Garrison Buildings Collectors Will Need/Want to Build in WoD

This is a list of all buildings pet collectors will want/need to build. Each plot grants access to a pet or pet-related activity (battles). This list is subject to change as testing on the beta progresses.

For more information on garrison progression, see my other write-up -- Detailed Garrison Progression For WoD.

Main garrison buildings collectors will need to build (medium plots):

- Barn: Pygmy Cow comes from this building once you upgrade the Barn Level 3. Upgrading to level 3 requires an achievement to unlock the blueprints. Just start/complete enough work orders at the Barn and you'll complete the achievement.

- Inn (A) or Tavern (H): NPCs will visit each day with a daily quest. Keep an eye out for two particular NPCs, Mylune and Cowled Ranger. They have daily quests that reward an Everbloom Peachick and Sentinel's Companion.

- Trading Post: Unlocks a new faction at Level 2, Shattari Defense for alliance, Laughing Skull for horde. Currently only the horde has a pet (Bone Wasp) that's purchasable from the new faction, but an alliance one might be added too.

Profession buildings collectors will be interested in (small plots):

- Tailoring Emporium: If you have tailoring and build this building, you'll gain access to a vendor that sells Draenor recipes. You'll need to craft Secret of Draenor Tailoring (one day cooldown) to use as currency to purchase the recipe for Elekk Plushie.

- Engineering Works: If you have engineering and build this building, you'll gain access to a vendor that sells Draenor recipes. Each pet schematic costs one Secret of Draenor Engineering (one day cooldown). Non-engineers can build this building to craft the pets, but must first upgrade the plot to level three.

- The Forge: If you have blacksmithing and build this building, you'll gain access to a vendor that sells Draenor recipes. You'll need to craft Secret of Draenor Blacksmithing (one day cooldown) to use as currency to purchase the recipe for the Soul of the Forge.

If you don't have the profession that's associated with the building, you won't be able to purchase anything from the vendor.

Edit: According to @perculia, you can also purchase the recipes to craft the pets from Ashran vendors.


Miscellaneous buildings that you automatically get as you upgrade your garrison:

- Menagerie (has its own plot): This building is a given since it's all about pets. :P Tt's unlockable at level 100 (requires garrison Town Hall level 3).

- Herb Garden (has its own plot): Herbalists and non-herbalists can loot the pet from Disturbed Podlings that ocassionally spawn when looting a node in this plot. The podlings can also spawn out in the world where only players with the profession can gather herbs.

- Mines (has its own plot): Miners and non-miners can loot the pet from Goren Protectors that ocassionally spawn when looting a node in this plot. The goren can also spawn out in the world where only players with the profession can gather ore.

- Fishing Shack (has its own plot): Two pets will be purchasable from Nat Pagle (with enough reputation) but max fishing will likely be required.

Thundering Serpent Hatchling In WoD

I'm not aware of any pet that's "going away" in WoD, however there is one pet that you might want to pick up now rather than later.


The Thundering Serpent Hatchling is a guild vendor pet that can only be unlocked by completing the MoP Gold Challenge Mode guild achievement. Once the expansion is released, the MoP Challenge Modes and achievement will become a feat of strength.

One thing that Blizzard has failed to mention, though, is that the pet will no longer be available on the guild vendor as well. I've checked on the beta and it's not listed under the guild rewards tab (but the new Draenor gold Challenge Mode pet, Deathwatch Hatchling, is shown). The guild vendor wasn't showing any available items at all, but that could be due to my character not having the appropriate reputation with the guild.

So if the Thundering Serpent Hatchling can't be acquired through a guild anymore, will it be removed entirely? The answer is no. This pet will absolutely still be available in-game, however at a much higher price.


The beta Pet Journal was updated to include where this pet can be purchased from in WoD -- The Black Market Auction House. I haven't been keeping tabs on the BMAH, so I can't say for sure how much the Thundering Serpent Hatchling will cost, but it will probably be more than the current 300 gold.

It's entirely possible that the pet will still be available from a guild vendor, and it was simply an oversight to not include it in the guild rewards list on the beta. But it's also entirely possible that it's being retired to the BMAH.

In light of this, the question that collectors need to ask themselves is whether or not you want to risk it and wait for WoD to collect the Thundering Serpent Hatchling, even though you can collect the pet at a reasonable, pre-determined price right at this very moment. There are a few guilds out there (WarcraftPets listing some) willing to invite collectors just to collect this pet.

