Random Pet Family Appreciation Thread 32: Nether Rays!

[Wassa]

Apologizes for the late thread this week.

Former threads:
Moths - Warp Stalkers - Crocolisks - Monkeys - Wolves - Core Hounds - Wasps - Dragonhawks - Turtles - Boars - Carrion Birds - Bears - Serpents - Tallstriders - Worms - Dogs - Ravagers - Shale Spiders - Sporebats - Spirit Beasts - Birds of Prey - Scorpids - Chimaeras - Bats - Crabs - Foxes - Devilsaurs - Rhinos - Hyenas - Beetles - Spiders

Random pet family appreciation thread is where I roll a random pet family every week for everyone to share their pictures, their stories, their love for that pet family. Please no hate or rants. This is an appreciation thread. If you dislike the family, don't post! Hopefully with some love we can get some hunters to try out new pets they never would have thought to tame before.

Our 32nd family is the shocking nether ray family!



I could not find any official Blizzard concept art or a TCG with nether rays in it. If you know one please tell me so I can add a better image. Nether rays have been out since Burning Crusade so I'm disappointed I cannot find anything. Is this family that forgotten? =(

Nether ray facts

~Introduced as a tameable family in Burning Crusade.

~Nether rays have five skin colors.

~Nether rays technically have six skin colors. Two skins, netherrayskingreen and netherwyrmskin, look almost exactly alike that is it almost impossible to tell them apart unless you know which wild nether ray of these skins you tamed. Marshfang Ripper use netherrayskingreen while Marshfang Slicer uses netherwyrmskin. Netherwyrmskin must have been the first nether ray skin since is uses a different naming convention than the other nether ray skins, showing that the prototype name for the nether ray family must have been nether wyrm.

~Nether rays have no rare members.

~Back in Wrath, nether rays were tamed by 0.2% of level 80 hunters. Placing them at the bottom of the list, tied with sporebats. (Source)

~Back in Wrath, netherrayskinblack was the most tamed skin at 36.7%. Netherwyrmskin was the least tamed skin at 5.9%. (Source)

~Nether Shock used to cause damage along with its interrupt.

~Players exalted with the Sha'tari Skyguard can purchase nether ray mounts is the main five skin colors: blue, green, purple, red and silver.

~Nether Ray Fry is a baby nether ray minipet.

~"Count" Ungula is the only named nether ray in game. He drops the quest item "Count" Ungula's Mandible, which indicates nether rays might be related to insects despite their bodies resembling real life stingrays.

[Neilaren]

I've been waiting for this pet family to pop up in the appreciation thread rolls! Aiyah!



We can't possibly start this thread off proper without little Terrato, my World of Warcraftian mascot.

The game history: Back in the day when pets had things called caster stats (*shudder*) I read somewhere that nether rays, these goober things that I was currently on the daily grind with the Skyguard to get as a mount, were capable of having the most HP… or something. "Oh, what a glorious tanky pet!" my nooby-hunter self thought. Unfortunately, every ray at the time was considered a caster, EXCEPT for the Coilfang Rays in Slave Pens, and Underfen Rays in the Underbog. Since Slave Pens rays were easier to get to, I recruited my mage boyfriend and warlock friend to waltz into slave pens, fend off the first few trash packs, and tame my Terrato.
I liked him so much that when I earned my nether ray mount soon after, I grabbed the same color (green) for the full effect. If only the Nether Ray Fry added later was also green! Ah well.



In comics and doodles I drew from then on, Terrato would usually make small appearances. (I think this is the first one I ever drew circa 2007 or 2008!)Terrato was the first pet to get personality, in small ways:

He would always think about food. This was a joke about pet loyalty in general. In-game, I was feeding him handily via my Everlasting Spore Frond, but in drawn-form, all he ever asks for is MEAT.

From there, it was simple to come to the conclusion that Terrato may sometimes think everything is potentially a meal… he gets /scold-ed by Neilaren very often for trying to nom on various things and people that are not food!
Now that I've spent some years developing characters and backstories, I've added more details, like how Terrato is probably considered the runt of his "pack", he's been raised more as a domestic pet than a combat pet (I really don't use him for battling so much as I use him for company when I fish and loaf around Orgrimmar and etc.)



I've also gotten very accustomed to drawing him a very specific way, even if it's not at all how nether rays really look.

vs. and all…

…OK. I think I'm done weirding you all out over how much I love drawing Terrato now…

Uh Th-- ah Th-- uh d-- ah, That's All, Folks!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Boy is this a pet family that can be hard to get into! That and I never really felt like I ever needed a nether ray because I personally never had a use for a pet with an interrupt that I would have to micro manage (I'm terrible at that sort of thing). With Tsara, I said eff it, I really want to give one of these guys a genuine chance.

Meet Sambucus:

He's just a plain ol' blue nether ray from out in Zangarmarsh, but his coloring is so perfect with Tsara and they just seem to really fit together. Sam is the first nether ray that I've really liked and gotten attached to. I haven't played my hunter in a while and seeing this thread and finding the photo I had of them two together made me smile. I have been happy giving a new pet a chance that I thought I never would like before.

