So my task for Larkania this time was the color changing monkey:
These guys can be found in Zul'Gurub or the northern Stranglethorn Valley. I didn't want to go to the dungeon so I took a flight from Orgrimmar to Grom'Gol. Right outside I found a Vale howler and tamed him.
Appearance:
Of course I tried out to find his colors. He liked to show up in brown or in dark grey and sometimes I got the black one with the red face. But I NEVER got the grey monkey. I dismissed and called him endlessly for the last two days. No grey monkey. This was the color I had been looking forward to most, but he doesn't like me. Could someone perhaps check if he/she gets a grey one out of the color-changer?
I named my new monkey Bingo. I already had tried out a monkey when they came out new and was not very fond of them so I was giving him a second chance to proof himself.
His face is quite cute, when he is in his brown form. The red one just looks odd for me and the dark grey one almost like a skull. But he has a lot of personality in this little face.
What had already bothered me before was Bingo's size. He is a small pet and next to my Tauren he looks like he could be a companion rather than a pet. I already mentioned it before, that I prefer big pets, especially next to Larkania, so Bingo lost some of the points he had made with his cute face.
Animations:
Monkeys have the same idle animations as gorillas: bang their chests and scratch the butt. I must say: I don't like either of them. The bang-chest looks good with a gorilla, but a small monkey banging his chest looks like a child playing grown-up. The butt scratching: just eeeeew. But regarding his special ability it seems fitting
Sometimes he also seems to be looking to the ground.
His swimming animation was - uhm - interesting. He seemed to float in the water only moving his arms slightly. When not moving under water he even looked dead. Not so pleasant to have the feeling of a dead pet floating next to you.
Next thing that bothered me was his running animation. It has already been mentioned by several people here on the forums that the awkward movement of monkeys is the reason they don't like them and I can only agree. From the top you can see him moving his front legs/arms more to the left than the others. He looks weirdly out of shape when running, like two different pets where you always can only see half of. When watching from behind, he seems to lack his head. So running animations are a definite no-go for me. I really hated watching him run.
Sounds:
His sounds were in fact quite fitting: lots of "giggling", screaming and noise. I think he could fear off the enemies by just making sounds. "Uh uh uh"
Fighting:
I took Bingo to several battlegrounds with me. His special ability is to throw his poop at others to blind them. Just reading his ability grossed me out. Why can't he throw a banana-peel instead? Well yes, he throws poop and perhaps throwing poop at alliance would help us win. I totally forgot about taking screenshots of him during the fights. The battlegrounds were all quite stressfull and I had problems staying alive due to 3 nightelf warriors constantly stalking me.
First thing I noticed: Bingo's blind breaks when the blinded target gets damage. And here comes the true problem I had with the ability. Even when I wanted to send him to an other player and then started shooting an other one before he reached the target I sent him to, he changed his path and attacked my target, using his blind first, that naturally broke the next instant because of my next shot. I don't put my pet on passiv in a battleground, this was the only solution I could come up with for the blind, but I normally forget about sending it to battle then and it is useless. So I thought about switching targets after his blinds, but normally my targets have serpent sting on them, so no use for the blind either. I think it probably could be kind of useful in an arena, but I don't do arenas with Larkania. So instead of being a help in the battlegrounds I felt that Bingo was more of a problem for me. His damage output wasn't as good as the one of a ferocity pet, his ability didn't help me and his sounds started to annoy me.
Conclusion:
Bingo is no pet I will keep. I gave monkeys a second chance, but I just don't like them. His ability was useless for me, his sounds were annoying after some time of hearing them, his dps output was not the greatest and his size was a serious problem for me with a Tauren.
Even Withers didn't approve. He was bigger than my pet (at least at first
)
Next roll please:
Name: Larkania (Tauren)
Level: 85
Exotics: yes please!
Restrictions: no diseased pets please
Rares she has: Gondria, Ban'thalos, blue Madexx, OCJ, Solix, Arcturis
And I wonder why our cc-abilities make us stop shooting but our pet's abilities won't. That's somehow wrong in my opinion. Either make you stop shooting at whatever form of control or not at all... Just my two cents...
