Character Profile: Devarien - The First

Devarien or Devarien Kail (if Blizzard ever allows surnames in the game) was my first WoW character. If fact, Devarien was my first MMO character ever. He made his first appearance as a half-elf Ranger in EQ and has always been the first character I create when I start playing a new game. He was my first WoW character to hit level 60 & 70 as well. He is also always a marksman/woodsman/ranger type class. He is always my favorite character. He is pretty much my alter ego. I have always loved the woods and camping. In fact, I was an Eagle Scout when I was a kid. If I were to live in a fantasy realm, I would definitely be a woodsman/hunter/ranger living off the earth, using a bow and I would definitely have an animal companion....a wolf!!!

Before I started playing WoW, I did a lot of research on the different classes, but Hunter was the easy choice for Devarien. The marksman aspect of Hunter was of course the main reason I chose Hunter, however, the pet aspect was an interesting twist to the classic Ranger type. I had never played a pet class before, so I was very excited to give it a try. As soon as I hit level 10, I went out and tamed my first pet a feral nightsaber! From that time forward, having a pet was my favorite thing about being a hunter!!! As a result, Devarien is a heavy beast mastery specced Hunter (46/12/3). I would say my first real pet was Jarec, a moonstalker I tamed from Darkshore. At the time, I picked him for his fast attack speed of 1.3 (this was before the attack speed normalization). However, I was never much of a cat person....what I really wanted was a wolf!!! My first wolf pet was Kamots, a Ghostpaw Runner from Ashenvale. He was cool looking, but I didn't like his attack speed. That's when I found out about Slavering Worgs! I had to wait until I was about 30 I think before I could solo tame one, but I finally got him. Actually, Jim brought his level 18 Dwarf Hunter with me and we both got Slavering Worgs at the same time! Motomo was my worg's name and he served me well all the way to 60. However, once the Burning Crusade came out, I kept reading that the animals available to tame in the expansion were much more powerful than the animals in Azeroth. So...with much reluctance, I decided that I would have to tame a new pet and say good bye to my trusted companion Motomo =(

At the time, I was really interested in taming a pet that had the screech ability. I got to see how powerful screech was for AOE tanking when I tamed a Winterspring Owl as a trash pet to use in my successful attempt to solo tame a Bloodaxe Worg in Blackrock Spire for Bite 8 (one of the most challenging things I have ever done in WoW!). I decided on an owl for my new pet, specifically the Kaliri Swooper from Hellfire Peninsula. My thinking on choosing an owl over a carrion bird was that the owl had much better dps. I figured that its lack of armor would be more than made up from the fact that I had 46 points into Beast Mastery, including thick hide & catlike reflexes, and I could pump the owl up with natural armor. Also, I loved the way a black owl looks! So as soon as possible upon arriving in Hellfire, I tamed my Swooper. His name is Talon and he has served me well ever since. He can easily AOE tank 3 regular mobs at a time. As long as I don't use multi-shot too soon or often, he keeps aggro no problem. The only thing he is a little weak on is hit points, but I use sporeling snacks to boost up his stamina. Overall, I am extremely happy with Talon =)

I love taming different beasts, but hate leveling them up....lol. So once me & Talon hit level 70, I started to look at what other pets I might like. I decided to tame a level 70 Blackwind Sabercat from Terokar Forest because he looks exactly like my original Moonstalker. In fact, I named him Jarec as well. I'm training him to be my pvp cat, but gaining loyalty is going so slow!!!! Any way....here are some screens of Devarien & the various pets he has tamed over his career!