What one moment made you a hunter for life?

[Vespias]

My moment came in a particularly wild AV battle. Now this was back in the days when AV would last for hours and myself and another hunter friend had just defended the bridge for the umpteenth time. All of a sudden a fireball hit him and I turned to see a horde lock standing on the flat roof of the north bunker. Without thinking I sent my cat Sekhemet in and in typical fashion she ran through the building. As we stood there shooting from the pathway up to the bunker we both saw Sekhemet literally leap from the open window onto the lock's back. The OMG that resounded in vent was amazing! From that moment I was a hunter above all else!
I am today the proud owner of a druid, mage, and soon to be 80 shadow priest, but when I want to have fun it's my hunter that comes out.

[Nikrosnil]

Just after I started playing wow, (I was a human mage) I saw a night elf huntress run past with a dark nightsaber pet. I wanted one, and I've been a hunter ever since.

[Kalasha]

That must have been before i even started playing wow. My friend was telling me about the game. When I asked him if any class could have an animal companion he said Hunters could. When I asked him what pet types there were he said: "Well whichever one you want to tame really"

That sold me, gotta love a class that can run into the wilds and tame her own best friend ^^

[Vephriel]

Yeah, I've pretty much been a Hunter since Day 1.

I love animals, so as soon as I found out there was a class where you could go out and tame just about any creature, I was sold. I played a few different races at first, but after BC came out my blood elf became my main character.

[Saturo]

Once, while inside a particularly annoying run of VH (not hc), the tank got a disconnect, and because the dk couldn't tank for five coppers, the healer left. Three of us left, me, a dk, and something we called a Druid, but that looked more like some kind of pet. It ended with my Worm tanking trough the last two bosses, with just mend pet, gift of the naaru and the occasional heal from the Druid. It felt amazing, before that I had just played my hunter sporadically, but now I was sold on him. I've been a hunter ever since.

But often it feels more like I'm the hunted, I'm fleeing from my prey...

[Nel]

One thing that made me want to start playing WoW was the hunter class. Never met an animal I didn't like and I loved the idea of finding that one wild creature that would be your friend.
I think the moment that I really remember going "This is why I am a hunter", was while I was leveling.
My best friend was a druid and we were running along in Winterspring enjoying the day and questing just like normal.
We picked up the quest to go kill the two cats, one a lion the other a tiger, at that large cliff-like place.
Of course my friend ran to summon them and then I saw the tiger, I was in love, my friend stepped back and let me tame him.
I remember fighting with my tiger in WSG the first time, I just watched him as he bolted after this rogue, and It finally clicked, I was a hunter.
I still have my aqua tiger and always will.

[Karathyriel]

I really dunno when or why it happened.

First character ever was Tauren Warrior. I love 'em big and I thought Warrior would be an easy-to-handle class. Little did I know about tanking and stuff...
When BC hit the shelves, I'd thought I'd take a peek into the Blood Elfs and, dunno why, rolled for hunter.
I really enjoyed the new area but then came level 10 and the taming quest. BOOM - I'm a hunter now! The first pet I ever tamed (besides the three you have to tame for the quest) is still at my side: Gerethay, the cat you see in my signature. Only in raids, I'll switch to a wolf. Gerethay has been with me all that time, level 10 to level 80. Tried quite about every pet I thought was cool but always came back. *sigh* Must be a roleplayer-syndrome.

[Ryno]

Had to have been when I first made a hunter, roaming around, finding new pets to tame. Basically I played pokemon with them all for the longest time. Ah, the memories.

[Kamalia]

Ah, yes. I remember the moment well.
So, while still on my first day of playing WoW, I was wandering around Teldrassil on my little druid, and decided to stop by Dolannar.

"Okay, so I guess if I go in this town, there won't be anything there trying to eat me and OHMYGOODNESSWHATISTHAT"

What I was seeing was a hunter, standing by the mailbox, his pet Wind Serpent fluttering next to him. Logged out, instantly made a hunter. The moment I hit the right level, I made the terrifying (Well, it was to me back then) trek to the Barrens to get my own Wind Serpent. Unfortunately, Amber, as I had called her, is no longer in my stables, but I certainly remember her being the first pet I had been proud to tame.

[Spiritchan]

I actually started playing this game (wow) because of Petopia.

