"Boss Pets" In Draenor - Time-sink or Worth?

More great beta finds from WarcraftPets users! This time Dakender stumbled upon some "boss pets" (or at least they're flagged with the golden paw print) and took some screenshots of their locations.

They don't seem to be officially named yet and they're mainly warp stalkers. That could all change; we might be looking at the beginnings of a Draenor version of the Beasts of Fable quests/dailies. Or will these pet NPCs be apart of something else entirely? One major difference is the "boss pets" for the current BoF stand alone, while these pets on the beta follow another NPC (so far it looks like children).

Hopefully these golden paw prints will get updated in a future beta build and we'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with.

How Many and How Far
One concern that I have, regardless of what these type of quest these "boss pets" are connected to, is travel time. As I stated in the forum thread, just how many of these NPCs will we be required to defeat, and how far apart are they? Will travel time be an issue?


Flying in Pandaria gave us the freedom to choose our "pet route", and most players opted for the "most efficient" way to hit up all the trainers, BoF and spirits.

Even with that freedom, though, it still took some time to get through a daily routine. Roughly ~30 minutes to an hour? Maybe longer for some. Without player flying in Draenor, will that time increase even more? Or will the quest objectives be in close enough proximity so that players can have fun and feel efficient at the same time? Will it feel natural and fluid, instead of long and tedious?

If not, a few tricks could be implemented to help in that area. Free teleports to the next NPC, is one idea. Dailies that DON'T involve multiple objectives, is another. Having the ability to "call" the NPC to YOU (maybe to your Garrison) could be neat too. I'm sure there are more ideas floating around out there; these are just some examples off the top of my head.

Well, we'll see. Things are still being worked on and we're only glimpsing a fraction of the overall picture. Perhaps these golden paw prints aren't what they seem to be. Or developers have an amazing idea up their sleeves on how to balance the fun vs efficiency factor (many collectors love their fun while also being efficient! :P)

For now I'll wait and watch, because whatever happens I'm still super excited about more pet content. :D