Either way, Niqora had some spare cash lying around. I know over 3000 gold really isn’t that much but what the heck else am I going to spend it on? Her tradeskills are all maxed, her gear is pretty good (just need another Massacre enchant /groan) and I don’t like spending lots of money on alts (especially considering how many I have). I could spend it on mounts…but I already have most of them that can be bought. Plus I really don’t need any more. >.>

So…I make a trip to the AH and buy 700 Relics of Ulduar. That gets Niqo from 5000 into revered to almost exalted. I have to do one daily to get to exalted…and congratulations to me! Niqo also gets the achievement for exalted with 15 factions. 15 somebodies like me! I buy her shoulder enchant and wave goodbye to all the frost giants. So long and thanks for all the…worm meat.

Heading over to Zulrea, I do a couple quests and hooray! She’s level 30! Screw waiting for 3.2, I’m getting her mount now. She picks out a pretty emerald raptor and then I log her out until I feel like leveling her again (or until someone needs a level 30 healer).

Then us altoholics at Bloodriver decide that a RFC run is in order so I get on my newest hunter, Machalor (who is a remake of the original Machalor back on my old server Hydraxis, I’m so original). She gets some greens, loses the roll on the Chanting Blade (but it goes to a deserving guildie so I’m happy) and dings level 16. She goes to turn in all the quests for the instance and gets to level 17 just from those. I try to find Snort to tame (as Machalor is my hyena lady) but no such luck. When I log off for the night, my guildies are heading into SFK. I guess I’ll find out today how they did!

Surprisingly, other than Niqora I haven’t really been playing my hunters. Instead I’ve been leveling my little dragonling pally Saraku. He’s level 36 now, running around and completing quests in Desolace on top of his handsome charger. I gotta say, it feels sooooo much better to have a mount (although I’d still kill for a flying mount, I’m spoiled that way). He’s coming along quite nicely as a tank. I’m still learning the class (but we never really stop learning, do we?) so something I’ll forget things like turning OFF Righteous Fury when I’m not the tank. They still keep bugging me about that one.

Niqora has now got all the Horde faction titles from the Argent Tournament. Only “Crusader” remains for her to get so I’m still doing the Champion dailies. She already has her Staff of Feral Furies and I’m undecided what to spend the rest of the Champion’s Seals on. Knowing me, probably some mounts. >.> I finally started doing Hodir dailies so I can get the mining bag LW pattern and my shoulder enchant. So far I’m only honoured though. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I seem to be incapable of completing Thrusting Hodir’s Spear (although the inneundo still makes me chuckle ). I’ve been able to get into a couple Naxx runs…and I’ve discovered that I don’t have much patience with them. There aren’t enough people from Bloodriver for us to form our own raid so we’ve formed a raid alliance with a couple other guilds. Being the shy person I am, I’m not able to really get into the conversation with these people I don’t know too well. Couple that with THE longest boss fight explanations in the world…I have patience for a lot of things, these raids aren’t one of them. Not 4-5 hours worth anyways.

I did have a blast last night when we got a group together to run some regular Northrend dungeons to help level some guildies. We did 2 Violet Holds and a Gundrak with a 77 DK tank (who wasn’t def-capped) and a 74 priest healer. No wipes to speak of and the one time the tank did die in VH, myself and another 80 hunter were able to pick up the trash mobs and pet-tank them until the priest could rez. In that kind of group, where we can joke around and really feel like we’re working together, that is what I love. When we got a VH boss that none of us knew the strategy to, we just winged it. And what do you know, he was down in about 3 minutes. Now that is some good fun.

