Advice for a Hunter

[Sabra]

My level 14 hunter is being offered two abilities that I can't assess: Eagle Eye and Eyes of the Beast. She's husbanded her money carefully and has some very useful abilities at lv 18, so I'm trying not to spend on things that aren't really needed. Are these skills worth the silver and what are their benefits?

My pet has 70 training points and it seems that I'm the one who trains him, but I can't figure out how I do this. Does that skill comes at a higher level or is there somewhere that I have to take him? This might be clearer to me if I read through the entire skill base when I visit the Hunter Trainer. If that's the answer, just tell me and save your time. I try not to read too far ahead and spoil the surprises.

It seems that in order to get the full benefit of the hunter's art, I'll have to train a number of pets. Currently I have a sabretooth. Is it wise, when the time comes, to try different "classes" of pets: cat vs. vs owl vs. sea creature of some kind? Is that the way to get the greatest benefit from cross-training?

So far, the Hunter is the most interesting character I've played, but it seems like there will be a lot of skills (ranged ... melee ... pet) and one could be stretched thin. Any advice on managing the versatility?

Many thanks.

[Kevin]

My level 14 hunter is being offered two abilities that I can't assess: Eagle Eye and Eyes of the Beast. She's husbanded her money carefully and has some very useful abilities at lv 18, so I'm trying not to spend on things that aren't really needed. Are these skills worth the silver and what are their benefits?
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I'm up to L28 with my biggest hunter and I have yet to use Eagle Eye for anything other than a little fun. With the line of sight limits on Eagle Eye, it just doesn't seem to have a lot of scouting use over the tracking abilities. There are some situations that I could see where it woudl be helpful, but it also seems like something that is easily skipped if you need to save money.

I have used Eyes of the Beast as a pulling and scouting tactic at times, but again, it isn't needed at lower levels at all and can wait till later.

My pet has 70 training points and it seems that I'm the one who trains him, but I can't figure out how I do this. Does that skill comes at a higher level or is there somewhere that I have to take him? This might be clearer to me if I read through the entire skill base when I visit the Hunter Trainer. If that's the answer, just tell me and save your time. I try not to read too far ahead and spoil the surprises.

It seems that in order to get the full benefit of the hunter's art, I'll have to train a number of pets. Currently I have a sabretooth. Is it wise, when the time comes, to try different "classes" of pets: cat vs. vs owl vs. sea creature of some kind? Is that the way to get the greatest benefit from cross-training?
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You have to learn the claw, bite, or cower skill from a pet you tame. Some animals will start with one or more of them and they simply have to use it in combat a few times before you can learn it. You will need to tame new things to get new ranks. Growl is something that you know how to teach just from being a hunter, and you have to buy the higher ranks of it from the pet trainers. I use http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html all the time to find what I want to tame to get a new skill. I just stable my main pet go tame the critter, feed it a little bit so that it can stick around for a few fights, learn the skill then release it. I then go back and train my main pet that new skill.

There are some minor variations in the pet stats. Some will do a little more damage, so will have a bit better defense or armor. It can pay to play around with them a bit. One stable slot isn't too expensive so that you can put one pet that you want to keep in there and then try out others.

Hope that clears some of it up. If you have more questions ask. I have great fun with the hunter class, but like all my knowledge I've only ever played anything to the upper 20's early 30's since I spread my time around so much. :)

[Raziel]

You can get by without either, but I love Eagle Eye. It places your eyeball at a remote location, and you get to look around. Takes a few seconds for things to fade in, though.

It's fantastic for scouting but sadly only works outdoors. However, if you're outdoors, it's really sweet.

[Sabra]

Thanks, Raziel and GG, for the opinions on Eagle Eye. I loved them both.

Okay, GG, you said ask questions, so ... you wrote:

You have to learn the claw, bite, or cower skill from a pet you tame. Some animals will start with one or more of them and they simply have to use it in combat a few times before you can learn it.

How do you learn the skills from them? Is the acquisition of these skills "built-in" or is there a portion of the interface that I'm missing? Maybe I'm missing this info becuase I've only had one pet, He appears to claw, but I don't have a way to "acquire" that skill; no button to click. I hope it's clear what I'm asking.

You mention growl and I've seen ranks of that for sale from ... maybe it was ... the stable master. I'm not qualified for it yet, but I've seen it. So is that how you learn. Through a NPC?

Thanks for the link btw. I can see that it will be helpful, once I understand the process.

I just stable my main pet go tame the critter, feed it a little bit so that it can stick around for a few fights, learn the skill then release it.  I then go back and train my main pet that new skill.

This statement leads me to believe there is a mechanism that leads to the interchange of skills.

Looking forward to further enlightenment.

[Treesh]

How do you learn the skills from them? Is the acquisition of these skills "built-in" or is there a portion of the interface that I'm missing? Maybe I'm missing this info becuase I've only had one pet, He appears to claw, but I don't have a way to "acquire" that skill; no button to click. I hope it's clear what I'm asking.
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While your new pet is fighting, it'll automatically use the skills it knows. Let's say you tame a webwood venomfang in Teldrassil. It knows Bite rank 1. It will use bite rank 1 and after some time, you'll see text flash by in your chat log saying that you, the hunter, have learned bite rank 1. Then you tame a nightsaber and you and the kitty go off and fight. The cat will gain some training points. When the nightsaber gets enough training points, you can then click on the "beast training" skill (the icon to me looks like a slingshot) which brings up all the pet skills that you have learned and you can then spend the pet's training points and teach the kitty bite rank 1.


