Madexx vs. Venomscale Spitter?

[Calomel]

I know there are a lot of people that just love Madexx to pieces, and I do, too. My hunter is a bug collector, so I definitely feel the draw to camp and tame the big guy. If I ever run into the Blue morph, I'll definitely take him home.

But after camping, and camping...and camping, I got to thinking. I really like the brown/bronze morph because it looks very natural, and the Venomscale Spitter has the exact same model and skin as Brown Madexx. So I gave up my camp for the rare and flew on over for a quick 10-second tame and Tanin's DuneBug came home to join the stables.

After mining and questing with Dune for a while, I felt this incredible sense of relief and a complete lack of guilt for having him by my side. Usually I feel a little guilty for having my rare pets beside me, and pulling them out in their home zones is a big no-no. I hate messing up other people's rarefinder addons. But with Dune, there's no guilt if I decide to take him to Uldum with me!

So what are your thoughts on having pets that share rare skins, but aren't rare? If you had a choice of camping for Brown Madexx or quickly picking up a lookalike, which would you take? What do you feel are pros and cons of each?

[Lupis]

Sometimes, when I have the rare version of something, it makes it feel more "special" to me. Even if nobody else knows, I do.
However, this isn't always true. I tamed a normal lava spider instead of the rare, and I still love him. After a while I can forget I even tamed a rare, and it'll just be special to me because I love the pet.

[Kurasu]

For me, it's a personality. I got them because they stood out in my mind. However, equally, a more common skin might well be 'The correct pet' because that is what the memory was attached to. For instance, if there was a rare white cobra, I wouldn't tame it and call it 'Suresh'. Suresh is a Deviate Moccasin. I even tamed a non-Deviate Moccasin to replace Suresh, and finally had to get the old one back. My original Panzer wasn't Ironback. It was a Mudrock Spikeshell. I could never pick up Ironback and see it as 'Panzer' in my mind. I have even been thinking about getting a Mudrock and renaming my Terrorpene, simply because Panzer is Panzer.

Of course, the opposite goes. I have Timber. If they later made Timber into another color, he would still be Timber to me. And I couldn't go out and tame a non-Timber white worg and still think of it as 'Timber'.

[Kaelys]

I really, really wanted a Madexx of any shade on Kaelys, and was thrilled when I got my red. The venomscale common skin didn't exsist when I did Kae's cool scorpid hunt though.

My other hunter, Kaenn, has a neutral shades sort of colour scheme, so I am equally thrilled when he gets high enough level I can grab him a venomscale spitter and don't have to go through the hell of waiting for a bronze Madexx to show up for me.

With rares in general, if there's a common version I usually grab that. Its the look and what the pet is like once its in my hands that concerns me in particular more than what the critter was in the wild.

[Senna-Umbreon]

I'm honestly fine with rares sharing skins with commons in the same zone. I mean, take a look at King Mosh.. He's a well-adored pet, despite the fact that there's normal red Devilsaur in the same zone. Same thing with Takk the Leaper; well-adored pet that has a common skin counterpart in the same zone.

As for Madexx vs. the common one? To be perfectly honest.. I'm not sure. I probably wouldn't have even gotten Madexx if I didn't stumble upon the little guy while questing one night. Heck, if I had gotten one, it probably wouldn't have been brown anyway so I wouldn't care if there's a common one. Now, I really really love the brown one, I always defended it against people saying it wasn't special due to the upcoming common (It was upcoming at the time) before I even got the thing! I've never liked people who think that a skin isn't special if there's a common version. Each and every pet/skin is special in their own way, common or not. I'm also really really happy I found the brown Madexx, as he's turned into my favourite of them all. In truth, I guess I liked it more than the others even before I got mine, as despite me thinking blue was gorgeous, I've always been one to root for the underdog, and as we all know, brown Madexx is the definite underdog.

So, yeah, I love my brown Madexx, and I really wouldn't trade him for the world at this point. If he somehow disappeared.. I'd go back to Uldum and camp for my lovely brown Madexx again instead of taming the common one. Now, I don't really have anything against the common one, other than my dislike of the brown Madexx hate its unintentionally caused, but I'd still never tame it if I had to get my scorpid back. Why? Cause he's Madexx. That's who he is. He may look like the common scorpids, but he's still the rare. Not that I only love him for just that, of course. To be honest, if he wasn't a rare spawn, I'd love him anyway. But the fact stands. He's Madexx, and he's special to me. Really special. No common will ever change that.


