Random Pet Challenge Mk II

[Calomel]

I figure I'll start trying this challenge. It looks like too much fun!


Pet Model: 7
Pet Skin: 7
Pet Sounds: 5
Pet Animations: 9
Pet Ability/Utility: 9
Overall: I really enjoy this pet and would recommend a silithid to any BM hunter for solo or PvP.

Model- Being a fan of the vanilla-era AQ mounts, this guy was a quick trip down memory lane. I like the model, it's not too big or bulky and doesn't get in your way.
Skin- The black details are striking and it has a subtle pattern of blues over the carapace with attention to detail.
Sounds- Not for everyone, the silithid makes a hissy, insectoid chatter for it's attack sound, and will sometimes chatter to itself while idle. It never bothered me. In fact, I kind of like the chattering.
Animations- I love the animations! This little silithid is always doing something, it's so active. Opening and closing the mandibles, fluttering vestigial wings, it even bounces back and forth like "come one come on let's go let's goooo!" The movements are well animated for the type of creature it is; fluid without being too smooth, like a critter with an exoskeleton should be.
Utility- The silithid proved to be surprisingly good at solo work and in PvP. It even works well as a utility pet in 5-mans for keeping things off your healer or sticking a mob in place near the tank. A Cunning pet with a web ability and the equivalent of a permanent fortitude buff makes this pet an all-around winner. Utility is diminished, however, if you have either a priest or warlock in your group so it wouldn't be my first raiding pet choice.

[Acherontia]

I'm going to do this guy myself--and, gonna leave this one up for a day longer I think. Needs moar review!

[Sarayana]

I'd do it but I am doing these challenges on Aoani and she's not high enough >_< I keep hoping to find a pet up she can tame on a night I have time to play. If I don't see a pet she can grab next I am able to, I might just go back and do the most recent pet she can tame. Is that ok?

[TygerDarkstorm]

I have the tan silithid, otherwise I'd do a review for this guy. =(

[Cerah]

I have the tan silithid, otherwise I'd do a review for this guy. =(

^This. I have my dear, purple/pinky one, Deekah, but I guess I can do a review on her.



Pet Model (1-10): 9
Pet Skin (1-10): 7
Pet Sounds (1-10): 8
Pet Animations (1-10): 10
Pet Ability/Utility (1-10): 9
Overall (1-10): 8

As someone who spent most of grade 11 playing Starcraft, this pet's always been a dream come true for me -- my own, personal, 3D Zergling! (let's not fool ourselves here, the Silithids are pretty much the WoW Zerg -- I don't know why Blizzard doesn't just admit it, it's not like they have to worry about being sued)

She was one of the first I went out to tame after the patch, and the one "new" pet who I've really clicked with. I like the purple skin best out of all of them, mostly because it's the closest to the purple zerg you play as in the original Starcraft Zerg single-player campaign. Even silithid sound effects are quite similar Zergling's. I love how active she is too. I can just picture her running up to a marine, tearing his arm off ... it's quite appropriate that this is a (mostly) pvp pet. Marine, Human warrior, same basic level of intelligence we're dealing with, and just as fun to kill.

For Starcraft fans, silithids are *the* pets to have, but even for those of us who haven't appreciated first-hand Blizzard's premier Sci Fi franchaise, silithids are a fun, active pet with great pvp and pve abilities. Now that we can, I think every Beastmaster should have one of these cuties in their stables!

[Cryptography]

Oh Cerah, that picture cracked me up.


I too have that silithid (pink not green). It was part of my still unfinished tame challenge.

Pet Model (1-10): 8
Pet Skin (1-10): 5
Pet Sounds (1-10): 8
Pet Animations (1-10): 10
Pet Ability/Utility (1-10): 8
Overall (1-10): 8

Animations and sounds on these guys are awesome. Terribly hyperactive, jumpy. ALWAYS in motion. Very much like an overeager puppy.
I tamed mine before the 4.01 patch and liked it well enough. Since the patch its a lot more useable. Impressive solo pet.


Edit: Acher, please leave the pets up a bit longer.. perhaps 2-3 days - or accept later submissions.

[Acherontia]

Pet Model: 8
Pet Skin: 7
Pet Sounds: 8
Pet Animations: 9
Pet Ability/Utility: 9
Overall: 9

Right! So, this is my silithid Twitch.



I've tried this guy out repeatedly and despite not quite clicking, I am always impressed. His model is very good; there isn't much to complain about here. It doesn't awe me, but it's very solid and well-done. His skin is nice--the colors are very good, although I could swear they were richer in days past. However, he's very low-res, especially on the claws and sides--the texture is very spread out, not detailed and blurry. The markings are quite striking, though.

