Done!
Right - I was assigned the blue outland windserpent skin waaaaay back on page 3.
I decided that rather than go all the way back to outland, I'd level a bit and grab one from Grizzly Hills. I ended up doing a few dungeons and some questing, and by the time I there I was level 74. I met the stable master, handed over my lovely Devilsaur, and headed to Grizzly.
I found the windserpents, completely forgot to take a screenie and immediately tamed. I used a freeze trap, but thanks to my ability to place myself directly between two windserpents I learned that they don't seem to have any tame-breaking attacks - I tamed the frozen one while the other merrily wailed on me. My new friend then immediately leaped to defend me against his former brethren!
Here we are, freshly tamed and posing:
The motion of the beast did not bother me (I know some don't like the flapping), the skin was a nice shade and the sounds aren't bothersome. What might be a problem though...
It's my first non-meat-eating pet! Thankfully, this wasn't the panic I had envisioned, as a quick jaunt to Conquest Hold got me a nice stack of
Which seemed to please my beastie no end.
At this point I decided he/she needed a name. I think she's a female pet, not sure why it's just the vibe I get. I named her "Pickles" - partly after an old friend of mine, and partly because it was late at night and all I could think of was "flappy" and "hiss", neither of which suited
* Try tanking an 80 elite with your pet
I was level 74, she was level 72, so we compromised and did a 3-part quest in Dragonblight killing 73 elites:
She coped admirably with all three, holding aggro without an issue.
We then went on to kill a load more normal mobs for various quests. Her family skill (lightning breath) was pretty much ignored by me - no obvious over-the-top effects, and no unusual side effects.
* Level it a level or two
We are both now level 76, and still going strong.
* Do a heroic (not eligible, but...)
Did the following Northrend dungeons:
DTK: Tank pulled a whole room and quit group. Group dissolved.
VH1: Full clear, no deaths, we topped DPS as the lowest level player(s) (me 74, her 73).
Old Kingdom 1: Full clear, no wipes, no ninja pulls, no problems. We topped DPS.
Old Kingdom 2: Very 'noob' group, all higher level than me, but one of the most fun. Very friendly and we all worked together and chatted a lot, which was nice. A few deaths and one wipe, mainly due to (I think) the healer not knowing what to expect on monsieur von mind-control. We talked over the strat and downed him second try. I'd just levelled my LW enough to do embossing (120 AP) and the leg patches, so I sort of overgeared the group, and given their newness I did a lot of damage. 57% of the total in fact. Very happy. Pickles seemed to enjoy it.
VH2: Same group as above, we stuck together for VH. Great fun had by all, no deaths, I got to enjoy being a bit huntery, misdirecting, distracting and trapping rogue adds. Lots of enjoyment as one person had never been before so the whole "ooh, which bosses thing, portals! no time to rest!" was quite exciting for them.
Pickles performed marvellously at all times. She died once, other than the wipe, when I failed to notice she had a DoT on her until too late.
* Do a battleground
AV - She was fine.
AB - Again fine, nothing special to report.
*Do something else
I am making the 78 PvP crafted sets for myself and a shaman friend. This involves grinding 216 Heavy Borean Leather, which means killing at least 1296 skinnable animals! I'm only a third of the way there so far, and have been grinding leather for a total of probably 2 hours, on-and-off, but Pickles has been a delightful companion during that time. Certainly more delightful than the 80 Alliance DK who saw me skinning one of his kills, then spent 20-30 minutes killing and tagging everything near me and not looting them. He even followed me to a new area. Ah well.
* Check the pet out in different lightings
She varies a lot, I think she looks best in Thunder Bluff.
* Check out swimming and possibly levitate animations (if any)
Forgot to do this.
* Get a screenshot of you and your oddly fitting or entirely mismatching pet!
* did you learn anything hunter-y from this pet?
Yes!
My first ever cunning pet, and wow! I HATE that I can't spend all of her talent points in DPS-y abilities, but I LOVE Roar of Recovery. I will certainly miss it a lot when I use any other type of pet.
At the moment she has a permanent slot in my stables. I think, next time I go to tame a new beast I'll be releasing The Rake (or as he's known in my stable, The Welsh) back into the wild.
thanks very much for setting up this thread, it's been fun as anything.
/bad Acherontia. But this way you can keep it going when you're bored, even if I'm not on 
. (It kept giving me ravagers I couldn't tame so I started over... It literally would not pick a ravager I could tame. 15 tries!!)
