Kora's Story : Taming Black and Gold

It was in the midst of the Feast of Winterveil, and the blood elf huntress stood, hand steady on the hilt of a worn blade, the best she could afford. Her green eyes watered in the icy cold, blinking away wind stung tears as she watched the grass waver and move across the Barrens.

There! She squinted, and the shape of the leopard she had been tracking resolved out from the wind torn shadows of grass and branch. It yawned, topaz eyes blinking briefly. Her breath slipped soundlessly from her mouth, even as her fingers clamped down on the blade, then went soft as the ears flicked towards the sound. She glanced again at her feet. The trap was set. She rose from an easy crouch and her eyes locked with the topaz ones of the beast.

The leopard roared and leapt, fangs bared and claws unsheathed. Kora flung herself backwards, hoping the trap would hold long enough for her to convince the golden furred feline that she was not attempting to kill it, but befriend it. The cat yowled its displeasure, and a bladed paw raked through her shoulder in a lucky strike. Blood sprayed across the frozen ground, and the cat hissed and raged. Her hand briefly touched her shoulder, coming away bloody and then she held it out to the feline, ignoring the gout that ran from her shoulder.

A chant older than herself and the race she came from flowed up and out, wrapping a chain of the spirit around both the huntress and the cat, both who stared into the other's eyes, both needing something that only the other could give. Time slowed, and the wind fell silent.

The trap shattered and Kora's voice faultered, breaking the enthrallment. The cat leapt for her, she dropped the blade and threw up a hand. The crack of a totem hitting ground dazed both huntress and cat as a large wolf threw itself between the two. Kora made a wordless sound of protest as the cat skidded to a stop, fur rising along its back and the growl that issued from the wolf froze Kora in her tracks.

She recognized the pendant that hung around the beast's neck and realized abruptly that the wolf was not a wolf, but a shaman. Lupine lips curled back and fangs bared as the shaman looked between the hunter and the great cat that hissed and spat. A voice flickered through her mind, and she tipped her head up, then down, an aproximation of a nod. She didn't take her eyes from the gold fur. A small part of her will was keeping the feline still.

Her trap dropped at her feet, and she settled into the easy half-crouch, took a breath and the chant rose again as the shaman stepped aside. The cat leapt, and the trap held. As her eyes blurred she heard the shaman snarl, but her soul was locked to the chant her mind twined with that of the cat, she could not look away. When a heavy hand landed on her shoulder she blinked, dazed and trembling. Her eyes jerked up with a flinch, and realized that the shaman had taken his natural form, and a large tauren stood over her, holding her blade out. Then the feline nudged her hip and she realized just how cold she really was as she stumbled. But it was done.

"Thank you, Chieftain. I could not have-"

"We are a clan. You only had to ask."

-Bloodriver Rocks because help is always there-

Spark - What does your pet(s) mean to you?

This is a Spark Post off Petoholics Anonn's post by the same title. I've had a number of memorable pets through a number of hunters. Each hunter ended up developing and maintaining unique pets.

Tzia of Wyrmrest Accord - Ruka, the Frostsaber Pridewatcher, Lysera, the Fjord Hawk Matriarch, Helki, the Ghostpaw Alpha, Armatu, the Rotting Agam'ar boar, Truffles, the Ashmane Boar; and lastly my Spirit Beast.

I wanted a Pridewatcher when I first saw it on Petopia. I was level 9 at the time, and saddened to find out the pet was level 59. That was forever away. But I told my husband I would have one. I did eventually get my baby girl and main pet, Ruka at 59. Ruka was my companion from 59-70 and is my current leveling partner on the trek to 80. She is my "main" pet. I will be leveling others, I know it, but Ruka will be first to 80.

Lysera will probably be the last pet I get to 80. I grabbed a cunning pet because I figured I'd be venturing back into battlegrounds or into PvP eventually. And I took something I didn't mind looking at. She doesn't even have the annoying wing flap sound that drove me bonkers when I tried an owl ages ago. If she doesn't stick around, don't be surprised. I don't have all that big of an attachment to her.

Helki, Armatu, and Truffles. I list all three of these together because they were major pets in their times. Helki I got as a level 28 hunter back before they made the Attack Speed changes to the pets, normalizing them all at a flat 2.0 AS. Helki was my happy white wolf, who braved Scarlet Monastery with me, and ventured into ZF with me for the first time. I eventually released her into the wilds of her homeland in Ashenvale when I switched to a boar, Armatu.

I leveled Armatu as a level 28 pig to 40 in Swamp of Sorrows. I swapped him out with another pet and ran ZF, then brought him along and ran ZF a few times with the boar. He was a great little pet, loyal to the core, but I didn't have as many stable slots as I would have liked and was forced to decide who to get rid of. I dropped the boar for an owl. The owl lasted for a few levels, then about 55 I switched to a red worg (I was missing Helki) the wolf ran Strath both live and dead a number of times on farming expeditions with a pair of 70s who were wanting to get their flying mounts. Once I hit Outlands level, I tested the wolf. She didn't hold too well, and the red fur kinda blended into the wastes of Hellfire. So I got rid of her and went back to Winterspring to stare at my dream pet, who was just a level away from me and my goal.

