Category Archives: pets

A Furious Howl: A Story

Blood.

It mingled with the dirt and the hair and the rough prints left in the crunchy dry snow, and Tawyn crouched over them, bits of leftover slush clinging stubbornly to her fingers as she ran them softly over the ridges made by this… creature.

For that’s what it was, something in the canine family probably, judging by the prints and the smell and the texture of the fur.

The night elf closed her eyes and breathed in the scent one more time before flicking her fingers behind her; one sharp motion that simultaneously shook some of the snow off and also beckoned a brilliantly hued magenta raptor to pad silently up behind her, his glittering eyes scanning the area and his breath coming in puffs in the crisp northern air. Tawyn never lifted her gaze from the tracks and finally she arose and slowly walked along them, followed closely by her raptor, Wash.

A faint rustle of leaves. She paused; the quarry was near. The blood pooled a bit at the base of a nearby bush, and a smell was on the wind– it was still alive. Tawyn bristled and instinctively reached for her rifle, and was comforted by its familiar touch, as behind her Wash stared unblinkingly at the bush, awaiting one command…

…that came in the form of his master loosening ever so slightly and breathing “easy,” the word itself a mere whisper, but enough for the raptor to relax his stance– just a touch– and return to his previous behavior of scanning the surroundings. The thing in the bush was no longer a threat.

Tawyn crouched down next to the bush; The Thing was cornered now and began making nervous growling and spitting noises– it was still willing to put up a fight, wounded as it was. The hunter peered in and saw a wolf of some sort staring back at her: bruised, beaten, bleeding. Its eyes flashing with anger and pain. Tawyn stared back, and the staring contest went on for quite some time before the wolf buckled, shutting its eyes and letting out a quiet whine of anguish. This was followed by a low and near imperceptible rumble. The wolf’s stomach was growling.

wow_perezvonstory1

With movements that were slow and precise, as not to startle the creature in the bush, Tawyn pulled her backpack from off her shoulders, reached inside, and pulled out a piece of dried venison. She pushed it under the bush, a few feet from the wolf’s nose, and set it there. The wolf recoiled at first in fear, snarling, but Tawyn pulled her hand back quickly and simply waited.

For several long minutes, the wolf feigned disinterest in the meat and didn’t move. His eyes gave himself away, however, and then his nose, and finally he inched forward and chomped the meat down eagerly before returning to his original position. Tawyn pushed another strip of meat into the same place. The wolf only waited about half as long before eating, now, and the hunter noticed that his tail made a few weak thumps against the snowy earth– this was interesting in and of itself, as normal wolves did not wag their tails past their youth. A hybrid animal, perhaps? Or a young wolf? It was hard to say; the creature was slightly smaller than the average wolf but this could have spoken for either theory. Regardless, it was heartening to see the animal improving, if only a little.

One more strip of meat. This time, though, Tawyn held it out with her fingers, not letting go of it.

The wolf didn’t move, but he eyed the meat and Tawyn could tell from his eyes that he was considering it. The elf remained perfectly still, arm outstretched. Finally the wolf tenderly plucked the meat from her hand with his teeth and pulled back again to eat it.

Tawyn smiled thinly. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless, and a step in the right direction.

She next reached into her pack in pursuit of frostweave, and hissed a sharp Darnassian curse under her breath upon finding out she didn’t have any. She would have to go into town…

…she glanced back under the bush at the wolf. He was looking at her with a somewhat expectant expression now.

“I’ll be back,” said Tawyn softly. She stood up and motioned something to Wash, and he picked up on her cue and remained standing guard as she disappeared into the wood.

***

“Whadaya need today, Tawyn?” the pixielike gnome winked. “Here, sit down, let’s chat.” She seated herself by the fireplace and gestured for the night elf to follow.

“Frostweave,” Tawyn replied tersely, and if it was almost anyone else she would have refused to sit, but Trixy had rather grown on her so she pulled up a chair and sat down.

“Frostweave, hmmmm,” replied the gnome as she rummaged through a large sack. “I don’t know, I mean, I’ve got threads, dyes, and ooooh what’s this?” she pulled out some sort of shiny contraption.

“Trixy, I don’t mean to rush you, but we’ve… ah… I’ve got a bit of an emergency situation. D’ya know anyone who would have any, if you don’t?”

The gnome’s eyes glittered as she inspected the shiny thing, but she set it aside and stuck her tongue out in concentration and plunged her arm back into the bag and finally pulled out… some frostweave. “There ya go!”

