Fine I got an account.

Canis Lupus

So I swore I'd never do it but **** it. After 3 years of Eve I needed a change.

And so whilst I cringed a little on the inside for being an elf in a game (as well as feeling nekkid without my Nighthawk wrapped around my pod) I started life as a hunter on Friday. (I wanted to be a mage but I think the option was grayed out and I later learnt it was probably because I was the wrong race (NE) for it.) But whatever. I can be a hunter and so armed with nothing but a poxy toothpick (dagger) and a slightly cooler bow I entered the game.

I didn't think I'd like it but man what a smooth game. Initially anyway there is so much to see and do. I've been wandering about leveling up and for the most part it's a really well balanced curve. It's just difficult enough to be a challenge which is nice although coming from Eve, ahem.... I wasn't expecting it to be that much bother :P

There are some issues I've noted already that irk me.

It's for pussies (but look I'm one of you now so forgive the insult). I don't understand why you can't loot the body of someone you kill and you have to challenge people to a duel. pfffft. I die in a mission and all I have to do is walk back to my body to keep going. It doesn't have much in the danger stakes but sure feck it. It's also kinda nice and I don't feel like crap knowing some other git is wandering off with my stuff.

This leads to the next point. Dying. If I die in a dungeon in the middle of a pack of rats (I'll still call em that!!) I have to walk back to my body and respawn at half energy right into the middle of them. I spent 30+ mins trying to get out of a dungeon yesterday because of this.

Which leads onto my next annoyance... I battle relatively quickly into a dungeon and as I go along the rats are respawning behind me as fast as I kill the ones in front. What's the ****ING point of battling my way in, barely clinging to life only to have everything respawn as fast as I kill it. F'ing annoying and it's going to make soloing hard unless things change in a bit.

Last annoyance is my leveling up. I'm not really getting it but then maybe I'm simply being a noob. I level up and I've no control where my points go like a SP RPG. I got to level 10 and finally got a choice to spend a talent point but apart from that I can't see a way to give my char (haha, never a toon!) the skill to use a sword or an axe etc. Is this possible?

Anyway. Yeah. I think I can see myself playing more of WoW in the coming weeks and months. I find it oddly satisfying collecting flowers. I'm just currently living in hope that I'll be allowed to give my hunter a sword at some stage. Stabbing people with a letter opener is getting on my tits.

tba

get your ass back to eve, you know theres a war on right?! Are running scared?

junior_apollo

You can learn more weapons from weaponmasters in capital cities... (ask a guard in town where the NPC is)... then they will also tell you what other weaponmasters there is in other capital cities... hunters can learn...

* Axes (starting melee weapon for most hunter races)
* Two-handed Axes
* Swords
* Two-handed Swords
* Daggers
* Polearms
* Fist Weapons
* Staff
* Bows (starting weapon for Night Elf, Orc, Troll, and Blood Elf)
* Crossbows (starting weapon for Draenei)
* Guns (starting weapon for Dwarf and Tauren)

Canis Lupus

tba wrote: »

get your ass back to eve, you know theres a war on right?! Are running scared?

I didn't give my stuff away :P but I'm still taking a break from space. If nothing else the recent changes have kinda bummed me out. Eve has moved quite a bit away from what it was when I started. Still a bit ****ed off that ghost training has been stopped. Coulda trained a lvl 5 cap skill but nooooo.

Anyway killing spiders and cats is my new favorite thing :P

Canis Lupus

junior_apollo wrote: »

You can learn more weapons from weaponmasters in capital cities... (ask a guard in town where the NPC is)... then they will also tell you what other weaponmasters there is in other capital cities... hunters can learn...

* Axes (starting melee weapon for most hunter races)
* Two-handed Axes
* Swords
* Two-handed Swords
* Daggers
* Polearms
* Fist Weapons
* Staff
* Bows (starting weapon for Night Elf, Orc, Troll, and Blood Elf)
* Crossbows (starting weapon for Draenei)
* Guns (starting weapon for Dwarf and Tauren)

Ah you're a star. I've been lumbered with a dagger from the start and it's been driving me bonkers. I really should read some manuals/guides.

joe_chicken

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I die in a mission and all I have to do is walk back to my body to keep going. It doesn't have much in the danger stakes but sure feck it.

I have to walk back to my body and respawn at half energy right into the middle of them. I spent 30+ mins trying to get out of a dungeon yesterday because of this.

