You Thought *Blank* Was Bad?

pyrite stonetender, you sir are evil. this npc is to cataclysm like old man barlo was to burning crusade, no doubt about it.

it's no wonder that pebble is part of an achievement. it's pure luck if you even see the daily offered more than once a week! at least this companion is guaranteed... eventually. it's just a matter of patience and time before one can complete the achievement. thankfully, the quest isn't difficult or else that would be a double facepalm from collectors all over.

blizzard has found a way around the whole "bugging" dailies technique by putting the rotating dailies on different NPCs. this pretty much ensures that the pebble daily cannot be picked up twice in a row unless the NPC actually offers it two consecutive days. or you're just that. good. and you're lightning fast as soon as dailies reset. i've yet to see it happen though. once it's been rotated out, it's out for the day.

besides waiting for the rare pebble daily to pop up, i've been going at archaeology relentlessly. specifically the tol'vir artifacts. the crawling claw is the last pet that this secondary profession has to offer me, but it too has been elusive.

rng plays a large part of archaeology, and i guess i've used up the majority of my luck. with 28 common tol'vir solves, i'm wondering how many more to go until the companion pops up as an artifact for me to piece together.

to quote coldplay: "Nobody said it was easy, No one ever said it would be this hard."

but on a less emo-note, this has officially become my archaeology theme song. "dig dig dig dig..."

Have a Good One

wishing all, big and small, happy holidays! have a safe and wonderful new year :)


p.s. - unfortunately father winter did not have any new pets under the holiday tree this year, but there is a new toy. ;)

MMO-Champion Giveaways #3

yes, in the spirit of giving, mmo-champion has yet another contest in which pet prizes will be awarded! for this contest the pets are:

- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil' Ragnaros
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Moonkin Hatchling
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Pandaren Monk
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil' K.T.
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil’ XT

not to mention a whole bunch of other goodies including the TCG mounts, vanity items and other awesome prizes.

this time the goal is to show everyone how awesomely nice you can be. for rules and more info, check out their contest details page here: clickie.

good luck to all those entering!

WarcraftPets Contest

WarcraftPets.com is also having a contest giveaway tomorrow, thursday, december 23 at 1 PM (EST)! the pet prizes are:

- x1 tuskarr kite
- x8 landros' lil' xt

plus a grim campfire. all prizes courtesy of WoWTCG Loot!

to enter the contest, simply login into twitter and follow WarcraftPets. at 1 PM (EST) questions will start popping up and first person to answer correctly wins! contest questions will be posted throughout the day. be sure to include "@WarcraftPets" and your WarcraftPets.com username in your tweet along with your answer so we know who's who. :) one prize per member. good luck and happy holidays!

**update, dcember 23rd: congrats to everyone that won the twitter WarcraftPets contest! i hope you enjoyed the trivia :D

MMO-Champion Giveaways #2

mmo-champion has another contest giveaway! this time the main prizes are mounts, but 4th and 5th place are:

- 4th Place - Companion Pet Pack #1 - World of Warcraft Pet: Lil Ragnaros + World of Warcraft® Pet: Moonkin Hatchling
- 5th Place - Companion Pet Pack #2 - World of Warcraft® Pet: Pandaren Monk + World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil’ XT

all you have to do is write a really good guide. since there are more rules for this contest, head over to mmo-champ for more details.

good luck to anyone entering :D

MMO-Champion Giveaways

mmo-champion is having a "contest" with vanity pet prizes! here's a list of the pets that will be handed out:

- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil Ragnaros
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Moonkin Hatchling
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Pandaren Monk
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil' K.T.
- 1 x World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil’ XT

plus there's a celestial steed and curse premium account(s) up for grabs.

in order to enter to possibly win, you'll need to use facebook and "like" the mmo-champion facebook page as well as their facebook contest page. winners will be randomly picked on sunday (december 19?).

if you missed it, here's the link to the mmo-champ page with more details: click!