For me, if I were still seeking this pet, I wouldn't take the chance and I'd purchase it prior to the expansion.

WoD Beta: What's a Spacegoat and Gromloc?

A new beta patch was released today, and there weren't as many updates/new pets as the previous patch, but still some significant additions!

With today's patch, there are now over 100 possible pets coming in WoD's release! Wheeee! I'm excited yet nervous at the same time. :P

New and Changed Pets
Eight new pets were implemented, most of which are currently flagged as wild in the journal. This might just be placeholder text, though. Beta is beta so changes are expected.


Bone Serpent - wild (draenor), unique


Glowing Sporebat - wild (draenor)


Kaliri Hatchling - wild (draenor)


Rubyfeather - wild (draenor)


Servant of Demidos - drop: Demidos, zone: Shadowmoon Valley, Draenor


Shadow Sporebat - wild (draenor)
There were two other new pets, Flat-Tooth Calf and Mudback Calf, both wild and from Nagrand, Draenor. Their image previews weren't showing up in my Pet Journal for some reason, though. If you recall the baby hippo pet, that's what I imagine they'll look like, just different colors. So glad we'll be able to collect all the different hippos. :)

Again, even though many of the new pets are labeled as wild, that might be temporary. Two pet items, Kaliri Hatchling and Veilwatcher Hatchling, were added in this patch. If you visit their pages and click through them, you'll find that both teach the two new Kaliri birds pictured above. So we might see an update to these two pets in the future, possibly changed to a drop or quest reward, etc.

The same goes for the Bone Serpent; its source could change. It's currently flagged as "unique" in the pet journal, which could mean one of two things: either its journal entry is still a work in progress, or it will be our first unique wild pet. If it's the latter, that would mean we would only be able to capture one wild Bone Serpent. This seems unlikely to me, but anything is possible.

Maybe this pet will be the new Unborn Val'kyr (special spawning, unique look, especially strong moveset, etc.) and it will be in high demand. That might have led to some brainstorming on how to reduce the competition for the pet so more people can obtain one, rather than a few obtaining more than one.

But it doesn't seem very likely to me that they'd put a restriction on a wild pet like that. So for now, I'm going to lean towards considering this pet journal entry as incomplete with placeholder text. We'll see if there are any changes to the Bone Serpent in the near future.

A handful of pets were updated in the pet journal. I won't list them all here, but you can view any changes here.

I'm always amused/slightly annoyed when previously implemented pets get a rename. At first glance they appear new, but going through my previous blog posts reveal that they're the same just with a different name than before. It's a tedious task to stay on top of all the pets, but it's a labor of love. :)


Achievement Stuff
Hogs has been confirmed as a reward for one of the 10th anniversary event achievements, Victory in Hillsbrad. Looks like I'm going to need to brush up on my PVP skills (or lack thereof)? lol. Can't say I'm thrilled but...I guess it's a special event so I'll bite my tongue and do it? *shrug* I did it before for the Spirit of Competition, hopefully I can do it again for Hogs heh.

Another pet that's been confirmed as an achievement reward is the Deathwatch Hatchling (previously named Black Ravager Hatchling and Shadeback Hatchling). If you complete all the Draenor Challenge Modes with a gold rating while in a guild group, you'll unlock this pet for your guild. Similar to the Thundering Serpent Hatchling, it will be sold by the guild vendor, costs 300 gold, and will probably require Revered with your guild.


"Maybe" Stuff
A new creature model was datamined. It's appropriately called, "spacegoatLiterallyASpacegoat.jpg" lol. As seen in the image, it looks like a baby goat. Currently there's nothing else tied with this pet, so let's do some speculating!

My guess is that it will be a baby talbuk...and HOPEFULLY a pet that we can collect. It's absolutely adorable and I must have it, damnit. :P

However, with a name like "spacegoat", imaginations will run wild. Is this a mutant child of a Draenei? Or perhaps the lovechild of a Draenei x talbuk encounter? Err...something something furries?? Ok, I'm going to stop there; getting into some NC-17 rated territory. XD

Another neat find in today's patch is an icon that's labeled, "grommloc". It's basically an image of a cross between a baby murloc, and if the name is any kind of giveaway, Grom Hellscream. Angry orc murloc, anyone? With the release of WoD being so close to Blizzcon, one can only assume that the expansion will be a big feature so a Grom-murloc would fit pretty well. We'll see though.

