Random Pet Challenge [v4.0]

[TygerDarkstorm]

Holy cow I almost forgot about this thread since it's been inactive for a while. xD

Zaranock:
Green Firefly

[TygerDarkstorm]

Welp, now that I've got my account reactivated and thus have a ton more slots, I think I'll take a stab at this on my hunter.

Tyger(Katriona):
Dark Blue Scarab Beetle

[GormanGhaste]

This is an interesting thread to revisit, now that we have 50 stable slots. It makes trying out random pets easier, but each slot isn't as valuable as it used to be...well, I don't want to derail this, as I'm posting to ask for a random pet for one of my alts:

Name: Gormanghaste
Level: 86
Exotics: sure
Restrictions: none
Rares I Have: Cida, Old Cliff Jumper, Sian-Rotam, Silithid Harvester, Skoll

[TygerDarkstorm]

Gormanghaste:
White Fox

[TygerDarkstorm]

So, dark blue beetle report.

These guys can only be found in Uldum, in that little Shrine of the Stars area. I'm not sure if you can see them before you do the quests in there, but they no longer phase out afterward (unless I've got my facts mixed up; been a while since I've messed with these beetles).

Grumpy didn't seem none too interested in the tiny beetles.

Upon taming them they gain quite a bit of size; something I like to see in a tank, personally.


Despite the fact that I don't have this beetle on any of my hunters, it is one of my favorite new beetle skins added in Cata. The colors on it are just lovely and they all blend together nicely.

The textures on these guys are also a bit better than the older models so the chitin bits are a little smoother.


Beetles have, what I think is, an amusing idle animation. They do the beetle wave.


Their run is a pretty basic skitter alongside of you and, I dunno how long ago it was now, they were finally given a proper swim animation. As for sounds, beetles are fairly quiet, making a buggy sounding noise as they go into combat, but it's not super overbearing compared to our much louder piggy and dino friends.


This poor beetle got abused by me a bit as I used him to tank several rares for me. But that's one of things beetles are great at! Their special ability, Harden Carapace, throws a shield over them that reduces their damage taken by 50% for a few seconds. Stagger this with cower and mend pet and you've got one handy dandy little mob pwner. I tend not to use these guys and turtles a lot myself as I tend to favor pets with buffs or such, especially now that we can swap their specs on the fly, but these guys are handy to have around for that really hard rare/elite that you just need to soak damage on. I found my beetle could be pretty squishy, but a lot of that is from my own human error and less on his behalf.


Overall, I like beetles as pets, though I tend to have limited use for them. This guy is definitely a looker, but he doesn't quite fit in with Kat's other pets or her transmog. With the new expanded stables, however, I will definitely be adding a different beetle into my arsenal.

With that, we say good bye.

[TygerDarkstorm]

*pokes thread*

I suppose I'll post a roll for myself to get around to on Monday when I'm off.

Tyger(Katriona):
Brown Direhorn

[GormanGhaste]

White Fox

First, I had to choose which white fox to tame. I was tempted by the ones in Gilneas, as I love that zone. And there's a rare, Bushtail, in Elwynn Forest. But I decided to tame one of the foxes in Winterspring, as they talk when clicked:


Named him Titus. Foxes have an aoe casting speed debuff. I decided to spec him tenacity and use him while soloing. Did some questing, archaeology, and just general running around:


There are three mini-pets that have the same color: Alpine Foxling, Alpine Foxling Kit, and Arctic Fox Kit. However, the brown Fox Kit is the only mini-pet that will dance like the hunter pet:


I will definitely be keeping Titus for a while. I love the smaller size of fox pets, and the white is a striking color.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I love the white fox; so pretty.

So I roll for myself the same way I do for everyone else and I chuckled to myself as the RNG of the /roll system rolled me not just a direhorn, but the brown colored one because, funnily enough, I have that one!

To get a direhorn one must be level 90 and go out to the Isle of Giants or the Isle of Thunder (I don't remember seeing them on the IoT but it's been 7 months since I played). Also, to be able to tame direhorns you need to loot the Ancient Tome of Dinomancy from Zandalari Dinomancers on the Isle of Giants. It is an RNG based drop so you may or may not get it on your first kill.

Now that that's out of the way, my fiance and I went out together shortly after they first came out with the direhorns to go farm our books and run around this totally awesome island of giant dinosaurs. I think I tamed one of each color before getting stuck between the brown and the red ones. The red blended a little more with Kat's Gronnstalker mog, but the brown one was the one that kept calling me. He exuded this presence and personality that reminded me very much of a friend's hunter that she RPs with and instantly he had a name and I knew he would be the one to keep.

This is Kat and Varethyn.

Once I had a name, there was resemblance right down to the green eyes.

I *love* direhorns. I love that they're large, I love that they're bulky, and I love that they're one of my favorite herbivore dinosaurs brought to life and tamable. T-Rex and Triceratops; I'm a very happy girl. Not to mention, being a newer skin the markings and quality of these models really stands out.

You can only imagine these guys making awesome tanks with all of those spikes and armor. And certainly don't underestimate that club of a tail.

