This article is part of a series for new hunters on choosing your first pet.
As I mentioned in the previous segment, we’re rounding out this series by taking a look at the newbie areas that don’t host hunter races but which can nevertheless be reached without any danger by a new hunter.
Today: Elwynn Forest, home of the human race. Humans cannot be hunters, unfortunately, but Elwynn Forest is easily accessible to dwarf hunters, who merely need to ride the Deeprun Tram from Ironforge to Stormwind. Once in Stormwind, Elywnn Forest lies just beyond the city gates.
Elwynn Forest actually has some very interesting chioces for a young hunter. There are also two possibilities directly to the south, in Westfall.
Suggestions:
| Creature | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Longsnout (levels 10-11) |
Diet: Almost anything! Known Skills: Charge (Rank 1) Longevity: A popular pet at all levels. |
Known Skills: You’ll want to pick up Gore pretty soon, but it’s available on the Rockhide Boar nearby. |
| Prowler (levels 9-10) |
Diet: Meat Known Skills: Bite (Rank 2) Longevity: Furious Howl is a popular skill for groups. |
Known Skills: These wolves do not start with Furious Howl and to learn it you’ll need to travel down to Westfall at level 11+. Luckily, Westfall is right nearby! |
| Coyote (levels 10-11) |
Diet: Meat Known Skills: Bite (Rank 2) Longevity: Furious Howl is a popular skill for groups. |
Location: Westfall Known Skills: These wolves do not start with Furious Howl, but you can learn it from a Coyote Packleader right in Westfall — although you will need to be level 11. |
| Young Fleshripper (levels 10-11) |
Diet: Fish and Meat | Location: Westfall Known Skills: No innate skills. You will want to teach your bird Bite and/or Claw as soon as possible. In addition, you will want to pick up Screech at level 16 from a Greater Fleshripper, also in Westfall. |
| Princess (levels 10-11) |
Diet: Almost anything! Known Skills: Charge (Rank 1) Looks: A fairly uncommon yellow boar. Longevity: A popular pet at all levels. |
Note: Princess is accompanied by an entourage of other boars and can be difficult to tame. Known Skills: You’ll want to pick up Gore pretty soon, but it’s available on the Rockhide Boar nearby. |
| Young Forest Bear (levels 8-9) |
Diet: Almost anything! Known Skills: Claw (Rank 2) | Longevity: Never gets any special skills, not even Dash. |
| Mother Fang (level 10) |
Diet: Meat | Known Skills: No innate skills. You’ll want to teach this pet Bite as soon as you can. Longevity: Never gets any special skills, not even Dash. |
| Mine Spider (levels 8-9) |
Diet: Meat Looks: An impressive and relatively unusual black widow. |
Known Skills: No innate skills. You’ll want to teach this pet Bite as soon as you can. Longevity: Never gets any special skills, not even Dash. |
Recommendation:
The human lands sure do have a nice selection of strong candidates for a place without hunters! But my overall recommendation must go to the Longsnout for its combination of very broad diet and very useful skills. Charge is a great skill — in addition to being the only low-level skill that increases pursuit speed (how fast the pet runs to its target during an attack), it also immobilizes the target for 1 second and gives the boar some bonus attack power for its first attack (which is handy for keeping aggro on the pet and off the hunter).
The only downside of the Longsnout boar is that it doesn’t already know the skill Gore, which is a simple but effective damage skill that has a chance to do double damage. However, since you can learn Gore (Rank 1) from a nearby Rockhide Boar, this isn’t a problem for very long!
(Disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is by no means a complete listing of pets from Elwynn Forest or Westfall — just the ones that I might suggest for new hunters at level 10. More advanced players who are leveling their umpteenth hunter character will find a number of other very interesting choices here as well.)
Ah sucha wonderful guide. I too reccommend the boar or Coyote. Though in my experience if you are a Night elf or Draenei, and are looking for a coyote, you will most likely be 11 or near 11 by the time you reach Westfall, making the Coyote Packleader a wonderful choice as well. While my first pet on my first hunter was The Rake, I absolutely fell in love with the Coyote once I got to that level.
Technically my second character but which quickly became my main, a Dwarf Hunter. My first was a coyote from westfall, so the coyote skin will always have a unique place in my view, even though i quickly changed to cats and to this day prefer them.
Slightly bad place to place it but in my opinion its a fairly good investment to travel from where ever your races home and brave horde territory (sorry im horribly anti horde “Remember Westfall” lol) and nab a raptor from Durotar.
oh and meant to mention i’ve seen Boars mentioned as great pets everywhere i look and while sure charge is an interesting ability you can only spend so long in most lowbie zones before you never want to see another freaking goretusk etc. I prefer to sit next to something that looks somewhat threatening when it doubles in size and chases after a caster, hence why like i said my main is my pridewatcher from WS, and raptor and wolf from Blades Edge.
After fighting the first boss in Zul’Aman several times, and being a Bear myself (Feral Druid), they really should add a maul or swipe ability to Bear pets. Give them something. Gators need something special too.
Any Ally Hunter coming to Durotar (or anywhere else horde) has MY say so. I had enough “Oh my god it’s a Horde kill him” at Duskwood ^.^
Mania, maybe you should say “I would suggest Longsnout AND Princess as good pets”. Seeing as, you know, they both get Charge and are lvl 10. Just a suggestion!
PRINCESS PRINCESSS PRINCESS PRINCESS!!!! *Coughs* Sorry, had a moment. I love that piggy, and I generally don’t like boars. The bears in Elwynn used to be famed for their 2.5 attack speed, which resulted in a slower, but harder hitting attack. I like the wolf skins in Elwynn too. And Mikeoneal, not a single person who view Manias blog will disagree with you there. Every pet needs something new, to be honest. Even the double skilled boars could use a bit more love to make them unique. Heres crossing our fingers.
Wolfington: My main reason for not recommending Princess as well is because she’s got her little entourage, and for a new hunter it’s a more difficult tame to arrange, especially as your very first pet.
I would have to say boar would be more appealing say if those bastards in Hellsfire werent demon. Kinda like what they did for Raptors in BC giving them that badass skin makeover lol.
I used to always tame cats because I liked them as pets. My Tauren hunter has a boar named “Kermit” and though I have toyed around with the idea of getting another pet, Kermit will always be numero uno. He eats anything, is always happy and loves to kill. What more can I ask of the lil’ guy? :-)
Princess used to have 2 boars defending her, now there’s only one, a level 7. Just kill the escort, run out of range of princess until she evades and returns to base, then come back and tame her.