Finding "The One"

[Sar]

No, not your romantic other

How did you know, and how long did it take you to bond with your main pet?

Was it an immediate thing, a pet you'd been after for ages? Or was it a whim tame that stuck? If it did, why?

Just curious to hear stories of other hunters finding their primary pet, the one you have out like 90% of the time.

[Snowwalker]

I have 'cough' one or two hunters out there.. And I've found it's never the same. I've had pets that are special because of what it took to get them. I've had some that were whim tames that just stole my heart with their instant personality. Some I picked out because they suited the hunters persona. But I always know because it seems to take no time to bond, and generally, their name will come to me pretty quick. One of my favorite personalities is Moochie. He was just a whim tame, while waiting to greet Hawkbane home. Got dungeon qued, so he came along. This loud mouthed, lilac colored thing that I thought just screamed sissy. He proved everyone wrong when at the end of Utgard Keep, and the dust settled, the party lay dead except a certain lilac lizard. I had always liked warpies, but.. That sold me. Now Mooch is one of my favorite tanks, and certainly one of my top personalities. [Though he keeps molting different colors from time to time]

Another won my heart tame was just a common wolf in Elwin Forest. There was a Belf causing trouble at the tower there. Low lvl Belf. So I didn't even go up after him, I sent in this new wolf. Killed the Belf dead. And as we watched, to our utter hysteria, the belf actually came back and tried again. I sent the wolf up the stairs.. The Belf ACTUALLY tried jumping, to his death, but figuring he had better chances with that then the wolf. Several times he met his fate at the fangs of that wolf. I named that wolf Elfbane, still have him.

Your very main pet, however, is a special breed. Snow's is a white frostsaber named Pujurak, or Icy Mist. He started out as the cat model, but then when they changed some of the cats, he grew up into the riding model. So my boy's grown up with Snow. I just see so much personality in his face. When you see Snow, unless I need a tank, you'll see Puju.

[Sukurachi]

On one of my pairs of hunters, one had the chance to tame Magria... and I REALLY took a liking to that pet.

So when the chance finally presented itself, my 2nd hunter of that pair was able to tame Ankha!

So now they have matching kitties called Maggie and Annie.

But my "real" main uses a shale spider. I don't have an emotional connection to it, but it's a useful pet.

Funny thing is, I tamed Karoma, thinking it would be "the one"... and I barely ever use him. No idea why. It's just not clicking.

[Equeon]

Well, Loque was obviously going to be one of my favorites ever since I saw another hunter with the model. I absolutely loved it, and his newer, fancier model sets him apart from many other cats in my eyes, and the fact that he's a glowing blue/white, yet mostly solid spirit beast helps as well. However, I can't help but feel I'm a bit cliche, so now I'll tell you about my absolute favorite pet.

Krilte, my silithid, is just a wonderful PvP pet. I'm not sure how easy re-speccing pets is in MoP, but if it's as simple as a few clicks without having to visit someone, I'll definitely put him as ferocity every now and then and bring him to a dungeon or something. I had looked up on Petopia (the website, not these forums) right after I first joined WoW what some cool pets were, and I saw Lord Kri there and thought "wow." Although I forgot about him for a bit, along my journey to 85 I saw several more "boss silithid" models, but I saw that no one else had tamed the orange skin. So I convinced a few friends and guildies to run AQ40 with me when I was geared enough, and the tame was done.
To this day, I still get whispers saying "where do you get that pet?"

[Lupis]

Oh, let's see…

On Rassaa, it was instant. It just took a while for me to realize it. I had a sudden urge to go tame that "ugly red lynx" that I used to hate, and when I did, he just fit. I loved him. But new, exciting pets came out, so for a long time, he was stabled. Fairly recently I logged on Ras again, and I realized that I just… didn't like any of her pets. I went through her stable, then fell on Tinder, her lynx. Oh right, him. I pulled him out and boom, it was perfect. Rassaa felt right. This was her pet. I ended up emptying out her stable almost completely, but Tinder stayed, and he's not going anywhere.

Vallrok took some, uh, fiddling. At first he had Sorrow, his lovely white tiger. Eventually, like an idiot, I abandoned him for bigger, better pets. But I then tamed Faron, his Skoll. Click. Faron is his iconic pet- I turned Faron into an RP character, and I adore him. He turns Vallrok into a completely different person.

