Pet Review – Hyenas, Freedom
I officially tested hyenas today, and my review stands.
While I wasn’t expecting a ticker-tape parade for finishing my review, however most of the reaction has not been ‘meh,’ but ‘you’re too late.’ I think I have to agree. People looking for pet advice at this point should be watching what’s happening in the beta rather than what’s been happening. I don’t feel too bad, I just wish I could have gotten it done a bit sooner so as to be more useful. Soon enough I’ll feel up to messing around in beta, and give them what they want (I just wish I had kept up with the changes while I was in HI).
Pet Review – Turtles, Hyenas
I have updated the Pet Review with both Turtles and Hyenas. No, I didn’t actually get a Hyena to 70 yet, but I wanted to have the review in a completed form for as long as possible before WotLK comes, or at least ’3.0.’ Given that the last 2 pets have taken me several weeks each, I thought that to be prudent. I have tamed a Hyena at least, and I will be testing him at 70 regardless. If that changes the review, I’ll let you know.
So, tell all your friends the review is DONE (mostly) and that they can come here for their review needs.
I have also altered the main page slightly and moved methodology type suff to a seperate ‘Methodology’ page. I’m going to be updating it to create several different rankings lists in the next few days, both by category, and stats.
Pet Review – Gorillas
Gorillas have now been officially reviewed. IMO they are a prime example of why pet mechanics had to change. They are great companions that just don’t stack up against other families.
My turtle, Donatello, has been tamed in one of the most frustrating nights in recent memory. Read the rest of this entry »
Plugging Away
I have to say I’m really happy with the way things are looking for WotLK. I’m beginning to wonder what we’ll have left to complain about when it hits. I’m extremely happy with where my pets ended up within the 3 categories bliz created. Crab and Raptors fell right where they should be, and my planned sporebat will hit the 3rd to complete my stable.
Currently my gorilla is level 67, but I’m heading to Hawaii for 19 days, so who knows. The growl nerf definitely hit me with the TSA spec, but now that I’ve found good places to farm, that’s not such an issue. I just wish horde casters were as easy to kill. I also wish I had time to play rather than having to work on keeping my house clean enough to sell. That’s pretty tough with a 2yo.
You may be wondering why I’m continuing the review when it’s obvious that most of this is going to be thrown out the window. Well even if you weren’t wondering, I am. I think if I still had 10 pets to go, I’d be done, and discussing the ramifications of new talents with the rest of the hunter community. With only 2 left, it seems like a waste NOT to finish.
But why write the reviews? Because it’s there. I’ve never heard of anyone else doing what I’ve done. Heck, it’s honestly crazy just to get 2 pets to level 70. To do 23… Well that’s cause for the nice men in white suits to come get me. When it comes down to it, I’m doing this for me. I don’t think I’ll ever finish KZ much less any of the other raids. I’ll never have T6 even if I didn’t think it was amazingly ugly. I’ll never have higher than a 1550 arena rating. I will be the first hunter I know to have one of each pet family to level 70. It’s just a bonus that other people get some use out of it.
Grinding Without Grinding Your Teeth
Is someone looking for a level 70 bear? Cause I have one :)
Or had. Bear review will be up soon, and my Gorilla, “Stubborn Monkey,” is up to level 60 without too much effort. Plus 1 gamer point if you know the reference. Someone was interested in how long things were taking which made me curious myself. So I’ve been checking my /played before and after for the last 2 pets. To go 60-70 with the bear took 12 hours and 15 min total. That’s with travel times, sending items to bank, restocking ammo, and all that stuff, but pretty much focused on grinding (no BGs/arenas). The Nether Ray took about 9 hours to go from 64-70.
I think I mentioned it recently, but it’s worth repeating. Firewing Point is by far the best place to grind without worries. However, once my pets hit 64, I’ve found they can hold agro with my TSA – BM spec against 67s. Adding in some resistances and avoidance makes the Legion Hold warlocks in SMV viable targets. They drop the more lucrative aldor marks and armaments (I made 600g one night), and the game has some minimal number required meaning there is always 3-4 up. With 3 people, each can take one of the casting towers, and pretty much never stop.