Tawyn snatched it from her, ripped it in two, and began to nimbly shape the them into bandages. The gnome watched intently. After a minute or two she asked gingerly, “What are they for?”

Before Tawyn could reply, she heard a familiar noise from outside, mingled with the calls of the soldiers of the 7th Legion. She leapt to her feet, dashed to the door of the inn, and pushed it open– to see the wolf limping painfully but determinedly into town, followed by an exasperated Wash who looked like he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to handle this. Some of the soldiers nearby were gaping and pointing their guns at the spectacle, although most of them looked like they weren’t about to waste any bullets on this, what with a greater threat outside the walls of Wintergarde. Besides which, Wash was a familiar sight to most of them by now.

Tawyn stood in the doorway, wondering at the unusualness of it all. Again, she was struck by that brief zap in her mind that there was something distinctly un-wolflike about the creature’s behavior…

The wolf buckled and Tawyn was out in a flash; bandaging his wounds with the Frostweave bandages she had just crafted and quickly mixing up some sort of salve with the myriad flasks and herbs she carried around in her pack and massaging the creature’s legs with it. The wolf stood steadfastly through it all, although it was clear that he was still in pain.

Tawyn heard someone approach from behind them– Zybarus, the stable master. “Zybarus thinks he likes you,” he said in his curious manner of speech, a slightly squeaky voice that for whatever odd reason spoke in nothing but the third person.

Tawyn shrugged and continued working. “People do strange things when they’re in pain. Animals do too.” Of course, she wasn’t telling the whole story. She didn’t tell the part about how she thought there was something unusual about this wolf. How he seemed to be acting like this wasn’t the first time he had extended trust to a person. She didn’t talk about his uncharacteristic tail wag.

No, she didn’t talk about how there was something unusual about this creature that she was determined to pin down. And perhaps it would explain the cause of his injuries as well– Tawyn leaned back and looked at him. A young and strikingly handsome creature possibly just hours before, he was now a wretched sight of blood and scabs and missing patches of fur. It would heal up eventually, but there would be scars, and he would never quite look the same. But his eyes were bright and Tawyn found that she thought the creature was, in his own broken way, still strikingly handsome.

“Your pet now?” Zybarus asked.

“No,” said Tawyn bluntly. Zybarus and Tawyn had a sort of odd love-hate relationship, one that the latter tended to form with others of similarly strong personalities, and this is what caused the stable master to grin and goad her on with “Ohh? But you’ve got a name picked out, dontcha? Zybarus thinks you do!”

Tawyn shot him a brief glower and then busied herself with adjusting the wolf’s new bandages. Finally, she muttered one word under her breath: “Perezvon.”

wow_perezvonstory2

Gotta Catch 'em All – Part Two

Well, I went over the stories of Tawyn’s pets, so let’s go over the pets of my first alt hunter… Lunapike:

alyoshasquareAlyosha has a bit of a story behind him: once upon a time Tawyn was Marksman-spec’d, because she was new to the game and that’s what everyone told her to do. Pike secretly really wanted to be Beast Mastery, but she was sort of afraid to completely respec and try, at first. So she went and rolled her second hunter, Lunapike, to be a Beast Master. And at level ten she ran Lunapike to the blood elf starting zone and tamed a Little Red Kitty. It was a symbolic choice.

I absolutely adore the red lynx skin and I’m quite attached to Alyosha, who is named after one of the three brothers in The Brothers Karamazov. From a roleplaying standpoint he also has strong ties to Lunapike through their respective backstories– I was actually writing a story about this but never finished. I’ll have to do that sometime >.>

Although Lunapike is not currently max-level anymore, Alyosha is sort of the de-facto instancing pet, although he now alternates with a certain bug who we shall touch on later…

ivansquareIvan is the second in my trio of Brothers Karamazov names. I tamed him in Thousand Needles, one of my favorite zones. Oh, and when I summon him, he bamfs in with a poof and a cloud of smoke. No, really. Once I found this out, I had to tame him, so I did. Oh, he’s actually a “she” according to lore, but meh. People turn their Loque’nahaks into girls all the time, so I turned my Arikara into a boy >.> I have this weird thing where all my pets are of the male persuasion for some reason. No idea why.

