ICE WRAITH...REALLY? Anyone else feel this way?

Caspur

In another 3 months maybe you'll get what you want...

SoulScream

Destroyed it. I do not want any pets. If it hadn't been bound I would have gave to someone for free that wanted it. Please anything but a pet next time. I appreciate the effort for rewards, thanks.

Thavie

Well, I don't like this pet, but also I don't feel angry or something. It's a gift, thats all. However, I'd like to see more flying pets, I wonna bird! The owl or raven, or even falcon!

Adelwulf

I like mine, I also don't play the game to get loyalty rewards. I play it cause I enjoy it. If they send me a pet sure I will take it, why not. I'm not going to complain about free stuff.

Sou1defiler

How I imagine a lot of people's reaction when they opened that mail...

reften

would be cool if they actually did something...like neverwinter pets. Even if it's just to buff something small. (Like Ice Wraith pet = +500 to frost resist)

Anyway, I just deleted it. Still appreciate the gesture from Zos though.

Nestor

Vanity Pets by and large are not something I would use in the game. However, I have to see them in the game for those who do use them. I will say that this is the least annoying Vanity Pet that I have seen. The Wolfhound may be the other one, as I have not heard it bark in the game, maybe it does.

Anyway, this thing just floats behind the player, does not swirl around like the wild ones and makes no noise. I can easily ignore it or overlook it.

ZOS_TristanK

Hey, all! Thanks for the feedback about the first loyalty reward. This is an ongoing program, so we're glad to read about what you all find valuable for your rewards. We also wanted to give you a heads up that we've removed a few posts from this thread that were antagonistic. Please keep in mind that, while you may not agree with another poster, we do ask that all comments focus on the topic being discussed rather than the player.

Knootewoot wrote: »

When did we get it? I didn't get one yesterday (EU server)

We checked your account, and the Wraith should have made it to your mailbox. Please let us know if it didn't!

bedlom wrote: »

Been subscribing since may and I just signed on with a new character and no new pet. Am I doing something wrong?

Don't worry! You aren't doing anything wrong. We have a lot of Wraiths to corral, so some of them won't make it to your in-game mailbox for another day or so. If you still don't see the pet tomorrow, please don't hesitate to let us know!

OrangeTheCat

Good grief! All the whining before the ice wraith was delivered; all the whining about what was taking it so long to be delivered; now this, more whining.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Rude and Insulting Comments]

Thechemicals

Its a nice gift. Would have been nicer if it attacked stuff.

killedbyping

Actualy, Ice Wraith pets works just fine.
I forgot about all the bugs and unbalanced PVP for a whole 15 mins because i got this pet.
Thanks alot.

Catsmoke14

The ice wraith pet leaves me cold.

I'd suggest a familiar (cat, wolf, fox, sabre cat...) that grants a very small boon when used, like "1 meter reduction in stealth radius for 1 minute with 30 minute cooldown".

If anyone wonders there are already dungeon rewards in the game that do similar (assuming they actually work) - the "Black Feather Court Whistle" for instance.

Giraffon

Maybe in a year or two these things will be considered cool because they will be incredibly rare!

All the other pets have been fairly cute. I like that they took a risk and went for something a little less cuddly. If you are trying to RP an evil or dark character, this might be the perfect complement.

Now if we could just train our pets and get some sort of passive benefit from them. Maybe the ice wraith could give us a slight passive against cold attacks? Maybe he's getting in the way to cool off and helping you by accident? (Like a dog attacking water out of a hose.)

Okay, I'm just gonna' go off track now....

Pig - passive boost to stamina - he has short legs and you get extra fitness training because you have to carry it all over the place

Monkey - doubles as provisioning hireling and gathers food once a day

crab - additional range detecting runes - he's low to the ground

dog - additional range detecting hidden enemies

guar - passive health boost - he just makes you happy!

....that was fun. :-)

Nestor

Giraffon wrote: »

Pig - passive boost to stamina - he has short legs and you get extra fitness training because you have to carry it all over the place

Monkey - doubles as provisioning hireling and gathers food once a day

crab - additional range detecting runes - he's low to the ground

dog - additional range detecting hidden enemies

guar - passive health boost - he just makes you happy!

Something like this would get me to use a Vanity Pet. Although, it would also make everyone in the game use them and the really good thing about Vanity Pets is not many people use them. So, these bonuses would have to be available in another way somehow or perhaps be available if the Pet was slotted but not active. People do leave pets at home when they go out and about, so this is not a stretch.

