BigRedKitty: Core Hound
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.
Basically... hunters have just been dubbed the Most Loved Class in WoW. If the ultimate goal in this game is to have fun, then hunters own the place and the rest of you lesser-classes just live here.
What does a Core Hound bring to the table? He's an exotic Ferocity pet, natch. His special spell? Lava Breath.
"Your pet breathes a double gout of molten lava at the target for 49 to 65 Fire damage and reduces the target's casting speed by 50% for 10 sec." And it only has a 10 second cooldown. We think the emote for this spell should be,
"Core Hound says, 'Sit your happy caster-kiester down!'" We'll have to hack our PetEmote addon appropriately.
But we had to look up what a "double gout" meant, though. A "gout" is a mass or splash, as of blood; spurt. A double gout for our Core Hound because, duh, he has redundant noggins. Grammar-points for Blizzard.
Where can you get a Core Hound? Well, Molten Core has a few, lying around bored and lonely. But remember the mechanics of the beta: hunter-pets only level to within five levels of their master. Molten Core Core Hounds (MCCHs) are level 61. If you're a level 70 hunter and tame an MCCH, he'll auto-level to 65, no further.
Or.
Go to Shadowmoon Valley and find a Spawn of Uvuros. They are level 69! When WotLK comes out, pack your stomach with two litres of Mountain Dew and a Hot Pocket, quickly grab a Spawn of Uvuros, and boogie on out to Northrend, wired and stylin'.
Can you sacrifice orange for green and get four pet-levels in return? We guess that's up to your personal sense of style, foshizzle.
Can you tame Uvuros himself? He's level 70, so you can try, certainly. But remember this: he's an elite and he's immune to Freezing Traps. And his Terrifying Roar breaks the Tame Beast channeling. And he like to eat level-73 beta-BRK in three smacks, even when we're in full PvP-regalia. We're not sayin', we're just sayin'.
Are their other Core Hounds running amok? Could be.
Now, we're going to preemptively answer the Exotic Pet and Respecing Question that always follows an exotic-pet movie. So, really quickly:
1. If you are a 51-point Beastmaster hunter and you tame an exotic pet, put it in your stable, and then retrain your talents so you don't have that 51st point in the Beastmastery tree, you not only lose the ability to use exotic pets, but that exotic pet in the stable cannot be removed; you lose that stable slot. You have to retrain as a 51-point Beastmaster hunter, remove the exotic pet from your stable, Abandon the exotic pet, and then retrain your talent points.
2. If you are a 51-point Beastmaster hunter and you tame an exotic pet, but keep it on your person while you retrain your talents so you don't have that 51st point in the Beastmastery tree, you not only cannot summon your "currently equipped" exotic pet, but you cannot equip any pet. You have to retrain as a 51-point Beastmaster hunter, put your "currently equipped" exotic pet in the stable or Abandon him, and then retrain your talent points.
But after seeing Rhinos, Moths, Chimaeras, Devilsaurs, Silithids, and now Core Hounds... are you really going to retrain? Ever?
Core Hounds. We're so squee'd-out we can't talk anymore.
You are invited to download the YouTube version (81MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (256MB) here.
As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!
From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.
