Questions (I read the stickies first!)Follow

Hey all, I just started a Hunter yesterday, and I really wish I would have rolled one a long time ago now. Anyways, I have read through the stickies and been to Petopia, and the WoW board, and still have a few questions even after sifting through several posts here. Maybe I missed it or it is so obvious to hunters that it never comes up (Main is a warrior). Here are a few:

- To train and learn new skills, do I have to tame an animal at each level of each skill? That is, do I have to tame a low level bat or something to learn Screech 1, and then a different, higher level bat to learn Screech 2, and so on? Or when I learn Screech at any rank, will I know all ranks from there on out as long as I (my pet actually I suppose), am at the appropriate level and the pet is the right family to learn the skill? Screech is just an example also, this would go for any of these abilities.

- How many pets max can I have stabled? Is it 2 or 3, or as many stable masters as I want to visit in each town? I imagine the stables are linked like banks and mailboxes, but I haven't tried it out yet and won't be able to until I get home from work.

- Are there any 'better' pets anymore, i.e. rare spawns, etc? All the pet information I have been able to pull up seems to show that there is no difference in any family of pets now except for looks. Like Humar or Broken Tooth would be the same (ability and DPS, atk speed-wise) as having the low level cat I tamed on Sunstrider Isle. All the info on the stickies is over a year old now, so I'm sure this has changed with the expansion. I do understand that different pet types have different abilities they can learn and not learn.

Hopefully these questions aren't too standard, but from sifting through all the posts here, I haven't seen them specifically addressed. Thanks.

Pet skills, which aren't learned from a pet trainer (who allows the teaching of passive things like Armour, Stamina, resistances, etc) - wild skills used for battle need to be found individually, learned from a beast that has them (after you've tamed it), and then trained to the pet that you want to give the skill to.

Using screech as an example. If you find a mob with rank 1 of screech, you won't automatically acquire each later rank. You will have to find them and learn them.

Stables are, indeed, linked much like a bank. If memory serves correctly, you'll start off with one available stable slot, but you can purchase another (like buying bag slots in a bank). By doing that, you can end up with a max of two pets in the stables and having one out by your side. Which comes in handy for stabling your loved pets, temporarily taming a mob to learn a skill you want, then going back to train the skill to the pet you want to give the skill to.

There are really no "better" pets anymore. Pets have been normalised in earlier patches. King Bangalash has retained a passive ability, which other pets don't have right now. But that skill is going to become available to all pets in a future patch. So training him simply for that skill may not be worth it, in the long run.

Basically, just choose what pet you want to work with :)

Stables are not free, either slot. Slot 1 is 50s, slot 2 is 5g. This is probably the best use of 50s you will ever see in the game. You only truly need one stable slot for levelling, but 2 is not unnecessary (I know I spelt that word wrong).

Also, go to [url=petopia.brashendeavors.net]Petopia[/url] to see what pets teach what ranks of skills. Not every pet comes with a skill, and some come with different ones (i.e. a bat may come with dive, screech, bite, none of the above, or any combination). When I hit 70, I plan on going back and learning every rank of every skill possible, just so I can tame whatever pet I feel like at whatever level.


Actually, it's even more normallized now. Attack speeds are all the same, unless you have a certain pet (King Bangalesh I think), although next patch he will be normallized as well. Things that WILL influence pet attack speed:
Serpents Swiftness (BM Talent): +4/8/12/16/20% attack speed
Frenzy (BM Talent): 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain 30% attack speed on crit.
Cobra Reflexes: Tameable Passive Skill (in next patch): 30% faster attack speed, less damage, 12.5% overall DPS increase.

Well, I am a hunter-noob, but not a forum-noob I suppose :-) Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

Thanks for that as well. I did notice the loyalty level on the pet screen, but didn't know exactly what it did. I have kept the pet at 125% almost all the time for the DPS increase, but wasn't sure what the loyalty was for, since even at level 1 it did what I asked it to.

And I don't plan on switching pets a lot, because it seems like it would be a pain in the butt to do, but I do want to make sure I get the training skills so I can teach the pet what it needs.

Thanks for the input!