Final Name: Blackice
Today we have a bit of a challenge! Snowstrider, a troll Beast Mastery hunter from the Madoran realm, writes:
I don’t actually roleplay, but I do like making a backstory and occasionally speaking from my character’s point of view. I recently tamed Goreclaw the Ravenous and am finding it hard to pick a suitable name for this sleek beast.
Did you know that Thornfang Ravagers, those glowing-eyed, spiky killing machines, are actually hiding happy-go-lucky, smiling clown faces?
Deathbang from Lightbringer (US) sent in this little snippet. He says:
Thornfang Ravagers have a face on their back! It has two spots that resemble eyes, a spike that looks like a long nose, and an indentation that looks like a mouth!
Final Name: Aloorok
Elouran, an eloquent female Night Elf, sent in the following request for help naming her owl.
I am certainly an avid believer in keeping the first pet you tame - even if that pet ends up becoming your “secondary” later in life… So obviously, choosing a name is a delicate matter - as it can only happen once, and will be stuck with you for the rest of your character’s existence.
Good thing I am still checking the Test Realm Forum, eh? Hortus just posted that:
We have decided to put the 2.4.2 PTR up for some additional testing. The realms should once again be available for play.
[edit] Blizzard changed their mind. [/edit]
According to Hortus on the Test Realm Forum:
We will be taking the 2.4.2 PTR down shortly and ending the 2.4.2 PTR phase.
Presumably this means that Patch 2.4.2 will be hitting the live realms tomorrow or next Tuesday.
An Alliance hunter from Llane, Juvial of the guild Kobayashi Maru, sent me this great screenshot of himself with his entire family of pets. (Click the pic for a full-sized view.)
Shadow the ghost wolf is Juvial’s normal hunter pet, the baby gorilla Bananas is a non-combat pet, and the red hyena Tracking Hound is a temporary combat pet summoned by the Dog Whistle from Scarlet Monastery.
I think this is the shortest request for pet-naming help I’ve ever gotten. Frootloop writes:
Here is my character with my beloved cat. I want a silly name. One that makes people laugh :D My character’s name is Frootloop …
And really, that tells you everything you need to know.
The PTR was updated sometime today with a minor new build (8278) for Patch 2.4.2. The patch notes in the download have also changed slightly, although the patch notes on the web site have not caught up yet as I post this. Of most interest to me is the minor modification to the Growl note, which now reads:
The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power.. [sic]
Unfortunately, the note is still not correct: a quick test on the PTR confirmed that Growl is still scaling directly with the pet’s attack power.
Yesterday I posted a long article about distintive design vs. normalization in pet family design, prompting by a recent post on The Mysic Hunter called Inevitable Normalization.
I advocate a middle way between these two extremes in which we distribute existing pet skills among the families in order to alleviate some of our problems. This is really meant as a stop-gap while the slow, slow wheels of design turn — a compromise that improves our lot while we wait for the final answer.
But I stopped before getting into the nitty-gritty details — because honestly that post had already gone on too long. So today, let’s look at the specifics.
