A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Relate your epic tames and show off your pets.
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Shaded
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A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Shaded »

Ya know. When I first heard of WoW, I thought, "Man, a game that takes months to hit maximum level. That sounds so tedious and boring." Til the friend who was talking about it and playing it, way back in the vanilla days, got on the Petopia site at school to browse a new pet to tame. I glanced over and... well. Fangasmed, pretty much. The idea of having so many pets to chose and pick from... Of course, the site had a certain domain name that made it a bit hard to memorize off the bat, but that's what search engines are for!

I never checked to see if Petopia had a forums. I tend to communicate my ideas poorly on forums. It's easier to express what a harmless lunatic I am through "instant" chat. But I digress. I don't know how long ago I noticed my favorite WoW site of all times (Sorry Wowhead, you're nice to oogle armor, but my first love is my true love) had a forum, but... eventually I got up the courage to register an account as close to my hunter's name as I could get.

So here I am, years later. Shade of Arthas to attempt to offer stories which will, hopefully, provide some sense of amusement to those who drop in for a moment.

Crisis

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Ever since I saw this guy's model brought up at the beginning of Wrath... man, did I want one. I didn't rush out to tame him, however. My hunter was collecting dust when 4.2 launched and I was finishing off my druid as well as working on my warrior and priest. Still, I thought, more than once, how awesome it would be to go and tame a pet that I had wanted for the duration of an expansion and a half. It wasn't long ago, however, that I picked my hunter back up. And Shade has a pure lucky streak when it comes to rares these days... You'll see what I mean soon enough.

So, one day, I went out into the Molten Front and decided to test the theory that I could get onto the Plume Ridge... place without unlocking anything. Some third degree burns later, I got there... only to fail a jump and fall to my death. Lucky me, I managed to fall under the island, so I got a nice free rez there, anyway. Heading over there, I found a nice spot between the northern and southern spawn points. Theoretically, I should have gotten a nice alarm if a rare happened to spawn in either location. But... nothing was happening.

Bored, I took to using Eagle Eye all over the place... and nearly died when the alarm did go off. All the way across the Molten Front... Eegads, Deth'tilac! Well, it's a challenge, and I wanted sorely to try the challenge tames out. I had even brought a spider just for this occasion, so I haltingly rock skipped away. After nearly an hour of some... interesting events, I ended up checking the spawn points again... And there was Skarr! Just sitting pretty as could be. Being a Blood Elf, I figured I would be fine without a Marksmen spec. And I also had a Corehouse for a personal lust. All's good! Somehow, I don't die getting back up (But thanks to certain spiders, I had already racked up a nice bill and had to drop by Org to fix some mail that was falling off), and wander over. Lust... rock hop... Arcane Torrent... the wrong attack! So, I was dead. Again.

Luckily, no one else was around and the Ancient Hysteria was fast enough to come up again between the 2.5 minute CD and my rez timer... This time, I made sure to interrupt the right attack and not die another time that night! At least... to Skarr.

As to why his name is Crisis... Not a clue. It just is one of those names that seems to fit perfectly, and he doesn't seem to complain.



Solo

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Anyone know where I got the idea for his name?

Anyone?

No one? Solo the lion?

Watch more Big Cat Diary!

Notice how he's not as cuddly to me as Crisis is. Probably because he's a newer addition to my obsess-- ... Pack? Herd... Pride... Group... Collective. Yes. There we go. Solo plays a rather cruel part of my life sometimes. He will prowl next to me when I fish for Highland Guppies and scare the crap out of Alliance who try to gank me by setting off their own alarms. It actually stunned a shaman enough that he stopped attacking me in raw confusion. But it's his idea, not mine, I swear!

His story ties into Wish's story a little. Not my first selection for a feline, but certainly one I had shown ambition in taming one day. I have a tendency to cycle through my pets and always did like lions. The larger the pet appears next to me, the happier I feel, somehow. And the mane helps with that, added with the rolling gait, does make him appealing. That, paired with my insatiable desire to make friends with unique rare pets left me with the decision to acquire this pet. However, I was not first on my own list. Unfortunately, the person I promised to call in case I ran across Sambas was offline. So, when I saw him down below me, I ended up dropping down and everything went wrong.

