Best goblin class for solo-ing BC and WotLK content?

I was pleased to receive an email today from a reader who wanted an answer to the following dilemma:

I love your Wow Alone blog, and as I've been mulling this question over, I couldn't think of anyone better to contact.  I've played a human mage for a good number of years now, but am looking to dip my toes into the Horde waters, and so want to make an alt (Goblin, preferably).  On this alt I'm going to focus on seeing as much of the Horde side as possible and doing as much Horde stuff as possible - achievements, exploration, dungeons, questions.  The majority of this will be solo.

My question then is this: at this point in Cataclysm from what you know, what classes would be able to solo BC raids/heroics and (if possible) WotLK normals, heroics, even maybe some 10 man raids?  Because I want to see as much of the game as possible as I go, Death Knights are out, and would like it to be a goblin, so non-druid and paladin if possible.  How would an enhancement shaman be for this?  Protection warrior?  Warlock?  Hunter?  All/none?  (Would love something with the option to heal or tank in an occasional group as a change of pace from my mage, but the main goal is to be able to solo hard stuff for fun and rep.)

I appreciate your time, and keep up the GREAT work on the blog!

(I'm leaving his name out in case he wishes to remain anonymous)

Well my friend, the answer isn't that simple but I will try nonetheless. First, I can't say I like goblins a lot. Second, I haven't played a lot on the Horde side, though I have taken an orc shaman to level 66 or hereabouts.

In what follows, I'll try to analyze each available class for goblins and try to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are for solo-ing Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content. I will assume that my friend would like to try solo-ing these dungeons at level 85, for best results. Personally I wouldn't try any lower and not until I've gotten some nice Cataclysm gear. Burning Crusade dungeons are easy for most classes at level 80 or even lower but since he wishes to solo Wrath content as well, it's safer to be level 85, in my opinion. It's true that people have solo-ed level Wrath dungeons at level 80 but these fellows are experts and have probably agonized endlessly about tactics and what-not.

Mage

My experience with mages ends at level 79 because that's how far I managed to take my human mage. Having said that, I don't think mages are particularly well suited for solo-ing content. They hit hard but can't take more than a couple of hard blows and they also can't heal themselves.

Priest

To me, priests are in the same category as mages. Healing priests obviously won't be able to kill anything, while shadow priests might have more of a chance but I still doubt they will get very far with some of the more powerful bosses of Wrath.


Rogue

Rogues have been known to solo content due not in small part to their stealth. A rogue can sneak through the whole dungeon right to the bosses. Rogues hit hard and they have very good avoidance. I've heard that there are "rogue tank" builds and people have actually used rogues to tank instances so I'm sure it can be done. Overall I'd say that rogues have more potential than both mages and priests. Personally I dislike rogues and I've delegated my level 76 rogue to bank alt duty.

Warlock

Here's where things are starting to look up. I'm sure that a good demonology build could be used to solo a lot of the older dungeons. I have very little experience at playing a demonology warlock though so I can't comment beyond this but I do have a personal example of how a demonology warlock can solo an elite. One of the main strengths of a warlock is that they can heal their pet while keeping dots on the target.

Warrior

I've never played a warrior beyond level 20 so I have no idea how they operate at higher levels. Therefore, warriors are definitely not my first choice for solo-ing content.

Shaman

Shamans, and enhancement shamans in particular, are interesting. I'm sure that with the right equipment they can solo a pretty large chunk of content. That's because the enhancement shaman has access to Ghost Wolves which are both a huge burst of damage and a source of constant healing while they're active, meaning that bosses can be brought down quickly with minimal damage to the shaman. Enhancement also has the awesome Maelstrom Weapon and he can use the procs to heal himself if needed. Despite this, I'm not positive that they'll be able to solo all Wrath bosses. Once the Spirit Wolves expire, the shaman is on his own.

Hunter

Hunters are probably THE class for solo-ing all kinds of content. The reason is simple: they are the best pet class in the game. A max level hunter with powerful gear will devastate any Burning Crusade dungeon (in fact this was valid even at level 80) and I'm sure he'd be able to solo most, if not all of Wrath content. I would imagine that most hardcore solo hunters spec into Beast Mastery but gear and choice of pet also counts. From what I've heard, it is important to have gear with lots of stamina and to spec the pet into lots of avoidance and mitigation (dodge, armor, etc).


Death Knight

I'm not very good at death knights but I've heard people using them to solo powerful dungeons so I know that it can be done. Death Knights seem better equipped to handle this kind of work than warriors because they can heal themselves to a certain extent. Before Blizzard destroyed the Blood spec and morphed it into a tanking spec, I would have sworn that Blood was the way to go, but now I'm not so sure anymore. This still seems to be the case but I don't know anything about this spec anymore.

This has been a brief article and unfortunately I wasn't able to get into more detail but my final advice (and personal preference) for my reader would be to pick a hunter. Yes, I am biased towards hunters but few can deny that they are a damn good solo-ing class, perhaps the best in the game. While it is possible to solo powerful dungeons with other classes, no other class seems as straightforward as hunters, at least to my mind. So I would say this: pick a hunter and enjoy the convenience of having your very own tank that you can also heal in between dealing damage. Hunter pets are powerful and they can get you out of many sticky situations. Hunters are fun and... hell, everyone should level at least one!

Demonology Warlock Solos Last Rites

These days it's becoming harder and harder to find even one person to group up for Last Rites, the conclusion to that nice quest chain in Borean Tundra that rewards the player with a choice of nice blue weapons which will last until level 78 in many cases.

So I found myself with my level 71 Warlock at the end of the quest chain and since I had just respecced to Demonology, I felt cocky enough to attempt to solo this quest. This is still a 3-man quest so I wasn't 100% sure I could do it but at the same time I didn't want to wait who knows how long until I could find someone else.

