World of Warcraft: Current Year

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
So my hunter is about to hit 100, and I have a feeling I'm going to main this for Legion. Just feels so right. Always been a fan of ranged DPS, so this makes sense. Probably end up Druid if I want to run some heals sometime, but is there a checklist of sorts to get a hunter as ready as possible?

I'm not gonna be running anything but LFRs... but pets? Do I need a specific pet or GTFO? I don't have money to prep for anything else, but mainly was looking at hunter specific things. Thanks.

Honestly with the pre patch a lot of pets kinda got neutered as a lot of the ones that gave buffs don't any more. For the most part combat wise most pets are pretty much the same but some do still have some special ability. Like Trex have a mortal strike type ability, corehounds have heroism available, water striders have water walking.

For the most part you can use whatever pet you like the best and it will work fine but if you want some specific extra you may want to hunt some of the rarer stuff down. If you are curious check out pettopia its a great hunter site for this sort of stuff. In general though it no longer matters a hell of a lot find a pet you like and rock it out.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Beyond just harder dungeons, I'm assuming the loot rolls better as well?

Yes every step up increases the loot available and rewards you can potentially get. So at higher keystone levels dungeons are kicking out higher end raid capable gear pretty consistently so its a good alternate gear path for people who prefer small group fights instead of full on raiding.
 

bixxby

Molten Core Raider
2,750
47
Yes every step up increases the loot available and rewards you can potentially get. So at higher keystone levels dungeons are kicking out higher end raid capable gear pretty consistently so its a good alternate gear path for people who prefer small group fights instead of full on raiding.

Which might be the best thing WoW's done in forever if the dungeons are mechanically fun.
 

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
<Bronze Donator>
8,128
17,999
Decided to roll a Druid for a change. I dabbled with them way back when (BC? Wrath?) but never to a high level. I have one question, is there really any point in switching forms from your "main"? Eg.: I'm leveling as a Feral Druid, so is there any point when I would want to change to Bearform? Or is it pointless setting up that actionbar?

Same if I do dungeons as Guardian spec, is there any point in ever *not* being in bearform?
 

Zhro

Silver Knight of the Realm
184
77
I believe while in bearfrom it grants you extra stamina, armor and increased threat generation. So that's your incentive to want to be in bearform.

Edit: But like noodle mentioned above, changing to cat to run away from things is probably why you'd swap.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Which might be the best thing WoW's done in forever if the dungeons are mechanically fun.

Yes and nobody can talk about welfare epics if you watch any of the videos of the higher level keystone runs +10,+11 there are some SERIOUS damage spikes happening that looks pretty seriously challenging.
 

khorum

Murder Apologist
24,338
81,363
It's like 5 ilevels per mythic level or something---BUT you can get warforged and even titanforged versions at each mythic level. I got an ilevel 870 item in a mythic 3 run which usually drops level 850ish stuff. Then there are the legendary drops... I got the legendary maiev's cord belt in a mythic 3 run and it's a 895.

It's seem pretty RNG-happy but there's a garrison upgrade that buffs your chance to get a warforged or titanforged item that will almost certainly be a required choice for that upgrade tier.
 

Nirgon

YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE
12,809
19,771
Which might be the best thing WoW's done in forever if the dungeons are mechanically fun.

think WoW dungeons with Diablo 3 greater rift mechanics

maybe it appeals to you maybe it doesn't

higher difficulties are basically doing this anyway

I just was never able to get down with a pack of bees shooting mortars and making arcane lazers everywhere

Real immersion killer
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Decided to roll a Druid for a change. I dabbled with them way back when (BC? Wrath?) but never to a high level. I have one question, is there really any point in switching forms from your "main"? Eg.: I'm leveling as a Feral Druid, so is there any point when I would want to change to Bearform? Or is it pointless setting up that actionbar?

Same if I do dungeons as Guardian spec, is there any point in ever *not* being in bearform?

It depends on your affinity. If you are bear form and take cat affinity then if you switch to cat form you have access to a lot of the DPS cat abilities and it generally will be a good bit higher DPS than you can normally do. Nice for soloing stuff fast.