I can clear this up:

You can respawn at the graveyard!

You'll take a fairly large whack of damage on your armor when you do this and you'll have to go get it fixed up, for a fee.

So that addresses a) annoying dying locations b) not being enough danger when you die.

junior_apollo

It might take a bit of travelling to learn all of them - but the main ones for hunters would usually be daggers, swords + 2H Swords, Axes + 2H axes, and polearms (polearms usually have good hunter stats etc) outside of that bows and guns (depending on your preference and lvl) I went bows all the way to 40 then guns from there up.. but will see whats next on my "To Get" list... as both have their perks... and am current dual wielding swords.. for the stats...

Mr. CooL ICE

Welcome to the game. I would quote some lyrics from Hotel California, but I cba...

By the sounds of it, the areas you describe as dungeons aren't really dungeons and are just caves or tunnels within the game land. Dungeons are instanced areas where yourself and up to 4 people (in a party) can enter, and all enemies and bosses there are unique to your party. But yeah, it can be annoying fighting your way into some place and then having to fight your way out again.

I can't remember exactly, but don't you get the mission to get a pet at around lvl 10? If you haven't got yours, get it now. IIRC, you can't dual-wield 1h weapons until lvl 20 or so, so if you have the money, get a staff from the auction house. Don't ever buy anything at your level unless it's green quality or higher. White is a no-no, but fine from quest rewards if it's better than what you have.

More info in case you don't know it already... For hunters, the most vital stats from items to chose are agility, stamina and intellect (usually in that order). Agility increases your attack power, hit rating and crit rating; stamina increases your health points, and intellect increases your mana pool. Don't aim for strength, as this increases your melee attack power and although it's not really a bad thing, its wasted on a hunter since their strengths are at ranged distance. Spirit: meh.


Since I only got a hunter to lvl 26, all above info is subject to correction

Canis Lupus

Lots of info.


Cheers.

I shall be taking a look at weapons the instant I get home.

Lord, can you clarify the bit about stats and choosing them from items? The way every single player rpg has been that I play allows me to add points to a skill as I level up. However, in WoW I go up and level and just get a message saying like stamina has increased by one or something.

Does constantly using a certain item influence what stats go up each level?

And yep. I completed the pet thing last night. I've currently got a spider scuttling along behind me. It's quite handy to have but I'm quite excited by the prospect of getting a sword. I understand hunters are ranged but when I go solo into a cave I can only get off a number of shots before I have to switch to melee and the dagger wasn't much help

copeyhagen

Canis Lupus wrote: »

There are some issues I've noted already that irk me.

I don't understand why you can't loot the body of someone you kill.

yes you can, if its a pvp kill u get currency

Canis Lupus wrote: »

and you have to challenge people to a duel. pfffft..

yeh on a pve server, re roll pvp and u can kill opposite faction players whenever you want

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I die in a mission and all I have to do is walk back to my body to keep going. It doesn't have much in the danger stakes but sure feck it. It's also kinda nice and I don't feel like crap knowing some other git is wandering off with my stuff..

re roll on a pvp server and watch how many times u egt ganked as you level, and then imagine if it actually meant something more serious to die in game.

Canis Lupus wrote: »

This leads to the next point. Dying. If I die in a dungeon in the middle of a pack of rats (I'll still call em that!!) I have to walk back to my body and respawn at half energy right into the middle of them. I spent 30+ mins trying to get out of a dungeon yesterday because of this.

dunno what your talking about ehre, if you die anywhere inside an instance (dungeon), when you run back to collect your corpse as soon as you enter the portal to the instance you respawn, you dont have to wait till u get as far as you dies. if theres enemies right inside the portal just jump back out

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Which leads onto my next annoyance... I battle relatively quickly into a dungeon and as I go along the rats are respawning behind me as fast as I kill the ones in front. What's the ****ING point of battling my way in, barely clinging to life only to have everything respawn as fast as I kill it. F'ing annoying and it's going to make soloing hard unless things change in a bit.

the respawn times of mobs depends entirely on the speed of which they are being killed, ie. they respawn slower if theyre only being killed once an hour. if your on a busy realm with a lot of new players and everyone is on the same quests they will respawn very fast. your getting xp to kill em so go with it!

