What We Do For Pets
The Big Stu asked in a comment on my Mangeclaw Misadventures:
I was wondering if you have ever taken a poll to see just how long people have spent trying to tame a pet. I am not talking about parking next to Humar’s tree and logging in every hour to see if he is there yet, I am talking about sitting in front of the screen waiting…or what ever you would have to do for another pet.
Oddly, I would generally not consider waiting for a personal pet for more than about 5 minutes. I’ve done it to tame something to get its stats, but that’s work — for my own personal pets, I just don’t have enough patience. On the other hand, I regularly run level 10 characters to hell and back to tame a special pet — and I was doing that before I learned about ghost traveling, when it meant death after death after death just to move 50 feet down the road. So yeah, I can be really unreasonable when I want a pet. I just won’t wait for it. *grin*
How about you guys? Let’s hear your stories!
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I spent about a month grinding mobs in the Blasted Lands looking for Grunter before giving up. After I ding 70, I plan to camp there again until I get him. I also tamed Bjarn when I was only level 12, but that was just corpse hopping and I didn’t have to wait on him to spawn.
I remember the Blasted Lands. *shudder* I needed to tame all three of the rare pets there to get their stats: Grunter, Spiteflayer, and Clack the Reaver. I never did find Grunter — but thankfully other people had and noted his stats for me. Grunter remains one of the few pets I haven’t tamed myself.
I remember trying to tame Broken Tooth back in the day… oh, that was a waste of my life. Checking obsessively at random times… and I’m on Blackrock, so the large aussie population meant that there’d still be people on even if I woke up at 4 AM or something. I think I finally gave up and got one of those red hyenas from SM, who came with me to 60. The pet attack speed normalization filled me with delicious schadenfreude, as you can probably guess. ^_~
I don’t think I’ve tamed any rare spawns aside from the Rake, eons ago. Most of my pets 1-60 were dungeon pets (slavering worg, SM hyena, LBRS worg, Son of Hakkar) but my pets at 70 are all common– the undead boar, blue outland windserpent and one of those purple skettis owls. I did tame the Strider Clutchmother on my other hunter, now that I think of it, but it was there when I went looking for it; actually taming it was the hard part.
but yeah, after my awful experience trying to tame Broken Tooth I’d be leery of bothering with rare spawns. it’d really have to be something special to get me to go after it… and it doesn’t look like there’re too many rares around in outland anyway, from what my poking around at wowhead has determined.
I’m the type that goes for the hardest/rarest alliance pet that I could find. On my old hunter, I had a friend take me through Wailing Caverns to get a deviate dreadfang, which is still on that hunter at level 60. I also would always go for Echeyakee/Humar. After BC, I took my Draenei hunter to Eversong Forest and got both a springpaw cub and a crazed dragonhawk. The springpaw cub is still with me at 70, but I gave up the dragonhawk during the high levels due to the negative impact of caster stats.
I also ran through Sethekk Halls (it was a pretty bad run, but hey, I got what I wanted) for an Avian Ripper. So then, I have a bright orange kitty cat and a bright orange owl. I would love to have an orange dragonhawk as well, but the caster stats are just a total pain, so I wouldn’t get one unless they released non-caster ones.
Also, when I ran to Eversong, I didn’t know anything about the ghost-travel, so I did the corpse-hopping through EPL and whatnot.
ghost-travel ?
you mean there’s a easier way to get a springpaw cub?
wish I had known that …
where can I find that info?
btw my lvl 19 Horde Twink would like to thank you for sharing the details, on how to get a Owl from Teldrasil.
She rocks in BG’s with her :)
I just recently spent 3 hours waiting in that cave in Ungoro for Uhk’loc. Man, was I happy camper when he finally spawned I was able to tame him. My other pet is the Ghost Saber, so they somewhat match in color and rarity.
For me, part of the fun of being a hunter is taming the unique/hard to get pets. Maybe it’s just me, but I always hated going into Orgrim and seeing 6 other hunters with the same pet as me.
I’ve tamed almost every rare pet in the game (Including the Ghost Saber), and usually it takes me around 2-3 hours of checking the spawn location. The only two pets I haven’t seen yet are Cranky Benj and Grunter.