I briefly mentioned my troll DK Githinji previously. He’s gone. Kaput, nixed, deleted, etc. Honestly I was not playing him at all and he was such a depressing character that I was getting depressed just playing him. So I stripped him down, gave away/sold all his stuff, and then he said a few last words over guild chat before impaling himself on his own sword (Like I said, very emo). He has already been replaced by…another hunter. >.> Actually a remake of Machalor, since I’ve been itching for some time now to have a hunter with hyena pets. I’ve decided that RP-wise, she will be very harsh and battle-oriented character, which is very different from my other characters. But with a name derived from Macha and Balor, it’s to be expected really. War is in her blood.

And for my last character update, I created a little druid to level with my brother through the Refer-A-Friend program. For some reason, the idea of playing a druid appeals to me but when I actually do play her, I feel…meh. I don’t know why, flexibility always appealed to me before. Only time will tell if I end up keeping her around.

Niqora

Has reached level 65. At level 64, she tamed a Warp Hunter who she named Grakoth. I just took a screenshot of them in Elwynn Forest (because it’s funny to bug the Alliance). Unfortunately it’s night now so the lighting is horrible.

Here’s a better picture taken from the character chooser screen.

I am loving the Warp ability. Only a 15 second cooldown and it instantly takes Grakoth to the mob…it’s really great for grinding or farming. He’s already up to Loyalty 5 because I’ve quested with him all through level 64. Luckily he likes his fish so it gave me an excuse to work on Niqora’s fishing skill, which is now over 300. And I think he’s just the cutest thing when he tilts his head up and sniffs at the air. It reminds me so much of a dog’s behaviour. Grakoth won’t replace Blacky but he is definitely going to be staying around.

Brighit

Brighit is level 24 as of today. A while ago, she moved to the Moon Guard server to join Wolfrider’s Alliance warlock. He also created a baby NE druid and she’s been waiting for him to catch up so they can level together.

Khaja

Quite a while ago, Khaja tamed a Ravager Specimen from Azuremyst Isle. You might remember that Khaja has gone through quite a few pets so I was hesistant to mention the ravager in case I got rid of him. But I think (don’t quote me on this)…I think this companion might be sticking around the little troll. I’ve named him Xiuhcoatl, which is an Aztec name meaning “weapon of destruction”. Quite an appropriate name for a ravager, wouldn’t you say? Definitely a tongue twister…I’m not even sure how to pronounce it so his nickname is going to be Xi.

Machalor

Yay! Machalor is level 40 and now my second character to get her mount. Of course, this happens just shortly before the announcement that we might be getting mounts at level 30…*grumble grumble*. Oh well, it will make it easier for my other 7 hunters.

After running around all of Azeroth during the Midsummer Festival, she got the 350 flowers she needed to trade them in for a Spirit of Summer, which can be seen next to her in the screenie below. It was quite an adventure that involved a fair bit of dying and dashing through areas that she really shouldn’t have been in. I did try to capture the flame in an Alliance city (Exodar in particular) but it was just too much work so I decided to stick with the little towns instead.

Fhionn

Not much has happened with Fhionn, except that I was bored one day and went around killing the Blood Elf Bandit again until he dropped his wonderful mask. I may or may not be moving her to Moon Guard (she and Brighit are a bit of a team, it doesn’t seem right to separate them like this).

Tkasha

What is it with my troll characters and constantly switching between pets? Tkasha was going to have a crab as her pet…but then I had to go to Petopia and browse through all the pets. I kept going back to the golden maned lion one, which is very strange because that model had never appealed to me before. So I tamed one and named him Rajesh, which is East Indian for “king of kings”. Then…I saw Humar. Of course I had seen and heard much about him before and I had never really paid much attention to him. But at that moment, I realized that Tkasha had to tame him. If you were to look at it RP-wise, Khaja began to notice that Rajesh’s coat was growing darker with each passing season, until his 23rd season where his fur was as black as night. I’d say that taming Humar was difficult but that part wasn’t. It was waiting for him to spawn. After spending about 2 days logging in and having no luck at him spawning, I woke myself up at about 5 am to tame him and sure enough, there he was. I was even going to have a little fun and make a movie out of the taming but alas, in my sleepiness I somehow managed to shut off FRAPs right before I tamed him. *sigh*

I do think that he is just gorgeous and I’m pretty sure he will be at Tkasha’s side for a long time (again, don’t quote me >.>)

Here’s some pictures of Rajesh when his coat was still golden. In these screenies, he’s with Tkasha in the old Lordaeron throne room above Undercity.

