Frostsabers!

Patch 4.1 seems to have some goodies that continue to give long after the frenzy to explore the 5m heroic Zuls.  I totally missed (looks like it was added on May 2nd notes) where the quest line to get exalted with Winterspring (as Alliance, obviously) was changed. Gone are the days when you roam around the zone slaughtering bears, chimeras and owls for hours on end...

For me, this is a good thing.

While it wasn't difficult to get exalted before, it was pretty mind-numbingly boring to do so. Now, it's a daily quest that you do with your future mount that will get you the reputation and the ability to actually ride a purple tiger. For pure bonus points, grab the Winterspring Cub companion pet from Michelle De Rum in Everlook. Hunters? Even more bonus: tame a Frostsaber Pride Watcher.

It simply makes me giggle to run around as a wolf-man with a stable of cats.

How do you accomplish this?
1) Get yourself to Winterspring (take the portal to Mount Hyjal and fly North!)
2) Locate Rivern Frostwind at the far north end on top of Frostsaber Rock
3) Grab Get Them While They're Young.
4) Run around and collect critter-like cubs (think cooking crabs from Stormwind daily)
5) Turn in and get They Grow Up So Fast
6) Settle in for 20 days.

When you're on They Grow Up So Fast, you'll receive a Winterspring Cub. Once you summon it (in Winterspring!), that cub (the quest one, not the one you bought from Michelle) gives you a daily quest with rewards you with both reputation and a whisker (part of the requirement for They Grow Up So Fast).

Why is this cool?  Well, so far, it's not boring. The old way -- I'd rather watch paint dry.  This way, I just need to pop in for a nice easy daily.  For fun, your cub grows with you as you quest.

16 more days to go until I can sport my very own Reins of the Winterspring Frostsaber!

What pets should I have in my stable?

When 4.0.1 hit and we started preparing for Deathwing's changes, the biggest impact on my game was the inclusion of the new stable and call pet mechanics. Once you reach level 85, you can carry around 5 pets with you for usage in your instance or raid run. You also can stable 20 additional pets with your trusty stable master, allowing for 25 different pet choices.

What's a hunter to do? So many pet choices... Well, to review, let's take a look at the buffs and debuffs afforded by each pet family.

Pet Debuffs (Target)
Disarm: Birds of Prey & Scorpid
Reduce Melee and Ranged Attack Speed: Fox & Tallstrider
Reduce Casting Speed: Core Hound & Sporebat
Increase Magic Damage Taken: Dragonhawk & Wind Serpent
Reduce Physical Damage Caused: Carrion Bird & Bear
Interrupt Spell Casting / Spell School Lockout: Nether Ray, Moth & Gorilla
Increase Physical Damage Taken: Ravager
Increase Bleed Damage Taken: Hyena, Boar & Rhino
Reduce Armor: Serpent & Raptor
Reduce Healing Received: Devilsaur
Stun: Bat & Wasp
Root: Silithid, Spider, Dog & Crab
Slow Movement Speed: Chimaera, Crocolisk & Warp Stalker

Pet Buffs (Party & Raid)
Increase Strength & Agility: Cat & Spirit Beast
Increase Critical Chance: Devilsaur & Wolf
Increase Stamina: Silithid
Bloodlust / Heroism / Time Warp (30% haste): Core Hound

Who says that all hunters do is DPS? Pffftt!

Here's how my choices have broken down to date. First and foremost, one of my talent trees will always remain Beast Mastery for the aptly named Beast Mastery talent enabling taming of exotic pets. I invested so many hours in taming Loque'nahak that I refuse to lose the ability to tame or control Exotic pets. Just last weekend, my guild was gracious enough to allow me to tame Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair, so the Core Hound will also be a permanent fixture. My exotic pets tamed just because I can tame them include:

• Sprit Beast (looks and utility)
• Core Hound (looks and utility)
• Devilsaur (because I love having a pet T-Rex)
• Silithid (utility only - ugliest and most annoying pet in the game)

So far, that's 4 out of 25 taken.

Now I branch out into PVP vs PVE pets. Some of the pet abilities really lend themselves to PVP play. My essential PVP pets include:

• Bird of Prey (for disarming)
• Chimaera (for ranged slowing)
• Wasp (for stunning)
• Monkey (for sheer poo-flinging fun)
• Rhino (for knock backs near cliffs)
• Crab (for root)
• Spider (for ranged root)
• Moth (spell caster interrupts)

As an aside regarding PVP, nothing makes me giggle more than busting out Rhino near the edge and blowing a healer that's parked near a cliff off the map. Depending if I'm targeting healers (casting slow or interrupt) or melee (stun, disarm) the other pets are tailored for the tactic. The Crab and Spider are throwbacks to Wrath PVP.

That's 8 more, bringing me to 12 and leaving 13 more... Now, for PVE usage.

• Tallstrider (reduces target's attack speed)
• Wind Serpent (increase magic damage taken)
• Carrion Bird (reduces target's physical damage dealt)
• Ravager (increase physical damage taken)
• Hyena (increase bleed effectiveness)
• Raptor (reduced armor)
• Wolf (critical chance buff)
• Cat (str/agi buff)
• Dog (root) (used on Valks in LK fight)

The PVE pet I unveil depends upon the makeup of the group or raid. The Wolf is always with me, because he's the general purpose DPS and buff that doesn't compete with any other classes. Alternatively, if I see that we have several casters but nobody is debuffing the target for magic damage, the Wind Serpent arrives (especially nice for Survival specs). Or, perhaps we have a rogue or marksman hunter and the other buffs are covered? Why not buff bleeds with the Hyena? Lots of physical damage? Ravager to the rescue! Just want to be THAT hunter? Break out the Tallstrider (I adore running randoms with my pink flamingo!).

Anyways, that's another 9, bringing my total number of tamed pets to 21 and leaving 4 spots. Now, for solo tanking or achievement farming, I want some good old fashioned tanking pets.

• Bear (general purpose stuff)
• Beetle (extreme soloing -- the combo of harden carapace and cower is amazing, especially when combined with the 2 piece t5 set bonus)
• Shale Spider (alternative extreme soloing for the stats buff)

The additional 3 brings me to 24 spots leaving 1. So here I sit wondering what pets to complete my  stable with. I prefer having one of each pet family, so no duplicate families.  I'd love to hear from readers on their favorite pets to tame and why you love them so!