I decided in my mid-50s that I absolutely HAD to have a Vilebranch Riding Wolf. (I’m still a fan of that skin.) Unfortunately, they only spawn at the top of Jin’Thalor in the Hinterlands. I made it to the top through a combination of Feign Death and corpse hopping. The problem? I forgot they were elites (and I didn’t know you could trap pets during taming). I died six times while taming- and usually just before the spell completed- before heading back to Orgrimmar, buying a pile of Stamina scrolls and agility elixirs, re-creating my first corpse/FD run, and FINALLY grabbing one. The good part of this story was that while I was buying my buffs off the Auction House, I grabbed a Shell Launcher Shotgun on the cheap. Used that until Burning Crusade came out.
Stitcher: The info about ghost travel is hidden in the Mangeclaw post. I’ll putt it out into a real post for you right after this. :>
Sedna: Great story! That must have been frustrating — but oh so satisfying when you got the wolf!
RareHunter: I saw Cranky Benj once, when I was very young, but since I didn’t know I’d later need his data I didn’t tame him at the time. I haven’t seen him since.
Uhk’loc I stumbled into on the Public Test Realm for the update where he was made tamable. I wouldn’t want to try taming him on a crowded live world — I imagine it would be a mess. Actually, it’s a funny story: I was checking out the tamable gorillas on that long-ago PTR and I was just entering the cave where both Uhk’loc and U’cha spawn, when a night elf hunter came charging up behind me. I was worried she was there to interfere — Mania is Horde, remember — and I was trying to figure out how to get her away so I could tame in peace when I realized that it was Bamoo (aka Brash Endeavors), the person who actually owns Petopia! Since we couldn’t talk, what followed was a lot of pointing and grunting followed up by some quick e-mails to coordinate strategy. When we left the cave, she had U’cha in tow and I had Uhk’loc. *grin*
I did an overnight marathon once in Un’Goro waiting for Uhk’loc to spawn, I was there for about eight hours. Eight hours of clearing spawns with a truculent temporary pet was pretty tedious, but I really wanted that unique white gorilla! As it turns out, I never leveled him or did much with him, and eventually I released him as I got closer to 70; I couldn’t bear the thought of leveling a pet from 53 to 70, especially after I’d already leveled my red hyena Bonesnapper from 34 to 60! But I got him when I wanted him, even though it didn’t last. Happily (or unhappily), there haven’t been any new pets in BC worth that kind of wait to me.
Way, way back when I made my first hunter, a Tauren, I tamed a Worg in Silverpine. I assumed that all Worgs were black until I was running through Silverpine for a quest and saw Gorefang. I was thrilled to see a light colored Worg, so I ran as fast as I could to Undercity, put my black Worg, NightRunner, into the stable, and ran back in time to see Gorefang’s corpse laying there. This was about lunch time, and I walked back and forth through Silverpine until suppertime without finding him again. I left for supper, came back, and just as I logged on and was leaving the Undercity, someone on my guild chat said, “Hey, I just found and killed this silver elite named Gorefang, anyone ever heard of him?”
After much venting from me and laughter from everyone else, since the rest of my guild had been listening to my frustrations about not finding him, but this person had logged in after I had left, I went back out to my pacing. Finally, late at night, I gave up and was walking back to Undercity to log out. Out of boredom, I was mousing over my minimap with beast tracking up: “Mottled Worg…. Mottled Worg…. Worg… Worg… Gorefang…. Worg… wait, Gorefang???” I raced over to that spot on my map, and sure enough, there he was. I started taming immediately, worried that someone else would come along and kill him. I was so excited during the tame that my hands were shaking. Tamed him first try and named him SilverWind. And bragged to my guild. I’m not sure if they were happy for me or amused by me, but either way, I got my Worg.
Then much later I found out that I could have just run to Alliance territory and gotten one that looked the same with a faster attack speed, (back when that existed), but at the time, I was thrilled.
I guess, then, my answer is a day, lol.
Well I don’t go after named and/or rare pets all that often. The only one I ever did do was the King and he’s so easy to find it’s not really that big of a deal.
