Habitats of Azeroth

One of the things I've enjoyed most about my hunter is that this class gets me out into the world.  Whether it's hunting rares, questing, solo'ing something with a pet, I just seem to spend far more time outside Orgrimmar on this toon than I ever did on other classes.  This has given me a new appreciation for how much work goes into WoW art. There really are some spectacular vistas and scenery in WoW.  I love how a zone can completely change its mood and atmosphere as day turns into night.

Taking screenshots is a new love of mine in WoW.  A place to show them off was actually the main reason I started this blog.  Naturally, I thought it would be fun to go with each of my pets to their "natural habitats" and take some shots.  Whenever possible I tried to take the shot as close to the original taming location as I could.  This project turned out to be quite the undertaking but was a lot of fun and I have some amazing shots out of it.

Kalimdor:

Aranea comes from the war torn Molten Front in Mount Hyjal.  Her gorgeous luminescence is like a cool drink of water in this hot harsh battlefield.

The swampy dank Dustwallow Marsh was home to Casanova before he joined my stable.  This zone is not to be missed during the twilight hours.  The warm sunset colors reflecting off the marshy pools of water make for one impressive sight.  And it's teeming with wildlife..aka potential hunter pets :D!

Uldum is one of my favorite zones.  The harsh sandy deserts contrast with the lush oasis areas.  There is also some very impressive architecture there.  The sandy desolate areas make perfect habitat for ChaCha's wild counterpart, Madexx.  And the stary skies of Uldum at night are unmatched in their beauty!

Daredevil hails from the fiery lava pools outside of the Firelands raid instance.  This flaming sexy beast would fit nowhere else!  I love this particualr part of Mt. Hyjal as it reminds me of the flowing lava from the Kilauea volcano in HI that has been erupting since I was a child.

Dulcinea, my gorgeous snow white Saber cat, comes from the icy land of Winterspring.  Her kind are found in the northern area surrounding Frostsaber Rock.

The barren dusty Sithilus was originally home to Feminazi, my Hive'Regal Spitfire wasp.  Everything in this zone seems to have a red sheen to it and you can practically taste the dust in the air here.  

Freyja's wild counterpart, Magria, can occasionally be seen wandering a wooded strip right outside the Molten Front in Mt. Hyjal.  The zone itself is in conflict which is mirrored perfectly by the new growth attempting to emerge amid fiery combatants and the scorched earth.

Fungal Rock on the outskirts of Ungoro Crater was once Kapre's home.  He is definitely King of this Jungle!

Marama can be found deep within a cave on the Alliance territory of Azuremyst Isle, just off the Kalimdor coast.  A beautiful creature like her should never be shut up in the back of a cave.  Now she's with me enjoying the sights and sounds of WoW out in the open where she belongs.

Mistletoe's wild self can occasionally be seen flying high..very high..in the sky above Mount Hyjal.  When perched up in the tree from which he is tamed, the view is spectacular!

Muffet originally came from the Northern Barrens, just across the Durotar border.  This vast prairie zone is teeming with herbs, wildlife, and a huge sky reminiscent of the American West in its pioneer days.  

Sancho Panza comes from the Norther Barrens as well, not far from Muffet.  I found him wandering the banks of the Sludgefen.  Life amidst the nasty goblins found there couldn't have been great so I scooped him up and took him home with me!

The golden pink zone of Silithus was originally home to my silithid, Tagmata.  Her colors and long limbs match perfectly with the shades and structures of the complex system of hives she comes from.  

While Kapre came from the drier less dense area surrounding Un'Goro Crater, Vixen lived right smack in the middle of it.  This crater is full of exotic plant and animal life.  I can almost feel the steam and humity on my skin in this zone.  If Kapre is the King of this jungle, she is most certainly its Queen!

White Lady was found wandering the snowy caps of Winterspring.  She blends in perfectly with the snowy cold zone.  I love snow... skiing, hiking, pretty much anything is better when done in snow.  For that reason this is one of my favorite zones in WoW.  That, and it gave me two of my most loved pets, White Lady and Dulcinea!

