Sorry it’s been nearly seven days since I’d last posted. I’ve had a busy week to say the least. Whenever I did have a little free time I chose to do some playing instead. I thought about discussing this and that, but blogging is hard work. So, without further ado…
First off and most importantly… 😉 Worgens were officially removed from our stables last Tuesday. I discovered this just after maintenance when I pulled Hank out of the kennel to abandon him. I was like, “what’s this nappy ass grey wolf doing here..?!” Then I realized after a second… ah it’s Garwal. I wasn’t phased by it because like I said, I was planning to abandon him to go on a taming mission anyway.
After sending Garwal back to Howling Fjord I headed over to Thousand Needles to tame me a Silithid. Not just any Silithid, but Silithid Ravager. I’d been entertaining the idea of trying out a Silithid for arena, so of course I had to go out and find one of the more unique ones in the game.
Silithid Ravager spawns in and around the dig site in the southern part of Thousand Needles, just a short ride from Gadgetzan. When I first got there I saw no sign of him anywhere. A few hours later I logged back on and patrolled the area again, but still no luck. I brought up WoWHead to verify the spawn locations, and also noted a comment about him lurking around a teal colored rock. As soon as I brought up the game screen again I saw the teal rock in the distance along with this crazily hyper insect bouncing around beside it. I hovered my mouse over it and ding..! RareFinder sounded its little alarm and told me that was the bug I was looking for.
To make a long story short, not long after taming him I decided to abandon him and go after a worm once again. Here’s why…
Silithids are annoying as hell. I’m not sure if they all do this, but Silithid Ravager retains his restless behavior even after taming. I dunno… some players may like the animation, but it made me crazy after awhile.
Secondly, even though I hadn’t leveled him to 80, I just couldn’t see the Silithid beating out the Chimera for a starting job in the arena. While Venom Web Spray is a very nice situational skill for PvP, I think Froststorm Breath wins out. I had mistakenly thought that Venom Web Spray had a 30 yard range, the same as Froststorm Breath, but it is in fact only 20 yards. That was the thing that immediately turned me off about the Silithid, apart from the crazy dancing animation.
I’m sure there are some BM Hunters who swear by using a Silithid in arena, but I’m going to stick with my Chimera. A 50% slow for 5 seconds on a 7 second cooldown that is not dispellable is just too good. Combine that with 2K nature damage crits as well as a 30 yard range, and you have yourself a PvP monster. In my opinion, keeping an opponent slowed for 70% of the match is better than a 4 second root on a 28 second cooldown. Not to mention that Venom Web Spray can be dispelled where as Froststorm Breath cannot.
I still think Silithids could be a very viable pet in arena, but I would highly recommend taking Venom Web Spray off of autocast. The root could probably make or break a game, so it definitely needs to be used wisely. The 28 second cooldown is too long to be wasted. If you were able to get someone to blow their trinket on Intimidation, then immediately follow with the Silithid’s root, then you might be able to sway a match pretty quickly. I also suppose Silithids would be decent pets for dueling if that’s your thing.
Any Silithid lovers out there..? What’s been your experience with them?
So anyway, that was my brief experience with Silithids. Although he didn’t really get a fair shake, I just couldn’t see myself spending the time leveling him to 80 to properly test him. If we ever get more stable slots I may revisit the Silithid, but for now I’m sticking with my Chimera as top choice for a BM Cunning pet.
Of course, after I abandoned the Silithid I had to fill that vacant slot with something, so it was back to Silithus to try and find Grubthor again. I made the tough decision to abandon my worm so I could join in on the Worgen fun a few weeks back. I had a feeling that the thrill of being a Worgen owner was going to be short lived novelty, but it was worth it.
Grubthor wasn’t up, so I just headed over to Storm Peaks and tamed a Snowdrift Jormungar who was already 80. I’ll probably still go after Grubthor at some point since I’m weird like that, but at least now I’m able to PvP with my worm right away. My 2v2 partner and I had an absolutely dreadful run in arena yesterday, so I’m thinking of switching things up a bit and rolling with the worm tonight. Sometimes Acid Spit, Charge, and having a pet that can take a little more of a beating is what’s needed. It’s possible I may have had a little too much of my “Game Fuel” last night, but we were getting some crazy counter combos left and right.
Lots more to talk about, including the Hunter Q&A, so stay tuned for more…