Over the years, I’ve tamed countless rares on my hunter, only to abandon them when something else came along. Back in vanilla, you had to think long and hard before you clicked that abandon option with only a couple of slots to play with.
Then again, it wasn’t just about taming a new pet. You had to spend time grinding out the levels which could feel like forever if it was something many levels below you.
Pets had loyalty and happiness levels, not to mention resistance and training points. They would only eat certain types of food so you had to keep them happy or you’d have a runaway on your hands.
Now imagine if we could regain some of our lost or abandoned companions. What if there was something like a garrison invasion that prompted us to go back to an old zone to look for our old friends? Maybe it would happen if we spent time in their old stomping grounds like Ironback in The Hinderlands or perhaps something more relevant in Draenor if we completed a certain activity. Then in the same way we get an invasion alert, the stable master could tell us of a certain pet sighting. I would imagine it would involve some sort of quest chain like Gara.
Although some might say you could just go back and retame an old pet but that wouldn’t be the same as the pet you spent hours or even days camping and levelling. I’d love to go back and reclaim Broken Tooth or Rak’shiri. How about you?
I always feel kind of guilty that my Hunter got rid of her first pet a Nightsaber. I know I could go back and get one but not THAT one. Jeez, my Hunter’s so sentimental.
I know, right? Who wants a clone when you can have the original?
I think this is a great idea! I’ve only got a casual hunter that I started during MoP, so I never had the experience of having to get rid of pets because of lack of slots available. But I really like this idea of being able to go back and get the pet back that you had to say goodbye to. I imagine there would need to be a lot of apologies, though!
I would hope they were just happy to find you again. They would probably need a good bath though.
I remember the first pet that I HAD to have – the Ghost Saber. I couldn’t wait to hit level 20! As a Horde, and before you could mount (I don’t even remember there being a two-seat mount at that time), I ran from Orgrimmar to the very top of Darkshore just to pick up the cat figurines around the ruins there – at the time I felt like it was a huge quest/triumph! Barla has realm hopped and changed race/faction so many times over the years, but I still have my handsome Montrose :)
The second one I just had to level up and get was Hamlet, an armored boar from RFK. I still have him as well as all of his brothers from there (gotta have all the colors!).
I regret missing out on some of the pets that I didn’t get to tame in time. I think there were spirit wolves summoned by a nps’s in a Tauren encampment in old Dustwallow Marsh – I didn’t find out until too late when they “fixed” that bug.
I don’t miss having to feed them :P
Oh, I remember that sprit wolf well. It took quite a few attempts before I almost had it too but as the tame almost finished, my friend threw me a rejuv which broke the eye contact and lost the pet. It was heartbreaking.
I also went back to tame one of those cats in Darkshore but she’s another one I no longer have.