Leveling Up a Pet: Not As Bad
Mania, my main character, has spent most of her hunting life with Cloud, a Twilight Runner from Stonetalon Peak. But around about level 60 Mania tamed a Ghost Saber and named her Banshee. I leveled Banshee to 48 before Burning Crusade launched, primarily on the beach full o’ naga in Azshara. But there the poor cat languished … until last night, when for some unknown reason I decided it was time to get her up to level 70 — or at least level 49!
Since grinding a low-level pet is somewhat boring, I wanted to multi-task as much as possible. I eventually decided to grind the orges in Nagrand so that, in addition to leveling Banshee, I could also raise my reputation with the Mag’har (by killing ogres) and the Consortium (by collecting Obsidian Warbeads) at the same time.
Last time I was doing this, I respec’d to a more Survival oriented build so I could survive the endless melee fights better. This time, however, I decided to stick with my plain old Beast Master build, at least at first. I figured the dead zone change should help a lot, and if it was too painful then I could always repsec.
At first it was slow going. At level 48, facing level 64-65 ogres, Banshee couldn’t hold aggro — and wouldn’t have survived long if she did. So my basic plan of attack was this:
- Find a single ogre a bit away from the others, with a long, clear path (aka the runway) away from him in some direction.
- Get moderately close (but don’t draw aggro) and lay down an Immolation Trap. Also cast Hunter’s Mark on the target.
- Send in Banshee, and start backing away from the trap until I was at the limit of my crossbow range.
- Serpent Sting, Concussive Shot, then interlace Arcane Shot and Steady Shot until the ogre closed with me. Somewhere in there he would hit the trap.
- At this point I started my patented “backing-away slowly” technique, which involves using Wing Clip, then backing up until you can fire a shot (Arcane Shot if it’s up, Auto Shot if not) and repeating until the enemy is dead. In rare cases where I ran out of runway to back down, I’d Wing Clip and dash through the ogre, then execute a clumsy turn on the other side.
Now I know some of you are alternately laughing or cringing at this point, but I did warn you — I’m a terrible player. At any rate, this routine drained mana like crazy and I occasionally lost Banshee, but it sorta worked. And that was good enough for me!
After a surprisingly short time, Banshee dinged 49, and then 50, 51, 52 … I was on a roll! Around about level 53 I decided to try varying my approach a bit, namely by dropping the trap and adding Kill Command and Mongoose Bite (both of which I had forgotten I had *cough*). It also occured to me about this time to see what pet skills Banshee had, and I was able to upgrade some of those as well. At 56 I trained the next rank of Claw, and suddenly it happened — Banshee held aggro! Only rarely, but still — rarely is better than never. By level 60, she was holding aggro most of the time — enough for me to stop the whole runway nonsense, anyway. And yes, she made it to 60!
It wasn’t exactly fast to level Banshee to 60, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it used to be either. The levels came quickly enough that I didn’t get discouraged. In fact, somehow I spent all day grinding ogres (when I should have been working — whoops). The changes to pet XP helped a lot, of course — these levels would have taken me 33% longer before. Even more of a help, though, was the change to the dead zone. Even though I had to play around with different strategies and silly routines, I was still doing most of my killing at range. And I vastly prefer killing at range. I mean, I’m a hunter!
Unfortunately, the next ten levels are much longer than these past 12 were. On the other hand, I am very glad that from here on out I can choose my targets and adjust my shots and Banshee will largely be able to hold aggro like a pet should.
37 Comments
I know what you mean about getting 60-70 being harder. I think it is the same with things like 30-40, 20-30, etc. (I am leveling a RFK boar from 25-40)
You can get pet XP killing grays? That never worked for me. Had to kill greens and yellows and ornges (DEAD) so it has been tedious work.
Gratz on getting Banshee to 70!
No, you do still need to kill greens — the ogres are just barely green to me. (I think the non-gray cutoff for a level 70 character is level 63 enemies, although I could be off.)
The cutoff point is actually lvl 62.
Grats on getting Banshee to 60, hope it doesn’t take too long to get to 70. d:
Ive found a few other places that may be handy for levelling pets.
My trick is to find CASTERS. Mobs that stay at ranged distance AND have relativly low HP. Makes it much easier for those with limited skills and quicker as you dont have to trap, clip & run all the time!
It Doesn’t really matter how much damage they do, that can be covered by potions/bandages/food.