Due to paranoia about losing a pet due to being attacked/helped, I start off with an attack to gain some threat... go to tame... five pets on me. And Sambas is tearing into me when I figure that little glitch out. Thankfully, I never had a reason or need to keep a Corehound after I had finished my challenge tames, or most of them that might require a lust, so one Feign Death later, I fixed that issue. Well, I had about 60-70% health left and never really read much into taming this cat. So why not drop a trap and try again?

Set up a trap, Deter/Tame macro... What's this? Not trapped? What witchcraft is this!? Confused, I nervously watch my health with Feign Death on cooldown... luckily, the Deterrence helps just enough that I manage to get Sambas with... oh... a sliver of health left.

And, after telling the tale of my cat tames, my friends now question just how much I enjoy keeping cats who have been known to absolutely thrash me.



Mercy

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If you've read this far, you might recall I mentioned Deth'tilac in Crisis' story. As well as many repair bills and a rez timer. You can thank my stubborn insistence on solo taming Deth. I had none of the areas unlocked at this point, so no NPCs showed up and since it was off-peak hours, I was rather alone. At least. I thought I was.

Dead. Dead. Dead. Damn it spider rez, go off! Nope, dead. Time and time again, I tried, but being extremely rusty, I'm far from the best kiter. Also being BM spec, I don't have improved traps to try out or anything like that. So I'm stuck rezzing and kiting as best as I can.

At some point, I realized that pulling him by the invisible NPCs still sets them off, and one of them drops a root. That's useful! So back and forth I kite him, patiently waiting between 2 minute rez timers and feeling rather safe that I had time. And, that time did pay off. Eventually, I get him to 18% health... all on my own. Success! Happily, I throw down another trap between us and proceed to rez and dismiss my pet... wait, where are you going Deth? Get back here! Why are you running back to your spawn point!? In aggravation, I just shoot and watch him skitter-vade back to his spawn point... and his health shoot up to full. Great. Just great.

Again, I set everything up as normal. It can't get any worse than tasting success just to realize it's just like those sugar coated candies that are sour beneath. Or is it the other way around? I'm not a fan of sweets so either way, it's unpleasant. Resigned but confident that I -can- do this, I just need to shoot him a bit more often, I try again. Around I go to the front... and what's that? An Alliance hunter? Oh no... I'm going to die. I'm just going to die. Still, I keep kiting. Maybe he ran up here to go afk. Maybe he'll just run off. But I'm expecting, completely, to die. PvP servers sure can be annoying sometimes.

Lo and behold... he summons a mini Deth'tilac and sends it after the mob I'm taming. And it dies. And again he sends and throws a concussive shot while I'm rounding another corner. Round and round we go, two spiders, two hunters, and one big angry killing machine. Again Deth falls to 18% and he stops and wishes me luck through emote. Awesome! A bit of awkward trap juggling later and I land my tame. Merrily, I ask him to /wait and go make an Alliance alt, just to thank him.

Once I was back on my hunter, I had to think about a name. Mercy. True because that was what was shown to me and ironic because I intended and still intend to use this spider for PvP encounters. Unable to believe my sheer luck, I head back to my camping point. I have Deth, what else could get in my way? Turns out my night between finding Crisis and befriending Mercy and my enemies isn't just filler, but a taming tale of its own. Involving an Alliance paladin which saw my rez sick nature and opened up... just as I saw a green spider of death barreling at me.... And not only that, but I ended up with a new name (Shade). Will my one-time sponsor of Mercy end up betraying me on accident in the future? To be continued, maybe.



----


TL;DR: Almost all of my pets have a tale of some sort. Some short and weird. Some long and... well. Amazing. At least, to me. Hunter pets don't have to tear hunters and factions apart, but rather, can bring us together. And since I'm really no good at introducing myself, I figured I might try it this way.

I could do a story and picture of pretty much all of my pets. And don't let my double Marksmen spec fool you. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist with my raids. I will be BM again one day and the wrath of Drama and Karma will befall my enemies... And sometimes, my friends.

So... Hi! Should I offer more stories... or just shush and post pretty pictures? Or do nothing...?

My pets.
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GormanGhaste
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by GormanGhaste »

Welcome to the forums! You're in good company, many of the members here have a pet journal. You can share pics,taming stories, naming stories, role-playing stories, whatever you wish!
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Shaded
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Shaded »

Thank you very much!

