My first tame was Solix. Technically not even my tame, because I couldn't play on the day he was tamed (was visiting family and the computer I was using was not powerful enough for WoW), so the boyfriend was doing my dailies for me, and sure enough, he found Solix up, so when I came home I found a gorgeous orange lava spider waiting for me.
I still haven't picked a name for him, but I'm definitely attached. He likes fire, lava, setting things on fire and lying in wait on walls to jump on people's heads and scare them half to death.My next tame was Skarr. I wasn't sure I'd want him, since I've never clicked with a hunched glowy cat before (and I've literally tried them all), so I left him out of NPCScan and figured I'd leave it to fate whether I stumbled on him or not. I had just finished checking Skitterflame's spawn and was going back to Kirix's - checking the spawns manually, not with Eagle Eye, since there was a high concentration of hunters around - and I was jumping over the rocks, I saw a red nameplate labeled "Skarr". Gotta be the pet of a hunter who's screwing around with everybody else... but no, it was the actual Skarr.
Two more hunters arrived and started jumping around on the rocks, then tried to tame him. I thought I'd let them have a go at him first, because after all, I wasn't sure I'd want him... but no, they got eaten by Fieroclast Barrage. Which almost killed me, too. Devious, evil, mean cat...
I bandaged (no food in bags, argh) and switched spec from BM to Marksmanship, being very thankful that I'd respecced to a normal Marks spec that included Silencing Shot a few days earlier (from an oddball "let's see if we can two-man Brutallus" Marks spec). Got the cat's attention from the ledge (not from the rocks... god knows why the other hunters were trying from the rocks), interrupted Fieroclast Barrage and the tame went off without a hitch, just as the other hunters resurrected.
I ended up naming him Maladath (after this sword, simply because I like the name). And I'm happily ignoring that I tamed him in the Molten Front and pretending that he's a construct from Ulduar that my hunter rescued, nursed back to health and adopted. It fits quite well, especially since my hunter's flying mount of choice is the Ironbound Proto-Drake.
Almost immediately after that came Skitterflame. I'd moved out of the Molten Front and to the Shrine of Aviana to drop a pet in the stables (and pull out one to abandon, since after taming Skarr my stables were completely full). I flew back down to the Molten Front and figured hey, I've just been to Kirix and Skitterflame's spots, they're not up, let's go check Anthriss and Deth'tilac... make it halfway up the ramp to Forlorn Spire and some druid, god bless him, calls in /1 that Skitterflame's up. I whimper something along the lines of "noooo somebody's going to get him before I can even get there" and start riding back. Get nearly killed by the flame wall, of course... and I'm so panicked that I manage to fail at rock jumping like a complete idiot.
Fortunately, I was close enough to Skitterflame's side that I released at the graveyard on it. Ran back, picked up my corpse, got to Skitterflame... only hunter there. Okay, okay, calm down, calm down, I've read plenty about this, I can do it easily.
First try, I trapped Skitterflame twice then backed into an elemental, who promptly walked into my third trap. Skitterflame munched my face off.
Second try, I trapped Skitterflame twice, then backed into a fire hawk. Learned my lesson, feigned.
At this point the boyfriend asks "er, why are you not clearing things?" Facepalmed, cleared a few mobs around.
Third try, I trapped Skitterflame twice, then got all excited and forgot about the third trap. Pressed tame, got my face munched off.
Fourth try, same deal.
By this point another hunter showed up - a horde one, at that - and I was in full-blown panic mode. Fifth try... almost same deal, but I managed to feign in time.
Fifth try, I trapped Skitterflame twice then started kiting him, waiting for my trap to get off cooldown so I could trap him a third time... and I walked right into the other hunter's trap. (I'm guessing he was trying to help me, since he had Karkin out.) The other hunter delayed Skitterflame enough for the trap to wear off, and I dropped my last trap and the tame, finally, went off without a hitch.
And yet despite all that, he didn't click for the longest time. He only really clicked this morning - when I had him in my actives as I was camping for Deth'tilac, fully intending to use him as a sacrifice then abandon him. And then I started feeling immensely guilty, kinda like I had a spider clinging to my legs and going "nooooo don't abandon me".
I'm guessing he was just grumpy at me for a while for taking him out of his nice toasty lava pool and making him all cold and shivery. He still doesn't have a name (although I'm strongly considering "Ruby", but he insists it's perhaps a bit too girly), but he's not going anywhere.
Then came Ban'thalos. I'd taken the habit of logging out in the tree after doing my dailies, but had no luck beyond occasionally seeing bunches of skeletons in the tree. The boyfriend had seen him twice while I was gone visiting my family, but he always got tamed really fast. Then one fine morning, I logged in and there he was... except two other hunters were already trying to tame him. Okay, okay, fine, I'll let them have a go, they were there first.
The first hunter dropped from too far up and got one-shot by the first Harsh Moonlight. The second hunter dropped down better, but neglected to trap and got summarily three-shot. My turn then!
Flew up, shot Ban'thalos, dropped down on the tree, dropped a trap, started taming... and the hunters, who had in the meantime run back, simultaneously shot and broke my trap. Cue me dying. Grrrrr.
So I ran back. Got on the tree again. Watched them fail again. Dropped a trap, flew up, tagged Ban'thalos, dropped down, started taming... and the other hunters broke my trap again. Cue a second death.
Right then. I usually make it a point not to grief others, if another hunter is already taming a beast I also want ehh well, it'll respawn... but that only goes as long as I don't get griefed myself. Because seriously, I'm not about to let people tame unimpeded if they can't extend me the same courtesy.
