Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[Kayoh]

Oh I'd love to give this a try!

Name: Kayoh
Level: 85
Exotics: Yes
Restrictions: Rather not do any of the Spirit Beasties... I love them, and have them all currently, but would like to try other things instead. =D

[Isjaki]

hmpf - i've deleted saeki and switched to a male bloodelf, just for the fun of it *snickers*


Name: Yamchu
Level: 72
Exotics: Yes
Restrictions: no Chromaggus - the core hound slot is reserved for a molten core one
Rares I Have: Dishu, Rak'Shiri, Ravasaur Matriarch, Deathmaw, Ursol'lok

[Kormai]

Aela: Tisk tisk! Oh well I'll roll you a new one.

Still looking for a job...someone call me pwease?

Aela (Donachan)
White Spiked Wind Serpent


Kayoh
Blue Spiked Raptor


Isjaki (Yamchu)
Tan Bat


Happy hunting

[TygerDarkstorm]

So...I'm not going to go super in depth with this report as I've done one for this skin on Venjin previously.

A pic of Nattalya and the scorpid together.


Looks:

My sentiments about the bronze scorpid's look are much the same as the bronze crab--it's far too green. She looks okay next to venjin, but of all the scorpid colors, I find this one to be a bit dull (top left). The whole carapace is a shiny, yellowy-gold color with green highlighting and dark brown fuzzy bits (top middle). The fuzzy bits are low res and pixellated looking. When viewing this scorpid from behind, you can see that the chitin is a very bright green (top right). I think one of the creepiest things about this skin is the extra set of eyes it seems to have at the top part of its head.

Sorry it's just a looks report, I just really dislike that scorpid skin. >_>

I'll take another roll, however:
Name: Nattalya
Level: 20 and growing
Exotics: Not Yet
No Restrictions

[Kormai]

Tyger (Nattalya)
Red & Yellow Spider

[TygerDarkstorm]

Kormai, you have a thing for making my lowbies run all sorts of crazy distances. Anyway, I'll get this done in a couple of days or so (maybe today depending on how badly I decide I want my lock to hit 85).

[TygerDarkstorm]

Well looky here, I got my lock to 85 and my pet report all done in one day.

My baby hunter had this time.

Looks:

I named this little gal Clown because, well, just look at her. She's an odd combination of black yellow and red that just makes me go "eugh." Her colors definitely don't complement Nattalya either. These little spiky spiders definitely don't look like pets that anyone would want to mess with; I imagine those spikes make for some pretty decent armor (top right). On the underside of the abdomen are some white stripes (bottom left). For me, the weirdest thing about these spiders is their face. Their mandibles look like a turkey's gobbles or unmentionable genitalia of a man (bottom middle). I do, however, like the design on the top of their abdomen and think it looks really neat (bottom right). One other thing I really like about this style of spider is how each of their legs comes out individually from their body instead of from all the same spot like the tarantulas.

Sounds, Animations, and Combat:

These spiders have a couple of idle animations, although one of them doesn't capture well in a screenshot--the one where they just twitch their legs about (accompanied by creepy squishy sound). Their other idle is just them looking from side to side (top left). Their run is a pretty basic little skitter that seems really fitting to them (bottom left) and they are sadly lacking a swim animation (top right).

In combat they make this really loud screeching sound. It's kind of annoying really; I had to move away from the dummy area of SW because it was driving me nuts. XD These guys only have two combat animations and it was extremely hard catching the subtle differences between the two. So they have a basic lunge attack (middle right) and a jump and lunge (bottom right).

So spiders. Ick. Anyway, their special ability is Web which is a ranged root ability. Web is kind of one of those neat little utility abilities to have around for SV and MM hunters while leveling, for both PvP and PvE. I like it for PvE because we tend to pull aggro off our pets rather easily, especially when wearing BoAs, but with web, there's a good chance that you can blast that mob down before it gets to you. (As a note: BM hunters are better off with a silithid for the fort buff.) These pets also shine incredibly well in PvP, offering a nice root when you really need to get away from a melee or stop that pesky flag carrier.

Overall, I find spiders to be great pets. As a cunning pet they can be specced for either light tanking or pure DPS. They make handy, all around leveling companions and there's a wide variety of skins available. I won't be keeping this skin, however, as I'm not fond of the clown colors with this model.

Another round please:
Name: Nattalya
Level: 20 and growing
Exotics: Not yet
No Restrictions

[Xella]

Devilsaurs are one of the most limited species when it comes to skins, and each of the four skins is about equally represented. The green—available only on one mob, a rare spawn in Northrend also required for the Frostbitten achievement—may be slightly higher, and is certainly more universally visible, due to his bright colouring, his status as a "somewhat tricky tame," and his limited availability.


