Spectral pets

[yourhero88]

Just thought i'd bring up something that's been bothering me lately; the overwhelming number of spectral pets being added to the game. When I saw the challenge tames were mostly spiders, I was underwhelmed, and was even more annoyed that the other pets, for the most part, were spectral animals.

They go well with some race; ghost wolves look great with undead, and I'll admit I really like the way Ghostcrawler looks next to my Goblin) but overwhelmingly, I feel they go against the hunter persona. We're friends of beasts, not ghosts!

Additionally, what with the changes to prowl/spirit walk, spectral spirit beasts become all but invisible to even the hunter when stealthed. Just thought I'd see what everyone else thought, since it's clear that someone at Blizz LOVES spectral pets.

[Tahlian]

I personally think they're just fine. Most of the spectral and/or ghostly pets in-game aren't spirit beasts. If someone that's not a beast master wants a cool-looking spectral pet - let 'em have one. It's always the player's option to deactivate the autocast on Prowl/Spirit Walk to make their pet more visible anyway.

If you don't like 'em, you're certainly not required by any means to tame one.

EDIT: And if Blizzard didn't think they were acceptable for hunters to have, or went against the "hunter persona," as you call it...they wouldn't have made them tamable in the first place. Remember the Grimtotem Spirit Guide debacle?

I've heard plenty of stories of animals so faithful that their loyalty held out past the grave...so I'd say for a hunter and his pet, a "ghost" version of a beloved partner is right up some hunters' alleys.

[Sukurachi]

Remember, this is entirely predicated on personal taste.
There is no right or wrong in the final analysis.

I happen to be one of those who LOVE the ghostly spirit beast look.
But if we all loved the exact same look, wouldn't hunters, in the end, just end up all looking alike?

Isn't that one major difference that sets us apart from, let's say, Warlocks or Mages, who are stuck with a limited and fixed set of "pets"?

Don't let it bother you. It's worth neither the time nor the effort to have negative feelings about this.

[Macha]

My Belf Hunter's stable theme is Ghostly Pets, mostly because I don't see anyone using them on his server! It became so intertwined in is ways, I've developed a whole story line for it.

So I say, the more spectral pets the better!

[Tsuki]

Personally, I see the spectral pets as a spirit of a beast who lingers in the world, and if a hunter tames it, its like... the spirit has found a reason to stay around or some such.
For me, my Karoma is the spirit of a wolf who had saved my character's life when she was little, by sacrificing itself. And as such, due to the loyal persona of canines, the wolf stook around and protects her. :B

[Vephriel]

I'm not a fan of the spectral pets either, I think I just prefer my pets to be corporeal. I definitely hope that some future Spirit Beasts might lean more towards the styles of Loque or Skoll rather than being transparent. Still, it doesn't bother me that spectral pets exist...I just don't tame them. *shrug* x)

[Splaticus]

Personally, I see the spectral pets as a spirit of a beast who lingers in the world, and if a hunter tames it, its like... the spirit has found a reason to stay around or some such.
For me, my Karoma is the spirit of a wolf who had saved my character's life when she was little, by sacrificing itself. And as such, due to the loyal persona of canines, the wolf stook around and protects her. :B

I agree with this completely. To me, my Magria is my Shy'rotam reborn. The world has changed, and so has my spec and now she has changed to fight beside me- so on and so forth.

Now that being said, do we really need 3 exact same cats just different colors? I think that was a weak sauce way out, however I couldn't be more pleased with my Magria. The same goes for 5 of the exact same spiders just being different colors. I don't understand why some hunters need every single one of them when mechanically they are all exactly the same.

I love the spectral beasts, but the prevalence of certain types just re-colored is what cooks my goose.

[Chimera]

I love the spirit beasts but i want them to be less wispy and faded like gondria/magria/anhka/ghostcrawler/arcturis (i think ban'thalos is corpreal enough while still being spooky wispy), i also say there should be more spectral like beasts for people who dont raid in BM, i hate having to be a BM to enjoy my favorite pet Karoma (ever since vanilla ive been in love with the ghost wolf, first time i saw it i was doing a tauren quest-- it was The Plains Spirit or something like that...). Like, we have a few but not a lot and only Olm is actually cool and unique out of all the spectral pets non-bm hunters have.

I do say blizz needs to stop adding in spectral Spirit Beasts and make them more like Loque and Skoll like what Veph said but i dont want them to stop making spectral pets in general, i would like them to be a little more corpreal though, some more color or body added to them

[Sukurachi]

I KNOW it will never happen, but I SO want the skeletal Wind Serpent from Tanaris.
It would go so beautifully with my skeletal dino-mount, and my baby skeletal dino-pet.

