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Posts with tag Bears

Taming Zul'Aman bears (or not)

Mania wants to know (and so do we): can you train the bears in Zul'Aman or not? We at WoW Insider also heard a rumor over the weekend that the bears in Zul'Aman were trainable again (we heard that when the trolls riding bears split up, you had a short period of time to pick up the bear as a Hunter pet). But alas, all reports since then tell us that's not the case -- even if bears were trainable for a short period of time, they aren't now.

Which isn't too surprising -- Hunters have a relationship to wild animals, not trained ones, so the fact that you can't steal bears from the trolls falls in line with Hunter lore (although, if you wanted to make the case that the bears were actually pre-trained and that it would make them easier to train, you probably could, even if Blizzard didn't listen). And it's not like there aren't other bears to get in the game. Blizzard should definitely have some fun pets to get like this (as long as there's no huge gameplay bonus to be gained), but apparently Zul'Aman bears aren't one of them.

Of course, you can always go get your bear mount -- we've got a guide that tells you exactly how to do it. And hurry -- even those won't be available forever.

Popular hunter pet site Petopia gets a facelift, new informational pages

Here's a nice little bit of news for all leveling Hunters, people looking into starting a hunter alt, or people looking to switch out or tweak out their current pet: the popular depository of all things Hunter pet related in WoW, Petopia, has gotten a facelift and a few handy new reference pages. The quick links and references seem to be a lot more streamlined now, and it should be even easier to find information. Some pages are still making the transition, and some of the pet pictures have not been updated to the new color scheme, but Mania assures us she is working on that.

In the meantime, she's also added a few new pages to the library, namely the Retired Pet page and the "Fake" Pet Skills page. The former deals with formerly tamable pets that can no longer be tamed, while the latter deals with pet skills that are present during the newbie hunter taming quests, but not on any permanently tamed pet.

I rather like both of the new pages. Not only should the information be helpful (if sad) to any newbie wondering where they can get that awesome ghost wolf, but the pages were a nice walk down memory lane for this old hunter. I remember when I made first Tauren Hunter, I was always disappointed that Swoop wasn't an actual bird pet skill, and I was considering a pet crab for my Dwarf Hunter at one point, and would have loved to have a thorny pet to add a bit more damage and threat power for tanking. Crabs could probably use some love anyway, as they seem to be competing with the likes of Sporebats and Bears for most neglected pet family.

But anyway, if you're a Hunter, and you haven't checked out Petopia in a while, it's worth a look, there's some pretty cool stuff going on over there.

Blizzard announces new Molten Core console version

The conversion of WoW Insider to HKO Insider has thus far been an unprecedented success, but that said, some news is so amazing, so massively genre defining, that we have to report it regardless of any harm to ourselves or accusations of breaking the site format. The Bard class was one such announcement, and this is another. Ladies and Gentlemen, Molten Core: The Console Version.

This, to say the least, is a major step forward for Blizzard. With everything from the ground-breaking Aggro Every Bears technology that is sure to revolutionize the Skinning tradeskill when they bring it to the main WoW game, to the amazing 8 direction movement system, this game should easily boost the Atari 2600 past lesser consoles such as the Wii and the PS3. Be sure to check out the official website, especially the concept art. It's amazing how Blizzard has realized it in full stunning 2D glory. I'm already planning to reserve my Collector's Edition copy, because those cellophane TV overlays sound hella sweet. We're sure the news on this amazing game will only keep coming, so stay tuned to HKO Insider for all your HKO and WoW:MC news!

WoW Insider Show live on WoW Radio tomorrow

Yes, indeed, after a short trip away from the podcast, I will be back on tomorrow afternoon, live on WoW Radio at 3:30pm EST. Turpster is supposed to be there as well, and both John Petricelli (the Big Bear Butt blogger) and Matthew Rossi (who, I hear, once wrestled a bear and won) will be on the show with us. It'll be a rip-roaring adventure as, I'm sure, we'll chat about all the recent changes in patch 2.4, as well as all the kerfluffle over tanking and protection specs, and why Blizzard is banning a famous Arena hunter. We'll also hit on when patch 2.4 might go live, and of course we'll be reading listener email (which you can send to us at theshow@wowinsider.com).

