I know I have a tendency to go inactive for awhile – both here on the site (obviously) and in-game – but it’s for no other reason than time management. I still really enjoy playing this game.
Sure, some of the changes in recent years have diluted the experience a bit, but I’m still getting a lot of enjoyment from the things that have always turned me on — PvP and pets. 🙂
I’m currently leveling up that sexy dwarf that’s featured in the new site header. At one time, back in Vanilla, he was actually my main. The first toon I ever rolled was Garwulf. The second toon I rolled was another hunter, who I called Thorgren. Seems crazy to some of you, I’m sure…making my first alt the same class as my main, but I honestly couldn’t think of another class to play that would be as much fun.
Also, keep in mind that back then then you only had a couple of stable slots (3 or 4…I can’t remember exactly) and one stable slot always had to be free in order to tame new pets for their skills. So, the only way to tame more pets was to have more hunters! Plus, there was no such thing as a dual spec back then. You had one specialization which you could reset, as needed, but it got really expensive to do so after awhile.
There were other reasons I decided to roll another hunter, including:
- Try out a new race. Dwarf was the obvious choice, as I wasn’t really amenable to going Horde back then, and Dwarf was the only other Alliance race that could be a hunter, apart from NE. I also liked how the Dwarf class lent itself to huntering by bringing with it the cool gun racial. Yes, I was learning about DPS about this time as well.
- Level on a new continent. I wanted to try out all of the starting quests in the Eastern Kingdoms, but…as a hunter, of course. 🙂
- Experience the hunter class as an engineer. After playing for a few months I was realizing how cool engineering was, and thinking I’d love to have all of those gadgets at my disposal, but I didn’t want to reroll either of my professions on Garwulf. Only logical choice was to make a new hunter! And man was it fun! I used to love raining down death from above as I’d parachute down to attack the gold mine in Arathi Basin, blasting dirty hordies as I descended upon them. Of course, often times I’d be die from caster DoTs just about the time I’d hit the ground. 😛
- Learn a new hunter spec. Garwulf was my beast master, but I really wanted to try out Marksmanship full-time. I didn’t want to keep flip-flopping my specs, due to the hassle and expensive gold sink, plus I just identified Garwulf with the Beast Mastery spec. I’ve since switched him up over the years, but I guess I was a little bit of a role player in my early days. 😉
- No dishonorable kills! Garwulf had earned some dishonorable kills during a raid on The Sepulcher one evening. Vanilla was a great time for me because world PvP actually existed and was really damn fun, but…there was always the danger of a dishonorable kill. I have no idea if this was something that was frowned upon by the community as a whole, as I never even knew the WoW forums existed back then, but in my guild it was like, “oh no…you got a dishonorable kill…Ouch!” Garwulf had been forever tainted after some innocent vendor had been slain during that raid. I know it sounds silly, but that kinda bothered me. Later on, dishonorable kills were stricken from the game, which cleaned Garwulf’s record of all wrong-doings. At this point I was able to resume play on him with no shame whatsoever. 😉
- Create the über-hunter. After playing the game for a few months, and actually (mistakenly) thinking I was getting pretty good at it, I thought it would be really fun to re-level a hunter and own everything in my path on the way up. When I was playing Garwulf, I don’t really think I was even moderately skillful until about level 40. This desire to return to PvP at the lower levels was my first experience with twinking, I suppose – even though I wasn’t really aware of it at the time.
- Play anonymously. By the time I’d rolled Thorgren I’d grown disenchanted with a few of the folks in my guild, then eventually left. Rather than join a new guild, I just thought it’d be fun to play WoW anonymously and solo…as a hunter, of course. I kept the toon a secret to all but my closest of WoW-mates. In fact, for years this guy remained guildless – making him a nice choice for playing during those times I just wanted some “me time” — no guild drama, no whispers, just quiet solitary huntering.
So, there ya go. That’s how Thorgren came to be.
I leveled him up to around 57, then the pre-TBC patch hit and boosted BM to new heights. This newfound power within the BM tree, coupled with my cleansed honor slate, made me want to return to playing Garwulf and, well, I never really looked back after that. I’ve dinked around on Thorgren here and there over the years, and I’ve even re-rolled one of his profs – picking up Enchanting – as I thought he’d make an awesome toon for farming enchanting mats. In the 6.5 years since I abandoned him as my main, I’ve gained about 20 levels – mostly through PvP experience gains, plus the occasional instance.
