Hot Enough For You?

Patch 5.2 brings us an interesting pet, Pierre, an animated cooking stove that even doubles as a cooking fire. What makes it so special? I mean, there are already a slew of normally inanimate objects that have magically come to life just to follow us around on our crazy adventures, right?

Pierre can be crafted by engineers; again, not a big deal. But guess what? It's currently Bind on Pick Up. AND on top of that, it cannot be traded.


Nevermind the pricey materials necessary to craft this companion (15 Stabilized Lightning Source - 150 Ghost Iron Bars or 300 Ghost Iron Ore; 15 Living Steel - *insert grumbling about math here*), you'll need to be an engineer period to get your hands on this hot oven.

I haven't been able to find any information on what engineering skill level you need to have, but when you're using materials like Living Steel, my guess is either max (600) or very close to max. I can't even find a recipe/trainer that teaches you how to craft Pierre.

It's been a while since we've had a profession exclusive pet. I'm sure many, like myself, thought gone are the days of pets being restricted to only those of a certain craft. Could Pierre be the start of a re-emerging trend of BoP profession pets? There are pros and cons to this, and from a player point of view it's hard to swallow the pros.

The only upside if this is the case, is that certain professions will have something unique about them. Engineering will have Pierre, so and so will have XYZ, etc. You could argue that a few professions already have unique craftable companions associated with them, but the difference is that those pets can be traded and sold. As of the latest PTR build, Pierre has been flagged as untradeable and BoP, making it a pretty limited pet.

From a developer standpoint, it's good to include some rarity/exclusivity into the game, and it might make things more interesting. Those without an engineering toon will need to get one in order to add this new pet to their collection. Hunting for materials and possibly the recipe itself? More world exploration. In theory, all of this sounds pretty exciting.

But what about from a player point of view? The downsides are pretty obvious, don't you think?

With how simple it can be to obtain a pet these days, part of me feels that many won't be very pleased with the idea of having to specially go out of their way for a companion pet. Back in vanilla, it was a standard activity. These days, not so much. Especially not for a crafted pet. Die-hard collectors will make it a point to do whatever they can to add Pierre to their collections, but that leaves out many new to pet collecting and Pet Battles. Will Pierre be one of those special (snowflake) companions that marks a truly dedicated collector?

So many questions are still unanswered (how do you learn how to craft his pet, what skill level is required, are these the finalized mats necessary, etc.), but the main thing it boils down to is how will this pet ultimately be implemented into the game? As a rare drop engineering recipe that creates a BoP, untradeable pet? Perhaps a trainable BoP, untradeable pet? Or something completely different (BoE and/or tradeable)?

However you get it, I want it, and if that means dropping a profession to level up engineering just so I can craft this companion for myself, then so be it. I've done it before, who's to say I can't do it again?

Ideally, if it's a BoP pet, at the very least we'll be able to cage it and then trade it with each other. Having a unique pet is great, but it's even better when you can share it with others. Sharing is, afterall, caring. :P

Anyway, there's still some time for developers to change their mind or mix things up a bit, so it's hard to say where Pierre will end up. Probably won't be seeing him in the kitchen, though. ;)