Photobombing in the Front xD

Beast and I headed into the Molten Front today to take some screenies. I've been wanting to for a while, since it's such a perfect location for him. I knew he'd look stunning!

We had a few visitors pop in during the shoot to photobomb us, resulting in these fantastic and hilarious screenshots. xD

First is the ever silly Shenanigans who casually inserted himself in the picture as I was hitting Print Screen.

And then we have the mischievous Dante who somehow managed to steal the spotlight without me even noticing until I was going through my screenshots later!

Fear not, Beast had his time to shine in the end. He really does look great in the Firelands. :D

And lastly some more chilling with Dante. Ketcha even gave him some grass to frolic in for a while, though I missed the screenshot opportunity just as it was fading. Rob (Gala) was also acquainted with our favourite scorpid. ^_^

Dante hugs! <3

Really Kirix? Really?!

I...I don't even know what happened.

So, last night I was doing my dailies. I zone into the Molten Front, kill some fire guys, and I'm alerted by NPC Scan that Kirix is up. It was actually him and not a tamed doppelganger, I saw his green butt scuttle out of view around the corner. I decided to take a quick detour and skim around the fire to watch him for a bit, always eager to see a kill fest.

Turns out, there weren't many people around. Nobody actually. I was slightly disappointed, but shrugged and went to continue my dailies. About an hour or so later after doing a few things, I returned and saw that Kirix was still going. A hunter acquaintance of mine was there, camping for Skarr, so I chatted with him for a bit and we saw another hunter try and fail miserably to tame the green spider.

Well, I'm sitting there watching Kirix blaze back and forth over his little edge, and the urge begins to creep up on me.

I jokingly tell my friend that maybe I should tame him, for the lulz. He agrees and enthusiastically tells me to go for it. I hesitate, not knowing the first thing about his taming strategy (I didn't really bother to read about any besides Deth'tilac since I wasn't planning on taming the others), but recalling a couple pointers.

A night elf hunter shows up and we emote with him for a bit, then he clearly motions for me to tame. I took a deep breath, not sure what I was getting myself into, but the prospect of attempting the tame so spontaneously was suddenly a very fun idea.

I vaguely knew about the rock strategy, but also knew it was glitchy sometimes, so I thought I'd do it the 'hard way'. My mind suddenly made up, I marched forward and bravely faced the mean, green killing machine charging towards me.

And I'm promptly massacred.

Alright, death number one. So much for that idea. The night elf had been shadowing me, and after my first death he urged me to follow him. I nodded and decided to try it a different way, since clearly the face-to-face method was not going in my favour.

He led me up the rocks and showed me how to grab the wind buff and leap onto the far floating rock. We'll shorten the next half hour by summarizing I had terrible luck. I'm usually good at rock jumping too! Never any problems, but last night I was cursed with clumsiness. I fell off the ledge a few times, I fell off the rocks a few times, some of the mobs killed me a couple times, and I missed the high jump to the far rock more times than I can remember. My other hunter acquaintance was kind enough to lend me his Mammoth for repairs, lol.

Much gratitude goes out to the friendly night elf who was so patient with me during this. xD I fear my brain was a little slow due to the late hour and sleep deprivation. I finally get to the 'taming rock', and he motions for me to tame. Alright. I got this.

Kirix comes into view, and I hit tame as soon as he's within range. Keep in mind I really have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just following the other hunter's lead. Well, sure enough Kirix's poison kills me. Woo, more corpse running!

I manage to get back to the rock again. This time the night elf gestures to himself, then to Kirix, then pops Deterrence. Oooohhhhhh. I get it now. I nod, and prepare for another attempt.

This time I pop deterrence and hit tame beast immediately after. Only Kirix waits and decides to hit me with poison after the deterrence wears off. Oops. Another death.

After more corpse running and jumping difficulties, once again I make it to the rock. The night elf tells me to wait and sits down, so I guessed he was probably logging into a Horde character. I get a whisper explaining that I have to shoot Kirix first, wait for him to start casting, then begin the tame. I thank him and said I understood at last. Alright, I think I finally got it! xD

There was a worgen hunter who was trying to tame Kirix in between my numerous failures. I didn't mind if he got it, we seemed to be taking turns, and if he was successful then great! I saw him die as I got onto the rock once more. Armed with the full strategy now, I prepared for another attempt. Shoot, wait for the cast, hit deterrence and...tame!

