Brianni (AKA Brian Brolin) has added an excellent pet collection tracker to the site. The tracker allows you to see what pets you have and which you still need. Additionally, the collection tracker can be updated by plugins, saving you the tedium of updating the site each time you get a new pet, or more importantly, the first time you start using the site.

If you’re curious, check out my collection.

There I stand in the murky waters of Orgrimmar having just fished up Old Crafty. I’ve got the rascally little devil in my off-hand.

And yes, that’s my pet chicken swimming under water.

It took me two sessions to fish up Old Crafty. In total, I caught 132 fish before earning the achievement. The drop rate is supposed to be much lower than that, so I’m assuming I got really, really lucky.

Fortunately, we had another DK in the group that had some tanking experience. He was able to take over, since the previous tank failed pretty quickly. Before long, a BoE mail helm of spell power dropped. Since DKs cannot greed on mail items, the Unholy DK begged the person that won the greed role to please give him the helm because it was better than whatever he had. This is ridiculous since 1) if he really wants to tank, he needs plate, and 2) DKs have absolutely no use for spell power.

And this leads to the real crux of the problem. Why don’t more people know their class better? It seems obvious to me that if you are going to try a new class, you should research how the class works and get an understanding of primary stats, ability rotations, etc. Additionally, you should familiarize yourself with each new patch and understand how it effects your class. Most of us don’t have the patience to do the testing required to determine the best spec for specific class roles and situations, but there is always someone out there who will.

Before I start a new character, I develop an idea of what I want that character to do. I start very broad, such as “druid healer.” From there, I research the recommended specs, glyphs, and enchantments. I decide on a spec that sounds good to me and I plan around that. I bookmark important pages so that I can refer back to them as I level. (I guess I should make those bookmarks available.) I find and install the “required” add-ons. I do all of this before I even roll the toon. Although this seems like a lot of work, it lets me feel confident knowing I know how to play the class from the beginning. I can join groups knowing I understand my role and how to operate.

This leads me to one final point about death knights. Unlike other classes which refine their play-style 60 levels before heading for Outland, death knights are thrown directly into the fray at mid-level with lots of new spells and abilities. They are suddenly confronted with dozens of new spells rather than adding a new spell every few levels over a lengthy time frame. I think the complaints you hear about DKs in the 60-70 range is directly related to the relative unfamiliarity of many players with the class. If more players took the time to understand their class mechanics, there would likely be less complaints.

When it comes to choosing an Alliance race for your new hunter, you have three choices: drainei, dwarf, or night elf. Each race has unique talents that may or may not be useful to the hunter class. If you are interested in choosing the best race for your new hunter, you’ll need to take these racial talents into consideration. That being said, I strongly recommend you choose a race that best fits your play style or personality. Racial talents have changed over time, and basing your character decision on a racial talent that exists now may end up backfiring in the long run.

Although every race starts with different stats, these differences prove inconsequential at level 80. Assuming you are planning to play your hunter beyond level 10, you should not make your decision based on these minor differences. Below, I’ll list the racial traits that affect the hunter class. Finally, I’ll give my recommendation at the very end. If you prefer, you can jump directly to my recommendation.

Draenei

• Gift of the Naaru
  A very limited, instant cast heal over time (1,250 HP over 15 seconds at level 80) that can be used on any friendly target (including the hunter or pet). The spell has a long cooldown making it very situational. Although the heal is small, it can be a lifesaver in an emergency.
• Heroic Presence
  The truly defining racial talent for the draenei. This talent grants a +1% chance to hit to the hunter and party members. As all classes try to increase their chance to hit, this talent automatically gets the hunter 1% closer to maxing out.

Dwarf

• Stoneform
  Although this talent increases the hunter’s armor by 10% for 8 seconds, the real usefulness of this talent is that it removes all poison, disease, and bleed effects. Despite the relatively long 2 minute cooldown, this talent can be incredibly useful in both PVE and PVP situations.
• Gun Specialization
  Dwarves are a gun loving folk, and this talent recognizes that love. Dwarves’ chance to critically hit with guns is increased by 1%. The good news here is that there are always good guns to be had.

