you have available, as is Polearms.

This is pretty much true. You would normally just want to go with whatever weapon has the best dps. I didn't do that though. I went with dual wielding knives. I just that it was the most in theme with being a hunter. It just feels like a hunter would be pretty likely to have a bunch of knives on him, while being less likely to have a sword, a big ol battle axe, a pole arm, or what have you. Of course, a hunter probably wouldn't be carrying the type of knives we are talking about here, but you can't have everything. ; )

At the end of the open beta my hunter was in her upper 20's. So I have no idea how my pet and I would have done later in the game. Up until then though it worked very well.

[NuurAbSaal]

I found both of your posts informative and enjoyable to read :) .

I have one question though, not directly related to hunter tactics: You both use the term "sick" the pet on a mob, is this simply an English term I'm not familiar with (I'm trying to get all those :ph34r: ) or does it derive from an ingame term, a skill name, for example. Info appreciated, thanks.

Nuur

[swirly]

I found both of your posts informative and enjoyable to read :) .

I have one question though, not directly related to hunter tactics: You both use the term "sick" the pet on a mob, is this simply an English term I'm not familiar with (I'm trying to get all those :ph34r: ) or does it derive from an ingame term, a skill name, for example. Info appreciated, thanks.

Nuur
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Well its not a game term, I don't know if it is just an english/american/whatever thing or not though. Here is the dictionary.com definition. : )

sic(2) also sick P Pronunciation Key (sk)
tr.v. sicced, also sicked sic·cing, sick·ing sics, sicks
1. To set upon; attack.
2. To urge or incite to hostile action; set: sicced the dogs on the intruders.

[Rinnhart]

I found both of your posts informative and enjoyable to read :) .

I have one question though, not directly related to hunter tactics: You both use the term "sick" the pet on a mob, is this simply an English term I'm not familiar with (I'm trying to get all those :ph34r: ) or does it derive from an ingame term, a skill name, for example. Info appreciated, thanks.

Nuur
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Sick = to set upon; attack. To urge or incite hostile action.

EDIT: too slow by a minute.

[Rinnhart]

I never really used freezing trap during normal fights. If I knew a fight was going to be tough I would lay an immolation and let the mob get to it before sicking my pet on it. Freezing was useful for taming pets though. You can lay a freezing trap between you and the pet you want to tame. Then when you start taming the mob it will charge at you and hit the trap. Thus it will be frozen there for a bit, giving you a good chunk of time where you are not getting hit while trying to tame it. I found this very useful. : )
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Never even thought to try that! Thanks for the tip.

[NuurAbSaal]

Thanks to both of you :)


Nuur

[Cryptic]

Wow, that’s a nice start. This guide would have done me a world of good a few days ago – I just bought the game last Thursday, and hit level 20 with my first character (a night elf hunter) last night. Heh! Oh well. But I think I’ve learned enough so far to offer a few insights to others who want to try the class …

Equipment

Your most important equipment pieces, in priority order, are a ranged weapon, then stat-enhancing armor, then defensive armor, then melee weapon. Prior to level 10, however, all items are roughly equal in importance.

For your ranged weapon, you can use either a bow or a gun. Guns seem to be easier to work with later on. You’re of course looking for the highest dps possible. Given the choice, I prefer a weapon that has a slow rate of fire and high damage over one that has rapid-fire and low damage, because it seems that I draw more aggro away from my pet with a rapid-fire weapon. This may just be my imagination, but I’ve been testing this recently and it seems that with the rapid-fire, I have to let the pet do more damage to the mob before firing, or he loses the aggro and I get charged.

Your armor should always be the best possible – but remember you’re not a melee fighter. After level 10, defense is secondary. Attribute enhancers are more important than defense because you’ll be fighting at range most of the time.

Your melee weapon is mostly irrelevant – if you’re a skilled Hunter, you won’t be in hand-to-hand very often, except to land the killing blow. I personally use a one-hand weapon, because I like to use items in my off-hand that add life or mana.

Taming

Any experienced hunter will admit, after you acknowledge how cool-looking their rare pet is, that there is little discernable difference between pet types – the key factors are level, loyalty, and abilities learned. So just pick a beast to your preference. Some have slightly higher life, or better armor, or higher damage. I prefer bears, because they can tank and their diets are easy to cater to, which allows you to stay in the field longer.

