Some comments on Hunters

[Thecla]

Well, I realize it's a bit presumptious to post anything tactical after playing WoW for only 7 days, but here is how some things struck me, at any rate, having worked a Hunter up to lvl 20 in the stress test, mostly soloing.

I have to say -- despite my strong prefernce for archer-type characters -- that I'm beginning to find the class a bit frustrating. Part of this may be due to the Hunter's unfinished state, with at least a couple of serious pet-related bugs, and part of it is no doubt due to my inexperience with playing one; but I suspect part of it reflects some serious limitations with how the class is going to perform. I can't say directly how it compares with other classes since I haven't played them.

My first frustration is that Hunters seem to involve a lot of micro-management. Not only do you have to switch between ranged and melee combat, you have to control your pet too. And even when you do this, the results aren't always that great. Maybe talents etc. will help the class, but that will be more stuff to manage. Personally, I'd rather have a few primary abilities that work well and are effective than lots of secondary abilities none of which quite measure up.

Pet upkeep is a nuisance right now -- you worry about your pet losing happiness constantly, and virtually never worry about running out of arrows, which makes no sense. When your pet dies (which happens to me a lot), you have to revive it, mend it, and feed it (often a couple of times). In a party of non-hunters, your team-mates are probably wondering why you suddenly went afk.

My second frustration is that while hunters are definately good at ranged attacks, and can melee a little, they can't melee too much.That part is fine. But what frustrates me is the skills Hunter's have to manage aggro and avoid too much melee seem hit-and-miss and inconsistent at best (though, of course, it could be I'm just not expert enough in using them). Once I attrack aggro, I find it very hard to use my pet to get rid of it (typical combat log after I've got in trouble: "Kitty growls. Kitty hits monster X for 5 pts. Monster X hits you for 50 pts. Your Raptor Strike is not ready. Kitty Growls. Kitty hits Monster X for 3 pts. Monster X hits you for 64 pts. etc. etc.") Maybe when the low pet-damage bug is fixed this will be easier. Ideally, of course, you get as much aggro as possible fixed on your pet first before you open up with lots of damage yourself, but you can't always arrange this, and even when you do it's not uncommon for the monster to break away from your pet and attack you instead.

I've basically only used 3 methods of attack: (1) fire at a monster from a distance to take down as many hps as possbile before it closes, then switch to melee to finish it off (fine vs. lower lvl monsters); (2) send my pet in to attack, have it taunt the monster with a couple of growls (for some reason you seem to require at least a couple to have a reasonable chance of fixing the monster to your pet -- another example of its inconsistency) and then fire from range while the pet tanks, hoping the monster doesn't come after me instead (for equal/higher lvl monsters); (3) fire one normal arrow to pull a monster then tell pet to attack and growl etc (when just sending the pet in could activate several monsters).

When things go badly, usually because of unintended adds, which are a pain in the neck to deal with, I run and pray. I haven't found wing clip or disengage too easy or effective to use, so I'm more or less stuck being beat up when I run. Because of the nasty bug where monsters keep chasing you while your pet is alive, I usually have to hope the other monsters kill my pet off before the one(s) chasing me kill me. If I'm lucky, I can then retreat and go through the good old revive-feed-mend-feed routine. Anyway, like Brave Sir Robin, the Hunter seems to have three basic combat modes: ranged attack; melee attack; and running away. I haven't fully mastered the last, and apparently most essential, Hunter mode yet.

In good circumstances (meaning a wide open space, full range to the target, and the ablility to avoid any adds) I can solo a+2/+3 lvl monster pretty consistently (though likely with a dead pet and low health at the end for +3; on the plus side I do get to recast revive again), and 2 monsters of the same lvl (provided my pet is able to occupy one of them, with potential trouble if things go badly); 3 monsters, even lower lvl, often mean real trouble. What will happenlater on in the game, when presumably monsters aren't conveniently roaming around in nicely spaced ones in big fields and they aren't so easy to isolate? (I recognize any monster above your own level is meant to be a challenge, but I suspect several other classes have much better ways to manage combat.)