At the moment the icon isn't tied with anything, neither pet nor item. Hopefully in a future beta build we'll see just what a "gromloc" is. If it does turn out to be the Blizzcon pet, maybe they'll finally open up sales for the Virtual Ticket. Maybe? Please? I'm still (patiently) waiting! :D

WoD Beta: Massive Pet Update

Oh my. Where to start? A new beta patch was recently released and I think it's the biggest so far in terms of new pet content. SO MANY new pets, and lots of updates to previously implemented pets. I would be seriously overwhelmed if it weren't for my excitement about it all.

New Pets Everywhere!
Rather than listing all of the new pets here on my blog, you can view them all here. It took me a few hours just to fully update the list. New pets and those that received changes are italicized.

I think there's roughly 28 new pets, 17 of which are currently labeled as wild. As always, details are subject to change and not all pets will make it to release.

If you're interested in seeing images of all the new pets added in the patch, I Tweeted a ton of screenshots earlier.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Thank you to all my Twitter followers that put up with my enthusiasm and image spam lol. *bows*


New Draenor Trainers
Six new NPCs were added, one per zone, and each one with a new pet battle daily for us! The dailies reward Pet Supplies, which contain Pet Charms and the new leveling battle-stones.

Shadowmoon Valley - Ashlei

Pets: Pixiebell, Doodle, Tally

Talador - Taralune

Pets: Serendipity, Grace, Atonement

Spires of Arak - Vesharr

Pets: Darkwing, The Great Kaliri, Apexian Construct

Gorgrond - Cymre Brightblade

Pets: Idol of Decay, Wishbright Lantern, Gyrexle, the Eternal Mechanic

Nagrand - Tarr the Terrible

Pets: Gladiator Deathy, Gladiator Murkalot, Gladiator Murkimus

Frostfire Ridge - Gargra

Pets: Wolfus, Fangra, Wolfgar

I have yet to attempt these new trainer battles, but all of them are level 25 and rare quality (except for Cymre's pets, which are legendary). They seem pretty interesting so I can't wait to test them out for myself!

Seeing as these are only rare quality battles, I'm guessing that these dailies will be available to players even if they haven't upgraded the Pet Menagerie inside their garrison. It's great to see that there will be a steppingstone from Pandaria to Draenor. :)

And as a side note, I totally want this NPC's pets! A pet version of the Fey Dragon mount AND a talbuk pet. Ahhhhh, if only I could steal them from her. :P



Garrison Stuff
We already know about the level 3 Barn, and the Pygmy Cow that can be obtained from it. But a new building will be a "must have" for pet collectors -- the Inn.

Once you build the Inn, special NPCs will visit and offer a daily quest to you. So far there are two quests that reward pets, a quest from Mylune and Cowled Ranger. The former rewards an Everbloom Peachick and the latter rewardsSentinel's Companion.

Both the Barn and the Inn must be built onto medium plots, so hopefully there are no other medium buildings that yield pets. I'd hate to have to choose or rebuild. x_x

Another garrison update has to do with the Pet Menagerie. The perks for each level was changed slightly.

Level 1 - Attracts elite pets you can battle for rewards. Also lets 5 of your battle pets hang out in your garrison.

Level 2 - Increases your trap chance and reduces the cooldown of Revive Battle Pets while in Draenor. Up to 10 of your pets can now hang out in your garrison.

Level 3 - *new* Unlocks a pet battle daily with unique pet rewards.

What could this quest and these unique pet rewards be?

Many WoD pets were updated with a new source, Quest: Mastering the Menagerie. The quest is not yet implemented so there isn't a preview of what it might entail, but it seems to reward a variety of pets as seen in the Pet Journal. My guess is that the level 3 menagerie will unlock Mastering the Menagerie, and we'll receive a special pet for undergoing a special task.

So far there are 9 pets in the journal that are flagged as rewards for Mastering the Menagerie.

Albino Chimaeraling
Firewing
Ghastly Kid
Nightfeather Hatchling
Puddle Terror
Shadeback Hatchling
Sunfire Kaliri
Sun Sproutling
Weebomination

I might have to wait until WoD is released before getting a glimpse of the quest, though. To upgrade the menagerie to level 3, you need to complete the achievement Draenic Pet Battler (win 1000 pet battles in Draenor). Yikes, I don't know if I have enough time on beta to complete that. :P


Achievements
Speaking of achievements, we're getting a new achievement and pet for collecting 600 unique pets! So. Many. Pets. The reward is a pet that was previously implemented on the beta, Stormwing. I almost thought that this pet was removed from the journal because I was filtering only pets that I haven't collected yet. Thankfully someone on Twitter pointed out that Stormwing is indeed still there, it was just automatically learned upon logging in. Hurray for copied characters with collections in tact? lol XD


This pet can be caged at the moment, but I imagine that's an oversight since it's a reward from an achievement. It currently can come in different breeds (I have 2 of the same, but one with more power) - hopefully that too will get fixed and sorted out before the expansion is released.

