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.
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 :(
Charn Jan 15th 2008 12:43AM
I am reminded of the time just after BC came out when i learned my fellow hunters were taming King B to get the passive skill Cobra Reflexes. I met three hunters that had lvled him all the way to 70 and were very proud of the fact. Next thing you know, Cobra Reflexes got made a trainable skill. Lesson learned from this: if there is something ultra cool in the game, Blizzard will 1. Take it out or 2. Make it easier to get. I have played a hunter since day one.. when the pets skills out there where growl, cower, bite, and claw (anyone remember those days?). I have learned to role with the nerfs and buffs and more nerfs. Still here and still paying my monthly fees. Having said that, I like most other hunters am a little ticked about this wolf nerf. I never planned on getting it for myself but grats to the ppl that got it. Just keep in mind that stuff like this has happened since day one. We have been the red headed step child of character classes. Hunters where hated and "useless" for 2 years until BC and all of a sudden everyone rolls one. Buck up, comrades, we have been through worse.
Bunnyfu Jan 15th 2008 12:47AM
Its not that I'm affected by this change, being a rogue, however, what pisses me off is Blizzard's attitude towards these kinds of things. Broken tooth was well... broken. However, there was absoluately no call for a change like this.
Actually, this has been Blizzard's attitude lately in every aspect of the game. Take away anything that is fun and unique and point everyone into the same bloody image of their "perfect" world (of warcraft...).
Good thing my game time runs out tomorrow. And I'm going to have a nice long reflection on Blizzard's aims and views before paying for another subscription. The last thing I'd want is to invest another year or three into a game who's developers have lost all sense of what is *fun*. As it stands now, WoW is not a money/time sink, and its hardly what you would call replayable fun... in fact, all that Blizzard has been doing is watering down everything that has grabbed their attention.
Come patch 2.4 and WotLK, Blizzard's intentions of where they want to take their game will become more and more evident. I could've even lived with a nerf-bat of a patch in 2.4, taking into consideration how busy Blizzard should be with tuning, tweaking and in a sense remaking their game for WotLK. But it seems that Blizzard is more concerned about hunters running around with ghost wolfs. So much, that it had to be hot fixed immediately. Am I the only one that thinks there are more dire things that should be concerning Blizzard?