While on the ride to Swamp of Sorrows, I ran across an Ashmane boar and decided to pick it up on a whim, this boar latter became Truffles the Wonderpig. I stuffed the pig into the stables and nabbed a temporary owl when I landed in Winterspring.

I went up to the rock and stared at the kitties that were just too far away for me to tame... and ran into a level 57 rare. Yes, I ran into Rak'shiri. I tamed Rak, and then high tailed it back to Outlands to test the kitty once his loyalty was up high enough. He worked like a charm. And while I was out working with the cat, I dinged 59, and raced back to Winterspring to get my heart's desire. I released Rak and pounced on the first Pridewatcher I saw, after clearing out stealthed tigers and cubs. When the cubs called for help, the Pridewatcher didn't respond. I was able to kill both cubs, THEN tame her.

Ruka was acting oddly, I know that now. I've gone back there on other hunters, and every time the Pridewatchers have responded to the cubs cries for help. I can't imagine running with anything other than Ruka, unless I need a specific type of pet, or just want to play with something fun (like the Spirit Beast).

Its Tzia and Ruka, and it has been for a long, long time now. I call her my baby, Baby Girl, Kitten. All these are special nicknames that have come about through hours of working in sync together.

I took Truffles because I knew I'd heard that I'd need a boar for farming later, that and my guy was RAVING about boars, so I grabbed one. I'll end up picking up a boar again when they make the Thunderstomp changes. So my stable will go:
1. Ruka
2. Spirit Beast
3. Lysera
4. Armatu (in his original black armored boar form)
5. Helki

I've decided I can have three Ferocity pets in the stable. Cunning will be ONLY for PvP encounters. And Ruka eventually will want to actually take that nap she keeps threatening me about, so I might as well have a pet that won't draw envy from every hunter out there, and still has a place in my heart. I'm going to go and grab Helki from Ashenvale. Can't think of anyone else I'd rather have filling that last slot.

Ding 30!

Well, its a Ding 30 moment for another Tzia on another server. This one is Alliance, on Drenden - BRK's home server. I originally rolled the character just to say hi to BRK, which I did... but then the server sucked me in. Leveling is sooo addictive! And, because its a PvE realm... I can quest to my little heart's content without the ugly prospect of stepping outside a home zone and getting my lovely ears chopped off by marauding bands of trolls running through the trees.

I also managed to get my mount tonight, after a 2nd gnomer run. Got my Triprunner Dungarees in an all guild run of 2 hunters, a priest, a warlock, and a druid. We only had one death... the warlock. Sorry Tomo! However, the priesty rezzed our warlock and we continued on.

I'm happy, I'm almost to level 31. Level 32 means one thing.... Gorilla Time! I've heard everyone else jabbering like monkeys about one, so I've got to test it out. I figure this hunter is the best because she only has one major pet : Helki, the Ghostwolf Howler (looks identical to the original Helki of Deathwing). I can stable her and take out a gorilla for a test drive. And if I don't like it, well, Helki will be ready to go wherever I lead her.

Ah well, tomorrow calls for lots and lots and lots of dead animals: skinning practice and I need to level up my leatherworking... my chest piece needs an overhaul and there's no way I can afford the stupidly ridiculous prices that are being charged on the auction house. Ah well, path set, 32 on the horizon with a white gorilla. All in all, a good night.

Hello Core Hound

Well, I'm posting this just after logging out. I'm sitting in Stillpine Hold, waiting on a hearthstone cooldown, but I've got my puppy of doom. ^_^ Thank BRK for the nickname. I'm just waiting on Blizzard to take away the BOOM, BOOM sound when it walks. Impact term was nice when the thing was trying to eat me, but now that its my pet, I don't think it should do that. I mean, really, it will get aggravating and fast... just like a croc sounding like a broken vacuum. Its the reason I've never had a croc for very long... would use them only to learn a skill then toss them. I can't stand the raspy rumble they make, and the growly sound of the green and orange Core Hounds annoys me already.

I mean, I could hear an orange one last night while I was doing dailies. I took my headphones off while it was around because it was aggravating me, and I'm a hunter! I can't imagine how well the other eight classes are handling thirty core hounds in Org or in Shatt at ALL TIMES... they've probably perma-killed their sound for the time being. And I don't blame them.

My pup will be perma-stabled until Blizzard fixes the sound issues, or even, maybe, pretty please with sprinkles and a cherry on top of hot fudge and caramel we get a pet sound toggle? I'd love to be able to have a toggle that went:

Pet Sounds
- On/Off Group
- On/Off Player

With the second one being available to all players, so if they were annoyed by any pet sound (flap flap comes to my mind) they could just turn it off individually.

