Long-Term Illness = Bored Hunter Challenge (IMAGE HEAVY)

[Kurasu]

Life has been both busy *and* tiring. But I've had enough time to do a little playing on and off, and finally gotten myself from Zangarmarsh, to a little bit of Blade's Edge to get a couple extra levels, then off to Shadowmoon to finish off my ding to 70 as planned. Picked myself up one of the local chimeras, and now am trying to decide which side of Northrend would be better to come in on. I've always loved Howling Fjords... let's go there first, then Borean Tundra after! And we'll see which one I happen to be in when I ding my next big level.

Now that I'm in the 70s, I'm moving to every 3 levels. So one pet at 73, 76, and then 79. Where I'll move to 81 and 83. but that's still in the semi-kinda-distant future!

For the record, when I'm done the whole thing, it's likely that I'm going to go give a thoughtful 'pet by pet' sort of posting. That is, if people actually want to *see* a group of thoughts on that many pets.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I'd like to see your pet by pet posting.

[Sherbe]

I'd love to see it, this is one of my favourite threads

[Mozag]

Not only am I looking forward to it, I'm demanding it, Kurasu!

Only if you have the energy, of course.

[Kurasu]

Hmph. Check that: the breadcrumb insists I go to Borean Tundra, and who am I to ignore a good breadcrumb quest? So Borean it is! I'll end up doing them all at some point anyway. I'm just that kind of person. My general pattern as Alliance was Fjord, Borean, Dragonblight, Grizzly, Zul'drak, and I'd be 80 by then and could dawdle. Let's just see how things look on Horde-side as to where I travel to. After all, I might need to 'tinker' a few zones to make sure I can get a tameable pet so as not to double up.

Also, I'm a bit surprised so many people want to see the pet by pet. Not *unhappy*, by any means, but surprised.

[Kurasu]

Borean Tundra has been fun with a chimera. Giving only the short thought of it, two thumbs up for the 'levelability'. I'm now level 73 and taking a look around my environs. Out at the Steam Springs, I see a few choices. And to me, the most obvious one seems to be Borean's resident mascot.

I'mma gettin' me a nice brown rhino.

[Kurasu]

*DING*

"What? Wait, what? Level 76? But I'm only in Dragonblight! I didn't intend to be dinging 76 until I was further along!"

Having joined a friendly guild for chatting and company, I guess the extra 10% really adds up a lot faster than I thought! So here I am in Dragonblight, newly-dinged to my next 'key point', in Moonrest Gardens no less, and thus miles away from anything tameable that would cover my criteria!

So what's my options? Worms. ... that's it. Worms.

Well, at least I've got that! Off to get myself a Jormungar, and not grumble too hard about having to fly aaaaalllll the way across the zone for a hulking one!

Going to try and complete Dragonblight while I'm here, but my next zone, I believe, is going to be Zul'drak to shoot for 79. Mainly because the chains there are some of my favorites and I always tended to ding to 80 there with my Ally alts.

[Kurasu]

Hmm. I am apparently 10 quests down from the Dragonblight achievement. I'm not sure where they are. I'll have to check later on. But for now, as I'm level 78, I'm just going to leave it be and do some leveling in Zul'drak. As I said: it's sort of like my traditional 'ding 80' location.

As a little side-thing, I took a spin around Northrend to pick off some 4:30AM rares for XP and goodies. Happened to find Arcturis up, who I adopted out to a little blond Belf who'd been in Sholazar looking for Loque. I'm a sucker for the glowbear; I very nearly tamed him on my goblin, but held myself back to 'appropriate rules'!

[Kurasu]

79 in Zul'Drak, and I dinged over while just starting the Har'koa questline. I decided, while I was in the area of it, to grab myself a wind serpent (Scion, naturally). Going to have to get used to not having Thunderstomp again, after having it for a couple pets in a row!

The next new pet will be at 81, and will probably be in Mount Hyjal. I'm still weighing the options of having it be in Vash'jir, though I will likely go Hyjal -> Vash'jir. Either way, the selection will be a little limited, but that's what happens when you start narrowing the playing field by taming.

While Vash'jir is divided up into three 'subsections', the level of the whole is exactly the same (80-82). And since the selection of beasts down there is a little bit limited (crabs, crabs, crabs, crabs, crabs, crabs, crabs.... oh, and warp stalker), I'm going to consider the whole of the place as 'one zone'. Hope people don't mind.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I consider all of Vash one zone anyway so works for me!

[Kurasu]

From 79 to 80 in Zul'drak, just as I expected, and leaving the rest of the quests behind for later I headed for Ogrimmar again. Snagged up my breadcrumb quests from the board and headed right for Mount Hyjal as I said I would. Many, many deaths later, I realized that my DPS had outstripped my poor Wind Serpent's TPS, and I had to start learning how to hold back again. Definitely lessons well learned!

