I admit it — I bought the plush Wind Rider Cub and the plush Gryphon Hatchling the moment that they became available on the Blizzard Store. I was getting a bit worried about them, though, because I never got any e-mail confirming the purchase or letting me know if they’d shipped. But they arrived today!

Both came in little black drawstring bags, about 11″x13″, with “World of Warcraft” and the name of the critter on one side, and a faction symbol on the other. The Gryphon Hatchling bag has a big Alliance lion in yellow and the Wind Rider Cub bag has a big Horde symbol in red. I rather wish the bags didn’t have the names on them: a reusable drawstring bag with the Alliance or Horde symbol would be cool, but a bag that says “Wind Rider Cub” is just a little too geeky for me.

I am somewhat surprised by the size of these kids. I was picturing something about 5″-6″ tall (akin to the stuffed snail I have, or the little rhino) but these are a full 9″ tall and about that wide across the bottom. Both seem to be fairly high quality — and both are absolutely adorable, of course.

The Wind Rider Cub narrowly wins the cute content with his fuzzy mane and darling little fabric wings. The gryphon’s head is a bit big and his wings, oddly, are attached to his head — but he does have a charming little fuzzy tuft at the end of his tail. (Can you tell I’m running out of synonyms for ‘cute’?)

Each also comes with a code for an in-game mini-pet, of course — which is how I justified spending $24.99 on each of them. (I would have bought the in-game pets for $10 each, so the plush animals themselves are effectively only $14.99 … right?) The Blizzard store has Flash video of both in-game models in flight. (Click the pictures or the links above to see ‘em.)

Something I found very interesting: Rather than just including the code on the receipt or something, each plush mount comes with a card in a protective plastic sleeve. The card has an illustration of the mini-pet over a ‘tooltip’ — i.e. “Wind Rider Cub” (in blue), “Binds when picked up.” and “Use: Right click to summon a wind rider cub.” Under this is a scratch-off strip with the code itself.

So I expect it will be approximately 3 nanoseconds before we see unscratched cards on eBay, minus the toys. Or vice versa, I suppose. If you really want only the real-life or only the in-game version of these critters, that might be one avenue for you.

I haven’t redeemed the codes yet — not because I’m going to sell them but because every time I start I find myself cuddling the Wind Rider Cub and thinking about puppies. But I suppose I’ll get to it some time today …

[edit] Warcraft Pets has added these kids, so be sure to update your collection when you get them! [/edit]

Last night I tried the new LFG tool for the first time. I wanted to get some ebon roses for the Love is in the Air event, pity a fool or two, and also hit the dungeon elders for the Lunar Festival.

(Well, first I tried to solo Utgarde Keep for the roses, but after death #6 I gave up. Death #4 was so close! But it went downhill from there.)

By the end of the night, I had run:

• Utgarde Pinnacle
• Gundrak
• Drak’Tharon Keep
• The Culling of Stratholme

I’d also been in groups for Utgarde Keep and Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom, but both of those fell apart in nasty ways.

(And note that all of these were the basic dungeons, not the heroics.)

I was surprised at how smoothly a good run could go — the tank who guided us through the Culling of Stratholme was especially good at her job, and also very patient with the three(!) of us who had never been there before.

I was also very surprised at how many people hadn’t done these dungeons before. Usually the first thing I’d say when I joined a group was, “I’ve never done this before, so please tell me if there is something you need me to do. And if you’d prefer someone more experienced, I understand — just let me know and I’ll find a different group.”

Almost every group had someone else who spoke up at that point to say, “Me too!” And almost every group reassured us that we were welcome. The one weird comment I got about this was in Ahn’kahet when someone responded, “Dude, you’re 80!” Well, yes. That’s why I was careful to point out my failings.

I also had one guy in Drak’Tharon Keep whisper me halfway through, “Are you even trying to DPS?!” I ignored that, but later when the healer flounced out and we were waiting for a new one, we got talking. I let them know that, yes, I’m an awful hunter and that’s okay with me. And then that same guy became quite nice. He gave me a few pointers, made sure I was remembering my Kill Shot, suggested that I might want to look at a guide on shot rotations … but all of this was in the sense of gentle suggestions, not criticism. And he told me that my gear was surprisingly good for being an awful hunter (so thank you all who helped me choose the gear!) and he admired my slime.

Yes, I ran dungeons with my Tenacity slime. What? He’s my favorite pet.

So except for the name-calling in the Utgarde Keep group that dissolved, and the disappointment at the end of the night when the Ahn’kahet group dissolved, things weren’t half bad. And yet … I do not think I will be doing a lot of this. Ever.

Thing is, it was exhausting. I had to pay attention and try to keep up. One mage asked me in astonishment about my slime, but I couldn’t answer because I can’t type and fight at the same time. (Sorry, unnamed mage!) Another time the tank yelled, “Volley!” — presumably at me — but I didn’t notice it until two fights later (at which time I apologized).

And there was no time to assess loot so I just hit Disenchant if I could and Greed if I couldn’t, on the assumption that at least then I wouldn’t be taking someone else’s stuff. (Of course that got me in trouble with the Utgarde Keep group, who knew I was there for the roses, because apparently I was supposed to Need those. Who knew?)

Of course, I never would have done this at all if not for the new LFG tool. The only time I am at all willing to find a group is when it involves hanging around outside the event dungeon du jour and occasionally announcing, “80 hunter w/summon LFG”. Anything more complicated than that is right out. So the LFG tool at least opens the possibility of dungeons to me.

But I can’t really say that I will ever enjoy them the way some people do. And that’s okay with me.

