Locked and Loaded: Previewing the Hunter class hall and champions

Class halls in Legion share similarities with Garrisons, but I would classify them as more of a “Garrison Lite” than an actual replacement. You’ll have reasons to visit every day, but it will be more of a brief stopover than your new home. Plus, it’s not nearly as lonely as the Garrison was with fellow members of your class hanging out with you.

Trueshot Lodge, the Hunter’s class hall, is located on top of a mountain in Highmountain. You can climb up to one of the highest peaks in the Broken Isles, making it a nice place to slow fall from or just take in the view. The lodge itself is a small piece of the total area dedicated to Hunters. Inside, it’s decorated with trophy kills and popular Hunter weapons, and you’ll find the altar where you modify your artifacts, the mission board, a bar, a vendor, and a portal to Dalaran.

The vendor, Outfitter Reynolds, sells the Unseen Path armor set and items to upgrade those pieces, three transmog weapons (Huntmaster’s Halberd, Huntmaster’s Longbow, and Huntmaster’s Rifle), pet training manuals, and the Hunter’s Call toy (exclusive to Hunters).

Outside you’ll find a stable master, several sets of target dummies, and quite a few flavor NPCs. Some of them make comments on your weapon as you pass, and others even provide some brief interactions, like a Goblin and Gnome Hunter who are discussing their lost mechanical pets, Treble and Rush. If you find and tame one of the mechanowolves and bring it back, they’ll notice it when you walk by. One thing I thought was missing from the lodge was more of a pet presence. It would have been neat to see a few more beasts wandering around, or even have some of your own stabled pets wander around the lodge while you were there.

Order advancements

The only real customization comes in the form of order advancements, which are basically a mini talent tree for Trueshot Lodge. There are 5 tiers with two choices each, and then a final tier. They’re mostly time gated but will also require an investment of Order Resources. You can change them afterwards for a cost.

Tier 1
Level: 100
Research time: 1 day
Cost: 50 Order Resources to unlock, 500 to change

• Rugged Upgrades: Increases the chance for quest rewards to get a rare or epic Bonus Upgrade from non-repeatable quests.
• Long Range: Enables the Long Range ability, which increases the success chance of the first mission you send each day by 20%.

I’d recommend the Rugged Upgrades option for leveling up as you won’t be seeing any rewarding missions until max level anyway, and it’s relatively cheap to switch it once you reach max level.

Tier 2
Level: 105
Research time: 3 days
Cost: 500 Order Resources, and 2000 to change

• Eagle Ally: Allows access to the Eagle Flight Network, a number of flight paths scattered across the Broken Isles.
• Disengage: Enables the Disengage ability for all missions, which increases success chance of missions with Hazards by 10%.

The Eagle Flight Network is a separate set of Hunter-only flight points. The main difference from regular flight points is that all of the eagle flight points are located high above the ground (often not accessible from below). Scattered on the ground at each flight point are Eagle Feathers. These give you a controllable slow fall (like a Goblin Glider). You don’t need to discover each point, they get unlocked all at once.

Tier 3
Level: 110
Research time: 7 days
Cost: 1000 Order Resources, and 2000 to change

• Sturdy Tents: Increases the maximum number of Archers, Marksmen, Trackers, and Pathfinders you can recruit by 1.
• Fletchery: Allows you to place work orders for Champion armaments or equipment in exchange for Order Hall Resources.

I would personally recommend Fletchery until you get the item level and equipment of your Champions upgraded. Having more Archers and Trackers could possibly let you take on an extra mission concurrently, but the good missions require a high Champion item level.

Tier 4
Level: 110
Research time: 10 days
Cost: 10,000 Order Resources, and 2000 to change

• Keen Eye: Newly recruited Squads of Archers become Unseen Marksmen, increasing their chance of mission success by 5%.
• Wild Calling: Newly recruited Bands of Trackers become Pathfinders which gain: Flare (increased success chance on missions with Minions by 15%).

Archers increase mission success chance by 15% by default, and Keen Eye increases it to 20%. Wild Calling gives Trackers a larger success chance on missions with Minions only.