Another new achievement that might reward a pet, Challenge Warlords: Gold - Guild Edition. Similar to the current guild challenge mode achievement, the Draenor version could very well unlock a pet for your guild. It appears that the new achievement is still unfinished, and the pet reward isn't specified. Unlike the Pandaria version, there will only be 8 WoD challenge modes to complete.

Coming from someone who didn't really bother with challenge modes in MoP, with fewer required for the Draenor achievement, I might just take on the task. It will all depend on whether or not it actually unlocks a pet though. :P

UPDATE: Perculia pointed out on Twitter that Hogs was updated and is now a reward for completing the 10th anniversary achievement, Victory in Hillsbrad. Sounds like we'll have to PVP some during the celebration weeks in November. I'm definitely glad to see that Blizzard found a place for Hogs in-game, but I'm wary of the PVP requirement. Hopefully more information on it will come soon.


Profession Love
A few of the new pets will be tied with even more professions in WoD. Here's a full list of the WoD crafted/created/profession-specific pets. The newest ones are italicized.

Ancient Nest Guardian - Archaeology
Elekk Plushie - Tailoring
Frostwolf Ghostpup - Archaeology
Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar - Engineering
Lil' Leftovers - Cooking
Mechanical Scorpid - Engineering
Mechanical Toucan - Engineering
Nightshade Sproutling - Herbalism
Ore Eater - Mining
Sea Calf - Fishing
Sky-Bo - Engineering
Soul of the Forge - Blacksmithing

It's super exciting yet also somewhat daunting. In order to obtain these pets, you'll either need to have multiple characters to cover all of these professions or friends/guildmates who would be willing to sell/trade/give you these pets.

I'm not sure which category I'll end up in. Level a bunch of different toons, each with professions that yield one of the new pets? Or find others to trade with? Ideally, I'd love to craft all of the pets myself, but I don't know if that's realistic. It takes time to level each character AND their professions. Hopefully I'll have that time to do it all. If not, I suppose I could strike up some trades with fellow pet collectors. :)

In any case, I'm glad to see so many professions get some pet love! It's definitely a nice little perk.


Legendary Pets...?
Last but not least, some new icons were added to the database in the most recent beta patch. These are significant because 1 - the color (orange) and 2 - the icon names (example of one: "icon_upgradestone_water_legendary"). If the name doesn't give it away, I don't know what to say lol.

These are obviously upgrade battle-stones for our pets, but not just any upgrade - LEGENDARY. Of course, I haven't seen any indication that these belong to any items currently implemented so they could just be placeholder icons. Or icons added "just in case" or maybe for future use? Much like pet genders, it remains an unused feature but still exists in the game. Are there legendary battle-stones hiding somewhere on the beta? Or will there be?

Devs have already stated that collectible epic or legendary pets and upgrades aren't planned for the release of WoD, but they might come at a later date. It's entirely possible that these icons hint that if all goes well with the expansion's release, we might just see purple and orange pets in our collections in the future. It's tough to say though, since there's a lot of mixed views on the topic.

Personally, I'm just intrigued about the icons themselves. Do they have meaning? Will they belong to actual items? Will those items actually be released? Where will they come from? So many questions and so little information! My curiosity demands satisfaction...buu~ut I can wait too. :P

UPDATE: LeCraft clarified what the icons are for. They are NOT for upgrading pets to legendary.

Look-a-Like Challenge Beta: Quintessence of Light

Quintessence of Light finally made an appearance at my garrison menagerie on the beta, so for a unique Look-a-Like Challenge, I decided to take on a battle pet NPC this time around.

I won't go into the battle itself (you can read about it in this post, as well as all recounts of other menagerie challenges), but I will share my silliness. I just couldn't resist having some fun. :P


Quintessence of Light and Quintessence IN light lol XD

Quintessence vs. Quintessence!
Note: I didn't actually use my Phoenix Hatchling in this battle; it was just for funsies. If I had Firewing, the look-a-like would have been even better. That will have to wait until later in the beta or once WoD is released though, since Firewing is still unavailable as far as I know.

