For the past couple weeks I’ve been having a blast just playing my blood elf hunter Sriset to play her. Not really trying to gear her for anything, not racing to do anything, just playing Shadowlands as the new chapters unfold. I’ve done LFR of the new raid once and I’ll probably continue doing it, but just because I want to, not because I’m specifically trying to achieve anything.
Funny thing is, by just casually playing Sriset in Korthia and such, she’s almost my best geared character now. My pally Resora still has a higher ilvl but she’s semi-retired for a while, so I’m sure Sriset will surpass her soon. It feels so nice just to be doing what I find fun in the game and not having any pressure to do anything by any particular deadline. Plus, Sriset’s favorite pet is a large toad/frog named Spongecake and what’s not fun about that?
As World of Warcraft classifies Spongecake as a toad pet and I tend to think of him as more of a frog, I became curious about what the difference was. Turns out that all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads, and that a toad is a classification of a frog. After learning that, I can now definitely say that Spongecake is a frog! And a toad! A froad? Whatever type of animal he is, he’s over a ton of fun when I quest with him and my friends are especially fond of his name. He has a younger brother named Cannoli, but I tend to be a one frog hunter these days.
While I’ve tamed some of the new pets available in the Chains of Domination patch, I tend to go back to Spongecake when I’m solo questing. Tank pets aren’t quite the tanks they were when I started playing Warcraft back during Burning Crusade, but I still think they’re the most durable. Having two pets is cool looking sometimes, but I sacrifice some of the damage Spongecake can do solo. Plus a tiny blood elf questing with a giant frog just feels cool to me. I experience toad-al frog-ments of fun whenever I play my hunter and she’s achieving a lot in bits and pieces.
The other day I took Spongecake into Torghast to get the last bit of soul ash I needed to upgrade my legendary to 210. I really don’t like Torghast, but I refused to have the legendary still hanging over my head, so I forced myself to go. I hadn’t done Torghast solo on Sriset in a very, very long time, but I managed okay and got the soul ash I needed. I also chose an anima power that made Spongecake even bigger than he normally is and let me tell you, the baddies didn’t know what hit them when faced with a monstrous, angry, tongue slapping amphibian!
I finally had my 210 legendary with a useful power and consider myself done with Torghast on Sriset for a while. Another accomplishment recently was that I finally reassured Maelie the Wanderer for the sixth time and have her as my newest unicorn mount.
As an added bonus, thanks to the help of my oldest daughter the other night I was able to get the wolfhawk soulshape, which I think is quite fitting for a hunter.
I remember how excited I was when wolfhawks finally became tamable and how I rushed to get all the colors I could find. I still have those wolfhawks in my stable, along with numerous other pets I’ve collected over the years and it’s fun to look back through them sometimes and remember where they came from.
While casually playing Sriset, I’ll eventually get enough reputation, anima, etc, to obtain the various things I want from Shadowlands, but again, I’m in no rush. Playing her has reminded me and reinforced that hunter is still my favorite class and that me choosing to create her as my first character was a very wise move. She’s come a long way through the years and she’s still got a long and happy way to go. I feel empowered playing Sriset and my other female and male characters and nobody can take that away from me.
Srinity 