Now that he is a cunning pet more than a DPS pet, he spends a lot of time in the stable until I pull him out for PvP. Sad, but true.

dmitrisquareDmitri rounds out the Brothers Karamazov. Remember how I said I always wanted to make Tux a rainbow owl but could never bring myself to actually do it? Dmitri is the compromise. He’s not Tux, but he is the rainbow owl. Unfortunately I fear he will fall into the same quandary as Ivan, sitting around without a niche, but we’ll see. It is a PvP server, after all. And owls really are a very good choice for a battlegrounds pet I think– what with Snatch and having those big wings that get in peoples’ faces.

He is a beautiful pet and I bring him out to play during quests sometimes. Roar of Recovery is great for solo stuff.

serenitysquareI fell in love with Serenity almost immediately– this is probably another one of my overall favorite pet “looks” in the game. Now Rilgon likes to point out that everybody names their wasp Serenity, and that’s probably true, but ya know what, I don’t care. And I’ve actually yet to see another Serenity in-game myself, although I know most of the blog comments I get when I talk about him are “Great name, I’m gonna use it myself!” …not on my servers yet, it would appear!

Have I mentioned I love how this pet looks? I love how this pet looks. Lunapike gets all the awesome pets, it seems.

coultonsquareCoulton is the newest member of Lunapike’s pet family. Now originally, I didn’t want to get a gorilla. I was never really a gorilla fan, mostly because they are so large– and I prefer my pets small and unassuming. Able to rip your face off, yes, but also small and unassuming. Gorillas were big and they encouraged AoE spam which I in my stubbornness am not a big fan of. I like to shoot my targets one by one thank-ya-very-much.

But then when I was busy working on grinding Timbermaw rep for my Diplomat title I realized it might actually come in handy. So off I went to Feralas to tame myself a gorilla. I was right– it worked beautifully. And by the time I got my title and then after that when Thunderstomp became a family-wide ability, I was too attached to the big guy to swap him out. So, that’s the story on him: he’s the token tenacity pet and he’s probably here to stay.

The name? Take a guess

Alright. I have more, really, but I dunno, it would be crazy to keep going…

…right? /cough

Gotta Catch 'em All

pokemon3I recently had an e-mail from somebody who wanted to hear more stories about my pets… where I got them, how they got their names, when I use them, how they fit in to my character roleplayingwise, etc. Now on the one hand, I was a little worried about fulfilling this request, because I feel like I’ve already talked about most of this at some point. But on the other hand, it was probably a while ago and I’ve gained a lot of new readers since then, and like most hunters I turn into a proud gushing grandma when asked about my pets, especially seeing as I am a self-professed Pokemon hunter who freaks out over pets.

So let’s talk. And if you’ve heard this all already, feel free to skip it. >.>

tuxsquareTux was the first. The first pet ever. He was level eight and I was level ten and for some reason he didn’t leave me when I didn’t feed him for such a long time– since back then pets ran away when they were unhappy. My adventuring companion throughout most of Vanilla WoW, he has never been my first pet to hit the level cap of the day, but he has always hit it eventually.

Sometimes I get this urge to swap Tux for one of those crazy rainbow owls. Because he’s a special pet and it feels like it would somehow be a weird way of “evolving” him to a form more befitting of him. I could still name him Tux, and it would still “be” Tux. But then I look at the big gray featherhead, the same ball of pixels I’ve had since my first week of World of Warcraft ever, and I can’t do it.

To sate my longing for the rainbow owl though, I tamed one on another character. >.>

Tux spends most of his time in the stable these days, which is sort of sad, but unfortunately he is not a very PvE-viable pet and I haven’t done any serious PvP in a loooong time. He’s pretty dang good at doing dailies and stuff though. *nods* He also tends to be the pet I pick for screenshots and posing, because it’s supposed to be Tawyn & Tux, dang it!

Named for the mascot of the main operating system I game on… heck, the only operating system I played WoW on, period, for the first 69 levels of Tawyn’s existence..

lockesquare Locke was the rare spawn I tamed at 4am server time. There were two reasons: one, he was teal. My favorite color. ’twas a given. Two, I was reading hunter blogs regularly by now (heck, I was writing one) and I had come to the sad realization that a lot of people disliked hunters who instanced with flying pets because they had big flappy wings that got in the way. I wanted a backup pet to be able to take into instances who wouldn’t annoy anyone, and the kitty was the winner.

