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Grimtotem Spirit Guide, I hardly knew ye
Gentlemen, start your whining: Hunters can no longer tame Grimtotem Spirit Guides, the ghostly looking wolves from Dustwallow Marsh. Drysc announced earlier today that this is an intentional change that was recently hot-fixed into the game. If you've already gone through the arduous process of obtaining the pet for yourself, you'll get to keep it, but they will be unavailable for taming from this point forward.Of course this all comes as a big surprise since a Blizzard rep had previously said that this very change would not take place. While Drysc hints at some of the reasons for this change and mentions that it was a difficult decision to make, it's difficult for me to comprehend why these wolves will no longer be available. The process of taming them and then leveling them up to seventy was already difficult enough to make them a rare appearance on the servers I call home. Why would a difficult-to-obtain graphic novelty be removed from the game? It's not like they have any special traits or abilities that make the more powerful than other hunter pets.I was sad to hear about this change, since I've been procrastinating on taming one of these wolves for my hunter alt. Maybe I'll go and tame that Ghost Saber I've been thinking about, just to be safe in case Blizzard decides to wipe out that other unique pet. What do you think about this? Does anyone think this is a good change?
Ghost Wolf graphic goodness
When Patch 2.3 hit and Dustwallow Marsh got a make-over, Hunters were delighted to learn that the Ghost Wolves in that area were tamable. This was not Blizzard's intention, but they saw nothing wrong with letting it happen. Many Hunter's flocked to the Marsh to get one of the coolest looking pets in the game. And now we learn, they look even cooler in combat. And hotter. And greener. Mania's Arcania reports that the Ghost Wolf pet turns different colors while under different combat effects. In addition to the ones in the picture, the pet can also turn purple while under a Curse. My guess is this is an unintentional side effect of the animal not having a solid texture skin over the 3-D model frame. All pets probably turn different colors while under various effects as part of the particle effects, but the solid skin over the model prevents us from seeing it like we do on the Ghost Wolf.If Blizzard is really on the ball, they will create other semi-transparent mobs, pets and maybe a temporary shapeshifted form for players that takes advantage of this. They already do it with the Spectral Tiger Mount and the Shadow Priest form, why not on other models that would be affected by colorizing of buffs/debuffs? How fun would that be?EDIT: Added in examples of current in-game semi-transparent models.
WoW Insider Show episode 14: A podcast of PvP
WoW Insider's Zach Yonzon joined Turpster and I on the podcast this past weekend, and boy did we have a good time. Zach actually woke up at 4:30 a.m. his time (he's in Manila) to join us, but we got a lot of good discussion in about Arena PvP, battlegrounds, and all the other news from the last week of WoW Insider: We chatted about Arena Smurfs, and I forced Zach and Turps to come up with ways to stop them. We talked about robbing the guild bank, and how you can get away with it. Alliance players: don't hate yourselves. Hate us Hordies. We asked if daily quests were bad for battlegrounds. (Short answer: no, but we need more of them). And finally, I asked Blizzard to keep the Ghost Wolf around, and sure enough, that's just what they did. All in all, a superlative hour of podcast listening (except for my stupid mic clicking all the time-- sorry listeners, I swear that by the next time we go on, I'll have a brand new, completely silent mic), available right now over on WoW Radio. Check it out, won't you?And while you're over there, be sure to listen to the rest of their great shows, too-- they are now broadcasting 24/7 on the front page, so if you've missed any of the shows in their archive, keep your speakers tuned to their page. And tune in next Saturday at 3:30pm for more WoW Insider show-- it's just like this great blog, only in audio form.
Ghost Wolf taming is here to stay
If you listened to our podcast on Saturday (which was heard on the new 24-hour WoW Radio), you heard us chatting about taming the Ghost Wolf, a neat little trick that Hunters (like our own Matthew Rossi's wife) have discovered to let them tame a very rare, very special pet. I personally made my opinion known on the show: that this was a great little reward for level 70 players willing to put the time and effort in to get the pet, and that Blizzard should definitely leave this as is, intended or not.And now, the great Mania points us to this forum post by EU Blue Issuntril, who confirms that even though the taming wasn't actually intended, Blizzard doesn't have plans to address the issue-- Ghost Wolves are here to stay.Great news for Hunters willing to go the extra mile for a cool pet (and for Hunters who have already done so-- would definitely be lame to log in after all of that work and find your spectral pet missing). Kudos to Blizz for letting the Ghost Wolves run free.
My wife likes to tame wolves in swamps
One of the more interesting facets to having a wife who plays World of Warcraft (heck, she started playing in the old Beta, way before I did) is that you find yourself taking your newly 70 Draenei Shaman into Dustwallow Marsh to spend several hours popping Heroism so that she can tame a Grimtotem Spirit Guide before it dies in seven seconds. You can see how other folks did it here and we posted a how-to here, but I never expected I'd be doing it.It's not the first time that I've found myself doing something like this. I helped sneak into Zul'Gurub to tame windserpents, I've taken my orc warrior to Winterspring to get her Sian-Rotam (and I noticed while we were there this time to get her Juju Flurry for the tame attempt that the Ursius quest is open to Alliance now) and once or twice I may have accidentally killed Lupos before she could tame him.