... That turned out to be a lot longer than I expected XD

[Pawtrack]

Well, for me I will sometimes go for the common skins, and sometimes the rares. If I wanted a red worg, for example, I wouldn't go camp for hours on end to get Barnabus, I'd fly a zone or two over and tame one of the common skins in Burning Steppes (not that I'd say no if Barnabus was up, though ). But, if I wanted to get my old Barnabus back (yes I named him Barnabus, how original), I wouldn't tame a common worg in Burning Steppes, I'd tame Barnabus.

However, sometimes I'll look for the rare version of a skin just because it's rare and its' a challenge to find it. That's why, even when I ran a hunter friend through WC to tame one of the white crocs there, I still kept looking for the Sewer Beast, instead of taming one of the white crocs in WC, even to try the skin out (though when I saw those beautiful white crocolisks in person, I knew I wanted one).

However, sometimes I feel kind of annoyed or angry at blizz when they make a unique, rare skin a common skin later. Like Humar and Pitch. I don't know why, it's sort of a selfish "but now my shiny rare wont be shiny because there are non-rare versions of it! oh noes!" ._. I'm very ashamed of myself whenever I do that, but I still can't stop from thinking "but none else will know it's rare!".

I guess the reason I do that is because if I don't bond with the skin/pet, I keep it because it's unique and rare, and then I get angry at blizz for making a non-rare because I have no reason to keep it and I can't run around showing off with it anymore.

But if I do love the skin or the pet, then it doesn't matter if it's unique or not. I tamed the Sewer Beast, me and my friends know that, so it doesn't matter if anyone else cares!

And, yeah, I probably would feel bad for setting off people's rare finder addons... even though I don't use one. It would just seem mean, so, yeah, I would probably feel very bad for running around with a tamed rare in his home land, and fooling hunters looking for him. ._. although I probably already do that with my Sewer Beast, since my hearth is SW...

[TygerDarkstorm]

Sometimes I go looking for rares if I know that they're an easy to find version of the skin I like/want for a particular hunter. Sometimes I just get these ideas in my head that one of my hunters really *needs* a certain pet, be it rare or common. I just recently retamed Loque on my troll and got her KK as well. I had thought I would never want KK, but for some reason I just got this thought in my head about how cool he would look with my troll and after a guildy got theirs, I went looking for mine (was trying my best not to go hunt him when someone else wanted him).

With the brown Madexx, I'm thrilled there's a common version. It's a very beautiful skin and I know I'll have a hunter or two tame it. It's all about the personality of the pet.

[cowmuflage]

IF i wanted the brown one I'd just get the non rare but thats just me. I see no bad in it.

[Araela]

I don't mind if a pet shares a common skin with another mob. I fell in love with Snarler and right now he's pretty much the only wolf I'm running with because I clicked with him so well.

It's personal preference - if a pet is special to you, regardless of whether or not it is rare, then that's all that matters!

[Teevo]

So what are your thoughts on having pets that share rare skins, but aren't rare? If you had a choice of camping for Brown Madexx or quickly picking up a lookalike, which would you take? What do you feel are pros and cons of each?

Its all about personal preference. I for one only go after rares with unique skins (unshared). But to answer your second question.. would I rather camp for brown Madexx or go tame his twin cousin.. I'd tame his twin cousin

[Holgarr]

So what are your thoughts on having pets that share rare skins, but aren't rare? If you had a choice of camping for Brown Madexx or quickly picking up a lookalike, which would you take? What do you feel are pros and cons of each?

I've said ths in another thread, but, to me, having a "rare" that looks identical to a common mob kinda takes away from the claim of it being rare. Congrats, you just wasted three days of real-time camping for a look you can find two zones to the west on a kill-10-for-a-quest mob.

It'd be like buying an expensive car from a custom-build designer and him telling you it's a one-of-a-kind vehicle, only to find later after spending so much time saving up the money for it, that it was a stock vehicle with resculpted head- and tail-lights and some fancy paintwork.

Rares should be just that - rare. Unique and special. Not a duplicate of some other mob with a silver-drake portrait and tweaked stats. Now grated, back when pets were genuinely different - such as Takk having a higher run-speed, or Brokentooth having a faster attack-speed - then I could understand why it was still cool to have to camp for a rare that shared a look with a common... but nowadays, it seems kinda pointless.

[Senna-Umbreon]

(Note; rant not directed at ANYONE in particular. I just brought it up in response to anyone of that specific mindset. Try not to take offense or anything =3)

Honestly, to me, that's a fairly overrused and bad excuse for something like this. Some people are completely willing to waste their time searching for a rare spawn cause they want it and not the common one. They'd do the exact same thing you'd do for a "real rare". Hunt for a long time. Who cares if there's a common version? It's still rare. And even if other people may not know.. Pets aren't trophies, for Arceus's sake! If you want a pet cause it's a rare spawn.. Who the heck cares if no one else knows it's rare? Really, the opinion of others doesn't really matter when it comes to this. You know you have the rare, so why the heck bother making an effort to show it off like a flamboyant jerk?