Locke was the Big Bad Raiding Pet through most of Burning Crusade until towards the end when he was replaced by… the next pet I shall be talking about. It actually got to the point where most of my guildies saw me as Tawyn & Locke instead of Tawyn & Tux, which I sort of had mixed feelings about. I mean, I loved Locke, but it seemed odd. Locke also became the butt of a solid handful of inside jokes that still exist among my friends’ circle, the best being that he was going to leave me, don a monocle, top hat, and dastardly mustache, and become the new endboss of Heroic Mech. Long story.

These days he has been largely stabled in favor of Wash, although he comes out sometimes for nostalgia’s sake. The last time I brought him to a raid, though, there were five hunters there all told and every single one had a cat and one of them was the exact same skin as Locke. It bugged me enough that halfway through during a break I went and swapped him out for my raptor. >.> Sorry, Locke. It was really confusing though… all those kitties… /twitch. My Locke was the only one going Big Red though. <3 He is named either after John Locke or Locke Cole… take your pick!

eltaninsquareEltanin is the Windserpent who became the Burning Crusade raiding pet after Locke. Lightning Breath for the win! I love this guy– beautiful skin and I just adore windserpents. I went into ZG solo to tame him, the story of which I chronicled in this blog!

Sadly with the advent of 3.0 he no longer was a good raid/instancing pet so while he alternated with my other pets during my leveling, he has been stuck at level 79 for a while. I love to pull him out of the stable sometimes and strut around with him, just because I think he’s gorgeous. I wish I could use him more often.

He was named after the brightest star in the constellation Draco.

washsquareWash has a long story to him. As I’m sure most of you lovely folks have gathered, he’s rather near and dear to my heart, even though I’d released him for some time and didn’t re-tame him until recently. He is my current raiding/instancing pet, partially because I am so attached to him, partially because I simply got tired of having a cat like everyone else (again– sorry Locke!), and partially because his DPS is phenominal– I maintain that he performs better than my cat does in my experience, largely I think because of Savage Rend. When it crits, it increases the damage he deals by 10% for 30 seconds. When you are a Beast Master hunter as I am, this crits a lot, and the cooldown is down to something like 46 seconds, so it’s up– a LOT of the time.

Mostly I just think Wash is adorable. I’ve always liked dinosaurs. Protoceratops are my favorite, but for the lack of them in the game, a raptor will do.

…and, come on, you mean the story behind his name isn’t obvious enough? =P

nachisquareMy fifth stable slot is currently in a state of flux. Usually it’s occupied by a tenacity pet to make up for my lack of one, but over the past several months a bear, a rhino, an eagle, a wolf, a turtle, and now currently a teal worm (named Nachi) have all resided there. Who will get the fifth stable slot permanently? I dunno. A part of me really wants Loque’nahak, not so much because I like the look, so much as it seems to be the ultimate badge of Beast Master hunter pride. (Although, I do like the look, but not to the point that I would get him otherwise, if it wasn’t such a symbol of my favorite spec.) Still, I’ve circled the Basin a bazillion times over the past few months while herbing– yes, following “the route” and keeping a casual eye out– and I’ve never seen hide nor hair, not to mention then I wouldn’t have any room for my token tenacity pet, so… I’m really not sure!

From a roleplaying standpoint, Tawyn considers all her pets to be very important to her, and her closest friends. She only keeps them with stable masters that she trusts (she’s good friends with the dwarven hunters in Stormwind) and the stories I write about her often involve multiple pets all out at once… hey, I can dream, right?

Next up, if enough people are interested… the stories behind the pets of my other hunters!

…don’t give me that look. We’ve already established that I’m a Crazy Pet Lady.

Bon Appetit: Pet Snacks!

Buff food for us hunters is pretty self-explanitory. We like food that gives us Attack Power or Crit or Agility, or possibly even Hit or Haste, depending on our gear, spec, and circumstance. Don’t forget, though, that our pets can get buff food too:

lockenom

Currently, as far as I am aware, there are three foods in the game that will buff your pet. These are they:

Sporeling Snacks: An Outlands recipe available from Sporeggar rep, this food will give your pet 20 stamina and 20 spirit for 30 minutes. Requires level 55 to use.

Kibler’s Bits: An Outlands recipe from the Shattrath cooking daily, this food used to give your pet 20 strength and 20 spirit for 30 minutes– now it has been revamped and gives your pet 30 strength and 30 stamina for one hour. Requires level 55 to use.

Spiced Mammoth Treats
: A Northrend recipe from the Dalaran cooking daily, this food has the exact same effect as Kibler’s Bits: gives your pet 30 strength and 30 stamina for one hour. Requires level 70 to use.

