Alterac Brew Pup Sale Generates One Million In Donations

WoWInsider reports that sales of the Alterac Brew-Pup between November and December 2013 resulted in a donation of $1,000,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. During the sale, 50% of every purchase would be donated to the non-profit organization. One million donated, and another one million under Blizzard's belt — that's a lot of players adopting this pup!

It warms my heart to hear that pet collectors can make such a huge impact on something worthwhile. Even though many may not have intentionally bought the pet to help a charitable cause, all those that participated in the sale helped give something special to a child in need of some cheer in their life. Thinking about that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

So pat your pup with pride. :)

New Possible Trainer In WoD Garrisons

LeCraft Tweeted a screenshot of an interesting NPC team that "might just visit your garrison in the future."


Nevermind my insane jealousy over this NPC having Mini Tyrael and Mini Diablo on her team; this screenshot provides an interesting preview of a future PVE battle. We'll be fighting one humanoid (that has magical attacks), another humanoid (standard humanoid abilities), and one Magical pet (possibly humanoid, magic, undead or elemental attacks).

If I were more of a pet theorycrafter, I might be able to anticipate what abilities these pets would take to produce the best team synergy. But alas. I can only stare at these little guys and cry a little on the inside because they'll never be in my pet army :( lol.

An additional tidbit LeCraft is revealing with this screenshot is that Garrisons will provide some new Pet Battle PVE content. We already knew that there MIGHT be pet breeding inside our personal player housing, but other than that, what could Garrisons mean for pet lovers? Perhaps random trainer battles each day, unlockable content, specific and unique rewards, etc.? There are many possibilities involving the Garrisons, and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

I just hope it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg or a bazillion years of my character's life to get to all of it. :P

Snowy Owls Hibernating Soon!

The Snowy Owl will be going into hibernation soon; March 19 soon. Be sure to capture one now before it's too late. You'll have to wait until December 21, 2014 for your next chance.

If you can't seem to find a rare quality one in the wild, remember that you can always capture one of any quality (but make sure it's the breed you want), and then upgrade it later using a battlestone. For collectors, it's better than nothing!

Personally, the Snowy Owl is my favorite out of all the pets that share the same model. The colors are subtle and graceful, very pretty. :)

Critters Love Druids

I decided to play around with the Glyph of Charm Woodland Creature on my druid, and try to find some unique/interesting pets to "tame". They don't turn into permanent vanity pets, but they will follow you around for an hour. You can have an actual pet and one of these critter followers out at the same time (yay).

Browsing through the list of critters on Wowhead, I only chose ones that either didn't exist as a pet already or had a special look/color. There weren't too many options, as many of the wandering critters in the world have actually made it into our Pet Journals as captured wild pets. Still, glad there were some to play around with. The only downside is that these pets won't follow you if you hearth, zone out of the instance, or any action that causes a loading screen to pop up. :(

Anyway, to the critter followers! The glowy purple thing above their head is the result of the Charm Woodland Creature ability.

Sidenote: I didn't include any of the mice, rabbits, or prairie dogs located on the cliff near Thunder Bluff because those have been covered already. You can charm them, though, and they'll retain their armor and weapons. It just sucks if you're alliance because you have no where to go; if you hearth your critter follower will disappear. :\


Sewer Crocolisk - We have baby crocolisks already, like Toothy, but this croco is grown up yet still tiny. :)



Tame Crag Boar - I'm not a huge fan of the boar model (the flaming/undead ones look pretty cool though), but I wouldn't pass up on an actual baby boar pet. :P

A Wild Dread Hatchling Appears!

The MoP Digital Deluxe was officially archived today. It's no longer available from the Blizzard Store. But with this end, a new beginning—the WoD pre-orders are now available. Purchasing the Digital Deluxe will reward both the pet and mount immediately, so be sure to check your in-game mail!


Confirming previous datamining, the Dread Hatchling does indeed have a brief heart animation over its head when you mount up on either the original Raven Lord mount or the new Dread Raven.


Each time I see this, I imagine it chirping, "Are you my mommy/daddy?" :P

Unexpected Bug
The Dread Hatchling is currently cageable, however, this is a bug that will be fixed soon. There are also reports that relogging after caging will result in a new pet in the mail.

I'm not sure how Blizzard will resolve this issue after fixing the bug. There are already mentions that the hatchling is popping up in Auction Houses on multiple servers. Will all cloned hatchlings be removed from the game? Will players that sold their pet receive an infraction on their account? Will they be able to re-acquire the pet or will it be gone for them forever?

