Random Pet Challenge [v3.0]

[TygerDarkstorm]

The theme challenge hasn't been updated yet so I'll take one for Venjin.

Name: Venjin
Level: 80
Exotics: Yes
No Gorillas

[Arisia]

I tamed:
Green Armored Chimaera


Well, early today I took myself to Shadowmoon Valley and found a lovely chimera just flapping about, looking for trouble...


Was a very easy tame at 85, but I will admit when it used the breath weapon it startled me. I've always wanted to mess with a chimera, so I've looked forwards to this one! We went and did Orgrimar dailies first-- cooking and fishing... and then went and did my Therazine ones (3/10 on Pebble YAY!) and I have GOT to say that there is NOTHING as cool as those breath weapons! They look AMAZING in action and they did some nice damage as well. I love the gliding that he seemed to do rather than the usual bird FLAPFLAPFLAP that drives me insane. His color was interesting-- I didn't like it at first, but it really did grow on me. I'd have liked a few more idle animations, and I'm sorry, but the swimming animation was TERRIBLE; it was like he was bippity bobbing along with me-- why not just let him fly in a graceful glide?


I then went and did my daily runs of MgT (I'm trying for the petpet) in both normal and heroic -- not a bad tanker, actually. He decided that Kael'thas really tasted crappy... the look on his face says it very clearly...

We did not get the petpet or the mount, but we did have a nice half hour killing things way below our level.

Diet is meat; but if you spec right, you rarely feed them. Their special attacks LOOK amazingly cool and do nice damage and they have bite-- this might be one of my favorite cunning pet so far!

Final recommendations? I really *like* chimerae; matter of fact, I'm logged out in Outland; I want Nuramoc to come home with me. So this was a wonderful success!

Hit me again, boss...
Arisia; BM (exotics are fine)
Level 85

[TygerDarkstorm]

What, may I ask, is a petpet? Do you mean minipet?

[Arisia]

What, may I ask, is a petpet? Do you mean minipet?

yup-- sorry; way back when I started playing wow, I played often with a friend and we, erm... well, made up terms for things-- vanity pet seemed wrong... I mean, how much vanity is there in a cockroach? And minipet never occurred to us; since we both played hunters, saying pet was, well confusing... and thus was born the term petpet-- the joke being it was the pet of your pet as often they ran behind your pet, just as your pet ran behind you. ;D

[TygerDarkstorm]

Oh okay, I see. Sorry, I was like "Petpet? What is that?" Thanks for clarifying.

[Kormai]

Peshooter: I love it when you guys make it an extra challenge for yourselves by going for the harder tame even if I give you a choice! It makes it that much more meaningful. And the pictures are perfect thank you...It's interesting to see that you play in windowed mode.

I gotta admit Kormai, you have a way of rolling well for me.

Moonlost: MUWHAHAHA *deep breath* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm glad you're finding this fun! Let's see what I can roll this time...magical online D&D dice go!

Arisia: hehehe petpet, that's so cute. And Nuramoc was very elusive for me but I finally got him/her the day 4.0.6 came out. If you camp, it should be fairly painless.

*cry* I'm out of game time, so I'm making a signature

Peshooter
Orange & Black Ravager


Moonlost (Slumlost)
Brown Hyena


Tyger (Venjin)
Purple Serpent


Arisia
Hunched Orange Striped Cat


Go get 'em tigers...heh heh, see what I did there

[Ziarre]

I think I had a challenge, but I forgot what it was...and Tufani's put on quite a few levels, so let's see what we get!

Name: Tufani
Level: 63
Exotics: Nope!
Restrictions: No mastiffs.

[Lupis]

Sorry mine is taking so long, I finally got a new modem and I can upload... So I'm having fun taking pictures for this one. xD

[Cialbi]

I think I had a challenge, but I forgot what it was...and Tufani's put on quite a few levels, so let's see what we get!

Name: Tufani
Level: 63
Exotics: Nope!
Restrictions: No mastiffs.

*activates Aspect of the Bookworm *
...
...
It would appear that your last roll can be found here: http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic ... 9&p=194612

Tufani:
Brown Vulture
Enjoy!