Now by looking at these three foods, it’s pretty clear that our poor old Sporeling Snacks have been outclassed. It doesn’t last nearly as long as the others and the stats are subpar. Still useful for leveling through Outlands if you happen to snag the recipe and mats, but even then, not really worth reaching for.

The other two, though, are your pets’ new best friends in raids or heroics!

Most cooks find that the Kibler’s Bits are much easier to make due to the easier-to-obtain ingredients. Me, I don’t have the recipe for either so I stalk the AH for both of them. They tend to be pricey when they pop up (though I can occasionally find Kibler’s Bits for quite a steal– I’ve bought a full stack of 20 for 3 gold) but the benefits they provide are pretty nice: a DPS boost and a survivability boost for your pet.

Plus, c’mon, he’s just so happy when you give him a treat!

So don’t forget to bring some with you alongside your hunter buff food: your pet will thank you. Oh, and also remember that the food doesn’t work like normal “pet food”… you don’t use the Feed Pet command to feed him. Rather, you “use” it like you would a food for yourself.

And no, I don’t know why an Outlands recipe and Northrend recipe with a usable-level discrepency are exactly the same either. I sort of suspect this may randomly change in a future patch, but hey, who knows?

In closing, I was a “caster tank” on Four Horsemen today. It was really fun, and I got a shiny new sword. *swings it around and hums contentedly as her pets dash for cover*

PetQuilt

petquilt

Left to right, top to bottom:

Tux, Level 80; Locke, Level 80; Eltanin, Level 79; Wash, Level 80
Alyosha, Level 70; Ivan, Level 70; Serenity, Level 70; Dmitri, Level 70
Kolya, Level 33; Regulus, Level 38; Alnair, Level 39; Chakapas, Level 37
Clifford, Level 18; Fiskars, Level 18; Scraps, Level 14; Niels, Level 16

And yes, there’s more. Though they are sadly attached to hunters who I don’t play as often. (The pets of six different hunters are represented in this quilt.)

…and yes, looking at this picture fills me with warm fuzzies. <3

There Was One She Still Missed, Part Two

(Continued from Part One)

The Outland.

There were few that remained here now that most of the action was going on in Northrend. Oh, there were some armies still stationed here, and the younger adventurers cutting their teeth in this gods-forsaken land. But for the most part, there was nothing to be seen…

…except perhaps a bright pink raptor wreaking havoc on the moths in Terokkar Forest. And his subsequent containment by the Cenarion Expedition, who proceeded to bring the now caged creature to their main base of operations in Zangarmarsh.

“What do you make of this… creature?” Warden Hamoot asked Kameel, the Stable Master, as he gestured to the raptor furiously thrashing about behind bars. “He does not appear to be like anything else I have seen in this area…”

Kameel nodded. “He is native to the Wetlands in Azeroth,” he said in his deep voice. “How he got up here, I don’t know, but he does not belong here, and so long as he stays I do not think he will be happy.”

“Happy?” the Warden chuckled and lightly scratched his back with his mace. “When we found him he was terrorizing the creatures of Terokkar, they are the ones who only wish to be happy. But you are right, my friend, we must do what is best for this animal. There is a fear in his eyes, and I believe it may be driving him mad, if it hasn’t already. He should go back to the Wetlands.”

“The quickest way would be to take him to Shattrath and through the portal to the dwarves’ city, Ironforge,” replied Kameel. “From there, it would be a relatively short trip by cart to his native land.”

Warden Hamoot shuffled his hooves. He didn’t like using the portals, they relied too much on arcane magic in his eyes, and he was glad that this time he would have a good excuse to not have to use one. “Obviously you and I shall not be able to make the trip to the dwarves’ city, not with the Alliance and Horde still at odds as they are prone to be. You and I would clearly… raise a few eyebrows, so to speak, if we went. But one of our Night Elf colleagues, perhaps…?”

Kameel voiced his agreement and the two tauren went about deciding who the best representative would be as the raptor once again attacked the bars of his cage, letting out a shriek that sent the nearby sea birds soaring away.

“Tell that blasted thing to shut up!” the dwarf banged his gun against the bars of the cage, which only provoked the raptor further as the Night Elf druid escorting it tried to calm both of them down. “Why’d ya bring this thing ‘ere into Menethil Harbor anyway, boy? Couldn’t ya have just left it outside tha town?” the dwarf continued to thunder.