Daphine… Doesn't have one. v.v TARDIS her spider is close, but his lack of usefulness in dungeons keeps me from using him much. I just swap between pets on her...

[Azunara]

Uh. Well, Moonlight was Firewing's primary pet for quite some time, and he and I clicked very well. Sadly, the change between skins sort of ruined him for me--yes, call me shallow or whatever--but Moonlight was gone with the skin change. Even when they changed him back, it just wasn't the same. He still sits there in my stable, tutoring Fire's other pets these days, usually Aralos the Gondria.

A little less in game but still the one never the less probably has to be Tirrae the warp stalker. A RP character through and through, controlled by Lupis, she was a little warp stalker that ended up getting paired with my druid, Azunara. After several hijinks involving a dead druid and other events, Tirrae once more was bonded with one of my characters, Kozri the dragon. Really, Tirrae is just the bestest lizard ever. XD

...And lastly I will jump in and say while Lupis's Daphne may not have a signature pet, her Loque, Kamar, is probably my favorite pet. I always get excited when Lupis pulls out Kamar. And when we do instancey things for mounts, Kamar is always on the dot healing me without Lupis telling him too. XD

So there you go. Two out of three pets aren't even mine. Go figure.

[Vephriel]

I think somehow...you just know when you find that pet. It's never something you have to force, and sometimes it's not even a conscious decision on your part.

I'm sure it's a little different for every person, but for me I went through two expansions before finding "the one".

I had pets I cared about through Vanilla and The Burning Crusade, but none of them quite reached that level. The hardest part was, it's not something I could have known at the time. I didn't realize there could be a bond that went deeper, so to me these pets were the highest point, if that makes sense.

It wasn't until Wrath of the Lich King and I finally tamed a black devilsaur that I understood. The day Skorn came to me I just knew...he was the one I was waiting for. The seeming familiarity of his form beside me, the way his name just came to my head. Everything clicked. I had finally found my main pet, and I didn't know it until that exact moment.

I know not everyone puts so much emotional weight behind their pets, but I really love the depth it adds. I become attached to them the way I become attached to favourite characters from a novel. They develop their own personalities and presences and it brings so much more to the game. I might be a little sentimental when I talk about this, but I guess it's the only way I can try to describe it.

[Rhapture]

Surprisingly, I do not think I have found that pet on Rhap. I have pets that I am very fond of with her and a few that I would never release, but there is not one that comes to mind instantly if I had to make the decision to only have one pet for her.

My goblin hunter however, is a different story. If she could only have one pet it would hands down be Fig, her green and purple beetle. I did not expect her to bond with this pet as much as she did, I had only planned on getting her a beetle for a tank pet and had the color combo in mind. As soon as I tamed him though, I knew at once that there was a special bond there and his funny name popped in my head immediately. I adore Fig with her and he is the one she has out pretty much constantly. I am excited that she will soon be able to make him a DPS pet so that she can have him by her side even when she is in dungeons.

[Golden]

For most of my toons it tends to be their first (or one of the first) permanent pets - usually it's a rare or otherwise named mob, or sometimes it may have had a special perk in the wild (the running bear in Northern Silverpine Forest, that cat that's fallen through the ground and is now stuck on a roof in Exodar, etc).


For my main Nanyana, it was her Ghost Saber Usva. That particular look had been my dream pet ever since I discovered Petopia when I was just starting with the game. For the longest time Usva was the only pet Nani ever used, and even now she's almost always one of her active pets. RP-wise Nani's connection with Usva is much stronger than any of my other Hunters have: they share each other's very thoughts and feelings (which tends to have some extremely explosive results at times). In-game they have this amazing habit to look around at exactly the same time - something none of my other Hunters and their pets do nearly as much.

For Nanyana's daughter it was always her Dishu, whom she renamed Latarir, after her father. That's purely from what me and a friend have RPed: her getting the cat when he was just a kit as a gift from the father she loves so much.

For my first Horde Hunter, it's Takk the Leaper, renamed Azubuike. For him it was the fact that he simply refused to spawn for Subira, not to mention all the super affectionate, even flirty emotes he would do when I had PetEmote. He clearly considered Subira more than just his mistress, companion or friend - she was his mate, and he would do anything to see her safe.

