Choosing Your First Pet: Tirisfal Glades

This article is part of a series for new hunters on choosing your first pet.

When I started this series, I mentioned that I was targeting not just new hunter characters but new hunter players — people who may not be as familiar with Azeroth and who may not be quite ready to go gallivanting off across the world at level 10 in search of the perfect pet. For that reason, I’ve so far stuck to the newbie areas that host races who can be hunters.

But while a new hunter may not be ready for the run from Azuremyst to Eversong, there are some journeys that are reasonably accessible. A small safe trip like this can open up exciting new pet possibilities for new hunters.

So in this second-to-last segment of this series we’re going to look at Tirisfal Glades, home of the undead race. Undead cannot be hunters, unfortunately, but nevertheless Tirisfal Glades is easily accessible to hunters of the orc, troll, and blood elf persuasions. Orcs and trolls just have to find the zeppelin from Orgimmar to Undercity — it departs from just outside the gates of Orgrimmar and disembarks smack in the middle of Tirisfal. And blood elves have a handy teleporter from the back of Silvermoon City to the courtyard of Undercity. Both trips are simple and completely free of danger.

There are only a few choices in Tirisfal Glades for a very first level 10 pet, but they are interesting choices.

Suggestions:

Creature Pros Cons
Worg
(levels 9-10)
Diet: Meat
Known Skills: Bite (Rank 2), Furious Howl (Rank 1)
Longevity: Furious Howl is a popular skill for groups.
None!
Vicious Nightweb Spider
(levels 9-10)
Diet: Meat
Known Skills: Bite (Rank 2)
Looks: An impressive and relatively unusual black widow.
Longevity: Never gets any special skills, not even Dash.
Vampiric Duskbat
(levels 8-9)
Err .. not a lot, actually. Bats can learn Screech, but this one doesn’t know it. Diet: Fruit and Fungus
Known Skills: No innate skills. You’ll want to teach this pet Bite and/or Screech as soon as you can.

Recommendation:

A Worg is a very effective first pet with solid all-around abilities and useful skills. In addition to the damage-dealing skill Bite, they also know Furious Howl. Furious Howl gives all party members within 15 yards of the wolf an increase in damage, which makes it very popular in groups, but it is also a fine skill for fighting solo. Worgs occur along the border between Tirisfal Glades and Silverpine, and can be actually found in both zones.

(Disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is by no means a complete listing of pets from Tirisfal Glades or Silverpine Forest — just the ones that I might suggest for new hunters at level 10. More advanced players who are leveling their umpteenth hunter character will find a number of other very interesting choices here as well.)

11 Comments

  1. Wolfington - January 18th, 2008 @ 6:52 am EST

    I’ll be the first one to piitch in, I guess. The bats are sadly low on cons, to bad they dont have screech like the fleshripper-birds in Westfall! After a few levels, hunters with bats should run over, but it IS a dangerous run, through Strangelthorn Vale and past Duskwood. (if you are higher level and want a higher level worg, Duskwood is packed) There is also a rare spawn white wolf for those hunters that like exotic pets!

    Worgs are an all-out excelent choice!

  2. Zefram - January 18th, 2008 @ 9:18 am EST

    It’s worth it to not ignore Ressan the Needler — the only realistically trainable white bat in the game. He’s 11, not 10, but if you’re here anyway, he’s worth it.

  3. Aok - January 18th, 2008 @ 10:08 am EST

    To expand on Wolfingtons talk of going to difficult places, make sure you read Ghost travel tab to your right if you are finding it difficult to get to some place to tame a pet.

  4. Ametrine - January 18th, 2008 @ 11:45 am EST

    Agreed with Zefram about Ressan. This is a very cool pet to have, if only for the rarity… other than a rare-spawn deep inside RFK, this is the only white bat in-game, and is sure to grab some attention.

  5. Maree - January 18th, 2008 @ 12:09 pm EST

    *Waves*
    I agree with Zefram and Ametrine :3

  6. Sedna - January 18th, 2008 @ 4:55 pm EST

    Second (or third?) on Ressan. My very first pet many moons ago was a Mottled Worg from Silverpine. Akela and I had good times together.

  7. Ronorin - January 18th, 2008 @ 6:43 pm EST

    Oh man! Heh, even as an experienced Hunter I still learn new things… Such as the poster above me who pointed to the Ghost Travel link. I recently rolled a Blood Elf Huntress and had her run all the way from Undercity to Dun Morogh to tame Timber. That trip was a nightmare, getting past Dwarven guards, Arathi Raptors, and Wetland Crocolisks all at level 11. My gear was all red by the time I got there and the Worg I tamed in Tirisfal had to do most of the clearing work for me and then I almost died taming Timber, due to no armor and no repair points nearer than Kargath. Somehow it never even occured to me to just do the run while staying dead!

  8. Lazz - January 19th, 2008 @ 9:29 pm EST

    I got me a perdy white bat named Keaton, and I object to the absence of “pros”! Sure, he’s a bit of a picky eater, but he can Bite, Dive AND Screech the bejebus out of mobs. Plus, he gets all up in my opponents faces when PvPing, seriously disrupting their targeting abilities. Very cool pet.

  9. Ket Shi - January 20th, 2008 @ 12:57 pm EST

    I actually found a method that makes going to Grom’gol to Westfall not too bad: swim there! You just have to be careful to swim far away enough from land as to not attract the attention of the crocolisks on shore, and away from the coral reef with the murlocs in the ocean. Just keep swimming north and you will soon find yourself safely on the western shore of Westfall, where Horde characters can pick up a yellow boar or Screech 1.

  10. Rikaku - January 20th, 2008 @ 10:57 pm EST

    Laz, the bat does have good skills just not when tamed. Thats the point of Mania’s little pro/con sheet for strictly a starter pet. Comparing the pets in the long run, the sheet would look different. =)

  11. Cavernaugh Clan Chief - January 23rd, 2008 @ 11:30 am EST

    I have a real soft-spot for “Ressan the Needler”. Unique in appearance and with a 100% spawn rate (in my experience), given time and patience, versus the very random spawn of the Blind Hunter in Razorfen Kraul, its a great pet. Most of my toons are Alliance and, while the basis of this thread is easily accessible pets, seriously, this is a very doable pet for an alliance low lvl hunter. On a PVP server there are obvious perils but they are not insurmountable.

    As posted, for Horde toons the taming of any bat, carrion bird, or owl (assuming the tedious trip and multiple deaths to Darnassus is completed) will require the trip to Westfall to get Screech at lvl 16, but the aggro benefits of these winged creatures with Screech make them well worth it.

    You will encounter those who decry the wings of your pet as targeting hindrances in dungeons. However, if you can keep your warlock, shaman, and druid friends from simply scaring, sheeping, and otherwise scattering creeps AOE, the benefits of the grouping and holding power of a Screech trained pet will soon become apparent. Good crowd control starts with keeping the creeps grouped and ends with keeping them from running away. A pet with Screech coupled with a hunter with concussive shot are good crowd control!!

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