Woo success! I laughed in real life, hardly believing how clumsy I was during the whole thing (it was very, very late for me), but I have to admit the noob aspect made this tame way more exciting. Having no clue how it was done and figuring it out step by step with the help of the others was definitely worth it. The worgen hunter congratulated me as well, so I could tell there were no hard feelings there. It was a perfect night of cross-faction cooperation.

I thanked everyone profusely once more, and stared at my new green spider. Wait...how did this happen again?

Scimitar

Somehow I had completely forgotten to write up a post about this latest reacquisition!

As some of you may (or may not) know, I went through most of WotLK with a wasp named Hypnotik. He was a Sapphire Hive Wasp, and I really loved him...his enormous size was awesome, and I adored the colours. Somehow the bond faded however, and though I tried a few new forms, Hypnotik just didn't seem the same anymore.

I snagged Rex Ashil on the release of 4.0.6, hoping to have another wasp connection, but he didn't last long. I had struggled to find a name for him, and even my final decision never quite sat right. I eventually let him go and figured that perhaps I just wasn't meant to have a wasp anymore.

Well, I blame my friend Rob, but recently I started thinking about them some more and had the urge to try one again. Though at first I was going to go with one of the Florawing Needlers (mini Hypnotik!), I was drawn to Rex Ashil instead. Sure enough he was spawned when I headed into Silithus, and upon taming I felt that spark. He just needed the right name this time.

I could not get the image of a blade out of my head when I looked at him. He had such sharp angles and a vicious, quick attack. I knew he needed something to fit that. Then when I looked at the sand dunes and Qiraji settlements around me, the Arabian scimitar sword came to mind and I knew it was perfect. Gads, what is it with me and S names for my pets though! xD

Anyways, I'm very happy with this new wasp incarnation. Scimitar seems like a keeper for sure!

Bloody Tears

So...only one day has passed since my new acquisition, and I'm already feeling the start of something big. I should have known this would happen, yet somehow I'm not surprised how much of an impact Belmont has made for himself already.

I feel as though I've always wanted to attach myself to a bat, yet the logical side of my brain kept interfering with arguments about the poor models. Now I find myself bemused at how I could have let such a minor detail get in the way. Sure there's some parts of them that show their age, but overall they still make a very visually pleasing pet.

This pairing just feels right. Vephriel was meant to have a bat, it all fits together so well. I'm kicking myself for not realizing it sooner, but all that matters is Belmont is here to stay. I can't wait to get to know him better, he's already becoming quite the character. I'm so pleased to have this gothic addition to her stables.

As an aside, 'Bloody Tears' is one of the iconic songs from the Castlevania series. It has many incarnations, all of which are indisputably awesome. It's hard to pick a favourite, though I do lean heavily towards the gothic metal remixes. Anyways, regardless of version, I have not been able to get it out of my head since the night before. I blame Belmont. Enjoy.

Bats in the Belfry

I've always been conflicted when it comes to bats in World of Warcraft. In real life they're one of my favourite animals, but the in-game models are somewhat...lacking. They suffer from a variety of anatomical oddities and low res textures, yet...I'm still drawn to them.

I've never really kept a bat with Vephriel before, so today marks the beginning of a trial run. I've gone and tamed one of the Vampiric Duskbats from Tirisfal Glades (how could I not choose one of them).

Meet Belmont. I'm hoping I might be pleasantly surprised by this whim tame. I am very fond of his colours, he has a nice purple hue and vivid blood-red wings.

Now, you might be wondering where the stable space came from. In truth, it all started earlier today when I was staring at my stables and agonizing over how many tenacity pets I had. Far too many, not to mention duplicate families!

