The random pet challenge: v2.

[Lupis]

Rassaa
Anything 82 or below
Exotics? Yes
No restrictions!

[TygerDarkstorm]

I would just like to point out that if Slic is doing this exactly like Ache did it, then rarespawns will not be picked as rolls (especially not spirit beasts), or if they are, you are given a common version of the skin as an alternative.

@Jin, I suggested something basically just like that in the other thread with your second point. People were listing off so many restrictions and not wanting to do ones because they had it. I figure, if you already have the pet, then it presents a pretty good opportunity to share what you already know about the pet since, in my mind, this is not only for the people participating, but for the community as well.

I think the only thing that could make this better would be to have two separate threads, one for the challenges being handed out, and one for the results so that way people looking for insight on a certain pet don't have to sift through all the other posts of requests as well. Just my two cents. ^_^

I'll be re-participating in this as soon as I get my troll huntress transferred over to Nesingwary.

[Mustafah]

I will give this a shot. I dont mind if its exotic or not, and i dont hate any pet famillies! Roll the dice and we'll see what we get =D

Im level 85 and i dont mind if it'll be exotic or not.

[Jin]

My challenge was a beautiful red bug from the Halls of Origination. I had to abandon my initial plan to solo tame it because when I went I found that you have to kill first boss to reach them. So off to random group finder. After a very long wait my group was ready and we went. Went to disaster. The tank ruins all my attempts to tame it and it's late so I give up for the night.

Next day I have the luck of finding a very nice group and manage to tame it but it's a hard tame. Not only do they hit hard and throw poison, it will also randomly charge off to other groupmembers so that you'll loose it's attention and without haste food, potion and a disposable Core Hound I don't think I would have managed.

My first thought is jeez it's BIG! Actually a lot bigger than I anticipated but it's pretty low so it wont get in the way of targeting. It's walking animation is slightly awkward, like it's hunched but the idle and fighting animations are nice and it has a lot more personality than I expected. I've named it Scarab, I've always been a fan of egyptian mythology and the name goes well with my title. It has the same ability as a turtle, decrease damage taken by 50% for 12 second so I spec him into extreme tanking. The diet is somewhat picky, fruit and fungus, but it's no big issue, not for me at least.

I took him with me to do some archeology and the Therazane dailys and when we enter the cave NPC scan goes off and there is Jadefang. "Damn" I think since I hadn't got the right daily but suddenly I realize there's a goblin in the cave with the quest! I thought it was someone at the throne that sent you to the goblin but thankfully I was wrong. I hurry to the spot and luckily I was first. Decided to tame and wait for next time with the minipet.

All finished in Deepholm I head off for more surveying and when I fly over Uldum the NPC-scan goes off again and soon I'm the lucky owner of a red Madexx. More reading about that tame here: http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7456.

The Egyptians used scarabs as amulets and this one proved to be a good luck charm to me. I have not yet decided who are going to be my 5 main pets in Cataclysm, I have to see and test them out for a while but this one is one of the top candidates for extreme tank and should he not be chosen I will still keep him forever as my very special amulet!

Me and Scarab.


We find Jadefang (also note how pretty his shell is).


I tame Madexx.


Thanks for the challenge, it was great fun!

[Dalthok]

Name-Dalthok
Exotic-Why not
LVL-83
Restrictions-As rare as possible Ive got all 4 old sb,king krush and terrorpene GIVE ME A REAL CHALLENGE!

[Kurasu]

GIVE ME A REAL CHALLENGE!

Dare you to give him the Guardian Swarmer from Ulduar.

[Xanrithe]

Name Xanrithe
Exotic pet Sure!
Level 82
Pet families you REALLY don't want (or specific skins) - No preference. Open to anything.

[Wark]

Name: Eolian
Exotic: no (too young, alas)
Level: 60
Ix-nay on the: beetles and ravagers.

[Shade]

Name: Shadé
Exotics: Sure, love 'em.
Level: 84. (7 million to 85 *dies*)
Restrictions: None right now. I have two empty stable slots I can fill up right now-though the pet will be booted once I hit 85 and start hunting Karoma and Sambas.

[Kurasu]

I'm not going to lie here: I never liked gorillas. Even when gorillas were the big tanking pet, I didn't like them. I had one because I *had* to, and not because I wanted to. It's a personal thing, really.... but I just never liked or bonded with them. Seeing that my random was a gorilla, I knew that it was going to be a bit of a fuss. But, for the purposes of the random test, the show must go on!

So, I present to you, Codemonkey. .... well, what else would one name a black gorilla?



For the record, he seems to do his idle animation a lot more than other pets I had noticed. He was constantly standing up and chest-thumping, or reaching around to scratch his butt. It made getting a good screenshot very difficult and surprisingly time-consuming compared to Bloodlust's snaps!

Straight up, color-wise, I found Codemonkey to be rather bland. i like black, but I tend to like *striking* black. And let's be honest: the black gorilla isn't really striking. At least not to my eyes.



The sounds he makes, for me, were also not particularly thrilling. A variety of rather badly-dubbed hoots and a couple of throaty groans? Seriously? Sorry to say, but I didn't really enjoy it. It was dull, to say the least. Plus, the actual animations weren't particularly eye-catching either. The butt-scratching is amusing... the first couple times. When he's doing it constantly, though, it just bored me.

