“Gorilladin: I’ll just tank the d@mn thing myself.”

The title is a reference to some shirts BRK was recently vendoring.  I like it.  And I love my Gorilla, it has been amazing to level with him!

By the way… I FINALLY picked out a name.  My Gorilla is now called “Hanno“  (which means merciful), named for Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer who noted what he observed as a tribe of very hairy women when he was traveling through Sierra Leone. He called them “Gorillai”, which is the origin of the name Gorilla.

<3 Wikipedia.

Now let me say, AoE grinding always scared me.  My mage does not like to take on more than one thing at a time.  It usually results in a dead Gnome.  And I was always the same way with my hunter.

But after so much time studying and practising my Huntering skills, my hunter has become like an extension of myself.  I’ve played her enough that I know exactly which keybindings do what, I know where my panic buttons are (AH! Feign! Feign! Feign!), I know what abilities are best used when.  I’m comfortable in my Troll skin!

When I’d first heard about the AoE tanking of the Gorillas, I was a little nervous, but excited.  I don’t want to be pulling aggro and getting myself killed, but I wanted to see what kind of stuff I could take on.

And it’s AMAZING!  It’s almost a chore to try to pull aggro from my gorilla.  I just send him in, bounce him around to a bunch of mobs within the area, pop a Mend Pet on him, and give those mobs an arrow shower!  It’s so nice to see 5 or 6 XP gains pop up at a time.  Wee!

It’s going to take a really great gear upgrade for me to break my T5 2-piece bonus.  I rarely really need to use Mend Pet, thanks to the healing caused by my Volley.

I haven’t really used other Tenacity pets since Wrath came out.  I did pick up Sparkle, my Rhino, and he is pretty decent at single target tanking… but so is Hanno, AND he can multitank.  So there.

Anyone else having a little love affair with their Gorilla?

Blog Announcement

With the coming of the end of my school term in the next couple of weeks, and with all the lovely content spewing forth, and with Unemployed having official sign ups again, it seems it is time to reinvigorate Mend Pet.  I am announcing the return of my weekend regular posts of This Week in Raiding and WoW Word of the Week!  I will also try to post daily during the week, but I still might miss a day or two here and there.  School isn’t over just quite yet.

Also, while I’m leveling, I’m going to end my posts with a little update on my skills and level, in case you are curious about where I’m at.

Brajana – Level 74 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 405
• First Aid: 400
• Fishing: 381
• Cooking: 392

Brajana’s Adventures in Wrath

So things have been pretty busy for me, IRL.  Wrath came out midnight on Thursday, but unfortunately I had two very large and difficult exams on Thursday, so I didn’t make it out to the midnight launch.  Instead of getting only 2 hours of sleep because I’m busy working on a Death Knight, I only got 2 hours of sleep because I was busy studying relational database design and token ring network topologies.

My original plan was to head out to EB Games and pick up my preordered copy at 2:30PM, after my second exam.  Unfortunately, I also have an extremely large final project due on Tuesday, and my group partner decided Thursday afternoon/evening was the time to work on it.  So we worked til 6:30, I managed to convince her we needed to take a dinner break so I could go pick up my game, and finally I was able to play 10PM that night.

I didn’t ge to play much Friday because I had ANOTHER exam on Saturday morning.  But I got a bunch of Fjord quests done anyway. Saturday, I had my exam at 10AM and then a couple local guildies and I had an afternoon of board games.

So my real Wrath time didn’t start until about 7PM on Saturday.  But I had all of Sunday to play, even if I shouldn’t have.

I’m sitting about 75% through level 73, with all of Howling Fjord and most of Borean Tundra finished off.  Here’s my take so far.

Howling Fjord is amazing.  I loved it there, and enjoyed all of the quests.  From the first quest on, I felt really engaged and interested in the story, and found the atmosphere beautiful.  I felt like I was just flying through the content, and there was no time that I felt like I really wanted to stop.

Borean Tundra… well, my first impressions weren’t great.  After figuring out how to navigate Warsong Keep, I get outside and am surrounded on all sides by these Nerubian creepy crawlers and everything was all grey and burnt red.  As someone who never enjoyed places like Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge, I was not very pleased.  But once I got out of the initial area, I was a little more satisfied.  Borean Tundra has some fun quests, like the D.E.H.T.A. quests and the seige tank quest, but I got very sick of swimming very quickly.

“Go swim out to these ruins.”

“Go swim out to this rift.”

Come on.

The Tuskarr are my favourite thing in the expansion so far.  They’re so cute!  They are walruses riding turtles!  And their quests are fun!  And they have a little non-combat penguin pet at exalted.  hehe!

I did actually start a Death Knight, which I wasn’t planning to do for a long time.  But I’d come up with a good name (wish I could do that with my Gorilla…) so I started him up and did about 20 minutes worth of quests.  I like the starting area, even though I haven’t seen much of it yet.

I have also now tamed a Rhino!  I wasn’t sure what to replace, but I figured… I never really used my wind serpent, and I can always go back and get a new one if I feel it’s necessary.  So I said goodbye to Sparkle, and hello to… Sparkle!  Yes, I named my Rhino after my wind serpent.  He’s fun, and I can’t wait to get him out on the AV bridge and make him punt gnomes all over the place.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Next time I’ll talk a little bit about instancing and how that’s going.  When I leveled from 60-70 I only ran 2 instances.  Now that I have a guild to level with, I’m getting a lot more action in there.  It’s been pretty fun!

The Story of Gorilla

This story is from back just after 3.0.2 hit, but I’ve just finally gotten around to finishing the post on it.

The second pet I’ve picked up is Gorilla.  Okay, he doesn’t have a name yet.  I’d picked out a name, but it is apparently a “reserved” name that can’t be used.  Fooey.  I liked that name so much for him that I am having trouble coming up with something else, so for now… he’s Gorilla.

Anyway, this gorilla is not just any gorilla.  He’s Unk’loc.  He’s blue and white.  I’ve always had a thing for white pets, I don’t know why.  But there is a story behind this guy.

See, back when I was around level 50, I decided to switch my Turtle tanking pet for a Gorilla, and this is the one I picked.  He was a rare, but darn pretty.  So I headed to Un’goro and… boom!  He was sitting RIGHT there waiting for me.  Well, that was easy.

I used the gorilla a bit, but I used my cat more.  When I got to 65-ish, I wanted to pick up a Warp Stalker, and I had a choice to make.  My gorilla was still sitting at level 60, and I hate leveling pets, so I waved goodbye to my gorilla and made room for Willy the Warp Stalker.

Little did I know that when 3.0.2 hit, Warp Stalkers would become relatively useless, and Gorillas would be the stars of the show.  So, I released Willy to make room for this new guy.  Little bit ironic.  Just a little.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as lucky this time with the spawn of Unk’loc.  I arrived at the cave, and found a good camping spot.

It started the day after patch day, 8AM.  I had a lot of school work to do that day, so I figured it was a good time to watch a camped mob while I worked.

2PM rolls around.  It’s been 6 hours, and this guy has a 6-8 hour respawn.  Some hunters have come and gone, most not willing to sit and wait it out, but we each promised to let each other know if we caught him, so we could time the respawn.  He should be there within the next two hours.  Unfortunately, I had a job interview at 3PM.  I had to go get out of my Pajamas and get downtown.  So I left for… two hours.

4PM, I returned to camping.  No news on whether he’s spawned.  I sit and wait, get my unarmed skill up to 347 on the gorillas, get the [25 Fish] achievement in the little pool.

9PM.  I just can’t do it.  I need to get out of this cave!  The new patch has hit and I’ve barely scratched the surface!  I take a 1 hour break to run some dailies.

10PM.  Back to the cave.  No news, no gorilla.

1AM.  Homework is done, I’m going to bed.  Stupid gorilla.

