'Special Snowflakes' and Hunter Starter Pets

[Dakonic]

I still have my mastiff on my 62 hunter, I do not plan on getting rid of him. But I don't use him that much, my stables are always changing. (I usually rotate pets day to day out of my stable so they all get some love)

I would like a customizable option, but it would depend. I would prefer only common skin choices.

[Mozag]

How is the night elf starter pet "cheating"? It was the first pet to use that skin. Blizz didn't give it to Rak'Shiri until people started complaining that it was only available to new night elves. Now people are complaining that the skin is even used on a starter pet... =/

Cheating is the wrong word, but I used it since I lacked a better one. Hence the quotation marks. I certainly have no qualm with people using this skin, and funnily enough am often very vocal about the whole "rares should be rare" issue. I think a rare mob sharing the same skin as a common one is perfectly fine, and I would usually tame the common mob anyway, unless the rare is a lower level. But with this skin...I don't know, maybe it's the fact that it's the ONLY skin from the starter ones used as a rare. And only a rare. It doesn't exist on any other mobs, so if you're not Nelf, tough, go tame it in Winterspring. That makes me feel a bit meh, since I'm all for versatility and choice (and man am I happy to learn from you that they used it on Rak'Shiri, if they were originally going to leave it Nelf-only!). As an example, Shadowclaw and Duskstalker are also rares, and the only versions of their skins, but they are both obtainable by Horde, and at appropriate level if you're willing to run. Granted, they're in Alliance territory, but this is not really an issue, to be honest, whereas until level 57, there is no way that a Horde, or a non-Nelf, can get the tiger, and that sort of pisses me off.

It doesn't piss me off in any serious sense, and I'm not going to go up in arms about it, or anything. But it was enough to make me ditch my Anemone and decide that at 57 my Dwarf can have her pretty white tiger.

[Adam-Savage]

How is the night elf starter pet "cheating"? It was the first pet to use that skin. Blizz didn't give it to Rak'Shiri until people started complaining that it was only available to new night elves. Now people are complaining that the skin is even used on a starter pet... =/

Some people are just never happy no matter what you do to please them.

[Davarra]

I think it depends on the pet. My little goblin huntress sent her crab Lugnut on ahead to meet up again later, since he can swim and save himself from the impending volcano, while she helps an unfortunate raptor who can't get away by himself.

She put me at either 49 or 50 so I think it's mostly moot now, but I think if I used a pet for 10 levels I'd prolly end up bonding to some degree, even if it meant promising to come back for them soon like I did there.

(And now I feel like an utter jerk for barely touching WoW for a month due to Champions and Everquest.)

[Miyon]

I don't think hunters are special enough that we need to be able to pick our version of our starter pet-I mean warriors don't get to pick their sword design after all. Blizz has done enough in just giving us a pet to start with at all.

Kitsune still has her starter pet, a little dragonhawk named Ren, whom I don't plan on getting rid of any time soon.

That was a good way to put it, actually. It is just a tool for us until we can tame ourselves new pets.

And, My lord kri is named Ren too

[Yaone]

I've done a few hunters (well started) since they started with their own pets. I can say that if I like the skin/family I keep it. If not, I get rid of it or stable.

My worgen's dog hasn't been taken out of the stable since it was level 13, but its only because I don't like the dogs.

[Airwyn]

I recently started a new Blood Elf huntress for the purpose of taming new pets and I actually did click with my Dragonhawk. Named him Taven after the Mortal Kombat's story mode for the PS2. I think he'll be a keeper

[Acherontia]

I miss the ability to "choose" your first true pet. It would be nice to have a few different skins to choose from on your starter model, I agree. It's not even being a "special snowflake," just a bit of choice--I'd feel bad abandoning my first pet due to color, as most Petopians probably would, especially if another skin would suit us!

[Worba]

I think starter pets are fine as-is; they keep low level hunters feeling like low level hunters, but without the total deprivation of pre-4.0 when lvl 1-9 hunters didn't have any pets at all.

[Cerah]

I liked starting out with a pet on Lydeea, my undead hunter, but I have to admit, ever since lvl 10 and taming Zero, her demon dog, Ginger the spider has barely seen the outside of the stables.

I think a little customization regarding starter pets wouldn't be too much to ask. After all, a certain 8-bit, black and white, 14 year old game on a handheld running on double-A's managed to give us the choice between 3 different starter pets ...

[Evets]

I still use my Blood elf hunter i contomplated changing him to a worgan but didnt want to in the end.An d also my m8 has a mastiff in real life so one on a game wouldnt suite me...Of the subject dose anyone else feel that when there playing WOW they realy get in to charater almost as if you were them? or is it just me?

[JagKat]

The only hunter I’ve made since they were given starter pets is my Worgen, and even though I LOVE the mastiffs (it was the first new skin I tamed on my main) and NotoriousDOG and my Worgen went through a lot together in those first levels, she actually clicked more with the first pet that she tamed herself (a black bear named GreatGatsby) and the puppy has spent the majority of his time in the stable ever since. I don’t think I will ever release him though, since he was there in the beginning when she was still just a regular human.

