How to Prepare For Patch 8.1 Pet Collecting

Things to do to prep for 8.1 (coming week of December 11):

• lvl a toon with Engineering skill of at least 125 (new crafted pet)
• grind to Exalted on a toon (or all toons?) for Proudmoore Admiralty (A), Order of Embers (A), Talanji's Expedition (H), and Storm's Wake (A) reputations (paragon cache dropped pets)
• save all/any reputation-granting items/quests for the reputations listed above
• save up at least 500 dubloons (2 new known vendor pets + 1 new pet toy)

Things to do to prep for post-8.1 content:

• lvl a toon to 120 + Enchanting skill of at least 125 (new crafted pet, recipe drops off of King Rastakhan encounter (#6) in upcoming Battle of Dazar'alor raid, unsure if from all difficulties)

All of the above can be disregarded if you have lots of gold and/or are planning on trading for some of the new battle pets. Pets related to the above are all cageable.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know!

These are the main things pet collectors can start working on now. I'll update this list if anything else pops up or comes to mind.

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Overview of 8.1 Pet Battle content (available immediately after patch-release):

• Gnomeregan Pet Battle Dungeon (Normal & Challenge mode)
• Family Battler challenges
• New Pet Journal increase, Interdimensional Pet Portal (requires already having upgraded to Pocket Pet Portal)
• New Island Expedition pets
• New Warfront rare elite dropped pets

Breakdown of sources for upcoming new pets:

• 7 vendor pets (all require unique currency, not gold)
• 2 achievement pets
• 2 profession pets (Enchanted Tiki Mask won't be available until Battle of Dazar'alor raid)
• 1 wild pet
• 1 quest reward pets
• 29 dropped pets
  

  - 4 from paragon caches
  - 8 from Darkshore Warfront
  - 10 from Island Expeditions
  - 4 from misc new rare mobs
  - 3 raid drops (unavailable until Battle of Dazar'alor raid)

BlizzCon 2018 Notes For Pet Collectors

Quick notes on things announced, previewed, or hinted at during BlizzCon 2018 WoW 'What's Next' panel, plus my own speculation. Focusing on topics and stuff that pet collectors/battlers will likely be interested in.

December 11 is when we can expect Patch 8.1.5. Notable previously unannounced content for pet collectors in this patch:

• Children's Week updates - Kul Tiras and Zandalar orphans (could this mean new/more battle pets?!)
• Brawler's Guild returns - Unknown if the 2 existing battle pets will still be available to purchase from the Brawler's Guild vendor, and/or if there will be new additions.

NOTE: Much of Patch 8.1 has already been datamined and previewed. Lots more than just the above is coming; this is just stuff that was not yet revealed until today's panel.


After that, next major content patch will be Patch 8.2.5 (Rise of Azshara):

• New continent to discover/explore, Nazjatar - new battle pets (baby naga!)
• Mechagon Megadungeon - 8 bosses, Mythic only, but there was brief mention of new rewards *cough* pets...?
• More Island Expedition maps - Very likely more pet rewards, but it's unknown how we'll obtain them.

And last but not least, where do I submit my official request for this creepy squishie-tentacle-eyeball-boi to be a collectible battle pet? :P


That's it for now. Will update if there's anything else!

New Charity Pet 2018 - Whomper!

I haven't made a blog post in a while - most of the new/news stuff lately goes onto WarcraftPets, so I felt it was a bit redundant to also write a personal blog post about it.

But today is a special day, BlizzCon 2018! And they JUST announced and released a new battle pet! Whomper!


Whomper is this year's charity pet, with 100% of the adoption fee going to Code.org (through December 31, 2018). It's a nonprofit organization that focuses on computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and minority groups.

There is also a separate Whomper plushie that you can buy! Proceeds from this toy will also be donated to the nonprofit organization listed above.

I have to admit, although he's a cutie, I'm a little disappointed. Whomper's idle animations are pretty much the same as the animations for grummles and/or pygmies. So it's not an entirely unique battle pet. Nonetheless, he is adorable (and HUGE - screenshot above is without any pet biscuits) and I will adopt him without any hesitations. :)

We'll have to wait and see how much this pet (and plushie) raise for charity. For a full list of previous charity pets (and toys), here's an updated list from last year.