The last time I finished this quest was on my level 71 Rogue with help from a level 80 Rogue that was nice enough to give me a hand. Unfortunately, even though I survived to finish the quest, the 80 Rogue died. He had forgotten how this fight works and had basically killed himself. More on this in a moment.

The Spec

Up until a couple of days ago, I had played my Warlock from 1 to 71 as Affliction, and I loved it. On a whim, I decided to get Dual Spec and make my other spec Demonology. Here's my Demo spec, the one I had when I attempted Last Rites, along with the glyphs I'm using at this level:

0/57/5

The Fight

Before I started the fight, I buffed up with some Shoveltusk Steak for Stamina and Spell Power, a Scroll of Stamina V and I also used another scroll on my Felguard. We both had over 10K HP. Now, I am aware that right from the start I made a bunch of mistakes during this fight with Prince Valanar.

For one thing, I totally forgot to use Immolate. An extra DoT would have been great. Instead, I used Curse of Agony and Corruption as well as Shadow Bolt.

Another mistake (I think, but not sure on this) is that I used my Felguard instead of my Voidwalker. I believe the VW would have been a better tank for this fight. Or not. At least I didn't forget to use Demonic Empowerment whenever it was up.

My third big mistake was that in the heat of the battle I totally forgot that I had Metamorphosis. To say it would have helped me would be an understatement.

The Strategy

My strategy here was to keep the Felguard alive and keep the DoTs up on Valanar. To this end, I punched Health Funnel when my pet was getting low on health. The big thing to watch out here for is the Prince's special attack called Soul Deflection. Whenever he starts channeling this spell, which looks like a tendril that connects to your character, you need to stop DPS or else you will be reflecting all the damage you do back at yourself. That, in fact, was the reason why the 80 Rogue died.

I'm not exactly sure how Soul Deflection works with DoTs but I believe each tick also damages you because my health went down alarmingly several times. Each time he started channeling that spell, I would recall my Felguard. During the fight I had to use some healing unfortunately: a Healthstone, a health pot and my Herbalism ability Lifeblood.

Finally, the Prince dropped. At the end, I was left with about 20% life and the same in mana. I have to say I'm pretty happy with how I handled this fight. Although there were a few mistakes that made the fight harder, in the end I prevailed. Still, this doesn't mean I am very good at Demonology, in fact it's the opposite.

From the rewards I chose the Staff of the Purposeful Mendicant.

Solo Is Not Casual

Let's get one thing straight: a solo player is not necessarily casual. In fact, in many cases, the opposite is true: some of the most hardcore World of Warcraft players like to boogie on their own. Case in point: yours truly.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might already know that. But let me try to make this clear: World of Warcraft is designed to be fun for both group players and solitary players, in spite of being a MMORPG. By definition, a MMORPG is a type of game that is played online with other people. Wikipedia defines a MMORPG as follows:

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (commonly abbreviated MMORPG) is a genre of computer role-playing games in which a large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world.

Notice that this definition, although it mentions "a large number of players interacting with one another" does not imply that these players must actively group with one another all the times. Although there have been (and perhaps still are) MMORPGs in which solo play is strongly discouraged (mostly by how the game is designed), thankfully World of Warcraft is not one of those. WoW manages to offer a lot of fun things to all manner of players.

Bear in mind that in WoW there are some downright anti-social people, who will not group with anyone under any situation. Some will even put you on their ignore list if you try to interact with them in any way. You know what? It's all fair. In a way, WoW can be likened to real life. Not everyone is an outgoing, life-of-the-party character. Some people like being on their own and like being left alone. Others believe that life without partying, going out to bars and otherwise socializing isn't worth living. Both these types are perfectly happy with their lives. So why discriminate in WoW?

It's wrong to draw a sharp line between two imaginary groups in WoW: the raiders/PvP-ers and the casuals. The reason is simple: because there's a gray area between them. There are casual raiders and there are hardcore solo players.

What is a casual player? It's hard to define because although normally a casual player is someone who doesn't invest much time in the game, some people consider solo players to be casual. If we go by the time "invested" or time played, again this is not a good measure. Some people might accomplish a lot in a very short time, while others may languish for months at the same level.

How many hours a week should a player spend in WoW in order to be considered casual or hardcore? How about 2-3 hours during weekdays and 8-10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays? Is that casual or does it fall in hardcore territory? Coincidentally (or not) this is about how much of my time I spend in WoW during the typical week.

If we consider hardcore players to be those who engage in PvP and/or raids, we reach another gray area. Some of these players hardly spend 10 hours a week in game, yet they manage to raid/PvP/socialize just fine. Others spend a lot of time logged on but they don't accomplish much. Instead, they fill the trade channel with garbage or strut around Dalaran or Ironforge trying to impress noobs with their 1337 mounts and gear.

Speaking of gear, does gear make a player hardcore? It could certainly be a measure of hardcore... ness. High-level gear isn't earned easily so it is presumed that people who wear it have played through the highest-level dungeons in order to acquire it, or are Arena champions. More power to them, I say.

The point I'm trying to make is that World of Warcraft can be played in so many ways and each of these ways is filled with fun and satisfaction for a certain group of people. You can: level an alt, raid, PvP in battlegrounds, PvP in arenas, PvP around the world (like Southshore/Crossroads), farm, play the Auction House, collect mounts and pets, explore, chat, level up skills, help other people, quest, solo content such as old dungeons, search for rare items or mobs, acquire the best gear, role play, pursue achievements and so on and so forth. These are but a fraction of the ways in which this game can be enjoyed. There are people who excel at one or more of these activities. I am fairly sure they can be termed "hardcore".