I was really hoping I could mount up on the Pureblood Fire Hawk with the fire-draenei costume on. It would have matched perfectly, but alas. You can't mount up while transformed. :( Sadness. Oh well. The look-a-like still came out pretty good. ;)

WoD Pet Battle Progression Speculation

Update: LeCraft has clarified that the gated content outside of the garrison was only a temporary thing. In a future beta patch the prerequisite won't be required to battle Cymre. :)

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Cymre Jones of Bubbles of Mischief recently blogged about a surreal experience; coming face to face with...Cymre Jones, the NPC! She will be a new pet battle trainer in WoD, however there are a few notable details that we should consider further.

According to Cymre, this new NPC will not consider you a worthy opponent until you've unlocked the level 3 Pet Menagerie in your garrison. To do so, you will need to have a level 3 Town Hall in your garrison and complete the achievement Draenic Pet Battler.

This news makes me wonder a couple of things.

- Will there be multiple pet battle grand masters scattered across the open world of Draenor? If so, how many and what does the travel time between each one look like?

- Since Cymre (and possibly other NPCs) can only be engaged in battle after you've unlocked the level 3 menagerie, does this mean these pet battles outside of the garrison will be on par in terms of difficulty with the menagerie challenges or will they be harder?

I was hoping for some miscellaneous PVE battles outside of the garrison, but what I had in mind was more of a stepping-stone between Pandaria/Celestial Tournament difficulty and that of the rotating teams in the menagerie. NPCs with epic quality pets with moderate to difficult battles would be an appropriate filler, for example. And in my mind, these "Draenor Grand Masters" would be accessible prior to the teams found at the menagerie.

So I'm not entirely sure what to make of this new information. There will be at least one NPC that we know of (Cymre) that's gated behind a higher menagerie level, with "unlocking" that higher level representing "progression". And since progression usually means things get more difficult as you move forward, I guess standalone trainer battles outside of our garrisons will be WoD's initial "end game" for pet battles? Yes? No?

Or will the Draenor Grand Masters have the same difficulty level, the only difference being they will be located independently of our menagerie?

If the answer is the latter, will they reward something extra special? For gated content to require so much of our time and energy (before and after it's unlocked), and provide no new challenges or difficulty level, any normal person would expect something unique.

I mean, if I have to go through each menagerie level, win 1000 times to unlock the "final" tier, and then the NPCs make me run around Draenor (on a GROUND mount, mind you), only to experience the same thing that I would have had I remained inside my garrison... well, they better have something damned good as a reward for my efforts. (Not that I wouldn't be grateful for additional pet content. I totally would, and I'd totally complete it all. Just unsure what the intent behind it would be -- implementing content so time-consuming that's more of the same, when it could be used as something to further generate interest in gameplay.)

However, if the the former scenario is what the NPC Cymre represents, then our reward would simply be tougher content. Unlock everything? Great, now you can go fight some REALLY hard pets. Some battlers long for encounters that are very challenging; maybe the Draenor Grand Masters are an answer to that. If so, only the die-hard battlers will go out of their way to seek them out (after jumping through all the hoops building the menagerie and garrison).

It's entirely possible that none of these are what's in store for us in WoD, and that Cymre and other NPCs will play an entirely different role in pet battles progression. Maybe we'll need to defeat all of them before unlocking the challenges at the menagerie. Or maybe they will be a specific objective for the menagerie daily. Who knows?

One thing is for certain, I'm ready to take on Draenor and all of the pets, battles, and content that it can throw at me. My army of adorable little companions and I will conquer it all!

10 Years :: 10 Questions

In honor of WoW's 10th anniversary this year, I'm deviating from the usual pet talk. Instead, here are my answers for Alternative Chat's "10 Years :: 10 Questions" project. Some retrospection never hurt! Things may get personal so feel free to skip over this if it seems uninteresting or sappiness makes you squeemish. :P

It's pretty long, but if you're brave enough, click the cut to read on!

WoD Beta: Shiny Birds and Hoping to Love the Hatespark

Three new pets were added in yesterday's beta patch, two of which I'm fairly excited about and the other... well, it will depend on how we obtain it.




The first two pets, Firewing and Stormwing will both be drops from a Big Sack of Pet Supplies. This bag hasn't been implemented yet, so it's still a mystery where it will come from. With a similar name to the reward bag from current trainer dailies, the big version could be Draenor's trainer daily reward.

