Twink Powerleveling spec and tips

[tstclair]

Once cataclysm comes out I'll be looking to power level my new worgen hunter to 85 as fast as possible. I have all PVE hunter heirlooms (shoulders, chest +3 stats, dagger x2 w/ +15 agi, bow, haste trinket x2), most scopes and +agi elixirs lined up, etc. I'm not going for realm first (too much work time for that), but I would like to get raiding ASAP. (i.e. I don't care how "boring" a spec is, just how fast/efficient).

So, my question is, what's the best spec going to be (will respec as many times as necessary)? I've read a lot suggesting that MM will be super efficient with Rapid Killing + Rapid Recuperation, but you don't get Rapid Recuperation until level 49. So, is MM still going to be the fastest leveling spec up to 49? I see a lot of people suggesting BM, but the only thing I see BM having for it is Pathfinding, since faster speed = faster leveling.

I'm also looking for any other powerleveling tips people might have.

Thanks!

TLDR: What is the fastest spec for powerleveling, particularly 10-49?

[SolarLunar]

get full heirloom gear, get hp enchants, get eng goggles and grenades, pwn face.

---------- Post added 2010-11-29 at 08:52 PM ----------

MM yes, FTW OS BM, get exotic pets.

[mmobud888]

beast mastery all the way, with heirlooms ur going to be doing enough damage, ur pet is the only thing that will help u go faster, so have him kill one thing while you kill one thing.

[tstclair]

get full heirloom gear, get hp enchants, get eng goggles and grenades, pwn face.

Perhaps you misread, I'm talking about leveling, not PvP. I have the full heirlooms and hp doesn't help kill things faster, not sure I want to spend time leveling engineering...

beast mastery all the way, with heirlooms ur going to be doing enough damage, ur pet is the only thing that will help u go faster, so have him kill one thing while you kill one thing.

Why? I was under the impression that BM didn't increase pet DPS by that much anymore (at lower levels).

[MortalWombat]

Until you get to a higher lvl BM will probably be more helpful to you than the other two specs. Simply because you don't have misdirection and can't get rapid recuperation. For a starting pet it doesn't really matter until you can get Thunderstomp in the tenacity tee, then you will find that tenacity pets are godly for low lvl questing when you can easily have it tank multiple mobs at once.

Once you can get rapid recuperation you can choose to go MM and just nuke everything down with AS spam until you get Chimera Shot, but I stayed BM until I was able to learn Misdirection and get the glyph, if you want to go MM asap you could get a pet with a snare if you find that mobs aren't dying fast enough. If you want to go survival you should probably use your freezing trap on a second mob a lot to get LnL procs.

For pets my four pets I went with 2 ferocity and 2 tenacity pets. The ferocity pets were just for the buffs. But the tenacity pets I made one for doing max damage, and the other for all tanking talents. I would use the dmg tenacity pet for soloing non-elites and the tanking for elites or harder non elites.

Don't know if it will change, but currently while lvling KC doesn't beat AS.

You can get exp from mining now so mining/eng isn't that much of a time sink.

[phoenix-legend]

O.o
Go survival and 1 shot everything with explosive shot and profit.

[Jailbuild]

leveling SV is nice in the sub 60 levels you can more or less just dot a mob up with serp/explosive and let your pet finish it off as you pull the next one, you can chain pull fairly easily, but BM is still king of soloing for hunters, as BM with tank pet you can solo group quests, tag a mob and let your pet solo it while you kill another mob, and when you get thunderstomp you can start mass pulling with your pet then just trap and multishot them down, its really a throw up to what you prefer playing. as far as time go's I went from 1 to 36 in 7 hours 10 minutes on a SV undead hunter in 4.0.3a so I have no doubt you will be seeing level 60's running about on the first day

[Theratzil]

Its super easy leveling as MM, with the 60% crit above 80% health talent, you use aimed, arcane arcane dead. Survival would probably be better in dungeons though because of getting the ''signature move'' early

[tstclair]

Thanks all, this sounds like some good advice. From what I'm hearing, I'll probably start out as BM. A strat that worked for me in the past is HM/petattack macro to sick the pet on the next mob while I loot the previous one. By the time I attack the next one, the pet has solid aggro, kill, repeat.

I'll get dual spec when I can, and then I can just compare MM to BM and see how things go.

[Nynde]

O.o
Go survival and 1 shot everything with explosive shot and profit.

True, the first 30 levels explosive shot is really overpowered, I think it's the best way to grind up.

Actually I' m lvling as a hunter BM (respecced from surv around lvl 40) and I'm going up really fast ^^

[HemmerN]

SV all the way, been grouping with both mm and BM hunters sub 70 and their dmg in comparison is laughable, as soon as you get 1 point in serpent spread you can just group up as many mobs as you like expo trap multi x2 and just epo shot the high health ones

[Mikki1664]

I have just done my Human Hunter to 60. MM is the way to go. BM is good dont get me wrong if you dont have all the BoAs you pet holding aggro is cool while you kill things.

Focus on Aimed Shot and talents, Glyphs and anything that improves it. (Rapid Killing, Careful Aim)

Pull (I use a macro that makes Pet attack as I start Aimed Shot)
Aimed Shot, Concussive Shot (if you are not killing them before Melee range), Kill Command. If they are not dead already...an Arcane shot or two.