I wish I had kept a journal for dates and times and such. Everything really happened close together... All told, I managed to redo and refill my stables in 2-3 weeks, but I space out a lot on keeping track of time, it all blurs for me. Ah well, live and learn. I hope I don't need Luvs.
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by starkittens »

Welcome!

The burns of a fire may heal with time
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but the burns from our love will never heal, even as the years pass on
{My Magistream Keep}{My DA}{My DC scroll}

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Vephriel
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Vephriel »

Lovely stories, and welcome to the community! :) Glad to have you here.
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Syriana »

Welcome :) and do share more stories!
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Wes1234
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Wes1234 »

Despite how I do a video diary of my many rare pet finds, I have yet to post the drama involved with my original and more treasured pets (from way before I began said video diary). Quite sad, really, considering that I've found myself quite bored with nothing to do many times, never realizing that that would've been a good time to type it up. Guess I'm a bit slower than your average Huntard. ^^;

But enough about me and my pointless excuses. Welcome to the forums! I'd love to hear what other stories you have for us! I always love hearing tales of struggles and dedication in taming that one special pet, especially any drama associated with said tames. After all, good luck and bad luck can co-exist at many points in time!
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Shaded
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Shaded »

Next time I'm in game, I'll grab a few more snap shots and start up a few more tales, then. Thank you all for the warm welcome! And Wes, I actually messaged you praise for your movies. I was the one who asked about a certain track because it struck me with hardcore nostalgia.

I might do four next post to finish off that To Be Continued portion, hehe. Or maybe put that off in favor of a nostalgia trip and talk about the symbolism of the ghost saber, Humar, and the Pride of Bethekk pets. Ah, choices! Tomorrow, though, if not, later tonight when my bf passes out and I'm camping TLPD and nothing is going on.

You know. Whichever comes first.

But yes, thank you all! And I appreciate the positive feedback. I was worried about being long winded or something...
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Snowbird »

Welcome to the Forums!! And lovely Stories!! <33

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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Sarantha »

Welcome. Nice pets. I'm obsessed with mages and green colored pets!
Part of Dark Magics, lvl 25 Horde guild, casual, helpful, don't raid, mostly help people and hunt pets.
Part of Dynasty, lvl 25 Alliance guild, casual and hardcore (your choice, no one forces you to raid, but you can), very helpful
Come on over if interested (Runetotem US, Horde name Sarantha, Ally name Ellysetta or Valeraud)
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Acherontia »

Welcome, and cool tales :D Congrats on your pets!
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by meepitco »

Welcome to the forums! And lovely pets!

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Click the picture, it takes you to my deviantart.

Tumblr is here.

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Shaded
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Shaded »

Thank you all! And I'm not insane over green myself, though I am mostly decked out in green right now with a green enchant on my weapon. But to follow the green theme, I'll start off with the tale of one angry green spider out to make my life rather miserable.

The Reaper Spider

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So, I just came away with Mercy and headed up the path once again. I had been trying to get back, somehow failed and went to repair my gear. Still rez sick, I dodged fire as best as I could and saw some Alliance paladin running up towards me. Knowing I didn't stand a chance, I just wanted for him to start killing me. Protection Paladins are mean suckers to fight... Just then, I notice a certain mean green heading over towards us. I gesture towards it because... well. Skarr isn't up, and this is another challenge tame! And I wanted to complete each of them at least once. The paladin pauses, gestures at the spider, then drops a stun on me. Then throws his shield at me. Smacking me around on my ram until I'm about to die... then stops and apologizes. I've got no idea what's going on, but apparently I'm not going to get ganked. So I ask him to wait and get back on the alliance toon I made to thank the other Ally.

I ask him what's up and if I'll be allowed to tame the green spider. He said he wanted to help me! We got to talking, he said that whenever he was out there, Skarr usually was. I said that I hadn't seen Skarr yet, and he wasn't up yet. Oh well, the paladin says. Maybe later. I tell him I'd like to try the tame on my own and he finally agrees, though he still seems eager on assisting me. I swap back over and begin trying to hop over rocks to the taming rock. Thing. Place. Two out of three times, I just fail and fall to my death. A few times I get onto the rock I think I'm supposed to get on, but I get killed anyway.