Eastern Kingdoms:

Llewelynn is the only one of my current pets to come from this continent.  The wildflower covered foothills of the Twilight Highlands are where his wild counterpart calls home.

Northrend:

Apple has undergone a transformation from his former green skin to a new purple and blue one.  I found this version of him wandering the spooky crumbling ruins of Zul'Drak.   This zone has a desolate feel to it despite being filled with buildings, demons, and beasts of all sorts.

Scholazar Basin is simply chock-full of wildlife and all sorts of beasts just waiting to be tamed.  It's lush and verdant yet it doesn't have that steamy humid feel that Un'Goro has.  Three of the most prized rares in WoW also come from here...and I am lucky enough to have all of them:  Andraste, my Aotona.  Badcop, my King Krush.  And my very special Jameel, the ever popular, ever prized Loque'Nahak.

The icy battle-weary Icecrown was originally home to Boudicca, my saber worg.  I found her in the town of Juntenheim, a viking fortress with soaring architecture and beautiful vistas.  Icecrown is another of my favorite zones.  It's cold and stark but beautiful at the same time.

A cave in northern Dragonblight is where I found my Savage.  This stunning zone features vast snowy expanses, frozen beaches, ice walled caverns, and giant skeletons of the enormous creatures that call this place home.  Another of my favorite zones, it's crisp, cold, and gorgeous.

Outland:

Netherstorm, the land of purple rocks and cosmic skies, is where I found Armida.  I love this zone, it's so eery and harsh yet there is an unexpected serenitiy here.  The epic beauty of this zone is one of WoW's under appreciated treasures.  

My Belladonna was found wandering between the spikes and underneath the blood-red sky of Blade's Edge Mountains.  Unfriendly and unforgiving, this zone manages to be spectacularly beautiful in its harshness.  

  

Kuuipo hails from the caustic zone of Shadowmoon Valley.  This place is full of green bubbling pools of toxic ooze, an ominously green sky, and a landscape that features various shades of olive and grey.  While not what I would call beautiful, it is stunning nonetheless.

Underneath Mistletoe

It was early Christmas morning.  I had just gotten the turkey in the oven and was having some coffee before I started in on the rest of the cooking.  I logged on WoW to kill some time and ended up in Mt. Hyjal.  Ban'thalos was up.  I had previously tamed him and released him thinking I didn't really care for him.  I've seen him up quite a bit since and have even helped people tame him never wanting him for myself.

But this time that urge hit.  I figured what the hell, landed flawlessly in the tree, laid an ice trap, mounted and flew up to get in range, shot him, hit my detterence/tame beast macro and before I knew it he was mine.  As Ban'thalos tames go, it was perfection!  In honor of Christmas I named him Mistletoe.  Some might think it's a girly name but seeing as Mistletoe is a plant, and plants have no gender as far as we know, I don't see how it's restricted to girls.

I'm really enjoying Mistletoe so far.  Everything that annoyed me about him, his wing streaks and extreme translucence, now is beautiful to me.  I love his graceful flapping around and I like that I now have a ferocity bird...with an actual useful buff and a heal!  Mistletoe has an ethereal beauty that I am growing quite fond of.  Maybe I just needed time to warm up to the translucent models, idk, but I'm very happy with this addition to my stable.

I had to release Aeolus, my chimera, to make room.  I can't say I'm that broken up about it.  As stunningly gorgeous as he was we just weren't clicking in a way that would make me keep him around.  Now he's roaming Netherstorm as the big gorgeous Nuramoc.  I hope everyone had Happy Holidays.  Enjoy the screenshots!

Glimpse of a Ghost

I was beginning to think I tamed the last Magria ever to spawn!  I've seen Ankha about ten times in the last four months and Magria once.  It was a few days after dinging 85 when I happened across her on the way into the MF.  I wasn't really even interested in another see-through cat since at the time I had Gondria.  But I figured what the hell and tamed her.  Since then nothing.  Not one glimpse, glimmer, glance, nada.  I have never once even seen anyone else but myself with her around Org either.

