Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[Arisia]

Arisia
Orange Boss Wasp

This time around, I tamed early, and really PLAYED with the critter in question. See, I'm SO not a bug person... they tend to give me the heebie-jeebies, especially the spiders, but I've wanted to open my choices a bit, and figured that I'd NOT limit out bugs, and if I got one, to really PLAY with it, to see how I really feel about the critter rather than doing the EWEWEWEWEW reaction and running in the other direction.

And so, I ended up in Scholozar, and tamed one big arse orange wasp, who was given the name Tangerine, and thus began our time together...


I took the waygate in Scholozar to save my HS for no real reason, and flying through the valley THERE, we saw a nice Pally hunting Devilsaur, and Tangerine asked if we could help and since there is nothing funnier than the thought of a ginormous bug fighting a ginormous T rex, we helped the attack:


And as we made our way through Tanaris, we stopped and fought a few things in the sand... again, I noted that this was ONE humungous bug:


We ran Sethek (yeah I know, I cannot spell) Halls, as I am trying to farm the Raven Lord mount, but the pictures there really didn't come out. And then we went and killed some birdpeople, as I am also farming THAT rep... I need 5 more mounts until 100. ::

The next day, while doing dailies, Tangerine and I took a nice refreshing swim.


After another Sethhek run, we did more dailies to add rep so I can buy my five flying loogies, and a rather amusing picture set up happened:

Personally, I think Tangerine would be a nicer mount than those netherrays, but that's just me...

We've also had fun killing those crystal worm things and doing dailies on the way for Tangerine to hit 85:


It's been a fun few days... and now the analysis...

OK, the colors on this wasp are AMAZING; she is lovely to look at, and her animations are really not that bad, even if you, like me, are not a big bug person. My better half, who abhors bugs said pretty much the same thing-- I mean, you KNOW it is a wasp, but the colors detract from the "bug-gag" reflex you get with some insect type pets. Her sounds aren't hideous-- matter of fact, I really never noticed any.

She fought well, but is NOT a tank, at least not to my comfort level. I'd use her while soloing, but prolly swap her out for instances and the like-- first off, her size is really freaking annoying at times (seeing around her, worrying that she casts a larger aggro circle, etc) and her constant motion can be distracting when you are concentrating. Second, I wasn't as impressed with her damage as some other pets of the same level in the ferocity group. Sting and smack are nice, but personally, I felt they were less helpful to me than, say, working with a cat, or a devilsaur, etc.

They eat bread, fruit, cheese or fungus, and so you have to remember to buy a stack of food, just in case, or be playing in an area where things drop those sort of foods.

Would I use a wasp as my main pet? Nope, sadly no. BUT... I have learned that not all bugs are nasty, and I am keeping Tangerine in the stable for a bit... I rather like how she looks, and love having her out the same time as I have out my Tiny Flamefly vanity pet

Soooo.... next?
Arisia
Level 85 - BM spec so Exotics are a go, although I have all the spirit beasts save ghostcrawler
Please, however, no pets that you must instance to tame

[Cialbi]

Kormai: Okay, okay! I didn't want Bloodlust to change, but rather Ancient Hysteria. You must admit that Bloodlust sounds very out of place in a raid where the closest thing there is to an orc is a warlock's felguard, and especially when coming from a creature that is already rather vocal to begin with and doesn't sound anything like the Bloodlust sound effect.

Arisia, it's worth mentioning that 4.1.0 should see the shrinking of the boss wasps to regular wasp size. So, kinda a mixed blessing.

[Arisia]

Arisia, it's worth mentioning that 4.1.0 should see the shrinking of the boss wasps to regular wasp size. So, kinda a mixed blessing.

I saw that here in the forums too-- it's yet another reason I kept Tangerine; I think if she was smaller, I'd be willing to mess with her spec to see if I could make her a better killing machine Thanks for telling me, though... if I'd missed the info and released her after leveling her, I'd feel stupid. LOL ::hug::

[Lupis]

No pictures, sorry. I was feeling very uninspired, which is why this is so bloody late.
Report on an aqua wasp.

Tamed one easily, as it was right next to the place I was questing in.

Model: Very nice. I like how the body is segmented, and the wings look very realistic. The head is streamline and clean. Overall, a very nice model for the old world.

Skin: I did a report on a tan wasp recently, and I could tell off the bat that I liked the tan one more. The tan one had a soft silvery copper look to him - this one was very bright and garish. I don't like overly bright, especially not overly bright aqua. I don't typically like that color. However, I did like the bright streaks of color on him.
What really saved this skin, though, was the wings. If you ever have time, take a look. It doesn't really show in the Petopia pic, but their wing tips have bright green borders. It really looks beautiful.

Sounds: As a wasp, he buzzes. Personally I love the buzz, it's almost therapeutic to me. However, I know that many people would hate it. As for attack and aggro sounds, he makes the usual scorpid/silithid sounds. I personally dislike them, screechy and rattling.

