How to level a Hunter in Cataclysm

[manbear]

*I know this might not be the right place for this post, but the Cataclysm Hunter forum got archived
*I know most of this is common sense, but you'd be surprised what some people can miss

**This is a short little guide on how to fully maximize your beginning experience in Cataclysm coming from a Huntard who had a Beta pass. This guide is for the Hunters looking to reach realm first 85 or close to it.**

Pre Cata Preperation
* Grab 25 quests from Icecrown and complete them without turning them in. This is going to give you a big edge on other players.
* Grab 4 friends and talk to them about Dungeon leveling from 80 to 82 (More Below)
* Stock up on food, water, and any reagents you might need
* Go to Blackrock Mountain and discover the entrance to Blackrock Caverns
* Ask for a day or two off from work (because WoW>Real Life....duh)
* Get a good solid leveling pet. Other classes will not be worrying about taming a certain pet or camping a certain pet, so grab a good pet that will last you until 85 so that you can keep up.

The Midnight Rush
* Once servers are live grab your 4 friends and start doing BrC. From level 80 to 81 this is the fastest way to level. with a few quests given in the beginning of the instance, it will also let you reach level 82 faster then questing as well. To do this, you need to hold off on grabbing the BRC quests. Once you reach level 81, you need to hand in all your ICC quests. At 22.5k exp per quest, this will put you at nearly 560k EXP. Once you have done this, queue up for BRC again and take the quests. After you have done a full run you should be able to turn the quests in. Once this is done you should only need to do BRC once more to hit 82. This entire 80-82 experience should only take you 3-4 hours depending on how fast your group can clear the instance.
* Once you Reach 82, say goodbye to your friends for now and head to Deepholm for some good old fashioned leveling. There is no "best way" to quest here as if you have done step 1 fast enough, you should be ahead of the leveling curve, and thus you shouldn't have too much competition for quest mobs. Once you hit level 83, move on to Uldum and then on to Twilight Highlands from 84 to 85.


The Elephant's memory
* If you come across any quests that change the appearance of a tameable mob or make an untameable mob become tameable, Take a mental note or grab a piece of paper and write the name/zone of the quest. Once you are done rushing to 85 or once you decide its break time, go ahead and post the quests on the Petopian forums. You may end up finding the next Garwal in the process.
* if you find a rare or an interesting skin, repeat the former step

Fighting Temptation
* It will be VERY tempting to try and go back to tame Terrorpene and other rares. The best advice I can give you is NO! DO NOT DO THAT! There will be dozens of Hunters trying to tame these rares and most of them will fall below the leveling curve and get stuck there. The best thing you can do is skip them for now and go back when everything calms down.
* It might get tempting to explore a cave or get lost in a forest looking for a tameable that nobody has found yet. Don't worry about it, there are lots of people on these forums who will do all this for you! If someone finds the next Ghost Hydra, chances are it will be up on a major forum within a day, and not fixed for a week+. you will have time!
* If you get a quest that is either bugged or flooded with questers, move on! IF you have 30 people waiting on 1 quest that only a few people can complete at a time then you need to get out of there ASAP.

Claiming your Prize!
* Now that you are 85 you can go claim the true hunter prize! Go tame your Maddex or your Ghostcrawler and laugh at the hunter with Terrorpene who is still level 82!
* Go explore some zones and look for interesting quests while you wait for your guildies and friends to hit 85 so you can do heroics
* Go start your reputation farming for factions with cool mounts or good gear.
* Hit the forums and look for cool tameables and fun quests
* Level your professions. Once people start hitting level 85 there will MAD BANKING OPPORTUNITY! People will need enchants and gems for new gear, weapons and armor so they can reach iLevel min for heroics, and gathering materials to level their own professions. You can make a fortune here!

Do's
* Help your friends! If you are sitting on a group quest with nobody to help you, and you have friends not too far behind, then help them so they can help you!
* Keep an active Hearthstone. Our new hunter abilities don't really help us level, so keep your hearthstone set to a place near where you are leveling for quick returns. You will still be in Azeroth so if you NEED to head to Org you can fly there.
* GRAB AZEROTH FLYING ASAP! This one is a no brainer!


Don'ts
* Don't waste time harassing the opposite faction. As fun as it is, it's going to waste your time just as much as it wastes theirs.
* Don't hoard items. Keep your bags clean with quest items and leveling supplies. Vendor what you don't need and send profession mats to an alt while you level
* Don't troll general chat. If you troll general chat people will remember, and chances are when, when you need help, nobody will help you
* K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. Read your quest so you know what you are doing. Don't just open your map and run to the designated zone. Spending time killing mobs you don't need to kill or looking for something in the wrong place because you didn't want to take 10 seconds to reach the quest objective is dumb!


Motivation
* Prepare a music playlist for your leveling rush. The proper music can keep you motivated and moving towards your goal!
* Set your goals and challenge yourself. Can you level in an hour and a half? Can you be the first level 80 on your realm? Is that what you want? If so then make it happn cappn!




Sorry if this was a little long or hard to read

[Royi]

Great guide, it should be titled something more like "How to get a fast level boost once Cata comes out" or something similar... good stuff though

[Worba]

Or just change it to How to level a Hunter in Cataclysm - as-is, a lot of ppl are probably coming here expecting to find info on optimal rotations, reforging and etc

[manbear]

Or just change it to How to level a Hunter in Cataclysm - as-is, a lot of ppl are probably coming here expecting to find info on optimal rotations, reforging and etc

yeah I could have sworn that's what I named it, but I guess I was wrong. I changed it now though