In Silthius theres a bunch of humanoids close to the entrance from Un’goro crater, just beside the tall tower. they are all L59-60, well spread out, and most of them are casters. (plus killing them will give nice money, runecloth and cenarion hold rep)
Next up is in the outlands, around the edge of the lake closest to the cenarion expidition (forget its name). The swamp hydra’s there stay at ranged distance as well, and spit acid/poison.
Im a L64 hunter, and have a little L37 black boar to level. The L50 blasted lands black boar is impossible to find on my server.
I would second Elaith’s suggestions, although I would add this bit:
I chose the caster warlocks (level 67) that populate Legion hold in the west of Shadowmoon Valley. They are casters so they don’t run into your dead zone, they have fairly low hp so you can nuke them pretty quick, they respawn fast to maximise killing, they drop Marks of Sargeras and Fel Armorments for rep gain or AH selling, and they drop HEAPS of Nethwerweave cloth for an endless supply of bandages to keep you healed up.
I have leveled all 3 of my current pets at this spot; a level 61 Elite Soulflayer from ZG, a level 25 Elite Ag’amar boar from RFK AND the good old Ghost Saber from Darkshore! And my rep with Aldor is exalted and I have made many thousands of gold on a couple of epic and blue drops, AH items or even just vendoring the greens/grays/whites.
jeez! I have spent a lot of time leveling pets, and I have to tell you that a 0/31/30 build with high RAP, Crit, and especially Rapid Killing is key for this task. Fight green casters as mentioned above - the Blood Elves north of Skettis at the mana bomb are perfect for this at level 64 or so. At 70 I am killing them in a few shots, largely before they get to me. Slap on a power-infused mushroom and/or AotV and go to town.
BTW, the pet leveling Bible was already written a while back on the EU forums: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=263646624&sid=1
My only disagreement with the aforementioned guide is the spec, really. 0/31/30 is very very sweet. Hitting a 4k HP caster for over 3000 on the initial shot is just immeasurably satisfying.
I am facing a similar level gap with the owl I just tamed. He’s level nine (I snuck my BE into Teladrassil to get’em) and now have to get him to level 28. It’s going to be tedious but one does what one must for the pet they desire.
Congratulations =)
My Draenei’s cat Sholay faces a similar problem, being barely fifty (but then my Draenei is only closing in on 62). I think I’ll use the caster suggestion given by Elaith.
As for the 60-70 range, I think we still level much faster than our pets there which puts us back to a single pet while leveling once the pet hits 60. At least, as you mention, it’s not as mind numbingly boring as it used to be ;)
PS. I think I’m pretty skilled in that running away slowly and backwards tactic of yours ;)
i recently lvled my lvl 11 pig on a 70 bm hunter. i grinded at the mana bomb in terrokar straight away. killed exactly 1000 of the casters there and the pig was in the 60s by then (got about 450 marks and a few tombs there for scryer rep). after that i grinded on the ogres in nagrand over near the ring of blood till around 66 (needed the obsidians for consortium rep and cloths to lvl tailoring on alt). thats when things got a lil harder to lvl. after that i was in shadowmoon killing lvl 69 elementals for motes and i found that when the piggy got to 68 was able to hold agro well and was just like having a 70 pet. after that u can take it anywhere u want. i guess having a different type of pet would have been different cos pigs hold agro well with the charge ability. but until mid 60’s it would get resisted all the time by higher lvl mobs. but my tip is mana bomb in NE of terrokar is the best to lvl pet till around lvl 66. just put pet on passive and shoot the mobs like crazy, use asspect of viper to help with mana. i found that i could clear area and just when im killing last few the respawns would come in so it was non stop killing. i respeced to mm half way thru and found that i was burning thru my mana faster and i would be killing faster so found myself waiting around for the mobs to respawn. so being mm spec was not needed at all. just make sure u bring plenty of food, water and ammo. listen to a podcast or some music so u dont get too bored and go nuts
Grats, I say! Now onto the hard part of 60 to 70! I snuck my pet into instances at this level. :P I couldn’t take any more ogres.
my 70 hunter went back to dustwallow and tamed gorescyth the ravenous.was 39 when i tamed him and a day and a half later i have him up to 60.just bring the pet into a high lvl instance with you(as long as the other party members dont mind)
and i dont care what anyone says…low lvl pets dont aggro in high lvl instances
Hi, i understand you ^_^ i´m still leveling fantasma, my ghost wolf, and also decided to rise some re with consortium. SO, i headed to the netherstorm to raid the zaxxis people. I´m BM too, and took a while to find a tactic ajusted to my style of gameplay. Finally decide to overuse the freezing area trap to slow them and start kittin´em. It was a bit boring, but at least í´m exalted now and fantasma is 65. SO i figure i´ll start collecting that aldor marks previously mentioned ^^.