We have yet to see any dailies or PVE battles (other than wild ones) outside of the garrison, though. If new NPCs are placed around the world, traveling around Draenor on foot/mount might prove to be a time-consuming problem. New trainer dailies would be a great steppingstone from Pandaria's trainers and Celestial Tournament to the garrison menagerie challenges, so perhaps the pros of new Draenor battles would outweigh the cons. We'll have to wait and see.

Wherever they come from, I'm excited to collect them. They look super shiny. Both share the same model as the bird used in the Quintessence of Light pet NPC so... they kind of hit a soft spot in my heartspot. :P


The third pet, Hatespark the Tiny, is currently listed as a drop from Ragnaros the Firelord in the specially revamped version of Molten Core (anniversary edition). With the recent announcement of a special 40 man LFR style MC, it makes me wonder how this pet will be distributed. Depending on what the droprate is, it might become my new pet peeve or pet perk.

Currently LFR rewards are all personal loot. Each week your first kill of each boss has a chance to yield a piece of loot, and other chances can be obtained if you gather tokens to use as bonus rolls. There's no telling if the anniversary MC loot will be implemented in the same fashion, but I hope yes and no.

While I agree that Hatespark should be from personal loot (because 40 people and LFR -- you get the point), I can't say I'd enjoy seeing the pet be treated in the same way as LFR loot is currently distributed. The anniversary festivities are scheduled to last for two weeks, and should the anniversary MC function the exact same way as current LFRs, this would mean collectors would only have two chances (one per week) to obtain the pet. This is, of course, assuming that Hatespark will not be 100% droprate from Ragnaros, much like other LFR pet loot.

On the other hand, if players had multiple chances each time they killed Ragnaros, that would balance out a low droprate. If this is the case, I know I'll be running the anniversary MC LFR loads until I get this pet. I'm not a fan of LFR at all, and I do truly wish the special version of Molten Core could be accessed with just a smaller, personalized guild group, but I'll suffer through it all for this pet lol.

Another possibility (and this one is probably ideal for collectors) is that players will only need to defeat Ragnaros once and the pet will be a guarantee reward. For those that won't have as much time to play during the two anniversary weeks, this would be great.

The limited amount of time to obtain this pet really needs to be considered and factored into how this pet loot is awarded. I still cringe at the thought of limited availability/time pets with low droprates, back in the day when they were soulbound and not cageable. It was not a fun time and was more panic-inducing than anything.

I'm really eager to learn more about this pet's droprate; I'm also really nervous and anxious as well. Worst comes to worse, it's exactly like LFR loot and only your first kill each week has a chance to yield the pet (and it's got a low droprate). Best scenario would be 100% droprate on your first kill and each Ragnaros kill thereafter has a much lower chance (but still a chance!) to drop the pet for you.

Currently Hatespark is flagged as cageable, but that could change as the beta gets refined and cleaned up prior to WoD's release. If it remains cageable, those that can't log at all during the festivities will at least have a chance in the future to collect one of these little elementals. It might cost them an arm and a leg but at least the option will be there (if this pet remains cageable).

So what it all boils down to, for me, is how this pet will be obtained. If it's in a balanced, fair and fun way, great! I will be singing this pet's praises, afterall it does look pretty cool hot. If not, I will likely be ranting about it for a while. As always, I'm ok with keeping things "rare" or "unique" but I'm also a huge advocate of keeping things balanced and fun. When loot distribution doesn't take into consideration the many factors of the situation, it starts to feel pretty un-fun.

Crossing my fingers Hatespark won't be a pain to collect and good times will be had by all!

It's About TIME *wink*

This has been a long time coming. Everyone, I think our dragon aspect collection may finally be complete in WoD.

Hell, it's about time. pic.twitter.com/IMdVzsnTfk

— Jonathan LeCraft (@TheCrafticus) August 11, 2014

*insert inaudible squeeing here* FINALLY! A bronze whelpling to collect! In addition to this teaser screenshot, LeCraft provided another bit of trivia concerning the last little dragon.

Fun fact: the bronze whelpling and its summon spell were created in 2004, but never made it into the game.

— Jonathan LeCraft (@TheCrafticus) August 11, 2014

I'm curious about the reason why this pet was put on hold for such a long time, but a large part of me thinks that it doesn't really matter that much. It's better to focus on the fact that we'll FINALLY have a bronze whelpling to round out the rest of the dragon aspect family.

"Hell, it's about time" is 100% right. Even whelplings that don't necessarily fit into the dragon aspect group made it into the game as collectible pets before the bronze. That's nuts.

