New Day, New Beta Patch

another beta patch was released tonight. i'm happy to say that this one seems pretty stable so far. note: the changes/updates to the cataclysm pet list was as of the beta patch prior to this most recent on. no pet updates for beta patch 13117 yet.

i just hit friendly with my guild, but unfortunately this didn't reduce the price of the guild rewarded companion pets. i'm going to keep grinding out the rep to see if there's a discount at a higher reputation.

things to do in no particular order:

Forgotten Surprises

taking a small break from the beta and pet hunting/research, i decided to clean up my computer a little bit. even though i dread cleaning in general, sometimes you find really neat stuff that you forgot you had.

these screenshots were taken a while ago but i completely forgot about them. until now! on with the adorableness!




cuteness overload? :D

Does Want! - Dark Phoenix Hatchling

we're in luck! warcraftpets brings us a video preview of the dark phoenix hatchling! it has the same model as the phoenix hatchling, but instead of a red/yellow color scheme it's primarily pink/purple. it's gorgeous nonetheless and i can't wait to get my hands on it! i'd love for the two phoenixes to interact with each other when the two meet. i can just imagine the glorious swirls of color that would ensue as they play with each other. but i doubt there will be any sort of animation between the two.

the video description mentions that it costs 300 gold which is something i'll have to double check for myself once i log into the beta. a few patches ago it was only 75g (plus the achievement unlock requirement and a guild revered reputation). 75 to 300 is quite a jump up in price, but totally worth it if you adore collecting vanity pets imo. i wonder if once exalted there will be a discount on the guild rewards/companions.

quick note on the achievement for this companion:

"All reputations are retroactive. If you have the rep now, it will count in the guild achievement. Also note that the reputations have to be separate. Having Argent Dawn at exalted on 8 members still only counts as one towards the achievement.

Also, don't forget that this achievement requires revered guild faction for any of your reputations to count."
- Mumper

so check list time!

Rustberg Seagull - Update

looks like the price of the seagull has dropped from 60 tol barad commendations to 48 as of the latest beta patch. it still requires an honored rep with your alliance/horde tol barad faction.

tol barad seems to be similar to the wrath of the lich king's wintergrasp. (not sure about the actual PVP, but in terms of zone and access, it's not that different.)

it should be noted that there are two sections to tol barad - the actual battle field where the pvp takes place, and tol barad peninsula where your faction's NPCs and other things are located. you must be level 85 to take the portal to the peninsula, but you can queue up for the actual battle at level 80. unlike wintergrasp you cannot fly within or directly to either zone.

once in the tol barad peninsula (not the battle field), you'll find your faction's quartermaster and some daily quests. the dailies will earn you a tol barad commendation (and some reputation, i'm guessing) once completed.

there may be other ways to earn the commendations (winning the battle perhaps?) but i haven't had a chance to find out.

so the seagull companion may be a pet that we'll have to wait until we're 85 before going after, but who knows. if we can start earning tol barad currency early on, maybe we'll be able to buy it by the time we hit 85 (when we can port straight to the quartermaster.)

personally i'm not all that excited about it. i've never had any interest in pvp of any kind. but if it's for a vanity pet... i will suffer through it! *determined* i might have to drag some friends along to help out and keep me from ripping my hair out though.... ;P

Well I'll Be Damned - Tiny Shale Spider

if you haven't read already, warcraftpets.com has a small summary of one of the new cataclysm companions, the tiny shale spider. specifically, "He's very tricky to reach, requiring quest access and a bit of ingenuity."

i didn't quite understand what this meant. was it a creature that was phased out? would you need to do a quest to summon it?

well tonight i went and tried my luck, and now i understand completely. @_@

i won't go into too many details because, quite frankly, i'm still pretty stumped and i'm 99% sure my find was an accident, bug, glitch, or whatever you want to call it. i'm going to have to do some more research on this one before i can write up anything with confidence.

but i will tell you this: jadefang is in an area of the caves that is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to get to under normal circumstances. how i managed to get up there... i have no idea. i.. just... i'm at a loss for words over this situation.

this pet will be by far one of the hardest to obtain come expansion (unless i can figure out this puzzle of getting in, over, and up). not only is it from a rare spawn, the mob is in a hidden, hard to reach area. plus think of all the competition! for the companion pet that it drops AS WELL as jadefang itself (i think it can be tamed by hunters). there were already quite a few people running through the caves, and since most were max level... i'm guessing they were after the same thing i was.

so i know what i'll be doing for the next few days, trying to figure out just how in the world i'm going to do this come live release because i honestly don't think i'm going to get THAT lucky again. x_x

oh and i forgot to mention, yes, the pet is bind on pick up. :(

Lantern Preview and Turkey

i'm taking a break from the elementium geode hunt. there's only so much ore one toon can handle before exploding!