However where I do spend the time is planning my pets many levels in advance. For example I knew in the 40’s I wanted to try to start using an owl, so I researched all the owls and settled on one in Felwood. At the same time I planned the next owl in Winterspring. On the whole, the owls are pretty easy and there are many that are “full-featured”. When I decided I wanted the Rip-Blade ravager it was much tougher because I had never had a boar, and since I’d had an owl for so long, my Bite skill was lacking. So I spent a great deal of time picking through the Petopia stats, and going through maps trying to decide the best way to get the skills and not really interrupt my regular adventuring. It always pays off. I talk to so many hunters who want to try pet X or pet Y but didn’t snag them at the level when it would have been most convenient to get them and then “well it just takes too long to level a pet” and they stick with who they have.
Man ive been looking for Old Grizzlegut forever, never did find him. One day i will, then ill have a lvl 70 black bear :D
The Death Ravager!
I had read a guy’s post on how to tame one with an alt warrior. So, I make a warrior, lvl him up to 10, run to the ravager’s cage, (after getting the quest), pop the door open and run to get outta range. log out and jump on my widdle hunter. I get logged in just in time to see it despawn. Time after time, unloaded all addons, still cant get loged in fast enough to get him.
So after the 3rd day of this, I ask a friend on her lvl 70 to come help. We try this, we try that, but we just cant get it to stay till i can get my hunter on to tame it. Finally after 2 hours, my friend hit the ravager as i was logging out to get the hunter, I thought, “dam, she killed it in 1 hit”. I get back ingame and she is standing there letting the ravager wail on her. I target it and it only has 1% health, wow did we get lucky. Tried to tame him 3 times as he wailed on my friend but she had all the aggro, so I quickly mana-ed up, and tamed again, heart pounding, hands sweating, butt going numb from sitting to long, and BAMB! I tame the lil purple feakazoid!!!
After the celebration, and obligitory gnome sacrifice (yes we also did one before the whole adventure), I lvled him to 30 but he is destined for 70, if only cause he was A PAIN IN MY BUTT to get.
Well, my hunters are well known for having unusual pets by my friends and guildies. I play on a fairly young PvE realm and I believe I was one of the first alliance hunters to tame Humar. Yes, I camped him off and on for about a day and a half. But up until that point I had not seen anyone else with a Humar, and you should have seen the tells, whispers, general chat, etc I stirred up! Then I tamed a rotting agam’ar boar from RFK. I think it is the best boar skin out there, the black with armor plates. I still have yet to see another alliance on my realm with this pig. >:) Both of these two are with me still today at level 55. Oh, and I was 36 when I tamed them both, so yes I had a bit of a leveling job. On my horde hunters, I ran my tauren to teldrassil for a Strigid Hunter owl at level 11, and snagged Bjarn the white bear from dun Morogh at lvl 13. Both of these were straight runs as I did not know about the ghost travel either. My third hunter (also horde) on this realm is currently enjoying the company of a Ghost Saber he just got at level 20. He is an orc, so it looks a little different!
Firstly, I’d just like to say how much I love this blog and Petopia! You and Brash have done such an excellent job.
Personally, I tend to make things difficult for myself when finding pets for my various hunter characters. I prefer to get rares and named, more to feel like I’ve accomplished something special rather than any other reason.
On one of my first hunters (Night Elf) I travelled to Dun Morogh at level 10 to get Timber, the lowest level white worg. The next pet that character tamed was Dishu at level 13, found in The Barrens. Neither run is quick at that level, especially as I kept dying, and both have mobs that surround them which makes them even more difficult to get. Dishu was in particular difficult as I had to check several spawn areas as well as remember I was on a PvP server and in Horde territory.
I think it was harder when I was levelling up my main Tauren hunter. I decided to tame the level 17 hyena, Snort The Heckler (first purple in the game). It was really difficult to find and when I did it wasn’t easy due to its spit attack pre-tame. At level 19 I went for the Elite raptor, Takk The Leaper. Like Snort, Takk wasn’t easy to find and I spent hours looking for him. Pretty hard to tame too!
I remember the longest I’ve camped is 6 hrs 30 mins non stop running in a circle, spamming /target Broken Tooth back in the day.