His sounds are great fun--he chitters and squeaks, very vocal, and the sounds are all also well-done. His animations are great--skittering, twitching nonstop (hence the name), leaping to and fro (just TRY getting a screenshot!!), etc.

His utility is high. Currently I'd vote him the 2nd best PvP pet; he has a very nice +stamina buff (like Warlock imp), and the ranged root (a Magic effect by the way, so it sadly won't pierce a rogue's CloS) is pretty good. It's only two seconds, though, and won't help vs casters--I wish Bats had a buff, so I could get a buff + stun instead. Still, the root IS nice, if you get stunned by Hammer of Justice for example you can pop the root and be gone by the time they arrive.

Overall, I give this pet a 9. It's fun, it stands out and it does a damn good job fulfilling its purpose. I do like it, but I'm not sure I'll keep one for myself--I prefer furry pets

[Acherontia]

Cryptography --yours was included in the tally, this pet was up about 2 days too Just not a lot of people replying I think.

[Cryptography]

Cool.. though its more about having the time to do the challenge. I'm not always on my hunters

[Calomel]

Wow! I thought I was the only one who loved my silithid as much as I do.

FOR THE SWARM!

[Cryptography]

Review for Diseased Bear

Pet Model: 3. The disease spots and the scarring were ok - if yuck to look at, but the deep cuts to his ribs were too much. The bones warp as the bear moves in an unnatural way. Plus of course he'd have bled to death very quickly with wounds that large.
Pet Skin: 5 a fairly bland brown look. a bit pixelated in parts.
Pet Sounds: 6 He makes the standard bear roar as he charges in but seems pretty quiet otherwise. Ok but fairly boring.
Pet Animations: 6 Movement animations are ok. he does a swipe in combat. Swim animation looks a bit clunky, but reasonably lifelike. RL bears arent exactly graceful swimmers in most cases.

Pet Ability/Utility: 6. I really miss swipe as a skill. Test was done on a level 29/30 hunter so he had barely any talents of use yet. Not sure how much difference the demoralizing roar makes. Its probably pretty good tied in with thunderstomp, both being AOE.
Overall: 3 - mostly becasue I already have a bear that I like - Essentials, the brown bear. On a different hunter I'd probably rate it higher.

(I have a few screenshots that I may add later.)

[TygerDarkstorm]

Since the poor brown diseased bear got so few responses, I'll donate my troll huntress Venjin's black diseased bear for report if that's all right.
Pet Model (1-10): 5
Pet Skin (1-10): 7
Pet Sounds (1-10): 4
Pet Animations (1-10): 6
Pet Ability/Utility (1-10): 6
Overall (1-10): 6

I'm not entirely sure why, but I've always had a thing for the diseased pets, probably because their models aren't as common. My raiding wolf for Venjin was the diseased model and out of compulsion I named him Rotface. Naturally when I went to tame a bear as my solo pet, I tamed the black diseased one and named him Festergut.

I have a love hate relationship with Blizzard's bear models, mostly I don't like them even though I've grown fond of Festergut. I'm odd, I actually like the skin and I think the diseased models will look great with Undead hunters. He doesn't have much in the way of sounds, except his roar when he goes into combat--good or bad depending on the person. His animations aren't bad, they're the same as a bear druid. The new ability seems okay for basic soloing (gathering a group of beasts up and aoeing em down to skin, for example), however, my normal bear I used on my other hunter in Kara had much more trouble holding aggro than my worm. Overall they're not bad pets. Venjin will never get rid of Festergut but I feel that Blizzard's nerfed most of the tank pets into just being so-so.

[Acherontia]

Gonna post my own then update the thread, ty for the additional opinion--was waiting for one more

Pet Model: 6
Pet Skin: 7
Pet Sounds: 7
Pet Animations: 10
Pet Ability/Utility: 8
Overall: 8

I score this one highly, but I'm a massive fan. The model gets a 6--it isn't great, it's older, but it's bearlike. It comes across as a bear with bear personality. My only gripe is that it looks a bit small with some chars--and seems to be lacking some toes.

The skin is one I love. The colors go great together, and the overall appearance is very striking. However, I know it's not the sort of thing that's for everyone. I still think it's well-done, though. I still personally prefer the black one, but this one looks great. His lips also cover his gums (or, due to color, appear to) unlike his non-diseased counterparts.

I'm impressed by the sounds, but they are mostly random stock sounds that you can also hear elsewhere (tv, other games etc). However, there are a wide variety of them (due to being shared by druid bears I assume), and they all add to that bear personality.