To my mind, a casual player is one who doesn't treat World of Warcraft as their main hobby. They will usually play for an hour here, another there, and will never attain perfection in most of the activities listed above. Either their interest in the game isn't strong enough or Real Life doesn't allow them sufficient time to indulge in it. A "true" casual won't have the best gear or the most gold. They won't have time to engage in all the interesting activities in depth. It is sometimes unfortunate but that's the reality of the situation. Casual players are just as welcome to WoW as all others.

Blizzard has been accused of making the game easier and more trivial in order to accommodate "casuals" but I disagree with this opinion. I believe they have done a great job of making WoW more accessible to everyone, and as a result there are more fun ways to enjoy the game than ever. Let's not kid ourselves. Blizzard is a business and a business' sole purpose is to generate profit. They will generate more profit by pleasing the 90% of players who aren't diehard hardcore than by creating content narrowly aimed at the 10% who consider themselves "true" players. In any case, this 10% elite usually runs through all the content very quickly and then starts complaining that the game is boring and too easy. So yeah, Blizzard will continue to try to please everyone and I don't see this changing, ever.

A very good example of solo-but-not-casual is yours truly. I consider myself pretty "hardcore" as far as solitary players are concerned. As I said earlier, I usually play at least 2 hours a day during weekdays but normally around 3. Weekends I play around 8 hours or sometimes even more, depending on what stuff I have on my Real Life plate. So that's a total of around 30 hours a week, at the minimum.

Playing time aside, I also have 3 level 80 characters which are decently equipped, 2 level 70's, 1 level 66 and a slew of other low level alts. As a solo player I've completed the quests in all the zones of Outland and Northrend with my various characters. I have my own guild, only for my characters. I have purchased all 6 guild bank tabs and they are mostly filled with various mats. I have much maxed out 4 crafting professions on my characters, not to mention gathering skills which are obviously maxed. I am comfortably wealthy in spite of the fact that I've spent thousands of gold on mounts, gear, vanity pets, guild bank tabs and other stuff. And yes, even though I play WoW on my lonesome, sometimes I suffer from burnout. Oh and hey, I've even got a fairly successful WoW blog to top it off!

I ask you all now, do you still think that someone like me is casual? I would think not. I don't want to brag in any way; I'm merely pointing out that I am hardcore in my own kinky way. And there are countless others like me. So please, dear elite WoW players, think about this: solo is not always casual.

Sometimes I wish I was 1337 so I could get tired of it all quickly and search for other ways in which to entertain myself. But I'm not, so I will continue to enjoy World of Warcraft at my own perverse pace. In the end, we all coexist. Elite players drive Blizzard to create more content, while "casuals" give the company the financial incentive to do so. One cannot exist without the other so we might as well get along.

Over and out.

Solo Hunter Gear

Let's say you're a weird-ass hermit like me and like to play on your own. Since you don't raid or PvP, you'll have a much smaller choice in gear compared to those that do. But hold on, why would you need the best gear at 80? Well, for one thing, there's a buttload of things to do at 80, even for a solo player and the better your gear is, the easier it is for you to solo all that stuff. On the other hand, good gear will help you level faster in the next expansion, from 80 to 90.

Just to be clear, I am gonna discuss some gear options you might have at 80 for your hunter, but strictly from the perspective of the solo player and more specifically, from my perspective. I'm also discussing gear for 80 only because as a rule I don't purchase anything other than greens while I level, except ranged weapons (usually blue) and the occasional bargain blue non-weapon. I suggest you do the same. There's no point in spending hundreds of gold in costly upgrades while leveling, just to have them replaced 3 levels later with a green.

As a solo player you will be able to get good quality gear (blue and purple) from 4 main sources:

• BOE dungeon/raid drops from the AH
• crafted BOE items or crafted BOP items provided you can craft them yourself
• items from quests; blue items are usually from group quests
• items sold by various factions based on reputation

The most powerful items are obviously BOEs that drop in raids, which you can find on the AH. Currently Ulduar items typically fetch thousands of gold a piece. As time goes by, their prices will drop to more affordable amounts. Of course, if you wait too long, a new raid (Arthas, for example) will be introduced, with even more powerful and expensive items. And then, the next expansion hits and all these epix will be useless once more. Well, not useless but will probably sell for very low prices.

So when's the right price to buy such an item? I'm having the same dilemma myself. For example I'm watching a very nice hunter belt that drops in Naxxramas called Torn Web Wrapping. It has some very sweet stats with the exact combination I'm looking for. It would be a nice upgrade to the blue belt I'm using. Unfortunately, this epic belt is selling for around 3000 gold on my server. I have enough gold to afford it easily but I am also willing to wait because I'm not playing my hunter very hard these days. So I figured I'll wait until it drops to 2000 gold. When will that happen? No idea.

Enough splitting of hairs though. Let me get down to the actual items themselves. What follows is a bunch of items that I have obtained strictly in a solo setting. Since they are relatively easy to acquire, I will offer them as suggestions for your own set of gear. Also, please note that I am sporting this gear as a Beast Master Hunter. The list is not complete because I still need to replace some stuff. Also, I'm sure some of you will find better items out there. I'm simply offering this list as a starting point. Here we go...

Ranged Weapon - Nesingwary 4000. Here's where some of you might have a problem. You might prefer a bow or a crossbow. Unfortunately there aren't any bows/crossbows that can be obtained easily at this level for a player who doesn't raid or PvP. So we are left with the Nesingwary which is just dandy for me. As a dwarf hunter, I've always wielded a gun. Even if I had the opportunity to equip a much better bow, I've always stuck to my gun. A dwarf with a bow seems just... wrong. So as far as I'm concerned, the Nesingwary is the only way to go. On top of that, it's cheap to get the mats and have it crafted. These days you can even find it in the AH for as low as 500 gold.
Ranged Weapon Enchant - Hearseeker Scope. For my max-level guns I always like to add a crit scope. As we level, out effective crit percentage continues to drop for the same crit rating so I find that in non-raid gear, my crit is a bit on the low side. Thus, I ignore the other types of scope because it's easier to get extra DPS or haste from other stats.