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Last annoyance is my leveling up. I'm not really getting it but then maybe I'm simply being a noob. I level up and I've no control where my points go like a SP RPG. I got to level 10 and finally got a choice to spend a talent point but apart from that I can't see a way to give my char (haha, never a toon!) the skill to use a sword or an axe etc. Is this possible?

yeh each class can use certain weapons, example, a warrior can use nearly all weapons mellee and ranged except wands i think, a hunter can use 2hand swords, 2 handed axes, 2 single handed swords or axes etc. but are only learnable at certain levels. you only get talent points from level 10 on, and as a hunter for leveling spend your points on beast mastery. at 10 you can also do the quest to go train a pet if you havent done that yet.

welcome to the most addictive pastime since crack cocaine

Canis Lupus

Cheers copey. I'm learning I was just in a cave and indeed because I was in the nooby zone the bad guys would be respawning like crazy so that explains that. I was annoyed cos I kept dying and then got stuck but have since learnt above that I can simply respawn at a durability cost at the spot my ghost appears in. So hunky dorey there.

And yup, gotta agree I can see myself getting sucked into this game. My GF won't be impressed

Horsefumbler

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Lord, can you clarify the bit about stats and choosing them from items? The way every single player rpg has been that I play allows me to add points to a skill as I level up. However, in WoW I go up and level and just get a message saying like stamina has increased by one or something.

Does constantly using a certain item influence what stats go up each level?

The way you alter the stats of your character is by the gear and weapons you have equipped. After level 10ish you should be able to get some green quality gear and this gear normally has stats on it ( +1 stamina, +1 agilty etc.). So you choose gear with the stats that you want and thats how you customize your stats. Agilty is the main stat to look out for as a hunter by the way, increases ranged attack power and critical strike chance.

Canis Lupus

Horsefumbler wrote: »

The way you alter the stats of your character is by the gear and weapons you have equipped. After level 10ish you should be able to get some green quality gear and this gear normally has stats on it ( +1 stamina, +1 agilty etc.). So you choose gear with the stats that you want and thats how you customize your stats. Agilty is the main stat to look out for as a hunter by the way, increases ranged attack power and critical strike chance.

aha. Good stuff. That explains that then.

Nehaxak

When you're levelling up, especially being new to the Hunter class, put all your points you get into Beast Mastery talent tree and get a decent pet. I would suggest a boar as your first pet.

As for stats, don't worry too much about them at low levels. Agility and Stamina along with some Intellect but Agility is what you'll be needing the most.

Don't worry too much about what melee weapon you have either, just make sure whatever weapon you have, has some sort of decent stats on it. You'll be doing most if not all of your damage through you pet and ranged attacks anyway.

Levelling has been made a lot easier in the game even for a solo player so just enjoy it and get to know your class as much as you can while levelling.

Bows, crossbows or guns for ranged weapon, doesn't matter much at a low level, all depends on what suits you the most to use. Crossbows are hard to get at a low level but bows and guns you'll come across a plenty.

I would suggest you take Skinning and Mining as your professions to earn yourself some gold. The ores and bars even from low level mining nodes still sell for a great price on the auction house and skinning pays off greatly at higher levels and is also easy to level up.

copeyhagen

glad to hear your getting sorted.

some advice, re roll as horde on a pvp server, much more fun!
(gets ready for the alliance versus horde debate!!)

once you get the hang of it wow is an immense game. it sucks the life out of you though.

they dont call it the widowmaker for nothing!!


hunters are great craic, very easy to level.

Blowfish

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I understand hunters are ranged but when I go solo into a cave I can only get off a number of shots before I have to switch to melee and the dagger wasn't much help

Your first step into the wonderful world of aggro. :P

The first thing you should be doing as a hunter when attacking a mob (enemy) is sending your pet in. At early levels, you may need to give it a few seconds munching on the mob before you attack yourself. Doing this means that the mob views your pet as more of a threat than you and sticks to attacking it rather than you so you never need to mellee.

Canis Lupus

Cheers Nehaxak. I luckily chose Beast Mastery for my talent point so I'll move forwards that way.

I took skinning as a profession along with herbalism although I'm selling plants atm. Not really sure what I'm supposed to do with the plants but was gonna investigate that later.

How do I drop a profession and if I drop it does my level stay the same if I decide to pick it up again later?

I've also got first add and.... cooking I think but I haven't done much in the cooking section. Been busy with the bandages tho.