I’ve had this nasty cold for the past week that has left me coughing mostly and generally feeling tired. Last night was the worst so far, where I couldn’t stay asleep even for an hour at a time before waking up in a coughing fit. Finally at 4 am, I stumbled out of bed, downed a bottle of Buckley’s Nighttime, and actually managed to pass out until 7 am when I had to get up for school. That stuff sure does work. Too bad I’m always hesitant to take it because it tastes so bad it makes my eyes water. And silly me has not slowed down on my late nights with Xion. His little BE paladin on Hydraxis is now level 31. Khaja joined him in leveling for a while and that’s how she went from level 25 to 27 in one night. Mostly I’ve been running him through quests on Nicora. I think I’ll pull out Machalor and Snickers to level along with him. That poor orc-hyena duo has been neglected ever since Machalor tamed Snickers in the Scarlet Monastery.

Nicora, by the way, has reached level 53 and has almost completed all the quests in Tanaris and Feralas and still needs to do ALL the quests in the Hinterlands. I grabbed a bunch of those last night when I realized that Blacky still didn’t have Dash 3. Off Nicora went to tame a Vilebranch Raiding Wolf, grabbing a level 50 turtle as her trash pet. Despite the turtle having the latest rank of Bite, he was woefully slow at killing all the Vilebranch trolls in the ruins area. I got impatient and just mounted up and dashed through all the mobs, not really caring if I aggroed them. I finally found the Raiding Wolves, abandoned the turtle in preparation to tame and then…got attacked by a patrolling troll. It’s been a while since I’ve had to attack an enemy without a pet, especially on Nicora, but I remembered my old strategy. It includes Wing clipping and running away until I’m in shotting range, firing off a quick Concussive Shot, then unloading all the shots I can before they’re in melee range again. Lather, rinse, repeat. My health was down a little more than I’m used to but the point was I was alive…the troll was not. I then proceeded to tame the Wolf which was simple enough with a Freezing Trap. And oh how I love the damage wolves do! This little guy had the same rank of Bite that the turtle had (and Dash 3 but that doesn’t count damage-wise) and he was just tearing through those trolls like they were newspaper.

After I learned Dash 3, I taught it to Blacky and called it a night, only to end up coughing up a lung while trying to sleep of course. When both Xion and my Mr. Paladin are urging me to get more sleep, maybe I should start listening to them.

Nicora has Blacky, who was originally Snarler. I tamed him because he’s black (one of my favorite colors) and he’s a wolf (one of my favorite animals) and because he reminded me of my RL dog, who passed away in May. Nicora also has a ghost sabre (just like everyone and their mother) who’s named Tonrar, which means “ghost” in Inuit. I tamed him because…well…he looked cool

Machalor has a thing for hyenas. They didn’t really appeal to me at first and I had tamed her first one, Chuckles the bluish-purple hyena mostly for the novelty. But then he stuck to the orc hunter like glue. And his strange aura of fierceness bordering on hysterical laughter really drew me in. And his bouncy run! And how could I forget the way his tiny tail swings around as he lopes along. This led to the taming of Machalor’s second hyena, Snickers the Scarlet Tracking Hound. Chuckles is enjoying his retirement in the stables (he might come back out again one day) while Snickers bounces along side Machalor wherever she goes.