That way I could kill whichever pet sounds drive a group batty but still hear my cat if I so desired. I'd have core hound set to off on both.

Good bye Truffles

Yes, you heard me right. I've decided that I'm letting go of Truffles. I'm a full BM Spec 51/10/0 atm, and loving it. Ruka is doing dailies with me. I'm testing out a turtle, and so far? The turtle I grabbed out of Hillsbrad - after visiting the Dalaran Crater - worked very nicely against the level 65-67s I threw it at. Good lil tanker pet. :D The turtle needs to be the right color, named, and leveled before I take it out with me.

I'll be taking Truffles back to the Portal to Outlands and releasing him there. Truffles served me well, and deserves to go home, find a nice sow, and settle down. Thanks for the good memories lil one.

Once I do that, I will be headed back over to Azuremist and grab the Kurken as my Exotic. I will NOT be running around town with that thing. Believe me. I respect my fellow WoW players too much. That and the screen shake annoys me as much as it does them. Once that has been fixed? You'll probably see me with a Kurken out.

Oh, I found a bar mod that lets me do everything I wanted from Trinity. Its called Dominos and works with Fubar! And if you didn't know? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my old mod and the new one... I love it when stuff like that happens.

Decisions, Decisions.

Like many hunters out there, I've been taking a good hard look at my main hunter, Tzia of Deathwing, trying to figure out exactly which pets to be carrying with me into the next expansion. I know we will get a total of four stable slots with one pet active (for a total of five usable spots), along with three pet talent trees and the exotic pets. Counting quickly, that's one pet of each type (Cunning, Ferocity, Tenacity) plus an Exotic. I'm going to be remaining BM, so the Exotic will have and maintain a spot, even if I end up switching to MM or gods-forbid I figure out how to work Survival.

My current stable contains: Ruka, the Frostsaber Pridewatcher; Truffles, the Ashmane Boar; and Dae, the turquoise tallstrider (aka Strider Clutchmother). Right now I've got a Ferocity, a Tenacity, and a Ferocity. Dae is going to be my "vanity pet" which I might add, is named after a certain Boomchicken I know... That's three of the five slots taken up right now.

Cunning
I will want a cunning pet- I'm thinking a bird of prey, specifically a bald eagle look... love the look, will figure out how to tolerate the flappy mess that is a flying bird. Heck, I'm even considering shifting the Clutchmother, even though I grabbed it today and swapping brightly colored tallstrider for the eagle, and just naming that Dae. It would fit... believe me, it would fit still. ^_^ As you can see, I'm not too attached to the Tallstrider; and I was threatening the Boomchicken with the pink version - yes, a freaking flamingo/lawn ornament named Dae. I decided to be nice and instead grab the blue-green one. But we shall see.

Tenacity
I'll put the Eagle/Tallstrider on the back burner for now and instead come to another issue that has been brewing in the back of my brain ever since the OMG Ruka Post. I said there that I wouldn't neccesiarilly need Truffles, the wonder pig anymore if Ruka is maintaining agrro. That's true, though Truffles is a super little tank, The Guy has a boar named Barrel- who he's had from level 10 onwards, seriously, no other pet. I've had Truffles since about level 49 and it took from 49 -68 for me to name the boar. I don't have the same rapport with the boar that I have with Ruka. I also grabbed a boar because boars were the only thing with Charge, and charge + growl rocked. With Charge moving to other pets, I want to break away from having a boar and instead try something different out as a Tenacity Pet.

Warp Stalkers have always held my attention, they are pretty, have a dino/lizard thing going on and if I keep fish on hand, Ruka and the Warper would both have a diet they could share - if I even need the mass qualities of food I've been taking in the past. Though, I've never really liked the Warp ability... I mean, if the thing has warp, why train dash/charge onto it? And, if I cut the family ability off the pet... why grab a warp stalker again? Eh. It would basically be a boar, minus the family ability.

None of the bears look nice enough for me to want one. Giant Bear Butt... um no. Gorilla, um... again no. Now, a Turtle? Maybe, just mabye, as long as I can get ahold of a gray one with the pink shell. I like the look of those, but the ability wasn't all that great for tanking at times, though there are hunters out there that swear by their lil turtles.

A turtle is definitely on the test-this-all-out list once the patch goes live. I will be buying an extra stable slot right away, no problem, so I will be able to test away without losing any of my current pets.

Ferocity
When it comes to Ferocity Pets? I already know exactly who will fill that role for me. Ruka. I wanted her at level nine, I aimed my hunter towards 59 and got her, even abandoning Rak'shiri in the process - yes, I know, Rak'shiri is the bomb to a number of hunters out there, but I just happened to get lucky and run across Rak while in Winterspring. Instead of killing the cat, I tamed it instead and worked with it for a while, dragging it out into Outlands with me just to see how well a cat would perform. It passed with flying colors, then I hit level 59 and abandoned Rak in Winterspring and went for my true choice. The other Ferocity pets won't even stand a chance here, there is no question.