Up and up goes my repair bill again, but at least I waited for my rez sickness to go away first. I've got a nice fat two minute rez timer by now and this spider is still kicking my ass left and right. Again I get on the rock and try once again... and then the paladin comes up and tries to tank him. Alrighty, then. I try taming with the paladin dying. Just... spamming my Tame button. Nope, I'm dead again. Feeling bad that the paladin got himself killed, I rez on the island once again. And who just so happens to be up? A certain kitty who smacked me around just as hard as a certain spider.

With yet another new companion, I drop down to the Shade Fail Rock, die, and start looking at alternative methods, because those rocks aren't working out for me. An Alliance hunter comes up. I gesture for him to go ahead, I'm not gonna bother if I don't know what the hell I'm doin. He wanders off. Alright. Another Alliance hunter comes by... tries. Gets killed. Tries again. Gets killed. I'm just reading and letting them be... And he doesn't give lucky number three a try, he just runs off. Smart hunters don't have massive repair bills. The paladin comes up and seems confused as to where I went (remember, between rez timers and dying to Skarr, I had been gone about five minutes all told). I bring out Skarr and get an emoted grats. :3 But back to the problem at hand. Learning about the Disengage method, I situate myself, get out my Corehound, pop my lust and try again.

And with all of my latency issues, I get thrown up, toss myself back, hit Deter/Tame... He comes up to me, starts eating my face... and then decides to not kill me after all. I think that spider was up for about two hours before I figured things out.

I think my favorite part is that he is a green spider who destroys everyone around him. And my boyfriend and a group of other friends of ours have a fantasy roleplay going on. His character is a grim reaper with toxic green eyes and has power over poisons and acids. Reaper spider! He definitely got a kick out of hearing about a spider who destroyed anyone who gets near it. But I don't know if I want to name the greenie Reaper or after the character himself, Noudai. So, he remains The Reaper Spider for now. And will always be The Reaper Spider in my mind when I run across him in the wild with skeletons lining his path.

The Wasps That Bind

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Well, this is a much more bland story. My guild hasn't done much of anything for Rag. No one can figure out the strat we want to do. I'm convinced 25 mans are easier... if a few people miss, I don't think it'll kill you. But on 10 man, you have the same number of adds and if one person messes up, you will die. Sigh. So, I look at what else I can do... I can get a wasp! Looking around, I decide the little buzzballs in ZG are the cutest wasps with their big eyes. I pick one out and tame it... Went into ZG solo considering a pug would probably get cranky or try to kill it... but what to name it? I've never really tamed a pet I didn't want for myself just for raids... Hm. So, Wasp he is. For now.

I wander around for a time and even use my poor nameless wasp, still absolutely uninspired. Until, one day, in the Molten Front, I'm looking around for Karkin. No luck... but a certain hunter wanders up by me. Oh hey! It's the one who helped me with Mercy! I pull out my spider and he grats me, then draws out his own one. Of course he doesn't recognize me, I changed my character's hair color and name. I /nod and /point between the spiders. He nods and waves... I'm still not sure, so I then think of something. Pulling out my wasp I do something I probably shouldn't and name my wasp "ItsSkyeArrow". With him sitting down, I figure he's logging out. So quickly, I accept the name and point. 'Shade points at ItsSkyeArrow.'. The other hunter nods and I cheer, feeling a bit better. At least now he knows!

I still have to name my wasp, though. But for now, I'm more than thrilled to have it with me. Even more common models can help bring people together from time to time. Maybe I'll name it Tether...

Glacier

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Gondria was always my favorite of the spirit beasts before Cataclysm came out. Something about the transparent, whispy nature of a feline over my favorite build, the large, mount-style cats. And because of that, I think the recolors, Ankha and Magria are gorgeous. Blue is one of my favorite colors, so I might favor Magria a bit more, but Ankha was the common one for me.

I had a day to myself that day. Nothing was going on. No one wanted my hunter for raiding. I was uninspired to raid as anything else, so I wandered around. And who happened to be up? Ban'thalos! But that is a story for another time. Disturbed because of those events, I sit quietly over Ankha's spawn point. Naked hunters come and go... night falls. Nothing. I start working on a Naked Set for myself so I can just click it, drop down, and go. Paranoia knows that if a Survival spec hunter mounts up, flies up a little, and loads me with dots, I'm dead without my gear. Or a lock. Or a shadow priest. Or... well. You get the picture. Naked camping is not safe.

