Accuracy Changes and WTB Killer Stuffed Animal

Another patch was released for the alpha and there were tons of accuracy changes for many pet attacks/abilities and a new pet was added.

Hit More, Miss Less
The accuracy changes come after a recent discussion on Twitter about hit chances versus damage ranges. Based on the feedback LeCraft received (which was overwhelmingly for higher accuracy/less RNG for hit) he Tweeted that the updates were implemented in the latest alpha build.

Wowhead has a full list of all the abilities that were changed, as does MMO-Champion (in a different format). I think nearly ALL abilities listed saw their hit chances go from less than 100% to 100%, which is wonderful considering even a 90% chance to hit will cause frustration due to unfortunate misses.

Because of the increase in accuracy to these abilities, the damage ranges were also altered (lowered) slightly. Judging by all of the responses to LeCraft's initial Tweet, though, I don't think many battlers will mind the damage changes (if exchanged for a better chance to land the hit).

We'll see if all of this sticks after more testing. So far the response to the accuracy changes have been well received. You could say it's a "hit" :P

Now if only something could be done about the "hit chance" of your capture crate when battling wild pets.

New Tailoring Pet
A new pet was added to the Pet Journal, an Elekk Plushie. Since the Pet Journal is still incomplete on the alpha, LeCraft gave us a preview of what it would look like.


Tailors will be able to craft it, but the item is BoP. Currently the pet can be caged, though, so yay for us non-tailors! No recipe has been implemented for it yet.

Initially, this pet sounds pretty adorable, yea? It's a plushie of a baby elekk, how could it not be fluffy and cute? LeCraft mentioned some additional details on this pet that makes the cute-factor a bit sad, though.

"Well, it's a *regular* stuffed animal. Which means it just sits there and stares at you when you summon it." - Tweet

"And when you take it into pet battles... well they are all imaginary abilities. It just takes a beating." - Tweet

After learning this, it seems like it would be a little heartbreaking to send the Elekk Plushie into battle. I wouldn't want any of my pets to go into battle if they didn't stand a fighting chance at all. :( Except maybe if it was a pet rock. I would assume that a pet rock would be really difficult to "kill" (defeat) since it's... a rock and can withstand even the largest of hits. The only attack it would truly be susceptible to is perhaps some sort of crush that smashes it to pieces.

Anyway, it was revealed that because this pet would be the first of its kind (not a real battler, but can still battle), it's still undecided if this pet will actually be implemented.

"Yeah, we were worried people may not think it was funny. It may not make it."

Personally, I'm torn between being excited for a new profession crafted pet and sad that an adorable stuffed animal will get beat up in a pet battle. One person suggested that perhaps the Elekk Plushie should join the ranks of the other no-battling pets, like the squires, balloons, and kites. I wouldn't object to that, but at the same time I wouldn't mind seeing a fierce little stuffy kicking butt in a match. Maybe tailors should join forces with engineers and sew on some rockets/additional weaponry to the plushie pet. :P

Pet Battletaur
Last but not least, as mentioned in LeCraft's Tweet on the latest alpha patch, a new NPC was placed near the pet batttle trainers in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Pet Battletaur is a new vendor that provides players with batttlestones that increase pet level to 25 and raise quality to rare. This is likely only for alpha, and is meant to aid players test new pets/changes. The Mythical Battle-Pet Stone is BoP and not consumed when used. Very convenient for testing!

I doubt that this particular leveling stone will make it onto live servers, but we'll see. Maybe it will be an extremely rare find/drop. There are other versions of leveling battlestones that raise your pet's level by one only, which seems more reasonable for release.