What pets for leveling?..

[Slickrock]

So my troll hunter Stonefang is busy in Desolace at the moment, and currently running with a boar, and collecting cats in the other slots, current have Humar, a red lynx, and the ghost saber.

BlueSteel the boar (guess which one that is.. is starting to do better at holding things now that he and Stongfang are both 35, he's certainly doing better than the cats. Getting BlueSteel was a real challenge. Going into RFK at lvl 32 solo was rough, especially with a trash pet that was 5 levels lower, but managed to go in, drop down in the ravine, and fought and tamed a few boars before I decided on his skin. Then I tried to do the stupid tuber quest, and the gopher promptly got us killed by running down the ravine into a pack of 6 or more boars.

So now, still thinking about collecting cats, but, want to try something else for the last slot for now.

What's another good pet for that level range? I'm thinking maybe a carrion bird, but only if I can go get the raven from Grizzly Hills. That should be a challenge..

Any other ideas on something useful and different for that level? (If the Silithids weren't exotic, I'd go get the one from Thousand Needles, but that won't work...)

[Chrizesu]

Personally I use raptors for leveling, but I have a soft spot for the scaly beasts.

[Daranara]

The ravens from howling Fjord, you mean? Unless they're in grizzly hills too... hrm...

Anyway! Carrion birds are always fun, I've got a hunter about that level with a tallstrider and one with a moth, both of which work pretty well. I'd suggest a bear due to their swiping skills, if you wanted to go that route, but since you've got a boar I dunno.

[Slickrock]

Well, I'm looking through the listing of pet skills for that level, and most of the pets are hurt by long cooldowns on the special attacks, ok for pvp, but bad for leveling and world pvp. Looking at the math (sorry, guess I'm a math guy, after all, Slickrock is an engineer), the boar does seem to come out top in damage done, with the carrion bird coming in a close second with the utility. Serpents and Hyenas would be in the next batch after that. Once I can hit that 51 points in BM, a Chimera makes a lot of sense going into AV many many times...

But I'm still looking for input to see if I'm missing anything...

[Slickrock]

The ravens from howling Fjord, you mean? Unless they're in grizzly hills too... hrm...

Yeah, those ones.. The lvl 7 ones... just need to manage to get there.. I should be able to do it.

And thanks for mentioning bears. I went back and looked I realized I had missed something. Bears at 32 to 17 to 23 damage on a 5 sec cooldown, while Boars do 23 to 29 on a 10 sec cooldown. I had missed that the bears were on a 5-sec cooldown. So that puts bears well above boars, just gotta find a skin I like to experiment with. Crocs might be interesting too, but not sure how often they strike during their 45 sec special.

[Saturo]

I usually level with bears, up until I can get Warpstalkers. I sometimes pick up a worm as well, but Warpstalkers are my overall favourite. You see, you can save one talentpoibt from Charge. Also, their racial means that you can open fire, and they'll instantly grab aggro.

[Max]

Bears, 5 sec CD on swipe
Croc with special poped: As many times as someone hits em'

[FuzzyDolly]

I leveled my Ally hunter from 10-80 with only my owl as a pet. Never had any problems.

[Karathyriel]

Actually, the choice of pet is more like what you like than what you need.
Sure, some make leveling easier than others (bears with swipe tank groups and can be healed without getting the attention) but all in all...

Tame what you like and have fun playing!

[Slickrock]

Actually, the choice of pet is more like what you like than what you need.
Sure, some make leveling easier than others (bears with swipe tank groups and can be healed without getting the attention) but all in all...

Tame what you like and have fun playing!

Fun is certainly part of it..

Part of why I was asking was pre-32ish I was having more issues pulling the dang mob off me, that seems to have cleared up some since the pet has caught up and has a few more points in talents now..

The other thing is for instances.. I did my first random, and the tank was terribad. Got RFD, and the tank didn't know where to go, I was a good hunter and turned aggro off, but the pet still instantly pulled aggro on on mob, while I generally pulled aggro on another, while the third mob went to the healer. sigh.. It got bad enough by the third pull that I turned on growl and just had the boar start picking stuff up. At that point the tank and healer and one dps left, without saying a word. Guess they knew each other. I was going to tell the healer just heal my pet and I'd pet tank it. I was watching recount and my boar was doing 3x the threat of the warrior.

So getting a bear for that might not be a bad idea..

But I still like the idea of going to get one of those ravens, just to say that I did it.. Where does the boat to howling fiord leave from? I would rather do that than run from Crystalsong.. that would be a lot of corpse-running, lol

[Acherontia]

Undercity for Horde. If you're Alliance, I think you have it easier--the boat leaves from Stormwind I -think-, Menethil maybe if not? But it comes out RIGHT in the water near the birds. If you're ally it may actually be possible to get a tame in without getting lvl 70 mobs on you... Just watch the sharks!

[Karrosh]

I rolled with a bear from about level 15 up until the past few days when I hit 60. I still plan to use him, but switched over to one of my ferocity pets to get him caught back up, and to see what kind of difference there was in terms of how long it was taking to burn down mobs.

I think bears are an excellent choice.

[Victorelle]

sadly... idk this.... on my hunter I looked for Humar for 2 weeks. When I got him forsure I used him ALL the way untill 77 when I got Loqu. but even so I stayed with Humar all the way to 80. and I kind of liked the cat as a pet.

My brother has a hunter, all I remember is that he leveled 70-80 with a wolf...

I would recommend a Tenacity pet. I really like Scorpids, and boars, so maybe one of those

[Azunara]

I actually really like dragonhawks. They're uncommon, and they kill things fairly quickly. They do fine aggro, as well. Only problem is their health, multiple mobs make it tricky, but it makes being a hunter so much more challenging and fun, imo. I love my Phoenix. :3

[Slickrock]

Just did the run for the raven in the Fiord. Only died 3 or 4 times.

Will give the raven a run for a bit, and see how it does. If the connection isn't there, bear is next to try...

[Anansi]

I'm of the opinion that for leveling take whatever you want. The more unorthodox the better, because the closer you get to end game the narrower your choices are going to be in regards to what is and is not considered optimal.

So pick what you want and take advantage of the fact that leveling is time totally free of expectations, of raid needs and so on. The leveling period is the time to really play with different pets and enjoy the diversity that's out there. Don't constrain yourself!

[FuzzyDolly]

The daggercap hawk is actually easy to get. Once you get off the boat and start headin to the elevator, something will kill you. Then you spirit walk to the closest graveyard to where you're going. I got one at level 10. Just do a google search for WoW graveyard loacations to find the closest one to where you're going. Just remember, when you get to the graveyard, log off and on before rezzing. It's not nearly as difficult as you would think. And... it's fun when you name it after your Druid toon. My guildies still laugh at that.

[Slickrock]

as a side note.. think I found some of the aggro issues.. focus starved. Gonna need to put another point in BD when I get another point.

[Siliverin]

Everyone is right pick what you like to have as pet. When i was leveling i went with a bear, had it from 10 all the way to 80, still have him to i always like'd having bears, always held aggro like no ones buisness. again, i would say go with what you like to play with and are happy with

[zedxrgal]

Slick,
What level are you again????
I thought you couldn't tame a beast whose level is higher then yours???????

I used a boar forever. I tried bears but just didn't click to much with them. But really just have a pet you're happy and mesh with. But why not keep trying different ones.