Melee Weapon - Silvery Sylvan Stave. This stave is what I'm sporting right now. It's probably one of the best and easiest to get epics in the game and it has some awesome stats. It is obtained from the Argent Tournament after you become Champion and costs a measly 25 Champion's Seals. If you still have a long way to go before you can get this stave, a very good alternative is the Icier Barbed Spear. This spear can be obtained as a reward from the Amphitheater of Anguish chain in Zul'Drak. Once you find a group (and it's easy to find a group for this chain) it is easy to beat all the bosses. As a bonus, you will make 100G from all the quest rewards.
Melee Weapon Enchant - Greater Savagery. This is my personal choice. 85 AP is nothing to sneeze at and it's a very cheap enchantment to get.

Head - Toothslice Helm. This helm is easily obtained from the Oracles in Sholazar Basin. Revered reputation is trivial to get. Personally I haven't found any other helm that's easier to get.
Head Enchant - Arcanum of Torment from Knights of the Ebon Blade reputation in Icecrown. Fortunately you only need to be Revered with them to get access to this item. It's easy to become Revered: just do all the quests in Icecrown.

Shoulders - Spaulders of Grounded Lightning. These are sold by the Kirin Tor faction in Dalaran. It's easy to be Honored with these guys at 80. If you're still not Honored when you hit 80, do some cooking and fishing dailies.
Shoulder Enchant - For Scribes, the one and only option is: Master's Inscription of the Axe. For non-Scribes, unfortunately you'll have to grind some reputation with the Sons of Hodir in Storm Peaks but it's not that hard to reach Exalted with them. You just have to finish all the quests in Storm Peaks (99% of them are solo-able) and then do a few dailies. More dailies open up as you gain reputation with them but I suggest you go the quick route if you have some money saved up and simply buy their love by turning in Relics of Ulduar. I simply bought a ton of those from the AH, whenever they dropped below 1G a piece. At Honored with these guys you can purchase Lesser Inscription of the Axe. I suggest you wait until you're exalted, for Greater Inscription of the Axe.

Back - I just bought Ice Striker's Cloak for 200 gold on the Auction House. It's a very decent price considering that Wowhead lists it at 500 gold average. UPDATE: OK, I was hasty... a day later (Saturday) this cloak dropped in price to 150 gold. Even though it's a doh! moment for me, the point I'm trying to make is that it's extremely cheap to get a good quality epic for this slot.
Back Enchant - Major Agility. It's a bit more costly than Superior Agility but in this case I think it's worth it. Instead of finding an enchanter try searching for the scroll on the AH. I bought one for only 75 gold which is significantly cheaper than the cost of the mats.

Chest - Razorstrike Breastplate. This is perhaps the easiest to get and cheapest option for a chestpiece that you can find starting with level 78. It has very nice stats and is created from Leatherworking. You can either supply the mats + small tip to a leatherworker or perhaps even better, watch for a cheaply priced one on the AH. Very frequently these will sell for less than the price of mats so you stand a high chance of getting a good bargain on it.
Chest Enchant - Super Stats (+8 to all stats). You could also go for the +10 to stats Powerful Stats enchant but it's not worth the premium IMO, unless you're a raider and you're applying it to a really high level chest piece.

Wrist - One option would be Eaglebane Bracers that can be cheaply bought from the AH. Their stats are OK - ish. I'm currently researching more expensive options. Some of these are:
Giantmaim Bracers created through Leatherworking and not very expensive to make/buy. Unfortunately they have Armor Penetration instead of Crit and (call me stupid but...) I hate that stat. Don't understand it and don't wanna use it.
Slime Stream Bands which drop in Naxx and have some sweet stats on them, plus a socket. Currently waiting for them to drop at or below 2000 gold.
Armguard of the Tower Archer which can be bought from the Auction House for more decent prices, since it's an item that can be purchased by players with extra Emblems of Valor from Dalaran.
Bracers of Smothering Inferno which drop in Ulduar and have the best stats of the bunch but are a bit on the expensive side.
Here's a nice comparison between these options. Bear in mind that I've only listed those that you can buy. You might be able to get some nice bracers from quests but I haven't found any so far. I still have Icecrown to quest through though.
Wrist Enchant - Striking is the best bang for the buck. Definitely go for this if you're on a limited budged. If money is of little concern, get Greater Assault. If you are a Leatherworker, your best and only option by far is Fur Lining - Attack Power.

Hand - My suggestion is to watch the AH for Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets that drop in Naxx and have some very sweet stats on them, including a red socket. I found these gloves for 350-ish gold, which I think is a very good price. I gemmed them with a Delicate Scarlet Ruby for +16 AGI. In retrospect I guess I should have used a Bright Scarlet Ruby. However, there are many options as far as gems are concerned and you should pick the ones that give you the stats that you need most.
Hand Enchant - There are several options here.
Greater Blasting - expensive and the tiny bit of crit is not worth it, IMO.
Crusher - gives some nice AP but again, I think it's too expensive to be worth it.
Major Agility - this is the one I opted for. The mats are very affordable and even though it gives a tiny bit less AP compared to Crusher, it will also get you some crit, armor and dodge.
Precision - If your Hit Rating is really suffering, get this one but for a non-raiding hunter, Hit Rating has a low priority to me. I've never needed to reach the hit cap in a solo setting. So what if I occasionally miss 1 or 2 shots? The highest level creatures I'm fighting are only level 80s so Hit is not very important to me.
Greater Assault - I'm tied between this and Major Agility but if you can't afford it, Greater Assault is a good alternative to Crusher.

