How do you choose?

[Nightfall]

Well today marks the day that to which i have caught all of Northrend's Spirit Beasts.Hopefully soon to be Cataclysm's once i hit level 85.I find all my spirit beasts all have a different appeal, to which i must ask, surely i'm not alone?Surely someone els spent quite a bit of their time capturing these beauties, so on i ask how do you decide which to use and when?Thanks for any replies and i'd like to wish or break a leg if you're superstitious to anyone who is still out there on the cold breathe of Northrend waiting for a lucky break or for their patience to pay off.Oh and some screenshots if you're interested...


Arcturis, i loved the name enough that i didn't change it.

Skoll, Mjöllnir named after Thor's hammer, it felt fitting.

Gondria, Banshee named after Lament of the Highborne (Song you'll find Sylvanas playing)

Loque'Nahak, Ragepaw named after Tur Ragepaw, the druid furbolg



I had a lot of fun hunting these spirit beasts despite the majority of it being an anxiety-fueled wait where even the corpse of a dead bird would make me panic if only for a few seconds.

Happy Hunting everyone!


PS:Why is it that when i want to post images they display a small white square with shapes in it rather than the image?

[Daranara]

*raise hand* Spirit-beast-aholic here too. It wasn't -supposed- to be like that.... but so it goes. You get one, then oh look there's another... and another... and suddenly you're camping the last one because you have all the others you just have to finish the set.

As to your question... I do like to keep some with different sets of talents, so there's Charlie for instances, Tesla for pvp, Ben for loltanking so on so forth. But by and large it's pretty much a matter of "hey, I haven't used X in a while/X needs leveling/I feel like using X today" as far as the how and when I use them.

[Jagwyr]

Congrats on your tames.

I just rotate them. Usually I'll visit the stable every couple days and swap them in/out.

Sometimes I'll assign a certain pet to a specific dungeon, though... for example, I like to use Sambas in Lost City of Tol'vir and Ghostcrawler in Throne of the Tides, cause they match the themes of the places.

[Krunkk]

I envy you guys, I don't have the patience or the luck to camp for rares. All I have is skoll and I've been attempting to find Sambas

[Shade]

Surely someone els spent quite a bit of their time capturing these beauties, so on i ask how do you decide which to use and when?

Good luck with the Cata ones and congrats on the WotLK ones.

I have them all now, some hunts took as long as four months, while a few took a matter of minutes. Two were just sheer dumb luck, I looked down and there they were.

As to whom I pick?

Loque-I spent a long time taming him and he is the reason I became a hunter when I first joined, so he is always with me.

And...

I'm really fond of Karoma. I've had him in my active pet slots with Loque for a good while now.

So I actually run with two spirit beasts right now. If I need to put one away for some reason, I usually will keep Loque with me.

[Lupis]

I really just pick who I like the looks of, although if I run across one that I don't find appealing I'll tame it anyway, because they tend to grow on me.
Loque? Didn't like his model at first. He's adorable, but I don't really use him much.
Gondria? Beautiful, but another one I don't use.
Arcturis? I really wanted him - first one I camped for hours for.
Skoll? Oh, geeze, I stayed up at night thinking about him! So pretty.
Karoma? I think she's beautiful, and I was really intent to tame her.
Ghostcrawler? Actually, I didn't want him, really, until I ran into him. He's a lot prettier in action.

[Kurasu]

I... don't know how I decide. At the moment, I only have two: Arcturis and Karoma. I love Gondria, but to be honest he would take a backseat, so I released him. Loque? I picked him up on the PTR to run around with, and he's wonderful, but my other two win. Ghostcrawler, I've not yet seen and didn't have too much interest in. And I worry I'll eventually need to narrow it down to one Spirit Beast and I don't know which!

[Alcama]

I'm mostly PvP'ing at the moment so I tend to just use Loque since I don't want to advertise my spec. He's the only one that to the untrained eye (from a distance) doesn't scream "spirit beast". Also, I quite like him . If I was doing PvE I'd probably go with Gondria, there's just something about her...

[Makoes]

I've tamed Loque, gondria and skoll. Seen Ghostcrawler, and never camped arcturis.

Bears where never a high model on my like list...there big bear ass sticking in the air is the main turn-off for me

Crabs although look neat...Having delt with real life crabs since I was a kid and loved the beach...never seem to have a personality to me, making them hard to bond with.

Skoll was really cool, except the starved worg model is one of my least favourite models in the whole game...its like looking at a furry supermodel.

Gondria I kept for a time, but just couldn't connect with her. I am just not a fan of that style transparent model...

However, Loque was the first spirit beast I tamed, and the only one I really determindly camped, and spent several sleepless night flying around on a 60% mount watching other hunters searching on there 100% flyers.
And the botched first attempt at a tame when I got mob'd by wasps and had to FD in the river...the 2nd attempt was almost as botched because my hands where shaking so bad I could hit the right buttons, but I managed to get the tame, and Ultima's been with me since. i am actually bringing him out more in Cata then I did in Wrath.

[Tsiya]

I have GC set up for tanking, Arcturis for solo with the armor and dps talents, and Skoll will be for instances with full dps. Loque will probably be set up as a solo pet as well, haven't decided.

[Rhyela]

I think I only have room in my heart for one spirit beast - Gondria. I've had her, Loque'nahak, and Arcturis, and none of them really bonded with me the way she did. So while Karoma is neat, I'm not sure whether or not I would tame it if I found it.