Birds of Prey

A Golden Eagle in Loch Modan.

Birds of Prey are a large group of Cunning pets with a Disarm ability.  Oh, and before I forget--make sure to listen to this song while you read this post--you know, to get into the mood.  Theme.  Whatever.

Birds of prey in the real world are quite varied in appearance and behavior, and this is also the case with World of Warcraft's taloned terrors.  These beasts range from eagle to owl models, and everything in between--including crows and gulls, and even parrots (which in reality are mostly herbivorous!), and have dozens of different skins--so even the most picky hunter can likely find a Bird of Prey they like!  In short, despite being often overlooked, Birds of Prey are one of the most varied and widespread pet families of them all.

Aviana's Shrine in Mount Hyjal boasts a large number of tameable Birds of Prey with various models.

Because their habitat is so varied, you can find a Bird of Prey to make your own in just about every corner of Azeroth.  In dark forests you can find black owls lurking beneath the trees.  Near flooded regions, gulls flock to isolated plots of exposed land, and in the plains regions, one can often find eagles soaring overhead.  Black or brown "Crows" (actually the Night Elf & Tauren 60% druid flight forms) can be found in multiple regions but are plentiful in the Howling Fjord of Northrend.  Ghostly or emerald owls can be found in a couple of isolated dragon- or elven-themed locations.  There's even an "undead" bone-hawk swathed in bandages flying around in Icecrown and the Plaguelands!  A full list of all Bird of Prey appearances and locations would be far too much for this blog post--see the Petopia listing for Birds of Prey if you'd like to know more!

The Bird of Prey is a Cunning pet, good for PvP utility and falling between Ferocity and Tenacity pets in terms of damage, although closer to the Ferocity end.  Their "speccable" abilities include damage and tank talents and Roar of Recovery and Roar of Sacrifice to help you boost your Focus regen & reduce damage on friendly targets (both abilities on a cooldown).  Birds of Prey have both a unique family skill, like most pet families, and a second "gimmick" ability for fun, much like the "Rest" skill for Bears.  The utility ability is a 10-second Disarm--and it's 10 seconds in PvP, too, unless of course the opponent has a weapon chain to halve the duration--and is on a 1 minute cooldown (or 42 seconds for BM hunters).  The "for fun" ability is called "Trick," in which the bird does a flip on command: this looks identical to the druid flight form's /mountspecial.

My hunter and her undead hawk, Derelict

 Birds of Prey are a low-priority pet in PvE.  They bring no useful buffs to the table, although on a gimmick boss fight where a Disarm is useful and no player present has the Disarm, the bird can be brought out to do the trick.  As a Cunning pet, it potentially does slightly less damage than a Ferocity pet anyway, at least until the boss is below 35% (at which point Feeding Frenzy kicks in).  Regardless, if you have a Bird of Prey and (in the case of difficult content) other buffs are covered, a properly-specced Bird would be fine to PvE with.

For PvP, Birds of Prey can be, situationally, quite useful.  In battlegrounds it's an unexpected alternative to a rooting, stunning or disorienting pet; less common, but still fun to break out for an anti-melee surprise.  Which pet you bring to arena will depend on your team composition, but if your team already has stuns and roots, try out the disarm and see if it fits your style.  The Cunning family skill Roar of Sacrifice is always a good thing to bring to the table in PvP, although most PvP pets (at least for MM and Survival hunters) will be Cunning in any case.

Random Facts: 

If you are level 80 or above, and you want a big supply of Birds of Prey to choose from quickly, head up to Aviana's Shrine at Mount Hyjal, a bit south of Nordrassil.  Multitudes of eagles and owls circle the big tree here at varying heights, tameable from the ground, ledges and tree branches; they come in a variety of colors, including black, brown, white and "bald eagle."

