Wednesday, February 12, 2014

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?

20 comments:

  1. I'm not really an RPer, and I don't pay super close attention to all the lore; but, Hunter lore is sort of important to me. So I wouldn't be excited about all battle pets being companion pets. Though I wouldn't be annoyed if beast battle pets became hunter companions. That'd have to be the line.

    Novelty is great in small bits, especially for little mini-games like pet battles. But it would make hunters too much of a joke.

    I like the idea of silly hunter companions to some extent. A tamable rabbit would be fine. In 5.0, when they had that glitched silk worm that was bigger around than my draenei hunter was tall, that was just wonderful. But there are tooo many ridiculous battle pets, so the novelty would wear off.

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    1. I agree with you. There are some, many even, that would just not fit at all. Of course as I said I really would love to have a rabbit. Or for humor sake a voidwalker so I could be a hunter lock just to mess with my lock friends.

      Of all the beast pets most we can already tame in one way or another so it would not really be that much of a stretch I think. Just different skins.

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  2. 1) Hey didn't I say something like this a few posts back that you said "no way"?

    2) What makes the spore bat the best hunter pet? thats pure speculation. I think cats make the best. (havent had the time or ability to find a hyena yet) My sister believes "boars" make the best and I know other hunters who have what they believe make the best.

    3) I like your posts recently - pretty nice.

    -roo

    PS - I would love a killa wabbit too or a yeti.

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    1. 1) I didn't say it would happen, just having some fun with ideas. Creative writing if you will.

      2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhvvNGeHHME

      Watch the link, it will explain it. More so for humor than anything else. When it was made the sporebat happened to be the worst pet in the game with no real use. Now it is actually one of the pets that I get called on to use because it provides a buff we need. It is a good pet to have around now. Back when this was made, not so much.

      3) Thanks. Glad you are liking them.

      Not "a" killer rabbit, "the" killer rabbit from the holy grail movie. Now that would be an awesome rabbit, and as things would be, that rabbit is the darkmoon rabbit.

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    2. thats a "killa wabbit" if I ever saw one -

      Tim: There he is!
      King Arthur: Where?
      Tim: There!
      King Arthur: What? Behind the rabbit?
      Tim: It *is* the rabbit!
      King Arthur: You silly sod!
      Tim: What?
      King Arthur: You got us all worked up!
      Tim: Well, that's no ordinary rabbit.
      King Arthur: Ohh.
      Tim: That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!
      Sir Robin: You tit! I soiled my armor I was so scared!
      Tim: Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
      Sir Galahad: Get stuffed!
      Tim: He'll do you up a treat, mate.
      Sir Galahad: Oh, yeah?
      Sir Robin: You manky Scots git!
      Tim: I'm warning you!
      Sir Robin: What's he do? Nibble your bum?
      Tim: He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!
      King Arthur: Go on, Bors. Chop his head off!
      Sir Bors: Right! Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew comin' right up!
      [after Bors is killed by the killer rabbit]
      Tim: I *warned* you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you *knew*, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little *bunny*, isn't it?

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    3. I really love that rabbit and he would make a fine traveling companion.

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    4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYnn2TRn8s

      try that one. Even a few years ago, she had a great idea about MMO's.

      I remember seeing the one you said to go watch with the two bears. I found it was too condescending (thats how I remembered that I had seen it way back then). Good advice though - spore bat. Who would have thought it would become the pet to have for raiding that it has become. :D

      -roo

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    5. That is funny that is has become so useful from being so useless when that was made.

      I'll have to check that out later, can't watch right at this moment.

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  3. The two animals that I always thought should be hunter pets are, coincidentally, both from Northern Barrens (pre-Cat, at least)... Zhevras and the Giraffe thingies, doubt they have that name (Longnecks, maybe). As a long-time Elder Scrolls fan, too, horses only make sense... bastards can't help but wade into battle whether you want them to or not, often at their peril.

    Might be interesting to have battle pets be useable as hunter pets... that alone could be enough to get me to finally train pet battles. Or not. But maybe. I imagine I'd be full time cinder kitten, which would also require me to buy the pet... maybe not such a great idea. :)

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    1. Not sure I could see myself fighting with a zebra, a giraffe or a horse at my side but I can surely see your point there. And you are so right with those in the barrens, they always seem to run exactly through you when you are fighting. Always found that kind of funny.

      I know a few people that do not have hunters that would roll hunters just to play with certain battle pets and as you mentioned the cinder kitten would be one of those ones that would surely get one of my friends to roll a hunter.

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  4. Ever since I rolled my first hunter I've really wanted to tame a stag. Hey some of them are really vicious and they've got those antlers, and if we can tame rhinos to fight alongside us I don't know why we can't have some of those awesome looking stags. (While they're at it I'd take a stag mount that isn't a druid too.) I wouldn't mind Zhevra's either.
    The idea of using battle pets as hunter pets, wow. Would they get sized up a bit? Because if so I definitely have a few in my roster I'd use. Like my Sprite Darter.
    Fairy dragons and dragons in general I'd love to tame. Also gryphons and hippogryphs. I wouldn't really be interested in humanoid pets, but I'd love having some of those dragonkin and some of the more exotic animals in my stable.

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    1. Stags would be pretty vicious with those antlers. Surely they would cause a bleed on the target, so they already have one of their abilties set.

      Yes, I would say they would have to be sized up. Can't see us having these tiny little citters fighting with us. Could you imagine a cockroach fighting with us, we would accidentally step on it.

      A sprite darter would be a pretty sweet one. Always loved those. Some dragons and dragonkin, like whelps, might actually make some sense. Even if dragons they are still beasts, sort of. Same for critters.

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  5. "Could you imagine a cockroach fighting with us, we would accidentally step on it."

    We have gnomes fight with us, not that much different.

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    1. They are slightly taller and never seem to shut up so they would be a little easier to keep track off.

      Over heard at a raid boss meeting:

      Magtheridon: Don't you clean your feet before coming into the meeting hall Gruul.
      Gruul: What you mean, gruul feet clean.
      Magtheridon: Then what is all that stuff on them.
      Gruul: Not dirt. Slow running gnomes.

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    2. I'm not going to say anything, but when you need something fixed, don't call a dwarf or a gnome.

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    3. /hug

      Seemed like you were in need of a hug.

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  6. Imagine this: being able to tame any battle pet (in fact, equate 'tame' with 'capture', as in, any battle pet you captured is now playable) AND merge existing families of hunter pets into battle pet families / abilities! Sure, that's a lot of balancing (eg, you can't just use apocalypse-like abilities which roaches have in PVE), but suppose there was a way to figure this out. Wouldn't it be cool?

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    1. Just to clarify, I mean equating all hunter pets with battle pets, merging their abilities, etc, so that you can use, say, Anubisath Idol or Celestial Dragon in SoO.

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    2. Dammit, just read the article to its end and it seems you are having the same thoughts. Sorry for not reading through first, the idea just came to me after the first few paras and I liked it so much, I immediately jumped to the comments section.

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    3. That would surely be cool. Some battle pet abilities would have some really useful moments in PvE and PvP.

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