Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[TygerDarkstorm]

After MUCH trial and error, I finally soloed my way to the birds in Deadmines. After taming Deedee (she earned her name Deedee, which is the more name sounding version of Dedi which is short for dedication after all the work I put in to tame the damned thing), I attempted to solo Ripsnarl, but I couldn't handle the vapors, and since I had gotten the bird and it's 3 AM here, I was game to call it a night.

I'm quite proud of my little accomplishment. My dear bear, Riff, did the best job he could tanking. Surprisingly (or not I guess, depending on how you look at it), the trash was waaaayyy harder than the bosses (excluding Ripsnarl). Those Defias blood bastards can go die in a fire. I'm gonna include some screenies, one with my UI showing for proof that I was alone, and the second of DeeDee and I together. I'll make the full report later after I've had some sleep--I'm exhausted!

[Cialbi]

Deedee pierced her wing on your mantle! I'm afraid it doesn't look good; she may not be able to fly again, and will just have to make do with sitting on a bent coat hanger held in your off hand, and gouging at the groin of anyone who gets too close (or face if they're a gnome/goblin or walk on all fours).

Ruffley receives item: [Lame Parrot on a Perch].

[TygerDarkstorm]

Deedee pierced her wing on your mantle! I'm afraid it doesn't look good; she may not be able to fly again, and will just have to make do with sitting on a bent coat hanger held in your off hand, and gouging at the groin of anyone who gets too close (or face if they're a gnome/goblin or walk on all fours).

Ruffley receives item: [Lame Parrot on a Perch].

At first I was like, wtf is he talking about, then I scrolled up to the screen and I was like "oh." That's what I get for doing all that while I was falling asleep. XD

[Cialbi]

At first I was like, wtf is he talking about, then I scrolled up to the screen and I was like "oh." That's what I get for doing all that while I was falling asleep. XD

Granted I was kinda groggy still from having recently woken up* when I had made that post, so I'm not surprised that I confused you.

As usual, I was terrible about executing my pet challenge. I got online yesterday, got going on Shorelfon's pet challenge, then went off on a tangent, mining and questing my way through Northern Stranglethorn (I eventually started killing every single Vale Howler on sight, since they all look like mining nodes, and I need Track Beasts active with all those hostile animals!), took a break and finally took some quality screenshots in that "hunters' house" in Stormwind when I had to go train there, and then went back to questing and put off doing Nazthandol's pet challenge until I went to sleep.
Now I remember why I avoid playing WoW when it's this close to finals

*Do note that me stumbling around the house and somehow making it out the door with everything I need for the day does not count as me being awake

[TygerDarkstorm]

It was more that I didn't realize the pic I took had her wing going through my hunter's armor so I read your post and was like o_O and then I was like .

Now that I'm clean and done with my shower, I'll get started on Ruffley's full report of DeeDee.

[Kormai]

These rolls brought to you while talking distractedly on the phone with my best friend.

Lupis (Vallrok)
Green & Purple Ravager


Tårnfalk
Blue Warp Stalker


Tårnfalk (Predatoria)
Grey Boar

[Tydarus]

Tyger what's the UI you have? I like it!

(sorry off topic...)

[TygerDarkstorm]

So as you may or may not have read, I opted for the harder to get of the two pet choices I had simply because I almost always take the easier option (and this is supposed to be a challenge after all ), and because I got this idea in my head that I had to have that bird. And the more I thought about how I would go for the bird, the more I got this crazy idea in my head, that at level 18 with rather terrible gear, I would go try and solo Deadmines for it.

Long story short, it took me about 2-3 hours, a great many deaths, and the purchasing of good quality gear with stamina on it. I went from level 18 (which I was about 3/4 of the way through anyway) to level 20. No, I did not complete the entire instance. It was 3 AM by the time I got to the bird room and my first, and only, attempt on Ripsnarl saw me overwhelmed by vapors even though I was specced BM and by that time, level 20 so Riff had Demo Roar. If anyone would like to know more about the adventure, feel free to PM me.


And so, here's a better picture of DeeDee and I together that doesn't have her wing being impaled on my shoulder armor.

And if you missed how DeeDee got her name, it's the name sounding version of Dedi which is short for Dedication.