Exotic
When it comes to Exotics of all the categories, my eye is on one type, and one type only : corehound. I don't want an orange one, or a green one, nope, I want the Kurken from Azuremist. So guess where I will more than likely be going come patch launch? Yep, Azuremist Isle after a Kurken... and hopefully I won't get killed too many times in the process of trying to get ahold of him. No clue what I'll name him though, but I'll figure something out.

Conclusion
When it comes to pets, I'll admit, I've had more than the average hunter, not counting the temp pets that I tamed to learn a skill off and then got rid of. Though, for lasting pets? Cats have been a large part of my hunter existence. I love my purple kitty. And it shows. Ruka has been the pet I wanted from the start, she'll be next to me when I step into Northrend, and probably feel right at home in all the snow and ice while my lil troll self will be wishing it was 85 degrees out and a palm tree was in sight, dang it. Arthas? You will be mine, just for forcing me to come to a gods-forsaken icy wasteland just to waste your sorry carcass!

[PTR] OMG Ruka Holds Aggro!!!

I am positively giddy right now. My purple kitty of doom, death and absolute cuteness holds aggro on the PTR! *faints* No more boars needed!!!

I took her farming after speccing a warp stalker out to try and tank and just play with stuff on the PTR. Warpy the warp stalker held aggro while I was doing a quest... which turned out to be my 1,000 quest apparently ... but it rocked my world, so I decided to go farm testing. Warpy held aggro wonderfully, and I know Truffles can tank til he turns into hickory-smoked bacon. Ruka? Hasn't been able to hold aggro for more than three seconds on a mob since I hit all blue gear from running five mans with SMT.

So, I flew to Nagrand, over to the Elemental Plateau and pulled out Ruka and the Jubling for moral support and started killing wind elementals. Ruka held aggro! I had something come for me once... but heck, I have that happen occasionally with the boar too. We plowed through an entire circuit of the wind elementals, and she didn't lose aggro aside from that one time... yay!! I can farm again with my freaking CAT! I missed my kitty-kins!

Something else I noticed, and bounced up and down over... Freezing Traps are now a Chance to Break on Damage, not an auto break any more. Ruka was killing one mob while another became interested in me, so I dropped a trap, side stepped and the thing froze... yay for 1 second arming timer ^_^. Well, the thing died and Ruka made a bee-line for the trapped mob, she swung at it five or six times, then it popped, I kinda stood there dumb-founded, wondering if it was a visual glitch or what... so i decided to try again... froze something, sent the fuzzball at it, it held for a bit, broke and the mob died. I poked The Guy, he watched it happen again, then I checked the tool tip... its no bug! Yay!

You have one very happy little PTR hunter... who may just be ditching Truffles the Wonder Pig for something else... finally.

PetEmote... oooh!

I finally downloaded that mod. So far I love it! Now all I need to figure out is what to name my wolf. I've got grouped friends saying they are seeing Tzia's Wolf Wolf yips happily. Or something vey similar. But I'm loving this, its making my pet even more personal. I tested this with Misha and it seems pet family specific.

I've always had a major affinity to my pets. I can name almost every pet any of my hunters have ever had (the only one that I can't remember for the life of me is Yazmin's Rake). Over nine hunters I've had a total of twenty five pets. I can't wait to see what Pet Emote does when paired to my baby girl, Ruka. It almost makes me want to put (MG)Tzia on the back-burner for a lil bit and go run a Heroic with a PuG on Quel'dorei... almost. (MG)Tzia hit 46 last night. I should really try and get her to 50 with her as yet un-named wolf... gah. Naming always has to be difficult. Guess its time to pop over to Petoholics and see what our lovely hunter has for suggestions... and to see if she's finished typing out all the ones I gave her at one point - and perhaps suggest more!

I think she needed silly names for Tallstriders, or something like that... I've got a few in mind. If you haven't checked out her Pet-o-licious Namerator yet? Do so! I know I'm going to! I'm stumped for names right now!

Non-Combat Pets

I know we all have our favorite pets as hunters. What about the rest of the WoW Populous? Those cute little mini, non-combat, vanity pets? I wonder, what is your favorite one or ones for that matter?

I have a number of various vanity pets spread out over four diffrent characters. The entire list includes :Tree Frog Box, Elekk Training Collar, White Kitten, Worg Carrier, A Jubling's Tiny Home, Siamese, Miniwing, Turtle Box, Red Moth, Green Wing Macaw, Sprite Darter, Orange Tabby, Farm Chicken, Spirit of Competition, Mechanical Yeti, Smolderweb Carrier, Silver Tabby.

My favorite pet has to be the Wolpertinger. I mean, who wouldn't love a vampiric jackalope with wings? Not to mention that cute little cooing sound they make? I have him on (QD)Tzia. I will be getting one on (MG)Tzia when the festival rolls around again (that is if the pet is available)! He was my raiding pet, literally just hopping along behind me while I was killing things in Kara, or doing any of the heroic five mans. We didn't need to be drunk... most of the time we were just so darn giddy from killing things that he was a great little addition to the fun.

