An Unexpected Find

Today I went out and captured some new Yellow-Bellied Bullfrogs (secondaries in battle) to test whether or not they would maintain their captured size. Originally i was going to simply edit my previous post to add an update on my findings, but in the process of testing I ran into yet another wild pet that comes in different sizes lol.

Much like the bullfrog, the Golden Civet Kitten can come in two sizes, big and small. They also retain their statures even after captured.



So that's another set of pets added to my collection heh.

As for the Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog, it appears that newly captured secondaries are keeping their sizes. That would be a good thing except now I want to keep both the large and small version plus my size-changer. I guess it's not really a bad thing except that my Pet Journal will quickly fill up if there are more cases similar to the bullfrog one. And my journal will feel a little more cluttered than normal.

Although I don't usually name wild pets (there are just too many!), I felt that these needed names for quick referencing (between the big one and small one). Luckily the bullfrog and civet kitten only come in two sizes, so "senior" and "junior" fit quite well. :)

Why You Little (Large?) Yellow-Bellied...

A user on the WarcraftPets forums pointed out another wild pet that comes in different sizes, the Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog. Unlike the Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling, this pet only comes in two sizes, big and small.

After learning about this I set out to capture a second bullfrog. My original one is the large version, but it didn't take me very long before finding a small one. I quickly nabbed it and then placed both the original and the new bullfrog on the same team to get a better size comparison (like I did with my gryphon hatchlings).

Only then did I notice something odd occurring. The first battle with my froggy team went as planned. Big bullfrog went first, small bullfrog was second. Great, but oh drat, the screenshot wasn't the best. So I tried again. The second battle had me scratching my head since both frogs looked exactly the same size. So I tried again. And again. And again.

To confirm my suspicions I ended up simply summoning out my original "large" bullfrog and placed it next to random frogs.



The images above show only one bullfrog next to the wild one (the green one is mine, red one is wild). Yep, my original is a size-changer.

So far I seem to be the only one with this issue. One possibility, as Peanutty suggests, is that my frog was a secondary pet in battle and captured before the fix was implemented so that pets retain their captured state (color and size).

The dilemma now is do I keep the second Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog that hasn't had any issues with maintaining its small stature, or do I release it since I have kind of have both sizes in my original frog? I'm leaning towards releasing the new one. If they ever fix my size-changer, it's not as though it will be too difficult finding another bullfrog, right? I can easily go out and capture the size that I don't have.

This incident makes me even more curious about the hundreds of other wild pets out there. Are there any other pets in my collection that are size-changers too? What sizes am I missing? If only there was an efficient way to check them all. I guess I'll have to continue relying on the awesome pet collecting community to keep me informed. :)

Get Your Very Own Lovable Leafy Companion

The Blizzard Pet Store is having a small sale and the Blossoming Ancient is 35% off of its original price. For $6.50 you can basically have 4 pets in one! :P

Not only do the pets have their own unique look for each season, they also have a different idle animation too.

- Spring = spreads flowers on the ground around itself
- Summer = beam of sunlight shines down on it
- Autumn = casts falling leaves from its branches
- Winter = creates a small snow flurry around it

For those still seeking the seasonal-exclusive pets the Blossoming Ancient can also be an in-game timekeeper. Unsure what season it is? Summon out your ancient and its leaf color will remind you!

This sale ends June 3, so don't put off adopting this pet for too long. If you get one now, you'll be just in time to appreciate both its spring foliage now and then its summer colors mid-June. :)

WoD Alpha: New Achievements and Pets

UPDATE: Looks like there are two new battlestones for testing - Training Beast Battle-Stone of Testing and Training Battle-Stone of Testing. These stones are epic quality and instead of raising a pet's rarity, it allows a pet to gain one level upon use. Interesting!

MMO-Champion is reporting a new WoD Alpha build. Datamining has revealed a couple of new pets and some new (test) achievements.

New Achievements
The new achievements fall under the "Battle" section and involve unique challenges for battlers. Note that most of these have the prefix "[TEST]" and may still be works in progress. The end result might not be what we see today.

Beast Beat-down - Finish a battle with a Beast ability.

Hydraulics - Win a pet battle with an Aquatic and a Mechanical pet on your team. 5 points.

If One Is Good... - Win a battle with 3 Vengeful Porcupette pets.

Survivalist - Win with three pets alive!

We've Got a Bleeder! - Win a pet battle with Bleeding as the final damage.

The requirement trend for these latest achievements seems to be a special trick or maneuver to earn a win. I could see this becoming a thing, evolving to include more and more difficult feats. Win a battle using only damage over time attacks! Or.. Outlast your opponent with only avoidance and heal moves! Use 3 Viscous Horrors to win a...err... maybe not that one. :P

It's kinda fun to think about the different challenges developers might come up with for us, and ways to complete them. I bet the devs will have just as much fun brainstorming ways to stump and infuriate us. XD

New Pets
The two new pets that were included in the latest alpha patch are the Grovestrider Hatchling (BoP) and Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar (BoU). I'm pretty curious about both pets, since a grovestrider makes me think of a Darkmoon Strider (but maybe more SAVAGE?), and a the boar most definitely sounds like an engineering pet. It would be our first true boar companion, even if it's mechanical.

I'm torn between hoping for a traditional boar model or a new SAVAGE one. Call me crazy, but those little baby swine are kinda cute. Then again, a mechanical anything will likely not be on the cuddly side. Unless you're a gnome. Pretty sure they cuddle their wrenches at night as they sleep. :P

A Tremendously Terrific Trio

I was recently made aware that the Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling comes in three different sizes. They retain their size even after capture, meaning you can have all three in your collection.

This may or may not be a well known trait of this wild pet, but I was completely in the dark. Unless I'm using the same pet as the one that I'm facing, I often don't notice any size differences. Maybe I'm just not that observant. :P

After I found out about this neat little detail, I went out and captured the two sizes that I was missing. To reduce the guess work, I added my existing gryphon pets to my team so I could compare it with any of the wild gryphons I came across.

A great tip that Peanutty mentioned: if you find the Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling as the secondary pet in battle, but it's not the right size that you were looking for, simply forfeit and reengage the battle. Much like different wild pet colors, disengaging and reengaging the match changes the secondary pets' attributes.

Once the new gryphons were secured, they were immediately upgraded to rare and leveled to 25. I normally don't name my wild pets (there are just too many!) but these guys were special. Since I don't know any trio of famous/noteworthy gryphons, I named them after Scrooge McDuck's nephews from DuckTales (Huey, Dewey, and Louie). If Blizzard adds three duck pets in the future, I may have to find different names for them. XD

The best way to compare and view their size differences is by putting them all on one team and engaging in a pet battle.


During the battle you can easily identify the largest of the three, while the middle-sized and smallest one are harder to tell apart.

The BEST way to see the size variation is at the end of the battle, when all three line up in a row.


That moment is fleeting though and I had a hell of a time trying to get a screenshot of their lineup lol.

It's been a while since I had something to collect, so this was a fun mini-adventure. If there are any other wild pets that come in different sizes (and maintain the varying sizes after capture), let me know! There's no question about it, they MUST be added to my pet army. :3