Finally for my Undead Hunter Ajali, it's Plague, who started off as the plagued wolf with the plague cloud effect, then changed numerous times between that and the healthy black wolf before finally giving in to the sickness and taking the form of Karoma.

[Hilde]

I'm not sure I've found it yet, maybe because I had this "gotta catch em all" thing before MOP hits(because of higher chances with the lower activity atm)

My terrorpene sheldon is definitely one of my favorites, he will be great for soloing/questing. I mean come on, he's a fire turtle.
For BM it's my skoll Sparky, maybe because I'm a wolf myself and it feels right.
For non BM it's Sambas. He looks so awesome and regal.
When I leveled my main guy was a devilsaur from Un'Goro, but I'm not sure I'm feeling it at the moment. Maybe it's because I'm worgen. Had I been a troll or a Goblin I'd probably be a bigger fan

[Makoes]

When I got my hunter to lv 10, and did the quests to learn how to tame a pet, I went looking for something...different. So many people where running around with cats, bears, striders, wolves...the classic low level pets that everyone has, tamed a toss away cat to level up with. Darkshore, same thing, hunters running around with that zones beasts...boring, nothing original, frustrating. Then I wondered into the Barrens and saw something I had never seen before...the Hyena! Grinded up a few levels and then was able to run over and tame one. I had that Hyena "Nanaki" from lv 13 or so to lv 30-ish, when I wondered into SM in a party and saw the Red Hyena's! Love at first sight! The red ones where so much more fitting for the name I'd given my yellow hyena. So, getting a buddy of mine to bring me back to SM when I was at a level to tame one.
I don't play on an RP server, not back then, but I swear, when I tamed my red Hyena, and named him, he turned around and slaughtered those that had kept him captive for so long behind the confining walls of SM. Big grins on our faces, we left that place and turned to the world, it was just an instant bond. From that day forward, Nanaki has been by my side, and will be by my side as we rip through MoP and beyond!

I have a couple other hunters, but none, not even the ones on my RP server, have as strong or as deep of a bond as my Main hunter has with Nanaki. My RP hunter runs with Kurken (corehound) named Frostfang. They are getting a stronger bond, and her mog set is catered to his look (as my main hunters mog set is centered around Nanaki). My Petopian hunter though...still hasnt really found a pet that clicks with her yet. and a Nuzlocke hunter of mine (still low lv) still just has her default moth pet, havent seen anything that catches my eye with her yet.

[Falcon]

For Toph, it's Hawkbane, and she waited for years to finally be able to have him by her side. That tiger is the sole reason why I have Toph, I wouldn't have created her otherwise. His untimely disappearance back in early BC left me heartbroken, and for years, I cycled through different characters, with Hawkbane constantly at the back of my mind. No matter how hard I tried to forget him, he just would not go away, and it wasn't until right after the release of Cata that I finally got the courage to come forward and try to solve the mystery behind why Hawkbane had been removed. With the help of the community here, my thread ended up being noticed by Noah, who put Hawkbane back into the game in patch 4.1, and I ended up pulling an all-nighter because I'd ended up oversleeping the day the patch went live. While Toph's pets are actively cycled through, Hawkbane rarely ever leaves her active party because it doesn't feel right for him not to be right there with her, and I make sure to have him in the number one slot. No other pet has affected me as deeply as Hawkbane has, and none probably ever will. That tiger means everything to me, and I can rest easy knowing that he's finally home.

Dejanira has Battra, her swiftwing shredder from Netherstorm. He's always in her active party, and one of the first ones I'd planned to get for her kaiju themed stables. Battra has this commanding, yet reassuring aura about him whenever I have him out. He's rarely affectionate (in the way of love shocks thanks to PetEmote), since he takes his duty as Dejanira's guardian quite seriously, and he's always on the lookout for danger, even when they're in the safety of a town or city.

[Flyra]

So I'm not just the only person who has that one special pet XD
For me it has always been and always will be my beautiful spirit beast leopard, Nyx. I spent absolutely ages flying around goddamn sholazar basin trying to tame loque. I knew that he would be the "one" before I even tamed him. I remember just looking down from my drake to see him prowling around and being in complete shock at how amazing he looked. I used to take him everywhere, in every dungeon , to every zone. He would never leave my side. It's somewhat comforting to have a fierce firey leopard as your companion.