Though I hated admitting it, I knew that recently I had been feeling detached from Asmodeus. There was a time I would have considered dropping Almagest in favour of him, but that suddenly reversed after the appearance of Dante. Dante has become the iconic black scorpion, so much so that I felt Asmodeus' personality slipping away from me. It was hard to come to terms with, but I knew that there just wasn't a spark there anymore. I couldn't help it, he was being overshadowed by Dante's character and my mind would not separate them. :(

It was a tough decision, but I knew it was time to let him go. I went to Uldum and released him right near his taming location. I'll miss you Asmodeus. <3

Still on Cloud Nine

I can hardly believe it, but it's already been nearly a week since I gained access to the Molten Front and tamed Deth'tilac. I'm still just in awe of how beautiful he is. I sit there and stare at him, not daring to believe he's really there. I'm being completely honest when I say that this is my favourite tamable model in the entire game. It's really just...stunning. I have no words to properly express how much I adore it.

I never could have guessed that another pet aside from Skorn could reach this plateau of importance to me. Don't worry, Skorn is still my number one, and always will be, but Sabbath has completely won me over.

It's unusual for me to become so enamored with a rare. The pets that I have the closest bonds with tend to be regular common mobs that spoke to me with overflowing personality and history. I think I've just finally found my rare.

I've been caught in Deth'tilac's web since the start. Everything about this spider has drawn me in, called out to me. I've had many pets who felt destined to be with me, but this might be the first time that feeling has been so absolute.

Apologies for getting a little rambly in this next paragraph, but I feel compelled to express something. As I said in my earlier entry, I've never been one to put any sort of significance on such things as 'server first' tames of rares. I still don't really, not as a form of bragging rights in any case. It has just never mattered to me one way or another. However, I have to admit that my own Deth'tilac tame feels...meant to be. It's not about going around saying 'I got him first, haha!', there are already plenty of other tamed Deth'tilacs on my realm and I'm thrilled to know he's being tamed. For me, the personal significance is the thought that he was there waiting for me. Sabbath was the Deth'tilac. Not a Deth'tilac. We always call rare mobs respawns since that's what we tend to wait for, what we hope to find. The Deth'tilac I came across, though, was not a respawn. He was the one who existed from the start. Every other Deth'tilac will be a respawn, but not Sabbath. He was the original.

Gah, I realize that all sounds pretty crazy and probably a little snobby, but I don't mean it that way. I have a hard time putting words to how it all feels to me. It's just a very personal experience and makes this incredible tame mean all the more to me.

All I can say is that I love this spider. <3

Welcome to the Jungle

With all the new pet excitement going around, I felt like taking a step back today and spending some time with one of my old buddies.

Azzam hadn't been out for exercise for a while, and I missed the affectionate guy, so together we went for a stroll in Sholazar Basin. Even after losing my sanity to that jungle during all the time I spent there in WotLK, I'm still incredibly fond of the place.

 

A big thank you to Rongar for putting together this great snapshot! :D

Hydra Hijinks

This entry is mostly wishful thinking. :)

I've had a soft spot for hydras every since I first saw one ambling around the Zoram Strand on my original baby night elf character. They were such a unique looking creature, and I remember wanting to tame one so badly (only to discover later that it was not possible).

Since then they had mostly remained a pipe dream, a passing fondness that would emerge whenever I saw one in the wild.

In Wrath of the Lich King there was a brief period where a ghostly hydra could be tamed by mistake, thinking itself to be a crocolisk. A thrill of excitement went through me at the prospect of owning one at long last, so I tried to hurry and reach the point in the dailies chain where I could summon the Spirit of Atha. Sadly I was unable to win against the deadly hotfix date, and the hydra dream slipped through my fingers once again.

Hope is returning now in Cataclysm, however, with the promising change in pre-tamed Spirits of Atha gaining their own hydra family classification and special ability. Though there is still no definitive news on the tamability of the beasts, my obsession has been steadily rising and I'm hoping for the best in a future patch. :) *crosses fingers*

Anyways, all musing aside, I do have a planned tame should they miraculously become hunter pets at some point. The black Strashaz Hydras of Alcaz Island were love at first sight to me. I've found myself visiting them rather frequently, just sitting up in one of the towers or on the docks and watching them path around. I'll be naming mine Unagi should the day ever come.

I decided to take my aspiring friend on a journey to Durotar, so here are the photos from that trip: