Wonderous Wisdomball Change and General Binding Guideline for Battle Pets

This post is late coming but as some may already know, the Wonderous Wisdomball is now Bind on Pick Up as of Patch 7.2.


I only made this discovery after finding out I overlooked one of my alts that had the quest to obtain this pet. Double-checking the reward and to my dismay the item that teaches the Wisdomball was not Bind on Use, as I expected it to be, but instead BoP. This companion remains un-cageable.

@RestoKay on Twitter discovered a Wowhead comment that strongly implies this change from BoU to BoP was intentional.

@perksnpeeves I found a comment on @Wowhead from January where a GM said it was a bug that they were tradeable: https://t.co/BoEsIATnPn

— Kaylei (@RestoKay) April 21, 2017

It's pretty disappointing news for many collectors, but I suppose it shouldn't come as a huge shock. Pets that are not cageable are usually that way for a reason - the developers want them to be exclusive, unique, and earned through specific means by players themselves.

Another example of a "bugged" pet item this expansion is Lagan. Initially, completing the achievement Poor Unfortunate Souls rewarded a BoU pet, however upon adding it to the Pet Journal it became uncageable. It was a very odd circumstance, as all other achievement rewarded pets are not tradeable or cageable in any manner. Lagan was an anomaly.

So it really shouldn't have come as much of a surprise when Lagan was eventually fixed in late Januaray and its binding was corrected to be BoP.

However, I think what was more shocking was how long developers let the pet continue being bugged with the wrong bind, without any clarification that that was the case. I think this is what really caused upset within the collecting community.

The same can be said for the Wonderous Wisdomball. Some collectors are not happy about the change, and rightfully so. After we've come THIS FAR into the expansion and the bug is only being fixed now? Without prior word or clarification on the intended binding of the companion?

Perhaps it wouldn't be as big a deal had there been an official note stating that Lagan and the Wonderous Wisdomball were bugged, and they should not be tradeable or cageable -- collectors would know what to expect and what's intended.

But since a forewarning wasn't made available and I don't think Blizzard can give us a heads up every single time, I think we could all use a refresher on how battle pets (usually) work. Here's quick review of what the general binding standard is for pets. Keep in mind there will always be unique cases, and not every pet will (or has to) follow these guidelines.

• General rule of thumb -

Pets that are not cageable are normally not tradeable. If they are, it's probably unintentional (bugged).

• Achievement pets -

Not tradeable or cageable in any manner.

• Dropped pets -

Depends on the pet and source. Can be a mix of BoP, BoU, cageable, and not cageable.

• Wild pets -

Not tradeable or cageable in any manner.

• Blizzard Store pets -

Not tradeable or cageable in any manner, with the exception of the Guardian Cub.

• Profession pets -

Depends on the pet and source. Can be a mix of BoP, BoU, cageable, and not cageable.

• Promotional pets -

Not tradeable or cageable in any manner, with the exception of TCG pets.

• Quest reward pets -

Depends on the pet and source. Can be a mix of BoP, BoU, cageable, and not cageable.

• Raid dropped pets -

Mix of BoP and BoU, but almost always cageable.

• Vendor pets -

Depends on the pet and source. Can be a mix of BoP, BoU, cageable, and not cageable.

It's truly disappointing news about the Wonderous Wisdomball; many collectors are still battling RNG and were hoping to buy one at a reasonable price. With this change, the ONLY source for this companion now is a drop from the Kirin Tor emissary. It doesn't occur very often, so better rally all of your level 110 characters to be ready to complete some WQs when Kirin Tor does pop up.

And if a collector receives a second Wonderous Wisdomball? We've seen that Blizzard has the tech to turn a previously un-cageable pet into a cageable one, as with the case of Bonkers, so we can only hope that Blizzard will make the Wonderous Wisdomball cageable post-Legion. Right, Khadgar?


You're killing me here, Khadgar.