Training Cats and Dogs

Played another great WoW session a few days ago, but didn't have time to blog it. After upgrading my gear, I needed to spend some time on my trusty companion, Zuel the hunting cat.

I first headed down to Stranglethorn, to a little island off the east coast called Jaguero Isle. There lurks an elusive kitty appropriately called the Jaguero Stalker. These black panthers train hunters the new pet skill Prowl 3, so I had to train one for myself to pass the skill on to good ol' Zuel.

I then headed off to the Hinterlands, and snuck into an elite troll fortress called Jintha'Alor. That was pretty thrilling, considering that since I was on a pet taming mission, I didn't have Zuel along to back me up. At level 55, I can't handle too many lvl 49 elite trolls mano-a-trollo, so my stealthy entry was certainly exhilarating. I finally made it to the top of that troll-infested ziggurat and trained myself a Vilebranch Raiding Wolf (51 elite).

This lithe, black canine teaches hunters the Dash 3 pet skill. I'm still currently adventuring with this wolf, now named Wahya, trying to get him loyal enough to teach me his very-cool Dash ability. I really like this pet, and I think I'm going to hang onto him as permanent fixture of my stable.

I have to interject a great trick here that my 9-yr-old son, also a WoW fanatic, discovered just the other day. A freshly-tamed pet can now immediately be taught the Growl skill, since Growl now costs zero training points. This makes grinding to raise the new pet's loyalty much more enjoyable, compared to constantly struggling with aggro! I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that at some point, Growl used to cost training points and a fresh, new pet was incapable of learning it. Great tip!

One last pet-centric topic. Hunters, be sure to check out the great pet website, Petopia. This site is lovingly-done, and contains all sorts of useful info regarding hunter pets, all wonderfully accompanied by crisp images of each pet type. Anyone "shopping" for a new pet, or wanting to trick out their current pet (pun intended) with some new skills, should definitely check it out.

Next on the agenda: take griffin to Feralas to train a Longtooth Runner to learn Howl 3 for Wahya. What's a wolf without Howl?!?