At one point, a large number of flying pets had the ability to fly directly to an enemy instead of pathing on the ground.  A few of the Birds of Prey, including the Seagull, shared this ability: in PvP, the bird could path directly to a player atop a tower, or dive down off the BEM arena bridge to attack a player who leapt off.  This ability was quickly removed,  and now Birds of Prey path along the ground like all other pets.

LIGHTNING OWL SEEKS YOUR DEMISE

Carrion Birds are a related family in the Ferocity tree. Quite a few birds have moved from Birds of Prey over to the Carrion Bird classification--although one or two vultures still remain.

Some Birds of Prey don't have the ability to use the Trick command; this is likely related to their model.

Different Birds of Prey use different sound files: owls chirp and whistle softly, crows and parrots squawk (the parrots rather hideously, in my opinion!) and eagles and hawks scream and shriek.

Some of the eagles have lighting errors that seem to come and go each patch; when the errors persist, the eagle appears to be shaded and brightly lit in alternating geometric patterns across its body.

Mine?

A Stable Staple: The Worm

  So today I noticed a BM hunter guide on the WoW forums.  While certainly well-intentioned, it was quite wrong in many respects and failed to mention a number of extremely important BM features.  One of those--namely, using a worm for AoE DPS in PvE--was mentioned to the author by another reader, who surprisingly (despite being a BM raider) had never used one!  Well, I'm here to spread the word--worms are awesome!

Overview:

* Worms are Exotic
* Worms are mainly PvE AoE pets
* Burrow must be used manually
* Burrow makes the worm untargetable
* Burrow costs 30 focus
* Kill Command & other pet utilities break burrow



* What is a worm & what does it do?

Worms are exotic (limited to Beast Mastery hunters) beasts that have shot up in popularity as PvE pets in recent months.  The reason for this was a buff to their already-powerful AoE attack, Burrow.  A worm correctly used by a BM PvE player is a must-have--it can put out extreme amounts of damage (100k+ dps in burst).  The only other pet which comes close is the Chimaera, which suffers from having its attack only affect enemies in a short cone in front of it.  On the upside, the Chimaera's attack has no cooldown, and can be used while moving, whereas the worm's Burrow can be used 8 of every 21 seconds for a properly-specced hunter, and which must be channeled in place.


* Where can I get a worm?

Remember that worms are Exotic, so you cannot tame them unless you are Beast Mastery, and have the talent point (last in the tree!) to tame Exotic Pets.  Worms come in two varieties, but both are identical game-play wise--the difference is only in appearance and location.  The first is the Old World worm, a vanilla model--a slick, glowing-eyed worm type with powerful mandibles, often found in dark, damp places within dungeons.  The second is a larger, coarse-skinned worm known as a Jormungar, with a line of thick hair down the spine and spikes along its sides.  These are found in the cold, snowy climate of Northrend.  Worms of either type can come in a variety of colors, with one--the Disembodied Jormungar--even coming in a "ghost" flavor!

Check out Petopia's Worm page for more information & locations for each appearance type.

* Where & how do I use my worm?

Worms should be used for AoE on large groups of mobs in PvE, whether that PvE be raids, dungeons or solo-questing or grinding. 

The worm is not traditionally a PvP pet.  Theoretically, a dps-specced worm could provide good damage output on large groups in PvP, as well as allowing the use of Intervene and Roar of Sacrifice.  However, the damage output on single targets will be lower than that of a properly-specced Ferocity or Cunning pet, and the worm's special ability does not provide any added utility (like a heal or a root) for PvP situations.  The worm could potentially be used to break up large groups camping a single spot, like a flag point, since moving off of the worm's AoE prevents damage.  If you'd like to use a Worm in battlegrounds it's advisable to bring along other pets to switch to when fighting 1-on-1.

On to the "how!"

First of all, know that the worm's big AoE attack (Burrow) must be used manually.  It cannot be set to Auto-cast, so leave it on the pet's action bar, or make a macro for it on your own bars.

