WotLK - Garwal the Worgen (Removed)
Perhaps the most infamous event in the Hunter glitch community, Garwal was a phased, quest-only tameable Wolf that would transform into a Worgen when pushed past 50% HP.
The first known sighting of Garwal was in July 2009, a quickly-snapped SS of a Blood Elf hunter on Darkspear with a worgen pet posted to the WoW forums. Initially, the hunter community had no idea how the hunter had obtained a Worgen pet, and when pressed for answers, the hunter refused to elaborate for fear of losing out on the uniqueness of his tame. A global manhunt erupted on the WoW forums, MMO Champion, and the now-defunct Mania's Arcania in search of the 'how'.
Quickly, it was rationalized that Garwal was the suspect in question, and hunters realized that Garwal would transform from his wolf form to a Worgen when pushed past 50%. Once in Worgen form, the Tame Beast spell could no longer be cast on him. If the cast ended once he had already transformed, he would revert back to a white wolf.
To obtain the pet, most hunters used the spell Wyvern Sting to both keep the Tame Beast channel up while precisely timing the point when Garwal's HP would tick past 50% from the DoT's damage. If the hunter's tame completed less than a second before Garwal transformed, he would transform mid-tame and thus retain his Worgen form.
Garwal was an appearance-buffed pet; his Worgen form was actually an applied aura spell, while his true form was the white wolf of his initial ID. While his Worgen form persisted through his or the player's death, if taken into Arena where all buffs are wiped upon entering, Garwal would lose his Worgen form and be permanently reverted to his white wolf form. He also displayed as a white wolf on the loading screen seen below.
Garwal was a controversial tame from the start, as hunters who had completed the quest Alpha Worg in Howling Fjord could not be phased to him, and would never be able to tame him on their main hunter. Many hunters clamored for his removal out of spite for being cheated from the tame, and heated arguments were repeatedly shut down on the forums surrounding him.
While it was correctly surmised that Garwal would be hotfixed to be untameable, what followed was a step into something new for players and Blizzard alike.
The first attempted hotfix had Garwal's Wolf family removed, leaving Blizzard to the assumption that the pet would run away as it was unable to be fed. However, hunters discovered Glyph of Mend Pet gave their pet happiness every time they cast Mend Pet, allowing them to keep Garwal around indefinitely. This hotfix also caused a size bug, making him appear massive on some player's screens.
This posed a problem to Blizzard, as neither Cataclysm nor Worgen had been announced, but the issue of hunters running around with a soon-to-be-playable race was something they could not overlook.
Sadly, the second hotfix was the final one, as Garwal was replaced entirely in every hunter's stable by the Winterskorn Worg.
This was the first time Blizzard had ever effectively taken away a hunter pet, and the backlash from the hunter community was severe. In time, an understanding was better reached when Worgen were announced as a playable race as to the 'why', but to many it remains one of the most beloved and bitterly-remembered events in Hunter history.