Azure Whelpling
Crimson Whelpling
Dark Whelpling
Emerald Whelpling
Infinite Whelpling
Nexus Whelpling
Onyxian Whelpling
Scourged Whelpling

So come WoD, this list will be extended by one (at the very least). It's hard to say if the bronze will be the last whelpling ever added; they could easily make room for more at some point. In any case, the bronze whelpling is long overdue and I'm really ecstatic to hear that they finally found the place and time for it in-game. ;)

What a Hot Dog!

There was a huge announcement yesterday, WoW will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in November and everyone who logs in during that time will receive a Molten Corgi! *squee*


This is truly exciting news, as I genuinely thought the corgi would be from the Blizzard pet store. Puppies for everyone!

Now that this cat's dog's out of the bag, I have to wonder...what of Hogs? He was datamined and labeled as WoW's 10th anniversary reward, but it looks like the corgi will be taking his place. Will we ever get to collect Hogs? Or was he merely a placeholder and decoy pet while developers worked on the Molten Corgi?

It's hard to say and we probably won't get any straight answers either way from Blizzard. I can only hope that Hogs will be available some day in the future!

New Patch, More Pets
Following the announcement of WoW's anniversary pet, a new beta patch was released. There weren't a lot of new pets included but the two discovered are a doozy!


Frostwolf Pup - Vendor (TBD), Frostwolf Faction


Pygmy Cow - Pet Battle: Garrisons, Level 3 Barn
Finally, a cow for a pet! Even though I was hoping more for an adorable calf, I can't complain about our FIRST true bovine companion. I'll probably name mine Bessy. :P

It looks like I'll be making the Barn one of the priority buildings in my garrison. Upgrading it to level 3 will require the completed achievement Trapper's Delight. I guess I'll be spending quite some time in Nagrand catching clefthoof just so I can collect a cow lol.

Collecting the Hydraling in WoD

Thanks to a tip from WarcraftPets user Ooryl, the Hydraling has been found on the beta!


click for enlarged view
This pet drops from The Writhing Mire in Spires of Arak. Inside a cave you'll find a nest with an egg on it called Varasha's Egg.


Opening it will cause a rarespawn, Varasha herself, to charge into the cave.


Initially she will be a neutral mob and unattackable, but after she's checked her nest for a few moments she will turn hostile. I completed the fight as a level 100, so it wasn't bad at all. Even as a max level toon, it's wise to move out of her frontal channeled attack and the bad stuff that spawns on the ground.


Once you defeat her, the egg in the nest will be lootable again and inside you'll find an adorable Hydraling companion. :D

Once you loot the pet, it doesn't seem as though you can loot spawn Varasha a second time on the same character.

I'm unsure what will happen if you complete this while in a group, but the egg respawns fairly quickly (at least on beta). I don't know if others in the group who did not loot the pet can summon Varasha and complete the encounter again, but I would assume so. If not, then hopefully everyone in the group that initially engaged the rarespawn can collect the pet.


One more dropped pet down, so many more to discover. Awesome stuff. Thanks to all that report stuff like this in! :)

WoD Beta: Patch Day Full of Mixed Emotions

A new beta patch was released today. The servers went down just as I had time to sit down at my computer, so what did you know the DMF was finally back from the void (all weekend the error of instance not found kept popping up) but I was too late to take a look at all the new neat stuff. At least that was this afternoon.

Once beta maintenance was finished and the servers came back up, I popped on to see what was new. The Pet Journal had 5 new pets in it, but Wowhead and MMO-Champion datamined 5 additional pets not yet added.


Fruit Hunter (BoP) - Drop: ?

Hydraling (BoP) - Drop: TBD

Land Shark (BoU) - Fishing (skill 700), Vendor: Nat Pagle (garrison), Costs 50 Nat's Lucky Coin (Requires "Good Friends" rep with Nat Pagle)

Lanticore Spawnling (BoU) - Drop: The Lanticore, Zone: Upper Black Rock Spire

Nightfeather Hatchling - Pet Battle: ?
The five pets that were not found in the journal (all BoP):

- Brilliant Spore
- Crimson Spore
- Seaborne Spore
- Umbrafen Spore
- Zangar Spore

First and foremost...LAND SHARK! I think we've been waiting for the shark pet for a while now, huh? The Baby Shark was first datamined in 2008, pre-WotLK, but it never made an appearance as a collectible pet. Leave it to Nat Pagle to catch them and sell at a premium price.