Waist - Thanks to the Sons of Hodir, I replaced the green belt that I was wearing with Giant Ring Belt. You just need to be honored with these guys but if you're going for the shoulder enchants (and I suggest you do), this belt is trivial to get. I like that it has all the stats a solo hunter needs and in generous quantities.
Torn Web Wrapping is the belt that I'm watching for in the AH and waiting for it to drop to around 2000. This is a nice BOE belt that drops in Naxx and it should be everything you need until the next expansion.
Waist Enchant - We all know there are no belt enchants per se, but of course you can fit your belt with an Eternal Belt Buckle that allows you to stick a gem in there. I haven't got one myself yet perhaps because I'm waiting for a better belt but I would probably use a Bright Scarlet Ruby.

Legs - I'm curently (still) using Greaves of Sanctified Dissolution which is a reward from the quest Ursoc, the Bear God in Grizzly Hills. If you haven't done this quest yet and you're sporting lesser pants, I suggest you do it. This quest is the culmination to a very nice chain, filled with lore. Although the quest is considered a group quest, it can be soloed easily as a hunter because you enlist the help of a bear NPC that can act as several types of class and I usually pick a healer.
Giantmaim Legguards are a cheap epic option but I'm staying away from them thanks to that Armor Penetration stat.
Darkcore Leggings drop in Ulduar and currently seem to be the most powerful BOE legs that you can find. The price though is prohibitive.
In addition, there are probably a few other options obtained through questing or reputation vendors but I don't have enough experience to give any advice in that matter.
Leg Enchant - There are only 2-3 options worth considering here.
Nerubian Leg Reinforcements is the single best leg enchant you can have, provided you are a Leatherworker.
Icescale Leg Armor is the best choice if you're not a leatherworker and provided you find some really nice legs to stick it on.
Nerubian Leg Armor is the most common option and the one I use currently. It's cheap to buy or craft and definitely worth every penny.

Feet - Boots of the Terrestrial Guardian are the ones I'm using right now. They can be found really cheap in the AH so if you're still sporting greens, I'd suggest you look for these. The only other boots that I can find are from a Leatherworking recipe that drops in Ulduar and the mats alone should make them prohibitively expensive. They are: Boots of Living Scale.
Feet Enchant - I currently opted for Assault which gives 24 AP. That's not the best enchant but it's the cheapest. There are 3 other options worth considering:
Icewalker if you need a little bit of hit and crit rating. It's not a lot so I usually skip this enchant. Like I said earlier, I'm not really concerned about my hit rating since the highest mobs I'm fighting are only 80.
Superior Agility - I would skip this as a Beast Master Hunter. While AGI will give you a bit of AP and crit and dodge and armor, you'd be better off with the next one which is...
Greater Assault is the one I would get if I had lost of cash. Wait, I do have enough cash so I will probably get it at some point but I'm in no hurry since it only gives me an extra +8 AP compared to what I have right now.

Neck - Choker of the Betrayer is what I use for now but it's not the best thing out there, by far. It is relatively easy to get and you don't need a group to finish the long chain of quests from Zul'Drak which culminates in Betrayal. The only other viable alternative seems to be Titanium Impact Choker which can be crafted relatively cheaply but I haven't bothered with that one either.

Rings - Since I'm a bit crazy in the noggin' I'm wearing an Inscribed Band of the Kirin Tor and a Band of the Kirin Tor. Expensive you say? At a total over 15K gold, it's definitely not cheap. I thought that by getting these 2 I would have access to 2 different portals to Dalaran. Alas, the ring portals are on the same cooldown. Since I didn't find anything on the web regarding this, it was an expensive experiment but in the end the stats on the rings are very good. The only other ring that I would consider is Surge Needle Ring but I've never seen it on my AH.
Ring Enchant - You can only have a ring enchant if you're an enchanter but there's really only 1 enchant for you in this case: Assault. End of story.

Trinkets - Unfortunately there isn't much advice I can give you here. I'm wearing 2 fairly common trinkets obtained from quests: Medallion of Heroism and Automated Weapon Coater. I'm holding on to these primarily due to the crit. I'm considering replacing them with some of the following, especially the first 2 which are much cheaper options:
Darkmoon Card: Death is not too expensive to obtain, especially considering that I can craft my own Darkmoon cards with my scribe.
Oracle Talisman of Ablution also gives some nice crit and also restores 5% of maximum mana which is really nice if you have 2 of these equipped. Unfortunately I'm not exalted with these guys and I still have a ways to go until I will be.
Darkmoon Card: Greatness is the most expensive alternative and I'm not sure it's worth the premium. I'm gonna skip it for the time being.

This concludes my guide to solo hunter gear. Please remember that these are just my suggestions and most of it is gear that I'm currently wearing. I am very happy with my damage currently but I do intend to make small improvements to my gear going forward. I am sure that you will find gear that I have omitted here or that is better suited to you or your style of play. You will certainly find some cheaper alternatives but the bottom line is that everything I've listed here can be obtained without having to step in PvP or a single instance, dungeon or raid.

I really appreciate that Blizzard has provided enough and varied gear for people to enjoy World of Warcraft on their own and I can bear witness that the game begins at 80 for solo players also, not just for hardcore raiders or PvP-ers.

Also be sure to check my other articles in this series for Solo Hunters:
Solo Hunter Spec
Solo Hunter Glyphs

Solo-ing the Fel Reaver

Remember that blasted Fel Reaver in Hellfire Peninsula that gave you so much grief when you were trying to level up through the zone? Well, now that you're a big boy (or girl) of 80, you can finally exact your revenge and kick his ass to kingdom come.