I do also have a memento mori pet. (QD)Tzia has a little silver tabby that follows her around everywhere. I picked up the Silver Tabby shortly after my cat Miss Mouser passed away. She was a silver tabby, so I figured it would be a fitting tribute, and a way to always have her with me in game.

So, I ask again, what is your favorite Non-combat pet?

Memorable Tames: Helki

As I said in a previous post from many, many months back we have all had memorable tames, or just pets that stand out in our minds. Another one of those for me is one of my wolves. Specifically, my white wolf. I’m a big cat fan – as I’ve said before. I’m also a pretty big wolf fan, in total I’ve had four. Only one really stands in my mind. Helki.

I was level 28, in Ashenvale Forest, on Deathwing. I was hiding from a group of marauding Alliance on mounts that were trying to kill anything with a red name plate in site. Believe me; I was not happy at all. I had some temporary thing next to me that I had been using to test out the different families of pets. I am intently watching the road, knowing I’m far enough back to not be seen. I hear a growl behind me and suddenly I see blood flying and my health dropping. I flipped my camera right as I died to see, not the alliance, but a glorious white wolf covered in blood and starting in on my now lifeless body.

While I was running back to my body I stopped on the road and flipped to Petopia, I wanted to know what had just ripped out my throat… typical hunter reaction – I wanted it as a pet! I found out that I’d just been killed by a Ghostpaw Alpha. I also noted that it had Furious Howl and a new rank of Bite, so either way it was going to be a really good tame idea.

I found my wolf again, cleared every other thing that wanted to kill me from the area, ditched the temporary pet, dropped my trap. . . and died to alliance. Ahhh! Litterally that was my only comment. I ran back… and then sat there for about five minutes just waiting for the coast to be clear. I popped up, dropped the trap, tamed my wolf and then ran like hell for Splinter Tree. I got to Splinter Tree and then sat there, staring at my new companion, wondering what the heck I was going to name it.

Luckily for me, I was also playing a browser based simulation that allowed you to bred, train, and show both horses and several ‘types’ of dogs. I logged off WoW and logged into that game, found a cheap wolf for $10 in game currency, and then popped up an Imaging Program, and made myself a little image.



I didn’t tell anyone on that game that the name would be for a World of Warcraft pet, but I did toss out a two million dollar game cash prize. I got a ton of name suggestions, some of them completely and utterly stupid (its amazing what two million will draw out of the wood work) and some amazingly good.

A woman by the screen name of Embla gave me the best name. Helki : Native American for ‘to touch’. I loved it and ran with it… and I will admit for a while there I had a set of wolves… Vash and Helki. They didn’t amount to much, I’m ashamed to admit.

Here is what that Helki looked like:


I ran with Helki from 28 to 40 on the Deathwing Server in WoW, and then foolishly got rid of her. I’ve regretted that decision for quite some time, but now, I’m making up for it on (MG)Tzia. I went back at 36 and grabbed a Ghostpaw Alpha, and have named her Helki. I’m now 41 and Helki is 35.

Is she nuts?

This question has been asked several times by those that know me on WoW. The answer is invariably, "Of course. It's a hunter thing." I always smile at that and nod my head. There are hunters that want 'just the right pet'. No hunter of mine ever repeats currently held pets. I want a specific look for a pet, and I have the slot available? Somebody will pick up a new pet.

Diante (3x) of Quel'dorei has Armatu, the black RFK boar and Japhrimel, the black lion (Humar).

(QD)Tzia has Ruka, the Frostsaber Pridewatcher, Truffles, an Ashmane Boar; and Yikes, the Blackwind Sabercat.

Yazmin has Xavi, the brown RFK boar and Nova the white lion (Sian Rotam).

(MG)Tzia has Misha, a yellow maned boar from Westfall, and now Helki... who is the purpose of this post.

I'm nuts. I've managed to get to level 36, almost 37 with Misha. I want a Ghostpaw Alpha for my Helki... one issue... they are level 28. I've leveled up lower level pets before, cursed over it, but I've done it. See anything related to Yazmin and Japhrimel for proof!

But, I want a wolf, named Helki, California-based Native American tribal word meaning 'to touch' for reasons of sentimentality. On the original Tzia (QD) I tamed a Ghostpaw Alpha at 28 and brought it to 40 with me, then stupidly let it go. I had named her Helki. I want another one, and this one I will drag up to 70 with me by switching out the pets as I level. I know I can do it- even if it kills me.

The original Helki ran all of SM with me. It was me and the wolf, every single time I stepped into that instance. I want to try and avoid a cat... if I can on this hunter. The boar I won't side-step as a leveler, its one of the better pets out there in my oppinion for that task, but I want my wolf. And no other skin will do for me... so I guess its time for me to head off into Ashenvale, hunt down my new friend and go back to STV and start the wholesale slaughter of Mistvale Gorillas.