Taming involves staying put and taking the damage. Pick a pet at your own level if you can withstand the process. You can use a freeze trap if need be. The problem with larger beasts, however, is that a knockdown attack cancels the taming process, and then you usually have to run or die. For this reason, I usually do my taming near a body of water so I can shake off the beast, flee, and heal and try again if I have to.

Buy the most expensive appropriate food you can to keep your pet happy quickly. Better yet, cook your own. Fishing can also help but is less important. Macro your pet feeding, to keep your pet happy as long as possible and increase training points.

I prefer to have Growl on auto-cast and to use a high-life, high-armor pet. I deal far more damage than my pet ever could. Since the hunter is primarily a ranged character, this allows me to keep the prey at range and maximize my pace of advancement.

Adventuring

I’ve been shocked to see that few hunters are using tracking yet. Beast and humanoid tracking are essential skills. They will make you kill faster with fewer deaths. So, use tracking at all times – pick your fights, specialize in hunting beasts whenever you’re not questing or item hunting, and use leatherworking and skinning to maximize your profit and efficiency. Tracking is also the best way to avoid ambushes, limit kills, and to avoid adds during an engagement.

Concerning Aspects, you should always have one up. I recommend using Aspect of Hawk at all times when fighting at range, and Aspect of Monkey when in melee. I personally have these hot-keyed on - and +.

The general process is as follows – use tracking to isolate a high-level mob. Once you’ve selected your prey, you can either set a trap and stand behind it, set a trap and advance (to fall back to the trap if need be), or send your pet and run in. I recommend standing behind your traps until you get used to the technique. Setting and advancing, then falling back works great, but remember that you can’t fire normal arrows while moving, and you might stumble into another mob while moving backwards, which can be disastrous. This is especially likely to happen when you’re in high-density areas that have both beasts and humanoids, since you can’t track both at the same time. Sending and running is recommended for low-level mobs where you’ll be cleaning up very quickly.

If you’ve set a trap, send your pet immediately afterwards. You can even issue the command while you’re still in the process of setting the trap. Put a Hunter’s Mark on the prey. This can be cast on the run if need be. Start off with Serpent Sting (which can be used while moving), follow with Arcane, and then keep using autoshot and then Arcane as it recharges. Later, add concussion and multishot to the mix.

Melee should be uncommon, unless you’re tormenting low-level mobs and rushing without even bothering with traps. Put both Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite on the hotkey bar immediately below your character, so you can easily see the flashes without taking your eye off the battle. That allows you to maximize your special abilities while still maneuvering if need be. (Sometimes a melee has to be moved a bit away from the starting point to avoid adding another wandering mob.)

After the fight, if you and your pet are in good shape, send your pet to engage another mob while you skin the kill.

So far, the class is very fun, but my experience with groups is limited. I recommend soloing to 20 anyway unless you’re social by nature. It gives you a great chance to maximize your hunts in ways that other players often don’t really understand (tracking, skinning, leatherworking, etc.), and get to 20 as soon as possible.

:shuriken:

[Rinnhart]

Any experienced hunter will admit, after you acknowledge how cool-looking their rare pet is, that there is little discernable difference between pet types – the key factors are level, loyalty, and abilities learned. So just pick a beast to your preference. Some have slightly higher life, or better armor, or higher damage. I prefer bears, because they can tank and their diets are easy to cater to, which allows you to stay in the field longer.

Taming involves staying put and taking the damage. Pick a pet at your own level if you can withstand the process. You can use a freeze trap if need be. The problem with larger beasts, however, is that a knockdown attack cancels the taming process, and then you usually have to run or die. For this reason, I usually do my taming near a body of water so I can shake off the beast, flee, and heal and try again if I have to.
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I take it most animals won't follow you into water, then? I never thought to try that.

That woulda saved a few silver. :whistling:

[Raven Vale]

Yeah I noticed that in the beta , only by fleeing , this was an undead priest with that quest where you have to put a candle on some womans grave on an island . Pretty tough quest for the level it's given , but I remember getting panned so I jumped into the water to swim like hell , then noticed nothing was following me , needless to say that small bit of knowledge kept me alive quite a few times :)

[mjdoom]

This reminds me of a few of my early VanCleef runs. The standard response when things went south was for the entire party to run to the edge of the ship and jump into the water. As long as you hadn't activated Cookie you were safe to regroup and attempt to fight your way back onto the ship. As a priest with resurection capabilities I definitely went swimming often when things were going badly.