Animations: Pretty good. He has the "floppy butt" syndrome that some people dislike, although it doesn't bother me. I do wish he flew up nearer my character's head, but there's no helping that. His attacks, mostly stings, leave me cringing. He grabs onto the opponent with all of his claws and jabs his stinger into their chest. That just looks exceedingly painful. I mean... OW...
It does look neat, though, and it's a fairly intricate and well done animation.
Idly he cleans his face and... hovers. Flaps a lot.

DPS: Pretty good. He doesn't have a DPS special skill, but as Ferocity his DPS is pretty high off the bat. Nothing to note though.

Tanking: As Ferocity, not ideal. He doesn't have an AoE threat or an extra buff to his taunt, and his only damage-reduction move is typical Cower.

Special Skill: A stun seems like it'd be nice, but honestly, with global cooldowns and focus dumps going on, it's really hard to use. I ended up never using it. A poison or something like that would be appreciated, but the stun... meh.

Overall: Not a keeper. I like him enough, but my tan one is much more appealing with his pretty blue wings.

*Pant* *Pant*
One for my troll!
Vallrok
Level 82, BM
Exotics? Sure.
Restrictions? None. I have all of the Saber Cats, but I'm willing to do a report on them.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Wow, I missed a lot here today.
Cialbi: Yeah, I tried really hard to go get the grey moth by myself on Yzma, but the whole SW thing just wasn't working out and I was getting kind of frustrated by that point so 84's help was greatly appreciated.
I plan on getting the Kurken for Yzma later on; thankfully she should have flying by that point.

Also, I'm with you on that diseased gray bear skin. I felt bad when it rolled it for you because I had been assigned it before and the entire time I tamed it I literally made a face similar to this. >:[ Doing the quests for those guys is gross too.

At least Yzma's high enough to work her way through Deadmines so I should be able to obtain the monkey on my own.

[TygerDarkstorm]

All right, here to report on .

So a quick trip down to Grom'gol and then a run up to Westfall brought Brutus and I to the entrance to Deadmines.


Then a short run through with Brutus trying to hold aggro from his mommy brought us to the monkey tunnels.


I dismissed Brutus and had to look around a bit before finally spotting the color I was sent to tame.


A tame and a hearth later and here's Terk and I in UC.


So...this guy's colors fit Yzma's theme, and I really wanted to try and like monkeys... Anyway, I don't think the colors are all that bad. The gray seems more black to me, but the peachy face and whitish ruff and belly look pretty decent.


Overall the model looks pretty solid, no glaring flaws. I think their muscles look a little weird and when they're standing still, their hands don't seem to sit on the ground properly.


Monkeys, like gorillas, are almost never standing still. They're always either scratching their butts or pounding their chests.


They're quiet by your side but pretty noisy in combat. Also, I hate the way they run. They run sideways and look like they're going at an angle.


These guys are okay in combat, he didn't really hold aggro well, but that's to be expected.


I'm assuming that Bad Manner works like player blind and breaks on damage because when I sent him in to attack a mob, he would blind them and then just stand there until it wore off or I broke it. For me, a rather meh ability. In order for it to work properly you'd have to micro-manage it. It's basically a second scatter shot. I suppose it's greatest advantage is in PvP as, off the top of my head, I can find little use for it in PvE.

I really tried to like this little gal, but ugh...I just really don't like the monkeys in this game and little Terk was left to go run and play with the undead in WPL.

Another round please.
Name: Yzma
Level: 35 but feel free to roll ahead
Exotics: Not yet
No Restrictions

[Cialbi]

One could send in their monkey while Camouflage is active, have the monkey use scat shot (not to be confused with scatter shot) on a target, and drop a Freezing Trap on said target. Oh, and then have the monkey use Cower so that the remaining enemies don't completely clobber the poor simian before the tank has a chance to grab aggro. There are two advantages to this. You can scattertrap without worrying about the very short range of Scatter Shot, and more importantly, your mischievous monkey is the one that pisses everybody off first (read: initiates the pull), instead of you.

On a slightly related note, the monkey run animation seemed to be a pretty good imitation of how an actual chimp* would run. My uninformed guess would be that the reason for running at an odd angle like this is so that the swinging forelimbs aren't smacking into the hind limbs. These creatures are built for climbing, not running.

*I say chimp because while chimps don't have tails and technically aren't even monkeys (they're apes), they do knuckle-walk and thus would have the closest RL equivalent of how WoW monkeys move.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I just don't like monkeys. Plus, most hunters I see that use traps to CC in dungeons just use trap launcher; especially since you don't get camo until 85.

[Cialbi]

I'm just grasping at straws, really. It could be used as a spell interrupt (one of the uses for Scatter Shot that makes using the ability worthwhile), but it has a base CD that's twice as long as a gorilla's Pummel, and a 0.5 second cast time on top of that. Meh, not impressed either. They ought to just change this back to a stun, while cutting the CD and duration and eliminating the cast time. That would make them pretty much the same as bats, but they would actually see some use at least.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Yeah. I'm glad you could come up with a decent PvE scenario for it. It's got a heavy PvP feel to it and with it breaking on damage (and the real long cooldown as you mentioned), I'd feel that a different pet would be more suiting for interrupts.