I had fun last week thinking about what pets might match well with an undead hunter, so I figured that next I would do the same for worgen hunters.

Unfortunately, as soon as I started thinking this I ran into a bit of an obstacle. I’m just not seeing a huge range of choices here.

Okay, so worg and worgen obviously go well together. But really any wolf should do. Your worgen hunter and your wolf will likely share a deep bond of .. err .. canine-hood? Something like that.

And there are some interesting wolves available, I admit. I’m thinking that the Northrend worgs will be especially apt. (My favorite is the white variety.) And how about Ironjaw, the only two-tone wolf? Or a very rare Old Cliff Jumper? Ooh, and I bet a nice armored Warhound will be a fun choice.

But wolves are only one (admittedly popular) family. What else do we have?

Hmm … I guess a worgen might tame a cat. (“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”) I suspect that a golden lion or a yellow lynx might look good beside your worgen. Or Araga, of course, assuming you can find her.

But again, cats are very popular — which isn’t a knock against them, but does mean that choosing a cat doesn’t feel very special. Anything else?

The cat-like Spirit Beasts, plus Skoll, would work, for the same reasons wolves and cats would. Maybe go for the furry thing and pick up a hyena or rhino. (Actually I think a rhino would make a pretty neat worgen mount.)

Or hey, there’s always the Kurken. I love that little puppy. Or maybe a gorilla! You know, worgen are essentially were-wolves, and gorillas are essentially were-people! No? Well, I’m trying ….

But I’m just not feeling inspired here.

I suspect that a big part of my problem is that I’m not really able to picture worgen characters very well yet. And while there is some art available for them already, I’m just not able to visualize them running around in Azeroth with a pet by their side.

Oh. Oh, wait. I’ve got it. The absolutely perfect pet for a worgen hunter.

Okay, now I am finally getting excited about playing these guys! Are you ready for this?

A bird of prey. Specifically a grey owl. And I will name her Ladyhawke.

One of the first things I’m going to do come Cataclysm is create an undead hunter. I’ve been waiting a long time to play an undead hunter.

(In fact, I will probably change Mania herself into an undead later. But I expect that I won’t have that option immediately.)

The most important question to answer regarding my undead hunter is, of course, what pets she will have.

Now there may be new pet families in the Cataclysm expansion, and there will certainly be new pets in the existing families, so I’m not writing anything in stone yet. But I did want to devote some blog space to thinking about the question.

The most obvious route for undead hunters to take is plagued pets. I know a lot of hunters are planning to pick up a Deathclaw the diseased bear from Bloodmyst, or a Diseased Wolf from Elwynn.

Later in life the plagued pet collector can continue the trend with a Diseased Black Bear from the Western Plaguelands, a Rabid Grizzly from Dragonblight, or a Plagued Swine from the Eastern Plaguelands.

There’s also a handful of other pets that, while not technically plagued, would make fine companions for an undead hunter. A Vargul Blighthound, for instance, would look wonderful next to your heroic corpse. So would Death Flayer, the rare black scorpid. Or you could go for a ghost, like the Ghost Saber or Disembodied Jormungar.

And if you are lucky enough to be the proud owner of a retired ghost wolf, ghostly crocolisk, ghostly hydro-croc or even a croco-slime, you may want to consider tranforming your previously-living hunter into an undead to match your pet!

Assuming that works, of course. And assuming Blizzard doesn’t remove these retired pets in the meantime.

Personally, I am strongly hoping (wishing! begging!) that Blizzard uses the advent of undead hunters to open up the taming of these retired pets, plus more. I’d love a black slime, for instance. Or an Ethereal Frostworg.

Another possibility: pet families that fit an undead theme. Bats are a classic here, as are spiders. Black widows seem especially apt, although most spiders will work will with an undead hunter. A festive tarantula like Rekk’tilac may feel a little out of place, however.

Or how about a drippy corehound? (Again, you may want to take a pass on the cute’n'furry Kurken.)

Other undead-ly pet families include: carrion birds (well-trained ones, anyway — don’t want him feasting on your eyes); ravagers (spiky!); worms (especially the ones that look like Flesh Eating Worms); and even hyenas.

And if nothing else inspires you, you can always make a strong case for Spirit Beasts!

Last night I spent some time playing my little troll hunter, Erinye, on the Nesingwary realm (where she hangs with the US branch of the Petopians guild).

And since I was puttering around in Durotar anyway, I decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: tame the sweetest little overlooked scorpid in the game.

Beige scorpids live only in Durotar. There are two species: Scorpid Workers are level 3 and are found inside the Valley of Trials newbie area; Clattering Scorpids are level 5-6 and can be found around and south of Razor Hill.

At those levels, even most orc and troll hunters don’t give these scorpids a second look — they are more interested in the level 10 raptors and boars in the area. Or at least the sexy level black and red Corrupted Scorpids …

And that’s the other problem with beige scorpids, of course: they’re beige.

Against the red soil of Durotar they are drab and grey. See them scrabbling over the hard ground from the front or from the side and they blend in, so bland you don’t even see them.

But that’s only from the front. The true beauty of these scorpids lives under their tough outer carapace. Their underscales, you see, are a delicate robin’s-egg blue.

This isn’t immediately obvious to other players, but it quickly become very apparent to the lucky hunter who tames a beige scorpid. As you run along beside your pet, as you send it before you into battle, your loyal scorpid is flashing its beautiful inner colors only at you.

And once you’ve seen that, you realize how much of the lovely blue tint is visible from all angles. It’s subtle, sure, but it’s there — and the more you hunt with your scorpid the more you notice the blue. And the more you love your hidden little gem.

If you can appreciate the subtlety of their inner beauty.