The next day, while I took a few minutes to check in when I woke up, I had class all morning.  I returned at 12PM to wait and watch.

I sit there until at least 5PM.  Talk to the other hunters, they are amazed at how few hours I’ve been out of the cave.  I want to play!  Come on!  But I can’t give up now, because then all of this will be wasted.  And he’s really pretty.

I take the evening off, starting to give up on the effort.

Day 3, 7:35AM.  I have mail!  It’s one of the hunters who was also camping for the gorilla.  She’s caught him, and it was only half an hour ago!  What does that mean?  Unk’loc WILL respawn sometime between 1PM and 3PM.  Luckily, it’s Friday, and I’ve got the day off.  I return to the cave around 12:45PM to wait.  And wait.

2:40PM.  I’m watching TV while keeping an eye on my screen.  A flash of white goes past my screen.  Wait!  Was that him?

OMG!

*plops down a Freezing Trap*

*tames*

Bing!  And he’s mine.  Within 10 seconds of taming him, a group of level 50 alliance walk in, and kill every gorilla in sight.  Talk about timing!

A preview of posts to come!

Hi!

So I thought I’d give a bit of an update.  To be completely honest, I had a post all written up about what I’ve been doing since 3.0.2 hit, but I keep forgetting to insert the screenshots I want in it, and so it’s been sitting around waiting for the longest time.

So here’s the quick version.  I plan to elaborate on most of these topics in independent posts, but here’s an overview of what’s goin’ on.

New pets!  Woo!

I am loving the new pet changes.  I can hardly even contain myself about how much I love being a hunter right now!

I’ve picked up a Moth, just like I said I would.  His name is Ambrose, and he’s purpley and flappy and a darn good Ferocity-tank.

I’ve also picked up a Gorilla, who still needs a name.  He’s the Unk’loc skin though, and I spent two whole days waiting for him to spawn.  But that’s another story for another post!

The hunters of Unemployed have picked up Orange MC Core Hounds.  They’re pretty nifty, but mine is remaining in the stable until they get rid of the screen shaking.  While it’s true that if you are the hunter with the stampy pet, it doesn’t affect the screen nearly as much, I feel for the other players and won’t subject them to that.

Spellpower Changes?

Okay, Ferguson has nearly retired until the expansion comes out.  But I did log on to check out the spellpower changes to his gear, and between my Shadow set and my Healing set, I’ve formed a super set of spell power gear.  Just one set of gear.  It’s pretty nice.

Achievements…

are fun!  But I am not nearly as dedicated to them as some people I know (points at Boostah).  I haven’t gotten any new titles yet.  More on the achievements later.

Alts-ahoy!

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time leveling a couple of alts.  I resurrected my level 45 Gnome Mage and transferred her to my boyfriend’s main server, which is a PvP server.  How it remind me why I left that type of server in the first place!  But I’ve gotten her to 55 with little problems, and I am enjoying setting things on Fire.  Although Fire Mages have very little to do with healing or huntering, I’ll probably write something up about playing a new class.

I also spend a very significant portion of yesterday playing a new character.  It’s a hunter.  There’s a bit of a story behind how I ended up starting a second hunter, and I’ll get into that in another post, I’ll introduce him formally.  He’s cute, I think you’ll like him!

Unemployed’s Second Annual Hallow’s End Costume Contest!

Last night, we took a break from the zombies and everyone dressed up and met in Brill.  We had a blast, and some of the costumes were amazingly creative!  Way to go, Unemployed!  Mine was about as second-hand as you can get, but I still had fun.  Screenshots inc, I promise!

Well.  It looks like I’ve got quite the load of posts to work on.  You don’t even want to know how much stuff I’ve had going on IRL lately, to boot.  Busy, busy, busy!

Early Morning Thoughts of Wrath

What’s this?  Brajana is posting?