King Krush is a rare spawn residing in Sholazar Basin, the "Un'Goro of Northrend." There are three rare spawns available in Sholazar, all three of which are tameable AND required for completion of the achievement "Frostbitten." As the average respawn time of each is about eight hours, and they all have multiple spawn points, coming across one of them—let alone all three for the achievement—was an achievement in itself back in Wrath of the Lich King. The King suffers an additional level of attrition above and beyond that of Loque and Aotona—one of his patrol/spawn paths put him directly in the line of fire of the NPC hunters at Nesingwary's Expedition, who WILL kill him if he wanders too close (and he will). Krush was my very last rare for my shaman's Frostbitten in January of last year, over a year since I started working towards the achievement when WotLK launched (I'm an achievement whore, and not ashamed to admit it, heh), and frustrated me for several months before I finally cornered him. It wasn't until earlier last year, when I finally started playing and leveling my hunter again—essentially abandoned since classic ended—that I turned my head and weary heart back to Sholazar. Having had it in my head that I wanted to get one of each species (an idea I've since abandoned because really, I don't need a scarab AND a turtle when I don't like any of the skins of one or both species), I scoured over the Petopia species lists, tamed some false starts and ultimately decided that really, the only Devilsaur for me was Krush. So began my second camp for him—not to kill, but to tame. When I did finally get him (after several weeks of off-and-on farming and alt-leveling), I was nearly 77 from herb picking, and the tame was surprisingly easy (due, I think, primarily due to the shortening of the Tame Beast cast time and luck on not getting feared).


My Devilsaur went unnamed for a long time, however—despite having spent so much time looking for Krush, I hadn't decided on a name, and hadn't really come up with any good and fitting ones. It wasn't until I was taking screenshots for my Petopia signature, just before I signed up for the forums at last, and caught one of her stretching up before her idle roar, further increasing her height and trying to make herself even more intimidating, that the name finally clicked in—meet Fallyn, named after Fallyn Nightrain (yeah I know, the name is from seventh grade, don't judge me!), a minor character from my webcomic, a... sort of demon lord thing who thinks very highly of herself and is something of a sadist. As an added level of "teehee" (at least on my end), Fallyn is Xella's "boss" and at one point in story planning, Xella herself had a few minions, one of which was named Basanti (though that's not the Basanti that my hunter's named after).


Despite being a model that's been in the game since release, devilsaurs are quite nice and detailed—perhaps because they're so massive in the wild (they were, after all, the very first Fel Reaver/Storm Giant/Whale Shark!), and the green skin that Fallyn bears is no slouch either. The yellows, greens, and creams all blend together very nicely, and look good in almost all lighting conditions. If the devilsaur model and skins have a defect, it is at the shoulder joint, where—just as on the Outland raptor (see... god, probably ten pages back by now, haha), the skin has an odd triangular patch of super-blurriness that doesn't match either the dappled scaling of the back, nor the smoother leather surface of the underbelly.


Devilsaurs have three attack animations—a lunging bite, a stomping foot slammed forward, and an uppercut-style headbutt. When under the effects of Bestial Wrath, Fallyn gets close to the size of Un'goro devilsaurs in the wild (or at least, it certainly feels that way out behind the buildings in Old Town, haha). Devilsaurs make unique dinosaur-noises, and they USED to be very loud as they did everything, but the "thud thud thud" they used to sport while walking around has been removed, and they're now reasonably quiet. The main exception is during their rareish idle animation, where they roar.


Devilsaurs, as an exotic species, have two abilities. Back towards the end of WotLK, their Monstrous Bite still mistakenly stacked with other suddenly-reduced Mortal Strike effects (including Widow Venom), which made having a devilsaur in the raid and alive for phase three of heroic Anub'arak almost a necessity for overcoming the life leech for A Tribute to Immortality (nobody dying throughout the entire instance... an achievement we ran out of time to get, much to my eternal frustration, but that's got nothing to do with this, heh). They also have Furious Roar, a 5% crit buff applied to everyone in the party/raid, which is also provided by Elemental Shaman, Feral Druids, Fury Warriors, Subtlety Rogues, and—notably for hunters—wolves. Both devilsaurs and wolves are ferocity pets, making the difference for a BM hunter between the two the MS debuff (hunter focus v. pet focus) and personal aesthetics. Because the crit buff affects everything—physical, magical, AND healing—having a devilsaur or wolf is a solid choice for any group missing the buff from other sources.