Next, be aware that the Burrow costs your pet 30 Focus.  Therefore, it's best to keep the worm on Passive just before Burrowing to ensure that Burrow can be used as soon as you're ready for AoE burst.  If your tank is going to pull a pack of mobs to a specific location, try positioning your worm there in advance with the Move To command (assuming moving your pet will not aggro other nearby enemies!).  Sending him in with the "move to" command rather than "attack" ensures he will not be too low on focus to use Burrow.  After moving the worm, pop all damage-increasing cooldowns and use Burrow, and gaze in awe at the huge numbers!

Burrow makes the worm untargetable, meaning that if you use the worm's Burrow and then Feign Death, the enemies will all Evade.  In addition, if you use Burrow while you yourself are standing far away, the mobs will move to you, leaving the worm's AoE range and taking no damage.  Your best bet is to tag with Multi-shot, then move in close and use Burrow, using Deterrance as well if you expect high incoming damage.

Something to bear in mind: as tempting--or automatic--as it is to use Kill Command or other pet-related abilities (such as Master's Call), don't--they will cause the worm to cease Burrowing in order to obey.  As Burrow has a cooldown (albeit a short one), that's a big DPS loss!  The best use of a Worm is to bring it along in PvE and only switch to it for large AoE pulls; use your other DPS pets for bosses and smaller trash pulls.

Lastly, remember that Burrow is a damage ability, and that the worm--despite being a Tenacity pet--is used for damage in raid and dungeon environments.  So for DPS, you'll want to talent it for pure damage, rather than survivability, although chances are you'll have to pick up a tanking talent or two in order to progress through the tree.  Be sure to take Serpent's Swiftness, Spiked Collar, Culling the Herd, Wild Hunt and optionally Thunderstomp (this last helps when soloing, or can be used for a bit of extra damage after Burrow is over; it can be toggled off when needed).

* What is living with a worm like?

Well, for one thing, they're adorable.  Sure, it's all about perspective, but they use the Serpent animations, meaning they tend to look around from time to time, tilting their heads--it's quirky and cute.  The Old World worms have a charming grin to them, almost mischevious.  The Jormungars don't have visible eyes, so they may come across as having somewhat less personality to some, but their animations are still quite cute.  That said, the darker-colored Jormungars can appear rather menacing--if you like a wicked-looking pet, check out the black Jormungar.

A good number of the color patterns are aesthetically pleasing, too--the Old World worms come in a wide variety of bright gold/black, teal/black, blue/white and so on, all with complimenting eye colors.  The Jormungars come in blue, purple/pink/blue, white/lavendar, black, ghostly, and more.  Strangely enough, some of the Jormungars' "manes" seem to be unaffected by lighting, causing for example the black Jormungar to have bright gray-white hair in dark areas.

Worms are tall pets--moreso with Jormungars, which are also rather bulky.  They tend to actually tower above their hunter companions.  They aren't very broad, though, so they won't often interfere with targetting.  Their sound effects are unique, but not loud or overpowering--a series of grunts and gravelly growls.

When Burrowing, the worms dive beneath the ground and leave a tumbling pile of rocks and pebbles until they surface again.  Utility-wise, they make excellent grinding and PvE pets, and so keeping one with you at all times isn't a bad idea at all.

*  *  *  *  *

All in all,  worms are useful and charming pets, a must-have for BM PvEers, and come in enough appearances and colors that anyone's taste will likely be satisfied!

Shango, God of the Storm

   One of my favorite skins has always been the plain 'ol tiger skin: it's a vibrant orange pelt with a pale underside and black stripes.  There's nothing fantasy about this appearance--it's very true-to-life, and very beautiful (to me, at least!).  However, up until Cataclysm hit, it was only available on the old-world cat models, which I despise--they've got stranged pinched-in faces, and I just can't get along with that!

The basic "cat" model.

   So one of my biggest wishes, as a hunter, has always been for a Saber cat with that gorgeous tiger skin.