The Animations are where I think this guy really scores high. Because (again) it shares these with druids, there's a much wider variety of animations for bears than for many other pets. He has a stun animation, a swipe, a maul, a block, a dodge and more. It makes me feel like I've got an actual druid tank with me! His run is sort of a shambling lope, and his walk is lopsided, both also very bearlike. The extra Sleep animation is really cute!

Pet Ability/Utility: 7.5. I put this guy after turtles and worms, but his AoE damage-reduction roar is still very nice, and he's quite the solid tank pet.

Overall: 8. I do like this bear, as with the black and white diseased ones. I like the overall package and theme--everything about it says "I AM A BEAR" and it's all done well. If I didn't already have a black one, I'd tame this guy.

[Cerah]

The green tarantula today, eh? Leata got that one, which I reviewed back on page 17 of the old thread. Anyone who's interested in the story of her tame (and it's quite the story -- I'm rather proud of it) can read about it here

Now, here's how Tarantulas pans out using the new system.



Pet Model: 5
Pet Skin: 4
Pet Sounds: 6
Pet Animations: 5
Pet Ability/Utility: 8
Overall: 6

What I like most about Tarantulas is his Web ability. Spiders are usually praised as pvp pets, and while I can definately see their usefulness in those situations, I think it can be equally useful in world pve. One hassle I have while soloing is keeping mobs' focus on the pets, not on the hunter, which can be frusterating enough on a BM or SV hunter. Leata is MM, her dps is mostly in her shots, so keeping a mob off her back is even more difficult. A spider's ability to hold down a mob in one place, even if it's just temporary, can mean the difference between living or dying, literally. I guess a Crab's Pin ability can do the same, and it's a Tenacity pet as well, but I like the spider's versitility.

That being said, Tarantulas' particular model -- the green tarantula, isn't all that impressive. Maybe it's because I mostly play Horde, and I'm used to seeing these suckers all over the place (spent a lot of time, maybe too much, in Stonetalon Mountain). It's a big, hairy green spider, and I'm a little more particular to the smaller, less hairy spider models. The sounds aren't bad -- they're like a mix between the chattering of a Scorpid and the hiss of a Serpent (both pet families I enjoy). Animations are also pretty good. There is something I like about seeing a mob get jumped on by a giant arachnid.

Overall, a 6. A useful pet, but there are better spider models out there.

[VelkynKarma]

So let me see if I understand this...the first post is changed daily to show the Pet of the Day?

If that's the case....I think I'll skip the spider due to arachnophobia >>; But I'll give this a shot in the future with Silinrul!

~VelkynKarma

[Acherontia]

Yah, although I may well give it more than one day, in order to get more reviews This thread is DEAD compared to the old one >.>

[Sarayana]

I honestly feel like I'm cheating in this thread... In the other, someone told me "go tame this pet" and so I did. Here, I check what pet it is and, well... if I don't like it I'm just not inclined to do it. It's a good idea, it just doesn't have the same push to go out and tame.

[Cerah]

I like the new thread better. Way too many problems were popping up on the old one. Here, you simply check out the top page, and if you're not inclined to tame the particular pet of the day, no worries. Or, if you already have it (or one like it), you can show off the pet you have.

I think it's the perfect solution and compromise to the problems that were cropping up in the original thread, not to mention a lot less work for Acherontia (who probably has other stuff to do than just picking pets for us ).

[TygerDarkstorm]

I like the new thread better. Way too many problems were popping up on the old one. Here, you simply check out the top page, and if you're not inclined to tame the particular pet of the day, no worries. Or, if you already have it (or one like it), you can show off the pet you have.

I think it's the perfect solution and compromise to the problems that were cropping up in the original thread, not to mention a lot less work for Acherontia (who probably has other stuff to do than just picking pets for us ).

Couldn't agree more. ^_^

[Sarayana]

I like the new thread better. Way too many problems were popping up on the old one. Here, you simply check out the top page, and if you're not inclined to tame the particular pet of the day, no worries. Or, if you already have it (or one like it), you can show off the pet you have.

I think it's the perfect solution and compromise to the problems that were cropping up in the original thread, not to mention a lot less work for Acherontia (who probably has other stuff to do than just picking pets for us ).

I totally agree. I'm just being completely honest with myself here, and my completely honest self tells me that I'm a total cop-out if it's a pet I'm not keen on. Like the undead bear. And I find that goes against the whole point of the other thread. I wouldn't have my ravager OR my two wind serpents if it wasn't for Acherontia saying "go get 'em" to me.

Anyway. I'll try to be more earnest about committing to the challenge before checking what the pet of the day is.