A Case for Hunters Controlling Dragonkins and Humanoids and ...

When the expansion first began and I hit 90 that first day I had my friend, who got realm first engineering, make me a ghost iron dragonling trinket with a few cogs for a nice little second you hit 90 boost.

When the trinket proced I had not noticed it proced but I did see a dragon whelp fighting and thought to myself, and said to everyone on vent, "oh my god my dire beast just called a dragon whelp, this is so cool".  Seriously, I thought that is what had happened.  Noob moment much?  Oh come on, I bet someone else out there did the same thing the first time they saw that.

The excitement that dire beast could call a dragon whelp was quickly squashed when I realized it was the trinket the second time it happened but I did think it was so cool and for a few moments at least I considered that it would be really cool to be able to tame a dragon whelp.

Since then, as a hunter, I've had many conversations about what types of pets I would like to tame.

Recently my fellow hunters and I have been talking about things we would like to see tamable in warlords.  Being we do not really know if there will be any new beasts we would just come up with random ideas based on what we know from BC.  It made me wonder, if there is no zanger marsh will there be no sporebats?  Because if there are sporebats we need spirit sporebats or at the least some different color sporebats because we all know that sporebats are the best hunter pet, right?

Outside of thinking what if for something that has not even come out yet I've always wanted a killer rabbit as far back as I could remember.  When I first made a hunter I thought it would be cool to have a rabbit and I was so upset when I found out that I could not have my very own killer rabbit.

When they added one to the darkmoon fair that was not a level 1 critter but something we could fight, thus maybe could be tamed, the first thing that came into my head was that I must tame him.  I have to tame him.  It is a moral imperative that I tame him.  He will be my favorite pet forever and I would go everywhere with my killer rabbit and have him rip out the throats of my enemies and watch blood spurt from their dead bodies.  How cool is that going to be?  But sadly, no darkmoon rabbit pet for me.

Well, not exactly, I do have a darkmoon rabbit pet.  He is just not exactly what I had in mind when I first started the game and said I wanted to get a rabbit as a pet.  Don't get me wrong, I went and got myself a snowshoe rabbit from the dwarven zone when I started my pet collecting many years ago, way before battle pets.  Hey, I like rabbits, what can I say.

But if I can have a darkmoon rabbit as a battle pet why can't I have a darkmoon rabbit as a companion pet?

Some could argue, and would have a fair point, that when a hunter tames a pet they are basically becoming one with it, connecting with it, making the pet come with you willingly.  Anyone that plays a hunter and has ever tamed a pet know that when a pet joins you it is by choice, it is because they decided to join you, because they like you, love you even, and want to travel with you.  However battle pets are trapped, caged, and forced to battle against their will.

Kind of sad when you think about battle pets that way, but that is exactly the way they are portrayed in the game.  Battle pets do not come with you willingly.  You have to cage them and put them in your battle pet stable and if you ever wanted to let them out you have to place them in a cage to do so.  Battle pets are not willing companions like hunter pets are.

So that argument holds some water.  Just because I have a darkmoon rabbit as a battle pet it does not mean I can have one as a companion pet because the one I do have does not actually want to be with me whereas a companion pet would need to want to be with me.

But as a hunter part of what we are and what we do is to make a connection with pets so they become life long companions that are willing to travel at our side and fight with us.  If that is one of my abilties as a hunter don't you think that even if I did get that darkmoon rabbit against his will that I could not sooner or later use my hunterly charms on it to convince it to fight by my side instead of fighting to the death against his will as a caged beast?

That could make for a very good case that anything a hunter should be able to tame as it is or something that could be considered appropriate for a hunter to have as a companion pet to begin with, a hunter should be able to take out of the pet cage and bring into the world.  So all those different spiders, even the elemental ones, should be able to be used as both a battle pet and a companion pet because hunters can tame spiders.

So saying that I should be able to use my darkmoon rabbit as a hunter pet instead of a battle pet is not very far fetched at all is it?  It might not be a beast, but neither are the elemental spiders and those would make sense to be useable right?  It is an animal and hunters tame animals.  So you would not really be stretching it to any meaningful degree to say that I should be able to use my darkmoon rabbit as a hunter pet too.

But if we wanted to stretch it some we could.  What about having a dragon whelp as a hunter pet?  How about a wolvar as a hunter pet?  Maybe have a cloud serpent as a hunter pet? If we can have them as a battle pets why can we not have them as hunter pets?

In the end the results are the same, or if anything, from the pets standpoint, being a hunters pet would be at least marginally better off than being a battle pet.  Battle pets fight for us and hunter pets fight with us.   Don't you think a hunter, who is well trained in the art of getting pets to travel with us and fall in love with us, should be able to convince battle pets to step out of the stable and into the world with us?

While it might seem weird to see a wolvar pet or a dragonkin pet or could you even imagine having a pandaren monk as a pet it would be perfectly believable for hunters.  If these versions have all been captured to begin with and are already fighting to begin with a skilled hunter should have little or no issue with getting them to fight willingly with them in the world instead of doing so as some sort of slave in battles to the death.

I believe that hunters should be able to use any battle pet as a hunter pet.  Call it out to be by their side and fight with it while they face the forces of evil through this and any other world we might visit.

Can you just imagine the look on the face of someone in a battle ground when they see a giant red singing sunflower tearing them to shreds while singing "there are zombies on my lawn".  If there were ever a reason to support hunters being able to use all battle pets as hunter pets that would make for a very convincing one.  More convincing than the fact I want to use my darkmoon rabbit as a pet I guess.

Do you think hunters should be able to use battle pets as companion pets?
Or maybe just beast versions?
If they could which battle pets would you love to see as companion pets?