Random "Pet Theme" Challenge

[Comett]

Yay, glad you're back < 3

For the record, my Goblin hunter Tezzra is like level 64 now so anything near that would be fine.

[Acherontia]

For Tezzra:



Safari Pets!



Cheetah, Orange Two-Headed Vulture, Purple Hyena and Yellow Crocolisk!


For Cyleine!



Egyptian Pets!



White Beetle, Brown Owl, White Cat, and Black Fox (PRETEND IT'S A JACKAL? ).


For Lylianne!

Red Pets!



Red & Purple Owl, Red Nether Ray, Red Raptor and Red Wind Serpent!

Again, sorry for the long delay. If I missed anyone, please shout!!

I loved ALL the reviews, there's far too many since I vanished to go through individually, but they were all awesome, and very fun to read The way people are weaving pet reviews into a story is just fantastic I think ^^ I loved the screenshots too; both the artistic ones (which are gorgeous to look at) and the ones that show the pros & cons of the various pets. One pic that sticks with me is the female troll (Veph's I think it was) on the green raptor facing into the woods. I don't know why but I loved it Oh, and Mozag, that green ravager does look awesome with you!!

[Miraga]

Oh yay! That beetle should be a challenge since he's AQ20! Damn his knockbacks! That's what friends are for, right?? lol. Good thing my friend is also a priest! X]

Thanks for the rolls, Acherontia! And I can totally pretend that fox is a jackal!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Another go please.
Name and Level: Venjin, 80
Exotics: Yes
Pet Slots: 9
No Restrictions
Notes: I've had the Bug theme, Blue theme, Undead theme, Northern Reaches theme, Demon theme, and Bioluminescent theme.

[Acherontia]

For TygerDarkstorm (Venjin):



Safari Pets! (2 on one page, I know )




Black Vulture, Gold Lion, Marsh Croc, Orange Hyena, Gray Plainstrider and Brown Rhino!

If you want to try and get your hands on Gosh-Haldir as a stable color rather than the Marsh croc color-changer, feel free--I just don't like assigning rares

[Miraga]

I had the Egyptian theme!

The first pet I went out and got myself was the black fo-- err, jackal!



Here she is! I named her Peppa and she's adorable! The tame was easy, as I was a very high level for the area. As you can see, they're netural mobs so getting to one at a lower level shouldn't be TOO hard but the patting aggressive mobs could make it a pain. She's constantly sniffing the ground and moving around so she's pretty active. If you want a pet that stands by your side unmoving this is NOT the pet for you!



I think it's adorable when they scratch themselves. Something totally random that I like about this model is that she has cute little feet and claws. She looks so petite!




And of course it's ADORABLE when they dance! <3

The fox makes a great pet. Their AoE ability is a big help in dungeons, even if it's provided by other members. This could also be a big help in PvP (I can imagine sending this pet in to a HUGE group in WG and running away evilly). I really love the look of those model. I feel like Peppa goes together REALLY well with Cyleine! Unfortunately, I had to abandon her to get my next pet because I'm dumb and forgot to go to the stable master first! D: But no worries! I will be returning to Redridge to get Peppa back!

The next pet I had was the dark brown owl!



I just went to Sethekk halls and snagged one, as I hadn't done daillies or anything to summon the regular ones.



One of the first things that jumped out at me was the teal eyes. They're actually quite stunning in contrast to his dark brown body.



After having this guy out for a while, he began to grow on me. I love how night elves and owls just "click" together for me, even if his flappy wings were starting to bother me



Here he is, trying to claw my eyes out... I think the feathers around his face make him look kind of odd, though. Like he has really long eyebrows and a terrible haircut, lol. His ability is soooo nice to have. When mobs start beating the crap out of me (or him) I'm like "HAHAHA! NO WEAPON NOW!" and try to DPS them down as quickly as possible. This makes him a definite "must have" for PvP for me. This little brown birdy made me go on a different hunt and I got Olm!



So overall this is a great pet but another one who moves a LOT so be warned!

Then I had the white kitteh! <3



I had actually had one of these kitties on my hunter a while back (as in, you could only have 5 pets!). I had abandoned my ghost kitty for this one and had it with me for a while. We didn't really quick and she was also abandoned for Loque.



I really love this model, even if it looks wonky sometimes since it's an old-world kitty. My favorite part is the blue and silver of her undercoat. I like it because it's relatively subtle and makes her look like a REAL white cat and not some imaginary "totally blinding white" cat, you know what I mean?