And yes over level 60 it can be annoying.
When I was leveling my ghost wolf (before this pet xp thing obviously) I discovered the blazing speed a pet would level up to 60, but that to level from 60 to 61, was FOUR TIMES the xp of 59-60. Once your pet reaches 60 it will take longer because the levels are that much more farther apart.
I do reccomend trying to combine rep farming (like the Nagrand ogres or Zaxxis Raiders) or even item farming. After I hit exhalted, I went after feathers so a friendly leatherworker could make me the new quivers.
Instances though, I don’t really endorse or condemn. A heroic instance will net around 700 xp per kill, but a regular instance is only around 300. Compare this to the roughly 900 of individual mobs out in the world. The only advantage is the concentration of instance mobs, and that there are others to help you kill them so you shouldn’t end up in melee. And of course, pets share their master’s agro radius, and have for a very long time now, so even a freshly tamed lvl 20 ghost saber won’t bring down all of Steam Vaults on you.
I recently leveled up the lynx cub from Evensong to 63. From 1-59, I did Firewing Signets for an alt, at Firewing Point. 59-61 was grinding out Primal Life in the Zangarmarsh on the Bog Giants. And from there I just took it through heroics.
Here’s my process, though.
1) Get to roughly max range.
2) Start shooting it.
3) wingclip/raptor macro and strafe and shoot it more.
-or-
3) Melee it once or twice.
4) Repeat.
Whenever possible, try to side-strafe after wingclipping. It’s much faster, and you can still shoot.
Just to be clear, I by NO MEANS intended this as a guide! *grin* In addition to giving you evidence of my so-called playstyle, I also wanted to share my experience on how the recent changes have affected leveling a lower pet, because I know it concerns a lot of hunters. But if you are leveling a lower pet, there are much better methods than mine out there — some of them linked or mentioned above. (And thanks for those details, everyone!)
Just to give you an idea of how hard 60-70 is…
My 70-hunter recently got a 67-Bloodmaul Battle Worg. And yeah, you are probubly all going, “Laame! get the lvl 42 one!!!!” I had a tough time leveling him up, even at the high level, though. I was grinding the ogres too, I wanted MAg’har rep desperetly. After grinding over 600 beads, and thats like, 1,000 ogres, I dinged my pet 70 and got exalted with Mag’har.
It took me only about 7-8 hours of mind-numbing leveling, but it sure felt like it took about 5 days of stait leveling!
I have to give respect to you for the sheer will power you have for trying to lvl such a low pet like that. I’ve refused some pets for the sheer fact theyll most likely get cruched by anything in outland. Hence why the only pets i have are the wintersaber pridewatcher i lvled up with, a scorpion from SMV and a wolf from BE lol. Lvled before they had lvl 6 loyalty basically :P
Getting my ghost wolf from 30 to 70 was an enormous effort, particularly (as you said) because you have to adjust your playstyle until your pet can hold aggro once more. I highly recommend Firewing Point, for the sheer density of caster mobs (who like to keep their distance after you attack, and go down fast). Plus, you can pick up Scryer items to use or sell.
My order of attack became:
1. Concussion shot
2. Serpent sting
3. Raptor whenever I could (I’m not a big fan of running around doing wing clip)
4. Snake trap if they got close (love snake trap more than immolation)
Don’t forget bandages!
Id have to agree with everyone, Firewing point is by far the best place to lvl a Pre-BC pet up, and ive notice its not farmed as much as it used to be. The fact that they are clothies is a big plus, add in that they dont come to you, helps even more for non-stop grinding, id do something more of, start with aimed if u could, if not, steady, concussion is usless imo unless they run, any sting helps, but i dont use cause they are ussally dead in seconds anyway, and i do like my mana, ha ha. And as for traps, im a pvp at heart, so its always a freezing trap incase someone comes at me, not for the mobs.
