Let Me Rephrase That…

I don’t think I’ve blogged much about Warcraft so for those of you who didn’t know, I do play World of Warcraft, I have a level 80 Night Elf Hunter and I very much enjoy playing. Being a Hunter we get to tame a beast which we can use as a pet to attack things for us, they also make quite fun companions.

There are various pets to choose from including cats, bears, wolves, birds, gorillas etc. and a complete list can be found at a very good Hunter website called Petopia. Anyway, in the recent expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, a new class of pet was introduced. The Spirit Beast. Oooh. Indeed. Sounds fancy doesn’t it? Anyway, to cut a long-introduction short the Spirit Beast, or Loque’Nahak as it’s known in the game, is a very rare pet found in an area called Sholazar Basin. There are three rare beasts that can be found there (one at a time), the Spirit Beast, a bird and a dinosaur. One of them will appear at one of 14 spots throughout the area and I think I’m right in saying they stay around for about 10 minutes before vanishing. When they go or are killed/tamed, it takes roughly 3-10 hours for the next one to appear. That and nearly every Hunter in the game wants a Spirit Beast…and Blizzard made it an achievement to kill. All of this combined makes it rather difficult to tame if you’re a Hunter. The competition is quite heavy.

I had spent about three weeks looking for the aforementioned Spirit Beast. I wanted him purely because he was pretty, the fact he was rare just made it more frustrating as it was harder to get hold of. A few days ago, after reading a post on BigRedKitty (another fab hunter site) I decided to sit at one of the spawn points as I knew when and where one of the rares had been killed. After my eight and a half hour camp, only to find Loque had been killed 5 mins before I left, I thought I would give it a break for a couple of days. I found myself in Sholazar a couple of days ago doing my daily quests and chatting to my friend Onied to pass the time. Time was getting on and a few guildies decided we should do some heroics to get some badges and loot; Violet Hold is always a nice warm-up to get you into the swing of things, so just before my Warlock summon arrived I said to Oni “oh and don’t forget to keep an eye out for Loque, he’ll appear as soon as I leave Sholazar.”

‘Where does it spawn?’ replied Oni with intrigue.

“Oh just fly around the outside if you’re bored, got to dash though, ‘lock summon is calling <3 ty xx” and off I went to Violet Hold with Spongecake, my favourite cat companion to inflict massive amounts of damage.

After about ten minutes we had downed the first boss and were working our way through the trash portals to the next boss. Meanwhile, in Sholazar, Oni had stopped in a random spot to chat to someone on MSN before clicking back onto WoW to carry on playing. But what is this? Surely, it can’t be?

So there I was, pew pewing some trash mobs in Violet Hold when the following whispers pop up in all their bright pink glory:

[W From] [80:Onied]: ITS HERE
[W From] [80:Onied]: FFS
[W To] [80:Onied]: seriously?
[W From] [80:Onied]: YESSS
[W From] [80:Onied]: IM NOT KIDDING >.<
[W From] [80:Onied]: what do i do?
[W To] [80:Onied]: TAG IT, KITE IT, I’M COMING!

At this point I was fumbling with my push-to-talk button and garbled “Sorry, Spirit Beast, gotta go, back soon” into my mic, hit my hearthstone to Nesingwary Camp and left the group immediately. Thankfully my trusty hunter compadre, Bluemain, had heard my rushed and excitement-filled outburst and explained to the rest of the group where I had gone – and proceeded to 4-man heroic Violet Hold without me (many congrats and apologies were sent to Blue, Reinar, Ispywithmy and Phatfish!)

The group invite came from Oni and I quickly looked at my map to see where she had Loque rooted in her loveliest of Druidy roots. You are kidding me? I thought. The same spot I had been camped at for eight and a half hours that night was where he was sat, waiting to be tamed, or worse, killed (at the furthest point East in Sholazar). I considered stopping at the stable master to put Spongecake away until someone in General asked if anyone had seen Loque as there was 1000g in it for anyone who allowed him to tame him.

Not today, sorry. This beast is MINE! I hope…

I launched forth into the sky on my epic gryphon (at this very moment, every copper of that 5200g became worth it), my heart pounding and my palms perspiring. Surely games shouldn’t have quite this affect on you? My adrenal glands pumping enough epinephrine into my blood stream to seemingly deal with an elephant’s ‘fight or flight’ reactions.

My flight across the Basin was the longest flight I have ever undertaken, made longer by the calls in General by people on The Loque Hunt. My thoughts drifted to how many people were looking and where in the Basin they were located…my brain trying to create a quantum superposition of Warcraft players. I took the opportunity at this point to place Tame Beast in my action bar ready for when I land.

I was dismounted and running before my gryphon’s feet had touched the ground, Spongecake was abandoned, which was sad but my new pet would certainly be worth it. I could always get another Spongecake.

Trap dropped, auto shot, tame beast. Failed. Auto shot again, tame beast…failed. No mana? Oh that’s not good. Especially when a Death Knight landed behind me and announced in General where Loque was. MANA POT! TAME BEAST! “TAME DAMN YOU, TAME…YES!!!”

Loque ran into my trap and then initiated the 20 second countdown. Blizzard, 20 seconds is far too long. In fact, at this point I was thinking Tame Beast should be an instant thing. Instant would be good. Very good. God, 20 seconds is a long time.

With three seconds to go on the tame, three other people landed behind me. I had the horrid feeling one would try and kill it to stop me having him. I’m glad to report they didn’t and I finally have my own Spirit Beast. Three weeks, over 100 hours and it spawns 10 minutes after I leave…just my luck.

Back in Dalaran I met up with my heroic group who wouldn’t accept my offer of 200g for deserting them mid-instance. Then we addressed the task of choosing a name, there are many variations of names I’ve seen on them but this one would have to be bordering on perfect for all the hours spent and the joy and elation of finally getting one. But what to call him?

Blue had suggested a fine name for his, should he ever get one, and out of the blue – in a literal sense – came “Enigma” which I knew was the one immediately. Here’s why…

e⋅nig⋅ma [uh-nig-muh]

Perfect. In my opinion at least.

Some may not understand this, or even care, but to those who do, it feels very nice to have one as they are very pretty and my favourite looking cat in the game. Just a shame it took so damn long to get one! And the picture at the start is of Enigma and me.

digg it!