I'd obviously read plenty of stories about level 80s solo-ing the Fel Reaver but I had never tried it myself before. Back at 70, a group of at least 2 people was needed, if not 3 or more. Since my 80 hunter was in the area and since I came across one, I decided to see how fast it would go down. Here are the results:

I have to say, it was a lot easier than I expected. Even though this elite mob has 104K health, it took me roughly 1 minute to bring it down. Here are the "resources" I used in killing it (as a hunter, of course):

• 2x Mend Pet whenever my pet's health dropped to 80-90%
• 1x Intimidation at the beginning
• 1x Misdirection at the beginning
• almost all my mana but I didn't have to switch to Aspect of the Viper after all

My aggro at the end of the fight had almost reached that of my pet's at over 52K (as per Omen).

He dropped a few silver and a grey item so if you're planning to "farm" him, I can tell you it's pointless. Doing it for the lols however, is very recommended.

So if you're 80 and feel like kicking some weak mob's ass, the good ol' Fel Reaver is waiting for you.

Solo Hunter Glyphs

I just realized, thanks to comments, that in my previous post Solo Hunter Spec I omitted to describe the glyphs that I use for my Beast Mastery 55/15/0 build.

So here's the updated spec, along with the glyphs that I find most useful for Beast Mastery. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that BM hunters received much love in regards to glyphs.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Hunter's Mark - Perhaps it doesn't seem very useful but since I use Hunter's Mark for each and every mob (except when I'm AoE-ing), I would say that the 20% bonus to RAP is nothing to sneeze at. My level 5 Hunter's Mark now gives a 360 RAP bonus, up from the standard 300.

Glyph of Bestial Wrath - Now here's something that I like. Combined with Longevity in the Beast Mastery tree, my Bestial Wrath skill is now on a 1.14 minute cooldown. Very wicked, I'm telling you. If you're Beast Mastery, this glyph is a must. This combination guarantees that Bestial Wrath is up almost every fight.

Glyph of Mending - Another glyph that I consider essential for a Beast Master. 40% extra healing is huge. Combines with level 2 Blood of the Rhino, I now heal my pet for 2263 every tick.

Now if I could just use a 4th Major Glyph, I would give (strangely) Glyph of Explosive Trap a try. Why? Because it makes my AoE attacks even more powerful. I use Explosive Trap extensively when farming, for example, Stratholme. Since the mobs in there are pretty weak - but many - this would be a nice boost to my AoE DPS.

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Feigh Death - Slightly decreases the cooldown of your Feign Death. Marginally useful. Better than nothing I guess.

Glyph of Mend Pet - This one is a bit more useful than the previous because every time you heal your pet, it gets a bit of happiness. This means that since you're healing the pet pretty often, it will always stay Happy, translating into the highest damage possible. Also, you don't have to feed the pet anymore.

Unfortunately for the 3rd minor glyph I haven't found anything remotely useful. Hopefully there will be some new, improved glyphs in a future patch.

Also be sure to check my other articles in this series for Solo Hunters:
Solo Hunter Spec
Solo Hunter Gear

Solo Hunter Spec

It used to be that hunters were arguably the best soloing class in the game. That is still true to some extent, although Blizzard's ongoing "homogenization" of classes has rendered it less so. Many more classes and specs are now adept at soloing content but hunters still remain ahead of the pack. But that's just my humble opinion.

Hunters have a few advantages that put them above other classes in some ways. Here are a few of them:

• hunter pets can tank from one to several mobs successfully while the hunter spanks... from a distance
• hunters (especially when the player knows his class) seldom die
• related to the above, hunters can generally survive even whole group wipes with judicious use of Feign Death
• hunters can survive short melee scuffles thanks to wearing mail, as opposed to clothies
  
• hunters are self-sufficient in regards to their resources: they can heal their pets with Mend Pet, they can recover their mana with Aspect of the Viper and Beastmasters speccing into Spirit Bond will slowly recover lost health while their pet is out
• hunters' pets do very decent damage, especially when specced for it
• hunters themselves do very nice dps, in spite of the fact that they also have a damage-dealing pet

For today, I've decided to outline the spec that my level 80 hunter uses for soloing the whole of World of Warcraft... well, whatever doesn't require PvP or raids or even 5-man dungeons. Even then, I would still use the same spec because I've been using it for a very long time and I'm comfortable with the way it works. In fact I'm not even planning to get Dual Specs on my hunter any time soon because there's no other spec that looks attractive to me.

So what is this fantastic spec that I've been blabbing about for the past 5 minutes? Beast Mastery of course. I use a 55/15/0 configuration. If you will notice, even though I'm 80, I still have 1 talent point to allocate and I simply can't make a decision in this regard.

I've always used Beast Mastery because I'm of the opinion that a hunter should have a strong pet, capable of handling powerful mobs (even elites) and that's especially true for leveling and soloing. Next I'm going to detail the talents that I picked with explanations for each choice.

Beast Mastery
Tier 1
Endurance Training 5/5 - A tanking pet needs that extra health.

Tier 2
Focused Fire 2/2 - 2% extra damage when pet is out? Meaning all the time almost? Hell yeah!
Thick Hide 3/3 - Nice boost to pet's armor. A must for a tanking pet.

Tier 3
Aspect Mastery 1/1 - For 1 point this talent is a must. One of the best bangs you can get for your buck.
Unleashed Fury 5/5 - 15% increased pet damage is a good thing.

Tier 4
Improved Mend Pet 2/2 - Essential for a solo hunter. Makes soloing certain elites possible and increases your pet's longevity. Also improves its chances to survive AOE tanking of several mobs.
Ferocity 5/5 - More crit for your pet is a good thing. Besides tanking, I like the pet to also do some damage.

