Apologies in advance for this review; it's probably the silliest thing I've ever done. Because of the overabundance of silly, I'm going to be borrowing from some other reviewers I've seen and do a quick cut-and-dry version of this pet's pros and cons before I get going, for those of you who are interested in the details of that sort of thing.
Just a fair warning.
*cough*
Here we go!
Pet: Gold Nether Ray.
Where to find: Blade's Edge Mountains.
Skin Comments: Nice colors, if a bit pale.
Animation Comments: Running animation currently seems to not work quite right.
Pet Special: Ranged magical silence.
Pros: Isn't afraid to use it when left on autocast.
Cons: Isn't afraid to use it when left on autocast. Needs micromanaging unless you like trying to silence anything and everything.
And now on to the detailed review!
So when I found out I was reviewing a nether ray, I sighed to myself. I've always found them kind of boring, but I've not tried one in a while, so I decided to give them a chance! I took my area 52 engineering toy, but it actually worked this time and I got there in one piece as my usual shape. Undaunted, I flew from there to Ogri'la in Blade's Edge to see what I could find. Sure enough, there they were, in various degrees of movement. The ones low to the ground were moving along fine, but the ones in the air seemed frozen, simply scooting through their paths without moving.
I set my sights on this one here, since he seemed to be moving alright. The boar on the far right seems glad he has no part in this nonsense. However, by the time I dismounted and got my pet situation sorted out enough to make the tame, my ray had wandered off somewhere and I couldn't find him. However, one of the animation-impaired ones was making his way over my head as I was looking, so I nabbed him instead.
They're a little frightening from this angle. Alas, there was no drama to this tame. No fears, no fear of dying, no sniping from other players. I didn't even bother to trap him. Once I saw the gold flash and he began his shrinking to pet size, I began to regret this already.
Three seconds into the tame, and I was bored with him. He's a pretty enough skin (though if I -must- have a nether ray, I prefer the red and black skin best), but there was no spark. He just seemed to sit there, floating along passively at my side. Resigning myself to a boring review, I took a closer look.
Upon looking at him like this, I was immediately struck by him. The evil grin! The evil goatee! The scowl! How had I missed it before? I had been looking at him all wrong! This nether ray was no mindless hovering DoT! He was...
...a villain. I named him Snidley, because it was only appropriate. We were going places, Snidley and I! I could just feel it. (The rest of this review will be displayed in Dara-vision to help you better see and understand my thoughts on the pet.)
Since I was already in Outland, I decided we'd go do Magister's Terrace first, since I'm still after Kael's white... hawkstrider. So off to Shattrath we go!
The first time it occurred to me that maybe I'd been had by my pet was when we made it to Shattrath. I'd taken the taxi in because I was lazy, so I just ran into the Terrace of Light on foot. But no sooner than I had crossed the threshold, Snidely decided he had other ideas.
...Yeah, that's him running off to be diabolical or something. Just ran away and around the corner.
He came back pretty quickly, and seemed happy to see me when he returned. This behavior was repeated when I stepped back over the threshold, so a bit of testing and we came to this conclusion:
Or at least I hope it's just weird pathing issues, otherwise I may be in for some trouble next time I hit up Shattrath.
Anyway, we made it to the instance with no issues, and we began my usual dance of blood elf death. I quickly realized that the other reviews of nether rays were correct, and Snidley had no problem trying to silence anything and everything. While fitting with his demeanor, I turned it off autocast, deciding I knew better than he did about who and what to interrupt.
We made it through the first boss with no problem. So far, so good! I even found Snidley a piece of loot for his troubles!
What followed after that, however, reads like a comedy of errors. Snidley was apparently upset with me for trying to leash him in like a good pet, so he had his revenge. At random he would refuse to go running out to meet a foe when I attacked, only joining the fray when I started taking damage. He would path out and grab random mobs as I snuck past them, causing me more grief. I've taken level 82 pets through here before, but I've never had this much trouble with one grabbing things before. Whether nether rays have weird pathing issues sometimes, I was being careless, or Snidley was getting his evil revenge, I'll never be sure. It doesn't change the fact I took his monocle away from him, though.
Eventually, however, we did make it to Kael. During the fight we managed to pull the group that was before him (another group I can usually get away without killing), but eventually everything died. Irritated, I went to collect the spoils, eager for another day of red robes and shiny sword off of the dead blood elf leader.
Imagine my shock! I had been a good minion, and Snidley had made sure I was rewarded for my efforts.
Obligatory mount shot with Snidley.
That accomplished, we went off to Tol Barad for some daily goodness. It would be a good chance to test Snidley against 85 mobs to see how he handled them! ...And also because I need more marks for my mounts out of there *cough*
He actually did surprisingly well, all told. I still got hung up on respawns in all the usual places, but he was trying to tank them like a champ. I tried to keep them CC'd as much as possible, but it wasn't always going to work.
Even while poisoned, he kept going! Eventually we were overwhelmed, but so it goes. One more day closer to my dragon.
We returned to Stormwind, where I had to face the truth. While it had been kind of fun making friends with Snidley, my original assessment still held true. There was no spark. If I kept him, he'd live in the stables forever and never see daylight again. It wasn't right. Even if he was evil, Snidley deserved better than that.
I took Snidley up to get a good view of my home, and told him all about Azeroth. He seemed especially interested in the sheep and the amount of unused gnomish robots lying around, but I'm sure that doesn't mean anything. I asked if he wanted to go back to Outland, but he decided he wanted to explore this new world he found himself in. It was then time to go.
I returned his monocle to him, we embraced briefly, then the last I saw was his tail vanishing into the tunnel to the Deeprun Tram. I wish him luck, and (if needed later) I welcome our new robotic nether ray overlords.
And that's the tale of Snidley the nether ray. Not a -bad- pet, all told, but eh. Not for me.
May I try another?
Name: Daranara
Level: 85
Exotics: OK!
It was a great read and gave me a new take on nether rays. 
: I was assigned a bear which I had for a pet for about a year until recently, hence the lack of many pictures-- I just retamed one to see if the animations had changed in any way. I do miss my Edrich, and am considering taming him again... but my stables are getting full, even though I’d thought 25 slots would be enough-- they just keep putting out new skins that are so VERY cool!
