Lau Lau Pork
… So, I’m hungry.
Lest you think I’m spending all my time on my warrior, I thought I’d drop in to say Jayne just hit 69. Most of this insane progress I have to attribute to my TSA/BM 21/40/0 spec. As soon as he was able to land growls on mobs, he’s been able to hold agro thanks to TSA blowing the growl threshold away. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish the review, should the change go through before I finish.
On the other hand, I’m finding this makes actually testing the pets very difficult. I get used to playing one way while leveling, and then things change drastically when I respec back to 41/20/0. I’m not sure which would be worse: hating the pet for 10 levels or enjoying it for 10 levels and hating it during testing.
Either way, I’m going to be sad to see it go. I know there’s skeptics out there, but I’ve stopped arguing. It works for me. Really, really works. If it doesn’t for you, I have no idea why.
I also wanted to comment on grinding areas. I heard great things about Firewing point, and I think I have to agree that its the best place to go if your pet can’t hold agro or take a hit. However, once you get to 66/67 or so, I recommend Legion Hold in SMV. There are 3 groups of 4 warlocks at the top, and it seems like the server requires 3-4 of them to be up at all times. The 2 cautions are you have to be prepared for chain pulls and there’s a level 69 elite.
Train in some pet resistances and avoidance. Just make sure to clear one of the 3 tower areas to prevent adds and move your pet out of the elite’s AoE when it comes, and you should be fine. I was able to kill him with Jayne at 65 with some kiting around a tower at the end. If you don’t think you can handle it, you can avoid him pretty easily, but it will slow you down a bit. The trouble is worth it. You’re not only getting more exp per kill, but some great aldor rep drops to sell. I ended up with a level for Jayne, 4 Fel Armaments and 31 Marks of Sargeras along with 5 greens and some vendor trash worth a few more g in just an hour or so.
The Mystic Hunter 
Mania said,
June 26, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I haven’t really talked about this much — I was writing up a really nice long post but decided to quit when the Growl change hit the PTR — but I’ve switched my crab hunter (my current focus) to what I’ve christened a ‘Lackadaisical’ hunter build.
The Lackadaisical build goes MM high enough to get TSA, and sinks the rest into BM pet buffs. I miss out on the high-tier talents in both trees, but I never use them anyway. (I’m really bad about remembering to press buttons in combat — thus the build’s name.)
Anyway, I’ve found that even skipping the high-tier talents, Kaet and her two crabs are both killing faster and having way less issues with aggro than before. Mind you, my playstyle is hardly optimized, so anyone with half a brain will probably find this build rather silly. But it worked for me! I’m going to miss it terribly …
Znodis said,
June 27, 2008 at 7:14 am
The only reason I put 9 points beyond TSA in MM is that putting them in BM when your pet is 60 would do very little good when he’s too low to hit anything. My recommended TSA/BM soloing build is 30/31/0. So I think you’re right on.
There’s still a bit before (probably) goes away, but then if word of how good this really is gets out it will just cause more QQ, as the kids say.
Tinski said,
June 27, 2008 at 10:32 am
Here is cookie for you *gives cookie* :) i know it is hard, but still i hope all good to your project *hugs* just hang on there
Shirg said,
June 27, 2008 at 10:34 am
so.. this mean that boar review coming soon? i can’t wait! n___n
jojo said,
June 27, 2008 at 10:44 am
is boar comming soon?
Mania said,
June 27, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Znodis, do you have a link to that 30/31/0 build anywhere? I’d love to see where you put the points, since I’m sure you’re much more knowledgable about talent builds than I am.
Znodis said,
June 28, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I do indeed have a link
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cVbh0gxRfZVVikVz0xo
and a huge post explaining everything (read “Foundation” and “For MM”)
Mania said,
June 28, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Excellent! Thank you. :>
(I remember marking that post of yours to go back and read in detail later. In fact … yes, yes, i still have it starred. *grin*)