Should be fun, and I don't know about the rest of the guys, but since I'm in Chicago, I'll likely be celebrating St. Patrick's Day, so I'll bring green beer along (for everyone of age, of course). Tune in to WoW Radio tomorrow afternoon at 3:30pm EST to join us for the WoW Insider Show, the best bear-related WoW podcast you'll ever find.

The life and death of Stefen Colbear


He's a man of myth, legend, and internet memes -- a Paladin crusader for Truthiness, justice, and the Alliance way. His name is Stefen Colbear, and he's putting the Horde on notice. That's how it would have been anyway, but sadly, this hero never came to be. Upper Deck hired artist Todd Lockwood to produce the above image for a special WoW TCG card inspired by The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert -- a known video-gaming and role-playing enthusiast. Lockwood's finished product depicts a microphone-sword wielding Human Paladin named Stefen Colbear, who exudes the very essence of Truthiness.

Unfortunately, Colbert's agent nipped the idea in the bud. According to Lockwood, he didn't even show the artwork to his client. Blizzard and Upper Deck presumably had hoped Colbert would feature the card on his show, giving them mega-publicity. An unknown individual leaked the image onto the net a few weeks ago, and WoW and Colbert fans excitedly spread it around in both card and wallpaper forms.

Even though Colbear never saw the light of day, his legend nevertheless strikes fear in the hearts of those who would threaten the Colbear Nation. So watch out Kael'Thas, watch out Archimonde! But most of all: watch out, bears.

New cooking recipes for 2.4!

Ever since 2.3 went live, it's been a bit of a struggle to make the leap from the 260 cooking range to the 300 cooking range, as both my poor Paladin and Shaman can well attest. With recipes such as Tender Wolf Steak and Monster Omelet, once the mainstays of any aspiring chef's training, going green and gray much earlier than before (That is, gray at 275 rather than 300), It's been a bit of trouble getting the needed skill to start cooking up the buzzard and ravager meat that makes the mainstay of the early post-300 cooking grind.

Luckily, the developers heard the cries of horror from all the cooks who thought they might have to grind up fishing to get the materials they needed to skill up, and promised us new recipes.

And today, European CM Vaneras let us know the details. New cooks will need to head to Felwood and Western Plaguelands and start killing themselves a few bears. New meat drops from the bears will allow you to make either spell damage or attack power food, not only removing fishing as a requirement for skilling to 300 cooking, but also giving players in the level 45-60 range a nice stat boost while grinding, questing, or leveling. The recipes themselves will be purchasable from Bale of the Horde or Malygen of the Alliance, both in their respective outposts in Felwood.

So put down your fishing pole and pick up your frying pan again, cooks. Salvation is on the way!

Rawr, a gear application for tanking Druids


Amanna has mentioned an awesome little tool for tanking Druids with a great name: Rawr. It's a completely separate application for Windows (sorry Mac users) that will pull down your gear from the Armory, and help you not only see your tanking strengths and weaknesses, but help you choose upgrades, both in terms of gear and gems on it.

Astrylian of Kilrogg put it all together, and it looks like a really amazing tool for bears. Unfortunately, no other classes or Druid specs are supported yet (Astrylian says cats are next on the list), but if you're a bear who's been trying to make some good gear choices lately, this could be just what you need. Rawr is still in beta and available as a free download on the Druid wiki.

Druids get a hotfixy gift

From a hotfix that is now live on the servers:
  • The Druid ability Lacerate will now land a small amount of instant damage, causing it to generate threat against bleed-immune creatures.
  • The Druid ability Mangle (Bear) will now generate 50% bonus threat
So good news for druids who tank. Blizzard isn't completely giving them back all of their DPS-- Lacerate's debuff doesn't affect "skeletal" creatures (as it shouldn't, since they can't bleed), and Mangle doesn't give any more damage, but Blizzard says they realize Mangle works best as a "snap aggro" tool, and with the bonus threat, it should do that. I'm sure droods will still have their problems, but these are two nice buffs for tanking druids, no question.

More are on the way, too-- Blizzard says they plan to up the armor on many high end Bear Druid items, "particularly raid sets," as many druids felt that those pieces didn't scale as well as warriors' did. Those changes, says Blue, won't be coming until 2.1.0, but they are coming.


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