Night Elf

• Shadowmeld
  Every 2 minutes, night elves can stealth in a fashion similar to rogues. This ability is only active while the night elf is motionless. This talent is only useful in PVP.
• Quickness
  The night elf is 2% less likely to be hit than other races. The usefulness of this is extremely limited in PVE as hunters are rarely targeted. In PVP, a 2% chance to be hit is certainly nice, but not game changing.

Therefore…

Based on the above information, night elves are the weakest Alliance hunter race. Draenei are the best race based on the importance of hit percentage in increasing damage output. Although the increased chance to score a critical hit with guns makes dwarves attractive, the fact that this talent is limited to guns makes it problematic. Of course, if you are choosing a race based on how cool the toon looks, you have to go dwarf!

 
Which Alliance race is best for hunter?
Short answer: Draenei

As I pointed out in my Horde Warlock Race Guide, you should choose a Horde race based on their unique traits. These racial traits occasionally figure into game play, but, as every Forsaken rogue knows, these game-changing racial traits can and will be changed. With that in mind, choose a race that suits your playstyle or just looks cool.

Horde hunters can select from the following races: Blood Elf, Orc, Tauren, and Troll. Each race has different starting stats, but the differences at level 80 are so minimal that this should not factor into your decision. The lists below only include racial traits that affect hunters. Other traits, such as the Blood Elf affinity for Enchanting, are not included.

Blood Elf

• Arcane Torrent silences enemies within 8 yards and restores 6% of mana. Since hunters are rarely within 8 yards of their enemies, this shouldn’t be very useful. The restoration of 6% of mana can definitely have its uses. Presumably this trait will change when hunters no longer use mana.
• Magic Resistance is essentially a 2% reduction in magic damage taken. Again, enemies are rarely focused on hunters so this has little impact.

Orc

• Blood Fury increases attack power (AP) for 15 seconds. The amount of AP granted scales with level. At level 80, the resulting AP increase is 322. This results in a nice damage boost available every 2 minutes.
• Command increases the damage done by pets by 5%. This is a great trait for any hunter since pets can be a major component in hunter damage output. This is especially useful if you plan to do a lot of soloing or raiding as Beast Master.
• Hardiness reduces the duration of stun effects by 15%. This trait is mainly beneficial in PVP situations, but can occasionally by useful in PVE.

Tauren

• Endurance increases your base health by 5%. This only affects the hunter, since pet health is influenced by Stamina not Health.
• Nature Resistance, like Blood Elves’ Magic Resistance, reduces the amount of Nature-based damage received. Since the hunter is rarely the target, this trait is rarely used.
• War Stomp stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards. This trait is situationally very useful. If an enemy has targeted the hunter and gets in too close for ranged attack, War Stomp gives the hunter a chance to stun the enemy and back out of melee range.

Troll

• Beast Slaying increases troll damage against beasts by 5%. This is useful in certain situations but does not affect all gameplay.
• Berserking grants a 20% attack speed increase for 10 seconds. The ability can be used every 3 minutes. This is a nice option for increasing burst damage.
• Bow Specialization increases the hunter’s chance to critically hit with bows by 1%. Troll hunters are therefore encouraged to use bows over guns.
• Da Voodoo Shuffle reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 15%. Hunters are not as frequently affected by movement impairing effects as other classes, but it does occasionally happen.
• Regeneration increases trolls health regeneration by 10%. Additionally, trolls also maintain 10% of their health regeneration during combat. Since hunters are infrequently the target of attacks, this trait is only occasionally useful.

