I cheated... >.<

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...A little bit, anyway. After mowing through the Nesingwary quests in Stranglethorn Vale I finally got to the last one, which requires killing a level 43 elite tiger. My group was 34 at the time, so I was facing a nine-level deficit along with the elite status of the mob. Having dealt with a level 40 elite at level 32 without much difficulty, I decided to give it a shot. I didn't want to wait because the quest promised a good upgrade to the hunter's weapons. They would be replacing their 21.2DPS guns with 25.3DPS bows!

However, King Bangalash was not cooperating. On my first two attempts at him, I wound up getting a level 37 or 38 add right from the start. He has pretty good damage output, which meant that I had to cast heals early. This meant that the group was getting aggro early, which took away their ranged DPS. Another problem is that at 50%, two level 43 (non-elite) adds will spawn to help out. The level disparity and the confusion of having so many mobs on top of the group meant that frost traps were of limited effectiveness. The first two attempts ended in wipes. But I wanted those bows! So I brought my level 80 enhancement shaman, cleared out any wandering mobs and pounded King Bangalash and his adds into the ground, allowing the group to complete the quest and be on their merry way with a nice overall DPS boost.

Currently the group is level 36 and closing on 37. The pets consist of one cat and three hyenas, and I no longer have to worry about feeding them, since they have the pet talent that generates happiness (and health) when they are fighting. The first rank of the talent gives a 10% chance to generate 5% happiness, and it procs often enough to "keep them in the green," so to speak. They now have the second rank for good measure. Tank pets get a similar ability at level 44, and when the group gets that level I will swap out two of the hyenas for two tank pets and go back to the earlier setup.

The group still has red and orange quests to deal with, but with more and more quest areas opening up, I now have a good number of yellow (ie, level-equivalent) quests to complete. I cleared out most of the quests in Brackenwall Village in Dustwallow Marsh, and am ready to visit the relatively recently-added quest hub named Mudsprocket. There are also a number of quests waiting in the Grom'Gol Base Camp in Stranglethorn Vale that should be yellow or orange now. Those two quest hubs should be enough to get the group to level 40, at which point I can head to the Badlands/Swamp of Sorrows and start working on those quests.