EDIT Cheers also Blow. I was pondering the hunters attack method earlier and was worried that a hunter was going to be a gang player and couldnt solo seeing as the skills seemed very range focused. Figured since I got the pet last night that it would become my tank. I'm actually spending all my morning pondering WoW and wanting to go back tonight to try new **** out. Been a long time since I got that feeling about a game.

My missus is away for a week from tomorrow as well. Once I get home from work I can play puter games for as long as I like without her giving me evils. Christmas has come early for me

Blowfish

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I took skinning as a profession along with herbalism although I'm selling plants atm. Not really sure what I'm supposed to do with the plants but was gonna investigate that later.

Plants are mainly used for 2 other professions, alchemy and inscription. As someone new to WoW, skinning and herbs is definitely worth sticking with as you'll get a fair bit of money from them.

Canis Lupus

Blowfish wrote: »

Plants are mainly used for 2 other professions, alchemy and inscription. As someone new to WoW, skinning and herbs is definitely worth sticking with as you'll get a fair bit of money from them.

Groovy. It's pretty easy to pick up plants as you move about doing other things. I was quite happy selling them on for cash despite not knowing if there was something else I could be doing with them

Hobbes

If you want to make money then just gathering won't cut it.

I recommend jewellery + mining or herbalism + inscription.

The first makes really nice cash and some great power up items that sell well both vendor and AH.

Inscription the money is in selling the ink. Made 6 gold from herbs converted to inks at level 22 (about 2-3 hours).

The scrolls don't sell that well, but glyphs do. Also you can get special tarot cards that give you rare items.

Skinning might be good (haven't tried) but I have seen a number of people abuse my corpses after I've finished with them.

joe_chicken

Canis Lupus wrote: »

How do I drop a profession and if I drop it does my level stay the same if I decide to pick it up again later?

You can "unlearn" from trainers, as far as I remember. But you lose all the levels you've sunk into it.

Personally, as has already been said, if it's your first character, I'd stick with 2 gathering professions. The reason being, crafting professions (like engineering, leatherwork...) take a lot of mats to get leveled up, so unless you've got spare gold around, you're not gonna be able to make anything useful with them.

Stick with the gathering until you've built up a good bit of gold.

Skinning and herbalism are perfect, as you can get loadsa skins from just leveling up and herbalism has a marker on the mini map to show you nearby plants. (if you picked mining and herbalism, it would be more of a pain, i.e. you'd have to switch your mini map icon from herbalism to mining)

Dr Bob

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Cheers copey. I'm learning I was just in a cave and indeed because I was in the nooby zone the bad guys would be respawning like crazy so that explains that. I was annoyed cos I kept dying and then got stuck but have since learnt above that I can simply respawn at a durability cost at the spot my ghost appears in. So hunky dorey there.

And yup, gotta agree I can see myself getting sucked into this game. My GF won't be impressed

When you respawn at the graveyard , you get a fairly hefty debuff that initially lasts 1 minute , but the more you do it goes up to 10mins.Its not a huge thing (usually people will rez in the graveyard , and then wait out the "ressurection sickness" buff.) but just thought I'd mention it.
No matter what faction you pick , the opposing one will be filled with angry 12 year old ex CS players (who even still bunnyhop around), who'll happily attack you when you're in the >just< about to finish an escourt quest.
Have fun.

Hobbes

joe_chicken wrote: »

The reason being, crafting professions (like engineering, leatherwork...) take a lot of mats to get leveled up

If you just *play* the game you will level up fast enough. By mid 20's you will be a higher skill then you can get the items. At least that was the case with jewelery and inscription.

The skills also buff your character which is quite helpful starting off as well.

Canis Lupus

Cheers. Will have to look later. Have a bit of a problem with billing atm. I installed and am playing on the US version as I have a mate doing the same. The problem is I tried to upgrade via their site and whilst it said numerous times that the service was unavailable apparently payment was going thorugh I now need to work on a refund Spent my lunch in the bank as well cos my card had been blocked for possible fraud..

Sigh... I knew I should have just ignored him and picked the EU version.

HereticPrincess

Canis Lupus wrote: »

And yup, gotta agree I can see myself getting sucked into this game. My GF won't be impressed

Ah sure, get her into it too.
You never know, a lot of gals like WoW too

MooseJam

What do you actually do in WOW, is it like an online version of Oblivion, various NPC's send you on quests to kill various creatures etc and you level up as you go, and can also fight other players, do most people play it to do the quests or to fight other players, if the former why not just play some offline rpg ?