Also, dungeons are a pain in the neck to play in. Half-the-time you want to shoot something, you're too close, and by the time you've repositioned the monster, or most of your party, is probably dead. I can't imagine any party for an instanced dungeon really wanting to bring a Hunter (despite their decent ranged damage potential) unless there was no one else around, and if you do want to play in dungeons and not just solo outdoors they seem like a very poor choice of character class right now.

[Swiss Mercenary]

As a rogue, I found partying up with a hunter to be effective - the pets make decent tanks, allowing for me to utilise my backstab. Additionally, once the monster aggros me, the hunter is pretty much off the hook - he won't be bothered by that monster again.

[Thecla]

As a rogue, I found partying up with a hunter to be effective.

Outdoors, Hunter do pretty well. Any party there is good because it helps Hunters with their inability to deal with any more than 2 mobs at one time, and makes it easier for them to carry out their (quite powerful) ranged attacks. I've played in 3-hunter groups, for example, as well as rogue groups, which did very well too. My party comments referred to the instanced dungeons where, as far as I can see, Hunters are minimally useful compared with some other classes.

[Ruvanal]

A major part of the problem may be that not all the classes are going to be equally easy or hard to play. The more difficult classes are the one that depend on the character effectively managing 2 toons (player and pet). These characters are the warlock and the hunter. Until you have a reasonable understanding of how the game is handling important concepts like the aggro levels and a good grip on the game controls themselves, it will be rather challanging to try to play one of these two classes that requires you to keep track of more than one toon.

For a hunter currently the choice of the pet to have is a rather serious one since there are some serious broken problems with them. A few of the problems that are the most vexing are pet combat damage is 'stuck' at some reduced fraction of what it should be, mobs that notice the pet will aggro on the hunter instead and not the pet to start off with, a mob that aggros on the pet or the hunter or pet will not break off pursuit due to a 'leash distance' as they normally will for other characters. There are more but these are the ones that I see challanging the players the most often right now. Another 'problem' is that with this patch the design team was messing around with how some of the aggro attracting skills performed and it is not clear if the hunters pet Growl ability was a victim of this or not since there was no prior performance to compare it to. But based on how the warlock voidwalkers Torment ability and the warriors Taunt skill were reduced in effectiveness, I would suspect that the Growl is also at a reduced effectiveness.

Some of the pet problem can be mitigated by the selection of the pet to use. While many are picking their pets based on the looks for some 'coolness' or 'wow' factor, the pets are currently only coming in 2 primary flavors that greatly influence their performance. These are normal and elite. If you do not know how to tell difference quickly, just target the pet and look at its portrait icon. If the circle is just plain then it is a normal pet, and if it is a silver looking dragon around the portrait is named mob orginally that is currently handling the same as a normal pet. On the other hand if the portrait has a gold looking dragon around it, then that is a pet tamed from an elite mob (level orginally listed as XX+). These elite pets are still subject to a reduce damage output but they still do considerably more than a normal mob. For example Chaku's pet Ebony is from the elite mob Humar the Pridelord and will currently at level 28 be delivering damages of 14 to 22 points per hit instead of the 5 to 6 that a normal would typically be doing. This amount of damage boost is not really enough to make a great difference in the holding of the aggro, but what is important is that the elite pets also have a considerably better defense rating and more hit points than a normal version pet of the same level has. This lets them more effectively tank the mob or mobs that are encountered without dying as easily. This has lead to a couple of warriors that I partied with being surprised at seeing Ebony effectively tank a couple of equal level normal mobs that would have ripped the warrior appart if they had been the one that would have had to do the actual tanking. When they fix these damage issues and start getting some fo the special abilities in for some of the pet classes, the pets should become more effective and the actual types of pet selected will be more of an issue (spiders getting poisons and web snares, cats with the stealth and rogue like attacks, boars with the charge and stun attacks, etc.).

