How do you guys feel about the new 5.1 boss lookalike beasts

[Apaché]

such as princess huhuran's lookilike rare, or chromhound (chrommaggus's lookalike rare) i personnaly don't favor it, as personnaly i felt accomplished solo taming huhuran, and i often got attention from people asking how to get her and happily sharing. Now it just feels.... wrong being able to tame her lookalike. i'm not trying to be selfish, and i hope it doesnt come across like that, but i believe certain models should be a challenge to get such as chromaggus or huhuran and for rares to be implemented that take out that challenge it feels like my hard work was put to waste. i personnally love blizzard for their work with hunters and i understand the challenge of trying to please 12 million people on WoW, but i like as a hunter having to work for my pets.

[Wain]

Wow, "5.1 pets" made me wonder if this was an old thread

In WoW, it seems that if you want hard to get stuff for the ability to show off, you can never just sit still. Older stuff becomes easier to get for everyone, so you need to look for new things that are eye catching. This isn't a criticism, just an observation on how much of the game is, and has always been.

This is true of many things in the game, not just pets. I know not everyone will be happy having their achievements "devalued" and I can appreciate that. But on the other hand I do like this philosophy, as it gives people who work hard for it a head start, and much later others manage to catch up.

In the case of the old raid bosses you mention, I believe the rares are now harder to get than the originals. The old raids were simple enough to solo or duo at the start of Cata, but an expansion later they're a cakewalk and the beast is guaranteed to be there. So I don't believe the rares subtract anything from them at all.

[Novikova]

Honestly, unless you get very lucky or raid a lot, it's hard to be unique in WoW by sheer numbers. I like Wain's philosophy in that those who raid more/do whatever more get there earlier and folks like me aren't left just in the dust.

I can understand the desire to be special, and not wanting to feel 'devalued', but the truth of it is - AQ40 is nowhere near as hard as it was in Vanilla. For one, even with a gaggle of 60s, items are far better optimized.

If you enjoy and are happy with your pets, I think that is what matters in the end.

Working for pets is such a vague term. Work for it as in sit and wait for NPCscan? Hope I have enough friends to take me to a raid and let me tame the boss/a mob? I really like the tracking system for work invested in a pet, myself.

[Lupis]

Much like the others have mentioned, the rares that were added often took the forms of pets that were once hard to get, but no longer hold that claim. Chromaggus is a classic example. He was really quite rough to get, even back in Cata. But fast forward to 5.1, and most people are soloing the entire raid in their spare time. Heck, camping the rare might take more time. The Wasp Princess is a similar case; AQ40 is such a cakewalk that it ends up being harder to find the rare.

Either way, though, in an mmo like WoW, it's really very hard to find pets that have much "value" beyond what we personally attribute to them. Sure, we camp and we go through some tricky mechanics, but we're the only ones that know that. Any other hunter will either not notice, not care, or go tame it themselves. And when that's the case, why worry about people being able to tame an easier to find version of the pet? Nobody knows exactly what pet you tamed, so it's just like it's always been; only you will know the true value of your pet. That's what makes each stable special and unique.

[cowmuflage]

This is a topic that comes up every time Blizz makes a "rare" or "hard to get" skin into something a bit more easy to get or on another model etc and I agree with everyone else it's all up to you to get what ever one makes you happy! For me I don't like hunting for a rare I just like the skin and not how to get it.

I think it's a good move for Blizz to do as it makes more people happy!

[GormanGhaste]

I'm one of the people that tamed Chromehound in 5.1. I'd always wanted that model, because it was the only core hound that to me actually looked like something a hunter could tame, the others were too elemental-looking. I certainly wouldn't have minded if they had made Chromehound a different color than Chromaggus, but as others have said, high-status pets only stay that way for a while, so that particular joy is always going to be ephemeral.

[Arisia]

Honestly? I'm glad for it; there are so many real, viable reasons (not having enough friends to help you get a raid boss that you've always wanted as a pet, not having the available time, illness that limits your online time) to not being able to do the old "I sit in this one spot for 18 hours because I desperately need this pet or I grab a few friends and run a raid to get that pet" and I'm all for anything that lets a player get the pet or pets that make them happy.

I always felt you should get the pet you feel works for you, rather than worry about how you will ever be able to get it. I really never understood taming a pet simply for "special snowflake" status -- if you don't like it, who cares what a stranger you'll never meet and probably never deal with thinks about your pet and if you love it, who cares how difficult it was to get?

You worked hard for your rare pet-- keep that satisfaction; the new "easier" tames can't take that away from you, and just might make someone who always wanted that exact pet but never had the shot to get it as happy as you were when you got your pet.

my 2 cents.

[HunterFTW]

as an owner of the purple core hound raid boss i to like it.i like the fact that the skins out side the raid are rare there for still uniqe.but the pet i did not like was jadefang haveing copes when MOP came out.made the time to get the bomb a comeplete waste of my time.for me if they make another skin of a rare make the twin skin a rare or hard to get to.but thats just my opinon.

[slickriptide]

Not to necro-post, but since it's a similar topic, I'm curious how folks feel about Skoll's model being recycled in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms?

I admit I was annoyed when I first encountered the Thundermaws. I'd put a lot of time into hunting Skoll and even battled a L90 Alliance guy (I was L86) who was camping him for the express purpose of ganking people who came looking for him, or so it appeared.