And boy is that price high. 50 coins! According to El, the coins can be obtained by turning in "Lunkers" (special fish) to Nat Pagle. Turning them into him also rewards reputation (350), and you need to be "Good Friends" with him to purchase the pet. While I'm excited for the shark, can't I just buy Nat a beer? :P

The other pets are also pretty interesting. I have to say the Lanticore Hatchling looks pretty BADASS and I'm intrigued about the UBRS drop. Wowhead currently lists The Lanticore as a rarespawn in UBRS. How rare will it be? I don't know but I'm hoping it won't be too elusive.

There seems to only be one new wild pet in this patch, the Nightfeather Hatchling. I'm glad to see another one added, to be honest. We have a ton of drops and rewards and vendor pets, not so many wild ones. The ones that are in the journal at the moment are somewhat, dare I say, boring? Only because the majority of them are different pets using the same model with different skins. Not that I mind. But when comparing wild pets to all others, so far WoD has a much wider variety of the latter than former. Hopefully that will change as the course of beta continues.

Erm, what to say about the spore pets? I have no idea! I'm guessing these might look similar to actual Spores (in different colors), but who knows? I don't think they're quite finished yet (still using balloon placeholder models), so we may see them in a future patch.

Let's Go to the Darkmoon Faire!
Another new pet-related thing: new DMF pet battle. :D Since the beta went down earlier, I was unable to try out VonFeasel's battle. So I fixed that and went and kicked his butt. :P His team consisted of Syd, Mr. Pointy, and Otto (omg cow pet!).


I took a page from Lio's book and used her strat, but with one pet modification. My team consisted of Jade Owl (1,1,1), Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot (1,2,2), Lil' Bling (2,2,1). The biggest annoyance is VonFeasel's second pet, Mr. Pointy, and his shield. With Lio's advice about picking mechs that were hard hitters, though, it wasn't a tough fight. I never knew cows knew magic! :P

Speaking of cows...developers Jeremy Feasel and Jonathan LeCraft had some interesting exchanges on Twitter about the "TinyCow operation". What could this mean? A cow pet MUST be in the works, right? RIGHT?! My expectations are totally not through the roof for a calf now. Yea, totally. *cough*

Back to the faire, there are new dailies/mini-games at the faire, but they're not pet-related. I had a blast with the rings, and if you complete the achievement to collect 50 of them, you receive a vanity item. Let's just say I'm absolutely in love with it. I'll just leave this image here since it speaks volumes.


Garrison Updates
There's a new achievement, Draenic Pet Battler (win 1k pet battles in Draenor). The reward: Unlocks Pet Menagerie, Level 3 Blueprint. What could a tier 3 menagerie have in store for us? New items to purchase from Lio the Lioness? MORE pets wandering around your garrison? An even better trap? I'm pretty curious and excited to find out!


Other perks that had me bouncing in my seat, the pets that wander about your garrison finally use the names you assign them in the Pet Journal. The bug where they could be killed from player attacks was also fixed, as was the incorrect "wild" or "boss" icon floating above their heads.

The only downside to all of these awesome things is that they no longer interact with you or each other. SUCH SADNESS. It was a huge shock to me and was a colossal disappointment.

Having multiple pets out that respond to me was something that I was looking forward to in the garrison. Now that this is gone, and there's no indication if the feature will be coming back or not, I'm torn about feeling happy that my pets now have personalized names. For a while I was fluctuating between happy, sad, happy, sad. I'm still not sure how to feel about all of this.


I'm grateful for ALL the pet content implemented so far, that goes without saying. Just...let me sit in a corner with my Filthling(s) for a while. Oh, the memories of an earlier time (on beta)... :(

On another note, the daily quest from Lio the Lioness now rewards 15 Pet Charms instead of battle-stones. Yay, finally the source of this currency. More hats and treats!

Misc
Lastly, there's a new tailoring pattern for a pet vanity item, Murloc Chew Toy. It sounds like it will work the same way as the Fetch Ball does, but instead of a ball it's a murloc plushie? Hm...not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I'd like to keep the murloc toy for myself, if possible. :P

At the very least, if my pets get this new toy, can they um...not use their face all the time to pick it up (like with the Fetch Ball)? I mean, some pets have HANDS but they still insist on grabbing it with their head. So silly! XD

No clue how we'll get the recipe for it. It looks like I need to level up my toon with tailoring fairly soon, though. Not only will there be a craftable pet (Elekk Plushie), but now a toy. MAKE ALL THE THINGS!

Edit: More new pet toys! Rubber Duck, Discarded Bone, Small Football.