And as I explained before, I'd search for brown Madexx again if anything happened to mine. Why? Not because I want a rare.. But because he is THAT mob. Because he is Madexx. Even if Madexx wasn't a rare, or even if my scorpid wasn't a rare spawn at all.. I'd re-tame whatever the heck he was to get him back, because he is my special pet. No rare, common, combination of the two or ANYTHING will change that.

[Vetiver]

if there was some other madexx spawn somewhere that was rare and only spawned as the common skin, then the people who for some reason care about rare carbon copies of commons can go have at it and leave the madexx campers who don't want to feel like they just wasted weeks of their time alone. me personally? i was super disappointed when i found a madexx today and it turned out to be a brown one.

i just think it's weird that people would fight so hard to be able to disappoint other people who have been camping for 10, 15, 20 hours. i also think it's weird that people would put any kind of special effort or camping hours into waiting around for a named mob that bears no distinction from it's common, unnamed cousins. i mean, i see how this would matter for the RP set, but that is generally the exception and not the rule. different strokes for different folks, i spose.

but don't mind me, i'm just super cranky after finding my first karoma....dead.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Thing is though, no one's forcing you to camp for the rare mob. We tame rares because we specifically like the challenge of finding that hard to get pet. Who cares if there's a common version of it? Like Senna said, our pets aren't just trophies to show off in Org/SW, they're companions that choose to aid us in battle. So long as you know that you tamed the rare version of a skin, isn't that the most important thing? Why do others need to care about it?

For the record, most people who don't play hunters don't really give a damn about our "prestigious" pets.

[Pent]

For some odd reason I feel like I should post something in this thread.

Most of the people on the forums who have read my threads know my stance on what is "rare" and what is "rare".

Is Loque'nahak rare? To me, no. I see him everywhere. To someone else on a different server... ehh... maybe.

People should tame what they want to tame because they WANT to tame it...

Should we have to camp 8+ hours to get a pet just because it is "rare"... no.

Should all rares have common skins out there somewhere? No.

Should it be made where everyone can get the pet they WANT without having to devote days (or longer) on a camp? Yes. (You may look at my opinion on another thread stating that if you think you "bond" better with the pet the longer you camp then you should just camp and give away the first so many spawns til it is "the time" to magically bond.)

Do you go around your neighborhood and ask people if they need their flashing clock on their DVD/DVR/VCR set to the correct time just because an elderly lady across the street asks you for help and you happily agree to help her? No, of course you don't ask around the neighborhood. (This has nothing to do with anything.)

My point is.. just because 30-45% (just a total guess-timation) of all WoW hunters think respawn timers are fine now and shouldn't be changed... those 30-45% shouldn't disregard the other 55-70% of hunters who would like to see a drop in all of the timers (that haven't been dropped yet), because they can't either be logged on for very long per day or they just want a companion in the game.

If you want a Brown Madexx and you actually want Madexx... you shouldn't have to do circles for approx. 11-16hrs+ and HOPE that a brown one is going to spawn... In the same essence... you shouldn't have to sit and do circles in Twilight Highlands for hours on end to have Sambas or Karoma killed in front of you by some herb farmer.... and then have to start the camp over from the start... and keep flying around for 6-24hrs just to see it happen again. You should have SOME chance at getting the pet you want if you are a casual player without staring at the screen for however long it takes.

Finding a rare mob with NPC_Scan isn't challenging, and rare camping isn't "hard" (the word is rough). Everyone has a right to the pet they want... please don't act like camping a rare mob for 2 weeks makes you happy. There is NO way that camping a mob for over 3-4 days is "fun".

(btw... it's been OVER a week, so I am allowed...)

Carry on.

[Yaone]

Given what you are asking (to the OP) I would take the common spawn of it. Actually for for the same reason as you had listed. Big one is NPCscan. I hate having to remember to go put away any rare pet while I am playing in a zone. I love using my pets cause I love the skins, not due to them having a silver dragon around their portrait.

And Pent, I agree with all that you said. Aside from the clock and old lady part, but it made me chuckle. And on that note, even if they did shorten the spawn timer on Madexx, at least on my server, it may help... And it might not, my server is pretty populated almost around the clock.
But it would be nice to know that the chances of you finding it would go up. (I won't get into the RNG of color)

[Davarra]

If the common works for you go for it. I'd personally have no issues taking the "easy tame" if that was the model I wanted. To each their own of course, but I'm not about to sneer at someone who has the Venomscale. None of my business in the first place, but even if it was, for every person who's totally happy to just get the look it frees the rare up for someone else who really wanted it and only it.

