Random Pet Family Appreciation Thread 37: Silithids!

[Wassa]

Former threads:
Moths - Warp Stalkers - Crocolisks - Monkeys - Wolves - Core Hounds - Wasps - Dragonhawks - Turtles - Boars - Carrion Birds - Bears - Serpents - Tallstriders - Worms - Dogs - Ravagers - Shale Spiders - Sporebats - Spirit Beasts - Birds of Prey - Scorpids - Chimaeras - Bats - Crabs - Foxes - Devilsaurs - Rhinos - Hyenas - Beetles - Spiders - Nether Rays - Raptors - Cats - Gorillas - Wind Serpents

Random pet family appreciation thread is where I roll a random pet family every week for everyone to share their pictures, their stories, their love for that pet family. Please no hate or rants. This is an appreciation thread. If you dislike the family, don't post! Hopefully with some love we can get some hunters to try out new pets they never would have thought to tame before.

Our 37th family is the chattering silithid family!



The last, but not least, of the Cataclysm pet families. Plus finished right before Mists of Pandaria is released. Talk about perfect timing! Looks like I started these threads at just the right time.

MoP pet families will be added sometime in the next few months after I update all the older topics and everyone has time to bond with new pets. Until then, see ya! I really enjoyed writing these threads and reading all your stories. Always feel free to bump up old topics if you have a new tame or an old favorite you want to share.

<3

Silithid facts

~Silithids became tameable in Wrath with the addition of exotic beasts. Originally only the silithid tank (aka silithid reaver) model was tameable. Ant silithids and boss silithids became tameable in Cataclysm. All silithid models have been in the game since Vanilla.

~Silithids have three models and 13 skins to tame.

~Seven silithid rares are in game. These are Ainamiss the Hive Queen, Clutchmother Zavas, Haarka the Ravenous, Harakiss the Infestor, Krkk'kx, Lapress, and Soriid the Devourer.

~Lord Kri is the only unique skinned named member of the family.

~Other well known named members of the family are Buru the Gorger, Princess Yauj, and Vem. All of these silithids with Lord Kri are raid bosses.

~Back in Wrath, silithids were tamed by 0.4% of level 80 hunters. Placing them near the bottom at number 19 on the list, tied with carrion birds, hyenas, and tallstriders. (Source)

~Back in Wrath, silithidtankskingolden was the most tamed skin at 37.1%. Silithidtankskintan was the least tamed skin at 12.2%. (Source)

~Venom Web Spray used to cause extra nature damage, but it had a shorter duration and range. It's range was increased from 20 to 30 yards in patch 3.3.0 and duration increased by 1 second in Cataclysm. Silithids also gained Qiraji Fortitude in Cataclysm.

~Silithids hold the title of having the rarest mount in game, the only legendary mount: Black Qiraji Battle Tank. Acquiring this mount took hours of high level quests, raids, and to use the Scepter of the Shifting Sands on the Scarab Dais Gong during the 10 hour event at the opening of Ahn'Qiraj. Since early 2009 servers no longer start with the gates of Ahn'Qiraj closed, so this mount is no longer obtainable on any realm.

~Other silithid mounts are Blue Qiraji Battle Tank, Green Qiraji Battle Tank, Red Qiraji Battle Tank, Yellow Qiraji Battle Tank, and Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank. The first four are useable in Temple of Ahn'Qiraj only, although the red one is so rare it has it's own Feat of Strength. The Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank is useable outside Ahn'Qiraj but is a rare Tol'vir archaeology item.

~The silithidtankbossskindamaged_different has its brain exposed!

~Boss silithids used to be silent, except for a loud thump with their looking from side to side idle animation. Now they have a screeching noise when they run or swim, which seems to be a bug.