All right, thank the gods this bird is beautiful after all the effort put in to tame her. The green is a lovely, parroty green. She has a black beak, claws and eyes. There's a little bit of pink eye shadow under her eyes and she has orange rouge on her cheeks.

And as you can see, her little feet are sort of a tealish-green color.

Her wings are so gorgeous. They start of green, then pink, then black, and then burnt orange. I love the colors, they look so great together. She also has a little bit of yellow tail feathering that looks pretty.

The only major flaws I see with this gal are the way the feathers on her back stick up in a 2-D like way.

Like all birds of prey, DeeDee just flaps by your side, and occasionally flaps high up into the air before resettling. When these guys go into combat, they sound like real parrots (unlike eagles which sound like seagulls), which I like and don't find overly loud or annoying. I took DeeDee for a run, she flaps super fast by your side to keep up with you; the swim animation is the same.


One really funny glitch happened when I went to check her swim; she wouldn't get in the water!

I had to force myself to the bottom of the lake before she finally got in so I could check her swim.

As for combat, she performed decently once I finally killed some stags to get her some food. I was baffled at first as to why a parrot wouldn't eat bread or cheese until I realized that the parrots are considered birds of prey in WoW and therefore eat meat and fish. Anyway, she put out decent damage, but she took a bit of a beating, although that probably has more to do with her still being a couple levels beneath me and missing snatch.


And the mention of Snatch brings us to the BoP special. Snatch tends to shine in PvP situations against melee where you can disarm an opponent closing in on you or a teammate. It also has some nice PvE applications as well so long as you're fighting humanoids. A smart disarm can help out both your healer and tank from a hard hitting melee as well as making it so your pet takes less damage while out soloing.

I do plan to keep DeeDee. This bird is so beautiful in game and I just knew she would match Ruff. Plus, after all that effort to get her, it would suck to end up abandoning her.

More please.
Name: Ruffley
Level: 20 but feel free to roll up a bit
Exotics: Not yet
No monkeys or gorillas please

Name: Fiona
Level: 20 but feel free to roll up a bit
Exotics: Not yet
No monkeys or gorillas please

Tydarus: My UI is SpartanUI, SexyMap, Xperl, Recount, and Omen.

[Lupis]

Ooo, a ravager. A pretty one, too. I haven't given them enough appreciation.
I'll start on it when I can!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Tyger(Ruffley):
Black Scorpid


Tyger(Fiona):
Brown Bat

[TygerDarkstorm]

Okie dokie, let's see if I can get Ruff's report out before I have to go to work. I went out and tamed the Death Flayer since I was in Astranaar. So without further ado, here's the tame.


And here's Venom and I together. I slapped some RPish looking gear on for the pic.


So let's take a closer look shall we. Overall, this guy looks pretty good. The black is a lovely glossy color and the red eyes and spots make him look evil.

The model is a little old looking, but still looks good.

From behind you can see that in between his carapace is a sort of brownish-bronze color.


The front claws look a little fattish, kind of like a emperor scorpion, and I just love how evil and mean they look.


For animations, I like the way the scorpids move. When idling, they'll occasionally wave their claws in the air like it's a party. When they run it's a nice, smooth, fluid animation.


And when they swim they use that tail of theirs like a propeller and swing their claws about.


For combat, scorpids are okay. They're tenacity so the damage is okay, but not as good as ferocity or cunning. Like birds of prey, scorpid's special is to disarm--a mostly PvP ability that has applications in PvE to help save your pet, yourself, and your tank and healer.

Venom won't be staying with Ruff. I've got my heart set on the common brown Madexx skin. And as a totally random side note, Hot in Cleveland is an awesome show.

Will do Fiona's when I get home from work.

[Cialbi]

Trying a new format here

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


Happy hunting

Wolves are non-exotic Ferocity pets, with a diet of meat, and no bonus ability. Their Special Ability, Furious Howl, is a raid buff that increases critical strike chance by 5%. Like all other pet-provided debuffs or raid buffs, this will not stack with equivalent abilities. For Furious Howl, equivalent abilities are the devilsaur's Terrifying Roar, feral druid's Leader of the Pack, fury warrior's Rampage, elemental shaman's Elemental Oath, and subtlety rogue's Honor Among Thieves. If your group lacks all of these buffs, then bring a wolf (or devilsaur), because this is a powerful buff that the whole group benefits from.

