Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[Daranara]

Man suddenly I'm feeling like my screenshots aren't up to par. I might have to start photoshopping them... hrm...

But not tonight! Tonight, I have a rhino to talk about. Specifically, this one:



The slate rhino! Or, if you're me, "the other blue rhino."

Anyway! These bad boys can be found in Borean Tundra, so it was nothing at all to go engineer-hopping over there to find one! At least, it would be if you were smart enough to follow directions, which I was not. I've been playing games for years and I STILL get east and west confused about a third of the time. Anyway! Rhinos!



Look how sad and lonely he is, being the only rhino like him... Yes I know the brown rhinos are either babies or lady ones so he's perfectly fine. So I landed and tamed!



And soon enough I had a new pet! He had a few doubts, I think.



Turns out he's kind of a family man and was worried about leaving his family behind. I promise to return him when I'm finished, so he agreed to come with me. So he said goodbye...



And we were off to one of the nearby floating platforms so I could get a clearer look at him. Let's see!



Here he have him! He is a furry wall in shades of grey. A light grey that's almost purple in some lights, a blue-grey face, and a lighter, warmer grey for his horns and toenails. His eyes are reddish, likely for contrast.

He's actually... less hairy than I was expecting, if you can believe that. While he does have those 2D fur ruffs on his legs/tail, I was expecting more fur down there. He has pokes on either side of his head, which I assume are supposed to be ears? There is no good angle to see them, so eh.

He's a pretty huge monster of a pet, and the kind of solid lump of a tank I was hoping the bears to be, so I named him Bear.

I knew I was going to be taking him around to fight, but that didn't mean I couldn't show him a good time, right? So I took him to see Farunn!



Turns out he's not much for visitors. So we went to the other jungle, to go egg hunting.



No egg, but ZOMG! This is the first time I've -ever- seen her! I was pretty certain she wasn't real. Guess I'm wrong. We let her be, though.

Then we went swimming!



It was like swimming with a small island.



One that doesn't want to get water in his nose. Really awkward head positioning there, Bear! Under the water his legs are paddling away for all he's worth.

Swimming over, we went bowling!



I am sad you can only bowl one cultist at a time, however. His friend was so jealous!



So we sent him over too.



Then we fought something that makes even Bear look small! Turns out you can't punt Chillmaw. Sadface.

Combat-wise, he's an unexciting tank. The bleed special is not good, so I ended up just turning it off. The punting is fun, but not terribly useful for me. Maybe in pvp?

Overall, I really enjoyed Bear. He was big, he was tank-y, and he was even kinda pretty, in his own way. If his special wasn't worthless int he spec I needed to be in to use him, I might even keep him. However, as that's not the case, I returned him to his family. Perhaps we'll meet again, Bear!

May I have another? :3

Daranara
85
Exotics = yes
no restrictions.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Dara, your screenshots are fine!
I was laughing at the shots/dialogue about punting the Cultists.

I started photoshopping my pictures because I felt like my posts were just getting too full of screenies and getting too long that way.

Getcha, getcha, getcha head in the game.

Daranara:
White Chimaera

[Cialbi]

Turns out he's kind of a family man and was worried about leaving his family behind. I promise to return him when I'm finished, so he agreed to come with me. So he said goodbye...

"Oh, is that it, huh? Going to run off with that young little thing, and leave us to tend to your offspring? What's the use of a patriarchal pack when the patriarch doesn't feel like staying?"

...I think he changed his mind pretty quickly.

[Kormai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU is a song on Rock Band? o_O

Yup, I don't know if you have to pay for it or not but it's an extra download.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Blargh, now I want Rockband even more for my 360.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I'm an idiot and gave Dara a roll last night but not myself. XD

Just put your paws up, 'cause you were born this way, baby.

Tyger(Venjin):
Black Devilsaur


Tyger(Yzma):
Brown Fox

[Arisia]

Arisia
Brown Spiked Raptor

Well, been a bit, but a few health problems and then some time problems popped up. I am having to stop this after this one for a bit-- soon as time opens I will return; this has been amazingly fun!

I was assigned the Brown Spiked Raptor, and so, I took a nice trip Outlands to tame one:


I rather like raptors; not really sure why I've never used one, except that none have ever really GRABBED me. Still, this is an attractive skin, and the idle animations are only a bit annoying (the back and forth bobbing remind me of a 2 year old doing the pee-pee dance at times, but that's my brainstem working...) and I like how they run, attack, and the swim is rather amusing to deal with as well. Add in, the huge variety of colors means that if you like the PET, you really have a myriad of color choices!