Jorthwyn likes anything to do with Norse mythology, especially Odin. She has two pets right now, Freki the prairie wolf and Muninn the red and black carrion bird. Freki was named after one of Odin’s wolf companions and Muninn after one of his ravens. I know a carrion bird isn’t exactly a raven but it was the closest thing in the game. Freki is really neat because he’s one of those that barks every time you click on him but since Nicora already has a wolf, Jorthwyn needed something different. Which is where Muninn came in. I don’t really like the look of the carrion birds or flying pets in general but for some reason, ol’ Muninn is growing on me. His beautifully colored feathers sure help.

Aithne has gone through a lot of pets, including a ravager, a dragonhawk, and a pink tallstrider. Only two pets have stuck to her: a blue crab named Lapis and a dark blue raptor named Rath. Strange pets for a blood elf, I know, but they fit with her. I love Lapis for her shiny blue shell that just gleams in the sunlight and her name. Her name fits her beautifully. Unfortunately I know crabs don’t get much love in the skills department so I decided to get Aithne something else. A few tames later, I settled on Rath, who was a pain to tame but is too handsome and powerful to turn away. His name just popped into my mind at random but I love it and it suits him.

Brighit’s pretty much a one-pet Draenei. There was a brief time when she was going to tame cats exclusively but then I decided to create my night elf and make her my cat lady. Now Brighit is named after Brigid, a Celtic goddess of fire, who had a boar named Triath as her companion. This made my choice pretty obvious…Brighit was to tame a boar! I had shied away from boars before because it seemed like everyone had one. But then I decided that you can’t knock it until you try it and tamed a black one from around Ironforge and called him Triath (how imaginative). And he is awesome! He holds aggro better than any pet I’ve seen and his Charge and Gore skills makes killing things so much faster. Also, I will admit that he is cute and has lots of personality.

Fhionn is my cat lady. Cats are so popular in the game because they come in such a variety of skins that are all beautiful and they’re also known for some of the best damage. I too like the cats so it only made sense to have a character who had them as pets. Fhionn currently have two brightly coloured cats, Irusan and Neala. Irusan is an orange Durotar tiger that she traveled all the way to the Echo Isles for. He’s named after the Celtic king of cats. Neala, whose name is Gaelic for “queen” or “champion”, is the first yellow-leopard-skinned cat that you can tame in the game, a rare spawn called Dishu who, might I add, was a challenge to tame.  Why did I choose orange and yellow cats when they’re such a great amount of equally beautiful whitish or purplish cats? Because it seems that everything having to do with night elves is either white or purple and I was getting sick of it. When Fhionn runs around with her cats, they seem to glow brilliantly in the low light of Teldrassil.

Last but not least is Khaja, my newly created troll hunter. I’ve decided to have her tame some of the “colder” beasts, like scorpids and windserpents. She tried playing with a very cool-looking black-and-red scorpid but it just didn’t work out. Now she has one of the yellow serpents from Wailing Caverns and as soon as she’s high enough level, she’s going to tame one of the red-coloured ones. I haven’t decided which one exactly yet. Her current windserpent is named Blit (I don’t know why) and he’s beginning to grow on me. He’s quite graceful, except when he’s “running”. In addition, his ranged Lightning Breath attack seem to grab aggro fairly well.

…Wow, good thing that I didn’t actually post that in the comments of Mania’s article. It was long enough as it is!

Machalor did it! She now has a Scarlet Tracking Hound! Not without the help of two guildies of course

I had made one unsucessful trip to Scarlet Monastery with my guildie buddy Tty when Machalor hit level 33. No problem….except the hyena that spawned in the instance was level 34. >.<

Onto plan 2. Not only do I level to 34, but I also spend some time in Westfall collecting Magic Dust. Tty and I group again and a level 44 guildie also offers to help as well. Yah!

Armed with two Magic Dust and 2 great guildies, Machalor enters the instance. We kill everything up until the hyena, and then in the confusion of battle, we pull more mobs than we were suppose to, I use up both of my dusts, and the hyena dies. I’m disappointed but the others suggest that we try the next one. I agree and we take a crack at it. While my party members keep the mobs distracted, I focus on the hyena. After one broken freeze trap and two unsuccessful attempts to tame, I make it through with both me and the hyena still alive! He’s mine! I lavish praise onto my party members and head off into the sunset with my new pet at my side.