That also means that they’re constantly spawning which may be right where you are. If you can’t handle chain pulling don’t go there. I pretty much always have a freeze trap up, a mana pot, and some bandages ready just in case I start to get overwhelmed. I don’t bother with mend pet either. There’s more netherweave dropping than I can sell nightly on the AH AND they heal my pet faster. So I mend only in emergency or when the debuff is still up.
The other danger, is Morgroron, a level 69 elite. If you’re alone, it’s fairly easy to avoid him if you really want to, but it can hamper your grinding quite a bit. With a 64 pet and S1 gear, I could take him with some kiting at the end and a pot. With a 68 pet, I could take him consistently without my pet dying. They key is to pull back your pet as soon as his AoE starts and to Mend as soon as (or before) the fight starts and renew it as soon as it drops. Misdirection will really help your pet maintain agro through those heals, but be ready with FD should something go wrong. With 2 level 70s, he’s not much of an issue provided no warlocks spawn on top of you.
One last grinding tip: DON’T OVER-DO IT.
I only grind for two hours, one level, or until my bags are full, whichever comes first. I tried pushing myself to finish level 68 with my bear and it was horrible. I took the whole next day off from WoW just to cleanse the experience fully. Have something else to do both in WoW and in RL so you don’t get too worn out on it.
Good grinding.
Ballad of Jayne Cobb
Jayne….
The boar I named Jayne….
.
His Charge was OP, but he still knows Gore
Bliz nerfed him to hell, and fans gave them what for
Their love for boars now is hard to explain
Once hero of soloist, the boar I named Jayne
.
Yes, I named my boar Jayne Cobb, just so I could put a song in the post about the review. I finished boars a few days ago, and the review is finally up. The random nature of gore put it both above and below Crabs in terms of threat generation, but the ability to teach them both Charge and Dash ensured they were slightly above. After 10 levels, the first fight I tried with my testing spec was horrid. I went back over the log and Gore did not double or crit once. A few fights later I was totally impressed when he held agro through 3-4 crits in a row. This is a gambler’s pet. If you routinely roll 20s, you may enjoy it even more.
So, I’ve now tamed a bear. Let’s hope the patch doesn’t go live tuesday. Oh. You thought I was doing Nether Rays next… Hmm… Wonder what happened to that.
Lau Lau Pork
… So, I’m hungry.
Lest you think I’m spending all my time on my warrior, I thought I’d drop in to say Jayne just hit 69. Most of this insane progress I have to attribute to my TSA/BM 21/40/0 spec. As soon as he was able to land growls on mobs, he’s been able to hold agro thanks to TSA blowing the growl threshold away. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish the review, should the change go through before I finish.
Pet Review – Wolf, Boar
I finally have a whole morning to play WoW and I go and forget that it’s maintenance today. So, the wolf review is up. There seems to be a lot of people interested in this review, and I’m not sure why. I mean they’re not high DPS, they don’t have a focus dump, … are they expecting them to be #1 based on personality? Speaking of which, I think I actually got more attached to my cat and I hate cats and love dogs IRL. Anyway, read the review and post your (constructive) thoughts and experiences with wolves.
My boar is very close to 65 which I’m pretty happy with. I’m really working towards finishing so that I can get a 70 nether ray from slave pens before midsummer fest is over. That would leave me with only 4 pets left to review before WotLK possibly changes everything.
Release the Hounds
Last night was one of the best hour long WoW sessions I’ve had in a while. I finally got SOLupos to hit 69. Of the 4 SSO supplies I earned, 3 of them had BoJs, and I only got ganked once, but it is a short tale worth telling.
I’m in HP doing the 2 dailies at the throne. I had finished both quests and was heading to the transporter to drop off my spark and do the turn ins. One of my rules for leveling a pet is don’t pass an untapped mob and there were two demons spawned. So I sent my pet and began blasting away.
Pet Review – Carrion Bird
Finished up reviewing the Carrion family last night. I didn’t expect it to be so high, but the question I had to ask myself is “would I recommend it over my raptor?” Definite, “yes” there. Again this is mainly due to screech and it’s agro. I did some testing on that last night too, but that’s for another post. Needless to say, the numbers follow.
