New Pet Review: Wasp

First of all, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for the site downtime on Friday night/Saturday morning. The server this site was hosted on was the victim of a Denial of Service attack so they took everything down and it took a little while for it to go back up. Hopefully I didn’t scare too many of you with the site’s sudden disappearance. =P

I’m back though, and here to talk pets. As much as I love my current pets– I went into this patch with five level 70 pets across my two “main” hunters– I was, a few nights back, sort of randomly feeling this urge to tame something new and different. I thought back to the pets I’d played on Beta… Rhino, Devilsaur, Gorilla… I wasn’t feelin’ it this time for any of them and the Rhino isn’t even around yet.

So off I went to Petopia to comb through the new pets. Finally I settled on trying out the Wasp family.

Tawyn was who I was playing at the time so off I went to tame Blacksting. I played around with him for a while and did some dailies with him before coming to two conclusions: Firstly, even though I haven’t seen many Wasp Hunters around at all, the ones that I did see had invariably tamed Blacksting as well, so I decided I wanted something a little more different, and secondly Tawyn is my hunter with the Exotic Pet talent so really, I should save her for trying out the Exotic Pets.

So the next day I hopped onto Lunapike and tamed a Marshlight Bleeder. I broke Lunapike’s personal protocol here and named it something other than a character from my favorite book:

Honestly though, if you thought I was going to tame a firefly and NOT name it Serenity, you were sadly mistaken.

Over the course of the next couple of days I succeeded in getting Serenity from level 65 to level 70. This was accomplished almost entirely by grinding the ogres in Nagrand and the result was that I got a fabulous bonus prize right after the pet ding happened:

/flex

Anyways, now the pet. I gotta admit, from an aesthetics standpoint, I am hooked. It’s kind of ironic because in real life, insectoids with large flappy wings have this tendency to… not sit right with me. Okay, let me rephrase that. A typical real life scenario would involve a moth flapping lazily past my face and me leaping on The Boy and screeching out something along the lines of “KILLITWITHFIRE”. (Yes, that was a dramatization of an actual occurance.)

But I really like the wasps in game, the glowy firefly variety especially. There is something comforting about having something next to you that is emitting a warm glow and making a soft chattery noise and grooming itself cutely with its little legs. It’s kind of relaxing, really. It’s like questing with a nightlight. A deadly nightlight. (Maybe he really is the only bee in your bonnet?)

Gameplay wise, the wasp is a Ferocity pet (who thus dishes out plenty of damage) and puts a handy debuff on whatever you are attacking, decreasing its armor for 20 seconds. That meant that when I was fighting the ogres, I was constantly fighting them with a big fat 400 armor debuff on them, and it meant smooth sailing. And grinding.

Overall, I gotta say I am a fan. Serenity isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and while he may not have some super-awesome exotic-pet move or anything, being able to toss around mini Faerie Fires like no tomorrow is far from a bad ability. Look into one if you want a solid Ferocity pet that is somewhat rare (as I said, I haven’t seen too many Wasp Hunters around) and you appreciate the serene, glowy aesthetic of Zangarmarsh. If you are anything like me, you will quickly become attached to your little lightning bug.

Got a pet that you want me to review? I still have several open stable slots left so give me a shout out and I will see what I can do for ya.

22 thoughts on “New Pet Review: Wasp”

  1. I’ve seen a few around, but i’m surprised to not see more, but it was my first choice for a non-exotic ferocity pet because of the ability. One of the first things I did after patch came down was check petopia for the highest level wasp.

    level 70 elite, hmm…. Heroic Underbog
    Ok get some friends.
    tame tame tame

    Mind you I haven’t really used it yet, I’ve been having way too much fun with my gorilla. Do you mind if I copy your name? I didn’t think of serenity but like you said its hard not to name it anything else now that you brought it up.

  2. Looooooooooooove the insects, Pike. Looooooooove them 😀

    Let The Boy catch them and release them outside where they can be happy!