My second frustration is that while hunters are definately good at ranged attacks, and can melee a little, they can't melee too much.That part is fine. But what frustrates me is the skills Hunter's have to manage aggro and avoid too much melee seem hit-and-miss and inconsistent at best (though, of course, it could be I'm just not expert enough in using them). Once I attrack aggro, I find it very hard to use my pet to get rid of it (typical combat log after I've got in trouble: "Kitty growls. Kitty hits monster X for 5 pts. Monster X hits you for 50 pts. Your Raptor Strike is not ready. Kitty Growls. Kitty hits Monster X for 3 pts. Monster X hits you for 64 pts. etc. etc.") Maybe when the low pet-damage bug is fixed this will be easier. Ideally, of course, you get as much aggro as possible fixed on your pet first before you open up with lots of damage yourself, but you can't always arrange this, and even when you do it's not uncommon for the monster to break away from your pet and attack you instead.

This appears to be due primarily to not understanding how to manage the aggro in fights. While direct damage is an obvious source of damage, there are many skills that will generate additional aggro beyond what done in terms of damage. Another aspecto f this is that if you are continuing to do normal attacks during this type of fight, then you are ending up generating even more aggro that must be overcome by the pet. There are times in fights that players must learn that if they have drawn too much of the aggro they will need to just stand there without generating aggro (most likely doing no attacks or any healing) and get the snot beat out out of them for a few seconds while the aggro is getting pulled off by a warrior or pet growling (pet damage is too low to be very effective for this even with an elite pet). Another part of this in running a hunter (or warlock) is that you cannot sit back and let the automatic cycling of the things like who to attack and when to Growl (voidwalker Torment) kick in. This means that you need to learn how to use the keyboard commands for these or better yet remap some alternate keys to make this management easier. I am regularly controlling Ebony with commands of attack, heel (follow) and Growl. Sometimes Ebony will be right on the spot with Growling at the right time, but other times it will be necessary to be forcing these growls out as soon as they are ready to manage Ebony handling more than one mob at a time to keep all the fight off of me. This also means that I have to be aware of the distance that Ebony needs to be at to pull a mob off me while still fighting a different mob or two at the same time. I have had to move myself around in some fights to get the added mob that jumped me to be close enough to Ebony so that the Growl can pull the mob off of me while I still stayed far enough away form the orginal mob to allow the continued use of the autofire against the orginal mob. Be aware also that while they are not listed as such that the pets Growl and apparently the Concussive Shot are an area effect for the generating the extra aggro. Both of these at times may inadvertently pull in a mob that was not intended.

I've basically only used 3 methods of attack: (1) fire at a monster from a distance to take down as many hps as possbile before it closes, then switch to melee to finish it off (fine vs. lower lvl monsters); (2) send my pet in to attack, have it taunt the monster with a couple of growls (for some reason you seem to require at least a couple to have a reasonable chance of fixing the monster to your pet -- another example of its inconsistency) and then fire from range while the pet tanks, hoping the monster doesn't come after me instead (for equal/higher lvl monsters); (3) fire one normal arrow to pull a monster then tell pet to attack and growl etc (when just sending the pet in could activate several monsters).

Basically fine tactics. For your problem in case 2 of the inconsistancy, that is probably because you are thinking that Growls are automatically working evey time. The growl/taunt/torments are being handled just as mages spells are and can be resisted for no effect. When dealing with higher level mobs the chance of resistance can climb very fast making it dubious if they actually took effect or not. For an alert warrior, they can notice when the resistance message flashes by on the screen for their taunts, but for the hunter or warlock the message is not being displayed to them since it was the pet that actually had the resist. In those cases you need to be very watchful for the graphic showing the taunt effect on the mob actually occuring (and for some mobs it is near impossible to see this effect going off over their heads).

For runnig away it is important to try to get the mobs attracted onto the pet first then run like the blases to try to get far enough away to force the pet to despawn. If this can be done then the pe mearly needs to be 'whistled' back up instead of revived. This is much easier to achieve with a more durable elite pet than the normal quality pets that I see most hunters using. It also helps to to have better control through the hot keys than I have seen the majority of hunters that seem to rely automatic response or depend on mouse clicking the pet action bar.

