And here we are on the game load screen, in which Rupert appears a little smaller than in game, but you get a better look at him...
Actually Rupert was a good deal younger when that picture was taken too... but fro the first pic you can see that these days he's a pretty large and menacing bear - he serves well as an intimidating damage tank while I can stand at range and use my marksmen talents.
It is all the happy memories that made my second decision difficult. Rupert is to be made redundant, and will be set wild again once his replacement is up to scratch. His replacement? BurlyTurle.
You might be thinking a giant Turle is no match for a fierce Bear! And if the purpose of the pet was to deal damage to those I hunt, you'd be right - but this is not the case. The job of the pet, is mostly a decoy. It is to keep the attention of the mob while I pick off the targets one by one. The biggest concern is therefore, staying alive, and poor Rupert has taken a lot of bruises in his time with me. Burly is slightly better tuned to be a 'tank'. So much so - he's attracted some attention in raid groups. Raids are serious things - they take organisation, planning, and usually between 20-40 players to gather toegther and combine their skills to complete a dungeon.
It is the general opinion that only dedicated players designed for tanking, can tank the baddies that lie in raid dungeons. Paladins, Druids, Hunters, and pets - just don't cut it. Only Warrirors possess the stamina and agrovation skills great enough to match these monsters. In a raid on AQ20 (some old ruins) the other night with around 19 of my fellow adventurers, Burly seemed to be doing the job of a seperate party member, bring much comment from my guildmates along the lines of, "That f**king Turle's tanking everything!" Indeed Burly often tanked not one but two of the dungeon mobs, and even held the aggro off a boss for a few seconds while the warrirors had been stunned and the priests and magi were vulnerable.
In no way of course, can Burly be a main tank, but pets aren't usually seen as much more than low level damage bonus. Burly can show people that as an off-tank (a unit who assists, steps in to replace, or catches those mobs when the main tank fails to keep them), he can be awsome. I'm not really 100% sure if the fellow raiders thought Burly tanking was a good or bad thing... in a sense, he was taking agro away from the dedicated warriors or at least, being an unexpected factor in the carefully planned battle. But it was the source of much ammusement at least and I know for a fact he saved a preist on more than one occasion *just* before a monsters fist squashed them into the sand.
And then, onto Zul Gurub we travelled. Passing through Stormwind to get there, I placed Burly in stables along with Rupert, and met the other raid members at the Troll Fortress we were to attack. For many in the party, loot was their goal. Others wanted reputation and gold. Me? I'd come here to tame one of the infamous Zul Gurub Bats. They're big, they're bad, and they're frikking fast. Bats can not take a lot of hits, they are poor tanks and poor decoys. They do however, put out a considerable ammount of damage, and they can fly pretty fast - so when I order an attack on a fleeing mob, they can catch it and bring it down before it gets too far. In raid groups where we have say, 6 dedicated warrirors, Burly is something of a surpless to requirements, as awsome as he can be when we're short. In these situations, Burly is nothing more than a very low damaging nusence to the bad things we fight, and adds little to the group. If I'm going to use a pet in those situations, it may aswell be a damage dealing pet, so to make a decent contribution.
And this is the beasty...
And it's size in comparison to me...
The only trouble with the bat is... it scares the hell out of my team mates - they keep thinking it's a monster coming to attack them, especially if they turn round and it happens to be flying up behind them. I'm sure they'll get used to it though. Speaking of 'it', I'm trying to think of a name for the bat. All suggestions welcome. :)
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Phil