Anyhow, Toblerone (hey, I was hungry, and he looks like a chocolate bar) and I began a few days together. We did the fishing daily a few times-- he really enjoyed the swimming after the Golden Stonefish, and was bitterly disappointed when I had to stun them to loot them rather than him getting a nice bite of fishy. We both rolled our eyes doing the cooking daily-- killing three thieves to get back some groceries seems almost mean when the next day WE are snitching 6 BARRELS of rice from the troll area... sheesh, how hypocritical we both felt! And he's just a raptor, even...

And then we did the Tol Barad dailies, since I need just five more mounts to get my golden butterfly, and so help me killing those damn arrakokra is driving me nuts... not to mention I hate the flying snotballs. A nice ghostly wolf, and a lovely drake sounds like a nicer way to waste my days...


Oh we both hate those spiders... yuck... but you know, if I somehow get a fox kit vanity pet out of it, killing all the darn foxes there would not longer hurt:


We've also run a few lower level instances solo, and done the Deepholm dailies as I work to hopefully get my very own pebble soon, but the pictures there really didn't work out. All in all, a raptor is a fun pet, and this skin was a tasty... err, lovely one!

- Model: Brown Spiked Raptor
- Animations: not too annoying
- Sound effects: I liked them; they suited him well, although I'd love a softer crooning sound when he is standing idle with me for a while, as if asking for a pat.
- Food requirements: MEAT
- Tanking ability: decent
- DPS output: decent
- Pet family abilities: Tear Armor was nice in PVP
- Utility: good solo pet -- raptors have so many skins, they're a swiss army knife of hunter pets

[Belleirle]

My report on Orange Turtle .

So I made why way looking to see if Cranky Benj was up, but that wasn't the case. So next destination was The Hinterlands for a Snapjaw. Spotted one, landed, and tamed with no issues other than Frankie not seeming very happy.


My turtle seemed to shrink quite a bit after being tamed. After looking at him, my first thought was of a Koopa, but didn't actually want to name him that. I settled with Cooper instead, similar enough for me.


The old turtle model is ok and cute overall. Some parts seem bleh, like the toenails, and how the shell fits together. The lining in between each scale doesn't really help make it look better. I don't know what that weird under-shell is between Cooper's neck and main shell, seems odd once you realize it's there. The eyes are a bright turquoise, and look fine from the side but kinda creepy while head on. I find the nose a little too pointed, but I don't stare at him head on long enough for it to be a deal breaker. The skin isn't a bad color, I'm feeling pretty neutral about it. I think there is better looking colors, but not the worst of the bunch.




The turtle animation is nice, nothing really special or strange about it. There swim looks like their walking animation, but it works for them. There idle animations include raising their heads up high to sniff the air, and the doing the little shuffle to the side to look around. He makes no idle noise.


He makes chomping sounds while fighting, but they aren't really distracting. Their fighting animation is mostly just stretching their neck out a bit to bite down on their enemy. Although I did notice he seems to wag/wiggle his tail frequently while fighting. With BW, he gets huge... and can stuff a fox in his mouth if he really wanted. >.>


He's a good tank, can hold aggro well and doesn't take much damage. His dps is pretty normal for a Tenacity pet, below that of Cunning or Ferocity pets. The Turtle special ability, Shell Shield, is great for when they are taking lots of damage. This makes them really great tanks for groups or soling quests that are hard hitting. They would make good emergency tanks when a group's tank goes down. Top photo: Shell Shield - Bottom Photo: barely missed Thunderstomp


I want a turtle in my stables for certain, and will keep Cooper unless I decide I like a better skin color better.

[Cialbi]

Oh, I must look for tail wagging on Applesoup (named in honor of bucket-turtle here, my avatar) when fighting, once I'm done with finals and get to spend a few days playing before the account expires.

BTW, Frankie's constant appearances here has really gone to the flightless bird's head now. The look in the screenshot of Cooper's idle animation, I can't help but think that Frankie is wondering how come there are 5 screenshots in a row without so much as a feather of him to be seen, and is making it amply clear that he is not pleased.