I now am filled with the urge to rename my pet Grubthor to Bookworm

[TygerDarkstorm]

A roll so old I was the person who gave it, and I haven't given rolls in a long time.

[Ziarre]

Yay, I wasn't imagining things!

On my way to check on a certain deranged buzzard of doom, I took a short detour to nab a Young Fleshripper. A few steps away from Fulbrow's Pumpkin Farm, I found my target (well, one of them).



Rather than leave him nameless, I dubbed him Scree. As I examined him, the first thing that I noticed was that the brown vulture wasn't quite as brown as I'd thought! What had struck me as an overall reddish-brown actually had hints of light brown here and there, and purple feathering on wings and tail. His eyes...caught my attention pretty quickly, being a bright red-rimmed cyan. The effect was a rather...disturbed appearance.




Zaricotl wasn't home, so Scree and I decided to chill out in the Badlands for a little bit together. We slaughtered a few Ridge Huntresses and Crag Coyotes, and even pulled down a few Parched Buzzards in an effort to lure his fellow crazed condor out of hiding. After a while, I decided it would be a better idea to have a 'bird on the inside' to tell Zaricotl it wasn't so bad to be a pet, and released Scree amongst plenty of corpses to keep him fed.



Model: One of Ye Olde Vanilla models, it's not the most high-res beastie out there, but it's not terribly flawed. The wings are a bit broken-looking on the downstroke, but that's pretty common to a lot of birds.
Skin: It's more varied in color than I thought, but it's still not terribly pretty...and THOSE EYES.
Animations: Idle is flap, flap, flap, flapflapflap. Movement's decent, aside from the beforementioned cardboard-esque breaking on the downstroke. Attack animation is a sensible swoop, bite/claw.
Sound Effects: Screeches, squawks, and an eagle-like keen for the special ability. The idle is a rather incessant flapping (with the occasional flapflapflap for spice), so it's not a 'quiet' idling pet unless you're good at tuning that out.
Family Ability: To be honest, your tank would probably bring 10% damage reduction in a group. Solo, I can see it being moderately useful for reducing incoming damage. It seems like it'd be a good idea to beware of those critters, though.
Utility: Not the best for group or individual buffs, but potentially useful for solo play.

Can has moar?

Name: Tufani
Level: 64
Exotics: Nope!
Restrictions: No mastiffs.

[TygerDarkstorm]

My personal pet challenge hunter just picked up a blue old world vulture and I'm really surprised that I love him. The black old world vulture and Zaricotl creep me out so bad that I thought all the old world vultures would, but I really like Max.

[Ziarre]

I think I'd like Zaricotl (saw him once on Tufani...she was 46), but if he doesn't show up again before 66, I'mma get me a misty ghost-buzzard instead.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I like the misty, ghostly blue carrion bird, Venjin has her.

I'll make my report on the purple serpent tomorrow. I'm exhausted after getting off work so late.

[Ziarre]

To update...Scree must have done something right. Eyeballing a certain deranged bird and thinking of names now.

[Thelandira]

I'd like to apologize for my delay in this challenge. Life can be a real stinker some times. Anywhooo, on to my report.

I decided to start with Sheeturself first, mostly because I couldn't remember if Thela was phased to the area to tame the beetle. I figured I'd do Sheet first because I might have to quest a bit on Thela to get to where she needed to be. (Thankfully, it turned out Thela was far enough into the quest chain to get her beetle)

So, Sheeturself is off to Azuremyst to tame The Kurken. (btw, did you know you can't use your flying mounts in Azuremyst even if you have the Old World flying ability? weird...) The tame itself was easie-peasie. The reward? A nice new, shiny, white corehound of course.



Although, those are some seriously demonic looking eyes he has. Because of that, I chose the name "DevilMakesU". It just seemed to fit with those eyes. When Blizz first introduced the corehounds into the line of pets we could tame I was exstatic. Then, I heard their running/walking sound. Wow, what a turn off. Between how loud they were and how the screen shook, I was instantly turned off. Thankfully, Blizz did away with all that. Now each of my hunters has a corehound pet.

