Grimtotem Spirit Guide, I hardly knew ye
by John Himes 
Jan 14th 2008 at 11:30PM
Gentlemen, start your whining: Hunters can no longer tame Grimtotem Spirit Guides, the ghostly looking wolves from Dustwallow Marsh. Drysc announced earlier today that this is an intentional change that was recently hot-fixed into the game. If you've already gone through the arduous process of obtaining the pet for yourself, you'll get to keep it, but they will be unavailable for taming from this point forward.
Of course this all comes as a big surprise since a Blizzard rep had previously said that this very change would not take place. While Drysc hints at some of the reasons for this change and mentions that it was a difficult decision to make, it's difficult for me to comprehend why these wolves will no longer be available. The process of taming them and then leveling them up to seventy was already difficult enough to make them a rare appearance on the servers I call home. Why would a difficult-to-obtain graphic novelty be removed from the game? It's not like they have any special traits or abilities that make the more powerful than other hunter pets.
I was sad to hear about this change, since I've been procrastinating on taming one of these wolves for my hunter alt. Maybe I'll go and tame that Ghost Saber I've been thinking about, just to be safe in case Blizzard decides to wipe out that other unique pet. What do you think about this? Does anyone think this is a good change?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Sean Riley Jan 14th 2008 11:37PM
It seems pretty pointless. Were there any balance issue involved? If not, then I think it was worth leaving them in as a cool bonus for those who could pull of the trick.
William Jan 15th 2008 9:46AM
I'm curious to know if that kind of wolf involves some kind of complex code variation to make it tamable and it's causing other problems that people don't realize. (Wouldn't seem like it, but you never know!). I just started my first Hunter character (I roll Tauren Shaman mostly), and I've been enjoying having a companion on my travels (when Guildies aren't available to play). I imagine there will be other cool pets available by the time I ding 70. I figure I'll just stop moping over past things and look forward to new things, like pets from Wrath of Lich King!
Sean Riley Jan 15th 2008 5:32PM
I still say this makes no sense: If that was going on, why wasn't that the reason given?
ScytheNoire Jan 14th 2008 11:44PM
This is the type of crap that pisses people off. Changes that just ruin peoples fun and chance to be different. There was no harm in having these as pets. It was a lot of work to get one and level it up. Kudos to those who did. Why they changed it is beyond reasoning, because there is no reason. They just are being controlling jerks about it. They need to no ruin things that are fun for people. They seem to be busy doing that with everything else, don't go doing stuff like this. Lame Blizzard. Really lame.
Zakk Jan 14th 2008 11:44PM
This is just dumb... That's all I have to say.
TonyMotorola Jan 14th 2008 11:49PM
Absolutely idiotic. They've already stripped almost all the originality and reasons to tame rare pets. Old Broken Tooth anyone?
It's going to get to the point where hunters will find themselves in the same boat as warlocks. They'll get the same three pets as every other hunter, with the exact same model and abilities.. they won't even get to name them.
Richard Jan 15th 2008 11:18AM
For once, mighty troll Tony, you say something I'm 100% in agreement with.
This was just low-class by Blizzard. And the reason they give (the "undead" doesn't fit with the hunter feel) is utter crap - you can still tame ghost sabers, and all manner of zombie/undead animals in the Plaguelands.
It's stuff like this that makes one wonder if the devs really care at all about the people that play the game.
This was purely a cosmetic pet... and they took it away. Shameful.
Pucelle Jan 14th 2008 11:54PM
Very lame. Doesn't fit the feel of the hunter class? What about the undead boars, bears, and wolves that we're allowed to tame? I guess we're only allowed to keep it if the flesh is still hanging off a bit.
Taking bets on when they'll A) make it unfeedable, like the original serpents pre-BC or B) just stealth nerf the model into wolf_skin_brown.
I don't know why I bother ever taming anything but cats.
hpavc Jan 14th 2008 11:54PM
Removed but will they be fed? I remember those poor snakes starved from ZF back in the day ... so sad.
skuska Jan 15th 2008 1:37PM
Wasn't it immune to cc? If so, then its pretty obvious why they removed the ability to tame it. If not, then yeah, stupid.
franz Jan 15th 2008 1:52PM
Pets don't keep their immunities after they're tamed. So no, it wasn't immune to CC.
Sean Riley Jan 15th 2008 12:10AM
This qualifies, BTW, as Blizzard running a clinic in how to annoy your fans. Give contradictory official messages, no good reasons for a change, spring it on fans at the last moment...
Is it any wonder even people unaffected by the change are pissed off about it?
Jake Jan 15th 2008 12:12AM
total BS, why they did this I will never know.
Lhock Jan 15th 2008 12:16AM
Complete BS. They fix things like this, and making the clockwork bots not buffable, but for 2 years the tooltip on the improved Fortitude buff for priests still reads incorrectly.
GG
Sean Riley Jan 15th 2008 12:25AM
Nor fixing the Equip/Use bug on cloth items.
Either, a) Blizzard secretly hate priests, or, more likely, b) Blizzard get really annoyed when people figure out sneaky tricks they didn't intend.
And if it is either, Blizzard, cut it out. It's hurtful to your game in either case.
Bunnyfu Jan 15th 2008 1:03AM
If they didn't like sneaky bug exploits, they should have fixed it right away... If that was indeed their position on these kinds of things. As it stands now, it seems like they've had a number of developer meetings regarding this ghost wolf exploit over some period of time... Which is very rational, considering there is absolutely nothing else to be done with the game. Looks like they got it all figured out now... WotLK is probably already long since in its final version, perfectly balanced and completely bug-free... Just sort of persuing random nerfs for laughs
MaxBliss Jan 15th 2008 12:17AM
Tonight, a guildie spent 200g on mats for this. We found a Shaman that had the necessary spell and a priest.
Only after repeated failures did I go looking for an update and learn the bad news that TODAY Blizzard did an about face.
We were not happy.
Oh, and John, Grimtotem is one word.
Charneldeath Jan 15th 2008 12:26AM
Awesome, Warcraft meets 1939 Germany!
Jason McLeod Jan 15th 2008 12:38AM
Thank god I tamed mine on Saturday.
When could this have been fixed? The post was dated the 14th, I got mine on the 13th.
Werther Jan 15th 2008 12:31AM
I guess next they will take away the ones already tamed also. Something wrong when they do stuff like this :(