Yes, my friends.  It’s 1:30am on a Tuesday monring, I’ve spent the last 6 hours getting 5 questions done on a 10 question assignment that is due at 8:30am.  So what am I doing?

Writing about Wrath of the Lich King.

As the expansion gets closer and closer, my mind has been pushing forward and starting to think about how I’m going to handle the new expansion when it hits.  Our guild has almost stopped raiding completely, and have found ourselves only pulling enough interest to do ZA.  And I’ve found myself with little time to do anything but my Brewfest dailies for the last little while.

In fact, I don’t think I’ll be getting much done on Brajana between now and November, and I’ve almost put Ferguson in a little hibernation chamber waiting for the expansion to hit.  I really miss playing my priest, but with school and work and November all going full-speed ahead, there’s just no time for rep grinds and Kara runs.

Anyway, back to the point.  What am I going to do when Wrath hits?

When The Burning Crusade came out, I picked it up the evening after it came out, and barely played it in the first week it was out.

I’ve gotten a lot more involved since then, and part of me wants to hit up a midnight release and join my guildies in that first burst off the boat, racing for quest mob respawns and trying to get to 80 ASAP for raiding.

But the other part of me, the sleepy part and the part that genuinely enjoys questing and exploring would rather sleep in, pick up the game after class and take my time doing the quests.

Next question – pets.  I did my little review a couple of weeks ago – and yes, I took screenshots… but now is not the time for me to look for them – and I’m still pretty set on getting a Moth.  I can even get one when the patch comes out, and then I’ll probably have a level 70 Moth to bring out to Northrend with me right away.

And I think I’d eventually like to get a Gorilla.  I’ve watched BRK’s Gorilla videos, and heard what he’s said about the tanking ability in instances and such.  I’ve never been much for AoE grinding, but I sure don’t think it could hurt to be able to hold a bunch of mobs in place.  So I think, at whatever level the first Gorillas are in Northrend, I’ll probably grab one of those.

*looks at looming algorithms assignment*

Hrm.

Soo, achievements!  Getting a bit excited for some of those.  I’ve even been working on the Brewmaster ones, because “Brewmaster Brajana” is just such a cool title.

Amava Knows Aggro has had a couple interesting posts about her opinion of achievements, and it’s been nice to hear another player’s honest view of them.  Someone who isn’t working their butts off before the expansion even hits to get these things unlocked.  I don’t think that’s what they are meant for, but I suppose they are for whatever you mean them to be!

I must admit, I picked up the 60% Brewfest Ram today to add it to my collection.  And I’ll probably work on a few more mounts once they are learnable.  But I’d be likely to do that whether their were points for it or not.  I have always seen my mount collection as a pukka achievement!

Speaking of which, anyone know if there has been a way figured out so you can randomly summon mounts?  Maybe someone will make an addon that could do it?  I hope there’s something.  Because that is one of my favourite tricks!

Okay.  Enough rambling.

The Algorithms are calling me.

A Visit to the Public Test Realm

So, I finally managed to get onto the PTR today!  I’ve tried before, but the lag was always unbarable.  It turns out the PTR isn’t so popular at 7AM.  So I hopped on, threw my talent points where they are likely to end up (really, just my current spec + a couple of the new BM talents).  Then I got to work on what I really wanted to play around with – the pets!

First off, I wanted to answer a question I had.  How will Willy’s Warp work?  (try to say that 5 times fast!)  I wanted to see what the deal would be with using Warp and Charge.  It turns out, like I was expecting, but hoping wasn’t true, you have to choose between them.  You can either use Warp or use Charge… which means, having a Warp Stalker will either: render one of the main Tenacity talents useless or render the pet family’s only special ability useless.  While he still seems to hold aggro pretty well, I don’t want to have a tank that can’t use one of it’s abilities.

So it looks like when 3.0.2 hits, Willy’s going to have to be released back into the wild, to make room for a more useful tank!    I will miss you, Willy!

And the same goes for Fiddlesticks… I have always hated Prowl.  it’s no use, and I always run off and leave my pet prowling behind.