Go figure, it was a 6.5 hr spawn and i got there just as someone must’ve killed it I guess.
And the hardest pets to tame, at lvl 10, Night elf hunter to blood elf area for a red springpaw lynx and at lvl 10 a tauren hunter to dun morogh for Timber.
Lvl 10 in EPL, thats a blast -_-;;;
I choose my pets for their race and colour. Boy, was I miffed when Broken Tooth appeared and every hunter I saw in IF had the same cute (and previously special) brown cougar model. I even made a macro with a reply “No, this is not Broken Tooth but a normal 1000 Needles cougar with a 1.2 attack speed.” Often got a reply like “o.0 Wish I had known… I wouldn’t have spent so much time camping this one.” *evil grin*
I don’t camp for pets, because I quickly learned that they never appear when you want them. I tried it once in Feralas for Arash-Ethis to get his lightning breath skill. After 2 days of questing in that zone and not seeing him once I gave up. Weeks later I was fishing in Feathermoon and a guildy asked me to help in Mauradon, I decided to ride from Feathermoon and guess who was flying near the road… a white serpent who I nearly shot out of frustration because I didn’t have the time to ride back to stable my pet and I sure wasn’t going abandon her just for a skill.
I did spend a few weeks levelling a L7 red springpaw lynx, it helped that I could survive the Winterspring Furby grind (rep) and the yeti cave (for leather) on my own, though I did spend a fortune on water (cat pet + fishing pole = free food). By the time I was 64 she finally caught up and she’s still my main pet for my Night Elf hunter. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it could use a little tuning. No, I don’t need the Warlock mechanic of “Call pet *Boom* same level”. Yes, I feel that if you choose a special pet for whatever reason that you should do a bit of hard work for it. And yes, I did it myself so I sure know what I am talking about. ;)
A few weeks ago I made a Draenei hunter and at L10 did the corpse-run to Eversong. Like Rikaku said: L10 in EPL… fun! ;p This kitty was released at L30 however, when I saw that a black panther looked so much better with my draenei toon.
I really should check this blog more often…I spawned this whole thing and I did not even see it till just now.
Humar: Not sure where I heard about him but he somehow led me to petopia. I spent 3 hours doing circles around his tree until I got him on my first hunter. That server must have been new because I hardly ever saw another hunter with him. I took that kitty to 60 with me and would bring him along when ever I did not need my owl. My worg pup looked very good next to him (I am also a mini pet freak.) Other than that I have not kept any of the rare spawns that I have tamed. I like my pet to have a speed boost, which sticks me with cats birds and boars…I am not real crazy about boars. I also like my mini pet to match my combat pet, so right now I am trying to level my 51 main so I can get a Skettis Kaliri to match my Hyacinth Mcaw (feel free to correct my spelling)
I’ve only seen grunter once, and sadly I was 1 lvl too low to tame him….so I killed him and took a screenie >:)
My longest camp had to be humar, bout 23 hours strait looking at the screen, grinded about 28 bars (lvl 23-24) on those fking lions.
Oh, here’s the screenie:
Grunter
If that shot included your level, that would be a wordlessly ironic masterpiece. As it is, most hunters will still sigh in sympathy — or yell at you for killing him. *grin*
Literally I was lvl 49. I wanted to tame him so badly, and there were no other hunt’s in the zone at the time :(
The toon in the screenie my hunter Mew on Draenor, she still has the same polearm heh
I love getting exotic pets. It’s all Petopia’s fault. I started playing the game with a Tauren hunter and when I read the guide about getting an owl I couldn’t wait to try it. So at 11th level I made the trip and had a blast.
That same character also has a ghost saber. That took days, and then what happens when I go along with a friend to help him get one? Ten feet into the ruins and there is a cat statue that worked. Random numbers.
My Draenai hunter got Ressan the needler at 12th level.
Pretty long swim but worth it. The longest trip with a newbie toon was getting a tiger for my nightelf. Going down through Ashenvale wasn’t that bad but swimming down the southfury river I died a lot. But after a quick swim arond the end of the continent to the echo isles I had a Durotar tiger. It was fun to walk around a city with my tiger and orange tabby kitty and see people stop in their tracks.
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