For Wing Clip, I concur with several of the posters that have reported this to be a broken skill. It rarely seems to last more than 2 seconds instead of the listed 10 seconds and the rate of slowing seems more like 70% speed instead of listed 50% speed. This makes it rather ineffective at being able to open the distance for doing anything other than getting one additional chance at pet growl off to break an aggro hold.

[Thecla]

A major part of the problem may be that not all the classes are going to be equally easy or hard to play.

Not sure that classes that require lots of managing are harder to play than ones that don't. I like them less though.

But based on how the warlock voidwalkers Torment ability and the warriors Taunt skill were reduced in effectiveness, I would suspect that the Growl is also at a reduced effectiveness.

If -- as I would suppose -- attracting aggro is one of a pet's main functions, all I can say is Growl seemed to be a remarkably bad way of doing it (of course, maybe I wasn't doing it right).

Another part of this in running a hunter (or warlock) is that you cannot sit back and let the automatic cycling of the things like who to attack and when to Growl (voidwalker Torment) kick in.

Definitely -- I used direct pet commands all the time (though it's true my pet wasn't an elite).

Hunters seem like they have a lot of potential, and maybe they'll be really good once they're fixed up. In part I just resented being constantly forced to melee, or try to escape from melee, with what I though was supposed to be a ranged class. (Why should mages be able to cast fireballs at point blank distance, for example, while hunters can't shoot their bow?)

[Ruvanal]

If -- as I would suppose -- attracting aggro is one of a pet's main functions, all I can say is Growl seemed to be a remarkably bad way of doing it (of course, maybe I wasn't doing it right).

Currently that is the pets main function since there are no other pet abilities that can be used. With only having Growl as an ability and with the damage output being messed up to only be a minimal amount, the hunters pets are currently the equivalent of a warlocks voidwalker. The voidwlakers primary purpose is to act as a tank that attracts the mobs and keeps them at a distance so that the warlock can do his thing at a distance. When more abilities for the pets become available it will be possible to have certain types of pets serve other functions than this, but for now that is the only practical thing the pet can be used for.

Hunters seem like they have a lot of potential, and maybe they'll be really good once they're fixed up. In part I just resented being constantly forced to melee, or try to escape from melee, with what I though was supposed to be a ranged class. (Why should mages be able to cast fireballs at point blank distance, for example, while hunters can't shoot their bow?)

Most of the time as long as I keep the pet alive, I only end up going into melee combat when I choose to go into it. I can also get the pet to pull mobs off of me by manipulating the damge I do (generally by not doing damage or using Disengage in extreme situations) and the use of teh pets Growl ability to get myself out of melee combat if needed. This lets me be a ranged class character under most circumstances. That is why it is important to know how to manipulate the aggro of mobs first before trying o use a hunter. In general the warlocks and hunters are going to for the players that are more experienced witht the overall game basics than for the first choice of many characters. When you do not understand how the aggro can shift in combat you will frequently just end up pulling too many mobs straight on top of yourself instead of those that should have the mob on them. It should also be noed that the tanks also need to know how to hold onto the aggro and where to keep the fight at also. I have frequently seen warriors that drag the fights to bad locations for hunters and other that are trying to use AoE that do not get instant casted (like traps on the ground or long casted Flamestrikes).

[JustAGuy]

Also, dungeons are a pain in the neck to play in. Half-the-time you want to shoot something, you're too close, and by the time you've repositioned the monster, or most of your party, is probably dead. I can't imagine any party for an instanced dungeon really wanting to bring a Hunter (despite their decent ranged damage potential) unless there was no one else around, and if you do want to play in dungeons and not just solo outdoors they seem like a very poor choice of character class right now.

