style="width: 600px; height: 369px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/72628">

\

Almost every Hunter has been adventuring in the world and found an
animal that they just have to have as a pet. It’s like love
at first slight, only on a smaller scale. Perhaps visions of you and
your new pet pwning face in PvP, or topping the damage meters in a
raid, or even just standing around a major city looking cool, fill your
mind. You prepare to tame this amazing animal, excitement filling you,
only to be crushed when the message that this animal cannot be tamed
comes across your screen.



Thankfully with the release of the WotLK expansion Blizzard allowed
quite a few more animals to be tamed. Moths, Wasps, Rhinos, and
Devilsaurs are just some of the pets open to be tamed, allowing many
Hunters to finally gain their dream pet. Some Hunters though were still
left waiting, hoping for a new expansion (or patch I suppose) that
would open up these very special pets to them.



With the knowledge that eventually Blizzard will probably release a new
expansion and with it may come the option to tame even more animals, I
decided to find out what pets Hunters still desired. I of course know
which pet I would like to see, and my wife even has her favorite pet (
the Fey Drakes located in Blade’s Edge Mountains) that might
even convince her to level a Hunter if it was available. But what about
everyone else?



In order to get a small sample of the Hunter population I once again
went out onto various servers and got the opinion of 20 different
Hunters, Horde and Alliance. Here are my findings:

As you can see the responses varied and go from very
specific to not caring at all. Let’s take a quick look at
each of these responses.

142px="" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97457" height="">

Hunter
- “I am going to tame you, Dragonkin!”

Dragon
- “What?”

Hunter
- “I am going to tame you and make you my mindless
slave for eternity. So uh, stand still a second, would you?”

Dragon
- “I don’t think….”

Hunter
- “This won’t hurt a bit…./cast
Tame Beast”

Dragon
- “/sigh”

Hunter
- “Hm, didn’t work. Let me try again, second
time’s the charm, right?

Dragon
- “Really dude? You can’t be
serious.” (Hunter proceeds to cast Tame Beast again)

Dragon
- /bites Hunter‘s
head off. 
“Problem solved.”



Not that I wouldn’t enjoy a Dragonkin pet, I just think it
would be highly unlikely. Perhaps Blizzard will allow an ability on top
of Tame Beast (for Beast Master Hunters?) that will enabled the Hunter
to form an alliance with a more intelligent creature thereby allowing
them to become our pets/partners. Who knows? It could happen.

style="float: right; width: 150px; height: 100px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97459">
Kodo are large reptiles with leathery skin, and are most predominant in
Mulgore. They are distant relatives of the Rhino which are able to be
tamed, which leads me to
believe that perhaps eventually the Kodo will
be tamable too. The only reason I can see that Kodo may never be
tamable is  many Kodo have a bond with the Tauren
race, and it
may be considered somewhat sacrilegious
to tame one as a pet. Cairne is
carrying something that resembles a tree stump, I would rather not face
his wrath. That being said, Tauren already use these giant beasts as
mounts, so why not tame them as Hunter pets too?

Arctic
Grizzly Cub

166px="" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97456" height="">
A surprising addition to my list, the Arctic Grizzly Cubs, can be found
in Dragonblight chasing along after their
mothers (who can be tamed).
Cute to be sure, but probably not pet material. If these baby animals
could be made into pets 
it’s my opinion that they
would
probably do small amounts of damage, and have to stop every couple of
hours for a nap. There are many other baby animals throughout the World
of Warcraft that I’m sure people would love to see become
tamable, but I’m afraid these are less likely than Dragonkin.

style="float: right; width: 100px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97460">
Neutral animals that can be found in various places around the Barrens
these animals are mentioned
(along with Talbuks and Zhevra) not only by
the people I surveyed, but on various
forums as well. I really
don’t see why these animals are not already tamable, aside
from the fact they are neutral
animals.
Let’s hope Blizzard
takes the same stance and opens them up to us soon.

Blackmaw
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">

The
only name specific animal mentioned in my travels was this
one.  Blackmaw is a spirit
beast found in the Storm Peaks. He
is the pet of Andurg Slatechest, the
Stable Master in style="float: right; width: 200px; height: 100px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97458">
Bouldercrag’s Refuge. He is
an amazing looking cat and
it’s not hard to see why someone would
want him as
their own.
In the next expansion, there is no real reason why Blizzard cannot put
this model of cat in the game, unless they really feel that this
NPC’s pet has to be unique.

New
Animals and New Skins

Of course with every expansion there are new animals added to the game.
A few players I spoke with decided instead of committing themselves to
one of the animals already available they would much rather 
see what new and exciting ones will eventually come along. Depending on
what new zones Blizzard introduces the possibilities are endless.



A very creative player suggested this to me, and I was impressed
because I had never given it a thought myself. Why not allow Hunters to
take their pet to the Barbershop with them? Give them the option to
change the skin or certain features of their pet making it so they can
be more individualized. Blizzard just did this to a certain extent with
Druids, so why not extend the gesture to some of the other classes?



From my chart you can see that there were also the players that simply
did not care. They were either satisfied with the pets
available,  or as one Hunter told me it did not matter to him
as he would be choosing the highest DPS pet no matter what it was.



No matter what animal you wish to see made tamable, or even if you
don’t really have a preference at all, it is still exciting
to speculate about what Blizzard will be introducing next.
Let’s hope we are not disappointed.



Thank you to all those Hunters who chose to take the time to speak with
me about this topic and to those who chose not to. A *special* thank
you for making my day to that Hunter who promptly told me to go do
inappropriate things to a goat and put me on ignore when faced with my
request for help. Really, thank you for the laughs.