An Early Present

i normally go through highs and lows when it comes to hunting for extra elusive pets. for a few weeks straight i may just go all out and farm for hours at a time each day, and then for the next few weeks take a breather to do something else. well after last week's grind on baradin foxes, i decided to take a small break from them this week. the PVP season just started, as did most school holidays, so i saw the increase of players as a sign to come back to the fox kit at a later date.

instead i put some time and energy into the archaeology pets! i already snagged the fossilized hatchling (first rare that i completed too!), so all that was left was the clockwork gnome and crawling claw. i've maxed out the profession, but still no sign of the claw. i did complete the gnome, though. :D

Baradin Fox Farming

I've spent my fair share of time on tol barad peninsula hunting for the very elusive fox kit, and have come to know the area like the back of my hand. I still haven't gotten my very own baby fox, but nevertheless, I figured I'd make it a little easier on those who haven't already memorized the area. Sharing is caring right? :)



Click on the image above to enlarge.
There are a total of 16 spawn points, and sometimes the foxes will re-spawn right after you've killed one.

Players should be careful when killing foxes just south of cape of lost hope since both the horde and alliance graveyards and rez spots are located there. if you play on a normal/PVE server, then ignore this piece of information. :P

So happy hunting everyone. Keep your spirits up even though I know it can be a real drag to have to endure both a very low drop rate and the potential for harassment and ganking (on PVP servers).

Back to the hunt!

Guild Page... Pet?

meet the guild page. he is one of the first non-combat pets that has a summoning cooldown. did i mention he's the first pet that's a grown freaking man? awkward!


currently i really don't see the point of this pet since he's just a vendor for the guild rewards, and most of the items have yet to be unlocked. not to mention there's a guild vendor conveniently located in stormwind and orgrimmar.

it is nice to have another vendor on hand, though. even if he only hangs around for five minutes and has an EIGHT HOUR summoning cooldown. i'm having trouble understanding the purpose of such a short duration with such a long cooldown. it makes me wonder where he goes for those 8 hours. probably the bar. i guess carrying a guild crest for 5 minutes at a time is hard work...? lol.

oh and ironically the guild page tries to sell you another guild page. it's a pyramid scheme, i tell you!

Success in the Nick of Time

hooray! i managed to get three more pets last night. one fairly early on in the evening, and two just before the server went down.

Winter Veil Soon

winter veil is coming soon and with it a relatively large number of pets to collect. (but not quite as many as the whopping 19 we received upon the cataclysm expansion!)

the biggest question on a pet collector's mind for this holiday season: will there be a new companion under the holiday tree on december 25? (presents from the tree won't be obtainable until the day of christmas unless blizzard has changed their philosophy on this from previous years.)

my hope is yes, there will be a shiny new pet for us to collect. then again, any other expectation from me would be odd, wouldn't it? :P "no, i don't want a pet! i want a new toy!" would be so out of character lol. oh, if that new toy were an item that allowed more than one non-combat pet out at a time, i think i could make an exception. haha but i digress.

speaking of shiny, finding the celestial dragon would be an absolute treat in my humble opinion. it sort of has that wintery, magical feel to it? wowhead is showing that this pet has been updated with its own item, so there is still some hope that this one may pop up sometime in the future for players to collect.

don't hold your breath though. as always, there are many companions that have models, spell IDs, item IDs, and hell, even screenshots, and yet are still unavailable on live servers for whatever reason blizzard sees fit.

although i recognize and know all of this, i'm still hopeful as many other players are too, i'm sure.

what other possible pets could be found underneath father winter's holiday tree this year? there's a long list of companions that have yet to find homes so blizzard is definitely not without ideas or options. let's just hope they pick one for us this year!

Won't Someone Think of the Children?!

dear blizzard,

although children's week 2011 is still a ways away, i'd like to state that i would greatly enjoy having new orphans to show around azeroth as well as new companions to collect from the quests. these activities are always interesting and fun... but only when working properly! :P

i implore you to please check and then double check any potential new quests for worgen/goblin orphans that you may be implementing in the future.

the northrend orphan bug was absolutely devastating for pet collectors who were very eager to give both the curious oracle hatchling and curious wolvar pup a home, only to discover they were unable to do so due to the quest being unrepeatable. (fixing this issue for 2011 would also be much appreciated!)

there's always room in a pet collector's home for more, and we welcome any and all. please don't let something like a miscalculated timer or bug get in the way of our very big hearts!


here's hoping for a bug-free children's week 2011,
quint

ps: could bubbles, little snail, and lizzy be the new pet rewards for children's week 2011? y/n? ;)

It's Not All Sunshine and Rainbows

there's been confirmation of the fox kit drop, so i've been hunting for it over the past couple of days. a total of about 10 hours has gone into the search, but still nothing.