[Kalliope]

I actually backed into the whole nether ray thing. When I started in BC, I preferred sporebats and really wasn't all that excited about the nether ray pets or mounts.

But then, as usual, fate intervened.

I had slogged through Skyguard dailies without epic flight for a long time. When I finally got it, I was terribly excited to get my first non-gryphon. I couldn't even wait to hit exalted with Netherwing; I bought the green nether ray from the Skyguard. I had wanted my green netherdrake to be Castor, my favorite of the Gemini twins, but somehow, I ended up thinking of my ray as Castor. No matter what I did, I couldn't change how I saw him. So when I finally hit exalted with Netherwing, I picked up the violet netherdrake to be Pollux.

Fast forward to the expanded stables of Cataclysm: I picked up a smaller version of Castor and tamed a blue sporebat for Pollux, who really never gained much personality in either form. But Castor is Castor, regardless of size. In the myths, Pollux is always the stronger of the two twins, since he's the immortal one, the son of Zeus. For me, amazingly, it's the opposite.

It thrilled me to no end when I finally started running with PetEmote on Kalliope and Castor exhibited the same love of flight that he's always had in mount form. It was beautiful.

[Rhyela]

Yay! I was hoping for this one soon.

Nether rays are one of those pet families that I had tried maybe a couple times since BC, but could never get into. I didn't much care for their ability or their appearance, really. The one color I actually liked wasn't tamable (gold).

One day, I had cleaned my stables a bit and decided to try some things I had either never tried, or hadn't tried in a long time. A nether ray ended up being one of them. But this time, the gold ones were tamable! I picked up some random Aether Ray and went back to Stormwind. When I got back, I suddenly remembered how an old friend of mine used to tease me and call my gold nether ray mount a "UFO" (because in his mind, the nether drakes were soooo much better). I always thought it was funny, so I named my nether ray Martin. In my mind and weird way of linking things together, UFO made me think of martian, then I removed the "a" and made it Martin. And thus, one of my favorite pets was "born", so to speak.

Martin's personality wasn't wholly apparent at first, but I did know he had this bit of goofiness about him. It didn't take long for me to realize just what a free spirit he is. Well, first of all, he's not very good at fighting. He tries, bless his heart, but he just doesn't have that fighting spirit. He'd much rather be skydiving. Yes, that's right, skydiving. I was doing some Molten Front dailies and had him out, and that big orb thingy shoots you way up into the air.....well, he just had this look of pure joy about him as we were sailing through the air.

So yeah, Martin's a fun guy. He'll fight if he must, but he really just wants to enjoy life and have a good time of it. Martin's definitely one of my more unique pets.

I even made a signature of him and Rhyela skydiving! You can even see that big silly grin on his face (well, I can anyway). This is one family I never expected to like, but Martin and Rhyela definitely have a great bond. ^_^



(I just noticed it looks like he's grinning in the below picture, too!)

[Vephriel]

I always feel terrible that I never had room to keep Vorpal. Still, he lives on as a mount with me at least!



Vorpal was one of my special pets that came and went depending on my stable needs. Unlike other pets that I released and couldn't retame later, Vorpal had a unique trait of being able to live apart from me and still feel as though he was 'mine'. I'd keep him with me when possible, but if I needed the space then he was free to venture out and still feel like an extended family so to speak.



Anyways, with MoP on the horizon I really didn't have room to keep him this time, but I still consider him one of my pets at heart.

[Neilaren]

I could not find any official Blizzard concept art or a TCG with nether rays in it. If you know one please tell me so I can add a better image. Nether rays have been out since Burning Crusade so I'm disappointed I cannot find anything. Is this family that forgotten? =(

Sadly I've never been able to find such a thing either. And they have such little in-game lore! :[

Heck, the closest thing to official it'll ever have is that little graphic on the Outland world map:



Hardly does it justice.

[Mozag]

It is entirely thanks to Petopia that I have any nether rays at all. I really didn't like them when I first started playing. I guess I've always had a dislike for the alien type animals in WoW, and yet each of them has in turn managed to latch a claw or fang on my heart and make me see them from a different point of view. I still don't have many rays, I guess I will always have problems feeling their personalities, and I can't say I will ever really have one as a favourite, but the fact that I even HAVE a couple is a testament to the love you Petopians are able to radiate with your affection for your nether rays.

[GormanGhaste]

Nether Rays are my favorite flying mount. I did Skyguard rep at level, and didn't go back and do Netherwing until late Wrath. I tamed my first nether ray hunter pet in BC, when we first got five stable slots, and have had one in my stables ever since. I currently have a green named Orchid.

[Neilaren]

Last night I learned that a nether ray using Lynx Rush is almost too adorable for words.

Hop! Hop hop! HOP!

[Kalliope]

Last night I learned that a nether ray using Lynx Rush is almost too adorable for words.

Hop! Hop hop! HOP!

.....oh my god, I may retalent for a while JUST to do this.

[Rhyela]

Last night I learned that a nether ray using Lynx Rush is almost too adorable for words.

Hop! Hop hop! HOP!

This is exactly something Martin would do!!! <3