Last week in Warcraft: November 18th - November 24th
Here's a one-post summary for your perusing pleasure of all the good stuff showing up on Joystiq's Azeroth-inclined sister site WoW Insider. Yes, yes, we know it's not your standard SDF/ Xbot/ Wii60 trollbait, but you get plenty of that the rest of the week. Take a little time and enjoy some intelligent WoW news and analysis, whydontcha?News Rumor: WoW going free-to-play in ChinaProbably not true, but it's an interesting thought anyway. New WoW ads featuring Shatner and Mr. TMaybe Mr. T is pretty handy with computers. Had that occurred to you, Mr. Condescending Director? PTR Patch 2.3.2 notes leakedThe official patch notes got released as well. WoW Moviewatch: Taming the elusive ghost wolfThe rarest pet can Azeroth can be yours with a little casting speed and some good reflexes. Put on your party hats-- today is WoW's 3rd birthdayHappy birthday to Blizzard's MMO masterpiece! Discussion Breakfast Topic: 100 useful Warrior tipsPriceless if you're a Warrior... or know someone who is. Officers' Quarters: Zero pressure raiding?Can you be casual and raid at the same time? Know Your Lore Special: So what are you doing for the holidays?WoW loreheads will love this one. Hilarious. Blood Sport: Building an arena team, part 2Our PvP column helps you put an Arena team together with care. Have any of you tried...It's always nice when someone in your group has actually done the pull you're about to do.
WoW Moviewatch: Taming the elusive ghost wolf
If you've been drooling over the new, extremely difficult to tame pet, the Grimtotem Spirit Guide (or ghost wolf), then check out this video of Enaress taming one. In order to increase the casting speed of his taming spell, Enaress had the help of a shaman's bloodlust spell, a priest's mind control, and a [Mystical Skyfire Diamond].If you're thinking of going after one yourself, check out our summary of what you will need, or head over to Mania's Arcania for the full scoop.
Ghost Wolf: The newest, rarest pet
"Ghost wolf" is usually a term you associate with shamans, but now it might just become the keyword for the newest, rarest, most difficult to tame, and most visually unique hunter pet in the game. As the Mistress of Pets Mania's Arcania reports, some of the new Dustwallow Marsh content in Patch 2.3 involves some Grimtotem shamans who summon tamable ghost wolves. For most hunters, however, these ghost wolves will be impossible to tame, because a few seconds after they appear, they just die, regardless of how much damage they take. The only way to tame them involves using various items or abilities which can shorten the casting time of your "Tame Beast" spell down to a fraction of its original 20 seconds. Here's a list of what you might find useful, listed in approximate order of how important they are to your success: [Mystical Skyfire Diamond] -- This metagem can cut the time it takes to cast Tame Beast in half, and you can't tame this beast without it. You have to repeatedly cast various aspects until its special proc goes off. Heroism or Bloodlust -- The same ability with different names for Alliance and Horde shamans; having a friend in your party use this will further reduce your taming time by 30%. If your latency is good, this should make your taming just barely fast enough to succeed. Mind Control -- Bring a priest friend along too, and he or she willl be able to take control of one of the Grimtotem NPCs to summon the ghost wolf whenever you're ready. A handy macro -- To save time in getting your casting going, just type "/target grimtotem spirit guide;" on the first line of a macro, and "/cast tame beast" on the second. Then drag it to your action bar so you can hit it repeatedly just as you ask your priest friend to summon the wolf. [Thanks Grunde!] [Drums of Battle] -- It's also very helpful to either be a Leatherworker, or have one in your party who will use this for you just before you start your taming, in order to shave a few more moments off your taming time. Be a troll -- Trolls get a Berserking ability, which might just be the final little bit you need in order to cut down the taming time enough to snatch this ghostly wolf pet. A lot of non-trolls have succeeded in taming this pet, too, of course; but if you happen to be a troll, feel free to use this ability to make it a bit easier. After all that, you need a macro or something to immediately target the wolf and start taming the very moment it appears. Then, you can pray for a few seconds and hope everything works. It may be very hard, but it has been done before -- though one person on Mania's site said that her new ghost pet died a second after she tamed it, possibly as a residual effect of its otherwise very limited lifespan. So if you want to try it, be patient, and don't get your hopes too high don't worry -- even if your pet dies, once it's tamed, it's yours. Just revive pet, and proceed. Oh, and get ready for an extremely long leveling grind to get it up from 30 to 70 (though it's soon to get a bit faster). Hunter alts passing through Dustwallow as you level up: Don't even dream about it.[Update]: I've edited this post to include some of the other helpful information from commenters and other sources that came out after we originally published it. Be sure to check out our other resources on the Ghost Wolf pet, including a video showing the taming in action, a story about how Matthew Rossi helped his wife get one, and proof that the Grimtotem Sririt Guide will remain tamable in the future. Read about the Ghost Wolf's color changes in combat ==>>