At the time, I didn't know I could mute my volume and get the alarm to go off. So, the wing flapping got annoying rather quickly. Picking out a tree, I start spinning and circling over it until I can land... dismount on the top, then mount up again. Perfect! Now I can fly away if someone starts trying to kill me. Thus, Naked Cat Tree Camping was born. Whenever anyone asked what I was doing, that would be my answer. But only when I explained it did they understand. I like making sense out of things which honestly make no sense. My flawed, flawless logic.

I almost died when Ankha spawned the first time. Damn alarm gave me a heart attack. I dropped down, hit my naked set, Deter/Tame... and got a kitty! Happy day! But what to name this new kitty? Glacier... Because the white/blue coloration of the two cats reminds me of the arctic sea. A large white glacier atop of a rich blue ocean. I check the time. It's been quite a few hours since the Ban'thalos incident, so I decide it will spawn soon enough and leave my spot. I think it was four days before I finally found Magria...

Depth

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Ankha. Ankha. Ankha. I cleared my cache every time and saw every gorgeous white saber a home, but it was getting tiresome. How long until Magria? How long until I finish my Hyjal spirit collection and head to the dreaded Vash'jir to face down the Nerfbat master himself, Ghostcrawler? By then, I wasn't even camping properly. I had just gotten into a raiding guild who wants me (thanks to my obsessive camping) and couldn't commit to all day/all night camping like I did with Ankha.

There was one other camper out most of the time, about then. This troll hunter who sat naked in the middle of the kite path. He never answered when I talked to him... one of those people who couldn't figure out I don't have to whisper him to talk to him... I don't get it. Anyway, I was actually just doing a fly-by to see if Ankha was up again... but no! There was a yellow dot down there, alright, but it was a big, blue, gorgeous kitty who looked oh so confused, sad, and lost. About halfway down her path, I found a good spot, hit my Naked Set, then proceeded to reunite Magria with my Ankha. Because, sometime between the third and fourth Ankha spawn, I had made up a little story in my head as to why these cats share the same spawn timer and location. Maybe they're siblings and haunt the world like lost spirits, trying to unite with each other!

And as for the name? Depth... Because Ocean would have been a bit odd. A beautiful name, but having Glacier and Ocean is a bit too obvious of a name pairing for me. The ocean depths, though... where you look around and the world is tainted in this brilliant blue color... yeah, that's a good reference to waters without being obvious. Maybe I just like to make people think... or at least ask me what's up with the insanity of my naming. About then, I was also dreading going to find Ghostcrawler.

... About then, that troll came up to me and asked if I had just tamed her. I said yes while fixing up Magria's talents. Of course, it took him a few minutes to realize I was talking in say and not whispering him. Though I had to whisper him to point it out to him... *facepalm* I gave him the time of tame... and he said he had been camping Magria for a long while now. In the wrong spot... I dragged him over to the spawn point and showed him how to camp the cats properly.

I was rewarded a week later with him trying to give me Ankha after I said I already had her. I said I had when we met... and I said so then... "Ankha's up. Do you have her?" "Yes." Fighting a boss in Firelands, Deadly Boss Mods tells him my progress. I miss my crystal time because of that -.- Damn it Baleroc and damn my habit of reading whispers. "Are you coming?" ... Really? "I just said I already have her. And please don't whisper me in the middle of a raid."

At least I later on learned that he's been helping people tame spirit beasts after I taught him about Magria, Ankha, and Ban'thalos that night. And he did try to help me get one... xD Oh well.

Let the spirit of the hunt live on in all of us! Don't shoot your fellow hunters!

- Shade of Arthas -
When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning
And the future has passed without even a last desperate warning


Pets | Mounts | Companions
Taming Tales | Hunting Journal: Mounts

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Flyra
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Re: A Strange Hunter... Beware Stranger Danger!

Unread post by Flyra »

Welcome! I had so much fun reading your journal, please write more. :D. The patience you have with challenge tames is amazing, I usually just try twice then give up. xD.

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