Practice kiting when you’re rep grinding mobs. Turn growl off, open with an aimed shot, then a concussive, and you’re off. Set the pet on the mob with just an attack skill set (no growl or charge or screech to pull agro). You may need to turn everything off to keep them from pulling agro. As you run, you should stop, fire off another concussive, and let yourself auto shot once before turning and running again. If the mob is far enough away, shoot it more before running. As you get better, try jump shotting. Leap while moving, turn halfway around and then back forward with a quick mouse movement. When you’re turned far enough to get a shot off, Arcane shot. If mana gets low, use a rank 1 arcane shot. Mix this in with your normal grinding methods to mix things up and learn a valuable skill at the same time.
I do this with normal mobs when I have a properly leveled pet sometimes just to see how well I can kite. I recently realized how good I’ve gotten when running the quest chain for the demon hunter in Nagrand. I had a 70 guildie helping me kill the overseers and he lagged in the middle of the fight. He died, leaving me with an angry and only half dead demon. Mend pet, BW, pop trinket, rapid fire, and I lay into him. At 20% left, my kitty goes down. I started running, and managed to kite him till i could wear him down. Aspect of the viper and a mana pot kept me arcane shotting constantly.
Good luck leveling the pet, and hopefully you can learn a new skill in the process.
i’m lvling mazzarh (pink plain strider) i noly found him as i when to buy my 60% mount, she is 26 now still no name :( ive taker her thought SM cath 2 times and Uldaman once it still seems relli slow and is it worth it? i say seeing a gnome get pwned by it will make my day :D hehe best of luck to other lvlers :)
Cool that leveling went so smooth for you. I’m wondering how leveling 2 pets at once with either of your lowbies is going since my lowbie hunter is going to be getting her second pet soon.
And a quick note: You may want to replace your patented “slowly walk backwards” move with the improved “strafe at full speed without getting dazed” using ‘q’ or ‘e’ in the future.
Mania,
I am sure that you don’t give yourself enough credit about being a viable Hunter.:)
Congrats on getting Banshee to 60 (cool name by the way - I like it).
Lovely name, and I feel your pain about leveling an extremely low level pet. I just recently tamed that ghost sabre myself. I guess I’m into pain on some level, hehe. Seeing as I’m a leather worker, I just had the kitten tag along as a (very) weak dot on 4 legs as I killed beasts for leather and motes to skill up on. I’ve gotten him from 20 to 55 this way. Needless to say, I have gone through enough bandages to pass for a mummy. I don’t mind terribly much, I’ve been catching up on weapon skills I have neglected.
After he breaks 65, I’ll look into some place else.
I scanned through this and I noticed one thing… noone noticed that it doesn’t matter what you are killing at 70, so long as it’s green or better it will get the same amount of xp. I’ve tested this out and my pet gets the same xp from a level 64 kill as it did from a level 69 kill. The 64 was just easier and faster. For those of you grindin them out, stick to the lower level range, the easier fast kills are gonna be better than the higher level harder kills. I grind my kills in the bonechewer ruins in terrokar and get fast easy kills there. Got my ape from 60 to 66 there, just took a break from the grinding.
Hey Mania, know how you feel, found your website when I hit level 65, and discovered the Ghost Saber! Prydeand I are now level 70, and I also did it by grinding faction(and ore) amongst the Nagrand Ogres. I did it as a Marksman, so kudos for pulling it off as BM. One thing that may help your style, use the Snake Trap instead of Immolation, it does comparable damage, and if you let the trap go off before you start meleeing, the snakes will take a couple of hits for you, saving you some time inbetween fights. Also, I noticed that some of the ogres have a multi hit attack, which gets annoying for leveling really low level pets there, so you’d need to have your pet sit a ways away from the battle, to ensure they get that valuable xp.
I started leveling my ghost wolf to 68 (almost 69!) by killing sporebats in northwestern Zangarmarsh. They’re almost the lowest level that’s still green to me, and give a nice buff to all stats when they die. Open up with a concussive shot, shoot from range while you can, by the time they’re in melee range a couple of raptor strikes - maybe a mongoose bite if you dodge - will finish them off. No fancy routines, nothing too mana intensive. Added bonus, they drop Sporegarr rep items: I want that sporebat small pet!
Eventually I got him to 60, and killing sporebats proved too slow. I moved on to Warmaul Hill in Nagrand, and got him to 68. At that point he was usable for daily quests, and that’s where he is now. Almost 69 :)
Oh, and I also ran as many instances as I could with him. SV at 30 FTW :D 5 or 6 levels per run, at first.