And visa versa if you are cat form and take guardian affinity you basically get a tank mode it is not as good as a full on guardian mode but I have seen a boomkin swap to bear to tank archimonde in LFR after both tanks died. You will never be a main tank in that mode but if emergencies and in small groups you can effectively tank with like that.

Without the affinity cat form is mostly for dash and prowl and bear form without the affinity would be a last desperate chance to maybe give a healer an extra couple seconds to heal you.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,907
4,483
Holy fuck, that seems really fast. How are you doing it in 6-8 hours?
Recruit a friend is 300% experience bonus. I use my buddy's level 100 hunter (ilevel 640), specced him to Marksman (multishot becomes a builder instead of a spender), and chain run dungeons. I have a level 1 summoner on the RAF account for each distant dungeon so travel time is greatly reduced. Spoiler has the dungeons broken down by level:

1-8 Make a human hunter so you start in Northshire. Group and summon 2nd leecher and run (use Chauffeur heirloom mount) to Murloc island next to Goldshire. A hunter with heirlooms will kill the level 6-7 murlocs in 2 shots. Instant respawns here so it’s very fast.

9-10 Run leechers to the Hogger area or Westfall beach if Hogger is crowded. Make your way to the Deadmines entrance as you get closer to 10. Make sure you hit 10 before reaching the entrance or you can’t zone in. Have the level 100 meet at the entrance since the level 10s can’t use the summoning stone.

11-19 Deadmines. Leave the leechers next to the first cannon in the dungeon. Use the level 100 to round up all the trash, kill the first boss, get all the trash from the second boss area and bring all trash back to the cannon. Drop level 100 from the group and use one leecher to hit the trash in the cannon. That pull will be 2-3 levels. Leechers follow for the rest of the dungeon. Finish dungeon, run out and reset. Grab the dungeon quests and complete them after each boss kill. Leechers will be 19-20 at the end of the dungeon.

20-23 Stockades. Do the dungeon quests. Leechers follow, turn in quest to kill Hogger next to Hogger, and loot the fire boss for quest item.

24-27 Scarlet Halls. Leechers follow. You should ding 25 on your first run. Run again for dungeon quests if leechers couldn’t get it on the first run.

27-37 Scarlet Monastary. Run across the hall to the other SM instance. Run this with leechers following you. Do the dungeon quests. It should take about 3-4 runs. I am at just about 1.5-2 hours /played at this point.

37-48 Main Gate Stratholme. This will be the first place where you hit instance cap. Log after a run and do something for 30 mins. I usually plan my next set of characters. This place is stupidly good. Make sure to hit all of the additional bosses. Leave leechers at beginning, having them run out to summon the runner back to the beginning to reset faster. Should take 4 runs.

48-59 Lower Blackrock Spire. Leave the leechers at the first open area (near the ogre area). They will be able to get exp from almost everything in the instance from here. Grab the roughshod pike from the wall after the 2nd bridge and the head off the ogre boss. When you get to the skull pile up the ramp from the spiders, use the ogre head in your inventory to summon the optional boss for more xp. Should take two runs. As long as you make it to 57, you are fine and dont need a third.

59-61 Hellfire Ramparts. Leechers follow. Run twice if you can’t grab the quests the first time.

62-65 Blood Furnace. Leechers follow through the instance. Leechers loot blood and item off first boss.

65-69 Heroic Blood Furnace followed by normal Shattered Halls. If you are already saved to the heroics from prior runs, you can just go ahead to Shattered Halls. Ideally, you would want to hit 70 here, but that run back is no joke and once I hit 69 I dont think its worth all of that extra running just for the extra level

69-70 Azjol-Nerub (must be 69 to enter). Leechers follow the runner through. Should be one clear. Not worth running twice for the quests.

70-73 Ahn'Kahet. Leeachers follow. 2-3 runs. Make sure that you are completing the quests as you go through, because they are sequential and the complete message doesnt pop up properly on its own.

73-80 Gundrak. Must be 73. I love this place. Start on the snake side, leechers follow for one run to complete the quests, then I leave the leechers slightly down the ramp for slightly more trash exp. Once cleared, runner runs out the exit on the right side past the last boss. Leechers go out their entrance door. Rinse/repeat. This is usually 6-7 runs.