In the end, I shrugged, and went on my way. It's not the first time they've done something similar, and my pet is a spirit beast while those are just wolves, no matter that they look like mine. I do wish that they'd made them visually different in some fashion, though.

[Jelani]

Not to necro-post, but since it's a similar topic, I'm curious how folks feel about Skoll's model being recycled in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms?

I admit I was annoyed when I first encountered the Thundermaws. I'd put a lot of time into hunting Skoll and even battled a L90 Alliance guy (I was L86) who was camping him for the express purpose of ganking people who came looking for him, or so it appeared.

In the end, I shrugged, and went on my way. It's not the first time they've done something similar, and my pet is a spirit beast while those are just wolves, no matter that they look like mine. I do wish that they'd made them visually different in some fashion, though.

They are different actually, Skoll is darker

[slickriptide]

They are different actually, Skoll is darker

Yeah, I'm starting to see (from the other thread I posted about Stompy) that my current weaksauce computer probably isn't showing me all the graphical nuances that it ought to be.

[Tilo]

I think for those who don't have the ample time to invest for the old rares, & want something of the same skin but a little easier, then go for the new 'look alike' - for those like myself, who like to I don't know, um, fly around with my head cut off looking for the old rare, because it was what I once had... then it's more time invested.

Either way you win.

[Bowno]

I'm more upset about them bringing back the Grimtotem Spirit guide skin. The least they could have done was made the Spirit Wolf a slightly different color. Bah.

[Pent]

I don't like the fact that I was once level 85 and now it seems like everyone is getting to 85 nowadays, and some are even going further... to 90!

I thought I was special when I hit 85 because not a lot of other people were at 85 then, but now... OMG... I can't be special anymore!!

/tongueincheek

[Equeon]

I don't like the fact that I was once level 85 and now it seems like everyone is getting to 85 nowadays, and some are even going further... to 90!

I thought I was special when I hit 85 because not a lot of other people were at 85 then, but now... OMG... I can't be special anymore!!

/tongueincheek

But reaching level 85 is "required" for endgame content. Taming hard-to-tame pets was not required.
Still, almost everyone has, or has had, a spirit beast/Terrorpene/Chromaggus/rare raid tame/etc. Just the very fact that such a pet is "rare" makes people want to tame it, making the pet more commonly seen in turn.

I would be a little miffed if the pets were lookalikes of "challenge tames" or "rares" added in 5.0.5, but they've been around for quite a while. As others have said, it's often harder to get a rare than a raid pet 30 levels under you, that will never go away.

[Lisaara]

I'm not miffed at all about them adding look alikes.

As Arisia can attest since she was one of the campers with me, I'm THRILLED there's Madexx lookalikes. That camp was almost worse than TLPD and that's saying a lot. I'd never want a hunter to camp that bugger like we did. So thank the goddess they made common mobs with his skins.

On Taluwen, I still have The Beast tamed. Sure, he doesn't have his boss tag anymore but WTF do I care? I know what I went through to tame the bugger and he still is named Deadpool.

[Holgarr]

I'm more upset about them bringing back the Grimtotem Spirit guide skin. The least they could have done was made the Spirit Wolf a slightly different color. Bah.

When I learned that someone had figured a way to tame the Grimtotem spirit-guide, I powerleveled my Hunter the last five levels I needed to tame one...

...and the very day I hit 70, they made them untamable.

[Bowno]

I'm more upset about them bringing back the Grimtotem Spirit guide skin. The least they could have done was made the Spirit Wolf a slightly different color. Bah.

When I learned that someone had figured a way to tame the Grimtotem spirit-guide, I powerleveled my Hunter the last five levels I needed to tame one...

...and the very day I hit 70, they made them untamable.

I had the same thing happen with the Ghost Hydra.
The DAY I finally got the daily to get one, it was fixed.
I'll never get over that. But I do hope if they do make a tameable ghost hydra, it looks slightly different than the old one.

[Pent]

I don't like the fact that I was once level 85 and now it seems like everyone is getting to 85 nowadays, and some are even going further... to 90!

I thought I was special when I hit 85 because not a lot of other people were at 85 then, but now... OMG... I can't be special anymore!!

/tongueincheek

But reaching level 85 is "required" for endgame content. Taming hard-to-tame pets was not required.

...

"Fun" is in the eye of the beholder... that being said...

You don't have to get to 85 to have fun either, and if you are only after "having fun" then you would get what pet you want and wouldn't worry about what other people were doing.

I don't mind camping rares, as some on this board would attest, so I can see where some would get upset over the skin being used again on an easier to obtain pet... but come on... it's a game and other people will undoubtedly have the same "things" as other players sooner or later.

No one can be a snowflake forever.

[Slickrock]

First, let me say that I am a rare-skin elitist, if you weren't aware already. I like my rares unique, and requiring of camping.

That being said... I have no real issues with the boss-look-alike rares, especially since they are still "rare", allthough part of that rarity does come from CRZ. The boss versions are actually probably easier to get now than the look-alike rares, as the raids are getting easier and easier to run, with many soloable.

With that said... the golden age of rares is gone. Since we've gone to taming tricks and such, any of the rares are much more accessible that before, and the sheer numbers of them, even now with 50 slots, the rares just don't have the same zing for me that they used to. We won't see Wrath style rares again, and that's a bit sad.