Call to Arms - Another Possible Pet

so far the only officially confirmed pets on the satchel of exotic mysteries loot table are the razzashi hatchling, cockatiel, and tiny sporebat. (note: even then, this may change once the patch is deployed.)

a speculated pet that may or may not be available through the call to arms feature is the cenarian hatchling.

after a quick scan of wowhead's PTR site, another pet that might be on the list of possible companions available from the goodie bag in 4.1 is the shimmering wyrmling.

not only is there a comment on wowhead suggesting that it is one of the pets obtainable through the new dungeon system, much like the tiny sporebat there is a new shimmering wyrmling item that does not have a reputation requirement on it, yet it teaches the same pet summoning spell (same ID) as the original shimmering wyrmling.

i still don't know whether or not the reputation necessary for the original versions of the pets will also be mandatory to use the new companion items. my guess is the answer is no, though, otherwise why not simply add the original pet items instead of implementing new ones with unique item IDs?

i have mixed feelings about the addition of rep-related companions to the satchel, just like i mixed feelings about the call to arms feature. part of me would like to see the reputation necessary continue to be mandatory before being able to learn the pet, but another part understands the tediousness of this idea. while on one hand adding these vanity pets to the goodie bag will completely devalue the original rep grind, multiple sources for (certain) pets is something that i do support. i guess pets that are probably not well-suited for this category just never crossed my mind. well, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

anyway, i've said it before, and i'll say it again, the simplest compromise in my eyes would be to just not add reputation pets to the loot table. blizzard has different ideas, though. it's something that will either work out or cause more upset.

initially the change to the bop engineering pets caused quite a stir, but over time i think people have generally either gotten used to it or have let the issue go as another one of those things that just cannot be reverted. have many forgotten? most likely not. but in an expansion like cataclysm where things are constantly being updated, changed, added and removed, you have to pick and choose your battles carefully to prevent yourself from getting burnt out.

we'll see which pets are actually in the call to arms reward bag once patch 4.1 is released, as well as their droprates. only then will i be able to solidify my opinion about the new feature.