In any case, it's not advised that you cage and sell/trade your hatchling. It's unclear what the consequences of doing so will be. You could lose your hatchling completely. :(

All I can say is that out of respect for the game and for the developers, keep your Dread Hatchling safe and sound in your Pet Journal.

Edit: Apparently if you purchase a caged Dread Hatchling without having already purchased the CE or Digital Deluxe, you cannot use the pet. This is a good solution for all of the duplicate hatchlings without having to manually go through and delete them.

UPDATE: A fix was implemented within the hour of the discovery of the bug. The Dread Hatchling cannot be caged now.

Possible Pet Teaser: Mini Iron Star?

LeCraft's at it again on Twitter. Teasing us with pets that may or may not actually be waiting for us in WoD. I love it lol.

This time it's a screenshot of a "miniature Iron Star" next to worgen feet.


"Engineers have figured out how to miniaturize the Iron Star into a battle pet?! What should we call it?"
For those that don't raid, the Iron Star is literally a giant, iron, fiery rolling ball (of death) that appears during the Garrosh Hellscream encounter in Siege of Orgimmar. If you touch it on normal or heroic, you're guaranteed to explode on the spot and die (unless you have an ability that allows you to cheat death). It might be the same on LFR and Flex, or those versions of the raid could be a little more forgiving. I haven't really participated in LFR or Flex all that much so I can't comment on the potency of the ball there. The Iron Star is completely avoidable, but it's pretty hilarious to see a katamari-like ball steamroll over players who are unaware of the simple mechanic. Except when you've been wiping to it for the past 3 hours, but I digress heh.

Anyway, if this is indeed a real pet coming in WoD, I have to wonder why such a late implementation? Wouldn't it make more sense if the pet was released now when the content it's based on is relevant? Or is this meant to be a new pet added to SoO a la Raiding With Leashes? Is LeCraft just trolling us and this pet is just a whimsical idea?

We'll have to see once WoD or even WoD beta comes out. For the time being, though, I'm loving some of the name suggestions in response to the Tweet. My favorites so far: Iron Starlette and Lil' Wrecking Ball. The latter being very fitting in name and in flavor text; I do love me some pop culture references in WoW!

Lastly, if this really does become a pet... can I finally get an actual mini-katamari ball to go along with the Iron Star? Please? Two balls are better than one right? :P

Yes, You Can Haz Treat Now

I caved. Meet Fushi, my Lucky Quilen Cub. He's a bit derp but I still find him adorable lol.

In the end I decided to go ahead and purchase the MoP Digital Deluxe before it went away for good. Thankfully I had an old gift card lying around. It was quite the hassle registering a name and address so I could make online purchases, though. I guess this little cub was worth it? XD

This pet is the first WoW CE pet in my collection, and it won't be the last. Of course I'm limiting myself to Digital Deluxes ONLY. If I didn't, I'd probably go nuts trying to collect them all and then feel miserable because I realistically can't. It's the reason I've avoided the CE pets for so long. Since I can't have them all, I might as well save myself the heartache and aim for none. But I guess Digital Deluxes are the exception now heh. :P

Last Chance to Collect Lucky Quilen Cub

Blizzard just announced that soon they will be retiring the MoP Digital Deluxe. If you haven't collected the Lucky Quilen Cub yet, you'll want to do it soon. March 10 is the cut off for the Digital Deluxe; after that you'll need to find an unused Collector's Edition of MoP if you want the pet.

I haven't heard of any Pet Battle strategy that requires the Quilen Cub, but the pet is unique in its model and idle animation at least. :)

For me, I would collect it but I'm still bummed about not having all of the CE pets. Since I'll realistically never collect the original vanilla CE pets, I decided that I just won't collect any of them. Keep in mind that this mindset was determined prior to Digital Deluxes being a thing, and CEs were out of my price-range.

All of this is likely to change with the release of WoD and the Dread Hatchling. I have a soft spot for the little guy since its bigger counterpart, the Raven Lord, played a major role in my druid-y past. I even went out and collected the raven mount just so I could see if the pet and original Raven Lord mount interacted with each other. It looks like they've amended the spell to be triggered by both the original mount and the new raven mount, though.

I'm pretty set on purchasing the Digital Deluxe of WoD, but that leaves me with a dilemma. Since I'm breaking my "rule" of not collecting CE pets, should I just go for the Lucky Quilen Cub as well? Perhaps I can make an exception for only Digital Deluxe versions? I only have one week to decide, so I better make up my mind before then!