UPDATE: Blizzard has clarified the
time-gated Argus progression timeline.
“Week 1” is currently active on the PTR. This includes the first two story chapters and their related unlocks, including World Quests in the first two Argus areas.
“Week 2” will activate tomorrow, August 16. This includes the next couple chapters of the story, access to the third Argus area, and Invasion Points
“Week 3” will activate Friday, August 18. This includes the remaining story chapters and the rest of 7.3’s non-raid content, such as the Seat of the Triumvirate dungeon and access to the Netherlight Crucible.
This would mean the following Argus-dropped pets will be available in the following order:
Week 1 of 7.3 - Docile Skyfin, Fel-Afflicted Skyfin, Rebellious Imp, Cross Gazer, Uuna- Week
3 2 of 7.3 - Grasping Manifestation
- Unknown - Cross Gazer (possibly week 1) and Uuna
Edit: Thanks again to @patf0rd for helping confirm whether or not Ataxon is available as a rare spawn even without Western Mac'Aree quests unlocked.
Edit #2: Per Gamescom 7.3 preview, they might have changed the zone order? Instead of Krokuun to Antoran Wastes to Mac'Aree, they're now saying Krokuun to Mac'Aree to Antoran Wastes.
If the latter is the case, this changes the order of which non-wild Argus pets we'll have access to:
- Week 1 - Docile Skyfin, Fel-Afflicted Skyfin, Grasping Manifestation
- Week 2 - Rebellious Imp, Cross Gazer, Uuna
If this is not the case and the progression will be as initially announced (Krokuun >> Antoran Wastes >> Mac'Aree):
- Week 1 - Docile Skyfin, Fel-Afflicted Skyfin, Rebellious Imp, Cross Gazer, Uuna
- Week 2 - Grasping Manifestation
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UPDATE #2: New information has confirmed that Cross Gazer will likely be available week 1 (unlock Antoran Wastes). Thanks to
@patf0rd for helping unravel the mystery of Cross Gazer!
Players must get a buff called
Agent of the All-Seer to loot
Intact Demon Eyes. This buff can be obtained by either clicking on
All-Seer's Focus located throughout Antoran Wastes, or by using items (
All-Seer's Draught and
Gift of the All-Seer) rewarded for turning in Intact Demon Eyes.
These Intact Eyes can be turned into
Orix the All-Seer, located in a cave under the very eastern part of the Antoran Wastes bridge that spans over the fel pools. Turn in 1k Intact Eyes and you'll have your Cross Gazer pet!
It's unknown if there are any pre-requisites (other than unlocking the Antoran Wastes zone) for Orix's quests.
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Also thanks to @patf0rd, we have some clarification on Uuna and The Many-Faced Devourer rare elite. This companion will likely be available during week 1 (unlock Antoran Wastes).
Obtain a
Call of the Devourer (likely a zone-wide drop), and then collect
Ur'zul Bone,
Imp Bone,
Fiend Bone from
specific types of mobs objects on the ground. Combine them to
create a Bone Effigy. Using this resulting item will spawn the rare elite.
It's unknown if Uuna is a 100% drop rate or not. It's also unknown if there are any pre-requisites for looting these items. Uuna is not 100% drop rate off of the rare elite. Thanks yet again to @patf0rd for figuring out how to collect this companion!
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Note: See above UPDATES above for information on which pets will be time-gated. The NPCs that have a chance to drop the pets CAN spawn as normal rare elites (not part of a WQ). It's unknown if the pets will only drop when the NPCs are up as rare elites or if they will also drop when they are spawned as WQs.
I've been doing some Argus testing on the 7.3 PTR, and noticed something interesting that might be important for pet collectors.
TLDR; a few Argus pets that drop off of rares might be locked behind quest progression, which will be time-gated (over the course of a few weeks) for everyone.
Initially, rares and rare elites behaved similarly to most WoD spawns. Consistent spawning with a "once per day, per character" type of mechanic. In the most recent PTR build, however, this seems to have changed. For a few NPCs, at least.
This is only my own speculation, but there seems to be a couple of different types of 'rares' on Argus. World Quest rares (think
Demidos and
Orumo the Observer, only drops loot when their quest area is active) and normal rare spawns (once per day, per character types).
After this week's PTR patch, one rarespawn (Ataxon) suddenly seemed to changes its behavior. Prior to the patch, it was up every day and marked as a rare (giant gold star) on your minimap, and it also dropped loot. Post-patch and although Ataxon was spawned for me, it was not flagged as a rare and killing it yielded no loot at all.
I did some research on Wowhead and it turns out Ataxon (plus another rare that drops a pet) is likely tied to Argus World Quests. This might mean they will only have loot for you during their active WQ (similar to Demidos and Orumo).
On the other hand,
Naroua appears to have two IDs for the same NPC. One for the rare that's spawned all of the time (thanks to @patf0rd for confirming), and one for the rare that's the objective of a WQ. The other two NPCs only seem to have one ID (for their WQ).
So what does this mean for pet collectors? If the two rares are only available for loot when their WQ is active, the pets that drop off these two NPCs will be gated by quest progression. To unlock WQs for certain regions of each Argus zone, you need to complete specific portions of the Argus story.
For Mother Rosula WQ - complete quest
The Burning Heart
I believe this takes place toward the end of the quest chain at Krokuun, and during transition to the next zone, Antoran Wastes.
For Ataxon WQ - complete quest
Seat of the Triumvirate: The Crest of Knowledge
Mac'Aree seems to be the final zone you'll head to, so this quest chain will take longer to access. There's an earlier quest, Sigil of Awakening, that unlocks Mac'Aree WQs in general, however I've completed that and Ataxon was still not available for me. This leads me to believe that you need to complete the quest that specifically awards Western Mac'Aree WQs (this is where the NPC is located).
During the recent Developer Q&A with Ion Hazzikostas, it was clarified that the Argus story will follow a time-gated model.
From
Wowhead liveblog of the Q&A: Argus should have lots of stuff to do -- it has 5 chapters and you'll have lots of stuff to do. The second week, you'll unlock invasion points and the second zone. After the second week, you'll unlock the Netherlight Crucible and the dungeon, the Seat of the Triumvirate.
The noted rares above, if they are indeed tied to WQs, will depend on your own quest progression and time-gating. Pet collectors will probably be unable to jump right in and collect these specific pets. But I should mention that there are MANY other pets that will be readily available for collecting in 7.3. Pet collectors won't be without anything to do. ;)
Anyway, this is still the PTR so the above is all subject to change. These are just my initial observations and speculation - ones that I wanted to share with the community as early as possible to try and stem confusion. I know how frustrating it can be to feel unsure of what's "supposed" to happen and if you're doing something "wrong", especially in Legion where gating/time-gating is noticeably prevalent.
Last but not least, a couple other quests/NPCs that also drop pets but I've found no information/details on:
(World?) Quest - A Pile of Intact Demon Eyes (see Update #2 at the top of this post!)drops Cross Gazer
Area/zone? At what point in the quest chain is this available?
NPC - The Many-Faced Devourer (see Update #2 at the top of this post!)drops Uuna
Area/zone? Tied to a WQ? Or spawned consistently with a once per day, per character loot mechanic? At what point in the quest chain is it available?
If you have any information on these two, or any corrections/clarifications on any of the above, please let me know!