Why Mistvale Gorillas you ask? 1. They are not needed in any quest last I checked. 2 They are level 32-33, therefore an easy target to kill with a lower level pet. 3. They are skin-able. All around win-win situation... especially since I seem a bit stuck atm for leveling.

I hate the 30s did I mention that? Ah well, off to collect Helki and get down to business.

Yaz Recap and Name My Lion!

Back to hunter. Well, Yazmin dinged 61, and I still have quite a bit of Hellfire in front of me. Playing back through it with Dione is making me realize that Hellfire, in all reality is a pretty short zone, and I may have it done before I get anywhere close to 62. All that remains is to finish up and then move on to Zangarmarsh.

I'm still having issues coming up with a name for my Sian. And since I'm having so many issues with the naming process... I guess its time for people to feel free in offering suggestions. I know the hunter community has a wealth of resources out there... I've seen it on Petopia (Mania's) Blog in the past when it comes to naming pets.

Sian Rotam is a white male lion (looks identical to Echeyakee which, if I remember right means Whitemist). Since its a male, white lion with blue eyes, please try and keep the names in that field - male. Otherwise have fun. My boar is named Xavi (short for Xavier ^_^).

Pictures

Since I'm a bit stuck with names, and the like for the lion, I decided to post pics of Yazmin with her two favorite pets. So far its Xavi, my RFK boar, and the white lion, formerly Sian-Rotam.


Yazmin and Sian hanging out in Winterspring.


Yazmin and Xavi relaxing in Stormwind.

And just so that Ruka doesn't feel left out...



Tzia and Ruka waiting on a GM ticket after a successful Moroes kill.

Gee, I seem to do a lot of sitting around, or so you'd think with the pics I tend to take. ^_^ But in all reality, I've managed to get Yazmin to 60 with 12 days /played under her.

Happy Dance

Well, more good news. I got Sian to spawn the first time I tried the quest the day after I posted my lil rant. I had to tame a diffrent cat before the attempt -- my temporary Shy ran off on me, even though I had JUST fed it a chunk of high quality meat... go figure, guess she didn't like Roasted Quail?

And, I hadn't really beem feeding that Shy modle much... wasn't going to be a permanent pet, so I figured an occasional chunk of food here or there would hold me long enough to get Sian... and it almost was. I took Shy down for the last time with a 58 Frostsaber Cub.

I froze Sian, after having slapped him with an arcane, concussive mix - so he would be sticking around, and then poured on the damage, to drop Shy as fast as possible... three shots in a row missed. She died right as the first trap broke, and I clicked abandon on the temp pet. I started taming, and he feared me... >.<

I ran around like a ninny, praying that he wouldn't despawn on me, came out of the fear, slapped him with concussive again, dropped a trap and started the tame. I think he hit me a total of three times during that tame, and then? He was my beautiful boy.

I'm still trying to come up with a name for him, but I'll get one figured out eventually here. Both of my "major pets" on Yazmin have been hard to come by pets - Xavi the RFK boar, which I tamed @ 30 and died 5 times to get, one of those to Xavi. Sian took a little over two days worth of attempts. That and, as far as this server is concerned? I've seen a total of 3 white lions, counting my own. And one of them I know for sure is Echeyakee, just because I've seen the cat at 45 and again at 58.

Sian will be my dps pet when Xavi and I hit 70. I've leveled up pets from 60 to 70 before, I can do it again. Xavi also hit 60 last night, so for me it will be time to hunt down a temp pet and venture into EPL ... how I hate that place ... and snap up an ugly boar, learn the skills, then ditch it.

Fustrations

On a good note? Yazmin hit 60! Woohoo! Bad note? I can't get Sian Rotam to spawn for the life of me. Believe me, I've tried and tried, and no white lion. He hasn't even acquiesced to make an appearance, no matter how many times Shy asks for him. Its begining to get annoying. I have a temporary Shy as my kill-everything-in-sight pet, but Sian won't show up.

I really do want this cat, so, I guess I will be spending some time in Winterspring until the cat either spawns or I get sick of it... which, knowing me, is going to take quite some time. If I can camp for 8 hours on one hunter after Humar, I can more than deal with the mess that Sian is proving to be.

I did get a GM Ticket answer, basically it was a "hmm fascinating" response. Que sera! At least they took the time to respond to me, and confirmed that as far as they were aware he's still in game.

I switched over to Tzia, and went through the quest... killing Shy far, far too quickly the first three times... when the cat has roughly 3.2k health and your aimed shots crit for 2.5, you end up almost one shotting the cat. But, I did managed to slow down the fight enough that I got Sian to spawn for me on Tzia.

Now if only Yaz and Tzia were on the same server... ah well. I'll get this eventually.