i managed to find an endless amount of griefing in the PVP sense though. player versus player just is not my cup of tea so the prospect of farming for this pet really has me down and out.

i'm not sure what feels worse; my initial reaction when the new holiday dungeon boss system first released or the search for this pet (and ultimate run-ins with ganking and large parties of PVPers.) the former caused and the latter is causing an upset in my pet collecting enthusiasm. i can describe it as a sort of sinking feeling in my gut.

part of me is thankful that blizzard has offered a surprise for collectors, but then again i'm cursing the developers for the specifics of the surprise. the fox kit is bind on pick up. you will encounter some PVP, harassment, ganking, camping, etc. (although i'm not sure if this applies to non-PVP servers, but i wouldn't be surprised if it did since Tol Barad in general was intended to be a PVP area.) the extremely low drop rate and the very limited number of mobs to obtain it from. actually, the latter wouldn't bother me much at all, as i've gone through more than a few grindy searches for pets. however the former two details really compounds it all into a less than enjoyable situation.

some minor changes to how the pet can be acquired would definitely be appreciated, but i'm not really hoping for anything. had the pet been made to be bind on use instead, i would feel less gloomy about it all tbh. or even the ability to fly in the zone to escape some unwanted PVP situations.

this isn't to say i'm giving up. the stubborn side of me will press on despite the pessimism and melancholy that's overcome me. it's just one of those companions that you know you have to have, will suffer through endlessly for, and finally look back on and either see it all as a fond memory or come to despise the pet/situation.

i don't know how long it will take me to get this pet. the PVP really does cut down the efficiency of farming for it. i predict it will be one of the last to be checked off my list. i know my obsession and general compulsion to get the companion will overcome the discouraged state of mind that i'm currently in. perhaps i just need to give it some time.

Slowly But Surely

i've acquired a few more pets since the tiny shale spider, yay! a guildie of mine crafted and mailed me the de-weaponized mechanical companion. many thanks *hearts* :) and i caved and bought the elementium geode for a couple thousand off of the auction house. for some reason i just couldn't wait for that one. it's so awesome looking!

last but not least, i ground out archaeology for about 5-6 hours. it was tough to resist the urge to solve any of the artifacts until i reached 100 skill, at which point i went nuts and solved a bunch. i saved the fossil artifacts for last to solve to ensure that i had the highest possible skill, hoping that on the off chance that the higher your skill, the more likely you'll get a rare artifact to solve. and what do you know! either my plan succeeded or luck was on my side again. i nabbed the fossilized hatchling after i solved my second fossil artifact. since i also saved an entire continent with mainly fossil survey areas, i was able to finish off the hatchling really quickly.

today was my day #1 for the pebble achievement. i learned my lesson from the beta. this time around i'm manually keeping track of how many times i've done the daily since the achievement doesn't tally your completions for you. 9 more times to go! i just hope it's not bugged like it was on the beta. i never received pebble either from an NPC or in the mail. :(

there are still more to collect but those will come with determination, persistence and time. i'm looking forward to all of them! (well.. except maybe the rustberg seagull. even though it doesn't involve direct PVP, there's bound to be some due to the location and nature of the dailies required to get the pet. bleh.)

Another One Possibly Snuck In

fox kit?! comments on wowhead show that the official wow community website has this item listed as being dropped from fox creatures in tol barad peninsula.

no confirmed drop has been reported yet.

the pet is bind on pick up.. if it even exists. will be writing more later, and yes, i am sighing at the prospect of even more PVP.


update: after 4 hours of straight farming, all i've seen are two types of grey vendor trash from the fox creatures on the peninsula. this rumor is looking a bit dismal so far. not even an uncommon item has dropped yet. these foxes must have a teeny tiny loot table, or the chances of finding something other than claws or fangs are extremely low.

i'll have to come back again tomorrow to try some more.

