Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[TygerDarkstorm]

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

[TygerDarkstorm]

Ugh, not sure why I was being so lazy, but I finally got my report for Fiona done. She had .

I think I've been having a little bit too much fun in Photoshop with these, but anyway, being in Orgrimmar I opted to go tame one of these guys right off the coast of Durotar. Meet Cake, named in honor of Venjin's crab and because it fits Fiona's theme.


Looks:

When you start to take a close look at older crabs like Cake here, you start to notice that just about every texture on them is very low res. He's also very shiny and glossy looking, especially on the white parts between his shell. He has black accents on his shell and legs and at the tips of his pincers. His little eye stalks are cute. Overall, nothing really terrible about the model other than the low res texturing everywhere.

Animations and Sounds:

Cake has two idle animations, the first being the one on the top left where he swivels his eye stalks from side to side and chatters his mouth parts, and the second (top right) where he looks side to side using his whole body. He does a cute little scuttle for a run and when he swims, he propels himself with those big pincers. Crabs are quiet pets, not making too much of a peep even in combat.

Combat:

I apologize for the terrible combat shots. I apparently didn't really take many pictures of him in combat, and he was too low in level to get the pin ability.

As you can sort of see in the photos, for combat Cake swings his pincers at his enemy. He's tenacity so his damage is okay although not as good as a ferocity or cunning pet. Pin, the crab special, is an ability I'm typically not fond of, especially for BM hunters because, as Cialbi explained, casting Kill Command will interrupt/override any other ability your pet might be doing, which includes channeled abilities like Pin and Lock Jaw, effectively rendering them kind of useless. Fiona, however, is SV so I want to do some testing with Cake to see if Pin works out for SV as good as Cialbi made it sound like it does.

And since Ruffley's waiting on a pet theme challenge, I'll take rolls for different hunters this time.
Name: Venjin
Level: 81
Exotics: Yes
No monkeys or gorillas please

Name: Yzma
Level: 37
Exotics: Not Yet
No monkeys or gorillas please

[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.

[Taiji]

I'm late and sorry for that. I had a few busy days and a birthday.

The pet I had to tame was this one:



This undead boar can only be found in the Eastern Plaguelands near the plagued village close to Stratholme.
Hence I took a flightpath to there and ran a bit and saw the little undead boars.



Here's the taming shot which gives an indication of how the pet looks already. He has the boar model with a greyish skin that looks sufficiently hairy. He has four white stripes at each side. I am still not sure if those are ribs or just scratches, but they look rather painted on.
His head is partly skull which I think looks painted on as well instead of being a skull showing beneath his skin.
His mane is quite 2-d ish which is more notable from the front/back.



Of course, the creature needs a name. Because of his look from the front I decided to name him 'Grimsnout'. Note the mane here.
His idle animations are very cute, especially the one where he snuffles the ground. He also makes a strange kind of jump now and then.
His running looks a bit like galloping but the animation is quite smooth.



I went questing with Grimsnout for a bit in and just before I could go to Outland. His special attack is 'Gore' which gives an enemy 30 percent additional damage from bleed effects for 15 second. I thought it a bit 'meh' as I don't PvP. I guess it might come in much handier there.

All in all, I did not really bond with Grimsnout and I have released him in Outland.
I would like to do another round:

Name: Fiorinth
Level: 62
Exotics: Not yet!
Restrictions: No undead boar/crocolisk.

[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...