Meet the Family (Patch 5.3)

Patch 5.3 brought 30 more stable slots to the table (a mixed blessing, depending on which hunter you're talking to). For me, this meant planning out who was coming home and attempting to guess at which new pets would be popping up. Naturally, no amount of planning covered either half of the taming sprees. There are always some surprises!

Kalliope:

The pets who I knew were coming back were Tantalus, Orion, Amalthea, Icarus, Pygmalion, and Galatea. Tan had only left so I could get Polaris back before the rush of restoration requests. The rest had all remained as minipets. In the end, only Icarus kept his tiny counterpart. While I have many pets who like being in both my minipet lineup and in one of my stables, these forms had (with the aforementioned exception) only been a way to keep them near me. They weren't their proper colors, so it wasn't really them. Bringing them home for real was a very happy event, as well as a relief, since both of the rares (Amalthea [Stompy] and Pygmalion [Ironeye the Invincible]) were up when I first looked.

There were two impulse tames. Delphi called me after I fetched Tantalus. The bond was instantaneous. I've run with her almost non-stop since the tame. Amazingly, I've never actually clicked with an arcane wyrm before, though I've certainly admired the Spirits of the North since first entering Northrend. In the end, the tame felt partially premeditated, but I really had not expected such a strong bond. The other impulse tame was the product of good fortune. When I went into Deadmines to bring Icarus home again, there was a Brilliant Macaw up around where Mr. Smite used to be. Of course there was. I have always adored that skin since I first saw it on Skywing in BC. I'd tried to make it work on Kallimon, but it didn't take. This was my chance to rectify that. It didn't hurt that I felt terribly guilty about lucking into a spawn that others (and I) have had trouble getting. And so Leda joined the family.

The last pet Kalliope picked up was Eros. He was a PTR pet who had somehow managed to charm me. I kept telling myself that this was far too much effort for a tame that I wasn't sure was going to work out on live. I should have realized I was wrong when I was able to easily get on top of Ban'thalos's tree twice in a row without effort. But I didn't. Instead, I understood just how wrong I was when Banny spawned not long after I arrived. Eros had missed me! And so marked the easiest and least painful tame of Ban'thalos I'd ever had. I don't even care that he breaks my naming scheme; he just was not working as a minipet.

Kallimon:

Kallimon always manages to surprise me. As far as I knew, he only had three pets returning: Chili the green shale spider, MaqueChoux's natural size silithid, and Pacane. Naturally, this did not go according to plan. Both MaqueChoux [Haarka the Ravenous] and Pacane [Nychus] refused to spawn, and I delayed grabbing Chili, who had been Jadefang. This meant that I had time to run around impulse-taming things.

That's always where the trouble starts.

Thanks to Blasto and Bubin, I allowed myself to tame three regular-size pet versions of three of my favorite minipets: Zevran, Fenris, and Kaidan (who was a stretch, since his dragon whelpling minipet has no hunter pet equivalent). This was, of course, a terrible mistake, since I've been doing nothing but running around with Zev and Fen in minipet form to begin with. The same is now true of their larger forms, though now Fenris has the edge in terms of time at my side. Hopefully this will eventually pass; they just don't fit Kallimon's main theming. But hey, there's stable space to do that now - and besides, there's enough of them for a stampede.

Unexpectedly returning home were Jalapeno and Doberge, the latter taking a new form in Hugeclaw. Jambalaya will undoubtedly not be thrilled that his competition has returned, but the stable is so huge now that he can deal with it.

Pacane and MaqueChoux finally came home, so I decided to cheat and pick up a shale spider from the Jade Forest. But that meant he wasn't Chili - so after settling on naming him Rockefeller, I went back to Northrend to pick up Chili in his favorite form: a red demon dog.

After all this (and no spawn luck on Spiteflayer), I ticketed for Pompano's return. Like his sister Papillote, there was only one form he ever truly clicked in. Of course, a twist of fate has even changed this storyline. When Pompano was restored, he came back in his original green form instead of Spiteflayer's yellow. According to the GM who had sent him home, Pompano wanted to peck my face off for leaving him in the Twisting Nether for so long. Unfortunately, PetEmote confirmed this as true, as well as revealing a newfound cocky attitude. (Kallimon seems to be a magnet for that type of pet. Sigh.) Pompano was pleased that he'd caused so much trouble. Well, fine then. He can stay green.

Mind you, this is the short version; I ran around backtracking and circling between spawn points much more than it sounds like. How Kallimon takes more of my effort than Kalliope does is beyond me.

It's strange how (with the mental inclusion of Cadmus) my stables are dead even with each other at 35 pets. Completely unplanned. There may be some utility pickups in the future for both, but this will serve for now.

Meet the Family: Patch 5.2

It's been quite some time since I last updated my official pet roster, so with patch 5.2 coming in, now is definitely the time to check in with the family.

My stable's been overall stable in terms of who's stayed this expansion, though several have made skin swaps, shrunk down to minipet size, or grown up from minipet status since my last update....or some combination thereof. It's complicated.

Arachne rejoined my active ranks prior to MoP, only as Amthea rather than Jadefang. Psyche went from raptor to tallstrider and hasn't looked back. Hippomenes ended up turning his nose up at green Portent after all and remained a white organic quilen upon MoP release. (He still pairs nicely with Atalanta, since they're both off-white.)

Pan (black goat) ended up not working out, leaving room for Amalthea (Stompy) to step in. Unfortunately, my ever-crowded stable meant that she ultimately had to drop down into minipet form as a Summit Kid. Orion made a similar change into my Stunted Shardhorn.