So I ventured off to try to find my next DPS pet.  First, I tried a core hound.  Pretty cool, I must say.  And that casting time debuff does stay up constantly, which is a nice little PvP thing to have!  But I don’t think I’d want one as my main DPS pet.

Next, I headed off to Netherstorm remembering those really pretty moths… I’ve always loved those purpley beauties!  So I plopped down a trap and tamed a nice level 68 moth.  The moment it flew to my side, I knew I’d found my pukka DPS pet.  He’s beautiful!  And he looks awesome with Brajana.  I took him for a test run on some of the nearby mobs, and not only could he kill things pretty darn quickly, but he could manage to hold aggro decently enough too.  Yep, this pet is for me!

So the next task is:  Find a new Tenacity pet.  I’m thinking I’ll give the Gorilla and Bear a try, see if I can decide if I want a pet who can multi-tank or one that can focus tank.

Sparkle is going to stick around as my Cunning pet.  I tried her out for a bit, and she does great DPS – I also really like some of the talents in the Cunning tree.  That mana regen thing?  Cool.

OH!  And I had a look through the Achievements panel.  There are some really neat ones, although I’m a little confused about the retroactivity – somehow, it knows I’ve done Black Rock Depts, but doesnt’ know I did Wailing Caverns.  Hm.

And “Deaths By Hogger” is a very neat statistic.  Gonna have to go aggro him and let him kill me at least once, just to have something there!

Creepy Cunning Pets

Bats

• Sonic Blast: Emits a piercing shriek, inflicting x Nature damage and stunning the target for 2 sec.

Stuns are really nice to have… bats, not so much.

Birds of Prey

• Snatch: The bird of prey grabs the enemy’s weapon with its talons, causing x damage and disarming them for 6 sec.

Ooo, disarm!  Now that’s how you annoy people.  I could see myself using that for PvP maybe… there are some pretty nice looking birds out there too.

Chimaeras

• Froststorm Breath: Your pet simultaneously breathes frost and lightning at an enemy target, inflicting Frost and Nature damage and slowing the target.

Everyone loooves the Chimaeras!  I like the ones in Winterspring, the blue ones… pretty sweet.  I’d like to hear more about the ability though, since I know there have been lots of strange bugs with it in the beta so far.

Dragonhawks

• Fire Breath: Targets in a cone in front of the caster take x Fire damage over 2 sec.

Probably the shortest DoT I’ve ever seen… 2 seconds?  Is that really necessary?  I’ve always thought the Dragonhawks were really beautiful, but I wouldn’t feel right having one if I’m not a blood elf.  And I wouldn’t feel right BEING a blood elf.  So I guess there goes that.

Nether Rays

• Nether Shock: Instantly lashes an enemy for x Shadow damage. Also interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 2 sec.

A nice anti-spell caster ability, but I think I’d prefer a stun over a counterspell thingy, since I’m not focused enough to send my pet at casters… I just let it go where ever.

Ravagers

• Ravage: Violently attacks an enemy for x, stunning it for 2 sec.

Ravagers creep me out.

Serpents

• Poison Spit: Spits poison at an enemy, dealing x Nature damage over 8 sec.

I must say, I don’t usually like the crawly type of pets… but there are some pretty sweet looking serpent skins!

Silithids

• Venom Web Spray: Sprays toxic webs at the target, preventing movement for 4 sec and causing Nature damage over time.

Like I’ve said before… I don’t see too much of a point for stopping the mob from moving if it’s just going to stand there and attack my pet anyway… also, creepy.

Spiders

• Web: Encases the target in sticky webs, preventing movement for 4 sec.

What’s with all the creepy cunning pets?  This is pretty much the same as the Silithid ability, but it’s lacking in doing damage.  I’d think they’d at least give it some extra time or something to make it not just a feckless copy of the Silithid ability.

Sporebats

• Spore Cloud: Dusts nearby enemies with spores causing x Nature damage every 3 sec for 9 sec and reducing armor by y.