Lantern Preview
while on break, harval pointed me in the direction of one of wowhead's most recent blog posts. it features two 3D model previews of the possible enchanted lantern pet. there's even a 3D model of deathy, the blizzcon 2010 redeemable reward!

strangely, though, the lanterns are labeled as "draenei" and "blood elf" lanterns. could this be hinting at race specific companions? perhaps a pet that changes depending upon the owner's faction/race? that would be pretty awesome and a first for vanity pets!

Turkey
something else that caught my eye was a white murloc egg that teaches the companion spell for terky. i'm not sure if this item/spell has been sitting in the database for a while now, or if it's entirely new. wowhead says "Added in patch 4.0.0."

i don't want to get anyone's hopes up but... WoW's anniversary is around the corner and blizzard has been known to send out a gift for all those who log in during that special time of year, yea? it's around thanksgiving day, isn't it? mashed potatoes and terky, anyone? *cough*baby murloc dressed in a turkey costume please*cough*

well, we'll see. :)

**update: re: terky - rhapture found some info on the white murloc egg and terky that's pretty dated. over 2 years to be specific. it may have been a china-only iCoke promotion. :( so it's probably unlikely that we'll be seeing this companion any time soon. i guess i jumped the gun when i saw this pet. my desire for a baby murloc was too strong!

Pets With... Cooldowns?

so mmo-champ is reporting that in the most recent beta patch the guild page and the guild herald companion pets will have pretty long cooldowns. 4 hours for the herald and 8 hours for the page. according to their tooltips, these two companions only last 5 minutes once summoned, so it makes me wonder with such long cooldowns and short durations... how on earth do we classify them? are they TRUE companion pets, or are they to be considered more in line with an item like jeeves? (should be noted that jeeves is listed under "combat pets" on wowhead.)

this is somewhat of a puzzle for me. obviously jeeves is NOT a non-combat pet. it definitely does not meet the requirements to be even considered a companion. let's refresh our memory on what it takes to be a vanity pet (as defined by warcraftpets.com):

to be considered a TRUE vanity pet..

Cataclysm Old World Pet Changes

while doing some searching on the beta forums, i came across this post: Old World Pet Changes List, posted last week. it covers the changes of currently existing companions. this includes: pets that are missing, pets that have changed location, pets that are easier to get in cataclysm, pets that haven't changed, and pets that need more info on/possibly missing.

if you are on the beta and have some time to check out any of the old world companions, help out by posting any new information on that thread so everyone may stay up-to-date and well informed.

hopefully even those who are not on the beta can view the thread linked above as it will come in handy (if kept updated) come expansion release. being a huge fan of staying organized and keeping lists, i'll definitely be adding it to my bookmarks!

Mini Jouster Bug

can you tell what's wrong with the following screenshots?
hint: there's three things wrong here.

(click on the second image to enlarge)
answers are found after the break!




if you answered that..

Lil' XT - Take Two..?

since we all know and love (or hate lol) lil' xt, available from the blizzard petstore, one of the newest datamined companions (Landro's Lil' XT) has many collectors slightly confused and wondering. or is it just me? :P

well maybe there's some hope just over the horizon to answer the blazing question of "what the hell, another one?"

wowtcgloot.com has an interesting news post up currently up, showcasing what could be a hint to what landro's lil' xt is and how it will be obtained.

the tooltip on the item listed in their announcement states:

"landro's lil' xt - binds when picked up, unique.

use: a near-perfect, goblin-manufactured knockoff of the wonderworks original."

could this mean a second lil' xt? this time from the upcoming new loot cards?!

so far i've found no other information regarding this... evil twin clone. but it makes you wonder, huh? well only time will tell...

Blue and Gold Mini Jouster

while i was leveling up mining so i could hunt for the elusive elementium vein for a chance at the elementium geode companion, i decided to satisfy my curiosity about the quest chain that was recently changed to offer a choice between the blue and gold mini jouster pets.

