Racial Starting Pet Ideas

[Qraljar]

What with the dwarf hunter starting pet becoming using the new bear model (I realize this is automated, because par the specific, deliberate exclusions, the new model is being applied to all bears) in Legion, I thought it might be a nice time to update the hunter starting pets for all races.

Mind you, this wouldn't affect starting zone creatures, but just the pets they start out with. This makes the game feel more up-to-date, than having to start with a new character model and level for 80+ levels before you can get a fairly up-to-date creature that doesn't look jarring alongside the new character models.

The creatures in the above picture are my suggestions, but it could be you disagree with me, either on the pets being changed at all, or my suggestions for the replacement, in which case, I wonder what you think would be better replacements.

And back onto the topic of weirdly outdated hunter pets alongside HD player models: I would really like if Blizzard were to add another batch of rares (like they did in MoP) that adds unused (or at lower level unavailable) models to lower level zones.

Oh man I wish the druid bird forms looked that beautiful

http://legion.wowhead.com/item=129021/g ... d-by-spell

You should have more ideas, because Blizzard seems to be digging into your mind, Jun.

Not the first time they've done that. They must be out with their spy vans again!

Sneaky sneaky!

You should think more about Kunchong as hunter pets.

Also, I'd personally like if there were more glyphs, such as to change the flight form to that new Legion raven, to the MoP bat model and Legion eagle.

It wouldn't be exclusive, but whereas the owl is a great night elf flight form, the raven would be nice for worgen, the bat nice for trolls and the eagle nice for tauren.

[zedxrgal]

All the support. I love the idea of them changing the starting pets to new models. Personally I wish they would

[Quiv]

I love all these.

I've loved the idea of starting pets, but I wish one thing would change. Instead of just starting with one already there, have part of the level 1 intro quests (like the first quest or so) have you go pick one.

Take the orc and boar in your example, you could go to a pen, turn in a quest, and you'd be allowed to cast "tame beast" on one of three new model boars of different colors. Then you'd start your questing normally.

They could even give options, say blood elves can tame a lynx or a mana wyrm. It would just be a bit more immersive than simply starting with one.

[Arthur]

I like your idea but the talbuk for draenei seems a bit odd to me. Are there any talbuk where the starting zone is? How do they get the pet? Did it come with them? I'm not disagreeing with you or trying to fight by the way.
The rest of them are perfect and make perfect sense - I just got confused by the appearance of talbuk.

[pop]

Personally, I feel that Orc huntesr should start with wolves or a scorpids, Human hunters with dogs and Worgen hunters with crows. I think eagles would be a better starting pet for Tauren hunters. If rats are tamable, I prefer Goblin hunters to start off with rats. I also think Draenei Hunter should start of with Draenor Ravager or Draenor Sporebats.

My reason is that I think that Orcs have more affinity to wolves, and dogs are traditionally are human's companion. They are a lot of Ravens in Gilneas and ravens are smart enough to follow around to scavenge on any of a savage worgen's kills.

There's a quest where Taurens are turned into spirit eagle in the Tauren starting zone and I think eagle spirits play a big part in Tauren tradition. Not to mention, traditionally Tauren hunt kodos not hunt with it. The reason I think rats are the best Goblins' pets is because they are like Goblins; sneaky and opportunistic as well as Goblins can feed them with scraps.


As for Draeneis I pick either ravagers or sporebats, because I think that would symbolize how much actually they are from a different world.

[Wain]

Note: just split this topic off from the pet list thread, as it's a great discussion and worthy of its own thread.

[Vephriel]

I really like a lot of these ideas! Some of them could definitely use an update I think. The kodos for tauren are perfect, I've always felt the bright purple tallstrider was out of place in Mulgore.

I also love the idea of having a few options to choose from. Even just 3 would feel perfect, a bit like pokemon, choosing your starter pet and having more of an individual bond because of it.

[Wain]

I would love to see some updates to more starting models creep in. I'd also love to see Quiv's idea of a few configurable options for the starting pet. It doesn't have to be many, maybe three max. of one set colour each, and you'd select it on your character creation screen. It would be just enough to feel like you have some involvement in your pet.

Something like:

Blood Elf: dragonhawk, mana wyrm, lynx
Undead: spider, bat, devil dog (they're all over the place in Tirisfal)
Orc: boar, wolf (there has to be a wolf option!), scorpid
Tauren: tallstrider, kodo, wolf or vulture
Troll: raptor, wind serpent, bat
Goblin: crab, monkey (somehow it feels fitting to me that a goblin orders a little humanoid about), something mechanical?, chimaera?
Pandaren: dragon turtle, mushan, crane, (quilen if exotic classification was removed), or even yak
Human: wolf, hawk, no idea
Dwarf: bear, snow leopard, (gryphon or ram, if they ever became tameable)
Night Elf: nightsaber, stag, sentinel owl, (hippogryph, if they ever became tameable)
Gnome: rabbot, mechanostrider, ?
Draenei: moth, talbuk, Outland-style ravager
Worgen: dog, raven, hawk

The problem is there's a mix of older and newer models, but the variety is still good.

[Kalliope]

Aahhh, I love that idea, Wain! It's a little of the flavor of the old intro to taming quests.

Maybe a fox for the third human pet? And a fluxfire feline type cat for gnomes? Mechanical raptor for goblins?

[Quiv]

I hope Shem sees this

Adding the three choices, whether its from an intro quest or on the character select screen, would be really cool. I know nothing about the development side of things, but it doesn't strike me as being too involved (I hope!)

[Arthur]

Choosing a companion/pet would be cool. That's what you can do in GW2 when you make a ranger. You can pick from three pets. IIRC