  3. They Might Be Giants reference = win.

    Anyway, I tamed a lightning bug yesterday, and though I haven’t done much with him yet (including naming him, although I did briefly contemplate going with “Mal”), I can say that they are basically awesome against rogues — not that I went hunting rogues or anything. *shifty eyes*

    The noise takes a little getting used to at first, though, at least for me.

  4. I’m interested in hearing your take on the Hyena. If I were a 70 hunter, the first thing I’d do after the patch would be to grab a SM hyena, and farm the living bejezes out of SM to get the scarlet mail set.

  5. You know… why not try a moth? I tamed one, and boy, it out-DPSes my level 70 wolf despite only being level 65! Not only that, but when I sent it to attack with a piggy in Shadowmoon Valley while chatting with some friends (and therefore not attacking), I turned around and it’s already down to 35%! (The piggy was level 68!)

    And it’s aesthetically pleasing, too. It’s possible you would enjoy a moth – maybe not enough to keep one, but you should have fun with it. Give the moth a try! 😀

  6. First off – funny you should mention Birdhouse In Your Soul/They Might Be Giants. I was having a conversation about that very song and that very band this weekend. GET OUT OF MY HEAD, PIKE.

    Second, a firefly pet named Serenity is simply awesome. I give you my nodding approval.
    /nod

  7. I tamed myself a yellow wasp named Buzz. So far I’ve only seen one other hunter on my server with a wasp, with the same skin as your Serenity. (Most hunters seem to want core hounds….)

    I do admit I primarily tamed Buzz because I thought it would be cool to walk around with my own personal Yellow Jacket (Go GT!) once in a while, but he is growing on me for reasons beyond that. Maybe it’s the soothing glow.

    And I’ll add my /nod of approval for Serenity’s name to the others.

  8. I tamed Blacksting and so far have only seen one other hunter with it on my server (Uldum).

    Named it Vespa and simply love the debuff it can throw around.

    Rogues don’t like me anymore.

  9. I tamed Blackwing on a whim. So far, I haven’t seen another; but I’m also tempted to turn him in for one of the Marshlite Bleeders. They just look so cool!

    I named him “Buzzy…” Yes, I am challenged when it comes to naming my pets.

    I took him through a couple of instances. Both times, we had a Tankadin; which means no sunder armor. The 620 armor debuff from the poison was nice. Granted, not as nice as a stacked Sunder; but it was nice to see up there.

    In other news, the auto-rez worked once, and it saved our group from a wipe. Go Buzzy!!!!

    Z

  10. When you have the wasp with you, do you find the constant flickering of the wings at all distracting? I was hoping in a forlorn way that the wasps wold land when idle, but no, they are like all other birds – wings constantly hovering.

  11. @ All the people who like the name – feel free to nab it and share the love!

    @ Steadfast – I don’t find it distracting, no, but you gotta realize you’re talking to somebody who leveled her first hunter from 1-70 with an owl.

  12. Serenity = win. I could kick myself for not seeing that reference sooner. >.< I love the name!

    I’ve been looking at the wasps too, and I may have to nab one. It’s just there are soooo many choices now! I don’t know what to choose. 😛

  13. Oh oh! A boar? 😀 Jeah armored boar <3 ( but i fear that gore+charge is buged.. im not sure)

    Or maybe hyena? Or just stick your finger randomly at petopia and review that pet. :3

    Peace and hug

  14. These pets are nice in pvp vs rogues and feral druids. Their sting on a rogue will usually make them pop clos, and with how often your wasp stings, you can keep any stealthy in sight pretty good. Especially with the 30% cool down reduction if you picked up that BM talent.

    I also think they look very sexy too. I have a green one 😀

  15. I tamed a Marshlight Bleeder, and promptly went and changed my character’s hair to purple to match. Also, it works on an rp level, because my character’s name is Gadgett, and I named the wasp Zipper… Rescue Rangers ftw 🙂

  16. I just tamed a marsh bleeder today. I have to say that it doesnt do dps half as well as my ghost saber does but it’s cool to look at and I have had a few compliments. I am still waiting on getting my devilsaur though.

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