She also has beautiful green eyes. It's one of those things that I feel people tend to look over (eye color) but it's really gorgeous. I can tell you right now that if they were blue I would definitely be keeping this kitty. Something that bothers me on this model (and ALL cats) is how the claws are always out. This doesn't feel very natural to me. I understand the claws being out when attacking but when relaxed, the claws are retracted. This doesn't keep me from getting a cat, since it's like this on all models, but it's something I notice. As you can see from this picture, she has the pokey old-world model and it's a big letdown for me. If she were smoother I bet I would see a LOT more hunters with her.

My final pet was the white beetle! :O



I don't have a taming picture of this guy because I was so preoccupied in AQ20, rofl. I ended up taming him after a trap breaking and him knocking me around all over the place. I had him and was happy and the next thing I knew, the event had started! Mobs are just POURING out through the door. I freak out and ask my friend if he had started the event. He said no so we just started killing them... and killing them... and killing them. Eventually the boss runs out and starts beating on us! This kept going on until my friend finally went OOM and my pet died with the boss at about 15%.



I really love the pattern on his back! That's why my other white beetle is named Rorschach!



I can't really explain why I like this model so much. I think it's just the contrast of black and white that looks really good to me.

His special ability is a LIFESAVER. He will pop it as needed so I don't have to worry about it (I think he uses it at 50% HP or so). It makes soloing things sooo much easier. I'm glad he shares this ability with turtles, since I don't like turtles much.




He randomly jiggles around and makes cute little bug noises when he attacks. I forgot to check his swimming animations but the last time I saw he didn't have one.

All in all, this model looks gorgeous and his tanking ability makes my life so much easier!

[TygerDarkstorm]

For TygerDarkstorm (Venjin):



Safari Pets! (2 on one page, I know )




Black Vulture, Gold Lion, Marsh Croc, Orange Hyena, Gray Plainstrider and Brown Rhino!

If you want to try and get your hands on Gosh-Haldir as a stable color rather than the Marsh croc color-changer, feel free--I just don't like assigning rares

Gosh doesn't really count as a rare since she's so low level and quick to respawn. I'll probably go pick her up.
I'll probably start this before work and finish it after.

[Demonwolf]

do u think you could do one for my char? it seems interesting
Name & level: celibie, 85 worgen
Exiotics: yes
Stables left: around 6
Notes: if it counts, im not a bug fan xP
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/k ... bie/simple
vulkan is actually terrorpenne and the un-named cat is pogeyan

[Meatha]

I would like another one please

Name & Level: Meatha, level 84
Exotics: Yes
Pet Slots: 5
Restrictions: none
Additional Notes: already had creatures of the northern woods

[TygerDarkstorm]

All right, so 4 out of my 6 pets tamed so far.

First up is Voltor the black carrion bird.


I would like to start off by saying these guys creep me out, and I think it's because they very much resemble real life vultures who also creep me out. They have that fleshy, reddish colored skin on their heads, legs, and tail thing. Their beak starts off gold then ends in a black tip, and they have very beady, sort of angry, yellow eyes.

They have a little white collar of feathers around their neck and the rest of their feathers are black. Those long, dangly tail things also give me the heebie jeebies.

For animations, these guys are like most birds and just flap in place. Every now and then they'll do the flap flap uuupp, and then resettle. What I like is that they hover at shoulder height (and run/fly there) instead of doing it along the ground like some birds. They're fairly quiet pets as well. They make no sound by your side (other than flap flap) and they're pretty quiet in combat. They make a squawk when you initially send em in, they have a sort of eagle-like call they make when casting their debuff, and that's really about all I hear--my gun makes more noise. XD

Carrion birds bring demoralizing screech, which reduces the physical damage caused by enemies--it could be useful in a dungeon with some very hard hitting melee mobs that are beating up your tank pretty bad.

Overall I have no real desire to keep this guy. His skin just sort of creeps me out and I'm not a big fan of the old world vulture models. I'll be keeping my ghostly carrion bird, Elusive instead.


Next up is Carl, the lion.

I decided to go to Mulgore and look for The Rake. After a few short minutes, I found him prowling around and tamed him.