Heishi

Me: I'm ready to tell you my secret now.
Crowd: Okay.
Me: I see dead fish.
Crowd: In your dreams? (I shake my head no)
Crowd: While you're awake? (I nod)
Crowd: Dead fish like, in water? On plates?
Me: Floating around like floating fish. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead.
Crowd: How often do you see them?
Me: All the time.

(I couldn't resist adapting this)

AlnilamE

dgoss11b14_ESO wrote: »

One pet I'd find cool is having a pet Watcher.... but that's just me

I second that!

Archie

Vizier wrote: »

ZoS-
Thanks for the Ice Wraith. It's what I always wanted. No no no, really. It's keen. I feel so appreciated being able to pull this floaty monster out of my _ _ _ whenever I feel like it.

Couldn't you think of ANYTHING ELSE to give people? A dog maybe? Good Grief! Ice Wraiths everywhere.

Want us to feel appreciated? Give us a couple bumps in inventory. How about a voucher for the horse of your choice? That would be real....Ice Wraith gets killed and thrown in the garbage as the inventory sink it's part of. Thanks.

I know it's a rant but so what. This floated a bone with me.

The thing is that ESO devs are usually out of sync with the player base. They do not understand the priorities and the issues of the gamers and I don't think they care about it either. So they really think we would be happy with or actually want a totaly useless Ice Wraith for a pet. Of course, as you point out, practical pain reliefs would be far more appreciated and meaningful.

On the other hand, it is a way of showing their appreciation which they didn't have to do. It is their way of rewarding our loyalty. Well, at least they are trying.

Vizier

Hey all. Thanks for all the feedback. I KNEW when I posted this I could be opening a big can of flamage. So I'm not put out by some of the reactions and do have to laugh a bit at myself for this light hearted rant. I just wanted to see if there might be some out there that feel the same way I do about it.

When receiving a gift you say thank you. On one hand it's a "gift" and certainly it's always nice to receive a gift and Thank ZoS for that. On the other hand it's a "perk" for subbing which has precedent in the MMO world and as these things go the vanity pets in general are a bit underwhelming.(the monkey is actually pretty cool though. Nice animation.)

If they didn't take up inventory space, their animations had some kind of believable interaction with the character, didn't act like they were tied to a rope being dragged behind toons and didn't make alot of noise (you know, like the someone's Guar stuck on run right behind you when your trying to listen to an NPC) I'd be way more appreciative. At the moment I can't even see them as eye candy.

I'm not trying to dis on people that like them and if you do...cool. Just having a bit of fun with it and poking a little fun at ZoS over it.

Sotha_Sil

To be honest, pets are not really useful (and/or too tiny), which is not making them interesting enough. I'd suggest making more badass pets (tigers...) or giving up the idea for more cosmetic rewards such as costumes (maybe costumes of the 3 heroes from the trailer ?/ previous ES games/...). I prefer the second solution.

Two-Dogs

It's a loyalty reward - we've earned it through our loyalty, by continuing to choose to support this product via our subscription fees.

It is not a 'gift'.

We're doing *THEM* the favour - keeping them in business, ensuring wages are paid.

The Ice Wraith pet is pretty lazy gesture. It's like giving someone a ballpoint pen from your office cupboard as a birthday present.

I believe they say, 'It's the thought that counts' and really, how much thought has gone into the Ice Wraith pet?

Edit: Clarification

AlexDougherty

Two-Dogs wrote: »

It's a loyalty reward - we've earned it through our loyalty, by continuing to choose to support this product via our subscription fees.

It is not a 'gift'.

Semantics, gift/reward, they don't have to give us anything.

I personally see it as a gift, after all I didn't earn it, I just subscribed to a game I wanted to play.

Reivax

Phantax wrote: »

Agreed. If you look at todays MMO market and the ever increasing pull on our hard earned cash from many directions you would think Zenimax would offer a bigger carrot to their stick in order to keep those of us who are still loyal to ESO !

Zenimax has offered carrots. I've found like 4-5 of them. I'm just not sure what to do with them yet, though.

Two-Dogs

For me and the dictionary, a gift is 'a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present' while a reward is 'a thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement/give something to (someone) in recognition of their services, efforts, or achievements.'

Sure there's a semantic difference - because they're two distinct words.

If I wasn't paying for ESO and Zenimax turned around and said, 'Hey, here's a pet', that to me, would be a gift. I haven't paid for it.