Mr. Grubbs - Update

Doobjanka at warcraftpets is reporting that the Hidden Stash can drop off any mob in eastern plaguelands. if mr. grubbs has a chance to spawn within ANY hidden stash bag, regardless of which mob it dropped off of, this is great news for collectors! this would mean less competition for the carrion grubs and devourers creatures (quest mobs for a low level epl quest).

so while mr. grubbs farming has some similarities to the disgusting oozeling, there are definitely some factors that make hunting for him different than the oozeling. whether or not these factors make it any "easier" to obtain the pet is yet to be seen.

after i try going for some other new pets, i'll head back to epl to try my luck on random creatures for mr. grubbs.

Mr. Grubbs

If you enjoyed farming for the Disgusting Oozeling (you masochist, you!) then you are going to absolutely LOVE the Cataclysm pet Mr. Grubbs. However, there is a slight difference between farming for the oozeling and Mr. Grubbs.

Before you can even go out and start killing a bunch of mobs in hopes for a special loot bag, you will need to do some prerequisite quests to gain a buff that will allow you to see the bag on the creatures.

Mixed Feelings

ahh, beta. you are a curse as much as you are a blessing.

while i was doing my usual hunt for information on the new cataclysm companions for my list, i came across some changes to quests that i've already completed on the beta. normally any changes wouldn't bother me, but these changes included pet rewards. D:

so i have a choice to make: wait until the expansion goes live to do the finalized version of the quest and obtain my non-combat pet reward then. OR pick another toon on the beta, re-level up to the appropriate level, go through the quest chain to reach the specific quest and finally complete the quest to receive the new companion reward.

ahhh both are equally undesirable! >_< sigh. i guess this is what one must sacrifice in order to see other (new) goodies prior to release.

besides, one missed pet opportunity won't kill me right? ....right??!!?!?! x_x

Singing Sunflower

i just completed the quest chain to get the singing sunflower. if you've seen the video on how to complete the quests, then you're already slightly ahead of the game.

i'll be completely honest - i failed many times on the second quest and was extremely frustrated. i'm just not a tower defense type of player. it almost seemed as if i would never get this pet because of this. there may be many others out there who may struggle with this one so here are just some notes on how to (hopefully) make it that much easier for all the plants vs zombies noobs (like me!):

Staying Up-to-Date

in an attempt to keep myself as well as others organized and informed, i'm compiling a cataclysm companion pet list of all the NEW cuties that will/may be available to us in the expansion. you can find it here (click). the post is open for comments so feel free to help me add to the page with the latest pet news!

Dark Phoenix Hatchling Change

there's been a change to how this guild reward is obtained:

- United Nations: Raise 55 reputations to Exalted. Reward: Dark Phoenix Hatchling. (old = complete specific heroic dungeons while in a guild group. a "guild group" is 4 guildies out of 5 people in a party.)

this is good news for smaller guilds! it also makes both companion guild rewards available to just about anyone guilded, although it may take more time for guilds with less people contributing to the cause.

i approve of this change. it's not making it super easy to unlock but it is meeting players half way and giving guilds of various sizes some flexibility.

Even More Possible Pets

mmo-champ has even more new pets from the latest beta patch! those listed in bold are new:

- Deathy
- Guild Herald
- Guild Page
- Gold Mini Jouster
- Blue Mini Jouster
- Tiny Shale Spider
- Pebble
- Landro's Lil' XT
- Enchanted Lantern
- Magic Lamp
- Elementium Geode
- Mr. Grubbs
- Brazie's Sunflower

just a reminder: this IS the beta. not ALL companions and items will make it into the live release of cataclysm. all companions and items are subject to change as well. but moving along...

deathy, as we already know, is the blizzcon 2010 redeemable in-game item for either attending blizzcon or purchasing the live stream.

pebble has also been mentioned as a possible quest reward companion from a deepholm or a reputation reward via the therazane faction in deepholm.