My initial thoughts were that I actually kind of like this lion skin even though I had never though to tame it before. Then I began to give him a closer look and found a few flaws that are kind of glaring to me now. First, and most noticeable, is that 2-D mane that suffers the same problem as the wolves' ruffs--it sticks out in all the wrong places and looks incredibly awkward when Carl swings his head about.

Also as you can see in this side shot, Carl has some funky looking spots on his hindquarters that made me go "O_o is he diseased?".
From the front, the lion's face isn't too bad, the whiskers looks a tad low res, but it's a proud face of a male lion; I like it.


For animations, I've always liked cats. And as a huge bonus to those of you who hate the yawn slobber thing, these guys do not make that noise! They actually use the saber mount noises and do not make the yawn slobber when idling; instead they make more of a roaring noise (the noise your saber mount makes when you press spacebar). I also love the way cats run, they look very powerful and prideful.

I'm sure we all know how awesome cats are for hunters if you don't have a DK, warrior, or enhance shaman around. If you don't have one of those classes around, cats are the number one DPS pet for MM and SV (I'd bring a spirit beast as BM for the added heal).

I won't be keeping Carl, there's a few flaws in the skin that I'm not fond of, and I have Duskstalker on this toon already.

Next is Itty, the gray tallstrider. Itty is named in honor of my baby WRA hunter, Roxíe's Clutchmother who is named Bitty. (As in Itty Bitty since I'm lame and it was the first thought that came to my head after seeing how tiny tallstriders look next to low level hunters.)


I actually kind of like this skin, there's a lot of little nuances to it. Her base body and legs are gray and then her face and neck are a myriad of beautiful colors. First is the bright red, then purple, then a soft teal color.

I have no real complaints with how the model looks. Their claws are low res, but that's pretty standard. I feel that tallstriders are pretty solid.

After running around with Bitty for 5 levels I have learned something very important about tallstriders--they are PACKED with personality. These guys can amuse themselves and beg you for attention all in the same go. They are fierce and loyal protectors, and they also like to have a little fun. They have won me over.

I love tallstrider animations. They are pretty quiet by your side. Every now and then they'll clean themselves or give a little silent caw. They look like ostriches when they run, which is rather fitting. And when they swim and go into combat, it's adorable. When they swim, they kick with those powerful legs, flap with their useless little wings, and they sort of use their head to help propel them.


Their ability, dust cloud, reduces enemy melee and ranged attack speed, another useful debuff if your tank is taking excessive damage from melee mobs in a dungeon.

I think I'll probably keep Itty around. She's prettier than I thought she would be, and I actually think I like tallstriders better than foxes now.

And last, for now, is Creamsicle, the orange hyena.


Hyenas are a love/hate pet for me. I want to love em, but I keep seeing so many flaws with this guy that it makes me go 'blegh.' There was a thread a while back about wanting hyenas to revert to their old stance...I hope maybe Noah picks up on it because looking more closely at their new stance makes my neck hurt. The head->neck->shoulder ratio just looks really awkward and weird.

I also dislike, as someone from the single pet challenge described, how the sides of their legs look as if they had a really bad accident in a fire. Makes me feel sort of bad for them. I'm also not overly fond of the way the orangey color looks for these guys; it's just sort of 'meh' for me.
Looking at these guys from the front is a hot mess as well. Their eyes are creepy and their box muzzles are ew.


Animations wise, if you've ever owned a fox or coyote model wolf, you know everything that these guys can do. I like that they lift their head up to run, makes them look a little more...natural I guess. They're fairly quiet pets too. They make a sort of squeal going into combat, and snarling noises while fighting, nothing real obnoxious.

Tendon rip, their ability, increases bleed damage by 30%. Bleck. I never play as MM and I almost never run in a group that would ever benefit from this debuff so to me, hyenas (and their tenacity counterparts) have a largely useless debuff, especially since arms warriors, feral druids, and sub rogues all bring their own bleed increasing abilities.

Sorry hyena fans, Creamsicle will not be staying; I just couldn't bond with the poor fellow.

I will finish the other two pets for this challenge after I get home from work.

[TygerDarkstorm]

All righty, I got my last two pets now. ^_^

First is Brutus the green Cata crocodile.


I absolutely love and adore the Cata croc skins. Blizzard did a fabulous job with the models and skins for these guys. My orc has Gosh-Haldir (named Nero, which is how Brutus got his name ) and he looks great next to her. Anyway, I love the different shades of green on Brutus. They also have a good amount of scaling detail and they even have real teeth!


