Tabana: Mists of Pandaria will be the fourth expansion I have experienced. As I played the first few weeks of those past expansions, I made mental notes of things I wish I’d done differently, as well as preparations I’d made that had a positive impact. This article lists some of the things I’ve learned about getting ready for a new xpac as well as a few special preparations you might want to make due to the changes coming for hunters in MoP.
One of the main issues with new expansions is dealing with all of the new stuff one quickly accumulates: new crafting mats, new gear, etc. Here’s the scenario: You’ve fought your way through packs of mobs out in the middle of nowhere and are about to pick up a hard-won quest item, only you can’t, because you’re out of bag space. At this point you have to start making decisions: what can I toss, what can I vendor, what will I need later, what should I save to sell at the AH? While you’re looking at your inventory of unfamiliar new items mixed with your PvP gear and rare archeology finds, trying to think this through, a tiger pounces on you and starts eating your face. Then 3 more mobs spawn on top of you. By the time you’re done dealing with the mobs, someone else has made off with your quest item, and you still have your full bags to deal with.
Level your professions.
This unpleasant scenario can be prevented by making a lot of the difficult decisions now, when there is not a lot to do in-game, rather than after launch, when there will be a whole new continent to explore. Below is my list of things to do start doing well ahead of time to get ready for a new xpac. Performing these tasks now, while MoP is still a month or two out, can save you time, gold, and frustration once you’re in Pandaria.
1) Melee Weapons In Mists of Pandaria, hunters will no longer be able to equip both a ranged weapon and a melee weapon at the same time. If you have a matched set of weapons that you’re fond of, now would be the time to go out and take a few nice screenshots displaying them together, to keep as mementos. Once you’ve done that, you can vendor or disenchant all of the melee weapons you’re not currently using, unless you want to keep them strictly for RP or sentimental purposes. Hold on to the weapons you’ll need for professions such as fishing poles and weapons that grant increased skinning skill.
2) Professions Take care of your hunter’s professions. If you plan to change professions for MoP, or haven’t maxed them out yet, now is the time to do it, while mats prices are low. Once the new expansion hits, prices for old crafting mats are likely to skyrocket due to the increased demand from all the brand new Pandas and Monks power-leveling their professions. You can take advantage of the 5 easy skill points for each profession from the Dark Moon Faire as well as the profession daily quests. The guides at WoW-Professions are very good for efficient leveling.
A Whole Guild Bank Just for You
3) Bank Alt Organize your bank alt. If you have a large inventory of mats and other non-bound items, you might find it helpful to create a guild for your bank alt for extra storage. Plan to mail the items you pick up while questing to your bank alt to deal with later so that you don’t have to do research or make decisions while out in the wilds.
4) Void Storage and Bank Clean out your hunter’s void storage and bank, keeping only those items that can no longer be obtained, are extremely difficult to obtain, or have high sentimental value. Deciding what to keep and what to part with can take a lot of time. You’ll have to do it eventually, and it’s better to do it now rather than when there are lots of interesting new experiences awaiting you in Pandaria.
5) Bag Space Clear bag space on your hunter. Store BoE items on bank alts and vendor/disenchant the bound items that you won’t want or need. Deposit all non-essential BoP items into your newly organized bank. Treat your hunter to a full set of large bags if you haven’t already.
Make Room for New Pets
6) Stable Go through your stable and make room for the new Pandarian beasts you’ll want to tame. If you have a stable full of rare spawns you might want to wait and see if stable storage space will be expanded.
7) Support Staff If you don’t have a gathering alt to supply your hunter with raw materials for crafting and consumables, now is a good time to level one. Death Knights are fast and easy with their 55-level head start. If you have a skinner, get her a set of Zulian Slashers from Zanzil in ZG and/or Finkle’s Skinners from The Beast in UBRS. Glove enchants for skinning, mining and herbalism are also available.
8) Quest Log Finish up any quests left in your log that you want to complete. Record any quests you’re not planning to finish soon in a notebook so that you can easily find and pick them up later, then clear your log.
9) Stock Up Stock your hunter with enough health pots, bandages, and food to last 2-3 levels. Prices on these types of items usually drop before a new expansion.
10) Daily Quests If you want to get a head start on leveling you can complete (but not turn in) daily quests (Tol Barod, Deepholm, the profession dailies). I can’t guarantee that Cataclysm dailies will reward experience in MoP, but this tactic has been useful in past expansions for getting a small initial xp boost. See Steevnash’s video for a guide on which quests to pick up.
If you’re interested in power leveling or going for a server first, I highly recommend watching Kripparrian’s video: How To / Guide – Server First Level 90 Solo / What It Takes To Be The Best.
If you’re looking for strategies to make gold during the transition, there are numerous guides out there but a good place to start are the Gold-Capped articles at WoW Insider. They’re written by Fox Van Allen and our fellow hunter Euripedes from OutDPS and the Hunting Party Podcast.
Do you have any tips for getting a hunter ready for Mists of Pandaria? If so, feel free to leave them in a comment.
This article is included in the WHH compilation of MoP Hunter Guides.
The screenshot of the orc fishing is from Wowhead and the crane is from Petopia. All other screenshots are by Tabana.
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You should also prepare for new achievements like:
“5 chars to maximum level”
– Level up 4 twinks up to 85 to be ready
“1 char on horde and ally site on maximum level”
– So roll on the other fraction a twink, if not ready yet
“5.000/10.000 daily quests completed”
– get ready for this achievement and make some dailies and gold with your alts
– Teena
Nice write-up Tabana!
A thing to get out of the way if you’re into achievements is the Tol Barad-achievements. You don’t want to delay them until their not relevant anymore, cause that won’t be much fun.
Or just get one of these now.
http://mop.wowhead.com/item=40772
+10 to herbalim, mining, and skinning in MoP
Handy. I wonder if it stacks with the weapons and chants.
Great post, I have been throwing together my own ‘to do list’.
One big thing I have regarding questing – due to there being no flying mounts when you will be running around MoP, invest in a vendor mount (or the guild page-vendor-dude, as well as the argent vendor-dude).
I agree… questing in Cata was much simpler than previous xpacs with the Traveler’s Tundra mount for vendors/repairs and the Argent Squire equipped with his pony for mail (engineers can just use their Jeeves and MOLL-E).