Suggestion Box

by Gimmlette

Hunters love their pets. When I started playing WOW, you could have 3 pets, period. I got UrsaMajor, a Loch Modan bear, and never considered getting another pet until Wrath of the Lich King brought exotic pets and the ability to have 5 pets with you at once. You didn't need to find a stable master when you could finely tailor the pets you might need to the raid, the group or the soloing experience.

With Mists of Pandaria, our stable slots exploded along with new skin colors and new pets which were suddenly tamable. You're still limited to carrying only 5 but having a total of 55 stable slots means having a wide variety of pets at our disposal. But we still want more. While I don't have all my available slots filled, I know hunters who do. With new pets in Draenor, we are still looking around at all the animals populating the world and thinking, "Why can't I tame that?" Here are two cases in point.

We met large frogs on the Timeless Isle. These two fellows are from Shadowmoon Valley. Frogs aren't tamable. I would imagine the animation to make a frog hop (race?) alongside you as you're riding off into the sunset makes these tough to offer. I'm envisioning their special ability would be a shooting poison or, as the battle pets can do, a sleep or a charm. I might actually tame a frog.

Another animal I might actually get is this wolf from Shadowmoon.

A number of hunters in my guild would tame one of these guys in a heartbeat, if they could. Their inability to be added to a hunter's stable may mean they are considered demons, rather than animals. They have been corrupted by the Shadow Council in residence nearby, as the frogs in the above photo have. Still, that green.

I'm not a fan of wolves. I've never really liked their look but I'd get one of these. I remember when you couldn't tame the runed demon dogs of Wrath of the Lich King. They are to be found usually around warlocks. I have one in blue and you can get a green and a red version. I remember when they were added to the taming list so there is precedence for making a demon tamable by hunters. I know there is the special shadow wolf, Gara, available for hunters, but I don't care for the purple.

So, Blizzard, we'd like to see these two pets added to our stables. Yeah, yeah, more stable slots would be nice, but I'll settle for the simple ability to tame these.

Quest Hub

by Gimmlette

Last week, I wondered how many "bring me the head of x" quests there are in the game. It's a ubiquitous trope. Every expansion has at least a dozen, if not more, quests requiring someone or some thing's head.

If you've headed into Draenor, you recognize the above. This is the other trope so very common in WoW; the poo quest.

When people acknowledged they were in the alpha for Warlords, players wanted to know what kinds of things we'd be doing. Who are the bosses? What are the zones like? How do the new stats work? They also asked, repeatedly, what the poop quest was. It's not an expansion without us having to rifle through or collect poo for something. Initially, it wasn't readily apparent what the quest was. I didn't see it until mid-way through July.

The best poop quest line is in Grizzly Hills on the Alliance side. "Mmmmm...Amberseeds", is what starts it. It's Alliance only and it is hilarious. Draenor poop seems to be confined to this quest above. While amusing and is the method by which this character is introduced to us, this is it for poo. Perhaps Blizzard feels the idea has run its course, that there is nothing new to have us do with regards to excrement. That's kind of sad. Yes, it's more than a little "ewwwww", but this trope has a history within the game I hope Blizzard doesn't abandon.

Out And About

by Gimmlette

I finally decided to take my tauren to Draenor. Although my main is Alliance, I made this tauren warrior back in 2007 to see the other side of WOW. I don't jump in and level quickly. It's really a "What this like" toon.

It helps with leveling, that I've done this Alliance side. I know where to go and what to do when doing the starter quests to get to Frostfire Ridge. And, having done the beta, some things are burned into my memory. The portal between Draenor and Azeroth is one thing.

I love the colors. I love the swirls. When we deactivate the portal and then destroy it, I felt a sadness, not because of the theme of the Iron Horde invading, but the loss of the pretty colors. I'm anxious to see how this all plays out. Will we restore the portal and get the colors back or has it been irrevocably changed?

Out And About

by Reilynnbear

My guild has a bunch of events around the anniversary of their founding, December 15th. One of those events last year, was a ride around Draenor. Along the way, we killed some rares, fell in the water and discovered just how close you could get to Ashran without queuing for PvP. After paying our respects to the genie in northern Talador, we disbanded. Before I headed back to my garrison, Thollie and I stopped to admire the view.

I think this is the one thing that has struck me about Warlords of Draenor. There are incredible views pretty much everywhere. You can easily fill your screenshot folder with nothing but landscapes, there's so much to see.

Out And About

By Gimmlette

I'm a screenshot junkie. I freely admit it. But this game provides all sorts of places and situations where a screenshot to preserve the moment is vitally necessary. The above is a case in point. This is on the elemental plateau in Draenor. That's a purple outlined fishing pole and there's a murloc. I won't tell you what happened when I clicked the pole. Suffice it to say it was quite amusing. I love to fish in game so they didn't need to entice me to try it. Is the murloc used for bait? You'll have to go find out.

Submissions for "Out And About" are welcome. They should be in .jpg format with name plates removed. You can write your own caption or I'll do it, but I'll need to know who and where and what's going on. Please include your toon name, guild and server if you're not in Spectacular Death. Send photos to floortanking@gmail.com.

And that's my bodyguard, Delvar Ironfist, alive. I hadn't killed him at this point. Poor Delvar. He's getting really good at floor tanking.