After getting the hang of things, I was able to get myself to level 81, and picked up the promised Core Hound. Now it'll be a matter of finishing the place off and headed to Vashj'ir... or at least finishing as much as I can without dinging 83. Other than Birds Of Prey and Terrorpene, I don't think there *is* anything else in the area that's tameable.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Nah, there's not much in Hyjal or Vashj'ir really.

[Kurasu]

I finished Hyjal with time (and XP) to spare at level 82, and moved on to Vash'jir to ding over to 83. As suspected, the only pet that I hadn't had was a Warp Stalker, which I went down to the trench and got hold of. I haven't done enough with him yet to get a feel for whether I like the skin or not, but it's certainly going to be nice to have Thunderstomp and Guard Dog again! I really notice their loss. Especially Thunderstomp.

I am doing some more quests in Vash'jir, but I think I may move on early, to be certain that I don't accidentally ding 84 here, as that would mean I couldn't get another pet other than a duplicate (crab). Deepholm is the 'level 83' zone, and I'm going to head that way, as there should be enough variety with the Shale Spiders there to keep me entertained. I may also see if Uldum is available at 83; I absolutely love Uldum, and questing it dry would be fun. Plus there's plenty of pet variety there that hasn't been touched.

UPDATE: Checking the Warchief's Command Board, I was pleased to find a command to Uldum. HOORAY! I know where I'm going now. Vashj'ir be damned; I'll come back later.

[Nimae]

Hey, newbie forum member here. I've read over your thread with great interest--creative self-challenge! I just wanted to weigh in and say that I'm really interested in reading your final pet-by-pet analysis. Good luck questing, happy hunting, and I hope you feel better soon!

[Kurasu]

It's amazing how s-l-l-l-l-l-o-o-o-o-w-w-w-w leveling from level 83 to 84 is, after leveling up to that point. It practically seems as if everything up to that point was a warm-up! But while in Uldum, naturally, I managed to shove that last piece over, and after a few Wind Rider wingbeats, I managed to find the next pet in the cluster: one of the local yellow scorpids.

Looking at my numbers, there's no way I'll be 85 by the time I finish Uldum, but I should be able to finish it off in Twilihgt Highlands. Home stretch now, and then we'll see the list of what all I've managed to have, tame, bond with, and hate!

.... it might take a few days.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I think I'll do like you at the end of Roxíe's and do an OOC overview of all the pets she's tamed. I changed things up a little and my boyfriend and I ended up working out a list of every pet she'll tame and from what zone to keep me from doubling up on any as well as to assist plan my questing progress. Not entirely random, but I'm enjoying it.

Also, I've been enjoying doing this entirely without any professions (excluding cooking, but cooking doesn't give you XP), without dungeons, without a guild, and without buying this character anything. It's been fun doing this from the ground up and I'm surprised at how easy the leveling is.

Looking forward to seeing your pet reviews.

[Kurasu]

Also, I've been enjoying doing this entirely without any professions (excluding cooking, but cooking doesn't give you XP), without dungeons, without a guild, and without buying this character anything. It's been fun doing this from the ground up and I'm surprised at how easy the leveling is.

I have bought the character bags, and mounts/flying, but other than that the only gear she's gotten is stuff she's gotten through quests and random finds. I admit she's got a guild, though originally I only did it because I was bored and lonely, and wanted people to chat with. I completely forgot about the extra 10% XP. The professions, I got to fund my bag-buying. Although admittedly, the XP went a long way toward helping me level, I'm sure.

It's been a lot of fun to be doing, I'll say that for sure! A relaxing challenge, and also a really good experience for pets and how well they work for actual *leveling* as opposed to just dungeons and raids. I can say for sure that I was very surprised with a couple. Buuuuut.... I'll get into more detail in a level.

[Kurasu]

The last level was delayed, due to my being even *more* ill (ironically it's mostly because the meds I'm on are making me sick), but I was able to go through Twilight Highlands, kill several things in Iso'rath's stomach, and in saving the day, dinged to the big 8-5. Immediately I decided to take a sweep around and see if Karoma was up for an epic final pet.

AND OMG GUESS WHAT?!

.... nope. She wasn't. But I had you going for a moment there, didn't I?

So my last pet, in anticlimactic WoW fashion, is one of the local worgs, whom was quickly named Pargon (no, that's not a typo; it's a video game reference). And with that, my journey has completed!

.... well, almost. I intend to finish getting Loremaster on this toon to be able to see what it looks like from Horde-side, but in the actual *experiment*, my journey has completed. Now it's all a matter of questing a little with the worg to get a feel for it, then going through my actual write-ups about the pets.

.... later. First off, I'm going to take a well-deserved piece of birthday cake from my Stepmom, and go down to Vashj'ir and see if I can find Ghostcrawler.

.... what? Now that I'm done the challenge, I want a real spirit beast!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Congratulations on making it to 85!

I look forward to your review of all the pets you've accumulated. And I hope you feel better soon!

[Kurasu]

Ghostcrawler wasn't, but Arcturis was. *YYYYOINK!*

I won't be including him in the 'pet selection'. I just love mah Glowbear excessively.