I’m pretty sure we’re all clear on the fact that I enjoy rolling hunters. I can’t help it. It’s relaxing. It’s nostalgic.
Alongside this, it means I have tamed a lot of pets in my WoW career. The level 10 pet is very important to me, because I consider it to be the pet that particular hunter will have their entire life– oh sure, they’ll tame others, and may even use others in raids or PvP, but all of my hunters keep their first pet.
And one of my little quirks is that I enjoy taming the… more challinging to obtain pets.
I’ve ran level ten Hordies to Teldrassil. Twice. Once for the owl and once for a cat.
I’ve ran a low level Hordie to Azuremyst for the moth.
I’ve ran a level 10 Hordie to Dun Morogh for the snow leopard.
I’ve ran a level 10 Alliance character to Durotar for a raptor.
A good chunk of those were on PvP servers.
I’ve also done safer but still lengthy trips on other characters: dragging a Tauren to Eversong Woods or Trolls and Blood Elves to Mulgore. (It has occurred to me that an unusually high percentage of my lowbie hunters are Horde. Hmm.)
This was all in my mind yesterday when I did something crazy and made a character on one of my non-“Home Servers”. Thus it was that I made a female tauren hunter (yes I have a billion of those, shuddup, Azeroth needs more, dangit! /shifty eyes) on Wyrmrest Accord, so I could say hello to Faeldray and Tzia, two people who have been a part of the Aspect of the Hare commenting community for a very, very long time and who both have awesome blogs of their own.
We hung out for a while and did some really nifty RP (which I may talk about later, in its own post), but always in the back of my mind as I did the tauren starter quests for the umpteenth time was what pet I should get. It had to be special, something that I could tie in to my developing character story, and preferably something I hadn’t ever tamed before.
Then I had an idea.
Snoeken (Dutch for “Pike”, albeit the fish and not the weapon =P) went on a little adventure.
First, the ride from Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar.
Taking the zeppelin to Undercity…
And getting on a different zeppelin and going to a very scary place for a level 10:
Howling Fjord.
Then came the ceremonial removing of all the clothes (except the shirt and pants– I’m a decent tauren!) and a deep breath…
And then the corpse hop began.
So, rez timer, we meet again.
The run to Utgarde Keep wasn’t that bad though, and I soon found myself where I needed to be…
Well well well, what’ve we got here?
Brand New Birdie:
The fishertauren and her sea hawk:
My new druid-birdie has a few bugs, it would appear. He flies extremely low to the ground (as opposed to, say, an owl, who flies much higher), and when he flies after you, he remains leaned back in his “hovering” position. The way a druid would look if it was just flying in place. I’ve actually had this happen to me in my druid flight form, if I time myself carefully and jump right when I enter flight form. But it seems to be a perpetual problem for the Daggercap Hawk, and it looks kind of silly. In addition, he doesn’t “highlight” when you click on him, the way other things do.
Regardless of these issues, he is a gorgeous pet– and certainly unique, as well!
Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope Blizzard eventually fixes these issues, rather than conveniently deciding that a level 10 hunter shouldn’t have a bird from Northrend =P
I used to do the same thing whenever I rolled a new hunter – Alliance hunter would get a red kitty from the BE starter zone, Horde hunter a ravager from Space Goat land. You certainly kicked it up a notch – BAM!
That is a great idea!! I have two level 80 hunters myself and a ton of lowbie hunters, and I’ve always enjoyed getting a challenging pet for that first one. My alliance hunter went to mulgore to get the “barking” wolf. lol Anywho, you’re post brought up a great option… getting a lowbie pet from a high level area. Now to search others to what else is out there! =D
I shoulda thought of that… I want rare or not-class/race pet there’s a cat in telrassil called Duskstalker… I had to give her up one time for a wind serpant rare named Hayoc… I’m an only elf person only BEs and NEs… I love fiction so naturaly I have to pick elfs I swear all my non elf toons never got lvled up :p any way I have a lot of new hunters and like I said I need new (ferocity and cunning) pets. Sry for how much I talk I sure am bad at the typing :/ sry. Love the blog 🙂
Pike you are insane. Good insane, but insane.
I had a tendency to roll lowbie hunters and abandon them in their teens until I finally got my proto-twink hunter up to 70 in BC. Normal lowbie pets are boring.
Orc hunter to Dun Morogh for the rare spawn AV-skin wolf.
Tauren hunter to Westfall for the brown carrion bird.
Same tauren hunter to HF for the carrion bird…
Draenei hunter (current “main” hunter alt) to Durotar for a tiger to use till I got a ghost saber…
Not me, but got a good friend to do the Teldrassil owl run in BC as well.
Haven’t done the Azure/Bloodmyst or Eversong/Ghostlands run though, haven’t made any disposable baby hunters in a while.
I am forced to agree with Celairia. Holy cow. o_O;
Ooh, lovely.
