Related to our recent discussions of extreme soloing, I thought it might be worthwhile to talk a bit about how to quickly level your pet.
First of all, in a perfect world you can find a pet that is already near level 80. For those that don’t know, the way to do this is to go to Petopia at http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/ At Petopia you can select your pet type and find a list of everywhere in WoW that they’re located, and at what level ranges. It’s terribly useful.
Now, if your pet just isn’t available at level 80 – such as the turtle, the ideal extreme soloing pet for most situations – then we have to level it. Leveling a pet is easier than ever before, and yet it’s still boring as all heck.
The fastest way I’ve found to level a tenacity pet is in Icecrown. Specifically, on the valley floor in the western half, just north of the elites:
Here you’ll find packs of level 80 skeletons marching in formation. There are around 7-8 of them in each group, and the groups are all over the place. This is XP heaven.
Just send your tenacity pet in at the group, Mend Pet, Misdirect and multi-shot, then Volley the mobs. Usually after the first volley they come after you. I then drop an explosive trap and feign death, then finish volleying them to death. It takes maybe 30 seconds to kill a group of 7-9 mobs. Then you loot ‘em all, and move on to the next.
I recently leveled a pet from 76 – 80 there in under an hour, which is faster than any other method I’ve tried.
Oh, and for bonus speed, you can useFrostheim’s crazy crazy pet leveling talent build, 37/34/0
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I have previously just pulled out a pet I needed to level while doing sporadic dailies. It could easily take a week to level from 75-80.
I’ll grab a turtle sometime this week and give this a shot.
I’m going to have to see how well this works for a new 80 in dungeon and crafted blues.
Awesome tip, thanks! You may want to mention that IIRC those mobs get buffed if the banner guy gets too close (the guy in the back of the screenshot). I think I remember those groups being not trivial to take on before I had good gear, but it was a while ago so not sure. Not like super hard, but not trivial either.
@axebrew yes do please report back how this goes with your gear
Member
Perfectly timed post for those who got the worgen this weekend.
Admin
I usually take the flag guy in along with all the rest. Couple things to note about this:
- you must have a tenacity pet with thunderstomp. Okay if it’s lower level, but you need the thunderstomp. This is a pain with a feroicty pet, let me tell you.
- Works best with the hunter build I linked, or a BM build. This gets much harder to manage with a MM or SV build – especially with a lower level pet.
- natrually life is much easier with two pieces of T5 gear
Member
Also your crazy build doesn’t work if you’re trying to level an exotic pet :p
I got a turtle a few days ago and have been grinding away at mobs just west of Shadow vault. I’ll give this a go tonight.
I am also a Dwarf hunter just getting into heroics and love this blog
Dues Payer
tyvm ive been grinding on gorillas in the basin and thats not going so good. taking a few heroics can level a pet quick, but this ill try tonight as well.
Yeah, this is key.
I don’t know why I feel like I’m leveling so fast but I shot from 74-78 in no time (in part thanks to the Fire Festival) All of my pets are 4 levels behind! Got to get grinding.
Dues Payer
well ive been doing this in my raid mm spec and i do it a litttle different. i kill the banners seperately. i send my turtle in with mend on it, md, and i shell shield. one of the mobs puts a 50% less healing on it so the mend does like 700 a tick. i run in the middle, volley, FD, then volley. usually second volley finishes them. i can do this 2-3 times before i have to eat something to get my HP back up. i didnt wanna respec cuz its 50g which so far would moot all the gold im picking up and then some. foods cheap, plus sparkling frostcaps drop a lot. thats how im rolling anyway, its quick as shiz to, dang.
I think thats is the best place to level Tenacity pets, but for Ferocity pets I prefer to level them on the fire elementals on the eastern edge of storm peaks. They are all level 80 and have an incredibly fast respawn rate, and since it’s one at a time it won’t be hard to keep aggro. I started levelling just after we won wintergrasp, and was done when it came time to defend.
Dues Payer
I’d also like to offer up the Skeletal Runesmith’s in the forge area near Icecrown citadel as a dense pack of weak skeletons who respawn really quickly.
http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=31321
As a side bonus the drop the fire resist BoP crafting patterns for enchanting, leatherworking and alchemy – in case you haven’t ground them out yet.
Well, i am a slacker, i don’t level my pets on my own. I simply join the group for 2-3 heroics and ta-da! 75 to 80 in a couple of hours. People tend not to notice what level your pet is, and i never had a complain. Well, of course i do try to group with guildies, in that case i really have nothing to worry about. And being SV during the run helps to keep up good dps anyway.
and as far as leveling spec – that’s pretty much my standard leveling spec. (i have leveled 3 hunters – don’t ask)
Member
@Myr — excellent spot! thanks for the tip. my pet went from 76-79 in about an hour last night and the spawn rate is incredible! I could barely loot the kills before they all respawned! I recommend this spot to anyone NOT on Trollbane
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this only works if you have pet AOE aggro abilities
So, to follow up:
Frost’s skelly packs are slightly painful at my gear level (I can hear Frost and Arust now: “Well, come raid with us, dummy!” Yes, I know…)
I used the pet-leveling build. It *was* doable (just), but my damage output just isn’t there yet to make it as non-stop as I’d like. Just over an hour for two bear levels (all of 77>78 and 78>79), and more between-fight mana recovery and pet healing than I’d like… mostly due to nearby spawns and wanderers.
I’ll check out the Skeletal Runesmiths and see how Shan does going through 79 there.
I’ve a couple of cunning/ferocity pets to bring up from 75. I’ll be looking for similar packs, but maybe smaller groups due to lack of pet AE. I wonder how the moth effect will do for group agro…
And yes, Frost, I got a moth just because I know it’d amuse some folks (like Cheerleader), and the big flappy wings will seriously annoy others (*cough*Hrist*cough*)
Does the leveling shoulders with 10% more exp help out when leveling a pet?
Dues Payer
i am successfully levelling a wolf here now. well, my second wolf, i got the one in ramps. its a little different strat but the abundance of mobs makes it quick and easy. not a single death yet. i took lick your wounds and phoenix just in case tho.
Thanks heaps, I have been levelling my new pet here and an hour with beer, chips and music blaring gets thru many levels.
What I would really like to see is now that I have tamed Gondria (level 77) using BM, I would like to see her usuable with the SV and MM builds. I have tamed her so why can’t she be available regardless of build?
Outstanding! Nearly leveled my pet in just under an hour from 79 to 80 will finish tonight then off to try a turtle. Thanks a million for the info.
Cart
Wow. Thanks for letting us know about this. I plan to try it out asap.
These guys are the “Converted Heroes”, which (since 3.2 dropped) are also part of the Daily Argent Tournament Champion quests (‘kill 10′). So if you’ve been doing those quests, you’ve seen these guys a bunch already
I just usually switch to Survival Spec and run a few heroics….
Levels in no time and my dps is still respectable, though can’t use my pet to save us in a situation gone awry.