[Malackai]

I'm not a fan of the spectral pets either, I think I just prefer my pets to be corporeal. I definitely hope that some future Spirit Beasts might lean more towards the styles of Loque or Skoll rather than being transparent. Still, it doesn't bother me that spectral pets exist...I just don't tame them. *shrug* x)

same here Veph

I did noticed a spectral (aka transparant)trend lately just because it is a spirit beast doesn't mean it needs to be a transparent recolored carbon copy. (especially when looking at gondria,ankha and magria).

It doesn't bother me that they are there but I was just hoping for more loque, skoll like beasts.
Maybe some kind of fire like Carrionbird or bird of prey or wind like Windserpent with glowing patterns.

[Miacoda]

I personally don't have a problem with spectral pets, but I do think it would be nice to get some more corporeal spirit beasts in the future. We have an abundance of spectrals and I find it's starting to get slightly dull. I'd love more variety.

Or they could do more things like they did with Ban'thalos, where they used unique effects (his wings and aura).

[Worba]

Hmm. The trend I've been noticing, is that, post-Skoll, the corporeal rares, despite having energy effects, are non-spirit beasts (Terrorpene, the 5 spiders), presumably so that non-BM specs can participate, with the transparent pets being reserved as the obvious BM choices.

Prior to that we had a couple ghostly non-SBs (Olm, ghost saber), but I suspect that's not part of the New Order...

Anyway we'll see.

EDIT: One thing I will add, is that if a model is transparent, then no matter how large or clunky it may be (looking at you tenacity models), spirit walk still makes sense - take away the transparency however, and you have to be more careful about just which model you use, especially because if it isn't going to be transparent then it's going to have some sort of flashy, non-stealth-conducive, energy effect. Which is why I seriously doubt we will ever see an SB rhino for example, unless it's ghostly. Just sayin.

[GormanGhaste]

I didn't decide to get a spirit beast until I found out about Ghostcrawler. I've always loved crabs, so the idea of having one that was actually useful in pve was irresistible. But I've never been into ghostly pets, so I ended up replacing him with Loque. For spirit beasts, I much prefer adding 'glow' to pet models instead of transparency.

[Dekota]

It's blizzard being lazy as per usual. They gave us hunters this awesome challenge but they didn't bother to bring in any new pets really worth the effort. Two Gondria recolors, Five spider recolors, a spectral owl and the jewel cat and crab. At least the spiders were new skins, and the owl has a nifty effect but, really? they couldn't give us something new? Hell I'd camp for hours to tame a Hydra.. >_>

*still waiting for the Hydras*

[Worba]

Back in wotlk we had 1 rare recolor (krush), and no one complained about him.

Now in 4.2 we have 10 and it's not enough?

[Lotusii]

I don't have a problem with spectral pets but I wish more spirit beasts were corporeal. They released two non-spectrals and I guess they decided "screw that noise, need more ghost beasts lol." So overall spectral beasts are a-okay with me but I'd rather something else personally.

[CrystalKitten]

Recolours are nothing new... I mean... how many different cats do we have? Or wolves? Also, the spiders aren't just new skins, but new models all together(when doing 3D modeling, the colouring is called the skin/texture, and the shape is the model). Recolours aren't a BAD thing. In fact, I think it's a GREAT way to increase the diversity of options available to us hunters. We don't have to like all the recolours.. even if they are rare. If we did... there'd be even more complaints about stable size.

Personally... I'm not a huge fan of many of the spectral pets. I do LOVE Sparkles, my spirit crab, but something about the spectral cats just... doesn't appeal too much to me. As others have said, I would love for some more loque/skoll style spirit beasts, just not sure where they'd all fit in. That said though, let people have their spectral pets. No harm in adding them, and maybe at some point there'll be another I just HAVE to have, much like my Sparkles.

As to when the become almost invisible... Ehn.. that's fine. I just want them to fix it so I can toggle it off manually when I'm sitting in a city, or doing something where that little extra damage isn't necessary. It's annoying to have my guildies want to show off my pets in Stormwind, and I have to go off hunting rats for all my kitties and spiritbeasts just to get them out of prowl/spiritwalk.

[Worba]

Oh I'm not saying they shouldn't add new models - not at all. I'd be as psyched as anyone else were that to happen.

But I think what they did in 4.2 was more a matter of taking a very limited pool of hours / money left over from developing all the non-"hunter-centric" content and stretched it out in a way that generated a great deal of excitement and interest.

Plenty of player griefing, thievery and general frustration too... but to the extent that's not just human-nature-in-action, it's a result of placing the rares in/near the quest hubs more than anything else, imo.

[Morven]

I swear you used to be able, pre 4.0, to turn off your cat's prowl when you wanted. It's annoying that you can't command them to go out of it, because you can command them to go into it.

Love my ghostsaber, though

[Gimlion]

Honestly, that bug is 4.2, as I never had a problem with my Karoma or Aqua-kitty until 4.2 hit, and now none of my prowling pets can turn it off without me making them attack first...