   Until the Shattering came, there were a great many pets that we didn't have access to--they gathered dust in the data files, viewable by ModelViewer and not much else.  All that changed when the world (of Warcraft) was torn asunder; a great many pets emerged from the woodwork--or changed color.  

Just look at that "pelt!"  (Lo-res image)

   Shango (whose name is that of an African diety of lightning and thunder) was one of those pets.  He's a level 76 quest mob (not a rare!) in Sholazar Basin.  He patrols the outer edges of the jungle there, where brave players under the orders of the evil king Nesingwary must track Shango down and slay him.

...And those eyes!

   Previously, Shango was a spotted Saber cat--which in itself was new to Wrath of the Lich King, and which the Dreadsabers still use.  With The Shattering, Shango suddenly became unique: the gorgeous tiger saber!

   I love the vibrant, realistic colors on this skin, and I love the huge muscular saber-toothed model, and with them combined I think he just comes out gorgeous.  The pattern his colors take are also very well-done, in my opinion, with natural sort of fur-texture etching--he's just really nice to look at!

Shango in the Molten Front.  He almost looks made of fire!

   Once you get him, the living experience is also great.  He's LARGE at your side, feeling like a big proper presence, but is at the same time low to the ground, thus not interfering with your targetting.  He's got beautiful movement and idle animations; if you don't like his *YAWN* noise, though, you might be turned off somewhat (this sound is a loud yawn and then jowl-shaking, sounding somewhat slobbery, and is shared by many cats).

Oh, and he's big!

   As a Cat, he has the strongest damage buff a solo hunter can get, plus he's Ferocity--meaning that for doing your dailies, he's very useful.  You don't need an excuse to break him out of the stable!  He's also, on the practical side, somewhat harder to lose track of in a fight than other, more dull-colored kitties; his very vibrant orange ensures you'll always know where exactly he is at a glance.

...And hungry!

   Overall, I have to say this is currently one of my favorite pets in-game.  Mine, which I've named Ochre, has been in my stables since the day he became available to us lucky hunters--and he's not going anywhere any time soon.

"Ochre" in his natural habitat of Awesomeland.

Vicarious Hunting

   Part of the reason that the WoW hunter pet community is so active, I think, is that we hunters loooove the thrill of the hunt.  Matching a hunter with various pets, going to long and elaborate lengths for difficult tames--it's all so much fun.  Yet, we only have one hunter--at least those of us who haven't rolled multiple hunter alts--and only twenty-five stable slots to play with (although some may rotate!).

   This means that when we read about other hunters looking for their perfect pets or going to crazy lengths to tame pets, we really enjoy the tale. And--for me, at least--when a guildmate or friend decides they want something really bizarre for their hunter alt, I get quite a kick out of lending a hand!

   My guildmate, an indecisive fellow (let's call him Jim) who is constantly swapping between classes, recently rolled a hunter alt.  Then he deleted it.  But when he remade it again, he decided he wanted something special for his first tame.

   Bored and not doing much, I tailed around behind him as a Sandstone Drake, offering him a lift to and from quest hubs.  When he hit level 10, off we went to Teldrassil.  We picked up a couple flight paths en route for his future levelling, and then went off across the sea for his kitty.

Demons can ride dragons, too!  ...Sort of.

   It took a good five or ten minutes to fly there, and when we did get there, it took a bit of scouting to find the cat.  My orcish friend then had some issues with his UI, and instead of taming, he engaged in a staring contest with the patrolling saber.  Eventually he managed to sort his UI, and the tame commenced!

   This is a neat pet, and not one you often see with Horde hunters--or hunters at all, for that matter.  He's one of the ones added in with the Shattering--being previously unavailable.  His skin's a bit low-res, but he's pretty striking... although a big orc with mutton-chops and a mohawk seems a bit strange next to a white cat!

   For me, helping other hunters tame their rares is very nearly as fulfilling as finally finding a hard-to-get pet myself.  Assisting with a camp, teaching a hunter about the Molten Front challenge tames, or flying a lowbie somewhere bizarre--these things are right up my alley, and I'm sure that many other hunters feel the same way! 

