The long awaited quest to find and save Hati after the events in Silithus last expansion finally went live on March 12th, and I wasted no time. The quest-line was short but sweet, and the little cinematic at the end was no exception.
Titanstrike
Beast Mastery Hunters first meet Hati during their artifact acquisition quest where he’s a normal wolf until the very end, when Hati sacrifices himself to save the player. The Titan Thorim recognizes Hati’s heroism and imbues your newly acquired artifact weapon, Titanstrike, with Hati’s spirit. Once a normal white wolf, he is reforged in thunder and remains a loyal companion so long as the Hunter keeps Titanstrike equipped. At the end of the expansion players use up all the power left in their artifact weapons to help heal Azeroth after Sargeras plunges his sword into Silithus in a desperate final attempt. This meant that all those Beast Mastery Hunters who spent the better part of two years with their beloved Hati suddenly found themselves without his companionship, and without a proper goodbye.
A Disturbance in the Force…
Apparently Hati’s story has the same impact at Blizzard, and they added in a new quest in BfA to find him again! Mirmiron tells the player that he has come across some strange power fluctuations and, after some studying, he thinks that it’s Hati. It seems that after using up our artifact weapons in Silithus, Hati’s spirit split up and scattered into the Nether. We team up with a familiar dwarf, Grif Wildheart, to track down the two halves of Hati’s enraged spirit, calm him down, and fuse him together again.
When we get Hati back Mirmiron sends us over to Thorim, where we learn we can change Hati’s appearance and buy some cool Hati-specific toys. It was really cool to see so many hunters who were also doing the quest at the same time, even if the amount of Hunters there made the quests buggy!
But Wait, There’s More!
Because it wasn’t enough just to get one of the most beloved Hunter pets back, there’s a vendor right next to Thorim where you can buy neat toys to interact with Hati. These include a rubber ball, a fez, an item that turns Hati into a mount for a while, and an item that enhances the visuals on his thunder abilities.
The Hati quest was the first thing I got excited for in patch 8.1.5, and I think that it was really well done. It’s amazing how people can invest so much emotion in something like this, and I think that’s exactly what Blizzard wanted. I was heartbroken when Hati disappeared, but now we can explore the rest of what 8.1.5 has to offer together!