Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[Varethyn]

Having gone through my stables recently I've procured two free pet slots, so I rather think I might have another go here.

Name: Varethyn
Level: 85
Exotics: Yes
Restrictions: No monkeys, gorillas or undead/diseased beasts.

[Calixte]

My latest challenge was the brown bat skin! I have to admit I wasn't very excited about this one, as I'm generally not a big fan of bats based on their looks alone. However, I hoped for a little adventure in heading out to Ghostlands to get one.


Here's Pooch and her shiny new kitty standing just inside the entrance to Ghostlands. I went through Eastern Plaguelands, which wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, but Ghostlands looks a little menacing from this angle.

I'm dumb and forgot to get a picture of the tame, but here's Poochy and Golbat safely back in Stormwind.
I actually think they look pretty nice together! Unfortunately for Golbat, his model needs some love like....yesterday. He is permanently a grumpypants, as evidenced by his snarlyface disease here: .
He and Poochy look very similarly snarly. The bat model is pretty terrible - their wings are very flat and 2D, with weird pointy feet and very 2D fur along their backs.

.
I admit, the feet are sort of endearing in a rough, old world pet sort of way, but overall he just kind of makes me sad inside. Poor little guy needs an upgrade!


His animations are about as good as they're gonna get with a model like this - he flaps around, a little above the ground, and hovers near Poochy's shoulder when idle.


As far as combat, I think he attacks with his snarlyface and his weird feet...I think.
I found this picture just adorable for some reason. He looks so flimsy versus the ogre but he kicked that thing's butt!

As far as noises go, Golbat is pretty noisy in combat. I only turned my sound on for a bit, because while the shrieking was kind of cute at first, I 1) don't play with sound on, and 2) don't like when I have to listen to noisy pets in the first place.
He isn't loud outside of combat, and sort of just flaps next to the hunter.

Bats are cunning pets, and their special ability is Sonic Blast, which stuns the target for 2 seconds on a 1 minute CD. I wasn't expecting much when I queued Poochy and Golbat for a random dungeon, but in several Dire Maul runs he really surprised me! We had the best dps by far in each run, and as is my usual luck, terrible tanks kept showing up in the groups! One was so bad, two different healers couldn't keep him up, and I think Golbat's stun helped just a little to alleviate some of the constant damage.

I did queue for several BGs with Poochy and Golbat, and expected him to perform like a champ. He did well! That stun comes in handy for sure, especially against rogues. 2 seconds is often the difference between life or death and allows for a quick trap, Disengage, Concussive Shot, etc. I generally hate pvp but had a pretty good time with this bat.
Here he's keeping a careful eye out in AB at the Blacksmith. Alliance lost this one because nobody understands defense.

Here's the very first EoTs victory for Poochy. It was close, but Golbat did some awesome defending at the Fel Reaver ruins and rocked the Horde.

Overall, I loved this pet even though I hadn't anticipated that at all! Bats are definitely rough and that model needs some work as well as some new colors. However, I really came to love Golbat and he'll be sticking around for awhile. Immediately after the tame, I said to my screen, "Ew, bats." Golbat looked a little sad and discouraged by this comment:
I changed my mind buddy, I'm sorry!

Another, please!
Name: Poochyená
Level: Up to level 55, she'll be there soon!
Exotics: Not yet
Restrictions: absolutely none

[TygerDarkstorm]

Sorry I haven't been able to do rolls today; I had to work. Rolls coming.

Calixte: You might want to hit the Enter/Return key after you paste a photo in your reports so that way your text appears under the screenshots. It's kind of confusing trying to follow it next to the photos because it sort of interrupts the flow.

Aryenna:
King Krush


::OR::

Grey Rhino

(Please *do not* feel pressured to tame King Krush for this report; I just let the roll go through in case you already have plans to tame him or already have him in your stables. I'm not sure what kind of a challenge people are looking for so I'm letting the harder rolls through with an easier alternative.)

Khi'jazi:
Arcturis


::OR::

Green Spiked Raptor

(Please *do not* feel pressured to tame Arcturis for this report; I just let the roll go through in case you already have plans to tame him or already have him in your stables. I'm not sure what kind of a challenge people are looking for so I'm letting the harder rolls through with an easier alternative.)

Varethyn:
Purple Shale Spider


Calixte(Poochyená):
Green Ravager

[Calixte]

I'm an idiot. Fixed, sorry about that.