[lilaughingwolf]

Ok, I had the white bat.
I went for the ones in Zul'Drak, not a hard find or tame. Not sure I like the skin but thats just my opinion, I have two flying pets (blue wind serpent named Tazer and Oml the Wise owl renamed Spirit) already so it was fun to test this one. Not sure he'd be welcome in a dung or raid due to size (I have had owl ban from runs cause it "gets in the way" of the other casters...~sigh~.) Have a guild mate that told me he likes the bats cause of thier Sonic Blast (he said he uses his for BG, Im not much of a pvper so well see) Named him Bonkerz cause I thought it fit.



I used him for my dailies and being only a lvl 82 it did really well. Still trying to deside if it earned a perm spot in my stables.



BUT!, while I was in the area I flew over to Grz Hills to see if possably Arcturis was spawned (have been looking for him since his release with no luck) and there he was...after a crash landing (I was so excited and couldnt beleive my eyes) I was able to tame him.



I love how you just see his "smileing" teeth in hunter stealth mode...its great! (I tried to line him up with a dark back ground so you can see his teeth)



That was fun, how bout another one? If its in a lower lvl dung thats fine too...just no raids

[TygerDarkstorm]

Laughingwolf, when you request another, could you please write out the full request form? It makes it a lot easier on Kormai and I when we give out rolls.

[lilaughingwolf]

Oooops...ok. Im sorry

Name: Laughingwolf
Level: 85
Exotics: yes
Only restriction....no raid tames please but dont mind low lvl dung tames

[TygerDarkstorm]

No worries. I'll toss out some rolls in a bit.

[Kormai]

when they're standing still, their hands don't seem to sit on the ground properly.

*Aspect of the Biology Nerd* As Cialbi said they are a lot like chimps...who are knuckle-walkers...so he's/she's using his knuckles, except that his fingers look to be completely flat...so it looks even wierder.

Oooops...ok. Im sorry

No worries!


*Aspect of the Random Rolls*

Cialbi (Shorelfon)
To go with your collection, apparently.
Diseased Black Wolf


Cialbi (Nazthandol)
Blue Demon Dog


Arisia
Black Devilsaur


Lupis (Vallrok)
White Moth


Tyger (Yzma)
Heh...something that just might be older than your character.
Ancient Sea Turtle


LaughingWolf
Red Devilsaur


Happy hunting

[TygerDarkstorm]

Teehee. I'll go do this first and then get to work on my personal challenge hunter. ^_^

[TygerDarkstorm]

Tyger (Yzma)
Heh...something that just might be older than your character.
Ancient Sea Turtle

Off Yzma went from Undercity back over into orc and night elf lands. Thankfully Yzma is high enough in level to make getting to Ghamoo-ra rather easy. And voila, target acquired!


Taming of the turtle cube has commenced!


Say hello to Kronk.


I LOVE this turtle model. This is the first time I've gotten around to taming it and I think it looks amazing. The ancient sea turtle skin is surprisingly well-detailed. Just look at this face.

Gone is the 'derp' look that the older turtle models have (although they're still cute too ^_^).

Blizzard did a much better job with the shells this time around; the layers used to create it aren't blatantly obvious and very smooth compared to the stitched together look of the older models.


And if you look very carefully around their shell, they have moss or algae hanging off the sides. These guys are also very spiky and have lively looking eyes.


Like older turtles, these guys have very charming animations. They look around and raise their heads up to sniff the air; sort of remind me of protectors. They're also very quiet pets; great for people who hate loud pets. Their swim is very cute as they try to work those stumpy little legs through the water.


Turtles, like beetles, are, to me, true tank pets. They're especially great against tough elites and any single target work. However, at my level, he's really nothing more than a fancy looking distraction. I decided to go ahead and finish the instance since I was there and I spent the majority of it kiting, trapping, and nearly getting what's left of my face eaten off. In the end, we persevered and made it to the end. I was a little sad to kill the hydra boss if only because I'm still dearly hoping they'll become tamable.


And now I'm torn on which turtle to keep. Crush, my old world white, is more befitting of Yzma's theme and I have a bond with him already whereas Kronk I think I'm just in love with the skin--which I could easily pick up on a different hunter. Any thoughts from my fellow Petopians (keeping in mind that Yzma is a themed hunter collecting dead and gothic looking pets)?



Another round please.
Name: Yzma
Level: 35
Exotics: Not yet
No Restrictions

[Cialbi]

That's one clever tank. Wait until one of the hydra heads attacks, latch powerful jaw onto its face, and hold until the hydra is shot to death.

Oh, and I almost always say for you to go with the pet that you are more attached to.

[Ziarre]

Ancient is almost-dead, right? XD

[Belleirle]

Hiya! Just made an account to give this a go since it sounds like fun.

Name: Belleirle
Level: 85
Exotics: Yes
Restrictions: I'd rather have no instance tames please