“I– I worry about being alone when I release it, just in case–”

“Bah, we could use less o’ those beasties around ‘ere anyway. I say we end the thing.”

A woman’s voice yelled something out in Dwarvish, and the dwarf yelled back “Dearie, ye can’t take away mah gun. It’s a dwarf’s solemn right to have a gun in one hand and an ale in the other–”

Simultaneously the woman snapped something back; the Cenarion escort said “Please, I’ll handle it,” and the raptor screeched out to the heavens as the curious Night Elf hunter approached. The boat from Northrend had landed and was soon to depart, but no commotion was going to take place without Tawyn’s investigation, whether or not she might miss the boat. A druid and a dwarf were rather feverishly discussing something, she observed, and in a cage was a brilliant magenta raptor…

He glanced at Tawyn. Tawyn blinked.

“…Wash?”

In an instant the raptor’s screeches took on a more pleading tone and Tawyn was at the cage. “Let him out. Let him out!” she roared, and it was somehow a bestial enough threat that the dwarf backed away and the druid fumbled at the lock without question.

The padlock fell away and the small crowd that had gathered tensed. The raptor, now quiet, slowly padded out of the cage, off the wooden cart, and up to Tawyn. The hunter reached down and gently stroked his head without a second thought. “What’s wrong, boy…?”

Still, he was silent. Tawyn stared searchingly into this eyes; there was pain therein. Not physical pain though– he had seen something. Something bad…

She thought about how she’d released him in the Outland. Perhaps, on second thought, not a good idea. So much chaos up there–

“You,” she looked at the druid. “What were you doing with him?”

“We– the Cenarion Expedition– found him far from his home, and he was not happy. We were simply bringing him home, to release him here. That is all. I hope I did not interfere with anything…”

“No,” Tawyn smiled thinly. “Thank you for thinking of what was best for him.” She looked down at the raptor. “You’re home now, and safe. Go on now.”

Wash stood his ground; clearly he wasn’t intending to go anywhere. There was still pain in his eyes, but something else too…

He wanted to help.

Tawyn realized what this meant, and nodded. Then she turned and headed towards the ship to Howling Fjord. Wash followed.

“Where are you going?” asked the druid.

“Northrend,” replied Tawyn.

“And why are you taking… him?”

“Because… we are partners.”

wow_tawynwashwetlands

And with that the hunter and her pet got onto the boat, and sailed away into the mists.

(The End!)

Pet Specs Mega Post

I’ve had a lot of people requesting guides on pet specs. I am more than happy to share my thoughts on them with you guys! Pet specs are typically pretty straightforward because there are only so many talents that will increase DPS, etc. However, they are also pretty situational, depending on what you want out of your pets. If you are doing solo’ing and leveling with your kitty then you may opt to go for something different. And that is 100% okay. But here are Pike’s recommendations:

Ferocity Pet:

ferocity11

This basic 16-point build scoops up Cobra Reflexes, Dash, Bloodthirsty, Spider’s Bite, and finally, Call of the Wild and Rabid. Basically all your essential DPS talents. However, you may also opt for something like this which replaces Avoidance/Rapid with Heart of the Phoenix (currently bugged, though) and Lick Your Wounds. Don’t underestimate the power of Lick Your Wounds, I shied away from it for a while because I figured I used Mend Pet enough. Well maybe I’m just unlucky but my pets seem to have been taking massive amounts of damage in the heroics and raids I’ve done so far, and it’s saved his furry butt several times. So I’ve been sold on it. Really that choice with what you do with those remaining points is up to you.

And once you’ve got the four extra points, you don’t have to worry about choosing, and you can also nab Charge and then one point in Great Resistance– that is your filler point and I think it’s the best place to put it, it gives your pet a nice boost on resistances. So you’d end up with this:

ferocity2

Cunning Pet:

These guys are a little tricky because there are many different routes you can take with them: PvP, utility, leveling, and though I’ve yet to try a heroic or raid with a Cunning Pet it’s something I’ll be looking into because I think they’ve got some nice DPS talents too. So I definitely don’t see a talent path for these guys to be nearly as straight-forward. That said, this what I’ve done with Tux and Eltanin:

cunning1

This is an all-purpose killing-stuff/utility build that also works decently for PvP (though I’d probably spec a bit differently for that). You pick up Cobra Reflexes, Dive, Owl’s Focus and Spiked Collar as your must-haves. After that things get a little hazy, I typically opt for Avoidance, Cornered, and just one point in Feeding Frenzy so I can nab both Wolverine Bite and Roar of Recovery with 16 points. Roar of Recovery is super awesome by the way, it makes me wish I had a Cunning pet out when I’m not using one. I <3 my Cunning pets. *clings to them* Really, I think that bottom portion of the tree is pretty customizable for your own needs. You may want to switch out Wolverine Bite for that extra point in Feeding Frenzy. Or for Carrion Feeder so you don't have to carry food around. It's a very flexible build, really. Once you get the four extra talent points you can stop worrying about it and do this:

cunning2

You can snatch up the extra Feeding Frenzy point, Carrion Feeder, Bullheaded (remember, this is a utility build more than a DPS build) , and then drop the final filler point in Great Resistance. Overall I have found this build to be very nice build for leveling/grinding and it’s also pretty effective in the occasional PvP skirmish if you, say, play on a PvP server or do the world PvP events sometimes. I’d probably opt for slightly different, but similar, pet spec for dedicated PvP but this one certainly isn’t bad.

Tenacity Pet:

There are a couple different ways to do Tenacity Pets and for me, what you want it to make your Tenacity Pet a pure tanking machine. That means you’ll be skipping a lot of the DPS talents in favor of longevity ones. This would be my 16-point build:

tenacity1

Charge, Great Stamina, and Natural Armor from the first tier. Blood of the Rhino (very important talent!! Makes your Mend Pet epic) and Pet Barding from the second. Guard Dog is your other “must-have” in this tree. After that you have a couple of options, myself I like Avoidance and Last Stand. Last Stand is just like the warrior move and it’s gotten me through a few elite group quests and I <3 it very much. You do have to manually activate it, though, so make sure it's on your pet bar. Picking up the four extra talent points, I'd go for something like this:

tenacity2

You can pick up Grace of the Mantis as well as your two remaining last-tier talents, Roar of Sacrifice and Taunt. I have some problems getting Roar of Sacrifice to work well, but I think I probably just have to sit down and figure it out. Now as you can see, we skipped out on Cobra Reflexes and Spiked Collar, the two must-have DPS talents from the previous trees, in favor of pure survivability. I’ve tried doing difficult quests with both methods– a more DPS-spec’d tank, and a more never-gonna-die-spec’d tank– and I have had much more success with the latter. Remember, your Tenacity pet isn’t there to DPS, he’s there to be a meatshield on those tough group quests!

Well, you asked for it, so you got it: Pike’s thoughts on pet-spec’ing. As I said, pet specs are oftentimes really very situational, but pet respecs are very cheap, so it works out.

I don’t work today and most of my guild doesn’t seem to have anything major planned either, so we were thinking about having going on a wild badge-fest heroics-a-thon. So I’m off to do the IRL stuff and then log on. As always, I love your comments and corrections!

Don't Stop It Now

Seeing as I spent most of Thursday goofing around on my Death Knight, and the first half of Friday joining billions of Ramparts groups on my treedruid, and didn’t even really get around to starting Tawyn’s leveling journey until the second half of yesterday… I’d say this isn’t too bad. I’ve got the leveling fever now though, and I want really badly to get to 71 today. Will it happen without all that rested XP that I had yesterday? Only time will tell!

I’ve been experimenting with using different pets while questing, and thus far I seem to be having the best luck with my good ol’ kitty Locke, the Ferocity Pet. The bear isn’t bad but in all honesty both he– er, she— and Locke seem to be pumping out the same amount of threat, so in the end you’re basically choosing if you’d rather have the bear’s armor and general tankyness, or the cat’s DPS for quicker questing. I prefer the DPS myself for general leveling, and saving the bear for solo’ing harder quests.

I have also experimented with both my Cunning pets, Tux the Owl and Eltanin the Windserpent, and they don’t seem to be quite as effective but they do work well enough. Tux’s Snatch can be handy sometimes.

I will most certainly be continuing to rotate through my pets as I level, and reviewing them as I go– do keep in mind that at this point I do not have the exotic pet talent and the four extra points (I’ve slated myself to get it in five more levels)– so your mileage may vary!

Well, off to do my morning routine and then head over to– probably the Borean Tundra (I’ve been alternating between both the Tundra and the Fjord but I actually find the Tundra to be a tad more interesting. And the baby mammoths must be saved.)

In closing, here is Tawyn surrounded by fanboys!

Hawtstuff!