~The boss model silithids have a peculiar history behind them becoming tameable. In early Catacylsm beta two silithid rares Haarka the Ravenous and Soriid the Devourer morphed into boss silithids but were made untameable. Hunters that tamed one on live servers then transferred into beta found they had a very large blue or purple boss silithid. Haarka and Soriid where changed back to their old models while two new rares, joking named Ainamiss the Super-Exotic and Harakiss the Untameable to tease hunters, where added and of course untameable. Blizzard changed their minds later in the beta and gave the two new rares the names Ainamiss the Hive Queen and Harakiss the Infestor, while making all boss silithids tameable.

~Ainamiss the Hive Queen is most likely named after our very own Mania. Reworded you get "Mania is the Hive Queen."

~Krkk'kx was previously known as Silithid Ravager, a rare silithid that was the only tameable tan skinned silithid reaver in Wrath. Common silithids now have this name, so he was renamed to Krkk'kx.

~Silithid Swarmer was formerly a turquoise scorpid until Cataclysm when they were reskinned to an ant silithid. Since ant silithid models where untameable at the time, those that tamed these NPCs when they were scorpids now had distinctive ant silithids. Next patch all ant model silithids became tameable, removing the past exclusiveness of this model.

[Wassa]

Wassa's silithid is Kokumo, or better known as Lord Kri.



Kokumo means "immortal" in Nigerian. Back when the AQ bug trio bosses first became tameable, they were glitched and could not die. Any killing blow would only drop them to 1 HP and they would heal up almost to full afterwards, making them immortal. It only lasted for about two weeks, but it was an amazingly fun glitch.

I originally wanted Princess Yauj, but her fears and stuns was too hard at level 80 to do solo, so I took Lord Kri as a consolation prize and was going to come back at 85 to tame Yauj. Well, I never went back.

I don't use Kokumo too much. Originally being cunning and an exotic pet when my main spec is survival he sat in the stables a lot. He didn't have any personality until I decided he would be my fishing and archaeology pet buddy to get him out of the stables more for some fresh air. Then he showed his true self.


"Help me I can't breathe!"

He's as dumb as a rock!

He loves to stand face down in water and wonder why he is drowning himself. He stands over archaeology items and when Wassa tells him to move, he looks at Wassa and gives a thump of frustration like saying "but whyyyy do I have to move?" I know silithids are, lore wise, one of the more intelligent beasts hunters can tame. Thanks to the exposed brain model of boss silithid we know the thorax behind the head is a massive brain case. However I think my Kokumo is more like a Stegosaurus: big body but has a brain the size of a walnut.

Now he's respecced to tenacity. A big boss silithid tank just made sense to me. Also, it's not like a few extra hits on his head would affect Kokumo that much now.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Kinda funny how right as I was looking to go tame a silithid on my newly 69 hunter this thread pops up. If I end up liking it I'll be reporting it back here.

[Vephriel]

Although I don't have him any more, I loved my brain bug named Thalamus. He was so diabolical. I'd swap him between the damaged and regular models on a whim. When it came time to prune the stables he didn't quite make it unfortunately, but I'll always look back on him fondly.

[Kalhoun]

This is Fidget.



Fidget has been with Kalhoun since silithids were first tamable (and Kal was an orc) in one form or another. First he was purple, then yellow, then tan, then back to his lovely yellow self. He's a happy guy; he looks like he's smiling to me, and I love his jittery little dance. He's witnessed many a battleground victory, and even has a blue buddy he gets to visit now and then!



I had a blue boss silithid for quite a while, named Meanie. But I seemed to always use Fidget over him.

[GormanGhaste]

I've always loved Silithid and Aqir lore and am looking forward to the Klaxxi storyline in MoP! I've tamed all three Silithid models, but the ant model is my favorite:

This is Atta, named after Atta, a genus of leafcutter ants that grow fungus as a food source. I try not to play favorites, but Atta is one of mine

[Equeon]

Yay, my favorite family, at long last!

Meet Krilte.


He was one of the first pets I aimed to tame when I reached a higher level. As soon as I saw that skin on the Petopia images, I knew it was a must-have! I forgot about my goal until I was 85 for about a week or two, and then I decided to get a group for Ahn'Qiraj in order to go and tame Lord Kri.