AAAAAALL the other pets listed above are entirely new! let's take some guesses as to what these companions may entail yea? :D

Getting Down and Dirty

i finally decided to take the plunge and patch my beta client. it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. heh.

anyway, archaeology! WOW. what a grind! i'm strangely addicted though. just a warning: at the time of this writing, it's VERY difficult to level up past 120 skill and it's VERY repetitive with a lot of travel time required. i would recommend waiting until you have your flying mount before attempting to level up this secondary profession. some of the dig sites are so spread out, i'm so grateful that we can fly everywhere!

i won't go into detail about how the profession is done (it's pretty straight forward once you test it out a couple times), but i will discuss the companion pets involved.

after "solving" about 20+ artifacts of multiple races/categories (night elf, troll, dwarven, fossil, etc.) and coming up with only grey items so far, i did some research and found out the following:

Cata Updates - Details

since i've been busy and a tad lazy to patch my beta client, i haven't been on the beta for some time. thankfully, WarcraftPets.com has been working hard on gathering the latest intel for us!

so far the newest updates to already announced pets are as follows:

- Dark Phoenix Hatchling (guild achievement required: Guild Cataclysm Dungeon Hero); 100g + X guild reputation

- Armadillo Pup (guild achievement required: Critter Kill Squad); 40s + X guild reputation

just to refresh your memory, a "guild group" under blizzard's terms is 4 guildies out of 5 people in a dungeon party. unfortunately, this means those who are in very intimate guilds but would like the dark phoenix hatchling will either need to recruit more to meet the 4/5 or join a larger guild.

another confirmed pet with (previously) very little information on was the Rustberg Seagull. WarcraftPets has discovered that upon the most recent beta patches, players will now need to be honored with their respective Tol Barad faction. the seagull will cost 60 Tol Barad Commendations.

and last but not least, the cataclysm engineering pets (personal world destroyer and de-weaponized mechanical companion) are learned at 475 from the engineering trainer. at this time these companions are still bind on pick up, meaning you must be an engineer to acquire/learn them. according to wowhead's cataclysm site, the mats for the two engineering pets are as follows:

- personal world destroyer: Cut Obsidian x2, Handful of Obsidian Bolts x2, Volatile Energy Converter

- de-weaponized mechanical companion: Cut Obsidian x2, Handful of Obsidian Bolts x2, Volatile Energy Converter

much of this could change since cataclysm is still in beta. but just in case.... i think i'm going to start saving up mats to power level engineering again! x_x

Archaeology Fun

mmo-champ has confirmed at least 3 archaeology companion pet rewards:

- Crawling Hand / Mummified Monkey Paw
- Clockwork Gnome
- Fossilized Hatchling

screenshots can be found in the companion pet section of their post that i've linked.

ah-ha! so that's where blizzard's decided to stick the crawling hand! (er... that didn't sound perverted to just me, did it? :P) i was thinking possibly a new halloween pet. but no, i think a mummy hand fits with archaeology much better.

but it makes you wonder... whatever happened to the rest of the body @_@

archaeology is shaping up to look like a really fun secondary tradeskill! there are so many vanity items tied to it that it's sure to keep collectors of all types busy for a while. i absolutely can't wait!

M-O-A-R

this is the short and sweet version as i may have more comments at a later date and time when my brain is less in a fog. ^^;

because we asked for it and blizzard has obliged:

- Rumbling Rockling
- Swirling Stormling
- Whirling Waveling
- Fox Kit
- Clockwork Gnome
- Crawling Claw

- mmo-champ (under "Spell Diffs" section)

mmo-champ notes: "These changes are from the comparison of game files, they are not official changes and nothing is final until it's confirmed by Blizzard AND on live servers. It could be a simple test change, or me being stupid and not doing things properly."

my guess is the first three will turn out to be the missing elemental friends blizzard mentioned they would be adding come expansion.

fox kit is a baby fox... which many of us begged, pleaded, and offered their first child for. oh, wait... was i the only one who did that? :P

clockwork gnome. uhm. am i the only one who has strange ideas about this one? a windup little person... uhh. yea. i won't go there. :P think it'll count as a humanoid or will we be able to use a leash on this? hm..... we'll see!

and last but not least the crawling claw. could be a renamed version of the crawling hand pet that was datamined a little while ago. or maybe an animal version?

these last two intrigue me the most!

edit: clarification - the crawling claw will be obtained through archeology (mummified monkey paw)

Rustberg Seagull and Armadillo Update

WarcraftPets.com has a couple nice screenshots of the rustberg seagull as well as a preview of the possible armadillo companion!

the source of the armadillo is still unknown, however players have confirmed that a vendor in Tol Barad named Brazie sells the seagull for 4g. there may be a reputation needed to purchase the bird pet in future beta patches or upon the expansion release.

the seagull's as one would expect. i was hoping for a baby seagull but i'll take what i can get. :P the armadillo on the other hand, baby or not... this guy is adorable!

(please give him a rolled up ball animation, please give him a rolled up ball animation, please give him a rolled up ball animation, please give him a rolled up ball animation)

:P