One of the things I like to do when obtaining a new pet is go out and see what it can handle. So, I took Devil to Hyjal for a bit of a "warm-up".



Him soloing one level 80 was nothing. He probably could have done it in his sleep. So, let's see how he does against two.





Same. I don't think he even broke a sweat. Let's go try some caster mobs, since melee mobs are no problem it seems.



Again, cake. Let's try a few more shall we.

I had Devil track down 3 casters and their minions. (couldn't get all of them in the same shot....dam casters and their lack of staying within melee range)





Above Devil is eating the last of the casters, saving the minions for desert. All the while, Devil did this on his own with no help (shots/healing) from me. But, these mobs are a little low in level. While waiting for my hearthstone cooldown, I decided to find some higher level mobs to play with. I think a level 81 elite will do.







Again, a little too easy. Devil ate him up and spat him out in no time. Also, with no help from me in the form of shots or heals. It's time to go find more of a challenge. I'm off to Twilight Highlands.



Above you can see how Devil's tree is spec'd. Notice that I have not buffed his health or armor, with the exception of Bloodthisty. Which, when you think about it, how much is a 5% health increase/replenishment really?

First, let's take him swimming. I'm sure he'd like to cool off a little bit.



The swimming animations are pretty good. It's a typical "dog-paddle" type movement. Now it's time for him to eat a naga.

This was a little bit more of a challenge than the Hyjal mobs. Devil's health dropped quite a bit by the time he chewed up the naga and spat him out. But, Devil persevered with no assistance from me. Let's find something a little more fun.



Yes, one caster and two melee mobs with some powerful damage. This was a little more daunting for Devil I must admit. These three mobs can really dish it out. Here I had to intervene a few times (4 to be exact) with some heals. But, again, no shots from me to damage mobs.



Two down, one to go...no more heals from me.



When all was said and done, and while I was musing over the cute input from PetEmote, we were ambushed by a caster that was making his way back to where we were. He did not get pulled into the initial attack, but for some reason felt he wanted a part of us anyway.



Devil's health was not back to full after eating the 3 prior mobs. But, he quickly made minced meat of the mob that attacked. And he still had plenty of health afterwards.



All-in-all, the corehound is a pretty hearty pet. Their idle animations aren't annoying and their constant glow can be somewhat soothing...kinda like staring blankly into a fireplace...it just puts the soul at ease.

Now, we move on to Thela.

First, I have to say I just LOVE the beetle pets. I was soooooo happy Blizz gave them to us to tame. (I think bugs are just amazing in general) I was also happy to see that this was the pet that got rolled for Thela.

Thela already has a beetle pet (white and black one from AQ20), but that didn't stop me from trekking out to Uldum to tame another. I had been contemplating anyways on which one of the Uldum beetles to get for Sheeturself anyways...although I ended up with a black and red one for Sheet that came from AQ20 as well. But I may take her back to get one of the Uldum ones. I'm partial to the colors of the Light Blue/Turquoise Scarab. I just love how the yellow lines pop out at you on it.

Anywhoooo...on to the tame. Again, an easy tame due to the fact that they are all neutral. If the beetles had been hostile it could have been a little bit of a challenge seeing as how there are so many so close together. But, in no time at all Thela had her new pet.



I wasn't sure what to name it, so I googled "Amethyst" to see if anything would pop out at me. By doing so I found some interesting information, as well as a suitable name. Copied from Wiki: "The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἀ a- ("not") and μέθυστος methustos ("intoxicated"), a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness". Pretty interesting. But more interesting still is, "while medieval European soldiers wore amethyst amulets as protection in battle – the reason for this being that amethysts are believed to heal people and keep them cool-headed" (from Wiki also). Well, what could be more fitting for a tanking pet? So there you have it. Meet Amethustos.

Now, let's see what this little beetle bug can do. As you can see below, I've spec'd him as a tanking pet with no points for added damage output. This critter is meant to stay alive.



