WoW Hunter Guides, News, Resources and Musings
The Orc is always hilarious, but between the hunter and his pet (Frostsaber..?), those two steal the show in this series – especially in this last one. The Explosive Trap + Disengage was friggin’ great, and the Aspect of the Cheetah emote, but the Scare Beast at the end…OMG.
Love it when the Troll Druid peaks to see if the Hunter is in sight. ;-P
So damn funny.
Around 5 years ago, some clever Hunter devised a way to tame a Worgen – back before they were a playable race, of course. Once I got wind of this taming exploit I naturally had to give it a try for myself. I mean, the thought of having a werewolf for a pet…how badass was that..?!
In the Howling Fjord there is a quest chain that leads up to the killing of a Worg called Garwal. Once Garwal reaches 50% he shifts out of his Worg form and into a Worgen. Some clever Hunter out there – an Orc Hunter, I think – came up with a way to time the tame just right so that he was able to begin the tame while Garwal was in his beast form, then ending the tame at the precise moment he transformed, thus successfully taming Garwal as a Worgen.
I don’t remember exactly where I spotted this, but back then I was pretty active in keeping up on news, rumors, etc…unlike today. 😉 The second I found out that this was possible, I read up on the strategy and headed out to Howling Fjord on my werewolf taming mission.
The tame itself was very tricky. Reason being, the tame had to complete at the exact moment that Garwal shifted. A second too soon, or too late, and you’d fail. It’s also important to remember that back in those days Tame Beast was on a very long cast timer compared to now, which gave mobs plenty of time to interrupt the taming. Another possible issue with this tame was that if you’d already completed the quest chain, this NPC would no longer be available to tame. Lucky for me I’d started my Northrend journey in Borean Tundra and all but skipped over Howling Fjord, so the Garwal quest was still available to me.
The successful taming strategy involved chipping away at his health, then hitting him with Wyvern Sting. The idea was to get him to around 40% or so, so that you could then hit him with Wyvern, wait for a bit, then start the tame so that it completes at the exact second that the Wyvern Sting poison gets applied – taking him to 50% and causing him to shift. If you timed it perfectly, Garwal would shift at the precise moment that the tame completed, allowing you to tame a werewolf.
It was a huge exploit, and one I was pretty certain would be hotfixed quickly, so I never grew too attached to my Worgen pet, but it was fun while it lasted…which, if I remember correctly, was only about 3 or 4 days.
If you want to read the original blog from about 5 years ago, as well as see a video of the actual taming, check out this post. If you want to see what Hank looked like with Big Red active, see this short video.
The excitement of completing this tame successfully, along with the novelty of having a Big Bad Werewolf for a pet, made taming Garwal a most memorable WoW moment.
First off, if you’ve sent me an email that I never replied to, please do not take offense. I receive a decent amount of email now and again – mostly pertaining to my UI – and it gets very difficult for me to devote time to detailed responses, especially when things are crazy around here. I wish I could respond to each and every one of you, but unfortunately my role as WoW blogger has dropped a few rungs in terms of priority and importance in my life.
However, once in awhile someone catches me during a good time where I’m able to provide a thorough reply. The following was an answer to a question sent in by David, in which he asked how I configured my UI and keybinds – most importantly, how I use my action bars. Those of you who’ve seen my UI know that most of my abilities are hidden from view, so David wanted to know where I stuck my skills and how I clicked on them, or if I had everything bound.
Before we continue, here’s a look at how I have my UI configured. (additional images can be seen here)
Click to enlargify
In the image you only see 2 action bars, plus a tiny 4-slotter which has my traps. All others bars are hidden; however, I do set them to display in the very rare case that I am dabbling with an alt (i.e., lesser class). If you’re thinking of going to a setup like mine, it’s a good idea to have all of your abilities viewable on screen until you get the hangs of things. I have all of my skills committed to memory so I like to hide everything, with nothing showing but mainly the cooldowns I want to monitor.
Some of you may benefit from this response as well, so I figured I’d share it with everyone!
Some of you may be happy to know that I’ve returned my attention to the site and I’m busy in the backend cleaning up spam comments and making general updates & improvements. 😀
Unfortunately, the spam tends to accrue when I’ve gone absent for months at a time, so surgically removing the bogus comments amongst the legitimate ones is tedious job, albeit a labor of love. Even though I may turn my back on the Lodge now and again as my life dictates me to do so, this site is still my baby. I’ve spent many, many hours in here and I’m not about to let the place get trashed!
At least not ALL of the spam is getting past the gatekeeper.
Especially right now as I’m preparing for Warlords! 😀
The comments are clean now, so onto the forum… Wish me luck! I may be in there for awhile. Looks like some spammers had a field day in there while I was away. :-\
Also, if you happen to notice the site start looking a little wonky, know that I’m updating the theme framework. I’m going to try and get this beast responsive and mobile-friendly – including the forum.
bbl…
For the loyal few that still return here once in awhile in hopes of seeing something new up on the home page, I once again apologize for my sudden disappearance.
However, those of you who’ve followed the site for any length of time probably also know that I’m good like that. 😉 I tend to go off the grid now and again without warning, but that doesn’t mean I won’t resurface at some point. In fact, I’m still looking forward to WoD and I noticed just last night that I’ve had beta access for nearly 3 weeks.
Downloading the beta client as I type this… 🙂
Due to my inactivity as of late, I’m sure the changes will be overwhelming, but I’m anxious to have a look. I’ll check back soon. 🙂