Despite their fierce appearance, direhorns have a gentleness and a bit of a playfulness to them. They have a couple of idle animations, one of which is to bend their head down as if to eat some grass and then lift it up as they chew a bit. The other is that they look to the left, first just a little bit and then a near full turn of their head. In the pic I captured of the full turn to me it looks like Vare is being a bit silly, though I imagine he's probably more on the lookout (or wondering what Mom's doing over analyzing him and cooing excessively over him).


Direhorn animations appear to be pretty smooth. They have a lumbering run that doesn't feel too clunky and a dino paddle swim. They're pretty basic so not much to comment on there.


Fighting is where things get interesting. The direhorn special ability is called Reflective Armor Plating which deflects spells cast in front of the direhorn for 6 seconds. (I forgot to take a pic of this ability active and the game is currently down for maintenance. =/) While a unique ability, to me it feels a bit lackluster because of the requirement for spells to be cast in front of your direhorn. This requires near perfect setup on the player's behalf as well as for you to be standing behind your pet to be protected. To me, this ability certainly has more use in PvE against caster mobs (which aren't always super common or necessarily troublesome thanks to Counter Shot) because PvP is too unpredictable to get the best use out of this special. So for now, direhorns are just really fun and cool looking pets to have around that I bring out to use because I'm attached to him and not because I feel like I benefit from his special ability.

Take my words with a grain of salt though. I'm only an average player, at best, and, at the time I originally tamed this guy and did the majority of my playing with him, I was running a resto shaman main so I didn't spend a lot of time testing this ability. And I forgot to test it again when doing this report. I'm sure there are plenty of players who do get use out of this special and they're definitely the people to get a second opinion from. I just think it's too clunky and not worth the hassle. Major kudos to those who manage to use it without a problem.

Now, onto other combat related things. Direhorns start out as tenacity, but of course you can swap them to any other spec so long as you're out of combat. I accidentally treated Vare as if he were a tank for the purpose of this challenge without realizing I had him specced in ferocity. xD Thank goodness I didn't find any rares that day! Anyway, I pitted him against a mogu mob to get a look at how direhorns fight. They have a couple of neat animations, one where they stab their enemies with those brutal horns on their head and the other swinging that club like tail at them.


Overall I really love direhorns, lackluster pet special or not. The model just seems really well done and I love really large pets. They're fierce, they're goofy, they're a lot of fun to have by your side. And, as a bonus, there's an entire island full of nothing but awesome dinosaurs where they live at. xD I definitely think that every hunter I level will have a direhorn (if I level more than 1 or 2 ).

[Varethyn]

DireVare makes me happy <3

[TygerDarkstorm]

Dire!Vare is awesome. ^_^ I thought about being mean and taking him to an undead mob and making him cower or something, but then I decided against it.

[navania]

This sounds fun, just reactivated.

Name: Navanya
Level: 70
Exotics: Sure
Restrictions: Nothing dead/rotting

[TygerDarkstorm]

Navania(Navanya):
Burgundy Basilisk w/Jade Fringes

[GormanGhaste]

Been playing my panda alt on Madoran lately. Like my main, she's also named Mingyao I'd like to go ahead and request one for her next tame, although it may be a little while before I report back, as I tend to tame new pets on my alts on a schedule as they level up.

Name: Mingyao
Level: 63
Exotics: not yet!
Restrictions: none
Rares I Have: Aphis, Barnacle Jim, Blackbog, Chops, Gib, Manas, Quetzl, Tracker, Vorticus

[TygerDarkstorm]

GormanGhaste(Mingyao):
Green Runed Demon Dog

[Demonicow]

Name: Demonicow
Level: 90
Exotics: either
Restrictions: no hyenas or spirit beasts
Rares: Timber, Savage, Madexx, jadefang, King Krush, Skoll, Loque, Sambas, Karkin, Kirix, Portent(Blue and Green), Glimmer, Terrorpene, Quetzl and more then i can count

i just tamed Loque finally after a year or more searching and ive got one remaining stable slot and im willing to give this challenge a try

[TygerDarkstorm]

I will post your challenge thinger in the morning

[TygerDarkstorm]

Demonicow:
Green Sporebat

[Arthur]

I feel like a huge tool since I completely forgot I'd made a request until I saw this pop up in the active threads page.

Anyways I went out and tamed the golden nether ray!



Took a 'swim'



Did a dungeon





I'm not a huge fan of nether rays but he was fun to play with! I like the glowy bits, They are pretty cool.
It wasn't hard to run with it in the dungeon either. I named him Toxic.


If I am allowed I'd like to make a request for my lowbie hunter.

Name: Forgal
Level: 40
Exotics: Not yet.
Restrictions: None!
Rares I have: None, haha, he only has two pets. That's why I'd like to get a challenge for him.

[TygerDarkstorm]

It happens a lot where people make requests and then never get around to doing them.

Scarlet(Forgal):
Grey Moth

[Varethyn]

alright! I'm in for the challenge!

Welcome to the forums eivan If you'd like to undertake a Challenge please fill out the form in the first post of this thread:

Character Name:
Level:
Exotics: (Yes if BM, No if not)
Restrictions (Families you'd rather not tame):

That way we know what kind of pets to roll up for you in case you don't have access to some or would rather not be paired with certain ones
I probably still have a challenge lurking back there somewhere myself. Whoops.