Pet Pathing Bug: Update

While we can only hope for a fix for the pet pathing issues during the overnight patch, I can say that at least a friendly neighborhood GM has replied to my forum post on the topic.

My question described the issue, and then asked:

I'm both reporting this as a bug and also asking if the devs are, as far as blues know, aware of it; also, was this an intended change?

The GM's reply:

Well, both actually. Our developers have been tweaking pet pathing in recent weeks to try to improve it in certain terrain. So, its current state is indeed intended, but our developers know that it is not in a great place right now and have re-entered it as a bug and will continue to work on it until they are happy with the way the mechanic functions.

It sounds like--on the first read-through, anyway--they tried to fix some bizarre pathing issues and screwed up, completely borking the way pet pathing works.  It's also possible, though, that they were trying to make pet pathing more user-unfriendly, as a way to make the class more challenging, and they went too far.  I am 90% sure that it's the former, and I certainly hope that I'm right.  Perhaps when the servers come up we will see!

"Random Pet Challenge:" Ashtail

   So, once upon a time ages ago, I created a thread on the Petopia forums.  The name--and theme--was the "Random Pet Challenge."  The idea basically involved me using a Random Number Generator website to assign interested people pets to tame.  The players would then tame the pets and review them.  I had a number of suggested "review criteria" they could cover, so that potential users of the same pets could get an idea of the pros and cons of any given pet.  It turned out to be extremely popular, running to a couple dozen pages pretty fast, and becoming quite overwhelming!  Other players picked up the idea once I stopped, and now the Random Pet Challenge is in its third incarnation.  Sometimes I myself go back and request one--out of boredom, or curiosity.  Today, my assigned pet was Ashtail, the rare blue-gray fox from Loch Modan.

Dancing delicately between Vrykul ankles.

 

The Tame

   Ashtail's a uniquely colored rare Fox placed in Loch Modan.  He's a Ferocity pet (being a Fox, though most would expect them to be Cunning!), Neutral, and is on a 30-90 minute respawn timer.  The fox family ability, Tail Spin, reduces the ranged/melee attack speed of enemies within 10 yards for 20 seconds.  In addition, he gets Trick, a cute little move that lets him dance for a few seconds!   When I first went to pick him up (I flew over from Twilight Highlands as a Horde), he actually wasn't spawned.  I did a double-check on Wowhead for his timer & spawnpoint, parked myself, entered him into NPC-Scan and waited.  About a half hour later, he spawned.

   When he's "wild," he's apparently a rogue--he'll use Shadowstep and Evasion on you while fighting.  Well, cunning devil!  Oh wait, I mean Ferocity.  I named him Smoke due to his color, and off we went.

Model & Animations

   The first thing I did was take him for a run around Orgrimmar and have a look at his idle animations, and at his Trick.  Blizzard still hasn't changed Trick in that the fox will carry on using it even when the player is moving, so you can have a fox out now racing at 100%+ speed along the ground on its two back legs!

Foxes are party animals!

   The animations are smooth, but the run looks somewhat awkward--the back bends in two different places depending on whether he's gathering up or flexing.  It's a bit hard to catch in a screenshot, but maybe this will give an idea.  (Notice also the way his front leg thins down oddly far when running.)

Oddly, perhaps because he shares the coyote model and animations, the fox also howls while idle--although he makes no sound:

He also has a noticeable overbite, which hard to "unsee" once you've noticed it.  Lastly, his ears move ludicrously far when he does his sniffing-the-ground idle animation--they actually cover his face!

   As for his model and appearance, he's looking good!  His colors are a soft blue-gray, very pretty to look at and shading into a dark navy blue and then black on the legs.  His tail has a pale tip, and his underbelly and throat, along with his face, has pale gray-white markings.  His eyes actually glow, a very bright and pale aqua blue.  His model and skin are both advanced Cataclysm tech, so they're very smooth and pretty to look at.