In a dungeon, you're not necessarily going to have much space for firing arrows/bullets, so that right there cuts a hunter's effectiveness down. Then again, if you're in a party with a primary tank, then you might be able to sit back and fire away without any problems. If you're in a party as the primary tank... Well, then, you're in trouble (find a new party!).

As far as groups go, any class is suitable, unless the party is looking for something in particular, that being, not you. I've been in groups where we assemble it looking for this or for that, but how effective they are depends on how the main roles are filled. If there's a proper tank, healer, and mage in the group, then the last two spots can be whatever they want. Sure another mage would be useful, or another priest, or another tank, but diversifying the group with a Warlock, Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, or Shaman should have no ill-effect, so long as the players understand and play their characters properly.

[LavCat]

Having acquired my first pet last night I have a couple n00b questions:

I infer from the above that it is possible to tame named boss beasts, as well as elite beasts?

Is there a Purena vendor in Stormwind?

[JustAGuy]

You have a dog for a pet? Hmm..

I just started a hunter. I wonder if you can use rabbits or deer for pets?

"Attack, my pet! Destroy our foe!"
*rabbit stares blankly*
"Uh... Kill?"
*rabbit cuddles against hunter's leg*
"Don't you know how to do anything?!"
*rabbit eats some leaves*

I'm planning on getting some sort of water based pet, so I can feed him the fish that I catch.

[Tal]

Having acquired my first pet last night I have a couple n00b questions:

I infer from the above that it is possible to tame named boss beasts, as well as elite beasts?

Is there a Purena vendor in Stormwind?

Yes.

Your pet can eat meat from mobs, fruits and breads depending on beastie. I think most will eat meat.

[Tal]

You have a dog for a pet? Hmm..

I just started a hunter. I wonder if you can use rabbits or deer for pets?

Nope

I'm planning on getting some sort of water based pet, so I can feed him the fish that I catch.

Sorry water based animals can't be tamed. Meaning Loch monsters and whatnot. Crocs can be tamed and will most likely enjoy the fish. :)

Big Ol' List O' Animals That Canna Be Tamed

[Ruvanal]

Having acquired my first pet last night I have a couple n00b questions:

I infer from the above that it is possible to tame named boss beasts, as well as elite beasts?

Yes you can tame some of the named mobs out there. But be aware that if you do, there is a bug that will prevent that mob from respawning again if you do not rename it. Some players have been paid a visit by a GM after taming Princess and were told to either rename her right then or release her. Failure to comply would be treated as an act of griefing other players.

Is there a Purena vendor in Stormwind?

I would presume that you tamed one of the wolves in Elwynn Forest? If so they should be quite content to eat any of the meat drops from mobs like boars and such, even if it is uncooked. There are also some things that they will treat as meat that you may not think of as such, for example Crispy Spider Legs. So try to feed the pet some of the white lettered drops like that to see what they will and will not eat. At level 24 the skill Beast Lore will let you see the diet that various mobs will use for food.

JustAGuy:

I'm planning on getting some sort of water based pet, so I can feed him the fish that I catch.

I am not sure about all mob types but most of the various cats have a diet of meat and fish while the bears have diet that includes just about every food catagory for pets (being the omnivores that they are). I never checked on the diet of a crab or crocadile to see what there preferences are. I am just satisfied that Ebony (formerly Humar the Pridelord, level 23+) likes pretty much any meat or fish drop that I come across.

[LavCat]

I tried a few different kinds of meat and cheese, but I'm told he did not like them. I've read that if I go to a stable they will advise me of his dietary needs. Personally I think what he wants is elfflesh.

Tribade has dealt with Princess, but where does one find Humar?

[Ruvanal]

Tribade has dealt with Princess, but where does one find Humar?

Humar is an elite black lion that infrequently (~8 hour?) respawns at a large tree north of Rachet in the Barrens.