[TygerDarkstorm]

No worries. ^_^

[Sesamee]

My pet this time was a red corehound. They are only found in Molten Core which worked out perfectly since I wanted the helm off Rag. Before going I checked the loot and turns out I really liked hunter's tier one! Bonus!! My bf wanted a few things out of there so he came along even though I could have easily solo'd it. Things started off shaky as the sound file I use to mute the corehounds lava noise suddenly went missing. I cannot begin to tell you how much that noise annoys me! It took me an hour to figure out what was going on before we could even start! I refuse to play with a that noise coming from a corehound. Even my precious Marama is no exception! So things were halted for about an hour while I fixed the problem and correctly downloaded the file.

I was so frazzled from the addon mess up that I forgot to take a taming picture but here we are heading in to get some easy loots. Oh, I named him Painintheazz because I was grumpy trying to fix my sound add on lol:


The bosses died so fast I barely had time to take good screenshots but I got a few cool ones of him in combat. Here he is tearing up one of the bosses:



We breezed through the rest of the instance and eventually made it to Rag. I think he is one of the coolest looking bosses in the game:


Kickin' some Rag ass! If only he was this easy on hardmode in Firelands, lol:


Defeated!!


All in all it was a good run. My bf, as usual, was lucky and got every single piece of his tier that he needed. I got the shoulders and boots but I suppose my luck could have been worse. It's an easy run though and doing it until I get full tier one shouldn't be hard. And Pain looked quite at home in his native habitat:


I knew I wasnt going to keep him since I adore my white corehound and I dont really want to give up another pet for two. But I brought him back to org to take some ss's of him in a different light. He's really pretty. The fire drool thing I could live without but it sort of adds to his charm a bit. I have to say that without the Corehound Lava Sound Quieter add on there is no way I could stand to have one. But once that obnoxiously annoying noise is quieted they are quite charming pets. Pain also looked really good against the red rocks of Durotar


Here is his lava breath, his special ability. His combat animations are just a lunge and bite:


While taking screenshots a nice guy came along and pulled out his little baby red corehound and I snapped a few pics. He said he didn't mind if I added one in my post


Here is my white corehound, Marama, who I like too much to give up for Pain:


So Pain was released to go wreck havoc back in Molten Core but he's a cool pet and I would definitely have kept him if it hadn't been for already having Marama. Thanks for checking out our adventure!

[Varethyn]

My pet challenge was the purple shale spider.
This colour of shale spider can be found both on the Deep Spiders in Deepholm, in the Crumbling Depths cave (where Jadefang can be found), and Elementium Spinners in Twilight Highlands, down the Elementium Depths mine near BoT. They are exotic so only Beast Masters at level 69 and above can tame them, and are tenacity. Being exotic they come with two abilities; Web Wrap, a 3-second stun, and the bonus Embrace of the Shale Spider, the hunter version of Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild. Because of this latter ability they can be specced for damage in a pinch if your group is lacking a paladin or druid but are generally best for tanking. I named mine Amethyst, because that's what it looks like she's made of, and specced her for solo-tanking.


Amethyst has a fairly high-res skin and look like she's made up of rocks and gemstones. She looks like an elemental than a beast. Since shale spiders sit on the crab skeleton they share the same animations minus the pincers. Standing idle Amethyst sways lightly from side to side while clicking her mandibles (inaudiably) and sometimes will look around from one side to the other.



Swimming shale spiders thrust their legs back to propel themselves through the water. I find it kind of cute to watch.


Combat animations seem a little bit strange to me, as the crab they're based on would normally attack using its pincers. However since shale spiders don't have pincers they appear to stamp on and bite the opponent.


Shale spiders are normally known for the high-pitched squeaking, or "squeeing", they make. To some it is cute, to others it's like nails on a chalkboard, and they do it almost constantly in combat. Ouside of combat they make no sound unless you switch EotSS off and on, at which they squeal again, and make clicking sounds when they run. Personally I'm indifferent, but people who don't like noisy pets and use sound may not appreciate them.

As a tank pet I took Amethyst to solo Slabhide in normal Stonecore in hopes of a new mount. Sadly it didn't drop but Amethyst held aggro well, though her health dropped dangerously at some points. I prefer a turtle or beetle for such expeditions, but shale spiders can fit that gap too. Just remember to keep mend pet up at all times!