Crocolisks have lovely animations, in my opinion. I know some don't like their little waddle run, but I love it. I will admit that from the top down, their run does almost look a little back-breaking, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

As for sounds, crocolisks make a hissing noise every now and then as they idle. They hiss and growl in combat too.

Ankle crack is definitely more suited for PvP, but it has its uses in PvE too. If you have mobs that like to run away a lot, these guys can slow them down. One make or break for some people is that the croc has to be in melee range to use this where as the warp stalker's is ranged.

I won't be keeping Brutus on this toon. I'll probably end up picking up a warpie later on.

Last is Poofy, the brown rhino.


I've grown to like rhinos, but Poofy is kind of meh. The brown is so...brown. His eyes are about the only thing that really give him any sort of life. I like that they have real teeth and that their toes aren't low res, and that's about it.


Animations wise, I believe rhinos use the kodo skeleton as they use the same animations and sounds. They swing their head from side to side when idling and they actually look pretty adorable running and swimming.

I'm sure we all know how useless their bleed ability is; enough said. Horn Toss, on the other hand, can be used for many fun situations. When I tamed one of these guys for a challenge on my orc, I giggled for like 10 minutes or so tossing NPCs around. This ability shines best in PvP although punting a stray mob away from a healer would be pretty amusing too.


Poofy will not be staying with Venjin either. I really dislike the brown color, especially next to Venjin.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Another go please.
Name and Level: Venjin, 80
Exotics: Yes
Pet Slots: 9
No Restrictions
Notes: I've had the Bug theme, Blue theme, Undead theme, Northern Reaches theme, Demon theme, Bioluminescent theme, and Safari theme.

[Acherontia]

First off, awesome reviews as always I loooove the pics people are giving, and I know I've already said that but it still applies! A lot of your pets seem to have SO much personality, and it's interesting to see who clicks with what pet, and why, and which pets just don't fit Anyway, here's the new rolls, and if I made any mistakes or missed anyone, shout. You might notice that a couple of the pets in a theme are similar--I'm wondering how people will find a comparison between, say, a dog and a wolf, or an owl and an eagle (either due to family skill or in the latter case, appearance) etc. Enjoy!

For Meatha:



Ghostly Pets!




The Lone Hunter, Ghostly White Demon Dog, Ghost Saber, Ghost Vulture and Blue Crystal Boar!


For Celibie:



Gothic Pets!




Red Bat, Black Diseased Bear, Black Crow, Black Dog, and Black Wolf!


For TygerDarkstorm (Venjin):

~White~ Pets!



White Worg, White Jormungar, White Moth, White Eagle and White Owl!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Aw, shame my white pet collector isn't high enough for these yet.
I'll get on them in a bit.

[Daranara]

First, if this alt is too small for this, by all means tell me and I'll hold off until she's bigger. It just looked like such fun! :<

Name and Level: Daranara, 35
Exotics: N/A
Pet Slots: 7
No restrictions

[TygerDarkstorm]

Hope you don't mind me splitting my report a bit Ache, but since Venjin had tamed Ghost Howl from a previous challenge, I decided to do the white worg one on my white pet collector since Timber is a low enough rare for her to tame.

So without further ado, here is Xyrah and Timber.


So... funny thing about Timber is that in his native Dun Morogh, he doesn't look like a white worg at all and looks a lot more like the silvery-gray worgs, but with yellow eyes. I had already decided I wanted to go play around in Loch Modan on Xyrah so after a lot of long running everywhere, I took him there to study him further. And in Loch Modan's lighting, he definitely looks much more white.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my dislike of the worg models before. I figured I would try this model with Xyrah, but I still can't love it over it's glaring flaws; sorry Timber fans. The fur...my gods how the fur needs a serious update. I know the coyote models suffer a similar problem, but I feel it's no where near as bad as the poor worgs.


I can't get over how goofy the fur looks, especially when they move...bleck. Their teeth are also very 2-D and low res. Fake teeth for the loss.


Worg animations...another reason I can't love these guys. When they run, it's almost like they broke a leg or something (and the leading reason I almost never ride the wolf mounts). It's hard to capture how goofy their run is in a screenshot though.



At least in combat these guys aren't bad, although he sure didn't want to hold aggro off of me (although that's probably more of my problem than his since I was shooting before KCing as the mobs I was fighting are a few levels lower than me and I didn't want KC to crit and kill them with no credit to me).