The various ranks of growl apparently need to be purchased, but I just don't remember what other skills the trainers can teach you. I still just get everything I can from various pets themselves and only buy what I absolutely cannot get any other way.

[LochnarITB]

This statement leads me to believe there is a mechanism that leads to the interchange of skills.
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If you haven't got it down yet, I think I know what you're missing. Look in your spellbook. If your pet is dismissed, it will look as you expect. As soon as you call your pet, look in the spellbook again. Surprise, there is now a pet tab on the bottom. Click it and you will see a page of your pet's abilities, those that you have trained it for using your pet training skill. You can now move those skills to the pet bar to be used by your pet.

This pet skill thing really threw me too. I just didn't get the connection that I was learning the pet skill from the temporary pet and then using my new knowledge to train my real pet(s). When I was finally able to train my pet with a new skill, I still couldn't find how to get him to use the new skill. It finally came together when I had my pet in tow and was able to see the pet tab in my spellbook.

I hope you get it worked out. It is kind of fun to have a buddy along even when you "solo". I keep telling myself that I need to work on my hunter some more so that I can join you for some questing. Lochlauncher, accompanied by RealLife (my boar) or Cancer (my crab), hope to join you and one of your buddies one of these days.

[Brother Laz]

Oh yeah, Bite is said to be useless now. Of course the cool pets can all learn Claw :)

[Sabra]

Dear Treesh & Lochnar - Thanks so much. The confusion I'm experiencing must be coming from only ever having one pet. So I'll go off and find someone else and work him a bit and then see what I've got. Your comments really helped a lot.

[Raziel]

Buy a second stable slot. It's worth it :)

That way you get one main pet, and then go off and tame things that you learn a key ability from and then dismiss.

The best way to think of the pet skill system is this:

Learning a pet skill (growl, bite, claw) from a pet does not give the skill to the next pet you tame or the one in your stables. It simply puts that skill in the list that you can teach using Beast Training.

Your next/other pet then needs sufficient Training Points to be able to learn that new skill.

For me it went like this:

Tame mangeclaw (it comes with claw 2)

.. 40 levels later ..

learn growl 6 from Pet Trainer

stable mangeclaw

tame feralas wolf (bite 6). fight with it until I learn bite. dismiss wolf.
tame feralas bear (claw 6). fight with it until I learn claw. dismiss bear.

go back to stable master, un-stable mangeclaw, pull out beast training and teach it bite/claw/growl level 6.

As you can see I didn't get the hang of it all until rather late in my career ;)

[Sabra]

.. 40 levels later ..
As you can see I didn't get the hang of it all until rather late in my career ;)
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OMG! Maybe I'm NOT hopeless after all! Raziel, you just made me feel a whole lot better about myself. ;)

I am SO looking forward to the weekend and my time with my hunter. Thank you for the step by step instructions.

So ...

At lv 14 in Darksore having tamed and loved a Sabretooth names Sharone for 4 levels, what type of pet would you suggest? I'm thinking a bear would be nice. I like bears. Better check that chart GG sent.

[LochnarITB]

At lv 14 in Darksore having tamed and loved a Sabretooth names Sharone for 4 levels, what type of pet would you suggest? I'm thinking a bear would be nice. I like bears. Better check that chart GG sent.
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Level 14? I thought your hunter was higher. We should play together a bit. My hunter is 14 right now too. As far as kind of pet, I haven't read as much as I should, but what I have read seems to indicate that there is little difference between types in things like damage, armor and resistance. I did see a little bit about uniques that were tamed that were better but that might be a misread. The two pets I have now (I mailed cash from my main for the extra stable slot) are a crab and a boar. They were chosen largely for the food they will eat. I started with a snow leopard but it seemed rather finicky. I think the boar will eat anything that can be fed to a pet and the crab will eat everything except meat. I would like to use the crab because it holds a cool factor for me, but I think I will mostly use the boar. Also, I don't think I've seen anyone else using one as a pet (maybe because it isn't a good pet? I hope not).

[Sir_Die_alot]

I did see a little bit about uniques that were tamed that were better but that might be a misread. [right][snapback]65892[/snapback][/right]

No you didn't misread that. Some pets have hidden stats like faster attack and movement speeds or resists. Snarler for instance has 100 all resistances and King Bangalash runs VERY fast. The WoW page hunter FAQ sticky has a good number of links, and one that the person who maintains the FAQ has not put in yet is a list of beasts with an attack speed less than 2.0.

Edit: I shouldn't say resists are "hidden" since beast lore will display them. It's just most beasts don't have resists. :P

[Treesh]

Edit: I shouldn't say resists are "hidden" since beast lore will display them.
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Silly little pointless thing about beast lore - you can use it on shaman when they are in their ghost wolf form. :D Isn't anything spectacularly useful, but just something silly to know.

[LochnarITB]

The WoW page hunter FAQ sticky has a good number of links, and one that the person who maintains the FAQ has not put in yet is a list of beasts with an attack speed less than 2.0.
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I get errors from both links so I'm thinking it is a problem with the forum rather than the links. I'll try to remember to check them out though. Thanks.