That is, until yesterday!  To my surprise I see her gorgeous translucent blue self wandering around her spawn area.  I stopped to take pictures, Alt-Z'ing so as to hide my addons, unit frames, etc, and next thing I know I'm dead.  Turns out this douche alliance killed me.  So I did the only logical thing.  I rushed back to my body, res'd, and killed him.  Then I killed him again!  I then proceeded to follow him and annoy the hell out him for half an hour until he gave up and disappeared to go be a douche elsewhere.

Yes, this is a pvp server so I suppose what he did was fair game but I've always been polite to hunters of both factions and have never once stolen a tame or interfered with an ongoing one.  I assume that's what he thought I was doing since I didn't have Freyja out yet.  Still, it's a douche move and so what I did back to him was fair game as well!  The thing is, if he wanted to tame her I would have let him. I even would have killed mobs for him while doing so.  Too bad, so sad for him!

I tried for another half hour or so to find someone who wanted to tame her, in between taking screenshots of her and Freyja, of course.  No luck.  I can't believe no one was interested in her.  I couldn't bear to leave her since the thought of the douche coming back to tame her left a sour note.  I'm way too attached to Freyja to even entertain the thought of killing her wild counterpart, not sure I even could have, the only logical thing to do was to tame her.  Again.  I temporarily released Freyja, quickly retamed Magria, and she became my Freyja once more.

I suppose some will say I should have left her alone and by retaming a cat I already had I screwed someone else out of a rare.  But I did try for quite a bit to find someone interested so, IMO, she was mine to do what I wanted with.  I think going out of one's way to find someone interested in taming a rare is a nice thing to do but I, myself, don't feel an obligation to do so.  Although I don't make a habit of doing so, I'm not above killing a rare I come across either.  It's part of the game and it keeps rares rare.  When I'm particularly attached to a certain rare though, or when a particular rare is highly prized to other hunters, I like to try to find it a home.

Here are some shots I took.  It was a lot harder than you'd think taking screenshots with two cats who like to move around a lot.  That and dodging mobs made it difficult.  But I like how they came out.  Magria is so gorgeous!  She doesn't look washed out like the other spirit beasts can.  She's a gorgeous crystal blue.  I'm glad I tamed her that day.  I didn't even really want her.  Just happened upon her.  Lucky me! :D

I happened upon some shots I took a few weeks ago when Ankha was out.  After the screenshots we left her alone.  Hopefully she found a good home!

I figure as long as I'm spamming you all with screenshots, I may as well include some random ones I've taken with Freyja over the past several months.  I really need to get more shots of her!

Focus: Daredevil

Lately I've been making more of an effort to have Daredevil out with me in an attempt to form a stronger bond with him. I'm not sure exactly why it's somewhat lacking even after several months.  Perhaps he and I just aren't meant to be or maybe it's just because, as a tenacity pet, he's been shoved on the back burner in favor of White Lady, my bear tank, one of my most favored pets.

Daredevil is indisputably awesome and he looks really cool.  No question about that!  There's just been something missing. Although I've thought about releasing him and replacing him with my old green turtle I just haven't been able to do it so far.  I guess that shows there is something there so I'm trying to see if I can build on that.

I adore tortoises in real life but I've always admired their subtle beauty.  I think that's why I bonded so well with Aesop, my soft green common turtle from Hillsbrad.  He was slow, wise, ancient, and subdued like a turtle or tortoise should be.  Daredevil is the in your face, on fire, super awesome, flaming, lava turtle.  But he is what he is and I'm trying to accept him for that and see if he and I can connect more or if I should release him to wander his lava pool hitting prospective tamers like a mac truck.

These screenshots are the results of one of our jaunts.  He does look amazingly cool, I have to say, and every time I call him out I'm awed at how gorgeous he is.  If I do end up releasing him it wont be because his awesomeness is in question, just whether or not he's right for me.

Whenever I see Anthriss out I always have to stop and take a picture with her with whomever I happen to have out at the time.  As you can see by the skeleton, someone was not as lucky as we were.  Anthriss never aggros and I always take my shots in peace.  I think she knows she has a counterpart in my stables whom I love very much :D!