Medusa preyed upon my sentimentality on the 5.1 PTR and managed to completely bond herself with Sparkwing (who happened to be the first unique skinned rare I'd ever discovered fully on my own, which meant the cards were stacked), which meant that I was completely at their combined mercies...especially when Sparkwing spawned right in front of me when it came time to officially meld the pair on live. Such cheaters, both of them. How could I possibly resist those charms?

A series of random events led to Laelaps (Karoma) joining my stable on what I thought was a temporary basis. I should have known better; I'd already gotten attached to her when I tamed a regular wolf that kept wandering into one of Karoma's spawn points and named her for the first time...she asserted her personality even that early. But out of respect for Polaris (Arcturis), I let her go after a few days. This, of course, was a massive mistake and after much hemming, hawing, and repeated denials, I filed my first pet restoration ticket ever to get her back. Laelaps has hardly left my side since. I definitely never saw that one coming. Polaris ended up dropping into Baby Blizzard Bear form.

Jason, who I had decided to stabilize as yellow from his color-changing self, became my second pet restoration ticket not long after I got Laelaps back. Just another example of my pets knowing what's best for them better than I do. Knowing Jason, I should have seen that coming too. He especially likes being part of a stampede, since it means he gets to change colors every five minutes.

Pygmalion, who had changed to a basilisk when Jason stabilized, took a brief hiatus before coming back to me as a Scalded Basilisk Hatchling minipet. Ultimately, this was a good thing, since it reunited him with Galatea, who returned as a Tol'vir Scarab. Other former pets who returned as minipets include Odysseus (Darkmoon Monkey) and Penelope (Darkmoon Hatchling).

Scylla, who charmed me unexpectedly as a teal worm, did so again as a pink silkworm when she flipped off of a tree branch to nibble on my face. I will never know how the other silkworms on that tree branch didn't aggro....whatever happened, it was a very clear sign that not only did she want to change forms, but it had to be rightnowthissecond. She did that just before the silkworm burrow animation was added on the 5.1 PTR - it was glorious.

Somewhere in there, Tantalus took a brief lack-of-space-induced hiatus, but he came back - he always does. Achilles did the same, after making it to live as Ironback. Unfortunately, Ironback had just been killed when I went to retame him, which threw me off badly...until I checked for Terrapis, who came running right up to meet me and ended up suiting Achilles's personality even better than Ironback did. Go figure! Of course, not long after that, the noisy Slateshell Wanderers appeared on the 5.2 PTR and Achilles insisted on changing forms yet again. I have noticed that my stable has overall become bossier, as well as more intent on griefing me. I'm not thrilled by this revelation.

The only truly new pet who's joining the family in patch 5.2 is Tiresias, the blue dire horn...and even he has a storied history. I originally had my heart set on an orange dire horn and indeed went through the majority of the PTR with Tiresias as orange. However, one day I logged in and he was blue! More colors had been added to the table his spawn comes from and he had been grandfathered in with this new color. I thought to myself that this wasn't a big deal; it'd be a Calydonian situation again. But by the time I got back to his spawn on the rock on the Isle of Thunder, Tiresias had completely melded himself with the blue skin. I hadn't even liked the blue skin, before or after the color change! But of course, again, he knew better than I did; this is his true color.

Did I say my stable's been stable? I'm not so sure now.

At any rate, all buffs are and have been covered, which is utterly amazing to me. Even more amazingly, I have strong bonds with almost every pet...thank goodness. I'll probably let Psyche fully turn into my purple tallstrider mount if I ever get the chance to tame Cadmus; I am far too attached to Tantalus.

If I can someday "correct" the colors of my pets-turned-minipets, I would actually be 100% happy....so long as no new shinies win me over. Every time I swear I'm done, something I never knew I wanted calls to me....(not the case with Tiresias; I always wanted a triceratops).

Kallimon's stable actually did undergo some major changes since I last updated his stable chart. the lesson to be learned here is that I shouldn't have massive amounts of stable space available, because if I do, it will be filled.

I recounted the adventures of the lava spider siblings before, and not much has changed with them since. Cayenne's been getting used to combat in her minipet form, so even though she's still a little sweetheart, she isn't shying away from fighting like she used to. Sugarcane's basically established herself as a hermit, which is why I went slightly nuts trying to get to know her better. None of them will budge from my stable because Stampede exists, so I'm resigned to an army of lava spiders. At least it's a pretty army.

In MoP, Chili swapped from a red hellhound into Jadefang. It started out as a swap of convenience, but he clicks far better in this form anyway. Dogs are just too small for trolls. My former Shango Jalapeno jumped into my Tiny Shale Spider to avoid Jambalaya's territorial wrath.

Bait molted, shedding her Jormunger skin for Gnath's. Amusingly, this is the skin color Scylla was originally supposed to be, but it never clicked. She also picked up a new worm brother in Slimey, who is just too adorable for words.

Ravigote gave up his feathers and became a supermodel Venomspine. I can't recall offhand how many forms he's gone through, but this one seems to suit him for a change.

Pacane, who had disappeared from my stable, found new life in Nychus. Somehow, the lone raptor persona suits her far better.

Blasto is still planned to swap to pink whenever Kallimon actually hits 90, which may not be until the next expansion, at the rate I'm going. It's just as well. I have no idea where I'm going to put Chipotle (Degu) when Kallimon does hit 90. MaqueChoux will most likely return to minipet-only form....again.....but we'll cross that bridge when it comes.