It's a shame I play MarksMan all the time now , I really would have liked to kill Deathwing with Nyx.

Another pet which I have a very strong bond with is Aries, my Pogyan. Pogyan is the "fire spirit" of stranglethorn so I thought it would be fitting to call her after a fire starsign. Sometimes I go without using her for months then when I use her again I kick myself for not getting her sooner. Took many hours of camping to finally tame her too.. She's just one of those pets who always manage to save your butt at the last minute.

[Wain]

For my hunter it's my white bear, Winterclaw. My hunter is a white-furred tauren with puppydog eyes, in a time when everyone seemed to make jet black tauren with scowls (and probably still do!)

As soon as he was high enough to tame, he left Mulgore and ran across two continents to tame a white bear in Dun Morogh. He didn't die once, though I did have a high level friend come in to distract the dwarven guards in the tunnnels while he ran through (long before flying in the old world). And the crocs that would suddenly lurch out of the water at you in the Wetlands were a bit of a rush.

That white bear is almost always his solo pet. It's the one pet I would never, ever get rid of on him. It's part of the toon as far as I'm concerned.

[Dalianza]

I technically have two. I have Viggo (who I just wrote about on my new blog! http://tameknitread.blogspot.com.au/201 ... first.html who after all my years of taming beasts I have never been able to release, even when stable space was at a premium and he wasn't getting used.

And then there is Raiden. My Loque Raiden is the pet that made me hunter pet mad. From the first images released, to hearing other hunter's success stories, he is the number one pet I have wanted more than any other. Taming him brought on my first ever "hunter shakes" (maybe it's just me, but it's when you're shaking so much from the taming adrenaline that you can barely even use a mouse), and has been my primary pet ever since I found and tamed him. (he's going to get a post on my blog soon too). Of all my current and past pets, he is the one I think I adore the most.

I mean *shifty eyes* I love all my pets equally and without bias *peers over shoulder at my very full stable*

[Moonlost]

I went through a lot of pets on my huntress, Durana. And, well. I wish I could say that I had the same sort of pure love for these pixels that a lot of people on these forums do for theirs. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy and love my pets, but I don't really have that bond that people speak of.
Well, the closest I have to that bond is her simple red outlands raptor, Forge. I tamed him very much on a whim late during WotLK and quickly fell in love with his animations. The way he 'glides' alongside my stumpy little dwarf just fits. What strikes me most about him, however, is how his colouration changes so dramatically in areas tinted a different colour than usual, particularly in Icecrown.

[Teigan]

My goblin hunter Teigan randomly tamed the green crab with blue marks that spawns during a quest. I slapped a name on him and didn't think much of it. I'd never liked crab pets, let alone bonded with one. But for some reason Rune became "her one." It just...happened. I don't use him all the time, but if I could only have one pet it would be him.

Rune is also one of the few to develop a definite personality. He's there for me when I'm sad or anxious. He may not be out, but knowing he's two clicks away in my active stables is a comfort. Somehow, he knows when to emote reaching out and gently "hugging" me with his claw. He's such a gentle, kind creature. He's my friend. Sounds silly, I know. He's pixels. But...

[Kalliope]

I bonded with Ursa before I ever set foot in WoW. No matter how much I bond with other pets (yes, even Orpheus), Ursa is my #1.

[GormanGhaste]

I don't really have a main pet. It's true I'm fonder of some of my pets than others, and if pressed for a favorite I'd say my brown Silithid trio (Beetle, Wasp, ant Silithid), but other than particular situations where I'm looking for certain utility, I play all my pets fairly evenly.

[Hisae]

I'll add my little story. ^_^
As you all know, I've deleted and restored my hunter, renamed her and remade her SOOO many times, BUT the only constant that seems to stay is the spirit beast, Loque'nahak. I tamed him during my life in California and I thought it would be best to let him go, which I did. Though, he constantly kept coming back and now I have her back, PERMANENTLY, her name is Farron and FINALLY she is level 85! He is still with her but I might change his name to something else but he is so protective of her, he always kept danger away from her. He is her "the one" pet as he fits her so well.