He’s now sitting at 77 and he just tamed his first Spirit Beast!
I’ve spent the past couple of days casually looking for Arcturis and/or Loque’nahak and I’m happy to say, they are both still quite popular. Even at this stage of the game, and on my quiet server, Spirit Beast taming is still quite a popular endeavor. I’d usually see at least 3-5 hunters in Sholazar Basin and seldom was there a time that Amberpine Lodge was not being camped. Made me wonder if any of those hunters had come to this site looking for taming tips or spawn locations. I hope so. 🙂
By the way, I’ve decided to give all of my pets people names on this guy. Arcturis is now “Carl”. I’m going with kind of a Despicable Me thing.
I’m playing Thorgren as BM right now, but I’ll likely switch him back to MM pretty soon. I’ve not played MM since Wrath, I think, so I’m due for a change. Ya know…shake things up a bit. 😉 I have a few alts, including a Druid, DK and Rogue, but they all pale in comparison to my hunters. If I already have enough trouble finding time to play, then why not maximize my enjoyment by playing the ultimate class when I do have a chance to get on. Spending time on my other toons is just cheating myself, right?!
Alright, so none of this is really important other than it demonstrates how I see this game and how I feel about hunters. I don’t get all caught up in the end-game biz, daily quest grinding, raid scheduling, etc, etc… I just like to get on and have some fun. Obviously…because not only do I have 4 hunters, but 2 of them I put enough time into to have them both decked in Field Marshal’s transmog sets! I thought about going a different route with my transmog for the dwarf, but then I decided I gotta go with the old school PvP look because I can!
I guess that’s why I still love this game after all of these years. Although I became way too consumed by it in the beginning, I’ve never taken it too seriously. I do what I like and shy away from a lot of what others engage in that I consider “work”.
Anyhow…if you’re by chance leveling a healer through the 70s, and you happen to be in a random BG with a gun toting dwarf who has tortoise shells on his shoulders, toss him an occasional heal, will ya! 😀
-Gar
Dishonorable kills were a badge of honor! I used to love going to Darkshire, standing on a roof and murdering everyone. Flight masters were especially good to kill because then the enemy couldn’t escape 😀
I am looking forward to it, just by the mere contrast of “the glory days” to me. I played in the time that it would take 5 to 6 hours to complete content like molten core, and that’s an understatement, i remember times i’d have to be ready for a raid at 7 o’clock flat, and they’d still be deliberating who to take and who not to take to a 40 man raid. I can remember the hours it took and DKP and all those times i never got to get certain items because of that, and how the dkp counted for my alts and such.
But the shift in that grind was the heroic dungeons, I LOVE pulling heroics because it’s pretty much mono y mono with the other classes, killing stuff, getting badges and getting loot, that was my grind in TBC, even with the few times i could never finish tier 5 and 6 content, juist the ability to team up and let it rip dungeon by dungeon fed my OCD. By the time i quit the game was headed in the direction of the dungeon finder, but now i’ve half read dungeon finder is cross server now, which is CRAZY to think to me, to think maybe i’ll never be at a loss of finding a group to tank, heal, or just dps on any character and to have the easy access to loots, save for major raid content, that’ll allow me to just keep doing my thing, maybe one day after i have every item i ever wanted…like Thunderfury, and a Bulwark of Azzinoth, and some warglaives for my rogue, Quel’Delar and Serrar for my DK, maybe then i’ll get serious again, but until then, i REALLY appreciate your site, it’s given me alot to digest.
I love WoW for the nostalgia, i’ll tell you MY pointless WoW-Jones Story. I used to play SWG *pointless!* until my guild mgirated *discretely…* to WoW, and eventually i was pulled along if i wanted friends to play games with. My first choice was a rogue as i was told it was the most powerful, deadly, glassiest cannon of them all.