We've been steadily supporting their product through our monthly subscription fee and Zenimax claims they are rewarding our loyalty.

RianaTheBosmer

I too really like the ice wraith. I have a goth nb and it works perfectly as a companion for her.

So thanks ZOS.

raglau

I don't really care for it, so I deleted it.

Loyalty should only be fluff otherwise gaming advantage is gained merely for long-term sub, which is a bit silly.

I guess they might fix my class as a reward for my loyalty, that may entice me to stay...

JD2013

I haven't seen this much complaining since the wolf hound pet for steam users. Do pets genuinely cause this much upset?

It's a free thing to say thank you for subscribing. They didn't have to say thank you in any way. Goodness.

Jennifur_Vultee

Giraffon wrote: »

Maybe in a year or two these things will be considered cool because they will be incredibly rare!

All the other pets have been fairly cute. I like that they took a risk and went for something a little less cuddly. If you are trying to RP an evil or dark character, this might be the perfect complement.

Now if we could just train our pets and get some sort of passive benefit from them. Maybe the ice wraith could give us a slight passive against cold attacks? Maybe he's getting in the way to cool off and helping you by accident? (Like a dog attacking water out of a hose.)

Okay, I'm just gonna' go off track now....

Pig - passive boost to stamina - he has short legs and you get extra fitness training because you have to carry it all over the place

Monkey - doubles as provisioning hireling and gathers food once a day

crab - additional range detecting runes - he's low to the ground

dog - additional range detecting hidden enemies

guar - passive health boost - he just makes you happy!

....that was fun. :-)

Personally I'd make the pets more like this if they had abilities:

Pig - Once a day player can take the Bacon passive granting the player 100 health for 30 minutes. 10% chance player will contract Pork Tapeworm debuff causing player to lose 100 health for 30 minutes instead of gaining 100 health.

Monkey - Randomly attacks mobs (when he feels like it) with Toss Poop attack dealing 25 damage per hit with a successful attack having a 10% chance to blind opponents for 4 seconds causing their attacks to miss. Toss Poop random attack can occur when player is in or out of combat, out of combat the monkey with target the nearest mob within 30 meters causing them to attack the player, if no enemies are within 30 meters Toss Poop attack will be directed at the player or player's party members within 30 meters instead.

Crab - Dashes forward in combat attacking enemies with Nip Ankles attack nipping at enemies with pinchers dealing 10 damage, successful attacks have a 10% chance to throw enemies off balance for 4 seconds.

Dog - Annoying Bark attack causes opponents to stop attacking player and try to kill the dog for 5 seconds. 10% chance dog will get stuck in Annoying Bark attack and continue barking for 30 minutes after player leaves combat.

Scuttler - Underfoot Attack, pet charges to nearest enemy 15% chance enemy will be tripped knocking them down and stunned for 2 seconds. 5% chance Underfoot Attack will affect the player if player and Scuttler are attacking the same target.

Ice Wraith - Once per day player can activate wraith's Keep Your Cool passive granting player 100 resistance to fire attacks. 10% chance Ice Wraith will activate the Frigid debuff instead causing players to be vulnerable to cold attacks by 100 for 30 minutes.

Spectrasoul

Don't want to be "that guy" but there are valid points on both sides:

Yes, they didn't have to give us anything. We should be grateful for something for nothing.

Having said that, for me personally, a vanity pet is about the least useful thing I can think of. It's more inventory space wasted and quite frankly I find them annoying. Again though, it's only the first reward and I'm sure there will be other much better things still to come.

tl;dr: Ok the ice wraith didn't set the world on fire (no pun intended) but it's better than nothing, let's wait and see what the future holds.

Something I would prefer is seasonal rewards or things which I can only get from playing now. Let's say in 2 years time I want to have things on my account which new players joining then can't get. Beta test monkey pet was a really cool one despite what I said earlier about vanity pets.

Lazrael

Meh I think this was neat (although the wait to get it was ridiculous, and a tad shady when you think about it). Perhaps something more functional next time guys. Although, assuming that the game continues to have a long life, then things like these may be very nice for bragging rights, to show those of us that have played the game the longest, perhaps there is a way to bridge the form and function gap for future rewards.

LadyShauna

I got mine yesterday, I think the wraith is just fine, but I am looking forward mostly to when they introduce another dog. I was in Bleakrock yesterday and met this beautiful dog with pretty brown eyes named Rexus. Ah Rexus, How I wanted to steal him away.