Patch 4.2 New Hunter Pets: Ahnka

by Mathew McCurley Jun 1st 2011 at 1:00PM

Patch 4.2 introduces two brand new daily quest hubs to Cataclysm called The Molten Front and The Regrowth. Yesterday, Blizzard updated the public test realm to include a new tidbit of information about eight new unique and rare creatures that would provide unique challenges to tame them by savvy hunters.

8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.

source

I hopped on to the PTR this morning and, lo and behold, found the first of these eight new challenges -- Ahnka, the spirit cat.

Ahnka presented a simple yet devious challenge -- the damage Ahnka does to you is based on how much armor you have. High armor rating means you'll be one-shot and dead in a second. Having no armor means you can survive the cat's onslaught. Ahnka is also immune to slows, traps, and anything that would prevent this beast from mauling your face off. In order to tame Ahnka, you'll have to strip down.

I took off any gear that had armor rating on it, tracked Ahnka to a remote part of The Regrowth away from mobs, and began to tame. It was relatively simple once I figured out the gimmick.

Name: Ahnka

Type: Spirit Beast
Pet spec: Ferocity
Found in: The Regrowth
Gimmick: Does damage based on armor. Take off your armor to tame and survive.

These taming challenges remind me of the demon hunting quests for Rhok'delar, the hunter epic bow from vanilla WoW, which began from the Ancient Petrified Leaf in the Molten Core. Each demon had a different weakness that required the hunter to use his or her skill set to defeat each challenge. I am greatly looking forward to the other seven hunter pet challenges in the other areas of the new daily hubs.

The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

Tags: ahnka, beast, hunter, hunter-pet, molten-front, new-dailies, new-hunter-pet, new-hunter-pets, patch-4.2, regrowth, spirit, spirit-beast, the-molten-front, the-regrowth, world-of-warcraft-patch-4.2, wow-patch, wow-patch-4.2, wow-patch-4.2-news, wow-patch-news

Filed under: Hunter, Cataclysm

Reader Comments (Page 7 of 8)

(cutaia) Jun 1st 2011 2:51PM

Only because it's been laid out for you. The strategy is so counter-intuitive, that it would probably take your average player a few tries before they decided to do something "just crazy enough to work."

Arkensis Jun 1st 2011 2:45PM

Are any other classes/specs feeling like hunters (and in particular, BM hunters) are getting a lot better treatment than the other classes/specs? Blizzard seems to spend a lot of time giving hunters additional pets and pet skins (usually on per-patch or every other patch basis) and yet other classes don't really get much. I know new pets are an "easy" addition in terms of resources, but they still take resources, and mechanics like these must take time to implement.

Twill Jun 1st 2011 2:48PM

why do they have to be spirit beasts?! UGH.

Give me a cool non-spirit beast rare!! I like BM, but I LOVE MM. Let me show off as MM...

Ominous Jun 1st 2011 2:51PM

It's nice to see at least a little hunter love!
Thanks, folks.
More info / images / videos, on this story, please!

Revynn Jun 1st 2011 2:53PM

Meh . . . reskinned Gondria, who I've always liked the least of all rares. Unfortunately, (just like Gondria and Sambas) my OCD probably won't let me rest until I've tamed this one, too.

The "taming gimmick" thing also seems a little lame to me. Trying to solo-tame King Krush in Wrath or the Beast at lvl 65 was far more interesting and challenging than "take off all your armor".

I hope the others are cooler. So far I'm not impressed.

SillyString Jun 1st 2011 2:55PM

This IS merely the first one. You don't make the first of a series the most difficult.

Revynn Jun 1st 2011 3:07PM

My point was that, even once you figured out the "trick" with King Krush or Beast, it was still a challenge. You couldn't just ask another hunter how to do it or look up the secret on wowhead and then faceroll the tame. Once it becomes common knowledge that "you take off all your gear before taming Ahnka" then it just becomes another tame.

All I'm saying is that gimmicky =/= fun or challenging.

And yeah, this is just the first one so you could be right and the others could be significantly more challenging, but we're not off to a good start.

bruce Jun 1st 2011 4:11PM

Yah, maybe on a PvE realm. On my main PvP realm rare camping can and does become a world PvP event.

Haimdall Jun 1st 2011 3:18PM

2 things.

Firstly, This is wonderful and Blizzard needs to do more things like this.

Secondly, I don't see it being said anywhere that they are all spirit beasts. Did I miss a sentence somewhere, or are we fretting about nothing?

RealityWizards Jun 1st 2011 3:28PM

Looks like there's a spirit beast cat, and an owl that tracks pretty high above the ground.
Then we see a flame bird and skeletal flame doggie. Those two don't look spirit beasty to me. As pointed out the name given in the write up also seems to indicate a lava spider or something to be the biggest.

I don't think they'll all be spirit beasts. I would not be surprised if they're all exotic though. BM's 'thing' is the special pet. you have two specs. if you want the special pet, roll BM as one of your specs. I main BM and do fine. Never had a problem keeping up just fine in raids. I might not be the absolute tip top like people that raid 40+ hours a week, but I stay to the upper end of the middle with little effort.

niall Jun 1st 2011 4:10PM

@Dreyja Thanks for the list! there's some really cool looking ones there, I'm surprised nobody has done a good round up post of all the interesting non exotics. he's to hoping a few of those 8 aren't exotics.

Dreyja Jun 1st 2011 4:44PM

No problem. I'm happy to spread the word of these beautiful and unique looking pets. :) Something good has to come of my hours haunting Petopia. XD

Dreyja Jun 1st 2011 8:18PM

These two are pretty epic looking as well. Not rare at all though. :(

Shard-Hide Boar :
http://www.wow-petopia.com/look/felboarskinblue.html

Shiney new Frostsaber Stalker skin – GORGEOUS, STRIKING:
http://www.wow-petopia.com/look/ridingtigerskinicenosaddle.html

Mortymer Jun 1st 2011 4:05PM

:(

My Warlock is jealous.

Preston Jun 1st 2011 4:09PM

How dare you kill something and not loot it.

BellaMuerta Jun 1st 2011 4:18PM

I have all the spirit beasties, and I hate that I can't ever really bring them out because I just can't get the DPS in raids or face-rippage in PvP. I also really dislike that they are all basically the same pet, family wise. I would love to see a cunning or tenacious spirit beast. Seriously? They've done a bear and a crab in Ferocity. I personally love lock's too but I get so bored with the same plain demons. I want Enslavement! I want to choose my own demon! There's enough variety for a good start, different colors, different species. BM Hunter's get all the good stuff. Except for Sambas. Oh and moar stable slots pleez.

Pow Jun 1st 2011 4:42PM

I have to say, I've watched the comments since this post went up and I am loving all the assumptive posts whining about eight spirit beasts. NO WHERE has it been said that all eight are spirit beasts.

NO.
WHERE.

We have two videos of confirmed spirit beasts; that still leaves six, and one is pretty clearly a flame spider (which is obviously open to all three specs).

Come back to reality, folks... it's not as bad as they say it is, I promise.

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