Frankie is conspiring to take over this thread, I tell you. Next thing we know, Frankie will be making random appearances in other participants' posts

[TygerDarkstorm]

Oh, I must look for tail wagging on Applesoup (named in honor of bucket-turtle here, my avatar) when fighting, once I'm done with finals and get to spend a few days playing before the account expires.

BTW, Frankie's constant appearances here has really gone to the flightless bird's head now. The look in the screenshot of Cooper's idle animation, I can't help but think that Frankie is wondering how come there are 5 screenshots in a row without so much as a feather of him to be seen, and is making it amply clear that he is not pleased.

Frankie is conspiring to take over this thread, I tell you. Next thing we know, Frankie will be making random appearances in other participants' posts

I point out all of his really good photobombs to my boyfriend. I said that Frankies sort of become like a little mascot.
I wish I could make my mini-pets look as good in photos as he always makes himself look. That is one epic little bird.

[Belleirle]

I've actually stopped even bothering to try and move him out of the photos, since he not only runs back in, but is even more in the way of the photo than before. I guess he enjoys the spotlight just too much.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Frankie has the most personality for a mini-pet that I've ever met! I love reading through your reports and how you're doing such a lovely job describing the looks/animations/etc, and then I get to the photos and start giggling because Frankie's trying to steal the spotlight.

I wonder what he would do if you were assigned a pink tallstrider?

[Fuzzystringwad]

I would love to participate in this! This is one of my favorite parts about hunter!

Name: Aelnaemia
Level: 85
Exotics: sure
Restrictions: I am really familiar with the families cats, wolves, corehounds, devilsaurs and wasps so something new would be fun though I also love trying out new skins of things.

I'm not afraid of hard tames =D

[Cialbi]

Welcome, err, Fuzzystringwad! How about just calling you 'Fuzzy'?

Just wanted to point out that the way this works, restrictions are best left to yes/no kinds of answers. The assignments are determined using a random number generator, so the process is rather indifferent. So, would it be safe to say that you would be fine with having no restrictions, or do you really not want to have a cat, wolf, corehound, devilsaur, or wasp assigned to you?

Look forward to seeing your reports!

[Fuzzystringwad]

Fuzzy works yeah I'm entirely okay with trying out any pet in the game! Fire up your random generators lol.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Hello, hello baby, you called, I can't hear a thing.

Fuzzystringwad(Aelnaemia):
Color-Changing Crab


Fiorinth:
White Vulture


::OR::

Orange and Red Dragonhawk


So Fuzzy's roll went without a hitch, but yours, Fiorinth...the damned in game dice insisted on rolling you exotics. -_-

[Cialbi]

So Fuzzy's roll went without a hitch, but yours, Fiorinth...the damned in game dice insisted on rolling you exotics. -_-

Hmm, that doesn't sound too terribly efficient. I've got an idea that I'll work on during study breaks...

[TygerDarkstorm]

So Fuzzy's roll went without a hitch, but yours, Fiorinth...the damned in game dice insisted on rolling you exotics. -_-

Hmm, that doesn't sound too terribly efficient. I've got an idea that I'll work on during study breaks...

Yeah usually I don't have a problem, but it was almost like the /roll feature knew they were close-ish to being 69 for exotics (if they so choose to be BM). I think I rolled a devilsaur like 5 times.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Finally got around to doing my single pet challenges--I had quite a few pets to do for the theme one (including another trip to the Deadmines). Anyway, Venjin's up first with .

I 'borrowed' my boyfriend's devilsaur for this project.

Looks:

First shot is the overview--these guys are pretty handsome with their black coloring, blue stripes, blue eyes, and flesh colored bellies. The one thing I do wish that Blizzard had done was make their belly area grey (like in Veph's sig) as it looks more natural to the rest of the colors.

The second shot is a close up on his head, showing off those amazing eyes and trademark devilsaur grin. As a bonus, those teeth are real teeth and not just some goofy block in his mouth.

The third pic is a close up on the side of the body with the focus being on the base of the tail, top of the thigh, and the shoulder--for some reason the textures there lower in quality and looks kind of blurry.

Fourth photo is a close up of the scale detail; you can see that in between the cracks is yellow. This feature is what makes my orc love her Mosh so much; he has green detailing there which makes him feel even more perfect for her. Anyway, not sure why this guy's is yellow. I would attribute it to the belly, but this is yellow yellow and his belly is more of a peach color.

