Some Beta Horde Pet Love... Sorta

well i haven't been able to find much companion pet love on the beta other than the withers pet. i attempted to go to the worgen starting zone to see if the worgen race-specific vanity pets were available, but i ended up getting stuck in the incorrect zone/phase. doh. this leads me to believe that beta just isn't far enough yet, so we'll just have to be patient for more updates to the test servers.

but! in a somewhat vanity pet related note, i did manage to find a horde only companion... sorta. it's called the lashtail hatchling and looks nearly identical to the razzashi hatchling.

even if it looks like a non-combat companion pet, it's not quite one. according to warcraftpets.com for a pet to be considered a vanity item, it must meet all of the following requirements:

1. The entity is summoned via a summoning spell found in the character's Pets tab.
2. The entity counts toward various Vanity Pet Achievements.
3. The entity must have the tag of companion.

so technically it cannot be considered a true "vanity pet." see why below.


this horde only "pet" is obtained through a quest located in grom'gol (stranglethorn vale). i took an 80 warlock out there and it was pretty much the first quest i picked up and completed.

as you can see in the screenshot above, there is an actual (quest) item for this companion. it is NOT a pet that you can "learn." you must have the item in order to summon/dismiss it. (strike towards being a vanity pet #1)


unlike other companion pets, the lashtail hatchling does not have the "companion" tag under its name. (strike towards being a vanity pet #2)

and finally it does not count towards any non-combat pet achievements. (strike towards being a vanity pet #3)

so if this isn't a true vanity pet, why do i bring it up? well despite not being a true companion, it is still an item worth getting (if it goes live in the expansion and is unchanged from the beta version).


as you can see, an interesting aspect of the lashtail hatchling is that it will scale with your level. because i was level 80, the baby raptor was also level 80. note that it is also flagged for PVP. this little girl (the quest specifically refers to it as a "she") will fight for you! she was attacking a mob for around 190 dps.

the quest chain after obtaining the hatchling had me "feeding" the raptor on murlocs. it was a pretty amusing quest, if not a little gruesome lol.


here is the lashtail hatchling nomming on a murloc. such a messy eater lol.
i received no follow up quest after this one (i didn't make an attempt to look for any either though), and to my surprise i was allowed to keep the item to summon the baby raptor! after hearthing to dalaran, i decided to try out the lashtail hatchling item to see if i could summon her outside of the quest zone and...


TA-DA! the lashtail hatchling can be summoned outside of the quest zone
so if this "pet" is released onto live servers in the expansion and is unchanged, horde can now have their very own baby raptor that looks just like the other raptor companions but also:

1 - scales with level
2 - will fight for you and can be flagged for PVP (whether or not other players can target and kill it, i have yet to try out)
3 - can be summoned anywhere you'd like to take her!

note: there probably IS a follow up quest to turn in the baby raptor hatchling, but for now, as long as you do not turn in any follow up quests, you'll get to keep her. also keep in mind that blizzard very rarely lets an item like this slide since it does border on interfering with intended gameplay. we'll just have to wait and see whether or not they will change the item to make it zone-specific, non-scaling, or some other "nerf" come cataclysm.