Breakfast Topic: Little Red Riding Nether Ray
by David Bowers 
Jun 7th 2007 at 8:01AM
I know, I know... today's breakfast topic comic seems a bit dark and gloomy -- but don't worry! Things are not what they seem! The girl's grandma is actually a professional hunter of evil grandmavores. The girl-grandma team tricks the beasts into their doom: first, little Red lures the beasts close to the cottage, and then Granny springs a woodsman-shaped target dummy on them and mutilates them from behind with her epic daggers disguised as knitting needles.
Annnywaaaay, the topic for today is these scary creatures known as nether rays! Now we can ride them! But... the question is, does anyone want to? I know the nether ray in this picture looks pretty spooky, and I'll admit that there are some screenshots in which they look okay at first. But over all, aren't they really rather ugly, pudgy and too much like a fish with serious dental problems?
I was over there questing in Skettis with a friend of mine today, just earning some money in a few spare minutes I had to play, when we stopped to gawk at the Sha'tari Skyguard dwarf just swooshing along on his nether ray mount, looking as pudgy and as awkward as can be. I realized, this thing doesn't look like it should be a mount at all. Your legs kind of sink through the creature's tendril hood or whatever it is, and some races apparently have their hands hanging out in thin air, holding on to reins that should be there on any normal mount, but not on this one.
Do you agree that this thing is an ugly waste of your reputation grinding time? or am I totally missing the aesthetic genius of this?
Filed under: Items, Breakfast Topics, Humor, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KissTheRing Jun 7th 2007 8:22AM
What do you expect with a faction so easy to get rep with, I'm not surprised it's so ugly. I'm still doing all the daily quests because it's good gold and I'm just about 500g from my 5000g for my riding 300 training.
acariquara Jun 7th 2007 9:57AM
Whatever, I am doing it for the money. I hate a meaningless grind. Repeatable quests give me an objective, and a time to stop.
Beelzebud Jun 7th 2007 9:05AM
I have one complaint about the Netherwing Drakes actually.
You have to have Artisan skill (300) to ride them. When you sit on the mount, your guy is sitting off to one side and looks like he's about to slide off the thing's neck.
You'd think an "artisan" skilled rider would be able to sit straight on the drake. :D
Smutcakes Jun 7th 2007 10:25AM
the rays are quite small making them perfect for gnomes.
Wintermute Jun 7th 2007 9:21AM
Considering that regular flyers drive like my grandma, I could care less what the thing looks like as long as it's fast. At this point I'd take a Hello Kitty mount as long as it was faster than what I've got.
Paw Jun 7th 2007 9:33AM
Caveat: I have only two toons with mounts, a nelf hunter and a draenei pally. The pally has both the warhorse and an elekk.
Based on my own toons and the observation of countless others roaming the world or simply standing around the SW trade district, the racial mounts seem to have the least number of issues with clipping and such when paired with the approrpiate race. Not perfect, but they seem to be made for each other...I guess because that was the intent. When you start putting races on other mounts you get issues. My pally looks naturally fit to the elekk, but on the warhorse there are obvious graphical anomolies. I haven't seen a nether ray mount, but I have seen non-mount rays, and their travel motion/animation does not seem the right fit to be a mount.
KissTheRing Jun 7th 2007 9:54AM
I have one beef with the netherwing mounts. They are huge, and they should be. But people seem to think it's so cool to just pose with them flying one meter off the ground flapping their wings in a high traffic area. Sure they are very cool but to all of you who do it, it's not going to get you that attention you're fishing for, you're just in my way and I'm not all that impressed.
ben1778 Jun 7th 2007 10:38AM
I think these mounts look ugly and since they serve no purpose over other mounts with the same skill requirement I have no interest in this thing.
I didn't get a Talbuk for the same reason. They are ugly, are no faster than the more attractive mount options of that riding skill, and i'm not a mount collector or rep fiend.
Quoi Jun 7th 2007 10:49AM
I want a nether ray for the sake of completeness, but I doubt I'll use it very much over my Nether Drake.
And #6, I've found that showing off the Nether Drake can often bring bad luck. On three seperate occasions, it has gotten me killed.
1: Tried to link it, inexplicably got dismounted and fell off of Outland to my death between NW Ledge and SMV. Had to spirit rez.
2: Tried to link it again, got DCed at Illidari Point and logged back in as a ghost.
3: Was hovering next to a platform in Skettis talking to some people, got attacked by 2 of the big birds and knocked into a mob of arakkoa.
Good thing it looks pimptastic.
Hellbena Jun 7th 2007 11:17AM
I'm getting the nether ray for 2 reasons:
1) By the time I have the money for artisan flying, I'll be just shy of exalted with the Skyguard anyways.
2) To have a different look from everyone else until I have my Netherdrake.
Junipero Jun 7th 2007 11:38AM
Nether Ray mounts are cool, don't make fun of them! =)
Chilblain Jun 7th 2007 11:49AM
Netherdrake's are awesome, but Dragonkin mount? Oh my...
If my Mage could ride around on the back of Epoch Hunter, I'd just have to quit my job and never log off.
Theadrick Jun 7th 2007 12:45PM
Count me in as one of the people who don't get it. I think out of all the creatures in game that could have been used as a mount, the nether ray would rank near the bottom of my list.
Heike Jun 7th 2007 12:55PM
I think they're kind of adorable. Plus they undulate!
Serenity Jun 7th 2007 3:19PM
To be honest, the Nether Rays would look sick as mounts if you didn't sit on them, but rather rode them lying against their backs, sort of like you would lean right against a horses neck.
Modifying the model to give them a bigger berth near their tail for a saddle would make it look more realistically possible, aesthetically pleasing and also giving a lore reason why you have to get one from the Skyguard, because you can't just ride any Nether Ray, you have to ride a bred one...or whatever..it'd just look cooler.
RogueJedi86 Jun 7th 2007 3:20PM
They need to fix the look of all races on non-faction mounts. Dwarves on Elekks? Doesn't look right, there's some clipping issues, with them being half inside the body of the Elekk. It's like Blizz didn't try as hard on clipping issues in BC. Not just mounts, armor too. I can't count the number of solid helmets that cover my entire head, but still inexplicably have the beard sticking through.
Schmitt Jun 7th 2007 4:31PM
It's the 'so ugly they're cute' thing. Plus, everybody wants the netherdrakes. And last, I already get annoyed at how much space my normal flying mount takes up on my screen with its wings - a netherdrake would drive me batty.
Savok Jun 7th 2007 11:21PM
You don't want to ride a giant manta ray that looks like it's from outer space?
You disgust me.
Cedric Jun 11th 2007 1:43PM
@10: Inexplicably? I have a very good explanation for what happened to you: instead of shift-clicking, you clicked. Splat.
Chaseton Jun 20th 2007 4:54AM
Maybe I'm just strange, but I prefer this mount to the Drakes. The Drakes are far too common. Not to sound like you MUST go against the popular vote, but it just seems like overkill to play a fantasy game in which you fly a dragon. That's like putting butter on a cheeseburger (or some other exercise in excessiveness)...it's disgusting. Not to mention, with everyone picking a Drake, you create the same problem that deterred me from Gryphons...a complete lack of diversity.
I've always had an affinity for anything that's like a stingray (beautiful creatures in my opinion). So naturally, I went with the Nether Ray, despite how "ugly" it looks.