Frostheim at WoW Insider: We’re less than a week away from the launch of Mists of Pandaria, when overnight we’ll have to start the short grind back up to the level cap, after which we’ll replace all of our hard-earned purple gear with fresh greens and blues.
When it comes to leveling, hunters have it easy. You could go through and choose the worst possible optimization and still have an easy time of it. I should stress this at the outset: you don’t need any special tricks to solo quest your way to level 90.
That said, by optimizing your hunter for leveling you can certainly make the trip to 90 a bit easier. What follows are my recommendations for preparing your hunter for optimal leveling. . . . Read full article
Loading...
why a cat? it brings mastery, which is good, but not as good as, say, crit. i think i’ll actually level with a water strider. they’ve got crit (and useless spellpower ^^) as well as water walking which can be handy. those from outlands look badass, they’re on my very short fav list.
1-3 spirit beasts, a core hound and a turtle will always be in my pocket.
as of talents, i prefer TotH over fervor because it’s a no brainer thanks to being passive and great support during aoe situations (free multi shots during BW).
for glyphs: when fighting lots of trash on the same spot, consider the no escape glyph. it gains power as our crit on gear decreases, almost every mob in 5 mans and outdoors are affected by frost trap.
there are many situations to consider where several glyphs can be important/helpful (animal bond, camouflage, disengage, distracting shot, mend pet, mending).
the pathfinding glyphs’ usefulness is limited if you’re in a guild with the mount speed bonus. it will only affect cheetah then.
The Glyph of No Escape works on targets affected by Freezing Trap (one big ice cube), not Ice Trap (slowing frost trap). I wish Blizzard had not renamed these traps as the new names can be confusing.
As for the Pathfinding glyph, Frostheim doesn’t plan to level in the traditional manner; he plans to level by running and tagging mobs while members of the WHU guild finish them off, and he’s probably chosen the Pathfinding glyph for that reason.
A Cat/Spirit Beast brings 3,500 Mastery rating, while a Wolf/Devilsaur/Water Strider brings 3,000 Crit rating. I don’t know how stat weights math out right now, but that might be part of it.