   One odd thing that I noticed, though, is that from the front he always looks either startled or completely blank--his eyes are really widely spaced, and very round.

   He makes no idle sounds; his in-combat noises are quiet, but I personally find them somewhat irritating.  Mind you that's a personal thing; many people might find them endearing!

   His overall size is pleasant; he's about the same size as a coyote-model wolf pet, perhaps a bit smaller.  He is large enough to feel like a solid presence at your side without becoming overly large or obtrusive, or detrimental to targetting.

Utility

   This pet seems pretty useless in PvP.  Maybe it's just me, but I'd think non-BM hunters would want a root and likely a Cunning or even Tenacity pet, and that BM would want something with a damage boost or more adaptable utility.  The AoE debuff is okay in huge groups, like Tol Barad, but it doesn't affect casters and doesn't buff you at all.

   In group PvE, tanks will cover the fox's debuff.  In solo PvE, though, this guy's pretty nifty--his AoE debuff will both help him keep aggro on multiple mobs and will allow him to take a bit less damage from physically-attacking enemies.  If you like the look of a fox and want somewhere to use it, I'd think that questing and grinding is his place to shine!

   All in all, this is a fun pet to play with, and overall he's pretty to look at.  For me, though, some of the animation quirks put me off, and his relative uselessness probably means I won't keep him around (a Spirit Beast's damage buff + aggro generated by Spirit Mend, along with the utility of Spirit Mend itself, leaves little competition for me!).  He's fun, though, and he's pretty, and I'm guessing a great many folks really love this guy to death!

Pet Pathing / AI Issues

   One thing I've always loved about my pets, particularly as a BM hunter, is that they seemed to have pretty good "intelligence."  You could pop a pet onto Defensive, and it'd do things like switch to a healer if one began to heal (having an aggro table, I assume), or in solo PvE, swap target repeatedly to make sure nothing switched to you.  You could put a pet on Aggressive, and if it "sensed" a rogue stealthing too close, it would turn and stare in that direction, alerting you to his presence--or downright attack them and break them out of stealth if they became visible to the pet.  However, if your pet was set to Defensive and you commanded it to Follow, it would drop target and obey.

   In addition to that, a pet would path intelligently--they would use the same type of routes that a player would.  So if you sent your pet after something standing at the bottom of a tower, the pet would run down through the tower and attack; if you sent pet on something in the next room, the pet would go to the nearest doorway and run in.

   Since this last patch, I've been learning the hard way, pet AI is pretty broken.  A pet no longer knows how to go down a tower or around a wall, and will instead simply stand motionless, staring at the target--and will not obey commands most of the time, leaving a BM PvPer like myself completely alone.

"I FORGOT HOW TUNNELS WORK!"

   To add to these new issues, the design intent for the new stances has also become a bit more clearer, and it's not a pretty picture.  Whereas the old Defensive stance had the pet attacking anything you attacked, or which attacked you, the new one ONLY attacks mobs or players which attack you first.  This is completely useless, and I honestly can't ever imagine a situation where you'd want to be hit before sending your pet.  The Assist stance is also quite buggy, overwriting manual commands--so if you try to send your pet to a new target, but have a DoT on your old or if another player is hitting you, the pet will ignore your command and go to the player which is DoTted or hitting you instead.  You literally cannot control it.

   I could set it to Passive, and use only manual commands, but there's a few things for which I value the old Defensive stance--for example, the pet streaking off into the bushes in WSG and alerting me that there's a healer behind that tree stump forty yards away healing my target.

   As a BM hunter, these are pretty crippling changes.  To fix them, I suggest the following:

* Remove Defensive stance entirely or repeal the changes; add back the old Aggressive stance.
* Change Assist stance so that manual commands overwrite stance behavior until the command has been executed.
* Return pet pathing AI to the previous state; there was nothing wrong with it, and now it's broken.