I also imagine they'd make good PvP pets with their Kings buff and web wrap stun, but I tend not to touch it with a ten-foot pole if I can help it.

I already have Jadefang so Amethyst won't stay. However I am fond of her, and all the shale spider variations, colours, movements and sounds. OVer all she's a decent tank that requires some more healing upkeep than turtles or beetles might, and potentially useful in PvP environments. She's noisy and either sweet or grating depending on the person's views.


I'd like to try another one, please

Name: Varethyn
Level: 85
Exotics: Sure
Restrictions: No monkeys, gorillas or undead pets.
Tested: Purple shale spider.

[Talaridan]

Challenge: Green Outlands Raptor

Name: Jas (short from Jasele, which means fast or swift to action)

Wild:

The Tame:

Tamed:




Running:

Doing Dailies:




Overall: I rather liked this model. He had some really nice little details, though not a lot of idle animations. Good DPS, held aggro well, and had a surprising amount of personality to me. I didn't think I would like the spiky look and odd, rounded muzzle, but I grew pretty attached to Jas quite quickly. I enjoyed the sounds and PetEmote really gave him a lot of playful, clever little details that I liked.

However, I wasn't overly fond of the color so..... I looked around and picked the orange-brown model to be the 'new' Jas, but I think he'll be hanging around in my stable a while.






Name: Khi'jazi
Level: 85
Exotics: Yes! Beast Master is my main spec!
Restrictions: Not fond of Gorillas/Monkeys
Pets already tested: Violet Dragonhawk, Red & Blue Boss Wasp, Yellow Hyena, Blue Moth, Green Outlands Raptor

[Sesamee]

I love my green spikey raptor! I named him Apple, lol!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Varethyn:
Grey Tallstrider


Khi'jazi:
White Crab

[Daranara]

May I have a roll, please?

Daranara
level 85
Exotics are a-okay!
No restrictions, I'm up for anything.

[Sesamee]

Another pretty please!

Name: Sesamee
Level: 85
Exotics: yes
Restrictions: none
Rares I have: Loque, Magria, Gondria, Terrorpene, Duskstalker, Olm the Wise, Rex Ashil, Deth'tilac, Anthriss, Tsul'Kalu

[Sarantha]

Was not looking forward to going to Bloodmyst to tame this little guy. I absolutely hate Bloodmyst (and Silvermoon) because you can't fly in those areas. They are gorgeous, but no one ever goes there because the places are so much hassle now that you can fly everywhere BUT there. Still, I hauled my ass to Bloodmyst, used a damn ground mount and finally tamed myself the pretty little red guy:





After tame, he grew quite a bit and towers over my orc:



Back/side shot of Durzo and a swimming shot. He swims in a really jagged and unnatural way. I can't say I like it too much:





Sara and Durzo:



All in all, for a cunning pet, not the best. His Ravage ability might be pretty good in pvp, and I'll keep him around for a bit until I get the time to do a report on my white warpstalker. Perhaps if his ravage ability impresses me in pvp, he'll get to stick around longer. I really don't like ravagers in general, and playing with this guy didn't change my mind much. I am unimpressed with them as a whole and think draenei got really gipped when it came to "new pets" in BC. Blood elves got the awesome, gorgeous dragonhawks, while draenei got...boring, creepy looking ravagers. Bleh. He would be okay, but EVERYTHING about him looks so unnatural and it just does not even seem to fit with draenei settlements/buildings/whatever. I think Blizzard should have definitely replaced this strange pet with something better. I also couldn't help thinking the entire time I was using this pet "Where are its eyes? How does it see!?"...all in all, not a pet I like that much. So unless he impresses me in pvp, he's gone.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Not the greatest pic, but ravagers do actually have beady little eyes, and the extra spiky models have a glow map attached to them (eye is circled):


Also; their ability isn't that great for PvP; it's a 4% increase to physical damage (fabulous for melee heavy PvE btw) so unless you have a lot of physical damage users already providing CC for you, it definitely wouldn't be my pet recommendation.

[Sarantha]

Not the greatest pic, but ravagers do actually have beady little eyes, and the extra spiky models have a glow map attached to them (eye is circled):


Also; their ability isn't that great for PvP; it's a 4% increase to physical damage (fabulous for melee heavy PvE btw) so unless you have a lot of physical damage users already providing CC for you, it definitely wouldn't be my pet recommendation.