Let’s see, I’ve run one troll to the Exodar for a moth, one belf to the other island there for a blue moth, and my nelf main got a dragonhawk while completing the Eastern Kingdoms trick or treat achievement, by herself, at level 23. (and yes, I am still insanely proud of that one)
I’ve now rolled another hunter, a space goat, and if you don’t mind, I may have to steal your daggerhawk idea.
*cheers*
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who got the great idea to grab one of those hawks, though I was 13 at the time…
Since then, I’ve escorted three other hunters for ones of their own (on my 80 hunter, of course!) Is a good day for hawks.
*starts humming a song* Drat you Pike! But grats on the Hawk. And I hope to see you around on WRA! ^_^
That is epic. Very nice!
I LOVED getting Dusk (ie the daggercap hawk you nabbed) for my hunter back in the day 😀
I see that I’m not alone with this. 🙂
My Draenei hunter alt got a barking wolf at 10, Kresh (the blue elite turtle in WC) at 20 and Echeyakee at 22.
I’m planning on getting a black bear for my Tauren hunter as soon as she hits 10 – so off to Dun Morogh she goes.
It’s a nice tradition to take all new hunters to hostile areas to get a truly meaningful pet. I think I’m going to get that gorgeous bird on one of my hunters now. *poof*
Gotta’ agree with the others, you’re awesomely insane. *thumbs up* I remember getting that hawk on my hunter, it’s defiantly a hard to get pet.
I don’t really believe you’re insane, Pike, despite what others believe uncurable insanity
…although, I did take the long long trip from Eversong Woods to the Echo Isles in Kalimdor so Aelyra my Blood Elf Hunter can tame one of the Durotar Tigers roaming there =P
Congratulations on the new pet, and may you have more fun and adventures with Gyrvalk!
…bah, the frustration of being unable to edit your poorly worded post 🙁
It’s supposed to go “…what others believe *cough* uncurable insanity *cough*…”
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles. To fall down at your door
I love taming weird and different pets on my hunter! Kudos to you for thinking of it.
And on that note:
HEY PIKE MY HUNTER IS 80
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned the white bear in Dun Morogh. I made that trek with one of my hordies, although I was closer to 20 than 10 at the time.
I didn’t make any long trips on either of my two 80 hunters, and my low level draenei already tamed herself a crab. I just may roll a hunter on another server (Kinda leanin towards an RP server) and try one of these crazy treks.
Wow.
That’s gloriously goofy, Pike. I am impressed and challenged. What to do for my next hunter…
My Orlando-Bloom-lookalike BE hunter just tamed his Daggercap yesterday, too.
Good times 🙂
yeah, you’re nuts. Good nuts, but nuts nonetheless. Howling Fjorde? Really? Wow.
It’s always fun to run a low level around. But, um, Pike.. how many hunter toons do you have??
I really like to do that a lot too. I took my, now, level 80 belf hunter to Darkshore as soon as she completed the taming quest at level 10, so that I could get Kaelu, the Moonstalker Runt. He is still my first choice in pet to use.
The same character made the run back to Darkshore at level 30 to get the Ghost Saber. That took a good couple of hours due to Alliance following me around and killing the spawn everytime I tried to tame. She’s still around as well even though I almost abandoned her a couple of times.
So that’s wierd… I created a Tauren huntress a while back as a casual, I wanna play but hide from my guild toon, and decided she needed a bird. Swoops are ugly, so I actually went and tamed one of these myself, and was so bummed about the bugs it got stabled. Instead I went to teldrassil and nabbed an owl (yes, she was a very well traveled lowbie). She’s 30 now with her owl Archimedes still by her side. I’m going to try to tame nothing but birds on this toon.
Tamed the white lion from the quest chains in the barrens recently but my first pet was also the owl from Teldrasil. Not on a PvP server, but still quite a trip. I also feel the need to have a ‘unique pet’ and have decied that I am going to collect “white” pets on my newest hunter. (White lion, white bird, white wind serpent…warpstalker…so much to choose from!)
I have run one little orc hunter to both spacegoat-land, and HF. He still has his moth and crow in his stables. 😀 For that matter, his main pet is a grey wolf from Elwynn.
I also have a ghostlands lynx and a Durotar raptor on a draenei, and an Eversong dragonhawk on a Nelf. Same Nelf also has the barking Mulgore wolf. Also have a Belf with a boar from Westfall and the ghost saber.
Long-distance pet runs have got to be one of the most fun parts of lower lvl huntering. /cheers Pike
(And next time your on your baby tauren on Wyrmrest, feel free to say “hi” if you happen to see a young tauren druid named Skypaw. Though I will warn you, he is shy. :))
Wow! That is impressive. Nice work!
Interesting! It never would have occurred to me that something from Northrend could be tamed as a pet for a level 10 hunter. (I also know NOTHING about hunters.)
He looks very impressive, though! And you’re right, certainly unique. I hope that Blizz fixes him!
Nifty!
