More Poking Around On Beta

Diablo 3 has eaten up a lot of my free time, but I finally made my way onto the beta. Not much has changed with pet battles since I last checked up on it. It's still not ready for testing, as the new level requirement to train it is now 91 (the level cap was finally raised to 90 on the beta).

BoP pet items are still useless, and I hope developers have a plan for these homeless companions. Even if I cage the same pet and remove all versions of that particular companion from my journal, any extra BoP pets I have on that particular toon still can't learn them. Damn that error message! I can still learn a second caged version of a once BoP vanity pet, though. Well, that's a WIP for ya. :P


The guild vendor has been updated with the new Thundering Serpent Hatchling and can be purchased for 300 gold. I'm not sure if this is the finalized version or simply a placeholder, and I'm also unsure which guild achievement will unlock this companion (or if it's even a guild achievement that awards it).

I can currently purchase a hatchling, but oddly enough, it says I already know it (but I don't, really! *cry*). This puts it in the same boat as the other BoP pets that are "already known", making it impossible to add to my collection at this time. I'm sure it's just an indicator that it's still a WIP, but... but... Blizzard, such a tease! lol

The Jade Crane Chick is lovely (as expected) and can be previewed in the pet journal. Heck, I even saw a character running around with the actual pet on the beta already! A comment on Wowhead indicates that freshly copied toons might automatically receive this pet, or perhaps it's just a bug. Either way, it's so cute and will match perfectly with a larger version (if they're tamable by hunters).

The journal says that it's available for purchase from Audrey Burnhep (Stormwind) or Varzog (Orgrimmar), both pet trainers. I've visited the former and despite taking and completing her quest to learn how to heal my companions after battle, she's currently not offering any pets for sale. Perhaps yet another WIP.

Wild pets that are capturable are back to being unattackable using traditional spells and abilities (thank goodness!), for both players who have pet battles trained and those who do not.




Last but not least, when you cage a wild pet, it will indicate its quality in the name. As you can see in the screenshot comparison above, a caged version will reflect the quality of the pet. One is common (white name) while the other is uncommon (green name).

For the most part, quality still doesn't seem to have any impact on the pets (that I've noticed yet). The only difference between the two deer is the uncommon one has one more health point than the common one. I haven't tried to capture a grey quality deer, so I'm not sure how that one would compare to the two I currently have. It's possible that higher quality pets might have an advantage while battling in the future and for the finalized version of pet battles, but for now it's just name color.

Other than that, I haven't noticed many other changes. Again, it's still all being sorted out and worked on, so all of the above could change or become outdated news quickly.

That's about it for now. I'm procrastinating a bit with getting my druid to level 90 on the beta, but I'm very eager to start flying around panda-land and exploring. Not to mention taking an up close and personal look at all the possible Pandaria pets to collect (and lamenting over the critters that I won't be able to add to my little army :P).