Now, how about holding up in battle? Well, as a tenacity pet, it meant that he could handle a lot bigger beating than your average Ferocity or Cunning pet. I specced him for full tank, and he did an OK job. Other than a bad habit of somehow managing to pull three and four mobs with Thunderstomp. Not unusual, but Codemonkey had worse luck than usual.

One thing I noticed was that even though his interrupt was on autocast, he made no attempt to use it in combat. Curious, I brought him up against a caster. The moment the caster used something that could be interrupted, he smacked it, interrupting the cast. Intelligent use of an interrupt skill? That is actually *VERY* intriging.

I'm afraid my dislike for the gorilla must win over, and in so saying, I returned Codemonkey to his home in Stranglethorn. But for people who would like a pet that can take a beating, and who can interrupt casts, I strongly would recommend a gorilla's superior pummeling skills.

[Miraga]

Hey guys! I went out and tamed my piggy and he is just so cute!




I just love their little idle thing they do when they stick their butts up in the air! I like the pig as a tanking pet because he can hold aggro well and he's cute but I don't really have anything to make the target bleed so his special ability is somewhat wasted [unless you're MM or you're with someone who has a bleed]. This doesn't make me not want a piggy, though!! I ended up not keeping this guy because I prefer the brown armored boar model but he's still adorable!

[Comett]

So for my random pet challenge I was given the task of trying out a Blue Rhino. I was far from delighted Not only are they (imo) unpleasant to the eye as a pet class, the blue coloured ones are probably the worst hahaha. I also tend to like "intelligent" sort of pets, and the slow demeanor of the rhino didn't give me that positive vibe. But hey, worth a shot.

I trot off to Sholazar (never thought I'd go back there again after the great Loque hunt) and grab a rhino from the masses - at least they aren't hard to find. I named my new boy Wilbert and off we went to level him up and see how he would go.


- Getting tamed

His abilities were interesting. In an instance, his Thunderstomp was unbeatable at picking up adds if the tank missed them, but that's a general Tenacity talent. His Stampede was fantastic, as it worked on bosses and I can see that being a real benefit to bear tanks, cats, warriors, etc that use bleed effects. His Pummel move I can see being great for PVP, and its knockback was of a suitable range, so when used properly it could be a nice asset. However pummel unfortunately shares a GCD with the rhino spam move Smack, which is not only very inconvenient (almost too inconvenient) but would mean bothersome juggling and toggling of abilities if anyone wanted to get managable damage/threat output as well as use pummel.

Of course though, as a tank pet you would expect him to be used for soloing, so I went a-questing and took him with me to see how he'd hold up. To be honest, it was a little dissapointing. He took a surprising amount of damage, I didn't use his pummel due to GCD and mob ranges, and his bleed effect benefit really didn't help me much. As he's Exotic, he also requires that you play as BM... and to be honest, his damage output was simply too low to be of any use. I genuinely found my normal Ferocity cat generated as much threat, took similar damage, and did much more DPS than poor Wilbert. A Spirit Beast could heal itself to boot. So in comparison Wilbert just couldn't keep up with my other pets on the tanking scale.


- Catching up with his old pal Loque lol

Aesthetically, he wasn't as bad as I thought. I thought that a large, chunky pet would get in my way and be annoying but that wasn't the case. His movement was awkward as he had to waddle quickly to keep up with me, and rhinos are typically slow moving walkers. He made a really annoying earth-thumping sound every step which bothered me but his battle noises were quite quiet in comparison to many other pets.

In short I probably wouldn't recommend a rhino as a pet for either damage or tanking, though I can see his Stampede being really useful in the right situations, and he certainly wasn't as bad as I thought he would be! The fact he's an exotic pet is probably the biggest dampener on him as a pet for dps or tanking. I'll be finding Wilbert a new home where he can waddle around in peace. I tell you what though, a previous report on those scarab bugs has made me take a look in their direction.

[slic123]

Mustafah

Purple Hyena - Hyena


LupisDarkmoon

Yellow Beetle - Beetle



Merlynshade

White Tallstrider - Tallstrider



Eolian

Red Spiked Wind serpent - Wind serpent



Dalthok

Brown Cataclysm Crocolisk - Crocolisk



Wark

Black Wolf - Wolf

[slic123]

I'm really enjoying all the stories guys Nice work you put into that Uldum beetle, Jin! Keep it up guys

[slic123]

Rassaa

Lioness - Cat


*sorry, had forgotten you in the last post

[Comett]

I would really like a second pet to try out if I could. (Is that allowed, or are we just doing one per hunter lol). My form was on the last page if so but in short, Whocat is level 85, can have exotics, and would rather not get a rare (have most of them). Thank you?

[slic123]

Ofcourse you can go more then once Keep it up!

Whocat

Red&Purple owl - Bird of Prey

[Xanrithe]

Oh no, I got skipped!!

Name Xanrithe
Exotic pet Sure!
Level 82
Pet families you REALLY don't want (or specific skins) - No preference. Open to anything.

[Lupis]

Xan - I actually got two. xD If you want, you can tame the lioness or the yellow beetle. If you do, just say which one you're testing and I'll tame the other.

[slic123]

Sure Lupis uhm I'll do the lioness, she;s beautiful.
Xanrithe, sorry I skipped you! It's hard for me to get a clear view of who's been assigned and who's not

Xanrithe

Red & Black Ravager - Ravager