'Special Snowflakes' and Hunter Starter Pets

[Cialbi]

So, I was leveling up a new hunter (If you see Nazthandol in the Petopians guild, that would be me ), and couldn't help but be bothered by the fact that all the hunters running around this afternoon have the exact same pet. I've consciously noticed that it's made me less and less attached to my dutiful Rouge, which is a shame. Because of this, I plan on stabling Rouge ASAP and taming a new pet to level with. Once I'm out of Mulgore, I plan on using Rouge again, and seeing if I can rebuild a bond with him (yes, Rouge is a he; when it comes to birds, the males are the ones to fuss over their looks).

This brings me to a question, for those of you who have created a new hunter after 4.0.1 went live. Were you able to bond with your starter pet, or did the creature feel about as unique as a mage's Water Elemental? I opted not to include a poll, as I'm more interested in individual responses and experiences.

As an extension to that question, what would your opinion be on having 'customizable' starter pets? Give the player a few common skins of their particular starter pet to choose from, so that it doesn't feel so much like your pet is just a component of a starter package (I can't help but imagine a recruiter handing my hunter an ostrich by the neck, as if it were just another standard-issue spear from the armory). Interesting idea, but not exactly high on my wish list. *shrug*

[Lisaara]

Not really....then again....Mastiffs werent my cup of tea....

[Samarachan]

Never really. They go to the stables instantly for nostalgia's sake, but get abandoned eventually. Too many wolves, too many moths. As for nelfs, it bothers me having the Rak'shiri skin without it being the actual Rak'shiri. It's like cheating idk. Therefor, stabled and forgotten...

[Sarayana]

Personally I don't mind. The point is to have a guardian for those first ten levels, so it makes sense that it's something that either suits the zone or the race. If you don't get attached to it, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I started my goblin with the intention of keeping the crab, and I've become very fond of her. To me, it's not about what I see around me, but about whether or not the pet takes on any kind of personality to me. That usually comes down to the name and little quirks of the pet.

[Azunara]

Yeah. In Beta, I held onto Barky, even though he ended up becoming a stable guardian.

My favorite temp pet ever has to be my female worgen's. (Don't know if she'll stay.) I had to think of a name, and I thought about a collaborative story my friends and I are writing. One of my friends has a dog in the story named Darius. (She doesn't play WoW, by the way.) So I decided, Hey! I'll name him Darius! So I'm questing, and then I reach a point where I'm told to free the prisoner. I'm all, "Hi Darius! Did you see my dog? He's named...Darius...oh...fel...><'"

I felt so stupid naming him that. At this point, I'm justifying it with a "It's like naming your dog George, even though that's the president's name."

[Kalliope]

I haven't leveled a new baby hunter yet, so I can't speak for myself personally, but I would LOVE the option to choose between a few colors on character creation.

[Rhyela]

I haven't been able to bond with my pets, either. On Niara, I started out with the Rak'shiri model cat and while I like Rak'shiri, it just didn't seem to suit my hunter. So, when I was high enough, I tamed Shadowclaw.

[Raydex-of-the-dawn]

It depends. Sahariel kept her black boar, and hunter-Drassil her crab, though.

[Pwncess]

I've started a few hunters but have never kept the pet. I just don't care much for the starter pets for hunters, especially the moth for a Draenei. While it may be pretty and some get attached cause you start out with it for the first few levels, I prefer a pet that holds aggro and helps tank the target so I can pewpew. While I was leveling my hunter (Pwncess), I kept a pig or a bear with me, regardless of the look. I didn't go rare pet hunting hardcore until I became 80 and could just go back and get whatever I cared for to raid and do dailies with.

[Lupis]

I like the Tauren tallstrider, but that's really all. All the others seem bland, especially the Worgen mastiff and the Human wolf. I really dislike that wolf for some reason, even though I like it on other characters.

[Cialbi]

I've started a few hunters but have never kept the pet. I just don't care much for the starter pets for hunters, especially the moth for a Draenei. While it may be pretty and some get attached cause you start out with it for the first few levels, I prefer a pet that holds aggro and helps tank the target so I can pewpew. While I was leveling my hunter (Pwncess), I kept a pig or a bear with me, regardless of the look. I didn't go rare pet hunting hardcore until I became 80 and could just go back and get whatever I cared for to raid and do dailies with.