I'm a bit impatient, easily aggravated...I'd rather expend the tolerance camping for the uniques I'm truly desperate to have...think Loque, Gondria, or Jadefang.

[Comett]

Isn't it more of an awesome tame story to say "Well it was a temporary pet but ___ happened and now I wouldn't take any less!" I love those types of tames. Pretty much all my favourite pets were unintentionally so !

[Nubhorns]

I have a Venomscale, his name is Livewire. And as much as I love him, he just seems to be missing the core of his personality - because he was meant to be Madexx. So when I do find that silly, silly scorpid, inevitably Old Livewire will have to shed his skin into New Livewire, but that doesn't make me love the Venomscale any less.

I love what they've done with them. Having common counterparts to rare tameables is a fantastic idea, because it makes the game...you know, fun.

Camping isn't fun. I don't care if you get a beer and poptarts and watch a movie waiting for NPCscan to go off or talk to your friends or plan on what to name your 'meant to be' pet, in the long run you're sitting there in a massive world full of things to do, people to meet and zones to explore, doing nothing. And you will likely keep doing nothing, for hours, days, weeks, months, until you get that pet. Inevitably your movie will end or your parents will call or your dog will squeeze under the fence and make a beeline for the park, and you'll have to get up, and that instills some kind of horrible anxiety. 'What if I miss him or her or it?'. And you'll run back and sit back down with another beer or another Mountain Dew or maybe some tea, and you will go back to doing nothing in a game that goes out of its way to keep you from doing nothing. Eventually you'll find your rare but until his name turns blue, that anxiety doesn't really go away. Camping just isn't mean to be fun, but people do it anyway because they 'have' to.

Playing the game is fun. Roaming the hills on your dragon or questing or roleplaying or raiding - those are all fun things to someone out there, and it's what the game offers. Fun. Fun means grabbing the pet you want, giving it a name and going to bond with it in a massive world. Go have him tank Illidan, or finally help you down that one jerk dragon in Uldum, try and introduce him to your character's husband or wife or friend who happens to be terrified of whatever pet type it is - it's all fun and in some cases, exciting. But you can't do that if you're too busy doing nothing.

I don't want to remove rares from the game. If someone wants to camp for something special, they can, but if someone else wants something similar, they should have the option of getting it somewhere else in the world without camping to death. Madexx is a little curious in that he's driving everyone mad, but everyone seems to love him anyway. I think it's because he has somewhat of a good idea.

Say we have a critter, a Loque reskin with tiger stripes and these lovely brown eyes, or a Skoll wrapped up snuglike in flames or oozing puddles of water. Something really fancy. And then we have a deviation from that reskin, maybe a tiger of a different color or an ice-Skoll or something completely different in terms of theme, perhaps. One is rare, the other is not. They're both beautiful pets. Both valuable companions. The difference is that you can camp for one, or get its just-as-glamorous cousin. Or we can go a step back and copy Madexx and his brother's idea entirely. One rare pet, with a variation of skins - and it's common, non-changing relative. Or relatives. Not every skin, but a few skins scattered here and there. Is it fair to those who want this exact pet that happens to be a rare skin well no, I guess not, but as it has been pointed out before no one is making you do nothing except you. No one says 'Go get a core hound for the raid.' and means 'YOU MUST GET CHROMAGGUS'.

It's kind of saddening that there are hunters out there, possibly even in this community somewhere, who just want to be better than someone else. And they want to do it with 'special' pets. Neener neener, my Madexx is a Madexx and yours is probably just a Venomscale. It's silly, because doing nothing for days doesn't make you any better than anyone else. Camping isn't hard. Don't confuse monotony and anxiety with difficulty. You are no better than the raiding hunter who picked up a Venomscale, or the leveling alt who opted for Pitch because Humar wasn't there. A pet is a pet is a pet - you cannot look at Humar in the wild, and then look at Pitch dropped in the same spot, and tell me "Humar is better" and point out why. Because it's all opinion. Humar isn't faster, he's not stronger or weaker or purple. He's just a tired old cat with a cousin in Sholazar.

TL;DR: I love both the Venomscale and his rare brother Madexx, because I think no one should be 'forced' into camping if they choose not to. I would like more variety in the common skins, possibly on par with their rare counterparts - just because it's common doesn't mean it has to be 'dull'. Also, I ramble.

[Maladramatic]

Camping isn't fun.

I enjoy some aspects of this game, playing my hunter, an alt, is one of them. One of the things I enjoy most about the hunter is the pets, however I mostly enjoy camping for pets and that's not sarcasm. I also know I'm not the only person who enjoys pet-camping. It's kind of a sport and doesn't make us better, just makes us more patient =P

-Adds Madexx in green to the list of contained friends-