Another nature DoT, but I do like the armour reduction especially.  Spore bats are not creepy, I kind of like them.  I just wish they had more of a face.

Wind Serpents

• Lightning Breath: Breathes lightning, instantly dealing x Nature damage to a single target.

Sparkle!   I have been playing around with my Wind Serpent quite a bit lately, and I must say I do like it.  It’s a little annoying how it tries to fly out to cast, but I can deal with that.

Well…. not too impressed by the Cunning pets, unfortunately.  I’ll likely be sticking with my Wind Serpent from this tree, or maybe give a Chimaera a try… they sound like fun.

Ferocity Pet Face-off

Carrion Birds

• Demoralizing Screech: Blasts a single enemy for x damage and lowers the melee attack power of all enemies in melee range by y. Effect lasts 4 sec.

I’ve never been a big fan of the birds.  I don’t know, they just kind of bug me.  But I could see the Demoralizing Screech being pretty useful in many situations… though the duration is pretty short.

Cats

• Prowl: Puts your pet in stealth mode, but slows its movement speed by x%. The first attack from stealth receives a y% bonus to damage. Lasts until cancelled.

I never used this ability on my cat, so having this as the special ability for my DPS pet doesn’t make much sense… I don’t think it would even be that useful for PvP, at least not for my PvP style (which does not involve sneaking).

Core Hounds

• Lava Breath: Your pet breathes a double gout of molten lava at the target for x Fire damage and reduces the target’s casting speed by 50% for 10 sec.

Now this, this is my kind of PvP ability.  I could use a core hound for my pet for PvP, although the size of the pet might make it a pretty easy target. But they look so cool, I especially like the Kurken model.

Devilsaurs

• Monstrous Bite: Your devilsaur ferociously bites the enemy, causing x damage, and boosts its own damage by 3% for 12 seconds. This effect stacks 3 times.

Pretty sure everyone is going to have a devilsaur.  They aren’t very cuddly, but I think I will have to train one, just to give it a try at least.  And the ability is pretty awesome.

Hyenas

• Tendon Rip: Tears at an enemy’s legs for x and reducing movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.

Hyenas are kind of ugly… and the ability isn’t super.  It’s nice, but I can’t see myself using it all the time.

Moths

• Serenity Dust: The moth’s wings produce a cloud of dust that increases its attack power by 10% and heals it for x over 15 sec.

Mmmm… pretty moths   I’ve always loved them, and I could totally see myself picking one of these up.  The special ability is pretty nice too!

Raptors

• Savage Rend: Slashes the enemy with the raptor’s talons for x damage, and causes the target to bleed for y damage every 3 sec for 15 sec. Successful critical strikes with this ability temporarily boost the raptor’s attack power.

Raptors and trolls just go together, it makes sense.  Decent ability, although not great when DoTs are not supposed to be used (like in some boss fights).

Tallstriders

• Dust Cloud: Your tallstrider kicks up an obscuring cloud of dust, causing all enemies within 10 yards to miss their next attack. Lasts for 8 sec.

Very unique ability, pretty neat… but I think I’d end up finding it a little feckless.  Tallstriders themselves… well, only the pink one is cool, of course.

Wasps

• Sting: Your wasps stings for x Nature damage, and decreases the armor of the target by y for 20 sec. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible.

I really like the whole armour decrease thing for some reason.  This could be a pretty viable pet for PvP or PvE.

Wolves

• Furious Howl: Increases attack power by x for Party members within 40 yards of the wolf. Lasts 10 sec.

Wolves are pretty nice, and this is a nice party-wide buff.  Depends how well it scales though, I haven’t really seen the numbers on that.

So in conclusion.. my Ferocity pet is looking like a Devilsaur, Moth, Wasp, or possibly a Core Hound if I want one of these as a PvP pet.

