End of the Golden Age of hunter rare pets?...

[Slickrock]

Just hear me out on this....

Been thinking about this as I considered how to prune my stable, and with the changes coming to how rares show up, how we tame them, and what I imagine will be used for the coming Spirit Beasts... it feels like the golden age of rare pets is past us, at least from a rare hunter's point of view. Now the new pets are great, and I'm glad we have them, and I like the new "hunting" mechanic, but it just feels like a bit of something has passed us by. Perhaps it's because there are so many (especially the basilisks 0.o) and perhaps it's because the new rares are protected from other players, but a bit of the thrill is gone. Might also be because there have been just so many that you just can't get excited about new Spirit Beasts in the same way now.

Again, I'm not complaining about what we have coming in the next two patches (Tues and the 25th), and I certainly appreciate Noah's work.

But I do feel that perhaps we've passed an era where things just quite aren't the same anymore.

I do however, intend to track down Portent until I get the color I like...

[Sukurachi]

I seem to be a bit out of the loop... what are these changes to rares and spirit beasts?

[SpiritBinder]

You mean it's the End Beginning of the Golden Age of hunter pets and the End of the Silver Age right?

[Chimera]

Sure, the thrill of beating another player to a creature that has a loot benefit is gone now, but i think its going to be select minds who feel its the end of a golden age. The other select half such as myself see it as a dawning to a new age where yes, everything is a little more protected (no loot, elite, can only be flared out by hunters) but we're getting the thrill of the hunt instead. Well, a different type of hunt. A hunt that is more like real life. The hunt that is currently live is actually more like a countdown mashed with a race of speed. It's like the olympics when your desperately trying to get the tame off before someone swoops in. The new mechanics we're getting create probably the most realistic hunt environment we can possibly have with WoW.

I do agree that i sort of feel we have -too- many creatures to choose from. Im not speaking of any family specifically, but i am finding it harder to bond with a pet because of the variety. I start picking them like a child grabbing candy from two dozen bulk containers and throw each candy into a big bag and mix em all up. I just cant decide what to 'eat' first I was lucky with my main hunter though, i had her personality and background set perfectly and knew what pets to get her. Then i started getting armor that went beautifully with her background as an ice troll and then i started getting matching mounts, oh its so perfect. I just love her to death. But like, my worgen? forget about it. I cant even decide on a transmog so i cant even bond with my pets, i keep cycling through desperate to click.

[Akycha]

I have to disagree with the thought that it is the end of a Golden Age. First off I don't think we've really had a Golden age per say. Unless you are talking about having a rare pet being rare. In that case that ended with cata probably. I honestly don't view hoping someone doesn't kill something before you can tame it as a Golden Age...

Before MoP it was basically camping the spawn points and dealing with griefers. I hate to say it but there isn't much involved in that except patience and having time to sit around. I will admit I get a thrill up mine spin and it gets my heart pumping when I find the pet I've been camping. I don't think that's going to change for me in MoP. Admittedly so far in MoP none of the rares really grab me as much have, but I'm really looking forward to the mechanic.

So, I guess what I really got to ask is why do you think we are in a Golden Age why is it ending cause I don't see it.

[Malackai]

I think this new mechanic just makes it more interesting. sure we dont need to compete with the other classes for the rare pet. (aka them trolling us and killing it for fun)

but now we need to compete with other hunters instead. I already had a couple of nerve breaking moments on beta already while me and a other hunter we were running around and following tracks .

i do hope some tames of Molten front do come back they where interesting as well.

[swimgremlin]

I agree and disagree. Having King Krush as my main pet back in WotLK was a bigger status symbol the Loque'nahk. Solo taming him back then was near impossible due to the 20sec cast, reduced armor while taming, him hitting like a truck and his short fear cd.

By the end of Wrath there were maybe 2 other hunters aside from myself who had him. It felt good to have earned him. However, recalling the 9 month grief stricken camp process does not appeal to me. I never want to camp any pet again like I did King Krush. I had to stack haste gems/enchants on my PvP gear (resil actually helped somewhat against npc's back then), have a trash pet for my Bestial Wrath/abandon pet/ haste potion macro, pray a pocket priest was online, and hope no other player interfered.

No, no I never want to be so stressed over a pet again. Having other hunters to compete against is enough.

[Kurasu]

You mean it's the End Beginning of the Golden Age of hunter pets and the End of the Silver Age right?

I actually think, for me, this is what we're looking at.

I'm a partial comic book geek, so I know about the general idea of the 'ages' of comics and the utterly different 'feel' of how things went. *And* I'm old enough to remember most of the 'ages' of comics because I actually lived through them. Golden Age and Silver Age were both awesome, but completely different feels. Bronze age, same. And... well, we don't discuss the 'Dark Age'.