Tier 5
Spirit Bond 2/2 - I used to ignore this talent previously but since it was overhauled by increasing the healing done to the pet I consider it a must. I consider the health regeneration a bonus.
Intimidation 1/1 - Essential for the Beast Mastery hunter. This is a skill that you should be using whenever it's up, in order to lower your effective threat.
Bestial Discipline 2/2 - Doubles the focus regeneration of your pet. This means your pet can use its special abilities a lot more often, which translates into higher damage. It's a must for a BM build.

Tier 6
Frenzy 5/5 - I always liked Frenzy. It makes your pet go nuts after critting. It was especially cool during the old days of 1.0 speed pets such as Broken Tooth.

Tier 7
Ferocious Inspiration 3/3 - 3% increased damage when pet crits? Bring it on! Since pets crit fairly often, I consider this talent a no-brainer.
Bestial Wrath 1/1 - Essential for the BM hunter. It's like a 50% extra damage trinket on a short cooldown. Also breaks snares on the pet. Wicked. As a bonus, your pet turns large and red for the duration.

Tier 8
Serpent's Swiftness 5/5 - Increases both your ranged attack speed and your pet's attack speed by 20%. Huge boost to overall DPS. A must for the BM hunter.

Tier 9
Longevity 3/3 - Oh this is sweet. Bestial Wrath and Intimidation are on a really short timer now and your pet can use its special abilities more often. Remember that doubling of focus generation? Yep, here's where it comes into play.
The Beast Within 1/1 - Bestial Wrath for the hunter. 'Nuff said.
Cobra Strikes 3/3 - This is especially useful for Steady Shot since this is what you're using most of the time. A very solid talent.

Tier 10
Kindred Spirits 5/5 - The 20% increased pet damage is especially sweet. Practically this is a flat 20% increased damage since it's up whenever your pet's up.

Tier 11
Beast Mastery 1/1 - Some people will skip the final talent in the tree claiming it's not worth it but even if you don't use an exotic pet, the 4 extra pet skill points are worth the measly talent, IMO.

Now that we're well specced into Beast Mastery, let's move on to Marksmanship.

Marksmanship
Tier 1
Lethal Shots 5/5 - 5% extra crit??? Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! I don't think there's a hunter build that skips this talent.

Tier 2
Careful Aim 3/3 - Excellent talent, I would say it's a must. Makes Intellect very important and hunter gear has lots of INT on it. Basically every 1 INT = 1 RAP (Ranged Attack Power).
Mortal Shots 5/5 - 30% increased damage when you crit with all your ranged abilities is really nice. Get it.

Tier 3
Go for the Throat 2/2 - Your pet gains half its focus bar whenever you crit. That's pretty sweet. Between this one and the focus-generating talents in the Beast Mastery tree, your pet should never be out of focus.

And there's 1 talent point left unspent. I'm really at a loss over what to spend it on. I was thinking maybe Aimed Shot but even though it is an instant shot, I haven't used it since they overhauled it significantly and I don't know how effective it is. Besides, the biggest problem is that I don't have any hotkeys left. That has always been a problem with hunters. So if you have a suggestion for that last point, I would be obliged.

Now if you dig a Beast Mastery build, you will probable have a different opinion on how to allocate those talents. This is my build and it has been really good for me. Of course, it is not a raiding or a PvP build but I've done a few battlegrounds before using the very same build and I guess it worked. Well, I only did those BGs for a few pieces of gear and I didn't give a damn when I got killed.

A hunter is only half the man (or woman) without his/her pet. As a pet, I'm currently using a simple Bear. The reason is twofold: bears are excellent tanks and they also have Swipe which offers a small AOE advantage. Combined with Thunderstomp, bears are perhaps the best AOE tanking pets out there. OK, Crocs aren't bad either but to me they seem annoying.

Here's how I specced my Bear tank. Link.

• Charge 1/1 - I always loved this skill. Before pets were completely redesigned, with their own talent tree, I would pick Boars especially for this skill. It makes the pet shoot like a bullet towards its target and also makes its next hit more potent.
• Great Stamina 3/3 - Staple tanking talent.
• Natural Armor 2/2 - More armor for your pet makes it sturdier.
• Spiked Collar 3/3 - 9% increased damage with all attacks and skills is awesome. This includes AOE damage.
• Blood of the Rhino 2/2 - This is a twofer. Not only does it further increase the pet's stamina but it also increases all healing received by the pet. Yummy!
• Pet Barding 2/2 - Further increases both the pet's mitigation and its avoidance. Good for a tanking spec.
• Guard Dog 2/2 - Makes Growl more potent and also, very importantly, gives a measure of happines to the pet whenever it uses Growl. This is very good because now you never have to feed your pet again. Yeah, I know, animal cruelty. Deal with it, it's just pixels.
• Thunderstomp 1/1 - The pet AOE skill. Don't leave home without it.
• Grace of the Mantis 2/2 - Provides some mitigation but overall it seems like a so-so talent.
• Silverback 2/2 - Pet heals itself whenever it growls. The amount isn't much but combined with Mend Pet, it will probably make a difference in tighter fights.

And that's it for my hunter and pet specs. As for my rotation, I'm happy with the following:

1. Hunter's Mark
2. Arcane Shot
3. Steady Shot
4. Steady Shot
5. Arcane Shot
6. repeat
7. optionally cast Mend Pet if needed
   

If there's a tougher mob, I weave Serpent Sting after Arcane Shot.
For multiple mobs I use Multishot and then Volley.