Do keep in mind that before level 10 (talking about pet level, to be clear), all pets are equal. A moth does as much damage as a wolf, and takes as much damage as a turtle, at those levels. Then, from 10 to 20, special abilities come into play, but there remains no difference between Cunning, Ferocity, and Tenacity, because your pet has no talent points yet. Finally, from 20 to 32, there still is no difference between Cunning and Ferocity since they will have access to the exact same talent points, and Tenacity only differs slightly in that it has Charge instead of Dash/Dive.

[ummeiko]

I did enjoy my NE starter cat, but since I tamed Frank (Shadowclaw) I've found myself using him exclusively, which was a surprise.

[Shade]

I don't think hunters are special enough that we need to be able to pick our version of our starter pet-I mean warriors don't get to pick their sword design after all. Blizz has done enough in just giving us a pet to start with at all.

Shade didn't bond with her 'starter' pet as it were, because she was made before we had them. I did keep the first lynx she tamed for a good while be eventually got something I liked better.

Gypsi gave up her starter pet-but then I hate crabs and wanted the color changing spikey raptor on her before I race and faction changed her.

Kitsune still has her starter pet, a little dragonhawk named Ren, whom I don't plan on getting rid of any time soon.

[Vetiver]

i ditched my crab asap haha...had to get a color changer raptor, anyway!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Hell, I'm happy we got starter pets at all and that Blizz is making a better effort to get players playing their class more correctly right off the start.

Personally I feel like this is a case of special snowflake syndrome. Who cares if every one's running around with the same pet from levels 1-10? So long as the pet is important to you, that's all that matters. And like any other pet we hunters tame, if we don't bond with it, we let it go.

[Chimera]

I hate hate hate spiders but i rolled an undead hunter and i for some reason completely adore Skitters (named her spider that) thing is tho i dont like the model so im gonna 'pretend' skitters went pokemon on me and evolved into the kick ass spiky black n red spider when i get her high enough (if i ever do that is) roflol

Btw the name Snowflake has me logging on to go to tame either the White Jomungar or black model

[Araela]

I tried to bond with my human hunter's wolf but as soon as I hit 10 and got tame beast, I stabled him. He hasn't been back out yet.

[Mozag]

In my case:

Orc: Much as I liked the piggie, it wasn't my favourite skin, so I sort of "recreated" him by running to Mulgore and getting myself a brown armoured one. And not on fire either. It was cute using the boar, with it's adorable animations, and I definitely bonded with this one more than some other starter pets.

Human: I got mine to 11, and during that time the wolf did nothing for me. I was planning to rid myself of it as soon as possible.

Dwarf: On Ethel, Malt became one of her main men. I love that brown bear and it's "intelligent eyes", as someone here on petopia has named them. Still, I deleted her, and recreated the Dwarf for nostalgia reasons to look like my old Warrior, and for her I intend to get the black bear instead.

Tauren: I really like that tallstrider model, but it just wasn't working for me. They're so ridiculously small next to Taurens. It was yet another nail in the coffin for this tallstrider skin.

Night Elf: Anemone and I bonded to some extent, I have to admit. But like Sam, I consider it "cheating" to have this rare skin as a starter pet, and since I had several more tiger mount skins planned for Lomelinda, I let her go. Will tame the skin on someone else later.

Draenei: The moth just wasn't working for me at all. I think that moth may have been the biggest reason I deleted the hunter.

Goblin: I really dislike the old world crab model, and both times I've leveled a Goblin Hunter, the animal has gone bye-bye the second I can tame something better.

Worgen: The dog and I weren't clicking, though I love mastiffs in real life. I did feel a small wrench in my heart when I let him go, since story-wise we'd been through so much together. Still, can't say I've looked back.

I'm very grateful to Blizzard for letting us have a starter pet in the first place, since I remember all too vividly the days of eternal kiting to level 10, but I'm a huge fan of customisation, so if that was actually available for starter pets, I'd probably have to go make a hunter or two more.

[TygerDarkstorm]

How is the night elf starter pet "cheating"? It was the first pet to use that skin. Blizz didn't give it to Rak'Shiri until people started complaining that it was only available to new night elves. Now people are complaining that the skin is even used on a starter pet... =/

[Kurasu]

Me, with Aloicious, I was so happy to get rid of the mastiff. I never bonded with it. Not in the least. I guess I didn't try too hard, though. And of course, my 'challenge hunter' doesn't really count; she had to trade up the moment she could.

When Aloicious got to level 10 and trained Beast Taming, I had the story that the caravan worker, the one with the crashed vehicle, asked him if he could keep the well-trained mastiff that Aloicious had been given. And as Aloicious had this 'power' over the beasts, he was more than willing to give Aowyn, his hound, up. Besides, it let him go and get one of the crocs.