Tier 5
Level: 110
Research time: 12 days
Cost: 12,500 Order Resources, and 2000 to change

• Unseen Path: Allows you to place a work order for 1 of your 3 weekly Seals of Broken Fate in exchange for Order Hall Resources.
• Foraging: Completing World Quests with a Combat Ally provides Order Hall Resources.

The Unseen Path is the same as the bonus from the Dwarven Bunker/War Mill from the garrison, only it’s not free and you pay for it with Order Resources instead. Presumably this will be cheaper than buying it for Order Resources in Dalaran. Foraging increases your resource gains as long as you bring along one of your Champions for world quests (assigning one of them as a combat ally means they cannot do missions though). If gold isn’t much of an obstacle for you (to buy your 3 seals every week), then I would go for Foraging.

Tier 6
Level: 110
Research time: 14 days
Cost: 15,000 Order Resources

• Legends of the Wild: Increase the number of Legendary items you can equip by 1.

If you’re lucky enough to get a second legendary drop right off the bat, then you’re going to have to wait a while before you can equip it. Assuming you have enough Order Resources, it will take a minimum of 6 weeks to unlock this after you reach level 110.

Hunter Champions

There are eight Hunter Champions and you can have five of them active at a time. Like Garrison followers, their item level can be upgraded. On top of this they can wear one or two pieces of equipment once they are upgraded to rare or epic. Equipment provides trait-like bonuses.

They are all unlocked through the Hunter class campaign, so you don’t need to worry about searching for them. The missions you send them on are similar to Garrison missions, only they tend to take longer and there are less of them to do. In addition to your Champions, you recruit Squads of Archers and Bands of Trackers which are sent on missions with Champions.

Four of the Hunter Champions have a Combat Ally ability. This lets them aid you out in the Broken Isles, similar to a Garrison bodyguard. Two of them are straight up bodyguards, and the others provide different combat bonuses.

Emmarel Shadewarden
Combat Ally: Emmarel’s Assault

Emmarel is the first Champion you will unlock. She sends you on your artifact quest and meets up with your at Trueshot Lodge afterwards. Her Combat Ally ability is an AOE attack on a 3 min cooldown. If you don’t like a bodyguard following you around (or getting in the way of your beast taming), it’s a good option.

Loren Stormhoof

Loren is a Marksmanship Hunter who joins you at the same time as Emmarel Shadewarden. He has no Combat Ally ability.

Rexxar
Combat Ally: Bodyguard

Rexxar will join you after a quest where you must prove your survival skills to him. It involves a mini scenario where you must survive the night by killing animals for meat, chopping down some wood for a fire, and cooking it so you don’t go hungry. As a bodyguard he does a combination of ranged and melee attacks, and summons three different pets (including Misha) to aid you.

Beastmaster Hilaire

Beastmaster Hilaire joins you after you help her recover her pet cat from some mages. She has no Combat Ally ability.

Huntsman Blake

Huntsman Blake joins you after completing a quest to help his hound, Baron. He has no Combat Ally ability.

Hemet Nesingwary
Combat Ally: That One’s Mine!

Hemet Nesingwary joins you after completing all of his kill quests in Highmountain, as well as reaching level 110. His Combat Ally ability is a unique one. Every couple of minutes, he will randomly show up and shoot your target for 40% of its maximum health. This is extremely helpful when you’re out doing world quests that have mini bosses with lots of health.

Addie Fizzlebog
Combat Ally: Bodyguard

Addie Fizzlebog hangs out in Nesingwary’s camp and will join you at the same time as long as you completed her quests, which involve training her how to be a Hunter. Like Rexxar, she can accompany you as a bodyguard.

Halduron Brightwing

The final Hunter Champion is unlocked at the end of the Hunter class hall campaign. He has no Combat Ally ability. At this time you will also unlock the Huntmaster title.

Trueshot Lodge is pleasant place for Hunters to visit and even call home, but there’s really not much to do there, and I think that’s probably a good thing.