Trying to Test Drive...

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I've been attempting to test some new pets on WoW's PTR. Attempting being the key word there. I've obtained 5 of the 7 pets currently on my testing list: Carrion Bird (previously owned), Crocolisk, Core Hound, Chimera and Devilsaur.

Testing on the PTR is sort of like trying to test drive a car whose gas and brake pedals only respond half the time. The lag is bad. Really, really bad. It fluctuates, but on average I'm managing to actually cast about half the abilities I try, with a one-second delay on most of those successful casts.

With working conditions like that it's hard to get an accurate picture of exactly what is going on with these pets, but I've at least got some initial impressions to share.

Carrion Bird -- I've been running with a Carrion Bird for a long time. I love these guys. Their new ability is not much of a change from their current one: they do some extra damage to their current target and lower the attack power of all enimies within range. The AoE attack reduction is nice, it keeps aggro on the bird even though it's not directly attacking those enemies, making it a spectacular soloing pet. That hasn't changed at all, the groups I went after on the PTR kept their attention solidly focused on the bird while I burned them all down.

Core Hound -- This is a totally new pet family as far as hunters are concerned. We haven't had access to them previously. Core Hounds look like they're going to be really spectacular for group purposes. They shoot out a nice lava spray that slows the enemy's casting speed by 50%, which will be way handy for some instances. This could also be really fantastic in PVP. My initial impression? Me likey. The Core Hound doesn't have an AoE aggro holder like the Carrion Bird does, which makes it slightly less appealing for heavy soloing...but its dps was so ridiculously fantastic that I hardly had time to do anything to pull aggro off of it anyway, so we shall see. Further testing will be done when the patch goes live.

Devilsaur -- Devilsaurs are also newly tameable. Their special ability is an additional attack that gives a buff for a very nice boost to their damage -- +3% per special attack, and it stacks up to 5 times, for a possible 15% damage increase. That being said, with my limited testing abilities on the PTR, I was not super-impressed with the Devilsaur. I will be testing more when the patch goes live, just to be sure the results I saw were not a result of lag, but the Devilsaur seemed to do significantly less damage than the Core Hound, which made it not so spectacular at holding even single-target aggro.

Chimera -- Yet another newly tameable family. Chimeras get a special attack that does a double frost/lightning attack and slows the enemy for 5 seconds. I am seriously looking at these guys for PVP purposes, because as a hunter anything that slows my opponent down when they're chasing me is a good thing. The Chimera did a decent bit of damage as well. Not quite as much as the Core Hound, but more than the Devilsaur. PVP testing is next to impossible on the PTR, but I plan to do a decent bit of that with this guy in the future.

I haven't gotten to test the Crocolisk yet, as the PTR went down entirely, but I shall hopefully be testing him tomorrow, as well as a Worm and a Moth. Stay tuned!

Wii Fit Progress:
Current Weight: 145.1
Goal Weight: 125
Weight lost: nothing at all, heh. I'm already starting to notice slightly better muscle tone, though!