Kaet: Taming the Crabs
(You can read all of Kaet’s adventures, starting with why I’m doing things this way, by checking out the series Table of Contents at the end of this post. Alternatively, if you are here primarily for juicy pet-related news, feel free to skip these bits — they’re optional.)
So I was level ten and my taming quests were done — it was time to go tame my first pet. Since I like being difficult, I decided to start with a red crab from Durotar.
From Ironforge I took the tram to Stormwind. (This saved me some money and also let me turn in my box of rat kabobs and finish the second half of that quest.) Then it was out the front gate of Stormwind and south — straight into a rain shower. For the record, I am not at all enamored of weather in these games. At least WoW isn’t so dark you can’t see your own hand in front of your face at night (like some games I could name), but while the rain is briefly sorta neat it always quickly depresses the hell out of me. Thankfully it stopped precipitously as soon as I crossed over into Westfall.
Since I knew I’d be coming back to Westfall later, I went ahead and picked up every quest I passed for completion later. And then I got my second pet! (The first was the Deeprun Rats, remember.) I had heard that there was a secret quest for a (non-combat) chicken at Saldean’s Farm in Westfall, so I tried it out while I was in the area. I was assuming the quest would be long and tedious and I’d give it up quickly, but no — it was very simple. And here she is, Connie the Prairie Chicken!
I actually made level 11 when I discovered Sentinel Hill. I always forget how much experience the level 10 hunter quests give you. It’s ironic that levels 8 and 9 are so tedious for a hunter, when 10 is so quick. Anyway, I picked up the Sentinel Hill flight path and then followed the road south and east until I came to the river. Then, chicken paddling furiously beside me, I swam south towards Stranglethorn Vale.
Of course, the first Sharptooth Frenzy I ran into, just over the zone border, killed me dead in about three hits, but that was expected. I made the rest of the run as a ghost. Since ghosts can run on water, I followed the wide, flat road of the river down to its outlet by Grom’gol, then cut over to the ocean for the rest of the run to Booty Bay. It’s not the shortest path, but truth be told I tend to read webpages while I run anyway, so the less obstacles in my path the better. Just be careful not to run too far out to sea — the fatigue can still kill you.
At Booty Bay I found the Spirit Healer just outside the shark’s mouth entrance to the north of town, logged out, logged in, and resurrected. That’s the hard bit of the journey done! I grabbed the flight point in Booty Bay and jumped the ship for Ratchet. (Aside: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve died on my Alliance alts because I forget what faction I am and head directly for the Horde flight master. It’s just habit.)
My plan: Once in Ratchet (and after grabbing that flight point as well), I had a choice. I could take the long relatively easy road: first west, then north, skirting the Crossroads, then back east into Durotar (and watch out for the guards near the briudge); or I could go directly up the Southfury river (skirting only the crocolisks). Because I am supposedly trying to take it easy and enjoy myself, in my own weird way, I decided to take the scenic route. Anyway, I figured, I won’t be back in the Barrens for awhile, so I might as well pick up the discovery experience.
Or at least that was the plan. In actuality I got turned around watching Connie the chicken and accidentally fell off the boat just south of Durotar. (Aside: Sheesh. Sometimes my idiocy amazes me.) Thankfully I managed to swim to shore before the fatigue caught up with me, and then I had to swim the rest of the way to Ratchet. I could have gone direct to Durotar at that point, but I still wanted that Ratchet flight point.
And then I was almost killed by a Horde guard when I passed too close to Crossroads. And then I almost died to a Savannah Huntress when I wasn’t paying attention. Oddly, I kept expecting my pet chicken to come to my rescue. It didn’t.
But eventually I made it to the bridge over the Southfury River. I was in Durotar! Now, to find these crabs … I was aiming for the higher level red crabs: the level 7-8 Surf Crawlers. These are the same crabs that young orc and troll hunters have to tame during their level 10 quest, I believe — the ones that I mentioned a few days ago are a long trot up the coast. I decided my best bet was to head straight for the eastern coast of Durotar and then follow it up. Unfortunately, I forgot about Razor Hill being in the way and tried to run straight through the town. I didn’t make it.
Anyway, when I made it to the coast I swam almost all the way to Orgrimmar — and there he was! An adorable, beautiful, lovely red Surf Crawler. I tamed him, fed him some watermelon (where did I get watermelon?!) and introduced him to Connie. And then I taught him to Growl (which is pretty weird when you think about it).
And then, while I was sitting there getting to know my new friend and thinking about a name, I was attacked by a gorgeous blue Corrupted Surf Crawler. What else could I do? I dismissed the red crab and tamed the blue crab. *grin* Mission accomplished! I have two crabs! (Incidentally, dismiss-taming like this is going away when Patch 2.2.0 launches, and some players, including myself, have had trouble with it messing up their stables. But man, does it ever make taming two pets a long, long way from home less painful! I’ll miss it badly.)
And then, completely overcome with the wonders of the natural beauty around me, I dismiss the blue crab and tamed a lovely white Encrusted Surf Crawler. Okay, that may have been going overboard. But I had to! He was right there … And I needed Claw 2, right? Anyway, he matched my chicken.
So burdened with three crabs (and how am I supposed to learn future skills now, eh?) I hearthstoned home to Stormwind to sort out my stable.
(Last minue aside: Do you think the makrura in WoW are related to the Macra in the Dr. Who universe? According to Wikipedia, the Macra ”are an intelligent, giant crab-like species from an unnamed planet colonised by humanity in the future.”)
Table of Contents for Series: Kaet
- Introducing: Kaet
- Kaet: Northshire Valley
- Kaet: Goldshire
- Kaet: Level 10!
