How to Hogger: A Trial Guide (Alliance Only!)

– The first step is to be a Draenai. Their powerful Racial heal over time is extremely useful, and their hit aura they get means it’ll be easier to actually hit an enemy two levels above you.
– You can use pretty much any build for this, casters typically work better than melee but anything works as long as you have a damaging ability and a healing ability.

– Before you do anything when you load in, make sure the Hogger trial is active. Some items that you get from Vanity will prevent you from doing the trial if you grab them before activating the trial. Use the Scroll of Stormwind from your vanity, then make your way to Northshire.
– From here you can do one of two ways to level 5: Just kill kobolds until 5, or do the first two kobold quests, then the 3 quests over in the defias area (Gather headbands, kill named defias, gather up grapes + followup)
– Make sure to loot any kobolds you kill – they have a chance of dropping scrolls that buff you. You’re looking for the one that buffs up Armor. I am unsure if the Defias drop them.

– Once you hit level 5, you’re okay to leave Northshire Abbey. Head to Goldshire and pick up 3 quests: Gold Dust Exchange from Remy « Two Times », The Fargodeep Mine from Marshal Dughan, and Kobold Candles from William Pestle.
– Head Straight south and do those quests. You can continue killing Kobolds till level 8 or so, but make sure not to go past about halfway through 8, otherwise dealing with Hogger before 10 becomes rough due to the quest turn in exp.

– Turning in Gold Dust exchange gives you a good weapon against Hogger: Bag of Marbles, which decreases the targets chance to hit by 25% for 10 seconds. It has 10 charges, and a 1 minute CD. The Fargodeep mine is just for quicker Exp, but SUPER easy to do. Turning in Kobold Candles gives you another piece if you’re a melee or archer: Glowing Wax Stick, which decreases the armor of a target by 50 for 30 seconds.This shares a cooldown with Bag of Marbles Accepting the followup quest Shipment To Stormwind is preferable, but if you’re level 9 by this point, skip it.

– Head to Stormwind to turn in the Shipment. They give you three options: Explosive rockets which are amazing on a hunter, Oil of Olaf which functions just like an armor potion from alchemy, and Elixir of lion’s strength. If you are not an Alchemist, Oil of Olaf is probably the way to go. If you have a pet and are going a hunter build, Explosive rockets. Otherwise, Elixir.

– The shipment gives a surprising amount of exp, so you should be around level 9 by this point.
– If not, make sure you are level 9 before moving over to Hogger’s area. It is not a requirement, but it makes your life easier.

– Head to the Westbrook Garrison – Accept « Wanted: Hogger » from the wanted board outside, then head inside. Head to the right, then right again to come upon 3 merchants: Buy from Quartermaster Hudson a pretty much full set of armor unless you got Warrior’s Pants, keep those. You should have about 674 armor with potion.

– Make your way down to the riverpaw encampments. Hogger likes to patrol straight down the middle of the encampments, and spawns at the southernmost tip. If he hasn’t spawned, great! Kill some of the gnolls in the middle section of where he patrols – it’ll make it so much easier to not pull extras.
– Patience is key. Waiting for an opportunity to grab his aggro when none of his friends is around makes this 3 times easier, as an extra add can make or break a kill.
– Once you’ve pulled hogger, use either your Glowing Wax Stick for melee’s and archers, or your marble bag for casters. Once you get down to about halfway in health, pop your racial – it’ll be enough to keep you alive for the next 15 seconds. Try to pull them away from any nearby camps – on occasion I’ve noticed he can attempt to flee at low health.
– He has a knockdown, so prioritize healing spells earlier than you’d think if the fight goes on long enough.

Enjoy the rest of your leveling process once you kill him!

Adapted from a guide by CandleOfLife published on db.ascension.gg.