This particular wolf can be found in many places, and at many levels. Not feeling like running to Tirisfal Glades again (I had to run there not once, but twice in a row, for a pet theme challenge, cursing my lack of Call Pet 2 the whole way), I opted to tame a Diseased Young Wolf from Elwynn Forest. (I do have taming screenshots, but the quality is terrible)
Unable to come up with anything creative, I elected to call my new pet Scratchfever. I know that some of you will get the reference


So, this is the old coyote model for wolves, and an old skin itself. Thus, the quality is predictably lacking. But, I'll start out with the better done parts of the model; the animations. The running animation is very natural and graceful, and full of life (forgive the terrible lighting).


Also, there are the idle animations, which are quite full of personality and not too annoying, save the occasional howl.


The above screenshots also show the downside of this wolf; the model and skin are terrible. The claws look terrible, the hackles are so overdone that the poor thing looks like it has a mane, and the snout has an abysmal polygon count.


The skin is a bit better than the model it is painted on, but I guess you could say I was 'spoiled' by WotLK and all the high-quality models of undead monstrosities that came with it. Still, the wolf very much looks like it's been through hell and back. The diseased wolf & bear models have weird-color eyes, which is curious more than anything.


Something I noticed that now constantly bugs me is how one of the blistering spots of the skin is haphazardously mapped onto the model; there really shouldn't be blisters at the ends of tufts of hair. It just looks strange, and sloppy.


I happened upon a curious piece of scenery while questing in Northern Stranglethorn, and decided that this would be where we parted ways.

...I'm sure the mangy lupine will get along fine with the crazed Kurzen goons
_

I still have Nazthandol's report left to do, so I will once again hold off on asking for new rolls until I get that second report completed (actually, I haven't even started that one ).

[TygerDarkstorm]

I just learned how to crop photos in paint so I may be trying to change the formatting in my reports too.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Okay, so after finding out that it would take hours to do the work I wanted in paint, I decided to mess with my finicky Photoshop for this challenge to help make my posts less full of screenshots. Plus...I was having a lot of fun. ;>_>

So first up is Fiona taming her little bat, and Batty and her together after the tame.


And now for a discussion about looks.

Man do bats have a lot going wrong with them. One of the things I noticed about his face is that as I tried my best to get a centered pic of it, I couldn't figure out how they see around their noses because everytime I tried to center I could only ever seen one of his eyes well. As you can see in the second pic, the back fur and mane are very 2-D and pixellated looking. In the third picture you can see how very terrible the texture detail on the claws looks. It's not only low res, it's stretched making it look even worse. With the bottom picture, I tried to capture just how goofy their body and feet look. You know those dog toys that don't have any stuffing in them? That's exactly what their body looks like. Their feet aren't even really like real feet, just sort of like two little nubs that hang there and flop around.

I know a lot of people complain about the holes in their wings, but those don't really bother me because not all creatures that fly have the wing membrane attached to their body. For example, hold out your arms in a T shape as if you were a bird. Now imagine that you have feathers attached to your arms--those feathers would be attached to your arms and not your body--the bat wings work in a similar fashion in allowing room for a passenger. Plus, this is WoW, looking at that kind of stuff logically is bad for your sanity as we have many many more illogical things roaming around in a world of magic.


Bat animations are meh. However, I have noticed something rather odd when they idle. Every so often they'll sort of look like they're dancing in place, and then they'll freeze entirely for about half a second. This is a behavior I've only noticed since they implemented the bat forms for trolls. When flying, they almost never flap, they just glide by your side. I seriously thought they would have fixed something like that when the drakes were having the same issue a while back. Their swim is a slowed down version of their flight.

Now, bats are very strange in that when they're tamed under level 20, they know their special ability (Sonic Blast--2 second ranged stun), but not bite. This means that while a potentially OP pet for low level BGs, they SUCK for soloing in PvE because they can't hold threat worth a damn. A 2 second stun is something I think is best suited to PvP anyhow, and really only useful as a cast interrupt or a way to try and let you get some breathing room from a melee. However, be careful when using it as it will put diminishing returns on the target you use it on. As for the ability being ranged...I feel meh about it. I can see it being good, and I can see it being just sort of bleh.

Despite the fact that Batty's colors look decent next to Fiona, she won't be keeping him because I don't really think that bats are cute enough to fit the theme of a hunter taming cutesy looking pets. Ressan the Needler has found a happy home with Yzma though, flaws and all.