It took my rogue 6 months plus JUST to fight his way through Stranglethorn Vale and make it to level 36, and by then i was confused, beleaguered, and pretty tired of the class. My next natural choice was my dream class, the best most awesome class of them all……goooood old hunter ^________^
Oh yeah, it was an epic quest the day i labored my Night Elf all the way out of that fuschia forest just to get to Ironforge to learn to use a GUN! To become a shell casing engineer, and the quirkiest early beast master using, survival advocating hunter there was. I can remember when taming King Bangalash was a big deal, remember the lethality of being full T1 in a BG and two shotting people, the idiosyncrasies of Feigning Death and quick dropping a freezing trap. When disengaging meant nothing and the tranq shot was your LIFE in BWL.
I can remember the oppressions of early WoW and having to be Marks JUST to walk around with T2, A Prestor’s Talisman and to have the right to tote a Azr’thul Crossbow of Smiting.
Reading your story just took me back a ways, because me and my hunter were so great…..that we just didn’t need to go beyond Blackwing imo lmao. My poor hunter collected so much dust while i was making believers of people with my Enhancement Draenei shaman in BC, and it was still fun and kept my interest well within the time the Wrath Patch came and made raging Unstoppable Hulk Babies out of Paladins and Warriors, and the eventual onslaught of the God Class Death Knight.
Me and WoW fell out of favor mid-grind during the Colleseum, and around the time i wanted to come back, around mid-cataclysm i was informed that while i WASN’T playing for 2 years, and my account was inactive, it was STILL hacked.
Yet still, i have not played the game in some time, after playing the game FOR SOME TIME, and i’m anxious to get back into the game and have taken strides to reclaim my account. I’ve been doing alot of reading and i’m happy to let you know that you’ve clued me in on alot of things i have missed, and alot of great hunter times, and revealed to me the wonders of Transmog *omfg where was this when i was playing!?!?*
I think the first thing i will do when i ge tback in the game is get to the ultimate collection i always wanted, including the dragonstalker set with a matching dragon’s breath cannon…or the Phoenix Bow from Karazahn, OMG! the possibilities! And FOCUS, fooocccuuuusss, urrrgggh, newbies have it so made with the simplicity of the game, it is just what i wanted and rwady made for a burned out vet like me.
All i’d like is every pet i wanted, colelctible, tabard, title, and flashy flying mounts, to be able to do that, probably maintain a heroic running schedule that may net me badges for decent gear without the pain staking challenge of raiding…….. *I’ll never forget the Enhancement shaman Persecution, do you know how many drop down drag-out brawls and jealousy i went through for Bezerker’s call and Dragonspine Trophy Alone….? No moar Raids n QQ’s and Wipes plz*
….But to come back to the game, and experience it all, you KNOW hands down there is and always has been only one choice of comfortable bad assery, and i miss, love, and will always be a hunter.
I really enjoyed reading your comment, MastaKilla! Good luck with reclaiming your account, and I hope to see you around here in the coming months.
I have a young son who has started to really enjoy playing, and one of the things we like to do is run through old dungeons. It’s been really fun for me plowing through the old raid content because I never got to see it back in the day. I, too, have been wanting to gather up some of the old set pieces for transmog, and Dragonstalker’s is on my list!
Although I miss a lot of what Blizzard has removed from the game (and the class) in an attempt to simplify things, there are some notably cool new features and enhancements (like transmogrification, dungeon/raid finder, reforging, etc…) that I feel you’ll enjoy, should you return to playing.
Hi Gar,
I’ve been out of wow for 2 years nearly and am just getting myself back into BM hunting again. Just wanted to find out if you are using your UI for the new hunter you created and whether it is still working OK, and also if you would be posting an update for your Weak Auras setup? Cheers, Mike
This hunter is olde timey, but yes, I am using my custom UI for all of my toons. I’m going to try and get an updated version uploaded soon.
Late last year I bought a new 27″ iMac, which I love, but WoW seems to have some slight issue with the resolution. Whenever I log in or minimize the game window, the game repositions some of my UI elements. It’s really frustrating, and a huge reason why I’ve yet to update the UI pack. From what I’ve seen in the forums, it seems WoW has trouble with 2560×1440. 🙁 I want to figure out a solution for this before I update the UI suite, plus I may try to make some changes that will hopefully make it easier to adapt to various screen sizes.
The weak auras setup is probably something I can get to before I do all of that, so I’ll see what I can do there! I’ll try to put a post together for that pretty soon.