Spiders freak me out, even in WoW. The first time I ever tanked Azjol-Nerub on my druid, I didn't know what to expect, and suddenly Hadronox was hitting me in the face... I think I screamed loud enough to alarm the neighbors, and then I was crying with my eyes squeezed shut and desperately mashing my tanking buttons and praying that I was at least facing the right direction because there was no way I was opening my eyes until it was dead, or the party was dead, or somebody polymorphed it into a kitten. That's how much spiders, even pixel spiders, scare me.
Well I'm getting married next July, and my arachnophobia annoys my fiance. He's very chivalrous, and he always comes to save me if I'm cowering fearfully in a corner and pointing all panicked at a spider on the wall, but he does find the situation irksome. I jokingly told him that I might consider taming a spider in WoW, to become friends, and maybe desensitize myself a little bit and face my fears. If I can befriend a pixel spider, and learn to think it's cute, maybe I won't flail around helplessly making high-pitched shrieking sounds when I encounter one in real life? Okay, it's a long shot, but at least I'm making an effort?
Right, but mostly I was joking. Ew, spiders. My hunter is a mammal person. She likes kitties and spirit beasts, and pretty much anything cute and furry. No spiders, no ty.
But today I ran into Kirix. I keep an eye out for all the new rares, because even though I'm done camping my own, I like to watch. It's fun to see clueless, armor-wearing non-hunters get pwned by Magria or Ankha. And if I'm in a position to help someone tame, by sharing my knowledge of the strategies, I love to help other hunters catch their pets. So I stopped and observed Kirix for a while, thinking yay, this will be a good show!
Only nobody came. I alerted some friends, who asked around for hunters who might be interested... Nada. Then Ramu, my shammy friend, logs on. I don't own a corehound, but suddenly I'm thinking, hmm... If I can make it to the Stable Master and back (I was carrying 5 beloved pets already), and get my shammy buddy out here, and Kirix is still there... Maybe I'll go ahead and give it a shot...
So about 10 minutes later, Ramu and I are staring at Kirix and I'm telling him to Bloodlust when I start the tame and yadda yadda. Well, like I said, I have only half an idea what I'm doing. I know Kirix is deadly, and I know I need as much haste as possible. I know there's a Disengage method that involves flying through the air, but I've always been terrible at executing such maneuvers so I don't want to risk it. We try, we die. We try again, die again.
By now, other players have finally arrived on the scene, but they're not hunters--they're random other classes trying to kill Kirix. My heart is pounding a bit, just cause I'm trying to get the tame right, but I still have to giggle each time I watch the awesome green spider totally pwn someone. Corpses begin to litter the hillside. I chat with a friend, and she recommends the floating rock method, which I'd also been avoiding because I happen to suck at jumping on rocks, too. But I decide to try it. I really focus, I take my time, I get to the upper ledge without falling to my death. Yay. Only now a rock elemental is beating my face, so I quickly summon my Ankha to save me (...do you see where this is going?). Last jump onto the correct floating rock, where Kirix pats by within tame range.
Kirix is still one-shotting people who try to mess with him. Ramu's Bloodlust is off cooldown. I tell him to hit it, and I pull Kirix. After that, everything got fuzzy. I'm not sure exactly HOW I survived the tame, but it worked. The first moment of panic happened when I'm mashing Tame Beast and getting the message "You already have an active summon." OH, right, Ankha is still standing right next to me on the floating rock. I Dismiss. Bloodlust is going, my haste pot and Lifeblood are going... I keep mashing Tame Beast. It doesn't seem to be doing anything at all, I'm not getting a cast bar. Something must be wrong, but I don't know what. Maybe Kirix is evading, like I read he can do with the rock method.
And then suddenly the spider shrinks. I squint at the ledge, thinking omg, someone else appeared out of nowhere and managed to get him somehow. But no, it says "Jagwyr's pet" - victory!
And the winning quote of the night, right after the tame went off... one of the players who'd been trying to kill Kirix whispers my shammy friend and asks, "How did you make him so small?"
I named him Skeerd, because I have a lolcats naming theme, and skeerd is how I feel about him. But he's already growing on me. The epic effort of getting the successful tame makes me feel quite attached. I ran around and took screenshots of the corpse piles that Skeerd left in his wake. Let this be a lesson to anyone who dares challenge us in PvP... ^.^
Forgot to add, the the thing really won me over... he matches my eyes!
Love it, I hope he helps you warm up to spiders a bit. :3
He'll be your loyal buddy for sure! Grats! 
Sofia, the remarkably purple spirit cat as drawn by Ket Shi. 