I personally wouldn’t spend the time to lvl a pet from something like lvl 40 up to 70 but i have some advice. It just my opinion that if you want to lvl a lower lvl pet, you should do it as a marksman or survivalist. As a marksman, your improved shots and stings should drain the health from a mob if you kite it. If your a survivalist, your improved traps and melee rooting effects should help you escape a mob before it can inflict any major damage on you as you’re kiting. I don’t see a point to doing this as a beast master mainly because your pet won’t be contributing very much until its maybe 5 or 6 lvls below you. Besides, pets gain exp. even if they don’t engage the mob (just as long as you do). Not trying to insult any BM hunters doing this, just giving some advice.
Yossir, lvl 65 hunter, 0/16/40, server- Staghelm
You and me have the same goal in mind. Though I just recently picked up a level 19 Ghost Saber and named him Valansi (To go with Long <3) I have in the course of 2 days got him up to level 43 and am still happily leveling him as if nothing was wrong. Its more pleasant to level these low level pets (And I saw a ghost wolf raiser leveling with me as well) and its quite awesome.
Congrats on getting your lovely Banshee up there ^^ I’m sure she’s a wonderful partner.
Leggings of Beast Mastery aren’t easy to find, but if you’re interested in collecting low-level pets they help A TON in the leveling process. I’m MM, and I also always use them when I’m farming mobs because they make it way harder to break my pets’ aggro.
[...] hand, I haven’t been playing any character very much. Okay, okay, so I spent an entire day grinding ogres on Mania, and another day chasing around after Coins of Ancestry. And I admit that I log in almost [...]
but then.. from 60 to 70 is a *paiiiiin*.
finally leveled my ghost wolf the other week. wont even use him in raids, but well it is very unique now.
anyway somewhere into the 60ies i got really discouraged.
Trained the Ghost saber in Darkshore at 64. Goin from LVL 20 to 60 was time consuming….but yea 63ish is the best range u dont take much damage
and the pet gets decent xp. I think i grinded for a week…off and on.
and yes…at 60 it slows down a bit. However if u train up Natural Armor to the highest rank u can get…and dump a huge chunk of points into Greater Stam
and the rest into the bite and claw along with growl …the 60 cat will hold agro a bit with kill command and take a beating while u plink away at mobs.
just keep pet mend up and auto shot…and watch some tv while the pet does the work…. :P
When I was leveling up my ghost wolf I took it to Zanger and leveled on the lvl 62 wasps/fireflys and ended up with 2 captured fireflys. At 60 I took him to Nagrand and leveled on the animal mobs that were 63-64 and got enough powder to get my Halaa mount finally. When it was 65 I took it to Blades Edge and leveled it on the ogres that drop the BoP enchant then to Netherstorm to the ethereals that drop the other BoP enchant. By the time I got both enchants my wolf was lvl 70.
Personally, I like levelling pets on the Blackwind Sabercats near Skettis for three reasons:
1) Level range is 70-71, which means that the pet will always be gaining experience from my kills.
2) Beasts: Which makes Scare Beast a viable tactic - Unload your first volley at range, SB before it gets into melee range, and shoot it as it runs around.
3) As a Skinner, each and every single Sabercat kill nets me a guaranteed Knothide Leather.
If I wasn’t so hung up on grinding together the cash for my epic flying mount, I’d probably be levelling another pet. Li’l Hank Scorpid has been pretty much ignored since I tamed him and got him to loyalty 1.
‘Ello thar!
I am also leveling a pet up. Gigaele the hyena (red one, from Scarlet Monastry).
I’ve leveled quite a few pets up, a Frostsaber Pridewatcher, Springpaw Stalker, some Azeroth raptors, yadda yadda.
When the pets are lvl 1-65 i grind at the Sunfire elfs in Terrokar.
The warlocks in particular, they are casters, and half of the spells are resisted anyways.
When the pet are lvl 65, i move on to Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley.
Fun place. The mobs drop Marks of Saregas, Netherweave cloth, and i’ve got around 10 blues from farming there, and they are so weak it’s not even fun.
-Maree.
Im leveling my King Bangalash. Im a level 65 Hunter BM and the pet is a level 45… i will try all your sugestions. Hope it works…
Congrats on leveling your pet!!
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