Therefore…

The two best races for hunters are Orcs and Trolls. Which race to choose depends on what kind of hunter you want to be. Beast Masters should choose Orcs since they receive a bonus to pet damage. Marksmen, on the other hand, may find the 1% critical hit chance increase of Trolls (with bows) to be a nice boost. If you are uncertain which kind of hunter you want to be, Orcs are the best option. Their Blood Fury trait can be used more frequently, and the damage increase of Command does not rely on a specific weapon type.

Which Horde race is best for hunter?
Short answer: Orc.

If you are looking for the absolute fastest way to reach level 80, check out Joana’s WotLK Horde Level Guide.

And thus, the Total Noob Project is born.

So, I’m going to start a completely new toon on a server I’ve never played on before. I’m going to pick a server that is specifically flagged for new players. Therefore, I should be on a fairly new server with no friends or high-level alts I can depend on. That means no BOA items and no 20 slot bags!

Since my preferred realm is Horde and my favorite class is hunter, I’ll choose both of those. This gives me a bit of an advantage because I’ve played both of these before. But, I’m still going to have to make it completely on my own.

In a future post, I’ll post information about my new toon.

Before going too far into this, it’s worth pointing out that you shouldn’t make a decision regarding which race to play in World of Warcraft simply on the traits that differentiate the races. Although these differences may have a large impact on your game experience in certain situations, picking the “wrong” race is not going to ruin your character. If you are a casual player, you will have much more fun choosing a player based on looks or an interesting back-story you’ve created. That being said…

Horde players can choose from three races when creating a warlock: blood elf, orc, and undead. Although starting stats are slightly different for each race, they are not different enough for stat differences to matter when selecting a race. At level 80, six points of Intellect is not that big a deal. When choosing a race, you should only consider the benefits of racial traits.

Blood Elf

Blood Elves receive two racial traits that are of minor benefit in specific situations.

• Arcane Torrent silences enemies within 8 yards and restores 6% of the warlock’s mana. The silence aspect of this trait is really only useful in PVP since enemies in PVE are usually at near maximum range. Additionally, warlocks already have an easier time managing their mana pool thanks to Life Tap.
• Magic Resistance reduces the chance the blood elf will be hit by spells by 2%. This ability has very limited usefulness since warlocks in PVE are only attacked when unable to properly manage threat.

Orc

Orcs have three abilities that effect warlocks.

• Blood Fury increases the warlocks spell power for 15 seconds. This results in a massive damage boost and is useful in both PVE and PVP situations.
• Command increases the damage done by warlock demons (pets) by 5%. This is most useful for soloing and Demonology specced raiders. Warlocks rely heavily on their pets when soloing. A 5% increase in damage not only kills mobs faster, it allows pets to generate more threat and hold aggro off the warlock better. In dungeon and raid settings, this translates to a direct damage boost for warlock demons.
• Hardiness reduces the duration of stun effects by 15%. This trait is mainly beneficial in PVP situations, but can occasionally by useful in PVE.

Undead

• Will of the Forsaken used to be the most powerful PVP racial trait. This trait removes charm, fear, and sleep effects. Unfortunately, this trait has been changed so that it shares the same cooldown with trinkets that provide the same functionality. As such, the usefulness of this trait is severely inhibited.
• Cannibalize is a useful trait in that it quickly returns health to the character. Warlocks use their health pool to replenish their mana, so this would seem to be a useful ability. Unfortunately for undead, food is readily available to replenish the warlock’s health pool, and warlocks also have the ability to steal health from mobs.
• Shadow Resistance is similar to the Blood Elf Magic Resistance but only effects Shadow spells.

Therefore…

From the above listings you can clearly see that Orcs are currently the best Horde choice for the warlock class. Orc traits allow warlocks to out damage other races, and make solo leveling much easier.

And let’s face it, orcs are just dead sexy.

If you are looking for the absolute fastest way to reach level 80, check out Joana’s WotLK Horde Level Guide.

My boar, Gullinbursti, got me all the way through level 70. It was a shame to abandon him once gorillas became so powerful. I’m glad I can use him now.