Trust me its rediculas. I leveled from 13 to 18 in 60 minutes by killing Gnolls outside Sentinel Hill where they are attacking and spawning at a stupid rate. You have 100% killing uptime and kill things in stupid time.

Did a test with a Hunter leveling in my guild and all the good hunters told him to level BM. I did more DPS in Instances. (about 25%)
When we did a few quests I moved though packs off mobs much quicker. Killed allot quicker and by the end he went and respec;d MM.

Once you get Charge for your pet and making sure you use you Kill Command ASAP in every pull you Pet even in MM will take aggro 50% of the time. But it still doesnt matter, if yo do it right you kill quicker that mobs can get to you.

Mikki

[Deleted]

I started out as SV from level 10, and Explosive Shot is really amazing, you can literally oneshot mobs a couple (2-4) levels below you, and most mobs die in an ES + Steady/Auto. Your pet won't really be doing any better as BM since the pet increasing talents are further down the tree.

I cannot speak for higher levels, because I only leveled my hunter to 22 after the patch, but as I said, Survival was really amazing.

[Nevermourne]

You've prepared your gear, great. Get a spirit beast as soon as you can (northrend). The first 20 or 30 levels don't particularly matter, so respec freely as you deem necessary. BM pet tank and just chain pull mobs like mad. Its boring, but effective. Taking out elites won't be a problem. Once you get 60, and can tame exotics, the spec shines even further. At those later levels, MM can be potent for leveling as well, with rapid killing + rapid recoup. With dual spec now 10g, roll both and see which you prefer. If that's your only interest in MM then go BM. Fervor (50 focus to you and your pet) and Beastial Wrath (abilities use 50% focus) on short cooldowns provide more burst and more focus efficiency and the ability to run and gun. Plus, in MM your pet won't tank as well, but you can use it as practice for managing your threat or kiting or something. In short, go BM. Happy hunting!

[Remortal]

My best tip would be to look at which spells you think are going to improve your leveling speed. On my warlock that i have been leveling since 4.0.3a i didn't go to get spells from level 28 to level 58 because all i need is dots, drain life and voidwalker for questing. I didn't even have to go at 58 but i was in a city anyway.

Point is you save a lot of time by cutting out the masses of traveling back and forth!

[Myrm]

Bm cause, with full heirloom, you'll be doing some serious dmg, thus some serious threat. Which means you will need a pet that is able to hold aggro very well and take the beating for you, while you pull 3 more mobs and put him taunt/intimidate the for you.

[Deleted]

lvling right now a troll hunter (no heirlooms, only quest and dungeon gear), up to lvl 50 nothing beats sv! explosive shot is really overpowered, explosive + 1-2 auto shots = dead even lvl mob

[harky]

1-49: Survival
49-69: Marks
69+: BM

With the new zone setups and the increased EXP increased mount speed isn't quite as important as it was before. As levels start to slow in Wrath content (still pretty quick, mind you) it starts to help to have the increased speed. Grab a Chimera at 69 and have a blast. A frosty AOE blast.

[tstclair]

FYI

Now that my hunter is about halfway through Cataclysm (lvl 83) I thought I'd report my experience for anyone who digs up this thread looking for info:

I leveled 1-51 as survival. Explosive shot + 1-2 autoshots took out everything before it reached me. I generally alternated between explosive, and 2 steady shots. Especially in the lower levels (before sprint, boar's speed and charge) I generally killed everything before my pet even reached it (making it better than BM).

At 30 I picked up MM (dual spec). Aimed shot was pretty good, but not instant cast, and it generally felt more sluggish than survival, although this may have been an illusion from the cast time. I stuck with survival until 51 (rapid recuperation).

At 51 I switched to MM, and killed everything with arcane shot, finishing with KS when possible. chain killing became super fast. It became even faster at 70 with the addition of chimera shot (use it to open when off CD), and even better with MD at 76 (+glyph, open with MD to pet macro:

/cast [target=pet] Misdirection
/petattack

(PM me if you are interested in the more advanced MD macro I use)

At 80 I went to Hyjal. MM wasn't quite as good as it had been because I would burn all my focus on AS spam, and the target would still be alive. However, once I picked up some better cataclysm gear, I could resume my regular MM rotation. At 83 I am chain killing everything very quickly, and as long as I'm not fighting more than 2 things at a time, mend pet (+glyph) is enough to keep my pet alive.

One last thing: this was with full set of heirlooms, scopes, and highest available elixir (of agility) or flask. This advice may not be optimal for non-twinked characters.

Hope this helps!

TLDR (bullet point tips):

• 10-51: Go survival, open with explosive shot. If need focus, use spam SS.
  
  • glyphs: Explosive Shot, mend pet
• 51+: Marksman, make sure to pick up (2) Rapid Recuperation. Spam arcane shot, finish with KS when possible. Open with chimera shot when available (70).
  
  • glyphs: Arcane Shot, mend pet (both glyphs). KS and chimera shot also useful.
• 76+: make sure to pick up Misdirect + glyph, open with misdirect to pet, see macro above.