Yazmin 55

With Yaz having hit level 55, she only has three more levels to go until I can start working on the Pridewatcher Mount. Yes, I decided I wanted the mount, then Outlands - Epic Land Mount is almost a must, imo. I will be stepping into Outlands briefly to get the Rage Reaver axe- and level up the skill while doing the three Pridewatcher Mount Quests.

With the advent of 2.3 going live and opening the Winterspring Animal Quest to Alliance, I am considering dropping Japhrimel (Humar) and picking up Sian-Rotam (white male lion). If I did, I will be naming him Aldarimel, which means Morning Star. Aldarimel is also a name of a demon from the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow. This demon is discribed as having blue eyes and hair that ran with snow white flame... sounds close enough to Echeyakee or Sian to me! Japh matched his name too, but I believe it will be easier for me to level a 60 to 70 over a level 48.

But this decision will wait for a while, since I will be slowing down my leveling while working at the cat mount. Yes, I will be saving quite a chunk of change up front, but I know that I will have to pay it when I get my Flying Mount at 70. I can't skip a riding skill level. So, instead of my snowy gryphon costing 1k it will be 1.5k in cost. That I can deal with, no problem.

Ghost Wolf Gone

I'm sure a number of other hunters will be posting about this or already have. If you aren't a frequent person to the Blizzard Hunter Forums this might have escaped your attention, Ghost Wolves are no longer tameable... in fact I don't think they exist in game any more aside from the lucky few who were able to tame them prior to the Grim Totem Spirit Guide being removed from the game.

That isn't anything new... I'm a long enough player to remember back when they removed the Serpents as a tameable thing from the game and only a few people kept them, and you only saw them either running around town or in BGs because Blizzard had killed the ability for the Serpent Pets to gain loyalty, or even be fed. Blizzard brought the pet "back" in TBC as tameable.

No, the thing that has hunters royally pissed off, myself included, is because they said

Hi Fierce,

While this feature of the Grimtotem Spirit Guide wasn't exactly intended, it was agreed by the development team that this is a fun use of in-game mechanics, and we therefore have no plans to address this issue - it will still be possible in future for everyone who wishes to tame this NPC to do so. :)

I hope this alleviates your concerns!

Issuntril
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Master / / Customer Service Forum Representative - EN

"You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"

which can be found @ http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=1782078645&pageNo=1&sid=1

Then Drysc drops a bombshell today, with no warning whatsoever from anyone at Blizzard - brillant job there - telling all hunters that whoops nope not intended.

Through a hotfix we’ve recently removed the ability to tame a Grimtotem Spirit Guide. Players who have already gone through the trouble of taming the creature will be able to keep them unchanged. This hotfix only removes the possibility to tame this creature from here on.

The removal of the spirit guide has been debated within design discussions for a while now as to what impact the pet and its precedent has on the game.
The unintended nature of the taming, the undead status of the guide, appearance of the wolf in relation to the feel of the hunter class, and the complex processes of taming were all issues touched upon and discussed.

Ultimately the discussions brought us to the conclusion that this should not be a permanent addition to the pet selection available to hunters; however, those that have already tamed them should be allowed to keep them due to their efforts in obtaining one.

This can be found @ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3907976716&sid=1&pageNo=1

Am I upset? YES. I had no intention of taming this thing, since it would have taken a specialty meta gem, and a few people to help me just to get, and then I would have had to go through the horror that is grinding up a lowbie pet. However, you do not say one thing and then do the other.

As I said on Mania's blog (Petopia Blog --->), this is something we were taught in Elementary School. You do not say one and do the other. Its called LYING.

Oh, wait, I forgot... Corporation - n. - "an ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility." (Ambrose Bierce, 1906).

We treat Corporations as "persons" under the law, but these "people" don't have the decency to not lie to their customer base. That's just wrong and stupid. Can I please suggest that whomever made this idiotic decision to lie to the hunter community take a huge pay cut (No not Drysc, he's just the messanger last I checked) and go back to Pre-School and learn how NOT to LIE.

Draenei Hunter - 52 with Black Lion Updates

Well, Japhrimel made it to level 42 before Yaz got to 52. I managed to speed through the needed experience for Xavi to ding 52, then switched back over to the cat. I'm doing nothing but grinding right now in Azshara. Killing Naga and various highborne ghosts - attempted a 50 elite blue dragonkin and decided that was a bad idea... Japh died really, really quickly... and the entire point of killing stuff is for KITTY to gain experience, not me!

I've got probably 5-8 quests complete and just sitting in my log from Un'goro. Once I ding 53 I'll probably stable Japh, where ever he may be in levels and let the rest figure itself out when Yazmin and Xavi have hit 70. Because I highly doubt I will get large patches of pet leveled to me once I turn in those quests.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see... and no, I did not log out at an inn, I logged Yaz out on a hill overlooking some temple ruins. That way I can kill stuff in the morning with no run time!

As for me? I'm headed to bed. Got class tomorrow. But hey, its a Friday, that means I have the entire weekend ahead to play!