I was playing UO (ultima online) at the time, which was the only MMO available, along with it's knock-off sibling Everquest (which I did not play).
((Education note: UO was the first "mmo", and Everquest came out shortly after as the first 3D "mmo"))

Even on UO I was a "tamer", who had my own pet equivilents of tallstriders and dragons.
A few (like, 5) years into UO - a brand new game in the world of MMO was showing that it would be released soon. "World of Warcraft". Those of us who played UO scoffed (but were interested), and ignored it full-heartedly just like all other mmo's that came out in a mass swarm after our own game.

However - a friend of mine played WoW. He played it a lot.
He tried to get me to play, but I refused. After all, if I was going to spend X dollars per month for a game, I was going to stay with the game I had been playing for the last six years.

At year seven of playing UO, the game finally started to fall. Fail. Decay beneth our very fingertips. Various reasons were for this happening, but it's a long story and you're more than likely un-interested.

For the first time, I listened to my friend.

"But I don't want to leave my account; I've done so much! I have a 7-gm tamer with a pet dragon!"
"You can tame pets on WoW."
".... Like... what kind of pets can you tame?"
"Um.. here- here's a list of the pets."

And he showed me Petopia; a big picture-list of all the pet skins.

I saw the tallstrider (whom I would later convert my pet from UO into), and I was hooked.
UO lost my money - and I became a WoW customer.

If it weren't for my persistant friend, the downfall of UO, and Petopia - I would have never played WoW.


Since that day; I have made many hunters.
And one Shaman.
And two Druids. >.>;
But mostly hunters. Too many hunters.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

I made two characters when I first logged into WoW. The first was my paladin. The second was my hunter. I 'became' a hunter when I tamed my first pet, a cat not far from Dolanaar. I have always loved animals, and the thought of having an animal companion made me very pleased. Not long after I ran down to Ironforge to tame Timber, and a few levels later picked up the then shadow damage dealing Lupos, and have had that particular wolf for five years now.

[Emowin]

Well I once played....DON'T KILL MEEEEE!...Guild Wars. Manly because it was free, I loved playing as a ranger (well monk/ranger) because I got to have a pet. I love animals and any game where you get to have a pet is all for me. Then when I got bord of that my hubby and I played a game called Silk Road. No pets there, well untill later. But my hubby met some friends and we all eventually got sick and tired of trying to get into the game servers wich were ALLWAYS full. They were playing this game called world of warcraft. My Hubby and I were unsure we said we would never play a game you had to pay monthly for, it just seamed silly at the time. Well they said that wow was having a promotion at the time and you could play for a month for free and if we didnt like it we could delete it or what ever. So we tryed it and fell in love. My first toon was a druid, I loved that you could turn into animals. My hubby was a war. I had to work and such and he was unemployed so he kinda took off on my druid. I decided well I wanted to play my druid WITH my hubby so I would make a new toon to play by myself...oooo....look hunters can tame pets. I made one and another one....and another one, and quickly forgot about my little druid. I have to lv80 hunters and my original druid is still no higher than lv40. I have tanked big things all alone with only my pet and mend pet, even AFTER hunters got the big shaft. When people said we were useless and refused to move a single inch because their tank quit on them. My pet and I did our business, turned on our heals and left the un-believers in the dust.

[VelkynKarma]

I originally only made a hunter to view the alliance side. I was still pretty newby, but all my toons were horde, and I wanted to see the alliance side without having to rely on people. Blizz' main page said Hunters were good for soloing, so I rolled an NE hunter entirely for that purpose.

Then, about 13 levels in, I discovered HYENAS. They weren't just roaming around for no reason; they could be TAMED! Hyenas are among my favorite animals, so I was totally psyched and made getting one my goal, even sneaking into the Barrens for a yellow one. And when my friend told me there were RED hyenas, that suddenly became my goal. I wanted one, BAD. It was around that time that I became a Hunter For Life.

So. Hyenas.

~VelkynKarma

[Niabi]

I was sold on the Hunter class from the very first day I installed WoW onto my hard drive. I love animals in RL and so the idea that I could run around the game with a pet of my own choosing, obviously, seemed like the perfect choice for me.