And the last photo is a close up of the shoulder when viewed from the front. The texturing looks weird where it overlaps the body and has some green in it which is kind of odd.

Animations (I forgot to get a shot of Pouty doing his idle before I abandoned him so Reptar kindly volunteered):

Devilsaurs only have one idle animation, and that's their famous crouch and roar (accompanied by sound). It's very suiting to them and gives them some personality, I think. For example, my devilsaurs have a tendency to come running back to me after killing a mob and then promptly roaring at my side. These guys are huge softies despite their looks and they like to know that you approve of them.

Their run is benefiting of a big behemoth of an animal as they lumber along. They have one of my favorite swim animations in the game as well. It's not regal looking, but it is fun to watch. They paddle those little bitty arms in the water and do powerful thrusts with those long legs. Also, devilsaurs are very noisy pets, roaring both during their idle and in combat. I find it suiting to their species, others may find it annoying. I like being reminded that my pet is there.

Combat (none of these screenshots came out the way I wanted them too, but oh well):

Devilsaurs have three attack animations, the bite (top left), the head butt(top right), and the foot stomp (bottom). They also spray a lot of blood everywhere as they attack.

Being exotic, devilsaur's have two special abilities: Terrifying Roar (5% increased crit) and Monstrous Bite (25% reduced healing effectiveness). This makes them both a great PvE pet and a decent PvP pet (if you're confident you don't need the CC). We can provide the mortal strike effect ourselves, however, the devilsaur provides theirs as a convenience for us saving us 15 focus. There's really not many mobs this expansion that are healers that don't just get CC'd at a pull so, for me, this ability is kind of meh. And since these guys are ferocity pets they'll put out some great damage.

Pouty did not stay with Venjin. I went KK hunting on a whim on her (even changed her hair to match ) and love the way he looks with Venjin. One of my alts will probably be picking up a black one though.


Yzma's report to come soon.

[TygerDarkstorm]

All right, finally putting up Yzma's report on .

I've been resisting the urge to name a fox Todd (just because it's fairly common), but went ahead and did it for this fox. Ironically, when you hover over "Play" while your fox is playing, you get a line from the iconic song of that movie, and no, I did not know it said that prior to doing this challenge.


Looks:

Foxes are one of those animals that I really don't have much to say about, which is why the slide says "Look Harder"--just in case someone else catches something I missed. But anyway, I actually really love the color of the brown foxes, I think it's a very pretty color and the blue glowing eyes are a nice touch. I like the way the fur detailing was done on them and as a bonus, I think their teeth are real too.

The second photo is a close up of their legs. They seem a little spindly for the fox's body, but I guess it works. The third photo is of the face. This is probably one of the things that bug me most about foxes because their heads are just so angular. It's all angles from front and behind and it's a little strange to see, especially when I keep examining the animal...I just start going O_o.

Animations and Sounds:

Foxes are one of the noisiest pets in the game while in combat. It doesn't help that the noise they make isn't even a real bark or growl, it's just...weird. Foxes sit on the coyote skeleton and will scratch themselves and sniff the ground as they idle. Unlike hyenas who sort of break on the coyote skeleton, the foxes have a much more smooth run and swim animation.

Combat:

I only noticed one attack animation on the fox, which is them leaping forward and biting their enemy. Their specialty, Tail Spin (which makes a dust cloud animation >_>), reduces the attack speed of all enemies within 10 yards by 20%. This means that your pet WILL go running after critters if a critter wanders into your pet's path when this is cast. One solution for this is to micro-manage the ability, the other solution (and my preferred one), is to just pay attention to your pet. If you see your pet start to run in a direction he/she shouldn't be, quickly call it back.

Tail Spin (hurray semi-old cartoons!) can be useful in a group situation where the mobs hit pretty hard; this will help out both your tank and healer. It also means your fox should take less damage if you're out soloing. I suppose you could use one of these guys in PvP, but there are other pets and abilities I'd rather use over reduced attack speed.

Todd will not be staying with Yzma as he doesn't fit her pet theme and Yzma already has a black fox.

Another go please.
Name: Fiona
Level: 21 but feel free to roll ahead
Exotics: Not yet
No monkeys or gorillas please

Name: Ruffley
Level: ~30 but feel free to roll ahead
Exotics: Not yet
No monkeys or gorillas please.