Canis Lupus

MooseJam wrote: »

What do you actually do in WOW, is it like an online version of Oblivion, various NPC's send you on quests to kill various creatures etc and you level up as you go, and can also fight other players, do most people play it to do the quests or to fight other players, if the former why not just play some offline rpg ?

In a normal RPG you level up and go kill lots of monsters, you're immensely powerful and then the game prety much ends.

In an MMO you get the benefit of human interaction and the epeen status of building up a powerful character with loadsa money. Not only that I suppose but the game is constantly evolving and generally there is a lot more to do than a standard SP RPG which is why people pay to play every month.

Having said that, at this moment in time WoW for me is just a normal RPG as I haven't joined a guild and all I'm doing is levelling up and learning the ropes.

I'm not completely familiar with the game MJ so can't really advise you on what WoW offers but you do get to fight other people if you wish to.

Canis Lupus

Double post but I'd like to ask a question.

I've currently got a spider as a pet. If I choose to change him for a wolf or something like that do I lose out in terms of how powerful it is? Will I have to wait for my pet to start learning new skills or how does it work when you change pet?

Also, I've been putting points into endurance. I assume the % bonus to pet health applies instantly to the new pet?

Blowfish

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I've currently got a spider as a pet. If I choose to change him for a wolf or something like that do I lose out in terms of how powerful it is? Will I have to wait for my pet to start learning new skills or how does it work when you change pet?

Yes and no. Ultimately a lot of how powerful a pet is is determined by it's level. If you tame a wolf that's a much lower level than your spider than it will be weaker. If you go to a capital city, there will be a stable master where you can buy a stable slot. That way, if you want to you can just stable your spider and go train the wolf as a second pet.

Canis Lupus wrote:

Also, I've been putting points into endurance. I assume the % bonus to pet health applies instantly to the new pet?

Assuming you mean you've put your own talent points into endurance training, then yes it will still apply. Pets get their own talent points though (starting at level 20). If you switch pets with another of the same level, it will still have the same number of talent points, they just wont have been used yet.

p.s. This site is one that should be bookmarked by all new hunters.

Canis Lupus

Blowfish wrote: »

Yes and no. Ultimately a lot of how powerful a pet is is determined by it's level. If you tame a wolf that's a much lower level than your spider than it will be weaker. If you go to a capital city, there will be a stable master where you can buy a stable slot. That way, if you want to you can just stable your spider and go train the wolf as a second pet.

Assuming you mean you've put your own talent points into endurance training, then yes it will still apply. Pets get their own talent points though (starting at level 20). If you switch pets with another of the same level, it will still have the same number of talent points, they just wont have been used yet.

p.s. This site is one that should be bookmarked by all new hunters.

Work restrictions block that but I'll be bm'ing it at home. Good news on the stable master. That's great. I'll do that tonight and try out some new pets. My mate took me to Shattrath last night where I've heartstoned but I've gone to Stormwind. Like it there. Countryside is much more open and pleasant despite the large number of things wanting to kill me.

Nehaxak

~Yep, that Petopia site is a great site for any hunter, definitely have a good read of it later when you get home from work.

The mechanics around pets and training of them has changed with a recent patch before the expansion, and for the better I might add.

Pets level up fast enough so don't be worrying. You would be better trying to level a pet that is the same level as you though.

Don't forget to make sure "Cower" is turned off on your pet, you'll have to go into the Pet's spellbook to turn it off unless it's on your pets own spellbar.
Also of course make sure you have "growl" turned on for your pet so it keeps aggro.

One shortcut I would recommend you get used to using as a hunter is CTRL 1
(Control key and the number 1) - this will make your pet attack the target you have selected. Just makes it a lot easier when levelling up to send your pet with a quick keypress.

Newaglish

Howdy folks,

About to start playing WoW myself - how do I choose a race/class/server etc.?

Are any classes particularly strong/weak? I'm looking to play a class that shouldn't have problems finding groups at higher levels - played a warrior in EQ and found it desperate at later levels trying to find a slot. Also one that isn't overly crap at PvP

Also is there a big difference horde v alliance? I'd like to play on a server where it's 50-50 split, is this generally the way it goes?

I will have many more questions!

Thanks,