So I rolled a Tauren Hunter as my very first toon, followed by a Night Elf Druid. It didn't matter to me whether I had a furry companion at my side or if it was my avatar who could transform into the furry critter ... I was just elated that I had the options there to choose both! My RL friends advised me that either would be good choices for a first-timer to the game. But since they all preferred to play as members of the Horde, I just naturally stuck to playing my Tauren Hunter for the first few months of leveling.

Time rolled on and I came to familiarize myself with the website: http://www.wow-petopia.com/. As I glanced and drooled over the vast species of beasts that inhabited Azeroth, the hunter spirit within me craved to tame them, so I rolled even more hunters to quell the insatiable appetite! I honestly don't see myself ever getting tired of playing as a hunter because of this. Each individual pet is like its own new experience, refreshing the look and feel of my hunter as they level and journey throughout the world. I do play other classes from time to time but my heart always brings me back to my beloved hunters and their pets.

[rubybeam]

the first class i rolled was a druid i started playing at the age of 10 from influence of watching my mom and dad and my love for animals made my first druid dragonid on my moms computar then i got to create one on my dads and i just loved animals so i made a hunter what kind dwarf because i wanted to be the first person in my familiy to be a dwarf then when i saw the cats in the dwarfs area i fell in love with them so i tamed one and named it tombraider althopugh the dwarf was not the same one as before because we had to get a new computar so i created another dwarf with another cat oh and i still just love that cat

[Rikaku]

When I first saw a tamed Rak'shiri on my druid. I re-rolled pretty darn quick.

[Jangalian]

I have always liked the taming aspect, cause I'm a huuuuuuuuge pet fanatic, but the real thing that's cinched me for a H4L (hunter for life) is Ulduar. Our guild had this rule where the hunters would take the motorcycles for the first section, so it was me and this other hunter. So we're driving around, spreading chaos, and his bike starts to die, like really fast, and we were a long ways from the starter area.

So we warned the raid leaders in vent that we would let one bike die and I'd take him back to get the respawned one, and they were like, ok, so he drove his bike into a huge pack of mobs. I raced around him in a circle, spreading oil, and as soon as his bike fell he starts screaming PICK ME UP PICK ME UP!!!

I did this great brakin' turn, snatched him from the pack of mobs, and hit the speed boost just as the raid ignited the oil slicks and we rocketed back to the start area in the midst of exploding fire, a rain of missiles, angry mobs and falling towers. It's the most amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing thing I have ever seen!

That and the hunt for Snarler, back when he was resistant to everything.

[Sphax]

When i first started wow i made a tauren shaman when i got lvl 16 i got boosted by a lvl 32 orc hunter. That hunter had those barbaric leather shoulders and a black worg i immidietly fell in love with that.

So the next day i started an orc hunter got him around 44 and quited him.

Quited wow for 4 months 'played l2 flame me burn me for the 4 months i spent on that game ) then in april when new eu realm boulderfist launched i said i would make a new start. So i decide to make a hunter again but this time a tauren to keep it short i got him 60 did with him entire vanilla.

Then in BC i rerolled blood elf pala on the new realms they opened. but those realm where low on population so i transfered my pala to boulderfist and played there ofcourse not long after i got 70 i disliked my pala of only beeing a healer so i tried a lock to 70 then got my old hunter to 70

thing was i liked beeing a hunter but tauren hunter is annoying in small places u cant see much :p

so the summer that passed i said i would make another hunter a blood elf after i got him 80 blizzard announced the race change i got pissed then but the experience of lvling a hunter is wonderfull ^^

so here i am Blood Elf hunter for life

/cheers
Sphax

[Agravaine]

Probably about 4 months in... soon after I got King B., I journeyed with a group of friends to Jintha'alor in the Hinterlands. At the foot of the stairs we started to clear the Trolls, but due to a bad pull we found ourselves fighting for our lives.

Much to my surprise, when the dust cleared, the Trolls were all dead and I was the last toon standing without even having to FD. As the others ran back from the gy, I blurted something about never getting rid of my tiger.

Poor King B. had to be let go to make room for pets I could train abilities from... But that little episode was the thing that made me a hunter forever.

[Aleu]

The fact that Hunters have pets are what really got me and I'm a bit time animal lover. I've also been a fan of long ranged combat since whenever I played any multi-player first person shootings, I was always the sniper. Plus, Hunter was indeed the first class I ever played when I started this game.