[MongoJerry]

Over the last few days, I've been leveling up my PvP server Hunter, named Pandarus. He's level 18 now, so I figured I'd join the conversation with some brief observations. (Also, the server is down due to some tornado emergency, and I figure posting about WoW will help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms). I'm going to be fully honest with you. I have intentionally read absolutely nothing about hunters on the Blizzard forums and have only skimmed Thecla's and Ruvanal's posts. When I start something new, I like to experiment on my own for a bit before reading the perspective of others. I don't want to be biased by other people's ways of thinking or get caught up in "group think." However, there are a few comments I caught in Thecla's and Ruvanal's posts that I'll respond to.

First, my overall impression is that I'm having a lot of fun playing my hunter. I consider this to be a good thing, since that is typically the purpose of playing a game. At first, I was a little frustrated with my hunter and his lack of power. Certainly, any time he had to deal with a mob who didn't start 30 yards away was always an adventure. In addition, the beasts I tamed at first died frequently. However, as Pandarus and his bear, named Dog, has leveled, both have become much more powerful and competitive. Also, I'd also like to think that I've started to get the hang of playing a hunter now.

One of the biggest decisions a hunter has to make is what pet he or she wants to tame. That's the part of Ruvanal's posts that I read most carefully to find out if there were any tricks or bugs I needed to know about. (Thanks Ruvanal!). After reading his comments, I really wanted to make sure I tamed an elite named beast of some sort. But then I realized a problem: Most of the low to medium level alliance areas don't have such a beast. The Barrens has several options to choose from, but interestingly alliance areas do not. Because of that, I used Neriad, my lvl 55 priestess, to scout out various possibilities. I tried to find this Humar Ruvanal talked about, but either he hadn't spawned or I looked in the wrong places. I thought that the Den Mother, a named bear in Darkshore, would make a good pet candidate, but it turned out that she isn't elite like I thought she was after all. After a bit more scouting, I finally picked out who is going to be Pandarus's long-time pet. Unfortunately, he'll have to level up some more before he can tame that pet, so for now, he's using Dog as a temporary solution.

Dog is a Young Forest Bear that was tamed in eastern Elywin Forest. After having some fun playing around with various pets, I settled on using a bear pet for two reasons: 1) They have better armor than most mobs of their level and 2) They eat everything. At first, Dog died a lot, but as he's leveled, his armor and health have shot up considerably. In fact, he has twice the health and armor of Pandarus, making him an excellent tank. Here are some general notes and observations I've made so far:

1. In most battles, I use pretty much the same system as a warlock with a voidwalker -- only I have more dps but can't use my best skills at close range. I send Dog after a target and as soon as he's in range, I [b]manually[b] order Dog to Growl to snag the target's aggro. I then use the professional mage's aggro trick. Good mages who play well in groups will pause at the start of a battle to let the warrior taunt targets a few times before nuking the heck out of the target. In my case, I manually order Dog to growl twice and then I start the barrage. Growl remains assigned as an automatic command, so he'll continue to mix in Growl with his regular attacks. I've found that I rarely pull aggro off Dog if he gets a two Growl head start. And this is true even though I twinked myself with some green engineered guns affixed with +5 damage Deadly Scopes and a good two-handed sword. (My other equipment is untwinked). I'm not sure why people think that Growl isn't effective. Perhaps people don't know to manually Growl a couple of times and wait before starting their barrages.

2. In cases where I have to pull a mob, I'll shoot once and then take a couple of hits while Dog growls the mob off me. No biggie, normally.

3. Now that Dog is able to take a lot more punishment than he used to, I've found him to be a great way to deal with adds. All I have to do is target the add, tell him to go attack it, Growl once, and switch back to shooting or swinging at the original target.

4. Ruvanal's note on Clipped Wing confuse me. I tried it out many times to verify any bugs, and it instead worked like a charm. It definitely lasted the full 10 seconds -- both the icon and the effect on the mob --, and the mob definitely ran slower than normal. It should probably slow a mob down more than it does, but it has definitely been a useful skill to prevent a mob from running off to alert friends.