Overall, I really do enjoy Fallyn—she's brightly coloured, large, and well-made—but she rarely sees much use, because her buff overlaps my wolf's, and my wolf is... well, my wolf is too awesome I did try the other devilsaur skins while waiting for Krush to spawn, and they're all pretty, but only the green hits my personal aesthetic pleasure centers, and would be my first choice for subsequent hunters' devilsaurs (of course, the only other hunter I've ever planned would be an RP hunter, and she's already got a wolf pet set out as part of her RP story, so it's possible the devilsaur wouldn't get much use there, either!)

Name: Basanti
Level: 85
Exotics: Yes
Restrictions: None
Rares I Have: Skoll, Arcturis, King Krush, Sunblade Dragonhawk, Grimtotem Spirit Guide, Ghostcrawler, Corpse Scarab

[TygerDarkstorm]

I'm up early and feeling a wee bit impatient about waiting so I'm going to toss out a couple of rolls. XD

Tyger(Nattalya):
Green and Red Parrot


::OR::

Tan Bat


Xella(Basanti):
Brown Ant

[Lung]

Sounds interresting... Shall I give it a try ?

Name : Lông
Level : 85
Exotics : Of course !
Restrictions : None. Even the contrary : I need a spirit beast so don't exclude it

[Vasken]

Haven't done this for some time! Hope it's alright to yoink a roll.

Name: Avanji.
Level: 34, though can do slightly above!
Exotics: Nope. Too low level.
Restrictions: No monkeys! I've tried all skins... And they're just not happening.

[Shade]

I completely lost track of this and forgot to do my roll! Apologies.

I was given the brown raptor for Kitsuné, and given that it was rolled for her when she was much lower leveled, I'm going to pretend to be a lowbie while getting this.

First thing was getting to where the raptors where, so I took a FP to Desolution Hold, and had a heart attack when Snort the Heckler set of my NPCScan. I was rather confused why my FP wasn't to Northwatch Hold until I remembered I was on my Horde hunter (all my other toons are allies).

Mounted up and made a run towards the spot where the raptors are, dodging here and there to avoid aggressive mobs like I would have as a lowbie-and failing miserably as I tend to do at the lower levels (I'm used to being like almost invincible on Shade, so I tend to run through lower level mobs and just keep going while on her).

Sadly, Tsume thought we were there to kill the raptors. O_o

Looked around and decided on this one, because he just strolled right up to me.

Took a few screenshots-he didn't change much in size while I tamed him and only did 16 damaged to my 77 toon-so I can't give tips beyond just the basics for a lower level taming this guy.

He is a pretty decent size for a pet compared to a BE female.

Took him through an instance to see how he would do. My DPS output with him was about 200-300 points lower on average then when I pulled out my devilsaur. In the end it is an okay pet, especially if you are not running as a BM. He can be amusing to watch in a fight, with all those dramatic leaping strikes-but when standing still he has no personality at all. He just stands there and bounces, clicking his claws and wiggling his fingers. I tend to prefer pets that have a idle animation that is interesting, like how the cats yawn/stretch and look around, or my Devilsaur opens up and bellows at me for leaving him idle too long. Nothing out of the raptor, making it a little boring when on idle.

Being a BM myself, I prefer this guy:

---------------------

Could I get another roll, this time for my new hunter, Sidhé? She's currently a level 10 Night Elf Hunter, but make a roll for her up to 25 and it will give me something to strive for. No restrictions really, no exotics of course.

I love challenges, so give me something hard.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Went out earlier today before work and tamed the bird and took all the screenshots I needed. I'll put them all together tomorrow before work and make my report.

Also, I plan on using that bat as my next report after the bird.

[Kormai]

Totally a zombie this morning...

Lung
Red Deep Sea Crab


Vasken
I can reroll a lower level if 38 is too much.
Black Raptor


Shade
Ghostly Green Owl

[TygerDarkstorm]

I love that owl skin so much. Looking forward to the report on it. :3

[Shade]

Oho you did give me a challenge. I need to level a bit more to get there-but that is one of the pets I was planning on getting her anyways.

!

you must be psychic.

[Kormai]

you must be psychic.

Honestly not the first time I've heard that in this thread HAHA...was implied like one or two pages back haha. I'm glad to please and I hope you enjoy the challenge!

[Vasken]

Vasken
I can reroll a lower level if 38 is too much.
Black Raptor

Going away on an internetless holiday for a month or so in a few days... So it may be a very, very, very late response if I don't grab those levels in time. Hope that's alright!

(Was a pet I was planning on yoinking anyway, huzzah! )

[Lupis]

Okay, I have some REALLY old rolls way back... But I kind of want new ones 'cuz I'm lazy. I even remember the old ones. x.x

Rassaa
Level 80 BM/MM
Exotics? Sure
Restrictions? None

[TygerDarkstorm]

Lupis, isn't Rassaa level 85?