As for his name, I wanted it to follow the “laughter” theme that I had started with Chuckles. I enlisted the help of my brother and a thesaurus to come up with a good one. After scanning through a couple of the words, I yelled out “Snickers!” and we both chuckled at it. My brother then asked me, “What if someone thinks that he was named after the chocolate bar?” To which I responded, “Well, I’ll just have to explain the whole theme-naming thing…But he’s still full of chocolaty goodness!”

Don’t get my wrong, I love Jorthwyn’s pet wolf Freki and his unique barking ability. However…Nicora already has a wolf pet and I need variety in my pets. So once again I had the urge to look at Petopia and see what I could find. What I found was Lord Condar, a rare red and black carrion bird that spawns in Loch Modan. The tame wasn’t anything special. He was located in the southern area of Loch Modan and proved to be no trouble to tame. Now, I have to admit that I’m not really endeared towards carrion birds. They’re not exactly pretty and any flying creature in itself can be annoying at getting in the way of targeting the enemy. I would tame an owl (and Jorthwyn has but things didn’t work out) but let’s face it, every hunter has the same old grey owl because it’s the only one available until level 52.

I am warming up to this bird though, with his lovely colouring and his oh-so-wonderful Screech. And I had to name him Muninn, after one of Odin’s ravens. And no, he is not a raven, but he is a scavenger bird and he does have some black on him so it’s close enough for me.

Did I also mention that Jorthwyn is now level 20 and she’s trained in polearms? Sweet

Only Fhionn to go before I can cross off another on my to-do list!

Machalor’s build is what you want to do for both grinding and raiding.
You are building towards Serpent’s Swiftness. Once you have that,
everything will die so much more quickly you’ll be shocked.

Nicora’s build is bad. Very Bad. No no no. You’ll never reach
Serpent’s Swiftness with that.

BigRedKitty

Now, I know a lot of people take BRK to be the hunter expert. And I myself think that he is quite knowledgeable too. But I have to admit that I have some doubt towards whether he knows what’s best for soloing and leveling. I mean, when was the last time he actually did some? All he ever seems to talk about is raiding. But I digress. This post is not a shot at BRK. I just don’t think that everyone’s perfect.

I decided to see what Someone had to say on this and he pretty much confirmed BRK, although he says that they are guidelines, not rules set in stone. Looking over his reasons, I can see why. For example, Pathfinding (which Nicora had 2 points in) does make you run faster but doesn’t help at all in fighting. And that’s what soloing really is about, isn’t it. And since I love my pets and absolutely hate it when they die, it only makes sense to make them stronger and faster.

What I’m trying to say is BRK is right (and Someone too) and I realize that Nicora’s build was wrong. So I am now respeccing each of my characters to follow that line of thinking…once they get the money of course. Nicora has already been respecced and I admit that Intimidation and Bestial Wrath have come in very handy.

Machalor went from level 29 to level 31.5 (so she now has the incredibly useful Feign Death) so she’s only 2 levels away from taming a scarlet tracking hound.

Aithne is now level 20! That’s one down, 3 to go to cross that off on my to-do list.

Jorthwyn is on her way to level 20, not with the help of quests in Loch Modan however. Has anyone else had problems finding quests in this dwarven area? Doesn’t really matter because now Jorthwyn and Freki are enjoying Darkshore, where there are lots of quests.

Brighit and Nicora…sorry, haven’t done anything with them.

As for character progress, I’m just trying to level everyone except for Nicora and Machalor up to level 20. I will post about Aithne’s tame of Rath, and I’m in the process of writing a beginner’s guide to the hunter class based on my experiences. So more to come soon!

She is currently a member of the Hunter’s Mark guild.

Machalor’s Pets