cataclysm

Taming Ban’thalos in Legion

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Post has been updated to reflect the hunter changes in Legion. The same basic strategy as before holds true, but since we no longer have Distracting Shot, we’ll use Concussive Shot to pull Ban’thalos instead.

banthalos_spawn_above_sanctuary_of_malorne

Taming Ban’thalos has always been a bit of a challenge. He spawns up in the sky above the Sanctuary of Malorne, so you need to be on a flying mount to engage him. Second, he’s neutral, so you need to get his attention somehow. Third, you need to not die from fall damage once you do get his attention.

At level 100, he poses another interesting challenge. How do you aggro him without killing him?

Back in Cataclysm, the taming challenge involved a strategy which was basically: tag Ban’thalos by attacking him, then tame him without dying. At level 100, however, this strat no longer works because even if you take off all of your gear and punch him, there’s a chance that could still kill him. Instead, you need to use Concussive Shot an ability which a lot of hunters may not even have on their action bars…Distracting Shot. This shot will cause Ban’thalos to get angry with you while not damaging him.

How to Tame Ban’thalos at Level 100

This process is surprisingly easy once you know what to do.

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No flies on me

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Within 2 hours, I managed to get nearly 20% of the way through level 81. I knew leveling in Cataclysm seemed like it was going to be pretty quick, but sheesh… I chose to hit Vashj’ir first over Mount Hyjal, mainly because of Drach’s post. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I’m not crazy about having to …

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The journey is about to begin

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I think I’m about ready.

Distancing myself from the blog and the game has done me a lot of good. I conquered some additional workload, enjoyed the holidays, and have successfully lowered my stress level to a comfortably manageable place.

Since I’m in a more relaxed state now, and feel like I can put in a few hours per week; both to the game and the blog – I’m good to go.

Level 85… here I come!

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Oh, It’s On Now!

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After the wife and kid went to bed, and once I wrapped up the evening’s projects, it was time to experience some Cataclysm first hand.

Cataclysm Added to my Battle.net Account

Once the installation and account upgrade were all complete, it was go time. I logged in and played with the Worgen character creation screen for awhile, then I hopped over to the horde side and messed with the Goblin creation screen.

Then I went back to the Worgen. Now, I have yet to see a goblin in-game, so my opinion may change, but… there’s something unsettling about their features. They look like they’re wearing masks. Like I said, perhaps it’s different in-game, but at the log-in screen, their heads don’t seem to jive with their bodies too well.

I’d been leaning towards creating a Worgen anyway, since everything about them seems to appeal to me, so maybe I’m being a little bit biased. Plus, even though I dabble in the dark side, I’m pretty much an Alliance guy. 😉

After configuring an identity for my new Worgen, I sat there thinking… so why in the hell am I planning on leveling another hunter..? I have four already…

Garwulf, Level 80 NE Hunter

My main, of course, and my first WoW toon. With 209 days played and close to 100K honor kills, Garwulf is my baby.

Thorgren, Level 72 Dwarf Hunter

I rolled him way back in vanilla for a variety of reasons… I liked the dwarven racials, engineering seemed fun, I wanted a toon I could play anonymously (he’s remained unguilded and held in secerecy pretty much throughout – – until now..! doh!), and I wanted more pets! We were so limited back then, with only three stable slots. We also didn’t have dual specs in those days, so it was nice having a MM hunter available to play without having to re-talent. Garwulf was (and still is) my Beast Master.

Wrathchild, Level 19 NE Hunter

Wrathchild is my twink hunter. At one time, he was among the top twink hunters in my battlegroup. Wrath was a first team member of the top twink guild in Vengeance, and had a 5-0 run in 5 officially scheduled WSG premades vs the top horde guilds in our battlegroup. Those premades were some of the most exciting WoW events I’ve participated in, period. One of our raked pre-made battles lasted 2 1/2 hours!!! I was shaking afterward.

I’d consider Wrathchild my second main.

At one time, he actually had more honor kills than Garwulf. 😉

Cabrón, Level 49 Orc Hunter

Cabrón is my lone horde character. He resides on a different server (and a s**t server at that) from the rest of my clan. I made him in an effort to experience the game from the horde point of view, prior to Cataclysm. I’ve had immense fun playing this character. My initial plan was to level him all the way, but I ended up parking him at 49 once I found out we were getting regional battlegrounds. I thought it would be fun to unleash his fury upon the experience-off Alliance wussies in the 40-49 bracket once 4.0 hit. Unfortunately, this plan got completely f**ked after I discovered that my once uber gear was now vendor trash. 🙁

Cabrón shall resurface at some point.

So you see… I have quite a bit of experience in the realm of huntering. I absolutely love the class, so I don’t feel having four hunters is a waste at all. It’s all about what you enjoy.

However… last night I got to thinking… 5 may be a bit too many, especially when I have one or two I’d like to level at some point.

Also… if I’m only rolling a hunter so that I have something to cover on the site, that’s defeating the purpose of what I’m doing. I’m taking a step back from the game so that I can try and detach from the “work” aspect. Discussing my new lowbie hunter would be in a sense, me writing a new hunter leveling guide. Not to mention, BRK already covered that topic pretty well. There’s no need for me to go down that road.

I am a WoW hunter to the core, so there’s really no reason I can’t talk hunter stuff now and then, even if I am not actively playing one. You guys know where my heart is, so it’s not like you’re going to abandon me… right..? I’m still going to hopefully have a few writers covering hunter stuff on here, and I may talk about some pet stuff, or this and that, and maybe the other thing…

I mean, I’ll be back at it soon, so you guys will still be stopping by seeing what I’m up to, right..?

I have another question for you too… It’s…

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