The Legend of Chakapas

Once upon a time there was a great hunter named Chakapas who, after having shown his hunting prowess by trapping every living creature on the earth, chose to go after the greatest prey he could think of: the moon. Chakapas ensnared the moon with a rope so tight that it had an unwelcome and unforseen side effect: the moon could not rise at night anymore, so nights remained dark– too dark for people to travel or do much of anything by night.

The people came to Chakapas and told him of their dilemma, and he immediately agreed to let the moon go, but the mighty hunter soon found that he could not undo his own trap, and the moon remained firmly stuck.

He asked the animals of the forest for help and they agreed to do what they could, one by one heading to the moon and one by one failing and coming back because the moon’s light was too brilliant and too hot. Finally, the smallest animal– the Least Mouse– asked for a try. Bravely he wandered up to the ensnared moon and chewed through the rope. It took a long time and he had to withstand great amounts of light and heat– so hot that it singed his belly, leaving it a lighter color than the rest of his fur. But he succeeded where the other animals could not, and the moon once again rose to take its place in the night sky.

As for Chakapas, no one is quite sure where he went in search of his next great hunt. But it is said that you can still see his shadow cast against the moon…

Cree Legend, as retold by Pike

I’m pretty sure the Least Mouse is supposed to be the hero of the story but leave it to me to empathize with the hapless but determined hunter.

Gotta say though, you guys are GOOD at coming up with pet names. Some of your suggestions were unbelievably tempting and I spent a good few hours musing them over. In the end, though, my decision was made when I stumbled across this story.

<3'cha all and have a great weekend!

In Which a Game Bug Leads to a Pet Bug

You may have heard some hunters say they a have a “bug” with their cat pet, where they will very firmly turn Prowl off of Autocast and it will… automatically turn itself back onto Autocast. Everytime you mount or dismount or zone into someplace new, it comes back. There are “fixes” like resummoning your pet, or putting the offending Prowl on your pet’s action bar, and sometimes it will work, but sometimes it won’t.

Tawyn ran into this problem with Locke and Lunapike ran into this problem with Alyosha but they were both easily fixed. I dragged Prowl onto my pet’s action bar, turned it off, dismissed and resummoned my pet, and… problem solved. Neither of them are Prowling anymore and things are snazzy. Although even if they did have the prowling bug, it wouldn’t have been too big of a deal, because I have other pets I could use if it got too annoying.

So then I logged into Althalor. My hunter who only uses cats.

Guess what?

They won’t stop prowling.

Anytime I mount/dismount, Prowl. Anytime I log in and out, Prowl. Anytime I take a flight point and land somewhere, Prowl. It doesn’t matter how many times I turn it off. It doesn’t matter how many of those million tricks I found on the internet I try. It doesn’t matter that I did the little trick I did with both Tawyn and Lunapike to fix the problem. My poor cat hunter’s cats are simply not cooperating.

Why it’s only happening on one of my hunters and not the others, I have no idea, and why it had to happen specifically to my cat-only hunter I have no idea, but the result was that it wasn’t long before I got sick of the stealth noise and got tired of constantly having to tell my kitties to unprowl, and I decided to break protocol and go tame a non-kitty pet to use until this all gets sorted out.

At the suggestion of a commenter, I opted to go with a moth.

…let’s play the guess what game again. Guess what?

The only pre-Outlands-level moths in the game are in the Draenei starting zone. Althalor is a blood elf, on a PvP server.

Did I? You’d better believe I did!

It actually wasn’t that bad. I think a lot of people are distracted by the zombies running around so I didn’t run into anybody (except, well, a zombie) on the way there. Then I jumped into the water at Auberdine, drowned myself under the draenei boat, hopped onto the draenei boat as a ghost, rode over to Azuremyst Isle, and– still ghostified– ran myself to the Spirit Healer who is standing not too far away from where level 1 draenei first spawn. I rez’d there and, much to my luck, there was a moth right in front of my face.

/tame!

/yell Byebye Draenei!

/hearthstone!

I only had enough time last night to play with the moth long enough to realize that the moth’s special ability, Serenity Dust, does not seem to be autocasting and I have to manually trigger it. So now I find myself wondering… is this a known issue or is poor Althalor just having horrific luck with pets?

Oh, also, I need a name for the moth. Something other than PikesWorstNightmare (have I mentioned I have this phobia of moths in real life but the ones in WoW don’t bug me? …pun not intended.) I was thinking of something dreamlike or trancelike cause I think it would fit. Toss me your suggestions.