And there you have it. I'm completely happy with my talent allocation and my pet and I don't see myself making any changes unless Blizzard decides to make significant changes to the talent trees (again). There remains that small issue with ammo, but I hope they will end up converting ammo to an equipped item.

Also be sure to check my other articles in this series for Solo Hunters:
Solo Hunter Glyphs
Solo Hunter Gear

Starting a New Character

As a solitary player of World of Warcraft, I have developed a checklist when starting a new character on a new realm.

1. As soon as I find the appropriate trainers, I learn 2 gathering skills such as (from most profitable to least): mining/herbalism, skinning/mining, skinning/herbalism.

2. I learn First Aid as soon as I can, making sure to level it whenever I have enough cloth. First Aid is good to have even as a healer.

3. As soon as I get out of the starting area and reach the first inn (meaning I am close to a mailbox), I will create a bank alt and move it to the city with the most efficient layout.

4. Try to get into a guild. Though it may seem this step goes contrary to the whole philosophy of this blog, my reasoning is simple: as a solo player I find it important to belong to a guild only so that I stop getting unsolicited guild invites.

5. Get the biggest bags I can afford. If I already have a main or a higher level character, this is the first thing I do. In a future post I will expand on the bag issue, although most players already know why big bags are important.

Some of you will probably wonder why I am rehashing something that every WoW player knows. Well, not everybody knows these things, especially if they are new players. Even players who are aware of them will sometimes dismiss them as useless things.

Well, one of my mantras is "minimum effort, maximum efficiency" and this is what I am trying to accomplish here.

I will discuss in greater detail about each of these points. Stay tuned!

Why Play an MMO Solo?

Those who play World of Warcraft on their own obviously know the answer to this question and even then, each has his own personal reasons for doing it. A lot of the "normal" players (i.e. those who believe an MMO = socializing + grouping) are still baffled what the hell we are doing in this game if we don't group or are not part of a guild or don't raid, etc.
For me, there are several reasons why I like playing WoW in this manner.

Beginning with a little background info, I started using a PC fairly late in my existence, about 15 years ago but computers are now a big part of my life and games contributed greatly to this. I learned to love RPGs the most, for the fact that I get a lot of enjoyment from building an avatar, starting from a lowly station and eventually leveling it to a powerful entity capable of annihilating entire armies of animated pixels. In short, a good RPG is the type of game that will keep me hooked for a very long time. I especially like those which don't have an ending, such as World of Warcraft :)

Well, I've had the pleasure of experiencing some of the best RPGs, such as Ultima Underworld, Ultima 8, Fallout 1/2, Morrowind, KOTOR and the Diablo series. [Yes, I am aware that Diablo isn't a "true" RPG but it does have all the elements minus the quests, but most of all it is almost endless - the way I like it]. WoW is my first MMORPG. The first contact I had with WoW was when I got hold of a cracked client copy which allowed you to create a character, move around the areas and kill static mobs that had a high drop rate of mostly good stuff. As you can imagine, this copy was highly bugged and impossible to play for more than a few minutes, but I just wanted to get a feel for the game to figure out if it is worth shelling money for. I've got a weird thing: if a new game doesn't have me hooked within the first 10-15 minutes, it goes in the trash. At the same time I also bought a WoW strategy guide and read all of it avidly. Finally I decided to get WoW and I can say it was love at first sight.

Lucky for me I had read the strategy guide beforehand and it was fairly easy to get started as a noob. Even though the guide was already dated by the time I started playing, this was WoW Classic, way before The Burning Crusade, and things were simpler back then.

Since I'm deviating from my original topic, I will try to cut this short. I spent a long time leveling my first character to 60. I leveled with a protection paladin under the false assumption that being a paladin with a shield he would: a) take less damage and b) he would be able to heal himself. Big mistake. It took me ages to get to 60 but once there, I started to be complimented on my "tanking skills" in instances pretty often by my guildmates. Notice, before BC I used to be in a real guild.

While leveling the paladin I also started a hunter, which has since become my main but is now losing in popularity to other characters that I am enjoying a lot lately. The hunter turned out to be - for me at least - the ultimate solo-ing class. Once I discovered the joys of being a hunter, I left my paladin to rot at 60 and never looked back.

There are 2 main stages in my WoW career.
First was pre-BC. Back then, I was part of two casual guilds, completed most of the 5-man instances and also did a few raids, notably Zul'Gurub, Molten Core and a bit of AQ20. Because I was in a guild I felt compelled to show up regularly for raids and in turn that put a lot of pressure on my real life such that at one point, before BC was released, I quit WoW.

After a good, long break, I came back to the game and found myself in The Burning Crusade. This time, I vowed never to join a guild again, never to do instances and especially never to do raids. I would approach WoW as a single player game, with the advantage of a large community with whom to trade and occasionally group for harder quests. And I believe this has helped me stay (relatively) un-addicted.

I really do enjoy having lots of people in the game, all around me. It makes the WoW universe feel alive, populated with real people, not NPCs. Just as IRL, there are always some who prefer to be "lone wolves". In many ways I pride myself for being like this. Everything I accomplish is my own doing. Well, that excludes group quests that give juicy rewards but even then, I love that you can disband without any future obligations.

It may sound selfish but I wouldn't have time to help guild members with their problems. I've got my own goals to meet. However, I always lead a hand if I see a player in trouble, even if they are of the opposite faction.

So what does a solo player like me like to do in WoW? I love the leveling process. Besides my main who's 80, I have four 70+ alts, a 65 alt on the opposite faction and a bunch of other lower level alts. Then, I really like to farm stuff. Gold, items, rep... you name it. I also like to mine, herb and skin. Making gold is one of the things that drive me in this game. Finally, I also like to have the best equipment money can afford, at maximum level and even while leveling.

I will be talking about all these ways to enjoy WoW on your own in the future.