Draenei Hunter - 51 Now what?

Yazmin is sitting at level 51. She dinged 51 while in ZF, having a very fun time too, I might add. But now I've got nothing but Un'goro left... and a ton of quests too. >.< No, I'm not happy about un'goro ... see previous post solely on me being squashed by roaming ravenous devilsaur.

I supose I could take a break at 51, and go drag out Japh, work with the kitty a bit, and see how much they pumped up the pet leveling... Now my question is... what is the lowest level mob I can kill while not murdering the pet every time... guess its back to Tanaris and killing anything but Basali?

I'll get back to you on how far Japh made it before I personally dinged to 52. And with 52 comes BRD! -- and yes,I know, I really should just finish Un'goro so I can go to Winterspring!

Memorable Tames - Lilith

We all have special pets, ones we want due to looks or for reasons of roleplay or what have you. I am going to share one of my more memorable pet tames, just due to distance, and at the time, uniqueness of coloration on the Horde Side of the faction line.

When I first rolled Tzia over on Deathwing, she got to level 10 and I ran her to Mulgore to get a wolf - at that time they had both bite and furious howl, so it was a great choice for a starter pet, and my husband thought so too at the time. I didn't keep the wolf very long though... he had a hell of a time keeping aggro - poor Vash, I didn't know about growl.

My husband, who had a level 25-ish tauren hunter at the time, also did not know about growl. He'd seen other hunters do amazing things with a pet... including having the pet run at the target and hold it there so the other hunter could actually shoot the thing to death! So we both had an idea that somehow pets could do more than what ours were.

I thought maybe I needed a better pet than what I had - more damage would help hold aggro (I'd heard the concept thanks to my husband's best friend and other friends talking about it - had little clue what it meant though)... so I opened a search engine, typed in WoW Hunter Pets and found my now favorite hunter pet site in the world - Petopia.

I stared at all the choices surrounding me - back in those days the opening page was all the pets... litterally every skin available greeted you on going to the site. I know Mania still has that page floating around somewhere... but that was my opening to Petopia - pet after pet after pet in every color of the rainbow.

As some already know, I'm a cat lover in real life. Even the big cats awe me, and one of my all time favorites is the cougar/mountain lion. In WoW, the skin is too dull to realistically mirror those big cats - the springpaws are a little closer but still... not quite there.

Because of my love for the larger felines, my eyes were drawn to the cats, I saw the tigers, went cool, but I'd seen enough people horde side with an orange tiger that I didn't want one. I then saw the black/white tigers and smiled. I'd not seen anyone with one of those horde side on my server. So, I clicked on the black and white kitty.

It took me to the base page that lists all cats that share that particular skin. I think I was 13 at the time I did that, and I saw that Moonstalkers were only a level away, so I dealt with and died through the level and thought the undead were very cruel, since I was questing over in those lands. On hitting 14, I went back to Petopia, to figure out how to get to the pet... I'd noticed the location name when staring at it, and I went back to the game. I turned to my husband and asked, "How do I get to Darkshore?"

I remember him leaning against the doorjamb and just staring at me for a moment. He then said, "Darkshore? Let me look at the map." That, I might add is how I found out there was a map in game. >.<

He popped up the map, flipped continents on me, and pointed it out. He then told me I'd have to take the zep, run to cross-roads, and go through the entire barrens and through ashenvale. The entire mess, I know now, takes around 45 minutes to do. I looked at him, chirpped an okay, asked how to pop the map up again, then ran off to find the Zeplin Tower.

The Barrens killed me, Ashenvale really killed me, and right as I got into Darkshore, some stupid mounted -yes mounted- alliance popped off his mount and killed me. I was level 14 just had spent 45 minutes trying to avoid being killed by scary level hidden mobs, and a minimum 40+ player decides to kill me.

Needless to say, I was not a very happy troll hunter. But I sighed, grumbled about PvP servers, rezzed; and continued up the road, being very careful of the cats around me. When I saw a moonstalker, I waved goodbye to Vash, and started taming the kitty. It hurt, but when the cat glowed and shrank a bit, I knew it was mine, and I called her Lilith.

I did that entire run on my own - litterally without an escort, and have repeated it several times with various characters, even running a friend of mine into Darkshore, just to help him tame a ghost saber.

I had Lilith in the time before cross-realm battlegrounds, before TBC was even a whisper, before even Blood Elves were whispered as a playable class - so that cat was unique to the realm, and I would get whisper after whisper from people as to where I had gotten the cat. I always told them the answer... but I don't think many people went and got one. I was known to a number of people by the unique look of the cat. I was also called a night elf a time or two because the cat was most often seen as a NE pet.

Lilith was my first cat in WoW, and still a good memory. She was the cat that I figured out how and where to train growl on, and with a mix of Petopia and Good Intentions, I learned how to get pet skills.

When Tzia hit 70, I was tempted to name my Blackwind Sabercat Lilith, in memory of her - but Yikes became the cat's name.