Gray Fel Boar
Today's challenge was to tame one of the mythical Gray Fel Boars of Hellfire Peninsula. As the name implies, these creatures were at one time demonic beasts...and maybe they still are. Be that as it may, hunter techniques have evolved over the years and suddenly, almost magically, these beasts are now able to be broken from their demonic bonds and form a new bond with a new master.
Or so the story goes, the first problem is finding them. That's not much of a problem. They reside just outside the front door of Thrallmar in Hellfire Peninsula.
Of course, therein lies the problem...
Me and Chilly step outside to the a scenic, bright, starlit night taking in the fresh, acrid air of Hellfire ready to find our new friend. And just as I'm admiring Madtheridons head on a stake, a Gnome Rogue deadly throw's me and I come crashing down to earth a slain heap of Goblin.
But I am undeterred. Chilly was excited to see the strange, new creatures in this other world and dammit I was going to show her. We found one Fel Boar skulking around the outside of the citadel's walls. It would trot too and fro, it's smoldering orange eyes focused and fixated but staring at nothing in particular. it's a strange combination of a familiar beast with something truly from another world. It's flame tipped tail is an accentuation of its truly hellish origin. Chilly, who I swear is scared of everything, was so excited that she wanted to name the beast herself. So I went about taming:
The demon boar put up quite a fight -- it's being unafraid to rise up and kick me. Fortunately it didn't think to roll over on me and impale me on its spikes. Chilly also got way closer to the action than normal, but just as I could feel the Boar's will break towards me, I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye (note the top of the above picture).
Literally the moment I finished taming the beat, I could see Chilly do her strange, unexplainable disappearing into thin air act to my right. I never understood out she could fade into and out of reality when other penguins could not. But as I contemplated this, I noticed my new pet was missing...and that I was bleeding. No, dying. My Alliance admirer was back. And not just there to slay me.
Instead, this gnome had other ideas. As it's strangely stoic phoenix companion watched, I saw the gnome's desperation in my eyes in my final moments. Obviously never having felt the touch of a woman before, he decided to take this opportunity to get close and do the unthinkable. As I released my last breaths, I passed as my assailant violated my corpse. Words do not capture how pathetic...
And as he rode away on his white bird, I saw a companion of his flying towards me. I guess he needed back up? For what? I was soon to find out.
I went back into town with Chilly clamoring for a chance to name "her" new pet. The boar obediently stayed in place as I began to inspect the beast again. It stood from time to time and would occasionally root around the ground -- strange. A behavior I've seen in boars around Azeroth but never from a demon boar in the wild. Maybe my taming had removed the demonic --
And then I was sapped again. Chilly turned to look for a quick hiding place, and this time the rogue had brought his Human Warrior friend to possibly join the fun. For what purpose?
That nasty Gnome proceeded to ambush MY BOAR, that's right, MY PET, and then proceeded to backstab me while I was sapped. The poor thing had been slain before it even had a name.
Things were obviously too hot in Hellfire, even Thrallmar for me. With moronic Alliance slaying guards and townsfolk instead of doing anything useful with themselves, I had no choice but to fly to safe ground. That would be Shattrath City.
With everyone together, I convinced Chilly to stop hiding and proceeded to revive the Boar. The Boar was immediately taken with Chilly, letting her get close and constantly sniffing her. The more I paid attention to the boar, the more "regular boar behavior" I saw. Unlike other demoic boar I've met, this one would only make regular boar squeaks and grunts. And outside of the spines and fire and scary eyes, you would think this one was at one time just on a farm. Especially the way it would root around the ground. It only took Chilly, who insisted the boar was a girl for some reason, 13 tries before she settled upon a name...
Bruzyq & Huggles?!?!
Well, there you have it. Not Spike. Not Hellface. None of that, no my penguin just dubbed my boar Huggles. Because it's slack jawed look and constantly sniffing of the ground was apparently so cute. Well, good for Chilly at least. I can't say I feel the same way, but hopefully *ahem* Huggles can use the power of suggestion on the battlefield.
As imposing as Huggles looked, he is actually more of a defensive powerhouse built for tanking. He's good for gathering up enemies for me to mow them down...
And of course, a Worgen Warrior had to bum rush me while I was fighting a number of ghostly soldiers -- Huggles was clearly occupied and unable to come to my aid in time. At least Huggles seemed to hold his own despite having a relatively useless ability that would increase bleed damage.
Fortunately I would soon be able to see Huggles in a more controlled environment. We were called to the Ramparts.
Huggle's ability to AoE large amounts of monsters proved useful, but it was not anything that was terribly remarkable. And with no one in my group doing bleed damage, there was little for the Felboar to do that go from group to group, thunderstomp, and sometimes get knocked sky high into the air by a boss:
That said, I can admire Huggles' imposing stature and his unwillingness to back down even in the face of very formidable odds. Even when there are dragons involved. And strangely, Chilly was not backing down from fights either, but instead following Huggles anywhere he went -- even in the thick of battle.
Conclusion
Me, Huggles, and Chilly relax after another day in Outland.
So what we have here is a Felboar who is surprisingly boar like. He makes normal boar sounds and has normal boar animations that belie his demonic, imposing figure. He rushes into battle and is a good tanking pet, but his bleed damage bonus does little to help me as a hunter. He will attack by kicking with his front feet, but otherwise does not have a lot of personality.
Don't get me wrong, the beast looks great -- especially for a TBC model. The spikes are very imposing and the demon tail is a nice touch. But with the contented rooting and squealing that is akin to what I've seen around Durotar, I don't know if me and Huggles are a match. He looks good, but he does what other pets can do. And I'd argue other pets can do the job better.
But I think he'll have a very willing adopter in Chilly. It only took 60 levels, but finally our penguin companion has a pet of her own. And Huggles? He doesn't seem too bothered by it. Even if Chilly insists on calling him "sister."