The tame was easy; extremely easy. I brought a Potion of Speed, used Deterrence -- and it was over. The newly tamed Lord Kri even helped bring down his former brother and sister.
His name is nothing special; I liked his original name but felt it was more of a prefix; so I extended it. It's not the most creative thing, but I find it's kind of harsh and guttural sounding, which is exactly his personality.



I had already begun to get into PvP a bit by the time I tamed Krilte, and was previously using Deth'Tilac. It's only natural that a gigantic orange murder-bug with a stamina buff and a 5 second (instead of 3 second) root was the logical upgrade.
By his behavior and performance in BGs and a couple of arenas, I find him to be violent, cruel, devious, and somehow still lovable. Of course, he's never violent or cruel or devious to me, just whatever fool decides to attack me (or my allies.) Oh, and he's always hungry. Usually for the opposite faction's flesh.

Unfortunately, I haven't been using him much for one reason: he screeches constantly. I can't walk, have a slow or daze debuff, or swim without his shrill complaining. When it was just water and the occasional backpedal that triggered it, I laughed it off and explained it "in-game wise" that he hates water. Even still, I didn't like using him outside of battlegrounds, as the occasional wrong turn or mob debuff will slice at my ears with noise. Now that he screeches with the reduced pace of the Glyph of Camouflage, I can't even use him for PvP. I've submitted two different bug reports now (the last one was in February) so hopefully this can change.

[Mozag]

I have unfortunately never been one of the most ardent of silithid fans, and for a long time they remained as one of the most unpleasant pets for me. I didn't want to tame any, and I thought everything about them was rather ugly.

Ever since my stable change I have unfortunately not managed to sustain a single silithid.

[Corpsebryde]

Silithids are a fascinating family. I tamed one of the "normal" yellow ones back in Wrath but we never bonded. Then came Huckleberry. If and when I pvp'ed, which is rare, Huckleberry was my pet of choice. He was a favorite in my guild and people still ask when I'll start pvp'ing again with the big blueberry He is kind of an abuse magnet in battlegrounds though, lol.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Tsara got herself a new silithid recently, and I love him. :3 He's not something I normally would have went for which makes him even better. This is Saffron:

At first I thought he was going to be female, especially with the name, but then he made it very clear with this pose that he was, indeed, male, and that silly frou frou names would not stop him from being Tsara's protector. I haven't gotten to know him much more than that yet, but I have a feeling he might be Tsara's tank of choice.

[Falcon]

I've always been fond of silithids even though I only have one. My current main, Shuurai, was even a silithid enthusiast at one point, having tamed all four colors of the reaver model, two of the wasps, an ant, and a colossus.

Then, MoP came, and the only silithid still in her stables is her colossus, Rosalina.

The bonds Shuurai had with everyone else either weren't there, had withered down over time, or I felt that releasing them back to the wilds was best for them. What's funny is that for a long time, I preferred the reaver model over the colossus model, and I admit that I didn't even like the colossus model at all.

Then came the day I decided to tame Ainamiss the Hive Queen for Shuurai back during Cataclysm.



Even when she walked to my side, I still felt unsure, but then I soon found myself bringing her out over all of Shuurai's other silithids, and the more I kept looking at her, the more I realized that I actually really liked the colossus model and found those large, dark eyes rather endearing.

Her name was originally Rosalee back when I first tamed her, until I found out that her name was one letter off from a character in a certain book series I despise. I knew I still wanted a name for her that had a form of 'rose' in it due to her coloration, so I settled on Rosalina, and the name has stayed with her ever since.



She's one of Shuurai's top five pets, and has hardly ever left her active stable, save for when the colossi suffered from the bug where pretty much almost every movement made them emit a horrible screechy hiss, which I found rather unbearable to listen to, so Rosalina got to enjoy a nice vacation, taking a back seat to Sasavi, Shuurai's cat.