5. Alchemy has been a facinatingly useful skill for Pandarus. Originally, I had just planned to mess around a little with Pandarus but essentially make him into a potion factory for my priestess. That's why I chose alchemy and herbalism for his professions rather than some more sensible hunter trade skills like leatherworking, skinning, mining, or engineering (to make crafted shot and +damage scopes). However, as Pandarus has been skilling up in alchemy, he's been finding the potions to be very practical for him. He always uses the +50 to armor buff from a minor defence potion (cheap at 2 silverleaf each for a 60 minute buff), the +27 life buff from a minor elixir of fortitude, and now lately the +6 to int buff from an elixir of wisdom. The latter one is a new one for me, but wow am I glad I tried it out.

You see, hunters use mana for their attacks, so they have a lot more in common with spellcasters and paladins than people might think. However, they don't get large natural bonuses to their intelligence as they level to increase their mana pools significantly. This is ok, because their attacks don't cost as much mana as a comparable mage or priest spell would. This has an odd consequence: +int and espeically +mana items have a greater effect on hunters than they do on mages and priests! In other words, a +6 int boost for a mage or a priest, even a level 18 one, is only a small, almost negligible, boost to his or her mana pools. But that +6 int boost caused Pandarus's mana pool to jump from just below 200 to something in the mid-240's. (I think it's 8 mana/int point, but I'll have to check to be sure). That's an approximately 25% increase in Pandarus's mana pool, which is huge. If I end up playing Pandarus to high levels, I will definitely have him wear a couple of +int or +mana items and maybe even use Elixers of Greater Intellect (+40 to int). Even a small +int or +mana boost would mean a great deal.

6. Those throw-away scrolls that give temporary boosts to one's stats are suddenly quite useful to a hunter. You see, you can't have your pet drink a potion (I tried), but you can cast a scroll buff on your pet. So any scrolls with +armor or +stamina have been very helpful to get.

[Ruvanal]

I tried to find this Humar Ruvanal talked about, but either he hadn't spawned or I looked in the wrong places.

Humar is one of the named (also elite) that are not set up as part of any specific quests. From what I had researched on the forums in the past concerning a few of these, they have a respawn timer that is in the hours per respawn from the time they are taken out of action (killed or tamed and then renamed). The information that I found on these named ones indicated that the developers at one point had said that the respawn rate was about 8 hours which is too hard to verify for sure. It does appear from what I have been able to track on the rate at which I have been able to observe Humar's appearance to be somewhere between 6 and 8 hours. His location is next to the large tree just east of the Large Dead Tree that is location for the Ishamuhale quest. The best time to find him is to be in position to get to him right after a server reset (we are talking minutes by now due to the number of hunters that want him) or after a period of time where there has been little activity on the servers (early morning before the main mass of players begin). I was fairly lucky at catching him in that I spotted him just after I had hit level 24 (he is level 23+ which is too high a level for Pandarus to currently tame) and just after I had logged on on an early weekend morning play start. Use any defense buffs that you can put in place as he has a rather high DPS while you are taming him. And be prepared to hit the taming skill as it runs out to avoid starting to attack him in case the first cycle of it does not provide enough 'loving' to complete the taming (it took me 2 seconds into the second taming cycle to get him on the second attempt; he ripped me shreds on the first attempt).

An interm posibility you might try is to go to the entrance area of the Wailing Caverns and tame one of the 15+ to 18+ level raptors that appear in that area. This is what Chaku had done at first before stumbling on Humar being available. Try to pick a small one too make it more party targeting friendly.

Good write up on the technique for getting the pet to hold the aggro. This is what I have been using a lot, but am terrible at writing up for others to see.

I'm not sure why people think that Growl isn't effective. Perhaps people don't know to manually Growl a couple of times and wait before starting their barrages.

From what I have seen it is their impatience that gets them. They seem to expect that they should be able to start off with high powered shots and still have the pet pull the aggro onto itself while the hunter is maintaining a high DPS attack against the target. On this point it would probably be useful for the hunter to have a 'grazing shot' attack that purposefully does only a small amount of damage just get the mobs attention. It can be rough to end up starting an attack and get a critical hit on the first shot. That is the times when even 2 successful growls at tthe start do not manage to hold the aggro for me.