Well, he's gone then. He is also blind with those beady eyes. There's no WAY it can see out of those!

[TygerDarkstorm]

I'm biased, I absolutely adore ravagers. XD I'd imagine they're not a predator that relies much on sight with those rather tiny eyes though.

[Sesamee]

I love ravagers too! Their colors are gorgeous. They look like weird alien flowers to me lol. I dont use mine often as they're really only good when you need their buff in pve. Any pet is good OK for dailies though so I'm going to make start giving my Belladonna more out time lol.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Daranara:
Brown Beetle


Sesamee:
Red and Purple Owl

[Kyria]

My assignment for this roll was the seagull! This charming, noisy critter was unfortunately doomed from the start, as Somnus, my Vale Moth, is more than enough non-threatening pet for me and I'm already looking forward to a Bird of Prey infestation without a seagull's help, but I was amused and delighted to see the roll anyway. It's so ridiculous! How could you not love it on principle?



My two options were the Saltspray Gull from Thousand Needles and the Rustberg Gull from Tol Barad Peninsula. Because I had never seen Tol Barad before, I elected to go after a Rustberg Gull. Given the name I already had in mind, rather than nabbing the first gull I saw, I let the gull choose me by taming the first one that took off and looped in my direction.



Enter Kehaar! For those of you who don't get the reference, Kehaar is the name of the ill-tempered seagull from the classic book Watership Down. Kehaar was a tiny fellow, as you can see here, and, while some find that charming, for me, this wound up being his first problem. I expected to find his size endearing, but he was so small that I tended to forget that I even had a combat pet, which is definitely something I never like to do.



On top of that, his skin, while smooth and attractive otherwise, had bizarre lighting issues. Whenever his back was to a light source, his tail feathers and tertials were heavily shaded, and when his front was to a light source, they were all lit up. It was very distracting, and I didn't like it at all.



His animations were the same as any other bird's on land. Ordinarily, I have no problem with the bird animations, but the seagull's head didn't move down when he flew forward, instead remaining above yet parallel to his body, and his entire model was tilted backward slightly, making him look very unnatural and not at all pleasant. The only high points were his wings, which folded in only one place instead of the bone-breaking two.



His swimming animations were identical to his hovering and flying ones, with the exception of an occasional glide thrown in for flavor, as seen above. Nothing at all of note here. Kehaar was, however, capable of doing a trick! I didn't know that about seagulls before this assignment, and I amused myself for a fair while with it before continuing on to other things.

Unfortunately, I have no further screenshots, because, as it turned out, I hated this pet. I absolutely could not endure its size, its animations, the way it looked next to my character, anything at all. Still, though we didn't get along, he wasn't a completely useless pet. I didn't test Kehaar out on anything except random mobs, but he functioned as well as any other bird of prey, and I imagine he would have been very helpful in PVP, given his disarming ability and ridiculously small size. I'm sure he'd have been a fine pet for somebody else, just... not for me. He was abandoned by the Steam Pools, where Verdigris, my King Crawler, joined the family, and he and I are much happier together than Kehaar and I ever were.

Sorry that took so long! x_x I would like another roll, if that's all right?

Name: Caelan
Level: 85
Exotics: Yep!
Restrictions: None.
Already tested: Light blue scarab, seagull.

[Aryenna]

My assignment was the one, the only, the magnificent King Krush!





I absolutely adore this beautiful guy. Affectionately named Chomp, he and I met in the Basin on my hunt for Loque'nahak, to be honest! But after hearing the stories of him, he was a must-have for me. He was a challenge in the upper 70's with a constant fear and hard hits, but the tame went off and finally, he was mine! I'm glad he is, too! I love the devilsaur model, but the only one that's ever really clicked for me is KK.





His swim model is hilarious to me. This big ol' dinosaur dog paddles when idle in water, and his long legs unfold to propel him forward. During Bestial Wrath, he's ginormous! Not as big as when you see him roaming around the Basin, though...



He's very hard to miss in the wild.







His attacks are a basic open-mouth lunge, a forward stomp, and a headbutt. He roars occasionally when idle (see first pic) and it's audible and pretty loud. It spooks me when I'm not prepared for it or tabbed out to something else.

Chomp has received many compliments around Stormwind and in groups, and I always feel proud to have a majestic (and green) dino by my side. He's lovable and ferocious at the same time, and I'll be keeping him around for a very long, long while!