One Down!

i spent a good chunk of tonight just sitting around in jadefang's cave, hoping she would spawn. between doing some cataclysm random dungeons and side quests in and around the caves... it was a very dull night.

nothing came of sitting around and waiting but at about 3 am tonight, i was reminded by my better half to go and check to see if the rarespawn was up. needless to say, i wasn't exactly all that hopeful but part of me (the collector part) couldn't resist the urge to at least try.

what do you know? lady luck was on my side! i'm now a proud owner of the tiny shale spider. the first pet on my list can officially be checked off now, and i can move on to finishing up leveling and gathering up all the other pets. :D

for anyone keeping track (for spawn timer purposes) - jadefang killed 3 AM (PST) on server kil'jaeden, december 8, 2010.

and on a side note with a tinge of sap: the tiny shale spider, whom i probably wouldn't have gotten tonight if it hadn't been for my better half encouraging me to check on jadefang's spawn, is my 143rd pet. totally unintentional. lol. (if you're not familiar with pager code, 143 stands for "i love you.") just something to add to my catalog of pet collecting memories. :)

A Chest Instead of a Spider

i went to visit jadefang today, but unfortunately she wasn't up. after zoning out of a queued instance back to her location, instead of finding a rare mob or no mob, a sturdy treasure chest spawned right in jadefang's spot. within it i found a blue item level 292 item. how very bizarre!

i haven't read of any other spawn point for jadefang yet, so i can only deduce that jadefang and a treasure chest are on possibly alternating spawn timers?

i'm going to continue checking back, but i don't foresee myself getting a hold of jadefang or the tiny shale spider any time soon. lol.

Deathwing's At Your Door

be ready to let him in! for those who ordered a collector's edition of cataclysm (and if you've received it already):

"You can attach a key if it happened to arrive early. It won't grant you access to anything Cataclysm until midnight PST.

(except the CE pet if you got it)" - Bashiok

so congrats! you can be a proud owner of lil' deathwing even before the expansion goes live. :D

right now i'm just counting down the hours before the mad dash to 85 and all the new pets! i have my check list ready as well as a tentative layout and plan of what zones i want to hit and which pets i'm hoping to collect first. the rest is up to blizzard and fate/RNG!

i'll likely be quiet for the next few days or at least until i hit 85. if there are new pets that were never discovered on beta, i'll probably note that and come back to write more about it after i reach level cap.

until then, i wish everyone the best, enjoy the new/old world, and happy collecting!

Showing Some Love

if you haven't visited WarcraftPets recently (as a pet collector, how could you not?! :P), you may be unaware of the site's recent struggle with handling the increased traffic it's gotten ever since patch 4.0.3. website creator and director, brain (also known as breanni), had to recently hire outside help with upgrading and optimizing the site. this was something that would obviously cost extra, especially if it had to be done before next week's expansion release.

it's only been about a day since a donation link was put up on the front news page of the website, yet the community has successfully doubled the amount of donations needed. in fact, the donations exceeded the goal in less than half a day of the initial posting!

it's absolutely heartwarming to see how understanding and giving the pet collecting community is. acts of generosity such as this really makes me take a step back and realize just how grateful i am to be apart of such a supportive, fun, friendly, and dedicated community.

pet collecting is still relatively small when compared to the larger groups in world of warcraft, but this overwhelming act of goodwill shows that we are indeed the most loyal and obsessed dedicated to the cause! ♥

A Plan of Action

cataclysm is less than a week away! it's so exciting yet a little overwhelming at the same time. there will be 17 possible pets to collect in the expansion, NOT including the ones that we really have no information about other than the name and any hidden surprise companions blizzard has in store for us. (also not including the TCG and CE pets)

still, 17 is quite a lot! i really need to sit down and think of my collecting strategy. unlike previous expansions, i'll have a head start since there's quite a bit of information on each of the known companions so far. where, how, etc. before, i just kind of just jumped straight into the deep end and hoped to float.

i'm going to make the most of the readily available information this time around, and write up a priority list for myself. i may have to enlist the help of some friends and/or alts for a few of these crafted pets. hm... that's something i'll have to work out later.

first things first, though. get. to. level. 85!

Stay Cool, Stay Classy

if you are a long-time wow player, you may remember a bug in vanilla that allowed players to summon "multiple" pets at once. it was actually just the player spamming the pet items (companions weren't learned spells back then) over and over again, which made it look like there were many, many vanity pets out at the same time.

well apparently there was a similar version of this bug that came with patch patch 4.0.3. (i believe it's been fixed now with patch 4.0.3a.) it was a much more extreme version of what you could do in vanilla, mind you. to the point of crashing a server, possibly getting suspended and/or banned, etc.

my initial thought when i first heard about it was "lawl, i have 140+ pets... i wonder what it would look like to have them all out at once." i'm sure this is the reaction of many players. sounds like a neat/funny idea, let's try it! however, after some thinking, i've come to the conclusion that it's not as cool as it sounds.