On the issue of mana, I agree with Mongo as to the value of it. At times I am looking as much for some items to add to the +mana or +intelligence more than I look to adding some of the other stats like +life or +stamina. Even to the point of tending prefer the enchanment for these over some of the other enchantments.

As side note, I find myself in agreement with several other hunters that have been posting that they would like it if the design team (or even a part of the Cosmos dev group) would come up with a way to have the pet life bars display to the other party members. While I consider that the pet is expendable compared to another party member; if it is servering as a main tanking force in the group then the healers need a better way of traking its life for throwing even the lower quality healing spells on it.

[Bolty]

I send Dog after a target and as soon as he's in range, I [b]manually[b] order Dog to Growl to snag the target's aggro...I've found that I rarely pull aggro off Dog if he gets a two Growl head start....I'm not sure why people think that Growl isn't effective.  Perhaps people don't know to manually Growl a couple of times and wait before starting their barrages.

Bingo. While more Hunter players are getting experienced now, I still see a huge number of Hunters played incorrectly. They die constantly because they just don't understand aggro. They don't understand that they can't just wail away on a target at will, and then complain that "growl sucks."

It's the same thing with Warlocks and their Voidwalkers. Newbie Warlocks always complain that "Torment sucks" because they don't understand how to use it, are unwillingly to *manually* order the Voidwalker to cast it every 4 seconds in battle, and wonder why they keep dying.

Warlocks and Hunters are about micromanagement of pets. If, as a player, you don't like that - don't play one. Mongo, you figured it out quickly. It's sad to see level 30 Hunters/Warlocks who still haven't gotten it. Same with Mages who yell at Warriors for not holding aggro when the instant battle starts, they spam their nuke spells. Duh. :)

-Bolty

[MongoJerry]

As side note, I find myself in agreement with several other hunters that have been posting that they would like it if the design team (or even a part of the Cosmos dev group) would come up with a way to have the pet life bars display to the other party members. While I consider that the pet is expendable compared to another party member; if it is servering as a main tanking force in the group then the healers need a better way of traking its life for throwing even the lower quality healing spells on it.

As a long-term priest, I've wanted this for a long time so I could track the health of a groupmate's warlock pets, especially if the pet is acting as the group's tank. Often the only reason I know a voidwalker is in trouble is if I happen to see the warlock channeling to heal the VW. It's quite frustrating.

An interm posibility you might try is to go to the entrance area of the Wailing Caverns and tame one of the 15+ to 18+ level raptors that appear in that area. This is what Chaku had done at first before stumbling on Humar being available. Try to pick a small one too make it more party targeting friendly.

Yeah, I thought about that and maybe I'll do it, even though Dog is doing just fine at present. My long term goal is to tame Ga'Mura (sp?), the named elite turtle in Blackfathom Deeps (25+). Turtles have incredible armor and would make an absolutely amazing tank. The only problem, as you mention, is that turtles are so big that they would likely annoy party members. However, the next patch is supposed to address some of the issues regarding pet size, so maybe it'll be ok.

Mentioned in a sticky on the Hunter forums (I was bored last night) is that the plan is to allow hunters to learn pet abilities from pets they tame and then teach other pets to use them. I'm sure there will be some limitations to this -- I can't imagine Blizzard allowing a rapter to fling nets and spit poison, for example -- but the idea does lead to some great possibilities. For example, wouldn't it be awesome to tame one of the big named T-Rex's in Un'Goro Crater and teach him to shoot lightning? Result: Godzilla!

[Ruvanal]

For example, wouldn't it be awesome to tame one of the big named T-Rex's in Un'Goro Crater and teach him to shoot lightning?  Result: Godzilla!

But what tameable beast can currently shoot lightning to start with? The thunder lizards of the Barrens are not tameable.

[Swiss Mercenary]

I believe I saw some chimera near Stonetalon peak, in the burnt out section of the forest, during my time in the stress test.