- Kaet: Taming the Crabs
- Kaet: Finishing Up Elwynn
- Kaet: Westfall
- Kaet: Redridge
- Kaet: Westfall Interlude
- Kaet: Finishing Up Westfall (Mostly)
- Kaet: Back to Redridge
- Kaet: Getting Disgusted
- Kaet: Duskwood
- Kaet: Where the heck am I?
- Kaet: The Post-Brewfest Blues
- Kaet: Eight Levels Later
- Kaet Gets a Pony!
- Kaet: On Hold
- Kaet: Where was I again?
- Kaet: Forced Playtime
- Kaet: Level 60!
- Kaet: Kill Command
- Kaet: A Quick Note From Nagrand
- Kaet: Level 70!
9 Comments
I enjoy reading your adventures. :) It’s such a refreshing and fun perspective compared to the dreary “gotta run SL to get gear to get to Kara to get epix” mindset. Reading your accounts makes me want to play and have fun, and I can’t think of any better compliment than that. Too bad more people can’t enjoy the game like you do, we’d probably have a better community and a better game overall.
When Bliz first announced that they were going to implement a new ability-learing method before BC, I finally decided to add some friends for my blue crab (Frothy): a Surf Crawler and a Raging Reef Crawler. There was also a bit of optimistic naivete on my part to think that they’d finally fix crabs.
I almost got the red to 60, when I figured out that the feature probably wouldn’t be in BC. So I abandon the white and leveled up a Deviate Stalker to 60. Then we saw the new BEM raptors and I knew I wasted my time yet again. At 65 I tamed the Blackhide, and realized I needed bite. Bye-bye red.
I think I could actually be happy with 3 pets, if they would keep the bugged taming in to learn abilities.
I’m betting on the Dr. Who ref. Same thing as the Skeksi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeksis) and the Arakkoa (http://www.wowwiki.com/Arakkoa)
More importantly your crab needs a name. Chitin? Lagan?
Episode 3- Oooh my ding-ding dong.
Seeing as I wanted a dwarven mount (In my weird, color blind eyes it matches my crocolisk) I decided to go for rep. How do I go to rep?
Dun dun dun dun dun TWINKING! TO THE TWINK MOBILE!
TWINKMAN!
*insert wsg here*
..Uhm, why did I do this again? Oh yeah, rep. Right, anyway, to redridge!
TWINKMAN!
Dammit I’m not twinkman anymore!
So me, my rabbit, and my crocolisk now sitting at level 22 ish, with some quests lined up in redridge. Titan panel really helps with the leveling, but anyway, I realize I never picked my professions. Cursing myself, I went with the tried and tested Skinning/Leatherworking combo. And then power-leveled it. So now in amazing gear, I did awesomely on the quests in redridge.
Untill I forgot I wasn’t on Siusaidhna and went to the burning steppes.
I hate you, repair bills.
A side note, once you hit Ratchet (and get your flight path) you can wait for the next boat and hop on it and ride it before you zone back over to Booty Bay. You will go into Durotar and you can jump ship before you see the islands and you will end up on south Durotar (near the Troll/Orc starting area. Yeah there is a bit of a wait for the boat to come back but it would most likely be a shorter time than running and less dangerous as you would only go through some level 6/7 makrura. 8o)
I dunno about the Makrura being related to Macra. I’ve only seen Macra once on the show, and it wasn’t the best view, but they didn’t look a whole lot like Makrura when I saw ‘em–and also, the lobster humanoids in WoW are not actually called “makruras” as a species name. Their species name is actually “Lobstrok.” “Makrura” is just a variety of Lobstrok that’s rather common in Azeroth.
Or actually… a glance on wowwiki says they are supposed to be “makrura” as a species name. However, in Outlands, they are referred to as “Lobstroks,” which, according to wowwiki, are supposedly not a part of the game… Hmm.
Maahl: Interesting! Although for some reason I now hear a deep Mortal-Kombat-style mental voice saying, “Lobstrosity!”
Jayla: That’s a good idea! I’ll have to try that next time.
So, now I learn about that logoff/logon to res at different healer? :( I guess it only works in the same area when there are two graveyards, right? And the dismiss-tame: how does that work when you call your pet? Which one is used? Can you then stable them?
My hunter is now lvl 40 (finally got Bestial Wrath!) and I’m having a ball with it! Haven’t twinked him much, but it’s fun to see how easy it is to solo elites 4 levels higher than me and my pet! Especially if they depend on magic for some of their damage with the pet’s improved resistances! Just go with a high DPS pet, full BM, stack on +STA gear as your pet gets around 1/3 of it too, give him some resistances and it’s easy… Have some mana pots if needed (but I usually forget that advice!)
will probably re-talent the pet, again, and focus on some resistances more than others. Fire is one for sure, but will need to see where I’ll be in the next levels so as to choose which ones to max out and which ones to have less of…
As for the PTR bugs, I’ve ran into some myself while trying to use some pre-made 70 hunters so I could gather some data…
Someone: Relogging should let you rez anywhere. I’m going to self-promote and point you at my post on it (although to be fair, it was Tiiaa who pointed this out to me).
The best way I can describe what happens to your pet when you dismiss-tame is with the analogy of stacking. The new pet stacks on top of your dismissed pet. Call Pet calls the new pet. You can stable the dismissed pet, but only after you clear the new pet out of the way by moving it into an empty stable slot or abandoning it.
Other people use the analogy of a phantom stable slot, though — when you dismiss-tame, the dismissed pet goes into a phantom stable slot and the new pet becomes your active pet. This explains why Call Pet won’t call the dismissed pet if you abandon the new pet.
But who knows how the code is actually working. Suffice it to say it feels unpolished at best, and I am not terribly surprised (although I am terribly disappointed) that they are fixing it in Patch 2.2.0.
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