One of the coolest things about being a Hunter is the fact that at level 10, you're able to tame a pet that will fight and grow alongside you until you replace it with another pet somewhere down the road.
Unfortunately, the level 10 pet quest has some quirks to it that make the process challenging for folks new to the Hunter game. Thus, this entry was born!
I'm writing it from the perspective of a Troll or Orc on the Horde side, but the general premises would apply no matter what race and what area you get your quests from.
Getting The Quest
As a Troll Hunter, I got my quest ("Taming The Beast") in Razor Hill from the Hunter trainer in the bunker across the street from the Inn. If you're curious, the trainer's name is Thotar.
Having gone through this process before, I now know that there are three stages to completing the taming quests:
Taming The Beast - Dire Mottled Boar
Taming The Beast - Surf Crawler
Taming The Beast - Armored Scorpid
and then upon turning in #3, Thotar sends us off to the Hunter Trainers in Orgrimmar to get the last piece when it comes to Spellbook-based pet commands:
Tame
Call
Feed
Release
Once all of these steps have been completed and you're able to Feed your new pets (Feed being the last 'spell' you learn while in Orgrimmar), then and only then will you be able to head out into the wild and tame a beast who will remain by your side and operate as a full-blown Hunter pet.
Finding The Right (Quest) Beasts To Tame
As with any of the rest of the World of Warcraft quests, the quest mobs in question are very specific mobs. Therefore, trying to tame a Pygmy Surf Crawler is not going to count towards taming a Surf Crawler. I believe it was the Hunter quest that lead me towards my introduction to Thottbot.com, a website with a simple search engine that's full of mob and item location data (complete with maps) and a plethora of other information.
I strongly suggest you use Thottbot throughout your Warcraft gaming, and for that reason, I've made the links up above when referring to the quest mobs. Find a line entry with a high number of kills, and then click on "Map" to the left of the kills number, and you'll find the most recent places that that type of mob was found and killed by other players. It'll never pinpoint something for you, but it sure makes finding mobs and specific drops easier than it would be if you had to rely on your friends and guildmates to point you in the right direction!
How To Use Your Taming Rod To Tame Beasts
Now that you know where to find your first beast for the Taming quests, maybe you've even got a Dire Mottled Boar wandering around in front of you... how does this "Taming Rod" work?
The simplest way I've found to use it is by putting it into my Action bar (bottom bar with the 1 2 3 quickactions), and use it from there, since it's not required to actually "wield" the rod in order to have it work. I've dragged the rod from my bag into QuickAction slot represented by the number 0, and now for the actual taming steps:
Find a Dire Mottled Boar and TAB until you've targetted it. Don't attack, but get close enough that the QuickAction number on your Action bar (number 0 for me because of where I put the taming rod) turns from red to white.
Activate the taming rod through your Action bar QuickAction (for me, the number 0, or by clicking the bar on my Action bar)
Wait until your tame succeeds or fails.
If it fails, repeat Step 2 and 3. If it succeeds, return to Razor Hill to turn in your quest and get the next step.
Summary
Those are the very basics for the process of completing your Level 10 Hunter Pet Quests. In part two, I'll cover more details, including:
How you know if the tame is working/has worked
Turn in your quest, or fight with your new pet first?
Dealing with Taming Wand replacement and its quirky nature
Staying alive during taming
Part II has been posted, continue on...
Tags: hunter pet, hunter pet quest, hunter tips and tricks, razor hill, thotar, world of warcraft