Tenacity Pet Showdown

Alright, it’s time I stop being stubborn about the upcoming expansion.  I haven’t been completely avoiding it, but I’ve been trying to focus myself on the game at hand, on the stuff that I can do now.

But with the 3.0 patch on the horizon, it’s time for me to start thinking about the future.

So, I’ve started to look into what pets I will want to use.  Right now, I have three pets:  Willy the Warp Stalker, the pet I leveled with from 65-70, my tanking pet.  Fiddlesticks the Cat, my reliable DPS pet who has accompanied me on many raids.  And Sparkle the Wind Serpent, the newest addition that I’ve been playing around with lately, although she still hasn’t hit the highest level of loyalty.

I’d like to tame one pet from each talent tree, but I can’t just look at which pets are prettiest anymore, since each family has a unique ability.  So I’m going to go over all the pet families in each tree and their special abilities, and try to figure out what I think about them.  I figured I’d do it here, since I’m sure I’m not the only person looking into this.  Feel free to share your opinions or help me decide which pet to pick!

I’m going to start with the Tenacity pets.  Tanking pets.  This is super important, since I’m going to want to level with a decent tanking pet at my side to hold the aggro.

Bears

• Swipe: Swipe 3 nearby enemies, inflicting x damage.

Bears always felt a little boring to me.  Although I always thought the diseased bears from the Plaguelands and Felwood were pretty cool looking!  Swipe is an appropriate ability, and I would love to have a pet that can hold aggro on multiple mobs like this.

Boars

• Gore: Your boar gores the enemy for x. Causes double damage if used within 6 seconds of a Charge.

I never really liked boars, although I suppose the Helboars that are present in Outlands aren’t quite as wimpy looking.  I just don’t know if they are my style.  However, the special ability is pretty sweet.  When used in combination with Charge, that’ll be a nice damage and threat boost right at the beginning of a fight, which would hopefully mean I can go all out right away.

Crabs

• Pin: Pins the target in place, and squeezes for x damage over 4 sec.

LOL, Crabs.  I don’t know how super useful the pins the target in place thing is, since that doesn’t mean it’ll stop it from attacking.  I can see the use in it, but Intimidation already has me covered there, I’d say.

Crocolisks

• Bad Attitude: Snap back for x damage at any target that strikes you for the next 45 sec.

Crocolisks are kind of neat, but the noise they make drives me crazy!  Too bad their special ability is so amazing for AoE tanking.

Gorillas

• Thunderstomp: Shakes the ground with thundering force, doing x Nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards. This ability causes a moderate amount of additional threat.

I had a gorilla for a while, I think they’re pretty cool, and the AoE ability is pretty nice.  I’d consider picking one up again for sure, although I don’t know how much I’ll be fighting multiple things at a time.

Rhinos

• Stampede: Your rhino slams nearby enemies within 10 yards, causing x damage and knocking them back 15 yards.

I am sad about this ability.  I think a rhino would be an awesome looking pet, but this special ability is not really any good for PvE.  The last thing I need is my pet knocking my target into another group of mobs or knocking him out of my shooting range.  Booo.

Scorpids

• Scorpid Poison: Stings an enemy for x Nature damage over 10 sec. Effect can stack up to 5 times on a single target.

Scorpids are alright, although I prefer something with fur.  The ability is also just alright as well, I think I’d rather have something that does direct damage than a DoT, but meh.

Turtles

• Shell Shield: The turtle partially withdraws into its shell, reducing damage taken by 50% for 12 sec.

I had a turtle once.  They’re cute!  I like the ability well enough, and I’m sure it would be nice, but with the talent to improve the healing done to the pet, if I get into a situation where this is necessary, then I’m probably screwed as it is.

Warp Stalkers

• Warp: Teleports to an enemy up to 30 yards away and gives the pet a 50% chance to avoid the next melee attack. Lasts 4 sec.