Personality-wise, Rosalina is rather laid-back and gentle for a silithid colossus, but she does experience bouts of hyperactivity and urges to go out and kill things, but one of the two the biggest quirks of her personality is that she believes that she has wings. I've always boggled over this, but found it amusing since out of all the silithid emotes, the one regarding 'fluttering tiny wings' has always come up for her the most, and now, with the release of MoP, I've realized that she believes she's a kunchong rather than a silithid, which ties in to the other huge quirk about her personality:

That she always wanted to be a mother.

I found out that during one point in the Klaxxi storyline, you get to help raise a kunchong, and of course, I knew that I wanted to have Rosalina with me for these quests, feeling that her playing mentor to a kunchong would be adorable. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Enter Kovok.



The first thing Rosalina did when they met was sing to him, which I thought was adorable because they were getting along right off, and as we taught him how to fight, Kovok stuck close to Rosalina like a bee sticks to honey.

Then, Kovok grew up, and shortly after, PetEmote decided to drop a huge bombshell on me.



Rosalina, who used to be rather laid-back and quiet, was suddenly unusually happy and talkative, and later on, she started eating a lot more than usual and kept trying to dig, and the only time she would ever sing was when she was around Kovok. After talking with a few of my friends, I came to realize that, according to PetEmote, my silithid colossus was pregnant, which was something I had NEVER planned on happening. Many irl facepalms later, I accepted it as part of her character development, and as a part of Shuurai's story as a whole.

It has given me a whole new reason to hope for kunchongs to become tamable in the future, so I can have Frika, Rosalina and Kovok's hybrid daughter, as part of Shuurai's stable. As of right now, I have Frika tamed as the orange silithid colossus, but if kunchongs do become tamable, she'll end up going through a molting/metamorphosis.



Rosalina's settled down again, but now, there's an air of total contentment around her that she didn't have before she met Kovok, and she's remained more vocal than she used to be as well, and this makes me happy.

Since she now has a brood to look after, I don't bring Rosalina out as much as I used to, but my bond with her is as strong as ever, and I can't bear the thought of ever retiring her permanently. She's one of my absolute favorites and has one of the most developed personalities and story of any of my pets, and I can't think of what it would be like to not have her by my side.

[Zhinru]

Silithids! I wish I made any good screenshots when I had my sub on, but you can probably see them all in my sig.

When I started the character called Zhinru, I tamed a spider on a whim. Specced him tenacity and he was quite useful during levelling. After some time I thought "hey, what about making the whole theme of this character's stables bugs and bug-like things?" Developing the character's backstory, I decided he would have been raised hearing stories about Mantids and when he grew up, he became a specialist on related Silithids. So as soon as I hit 69, I went to Kalimdor to find the perfect set of silithids.

1) I decided I have to have a colossus as a tenacity Silithid. Being 69 before patch 5.1, I didn't have much choice so I tamed a Fledgling Gorishi Colossus, thus my main tank pet was "born" - story-wise, a king of a hive raided by orc mercenaries that Zhinru rescued and domesticated.

2) Zoura was tamed because I couldn't decide what color of reaver silithid I wanted so I just got a random one that wasn't the same color as the others. He's still in my regular DPS pet rotation, but I guess he's the least personal of them all. I wish the black mount skin was ever tameable, that way Zoura would quickly migrate to that skin to make him special.

3) Hajiali was at first supposed to be the brown silithid worker, but as I flew over Tanaris, I decided to tame one of the teal ones I remembered from questing and ruining their hive. I felt like I had to rescue that little guy after helping those crazy goblins.

They're cool and unusual pets. Useful, especially for those dang hozen rares to pin them down, but also tend to be a great conversation-starter. I think like... 75% of all RP conversations I had on this character were caused by someone going "What the FEL is that thing!?" over Goulishi the Colossus. What can I say, I'm a big fan!

[Rhyela]

Falconcrest, your story about Rosalina is adorable! Love it!