The point is, for me it's the end of an era. ... and the beginning of a new one. We had our 'camp for eons' age, we had the 'challenge pets' age, and now we're looking at the 'tracking pets'. Is it going to be good or bad where this is going? It's not eve n*here* yet, so no way to tell!

[Ziarre]

Spiritbinder and Kurasu pretty much sum it up for me. Things are changing...for the better, I feel.

But it is yet too soon to tell!

[Myrrmi]

Aside from all that mentioned above, I love it how now we'll have to actually, you know, HUNT the pet - find it's tracks, follow them and eventualy flare the beast out of it's hiding.
Love it <3

[Bristlenose]

Some of the "rarity" might be lost but only in the large number we're getting and the potentially shorter timers on them but otherwise they could be even more exclusive/difficult to aquire than ever before.

[Lisaara]

You mean it's the End Beginning of the Golden Age of hunter pets and the End of the Silver Age right?

I actually think, for me, this is what we're looking at.

I'm a partial comic book geek, so I know about the general idea of the 'ages' of comics and the utterly different 'feel' of how things went. *And* I'm old enough to remember most of the 'ages' of comics because I actually lived through them. Golden Age and Silver Age were both awesome, but completely different feels. Bronze age, same. And... well, we don't discuss the 'Dark Age'.

The point is, for me it's the end of an era. ... and the beginning of a new one. We had our 'camp for eons' age, we had the 'challenge pets' age, and now we're looking at the 'tracking pets'. Is it going to be good or bad where this is going? It's not eve n*here* yet, so no way to tell!

You sum it up perfectly for me. :3

[Royi]

I seem to be a bit out of the loop... what are these changes to rares and spirit beasts?

Kalli's nice lil thread here should answer your questions if you haven't found out since you posted this:

http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic ... 39&t=18527

Short answer: Mists of Pandaria Rares are spotted with tracks that show up only for hunters. Hunters have to use the "flare" ability where the hidden rares are pathing (you guess by following the tracks) and then when flared out, you tame said beast.

[Lisaara]

I seem to be a bit out of the loop... what are these changes to rares and spirit beasts?

Kalli's nice lil thread here should answer your questions if you haven't found out since you posted this:

http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic ... 39&t=18527

Short answer: Rares are spotted with tracks that show up only for hunters. Hunters have to use the "flare" ability where the hidden rares are pathing (you guess by following the tracks) and then when flared out, you tame said beast.

I didn't know that applied to ALL rares. I thought it was just the pandaria ones cause Loque, Krush, and Aotona are needed for Frostbitten.

[Wain]

I seem to be a bit out of the loop... what are these changes to rares and spirit beasts?

Kalli's nice lil thread here should answer your questions if you haven't found out since you posted this:
http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic ... 39&t=18527
Short answer: Rares are spotted with tracks that show up only for hunters. Hunters have to use the "flare" ability where the hidden rares are pathing (you guess by following the tracks) and then when flared out, you tame said beast.

I didn't know that applied to ALL rares. I thought it was just the pandaria ones cause Loque, Krush, and Aotona are needed for Frostbitten.

It's only the new ones. None of the old ones are being changed.

[Sukurachi]

It's only the new ones. None of the old ones are being changed.

ahhhh!! that explains it then.

I was finally able to find the right combination of words in google to get some of the info, but thanks for summarizing it here.

I wonder... I'm colourblind. do you think it will make finding these tracks difficult?

[Royi]

It's only the new ones. None of the old ones are being changed.

I'll update it to say Pandaria Rares

[Wain]

It's only the new ones. None of the old ones are being changed.

ahhhh!! that explains it then.
I was finally able to find the right combination of words in google to get some of the info, but thanks for summarizing it here.
I wonder... I'm colourblind. do you think it will make finding these tracks difficult?

If anything I expect it may be easier. It's more about contrast than colour. I'm not sure if that's true of all of them or not. Check Kalli's rare hunting thread as she has pics of all the prints at the top.

[Equeon]

I hope some more challenge tames are implemented. I'm loving the actual "tracking rares" mechanics, but I still like the various strategies of the challenge tames. Just make them like Ghostcrawler where they're impossible to kill.
Maybe... challenge tames that you have to track! Truly elite pets for only the toughest hunters!

[Akycha]

I seem to be a bit out of the loop... what are these changes to rares and spirit beasts?

Kalli's nice lil thread here should answer your questions if you haven't found out since you posted this:

http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic ... 39&t=18527

Short answer: Rares are spotted with tracks that show up only for hunters. Hunters have to use the "flare" ability where the hidden rares are pathing (you guess by following the tracks) and then when flared out, you tame said beast.

I didn't know that applied to ALL rares. I thought it was just the pandaria ones cause Loque, Krush, and Aotona are needed for Frostbitten.

You are correct it just applies to the MoP rare tames.