[Moonlost]

I have started two hunters since Cata's release; the answer to your question for both of them is no, I never bonded with their initial pets. Howeverm I didn't bond wit them for two seperate reasons.

With Tatten, my worgen, I just didn't like the mastiff model and animations. As with Saberworgs and Dire Wolves, it just looks to me like they're very front heavy and staggering more than running. I just kept seeing flaws in the model which I didn't like and I was glad to be able to pick something else up at level 10.

Slumlost the goblin was an entirely different matter. You see, Slumlost actually has a little bit of a backstory and history, one which I really need to start writing about. And as part of that backstory, I set him up with a faithful animal companion; Trip the fox, who now proudly runs by his master's side, causing trouble. Unfortunately, setting up such an attachment to a pet before even creating Slumlost meant that I didn't really want to bond with the starting out Crab. The crab was okay I guess, not really my cup of tea, but he was just really a stand in until I could pick up Trip.

As for cusomising your starting out pet? Eh, although I can understand why that would be cool, I think that part of the bond comes from the tame itself, the difficulties reaching your pet then waiting those few seconds for the tame to finish. The starter pets do their job well; power to those who continue to keep their first buddies beside them. But it's not too long until you can tame your own pet. I say leave the starting off pets as is.
Think of it in these terms: The pet you start off with is little more than a "training" pet, one loaned to you by your hunter trainer. It's not necissarily the greatest pet, but it'll help you learn the basics of being a hunter; much like an equestrian is loaned a horse to grasp the basics of riding when they first start out. Once you hit level 10, you can choose to keep with your training pet, or release it and send it back to the hunter trainer, where it'll be assigned to another new hunter when they first start out.

[Rarako]

I really have to agree with you, Moonlost.

My dwarf hunter really didn't bond with her bear, though a big part of that is do to the fact that I had pets planned out for her before I even hit the create button. I just took Chon as being a "lender" pet, he was sent to Reiza when she decided to be a hunter just the same as her jerkin and rifle. His job was to keep an eye on the greenhorn, jump in when needed, and once she was set he would get a big fish and a nice vacation before doing the whole thing over again. I really think a part of the reason why I never even considered stabling my bear was do to the fact that he never felt like a "real" pet, I had no real control over his actions so he felt separated form me. All in all, I think the starter pets are fine as is. No need to pop extra skins in, and even if they did I have a feeling that it really wouldn't change whether or not someone would keep them in the end.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I really have to agree with you, Moonlost.

My dwarf hunter really didn't bond with her bear, though a big part of that is do to the fact that I had pets planned out for her before I even hit the create button. I just took Chon as being a "lender" pet, he was sent to Reiza when she decided to be a hunter just the same as her jerkin and rifle. His job was to keep an eye on the greenhorn, jump in when needed, and once she was set he would get a big fish and a nice vacation before doing the whole thing over again. I really think a part of the reason why I never even considered stabling my bear was do to the fact that he never felt like a "real" pet, I had no real control over his actions so he felt separated form me. All in all, I think the starter pets are fine as is. No need to pop extra skins in, and even if they did I have a feeling that it really wouldn't change whether or not someone would keep them in the end.

That's a really good outlook on it. ^_^

[Worba]

I've thought about this some more, and while I feel the same about new players (e.g. ability / option deprivation is a useful training tool for newcomers to the class), there is also the issue of how much this should apply to people who already have a lvl 85 hunter / paladin / rogue etc.

It would be interesting to have them add a couple BoA heirloom tomes for each class, which can only be bought by a lvl 85 of that same class (the idea here being that a player should not only have to get to max lvl but also prove they already know the particular class basics), and which can be passed down to a new character to teach them something they otherwise would have to wait till lvl 10 for.

For hunters I think the two most obvious choices would be 1) access to pet bar (e.g. get to send in pet first) and 2) access to tame / feed / revive beast (making the question of pet appearance customization moot). And so forth for the other classes.

This seems like the logical companion to BoA weapons and armor (granted that the trip from lvl 1-10 passes so quickly it's kind of a blur either way...).

[Nubhorns]

I started Veeka long before the starter pet thing was introduced, but my baby Troll hunter Ezzu kept his raptor, Kippa, for the bare minimum of time. It's not that I wanted to be a special snowflake, but as I quested with her I kept getting the feeling that she didn't really like Ezzu at all - sort of like an "Oh I'm stuck watching the idiot again today" thing. :P I see most of the starter pets as older, 'guardians' or 'watchdogs' assigned to the younger members of society so they don't run off and get eaten by tigers. So it stood to reason that once Ezzu reached the point where he was capable of taming a beast for himself, Kippa took one look at him and went right back to the Echo Isles, probably to laze around until another young hunter comes by.

I wandered around petless for a while actually, and considered trying to level poor Ezz without a pet entirely(!), but I stumbled across The Rake while lazily looking for something that 'clicked' and now my little troll has a kitty cat with no name.