WARNING: In this review, I say some unkind things about turtles. If you're a turtle lover, I'm sorry in advance, but it's important you know the whole story, even the mean bits.
Daranara-the-younger checking in with part one of her big pet review, part one of two!
REPTILES! They're fun! They're exciting! They're ectothermic! Let's talk about them, shall we?
First up, let's talk about:
The green Cataclysm crocolisk. Well, technically I was assigned the color-changer, but...
Hey, she was up; who am I to complain? Meet Anya!
She is varying shades of turquoise-green, with eyes that match my hideous pants. As you might guess from the picture, she and I never really hit it off.
She's a very low-to-the-ground pet, which I guess is okay. I'm more of a fan of pets I can see at a glance, and if some of the ground clutter is almost taller than her, well...
Her model is solid, and much preferred over the old croco one. Her animations are all good, even with the wiggly run. She holds aggro well, as is expected for a tenacity pet. Overall, she's a solid thing, but we just didn't click. You can tell because I have almost nothing to say about her.
I let her go back with her croco friends, so maybe she'll have better luck next time. Sorry, girl!
Moving right along, we have...
The yellow raptor!
Now, I am a recent convert to raptors, having finally trying them on my main and falling in love with Myra the Murderbeast (formerly Dart), so I was interested in seeing if her pale cousin could compare.
Looking them up, I saw this skin had a rare spawn associated with it as well: the Razormaw Matriarch. Excited, I headed out to her cave to try and find her.
No luck. Since she was gone and her babies were now running the risk of being caught by poachers, I scooped them up and took them with me.
Now normally I'd wait out the rare spawn, but I knew if I just went one zone north there was a raptor to be had, so I went and soon enough my baby raptor had a Daddy:
I named him Cyras, in remembrance of my very first raptor, when Dara-the-elder was about Dara-the-younger's level. He wasn't a yellow raptor, but let's not waste time on memories! Let's have a look at him!
he's got kind of a pretty skin, even though it keeps making me think like he was just an orange raptor left out in the sun too long and faded. The blue is a good contrast to the orange-yellow, and the colors themselves shift nicely. The feathers provide good contrast for his limbs, though I think I'd prefer it if they were the blue of his stripes rather than teal. Ditto this for his beads.
His animations are neat, and give him a restless, energetic feel. his attack animations are like you'd expect a critter like him to fight. The jump-slash is a personal favorite :3
I will not be keeping Cyras, because he reminds me too much of a pale imitation of Myra the Murderbeast, but I will be finding a different skin for her raptor needs. They are good, intelligent-looking pets, and I'm glad I finally came around to them.
Next up!
Meet Taran, the green turtle:
You want to know a secret? I used to HATE turtles. No joke. They did not appeal to me at all. To me, they looked kind of stupid. The blank, vacant stare, the goofy expressions, everything about them just SCREAMED "herp a derp derp" to me, and who wanted that? I wouldn't even consider having one of them as a pet. Yes, I'd heard they were good tanks, but so what? I had Jerk, he could tank for me.
But enough about that, let's talk about Taran.
Now, Taran's from the same neighborhood as Anya was, because it was close. A quick hop in the water, and there he was. Woo boy, a turtle. But right away, even before I had a chance to name him, he was off attacking something. And what did we kill?
The Modan Monster! I know it's not impressive to kill an elite several levels below you, but hey, a first kill is a first kill. Let's get out of the water to have a better look at him.
I haven't changed my mind in that they look kind of derpy, but I'm not holding it against them anymore. It's kind of endearing, really. His animations are very... deliberate. He knows exactly what he wants to do, and how long he wants to do it in, and you can't hurry him or stop him.
The model itself has varied textures, but they mesh well together. I'm not sold on the... tusks, I guess they are, but that's alright. I like this coloring better than most of the turtles, so no complaints there.
Okay, so you want to know the exact moment I was sold on him, though?
This, right here. We were running WC by ourselves to go get Marina (who I'll talk about later), and it was just after we'd killed Night-Elf-Boss-Who's-Name-I-Cannot-Recall. He came charging back to me, his shell shield still up, then he held his head up high, like he was proud of his accomplishment. And I smiled. He had won. Both the fight, and my heart.
He's a good little tank, as so many have said. He has a very solid presence beside me, which I enjoy. Overall, I am thrilled to have him here.
And now, because I ramble and fear this is getting long, I will split my review. My next post will have m remaining two pets, and an overview. See you there!
I can't say if I prefer one or the other with your troll--I guess you'll need to decide that one on your own. The old world ones have such a charming and confident, almost mischeivous expression on their faces--and yours is no exception. But that Jormungar is beautiful!!
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