Another round please.
Name: Ruffley
Level: 22 but feel free to roll ahead
Exotics: Not yet
No monkeys or gorillas please

Name: Fiona
Level: 20 but feel free to roll ahead
Exotics: Not yet
No monkeys or gorillas please

[Vasken]

Totally didn't forget to post.

Already did the challenge for the Black Fox over here! Retamed him on Avanji, but I'm not entirely sure whether to keep him. He's far too pretty for a grizzly, ol' troll!

And, have a temporarily free stable slot on Vasken, so...

Name: Vasken
Level: Happy to do anything from 1-85
Restrictions: None! Up for anything providing the pet isn't impossible to get solo. Like the beetles in HoO!
Exotics: Sure!

(And a reroll for Avanji if it's possible! No need if it's a hassle!
Name: Avanji
Level: 20, though anything up to 24ish is fine!
Restrictions: No instanance pets if possible! LFG is unforgiving.
Exotics: Nope! Too lowbie!)

[Foru21dr]

hard for me to do this on Bitka.. but have much more time with Xephyr

Want to try one with her.

Name: Xephyr
Level: 85
Restrictions: None will try anything.
Exotics: No Problem

[TygerDarkstorm]

Keep on rollin rollin rollin. What? Keep on rollin rollin rollin. Yeah!
Kudos if you get the song reference.

Tyger(Ruffley):
Brown Boar


Tyger(Fiona):
Brown Bear


Vasken:
Blue Runed Demon Dog


Vasken(Avanji):
Brown Tallstrider


Foru21dr(Xephyr):
Blue Turtle


Enjoy!

[Vasken]

Vasken:
Blue Runed Demon Dog

This. Is. Cruel!

That's the exact pet I've been pining over for months! The exact pet I was forced to abandon and can't keep due to full stable slots! The exact pet I whine, admire and want daily. Meanie!

Will write a report later tonight!

[TygerDarkstorm]

I'm sorry, I can reroll if you'd like.

[Daranara]

Hey guys! Sorry about the late reply, I just could not force myself to sit down and do this. Between my lack of enthusiasm for this pet and my RL obligations (read: pokemon black), this is late! Ah well, here we go!

My target this time?



White devilsaur. I have run with a devilsaur many times, and I currently have King Krush living with me, so I know that to expect. I'm going to have such fun with this! I think to myself. So I head down to the Crater to see what's what.



Hrm... No, you won't do.



Nope, not you either! (I was showing Antioch around to prove to him he had the much nicer home, don't mind him)



Ah-ha! Here we go!

So I land and dismiss Antioch, then turn to make the tame...



...Oops. Guess I should have trapped him first.

A quick remount, a short chase, and...



There we go. Much better.



Here he is, standing extra tall to try and dwarf me. Which is, in fact, about the only thing I enjoy about this pet. He's big, a solid presence at my side. Some pets I enjoy small, of course, but some days I just want something big and tough and "here he is! My pet!" Unfortunately, I find his coloring to be atrocious and nothing at all like I want.

Let's talk about him.



Okay, so! In good light, we can see there's quite a bit more to this color than I originally thought. it's a creamy-white base color, but fades into pink up along his back. The purple of his stripes almost-but-not-quite matches his belly, and the eye is a shocking pinky purple color that clashes with everything else on the pet. His teeth are a grungy grey-black, which makes me wonder if perhaps he enjoys chewing on blackened trees or something.

His animations are standard devilsaur, so he can be a little funny when shifting from walking to running. Swimming is kind of adorable, with the little arms paddling uselessly.

Combat: Terrifying roar is grand. Monstrous bite would be fine, I suppose, against things that get healed. Otherwise, eh.

There are no screenshots of running with him while doing dailies, because I only did about half my usual amount. I spent the entire time wanting to have another pet out, any other pet. So eventually I gave in, gave him the boot, and continued on.

All in all, a devilsaur is a solid pet, but I just could NOT bond with this skin. No amount of trying to imagine him in a silly costume would help, I'm afraid. I was so not attached to him I couldn't even be bothered to name him. He does not even get to join the ranks of "pets I want on another character."

Erf.

That said, may I have another, please?

Daranara
85
Exotics fine
no restrictions!