On the humorous (or not so much) side, there was one time where the battle turned and in my haste to jump off the ship I landed on a lower gangplank and died from fall damage (d'oh). I still get a chuckle out of that occasionally.

- mjdoom

[LochnarITB]

I know this is late in coming but I wanted to thank you for the writeup. I'm finding it difficult to get good info on the hunter. I think that the hunter is one of the easiest classes to start. However, once you get into pets and talents it starts to get murky. I have browsed thottbot and the wow community forums as well as several other smaller sites. There is a good thread pinned on the wow community hunter class forum about what beasts have what capabilities. Even so, I still have a hard time getting the hang of what is involved in learning and training pet abilities. I have not yet been successful in learning from anything I have tamed. I am thinking that certain abilities are not only limited to specific types but also specific locations of those types. I also have a hard time with having to stable my pet to go learn from another beast. I find that a single stable slot is not enough. I want an entire zoo. As it is, I'm going to have my main character send my hunter the 5g needed to get the second slot. I already abandoned my snow leopard, kitty. I had to let her go because I had a boar, RealLife, that I didn't want to let go. I chose to tame a crab, Cancer, in place of kitty. If I want to keep them both and get new abilities I need both stable slots.

For the talents, it seems that nobody can agree on the best trees to use and how to fill them. I see a lot of "this is my build" posts followed quickly by "you are an idiot because" posts. Thottbot seems to be better than the wow community forums, which have, at best, about a 1% signal to noise ratio. I am thinking I will flesh out marksmanship. I will also put maybe 5-10 into survival and the rest into the beast tree. If anyone finds any real definitive info on hunter talent builds, please link them here. I think the hunter could be real fun, but I may end up abandoning it just because it seems to be a bit more confusing than other classes as to how to progress with building them and improving their pets.

[Medicine Man]

I just can't resist the urge to talk about talent builds now. I was thinking much the same thing as you, Lochnar. 8 points survival, 22 points marksmanship, 21 points beast mastery. My initial plan would prolly look something like this:

Marksmanship:

5/5 Improved Concusive Shot
5/5 Lethal Shots
1/1 Aimed Shot
2/2 Barrage
2/5 Efficiency
5/5 Mortal Shots
1/3 Improved Scorpid Sting
1/1 Scatter Shot

Beast Mastery:

5/5 Endurance Training
3/3 Improved Aspect of Monkey
2/3 Bestial Discipline or Improved Aspect of Hawk
5/5 Unleashed Fury
1/1 Bestial Swiftness
5/5 Thick Hide

Survival:

5/5 Precision
3/3 Lightning Reflexes

I figure this build will make me well prepared for whatever comes. For those times when melee combat becomes inevitable, I have over a 20% dodge, mongoose strike and a 5% boost to hit rolls. Unlike the vast majority of hunters, I actually prefer Aspect of Monkey over Hawk, at least when soloing. When grouped, Aspect of Hawk is probably ok -- although I find I still get lots of agro in most groups.

I haven't decided yet, but I may drop the Survival talents and redistribute them across my other trees. I may reduce Unleashed Fury to 4/5 and purchase:

3/3 Hawk Eye
5/5 Ranged Weapon Specialization
1/1 Trueshot Aura

Or I may go the pet route and do this:

5/5 Ferocity
3/5 Frenzy

Or:

2/2 Improved Mend Pet
1/1 Spirit Bond
2/5 Ferocity

I'm not sure how much focus I want to put on pet talents, but I'm fairly certain that any of these builds would pay handsome dividends. Any thoughts on the matter, Loch?

[LochnarITB]

Any thoughts on the matter, Loch?
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I haven't gotten far enough into him to have any real good thoughts of my own. I may end up playing him a bit without distributing talent (although I have distributed the first few) to see how the majority of my fights go. This gives me the best indication of what is of value to me. I guess I do have one thought. I am thinking any points invested in my pet would be wasted in the event my pet goes down. Of course, if one were to fill out the beast tree, it might buff the pet to the point where it is a true tank and you become its healer. I just don't think I want to go that route. Oh well, I'm gonna spend a couple days with my little squishy guy before I spend more time with Lochlauncher. He finally pulled himself away from quests (man there are a lot of early quests in Auberdine!) to go to Darnassus to get the bow skill he was created to use. He deserves a little break to gather himself before taking on the Wide World of Warcraft (WWW :rolleyes: ).