80-85 Stonecore. Have leechers follow until the entrance to the cave with all the trash before the golem boss/after the dragon boss. Once you are nearing the final boss, have leechers use the port behind the dragon to return to the entrance. Run out once complete and summon runner to restart faster. 5-6 runs. The quests are easy, but shitty exp so up to you if you choose to do them.

85-90 Temple of the Jade Serpent. This part probably could be improved, but at this point I see the light at the end of the tunnel and want to be done. Leave leechers at start. Pick up/complete quests without leaving entrance area. 6-7 runs.

I have a summon character at the summoning stones at SM, LBRS, AN, Gundrak, Stonecore, and Jade Temple. You only need to have one level 90 RAF character if you only use its level grants for your main account character's 86-90. Jade Serpent is the longest section of these runs so you save a lot of time boosting through those four levels instead of doing that dungeon on every character. Ideally you get the main character to 90+% of their level and then boost so you end up being nearly 91 after the final level boost.
 

Leadsalad

Cis-XYite-Nationalist
5,975
11,959
Because I've got no clue and can't be assed to look it up, why do caster artifacts have 1 hander versions? What do they do for off hands?
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
Because I've got no clue and can't be assed to look it up, why do caster artifacts have 1 hander versions? What do they do for off hands?

Each spec is different. If you want to know a specific specs off hand I can help. Some are really weird like demo warlocks their "main" is their off hand which is a floating demon head and their main hand is an artifact dagger.

Some have shields some have tomes some have weirder stuff it is all spec/spec. Also a lot of artifacts have alternate hidden unlocked options that can be VERY different such as BM hunters having a bow option and weird stuff like arcane mages get a animated sheep headed option.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
I think its day one playability is going to be largely determined if they can keep their instance servers in dalaran from shitting themselves like they were doing in beta. If they can and people can get their artifact stuff completed it may be okay. The big change with the scaling stuff this expansion means if you hit up one quest zone and it looks to busy you can switch to a different one. You can hit them in any order right from the point after you finish your artifact so instead of the entire server trying to cramp into one or two zones it is in theory spreadable across all the available leveling zones.

In beta even when it was super crowded with their stress test stuff if you could get your stuff from dalaran and get out it worked fine.
 

khorum

Murder Apologist
24,338
81,363
They did a "launch test" day a couple weeks ago where everyone in beta had to roll a template char for a few hours and Dalaran and Broken Shores shit the bed for a bit.
 

Miele

Lord Nagafen Raider
916
48
Decided to roll a Druid for a change. I dabbled with them way back when (BC? Wrath?) but never to a high level. I have one question, is there really any point in switching forms from your "main"? Eg.: I'm leveling as a Feral Druid, so is there any point when I would want to change to Bearform? Or is it pointless setting up that actionbar?

Same if I do dungeons as Guardian spec, is there any point in ever *not* being in bearform?

Dungeons no, but tanking in raids you can swap to cat when not actively tanking, setup your bleeds and switch back to bear. This assumes you are Guardian spec with Feral affinity.
Aside from that, not much else.
 

kaid

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,647
1,187
They did a "launch test" day a couple weeks ago where everyone in beta had to roll a template char for a few hours and Dalaran and Broken Shores shit the bed for a bit.
Yup that is the gauntlet. If people can get out past that it should be fine but dalaran shat itself mightly for a while in beta as big waves came in. At least they were doing a number of launch tests to hit just the main bottleneck areas hard so hopefully they got enough good data to keep things going.

Even a month ago I would have been somewhat dubious but they really came a long way stability wise over the last month or so leading up to the prepatch.
 

xzi

Mouthbreather
7,526
6,763
I usually avoid the official forums but I was trying to see if other people were complaining about phasing issues since 7.0 and oh boy there's a LOT. I noticed it while doing Kazzak out of boredom, but then I started to go finish up Loremaster and there's huge chunks of content that are 100% impossible because the mobs/quest items just phase out of the world lol.