Oh Willy, how I love you!  I know the Warp Stalkers don’t get a lot of attention, but I really liked the Warp ability.  It meant I didn’t have to wait quite so long before attacking, and it was also a great way to tag mobs when competing with a Night Elf Hunter w/Cat on the Elemental Plateau.  But I think Charge makes Warp a bit feckless, and I think I might prefer to have the charge affect.  So that’s not great news for Willy.

Worm

• Acid Spit: Your worm spits acid at an enemy, causing x Nature damage and reducing its armor for 30 sec.

Although the ability is pretty neat in that it decreases the target’s armour, I just don’t think I could get over the look of the worms.  Creepy.  Maybe if they have some really cool ones in Northrend… maybe.

So, that’s it for Tenacity pets.  Right now, I think I’m stuck between a Bear, a Boar or a Gorilla.

This Week in Raiding… Unemployed officially enters T6!

Tuesday, some Lurker and Leo action.  Not much excitement there, I just want to say that Leo doesn’t seem to drop the Hunter/Warlock/Mage set piece ever!  We had enough time to spare afterwards to head in and take a look at Vashj though!

It’s a pretty complicated fight, and while I have read up on it and tried my best to listen to the raid leader explain our strategy – it’s always so different to be right in on the action.  And in fact, for me it was more like watching a video… because I was the first to get the static charge, and also the first to die from it.  I think the problem was that when the people around me realized that I had the charge, they also ran away, as I did.  So we ran together for a little while, which in turn meant I needed to run even further and I think it put me out of the healer’s range.  Oh well, it was a good place to observe the rest of the attempt!  And we managed to get her down to 69% on our first attempt… not too shabby!

Wednesday night was more of Vashj.  I wasn’t there, but it looks like a lot of learning took place… and there may have been problems with the changes in the fight at 50%, because it looks like that’s about how far the raid could get her.  Instead, I was out enjoying a fabulous meal at Lago, a belated birthday dinner.  I had a Butternut Squash Ravioli, and it was amazing.  I could eat that everyday.  It was really rich and tasted very buttery, but it was amazing.  I finished it off with a great Root Beer Float with Caramel Tequila ice cream in it… mmmm!

Er, I mean… raiding!  RIGHT!

So, Thursday night we took another stab at some progression and headed into Hyjal.  We didn’t have any serious problems on the trash – actually, it went a lot faster than it had before.  We are really getting the hang of it!  Though I’m sure having 4 warlocks and 2 mages to AoE the trash really DOES help a lot. Our first attempt at Rage Winterchill of the night we didn’t quite get him down.  If I remember correctly, we just had too many loses to icebolts and death & decay.

Second attempt we decided to drag Rage over to Jaina, which we had been reluctant to do before.  From about 25% to 4%, the only people we had alive were 3 DPS (myself included), one tank and one healer, plus the NPCs.  It was amazing how long we lasted… but it wasn’t long enough.

But… third time’s a charm!  It went pretty smoothly the last time, and I noticed that the healers really got their macros working to get a heal on the icebolt target, we hardly lost any to it.  Unfortunately, I died do to a small peccadillo - running into the Death and Decay rather than running out of it… but we still managed to get him down!

It really IS a pretty straight forward fight, now that I think about it.

He dropped 2 pairs of leather bracers, DPS and healing.  I thought about rolling on the DPS ones, but I figured there would be someone who needed it more, and I’ll just wait til something more appropriate for me drops!

Oh, and Friday night was ZA, which I wasn’t scheduled for.  But about 2 hours into the raid, I got a whisper asking if I wanted to go heal for a couple bosses on Ferguson!  Whaaaa?  I was a little nervous, because I’ve only raid healed once, and I’ve only been to ZA about 3 times on Brajana, never on Ferg.  But what the heck, it was worth a try!  We went in and got Dragonhawk down and made a couple attempts at the Lynx boss (which I’d never seen before).  It was fun, I should go to ZA more often.

And the best part?  I got my very first [Amani Hex Stick], never had one before… and what happened on my first try?  [Mojo]!  That’s what happened!