These guys are ferocity pets so they, of course, put out good damage, and at level 20 his crit buff will be nice. However, poor little Timber will not be staying with me. He seems to like Loch Modan so I'll probably let him go play here while I go looking for Lord Condor.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Okey dokey, on to Venjin's tames.

I'll start with Avalanche, the white eagle.


Eagles...such gorgeous models but Blizzard continues to neglect them, which is very saddening. They have beautiful feather detail and beautiful faces, but they suffer the same problems as worgs and coyote wolves; their feathers sort of separate and look incredibly tacky.



Animations...another set of flaws on Blizzard's behalf. These guys drag their butts across the ground as you run which looks incredibly weird. Every now and then Avalanche would hiccup and assume a proper flying position, but then would always return to dragging her butt, made me sad.


Snatch can be useful for PvP and PvE; nothing like disarming a hard hitting mob to save your healer some mana or buy you some precious time.

I'm copy/pasting my previous white owl tame (apparently I have a thing for the name Avalanche since that's the former owl's name. >_>).

And now is Avalanche the white owl. ^_^


I'm not usually a fan of the owl models, but this guy is rather pretty.

Eek, my head!


What's kind of neat with these guys is that they're not just white, they have some yellowish-brown tones to them as well. They also have black feet, black eyes, and their beak is bronze and then turns black where it touches their skin. Like the wolves, their feathers have weird break points on their back.



These guys flap up by your shoulder, and occasionally she'll flap up into the air, then settle back into their usual spot above your shoulder. These guys are neat to watch fight as they swing their claws in their enemies' faces. As mentioned with the undead hawk, Snatch can be a very useful ability for both PvE and PvP, preferably micro-managed over leaving it on autocast.

Avalanche will not be staying with Venjin because she has Aotona.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Next is Boris the white worm. I really like the name Boris for jormungars...not sure why.
Now this guy had immediate personality right after I tamed him. I was running out of the cave, trying to think of a name for him, and he decided to be a little goofy.

Right away I knew this guy would be a keeper. ^_^

Anyway, on to looks. I'm a HUGE fan of the way the jormungar look so this will probably be a bit biased.
I love the coloring for the white jormungar, they're so pretty. Their skin, spikes, and fur are varying shades of white, and then they have two purple racing stripes running down either sides of their body. Very handsome.


They also have real teeth in those powerful jaws.

Worms have a good set of animations. They wiggle oh so very cutely by your side.


And he's a fabulous swimmer too!


Their Acid Spit ability is useful and only on a 7 second cooldown. Sadly I lost some love for worms for a while after they made Burrow drop aggro so that worms could become AoE DPS pets. I've regained my love for worms, but I see little use for an AoE DPS pet for what I do (I suppose on certain encounters it might be good). I know some people use worms as tanks still and I think that's great.
And now I can't decide whether to keep Boris or Donaghy.

And last is Winter, the white moth.


Moths how I've grown to love thee. The white moth is very pretty. She's a very soft white all over with black legs, horn, and eyes.

The models are actually really solid and only suffer from one small flaw, and it's the fur issue many other pets have.


For animations, moths just flap quietly next to your side. When you run, they flutter on the ground next to you. I kind of wish they flew at shoulder level like birds, but it's not enough to make me not tame a moth. They make cute little chittering sounds when you send them in combat.

One of the reasons I've come to start using moths over other interrupt pets is because, like gorillas, they will only autocast their interrupt if their enemy target is actually casting a spell. Serenity Dust may have a longer cooldown than other pet interrupts as well, but the school lockout is also longer by a second or two. Plus, moths are just freakin cute. ^_^

I won't be keeping Winter as Venjin has Faerie from a previous challenge whom I just adore.


Now I can't decide between Boris:


And Donaghy:

What do you guys think?

[Cialbi]

First, if this alt is too small for this, by all means tell me and I'll hold off until she's bigger. It just looked like such fun! :<

Name and Level: Daranara, 35
Exotics: N/A
Pet Slots: 7
No restrictions

I did a challenge with a very low-level alt, so I doubt she'll mind making a challenge that Daranara Jr. can do.

[Spiritbeests]

I could of sworn I posted but it vanished

Can I have another?
Buitre, 85, Extoics okay, no restrictions, limitless stable space