I ran back again. Got there just in time to watch the first hunter drop down from a decent height, trap Ban'thalos, start taming... and get his trap broken by the second hunter. First hunter died, and the second hunter trapped Ban'thalos and started taming.
I'm guessing he thought I still wouldn't interfere.
Yeah, like hell. I shot his trap, watched him get killed, trapped Ban'thalos and tamed him for myself. The first hunter managed to run back in time to break my trap again, but by that point my tame had one second left and it didn't matter anymore.
I named him Spirit, after my Loque whom I abandoned to tame him. (I have Loque on my second hunter, and I hadn't taken Loque out in ages, whereas my second hunter uses him actively.) The name fits him better than it ever fit Loque.
A few days later, two days ago in fact, I was exploring around with Eagle Eye and saw Deth'tilac was up. Another hunter was already trying to tame, so I went to help (despite the fact that he was horde and we're on a PVP server, so I could've killed him and taken Deth for myself - like I said, I don't grief others). He tamed his Deth, and I got a spawn timer.
I woke up bright and early yesterday morning and sat and camped. Not a soul around. Then around noon, Deth spawned. Yay! I got out my trusty disposable yellow spider and started the tame process. Got Deth to 90%, then 80%... then a horde shaman showed up and watched for a bit. And then he clearly decided that I must not be allowed to have Deth, because he killed me.
I ran back to see the shaman and several other people happily killing Deth. A horde hunter was even standing there, doing /beg emotes and clearly trying to get them to stop so he could tame Deth - but they didn't stop. I killed some of them a few times, but there were too many of them, so Deth died.
I had a good cry and decided I'd be back for the next spawn - surely I wouldn't get griefed forever. Then I went to do my dailies...
...and I spotted something on Track Beasts in the Regrowth that wasn't the usual red dot of the ghostly stags. So in true pro hunter fashion, I promptly fell off my drake, ditched the disposable spider and started hurriedly taking off my gear.
"Err" went the boyfriend "why'd you abandon the spider?"
"Blind much? Magria, right here."
I didn't have her on NPCScan, because she was another one I wasn't sure I wanted (I've tamed Gondria before, as well as normal saber cats, and never clicked with any of them). For the same reason, I didn't have a naked set on my Outfitter.
While I was stripping, Magria had ran off. I hurriedly chased after her, worried I'd lose her, too - but nobody was around, and the tame went off without a hitch. It felt like the universe was consoling me for having Deth killed on me.
I still haven't figured out what to name (my old, now-abandoned Gondria was named Terpsichore, but I'm not particularly attached to the name), and I'm still not 100% sure I'll keep her, but she's clicked better than Gondria or any other saber cat ever has. It helps that blue's my favorite color.
Still, I wanted Deth. So I figured that since Skitterflame wasn't clicking, I'd just abandon him once I found Deth again.
I went back to the Forlorn Spire yesterday evening, around 11:30pm. Another hunter was there, so I wished him luck and left. When I next passed by, 45 minutes later, he no longer was there and there were a few skeletons on the floor that hadn't been there before. Deth had spawned, then. Good.
Got up this morning bright and early, trekked up to the Forlorn Spire. Sat there for a few hours, then a horde hunter arrived and promptly killed me. I ran back, got killed again, ran back, got killed again, ran back and managed to get the jump on him.
While I was waiting for him to resurrect, another alliance hunter, trailing a Deth and setting off my NPCScan. I started chatting with him and he helped me kill the enemy hunter until he gave up and left.
Then horde hunter #2 showed up. He didn't seem unfriendly, he made no move to attack either of us. Little did I know - as soon as the alliance hunter left, he promptly killed me. And unlike the other horde hunter, he was wearing PVP gear, which meant I couldn't manage to kill him.
By this point I was really panicking. I figured the hunter would just keep ganking me until Deth spawned, at which point we'd have a full-out war over Deth. But then, after a bit, he got bored and wandered off.
Then a third horde hunter showed up. And killed me. Over and over. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.
And then he must've also gotten bored, because he wandered off. I ressed and, as a precaution, brought my main over to the Forlorn Spire as well. (My main is a druid. I run two accounts. At that point, I had my main logged in on my own computer, and my hunter logged in on my boyfriend's computer - so when Deth spawned, my boyfriend could help me out by chain-rooting using my druid, so I wouldn't have to kite out from behind the Spire and risk getting the attention of more horde.)
Unfortunately, by that point, I'd also realized that Skitterflame was clicking with me, and I did not, after all, want to abandon him. Which left me with 5 pets in my actives I didn't want to abandon. Bugger.
So I did the only sensible thing to do and rode away from the Spire, out of the Molten Front, flew to the Shrine of Aviana, and started rummaging around in my stables, trying to figure out which pet I was least attached to so I would have a free spot for Deth. Not that one, not that one, not that one, hmm, maybe this o--OHBUGGERDETHISUP.
Shrieked for my boyfriend to get to the computer, dragged the abandonable pet to my actives, mounted up and flew / rode like hell towards the Spire. Summoned and ditched the pet, tamed a handy disposable spider and started the tame process.
Thanks to the druid roots, the tame went really quickly and smoothly - took about a minute and a half or so to get Deth down to tamable health. It helped that I didn't need to kite at all.
And literally 10 seconds after the tame went off, horde hunter #2 showed back up. And killed me, of course, but I honestly didn't mind. He could've showed up earlier and taken Deth from me.
Still don't know what I'll name Deth, either. (What is with these new rares not wanting to name themselves?) But yay, finally.
Now I'm really done. Well, until my second hunter hits level 85, then I get to go after Kirix, Karkin, Anthriss and Ankha. But until then I'm done.