Now, on to the fight. One against one was a cake walk, as you can see below. Amet was at full health by the time he finished off his foe. Let's try something a little more challenging shall we.



Let's see how Amet does against 4 others. During his next battle I offered very little assistance. I sent Amet to each of the mobs one by one to gather them. I used none of my abilities to pull the mobs to us...it was all on Amets shoulders.



You can see above that by the time he gathered all 4, and had one almost dead, his health was a bit low and he popped "Harden Carapace". Here is where I helped with a heal...and only one heal. From here on out he was on his own. Which I must say, he did very well.







With that said and done, I decided to find something a little more challenging. Let's go kill an elite!! It's time to head to the underwater cave near the dam. (Plus, we can see what Amet's swimming animations are like)

Hmmm....swimming and beetles apparently don't mix. Their animations are the same as if they were walking/running on dry land. Phooie...how unimaginative.



to be continued...

[Thelandira]

Continued from above....

Ok, on to the meat and bones of this next bit. A level 84 elite along with his two adds. (I could have killed off the two adds, but what fun would that have been?) This was definatley a challenge and I had to intervene with quite a few heals. Although, I tried to keep it minimal at best, I ended up throwing out 5 heals. I also ended up with aggro from one of the wave of snakes the elite spawns, but I Feigned Death to make sure this was Amet's solo performance.



Above is where I threw out the first heal, when Amet's health dropped below 25%. All the subsequent heals came around the same time as well...between 20%-25% of Amet's health.

One mob/add down, second mob/add below half health and the first wave of snakes are almost dead.



Snakes are dead and second mob/add is almost dead as well. Go go Amet go!!!!!



Second wave of snakes arrives and this is where I popped FD. You can see the 3 snakes closest to me headed back towards Amet after my FD.



Elite is almost dead and only 2 snakes remain.



Amet finishes cleaning up his mess, like a good little boy, by killing the remaining snake after the elite is down.



Now, is there any reason not to love this little guy after seeing what he can do? Beetles will be my "go to " pets for when the s**t hits the fan.

I hope you enjoyed my report. I had a lot of fun with it. Who knows, I may ask for some more.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I (btw, did you know you can't use your flying mounts in Azuremyst even if you have the Old World flying ability? weird...)

Blizzard decided that the draenei and blood elf starting areas are behind the Cataclysm in the timeline and thus is why they don't get flying in those zones.

[Jadvya]

Name: Jadvya
Level: 85
Exotics: Sure!
Restrictions: None.

[TygerDarkstorm]

All righty, here to report on .

I was feeling lazy and not wanting to go out to Sholazar so I headed to Wailing Caverns and nabbed the first one of these guys I saw. Little bugger kept trying to play hide and seek around the pillar while I tried to get in position for the tame.


After I got her tamed I took her out to Hyjal for some inspection.


While she matches nicely with Venjin, I just can't help but feel that Gumball is so...pink...I never realized just how pink these serpents looked until now. The colors aren't terrible, they mesh well together and the serpent looks nice.

If I ever made a really girly hunter, I would totally tame one of these. XD But anyway, the model itself is good, and like I said, the colors do blend well together.

Also, snakes are very intelligent looking. They have this look on their face that says "I'm definitely up to something."


As for animations, I really like snakes. They just look from side to side for their idle, tongue flickering, of course. They make no noises next to your side and make a hiss as they go in combat, good pets for owners who like quiet beasts. They slither next to your side as you run, and, like worms, have a very cool swim.


Also, when they are summoned, they come burrowing out of the ground, which I think is cool.


I took Gumball with me to go steal harpy eggs, which, of course, the local harpies weren't too happy about.


The serpent debuff reduces armor by 4% and stacks to three times; great for a group where you don't have a warrior or rogue for sunders. I suppose it's hit or miss soloing--it'll help our autoshots and Steady Shot, I think, I'm not sure about what, if anything, else.

Overall, I really like serpents. I've had trouble clicking with raptors so serpents have been a good alternative for me. However, I won't be keeping Gumball on Venjin as I already have a serpent named Putricide to go with Rotface and Festergut.