Back in the day I decided to tame Goreclaw the Ravenous back when it was the only tameable raptor with that skin. Right after I tamed her, a passing Hordie stopped and /applauded, which I thought was a nice touch.
I did that with my Belf hunter Gwynifar on Moon Guard. Arthoas is still a handsome bird despite the bugs.
I have a “test alt” on Wyrmrest, a Dk cow named Rakorno. Haven’t logged on him in awhile, but I made him to check out the server ‘cuz I’m thinking of moving some of my hordies over there. >.>
Almost forgot >.<
Gwyn also has an Azuremyst moth and an Elwynn wolf. One of my other Belves, Kaledain, went to Teldrassil for the owl at level 10 too. He is 61 now and still has her.
@ Kelesaria
"Gwynifar waves at Treng." 😀
wow, you are crazy, but a good crazy. Nothing like traveling by corpse hopping 😉
Pike, as always an enjoyable read. I only have 1 hunter (drenai), mid 40s. her very first pet was the dragonhawks. i had a belf pally alt and really liked the graphic. Took me a few hours to get there and tame, but have used ever since. When wrath came out i saw the skin and had to get it. i solod as you appeared to. Took ages but worth it. reading the comments its nice to know that other people do the same. Its not crazy if everyone does it
Cheers
J
When I first rolled Kalvun I decided he needed a tiger and the only place to get one was echo isles. Kalvun is a dwarf hunter by the way. It was a very interesting long trip, this was before I learned of corpse traveling. I finally made it, tamed a tiger, and promptly named him Hobbes. That was at lvl 10 and we’re now lvl 71 and still together.
i took a level 10 dwarf hunter from IF to Eversong to get the dragonhawk. long long run. actually, when i took him to the fjord in order to get the fjordhawk (UtgardeKrake), i found that a lot easier. That said, Alliance have a much easier path from where they get off the boat to Utgarde Keep than Horde do from their zep.
My dwarf hunters got “The Rake” a lvl 10 2.0 attack speed rare spawn cat from Mulgore back when attack speed wasnt normalised and it was the only 2.0 attack speed pet up to about level 50.
My Tauren hunters used to get the named white bears from near ironforge. There are two of them and they are the only white bears before winterspring.
My current tauren has a ghostsaber from teldrisal. Once you get there you have to find cat idols and hope for the ghostsaber to spawn.
Actually, “Snoeken” means “Pikes”; plural. The singular form “Pike” is translated as “Snoek”. 😡
@ Kesela – Unless I am mistaken, the plural for “Pike” is still “Pike”, thus, it still works ^_^
Hahaha that is absolutely win, shame I don’t have the bother to do such a thing :p my blood elf hunter, when she hit level 10, made a trip to Dun Murogh for the polar bear, and then I took a level 80 .. no 70 at that point, with me, and managed to die xD but Gwynarth (Welsh for white bear, bf named it) is still happily in my stable, I can’t bring myself to delete him.
Well when it comes to rare pets, one pet trumps them all:
SAPPHIRE HIVE QUEEN!
(Although very nice job on the tame there, Pike.)
Starm-Actually, the Grimtotem Spirit Guide trumps the Sapphire Hive Queen. I don’t have one myself, although I do have the Queen 😀
Woot! Congrats!
I’ve only seen that bird tamed twice before. Once on my own dwarf hunter who had a MUCH easier walk that didn’t involve dying at all, and another time when I helped escort a very young troll hunter down the path you took.
Oh the things we do for our pets. 😉
So wish I’d thought of that myself /jealous . . .
Hehe great stuff!! I have a lv 50 space goat hunter who only has her kitty and a wolf so far (Roode and Storme). But my main Hunter, a belf named Kalonice, she took the trip to Dun Morogh for one of those pretty white bears, named Nero. Of course she had an escort but it was much fun!!
Argh! Also forgot to add Kal has a Ghost Saber as well! I didn’t see one of my Shan around Hordelands forever. Now I’m seein’ them everywhere lol!
Nice story =)
I took a L18 Bloodelf along a similar quest, but using a different route. Entering the Plaguelands she got killed. She corpse-ran to the Menethil spirit resser, then swam to Menethil harbour. Then she got killed by the guards trying to enter the boat, and ressed on the boat.
In Howling Fjord she jumped ship just before reaching the shore and tamed one of the little hawks that sit on the docks there.It’s a cute little animal =)
Note. This was on a PvE server, I expect she’d have been dead more and longer on a PvP one.
lol when i first got wotlk i went after this bird. the problem was i didnt know where the zepplin landed in nr. so i landed in borean tundra as a lvl 38 hunter and hiked across all of nr to get this bird. i soon found out that the zepplin that landed at uc came not far from there. but it was alot of fun. only took me 5 hrs. 🙂
Y can’t I look up the bird? My hunter pet app and wowhead says the bird dosen’t exsist??? What’s going on?
I think they changed something, because I tried this a few times on my level 13 belf hunter and every time I’d try and rez at the Spirit Healer it would send me back to the graveyard at Vengeance Landing.