Battle For Azeroth: Datamining First Look

Let the datamining commence! It's begun -- we're getting our first look at new and updated content coming next expansion. There's literally too much to post about, so I'll mainly provide links you can browse through at your own leisure.

As mentioned at BlizzCon 2017, updated pet models are in the works for BFA. And now we have some previews of what's to come. Here's a list of creature models that are getting high resolution updates:

• Cats
• Chickens
• Crabs
• Pigs
• Prairie Dogs
• Turtles
• And More!

In addition to updated models, there are completely new models. These haven't been confirmed they'll be collectible pets, but there are SO MANY that I absolutely HOPE will be battle pets! Dinosaurs, bumble bees, weird/odd larva/creepy looking things, hermit crabs, etc.

Check out many updated/new models in detail on Wowhead's BFA Mount and Creature Models page! Also check out MMO-Champion's BFA model page!

There are also tons of new icons that hint at new pets, but we'll have to wait and see.

So far I'm pretty overwhelmed with all of the new things. I've got a mental checklist going while looking through all the shiny models -- the majority of which I'd love to collect. There are some actual pets that have been datamined as well, but there's little to no information on those so far. I'm just enjoying all of the eye candy until we learn more! ^^;

Magic Pet Mirror Updates In Legion

Exciting news from Legion Alpha...at least it's exciting to me hehe. ;)

The Magic Pet Mirror might be getting some updates in the expansion! I say "might" because all of this could change; nothing is set in stone.

Currently on live servers the Magic Pet Mirror costume disappears when you do ANYTHING other than emote. Need to hearth? Say bye-bye to your buff. Summon a different pet? Nope, can't do that. Cast a spell? Sorry, can't do that without losing the costume either.


But good news everybody! In Legion you can do all of that and more! *throws confetti* :D

After doing some testing, it looks like the following will work with the Magic Pet Mirror:

• most player spells can be cast
• logging in and out
• shapeshifting
• summoning another pet
• mounting (will temporarily remove the costume, but you retain the buff and regain the costume after dismounting)

Entering combat will still remove the costume.

Most player abilities can be used, but there seem to be a few that will yank you out of pet-form. Shadow Priest Psychic Scream for example. There are probably others that still don't work with the mirror buff, but I haven't been able to test everything.

A few fun combinations:

- Druids retain the costume while shapeshifting (minus travel form)
- Fishing while a pet
- Paladin bubbles + pet costume
- Hunter Feign Death + pet costume (it's a bit sad-looking though...)
- Priest Levitate + pet costume

Magic Pet Mirror + Mage Mirror Image causes your images to turn into whatever pet you copied. If you enter combat, you lose the costume, but your images don't!


Monk using Zen Pilgrimage while a pet
There are so many more awesome combos, I'm sure, but since I don't have time to try them all out we'll just have to wait and see what creative things players come up with once Legion goes live. ;)


And just for fun, rogue kitty! When claws just don't cut it anymore hehe.

Legion Alpha: New Pets and More Pet Battle World Quest Updates

New Alpha build yesterday means new stuff and updated Pet Battle World Quests.

• 6 new pets (2 of which were datamined way back in WoD Alpha/Beta, but never released)
• Handful of updated pets - full list of Legion pets
• Pocket Pet Portal (item that increases Pet Journal cap to 1500) is now rewarded for completing Battle on the Broken Isles
• Confirmed(???) price for Narcissa's Mirror - 1000 Pet Charms (UNSURE about this, vendor was updated but it's still unclear if Pet Charms will be *the* currency for Legion)
• 3 Pet Battle World Quests active daily (up from 2)
• Better quest rewards! Pet Charms, multiple battlestones (but not Polished yay), and even Artifact Power

Also, seems like the Corgi Pup will come from a special vendor during the WoW anniversary period.

@perksnpeeves The timewalker historians will be making a visit for WoW's 12th anniversary with some cool loot and world trivia!

— Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) April 26, 2016

Legion Alpha: Oh, Ominitron

I haven't gone into depth about most of the Pet Battle World Quests (I've only been keeping track of them here), but today's battle was especially interesting.

I just can't resist gushing about a particularly hard or engaging pet battle, and this one was a bit of both!


One of today's Pet Battle World Quests on Alpha was in Stormheim. Oh, Ominitron - 3 level 25 epic pets: Mini Magmatron, Mini Arcanotron, Mini Electron

Don't let their 'companion' status on Wowhead fool you -- these constructs can kick some butt.

What's so unique about this battle is that each of these pets only has one ability. HOWEVER, upon hitting any of your team with their single attack, they automatically swap on that same turn. Each one's attack is pretty hard-hitting, but two are particularly annoying.

Let's take a closer look at each one.

First pet to come out is Mini Magmatron. He uses Incineration Security Measures before switching to the next pet (on the same turn). This is just a large AOE on your team. If he doesn't hit any pet on your team, he will not swap out. Instead he'll try using his ability again on the next turn, and will continuing trying until he lands a hit on *any* of your pets (doesn't have to be your active one).

After swapping, Mini Electron steps up to the plate. He uses Lightning Conductor, which is a single target ability but stuns your pet for one round. He's quite fast, so unless your pet has 311+ speed, he WILL be going first. Under most circumstances, that means he'll stun your pet before immediately swapping out (again, on the same turn). Same as the previous Mini, if his hit misses your pet, he won't swap.

The pet switching gets a little random at this point. Sometimes Mini Magmatron will pop back in and it'll go back and forth between him and Mini Electron.

But the real threat is Mini Arcanotron. You absolutely want to avoid this guy's attack, Arcane Annihilator. Not only is this ability a gigantic single target nuke, it also puts the Shattered Defenses debuff on your pet. Ouch. Again, once he hits your pet, he'll immediately switch with one of his teammates. If he misses, he stays and tries again until he lands his attack.


My Struggle and Eventual Success
Initially, I tried to prevent the pets from stunning my pets. Arcane Winds to the rescue! But the drawback was that that also meant I couldn't stun or root any of the Minis either. The constant swapping became an issue at that point. Especially when it came to the giant nuke + debuff.

Next I attempted to root the Minis, but that also seemed to be a mistake. Root Magmatron and he'll just AOE your team into oblivion. Root Arcanotron and he'll finish your pet all on his own with his super hard hitting + debuff attack. And last but not least, Electron - very few of my pets on Alpha are faster than Electron, meaning he has the move advantage and can get his attack + stun off first. Rooting him meant my pet was stunned and then dead before I knew it the majority of the time.

Side note: There might be a bug with this battle. Mudslide didn't seem to work on any of the Minis. Magmatron is an elemental, so it wouldn't work on him of course. But the other two... they just kept swapping like mad. I had no problem rooting them with other abilities though, so yea, probably a bug.

At this point I was pretty flustered. This was the first fight on Alpha that I had run into that left me feeling stumped. The rest I managed to work out, even with the limited number of pets that I have on Alpha, but this encounter...THIS ONE. Geeze.

I decided to enlist the help of the OH and see what his thoughts on it were. After a brief overview of the Pet Battle mechanics involved, we came up with a team that seemed to be more successful than my other attempts.

We decided that the biggest threat was Arcanotron, followed by Electron. Magmatron's damage wasn't to be ignored, but avoiding it wasn't as high a priority as dodging his bros. Avoidance was key.

So the team we made was Stinker, and two rabbits (both with 322 speed). Stinker was really just a damage/damage soaker to be honest. We used Stench but that ability is so unreliable. It did cause a couple rounds of misses for the Minis though. That probably helped a little. A third rabbit would have been preferable but my collection is lacking on Alpha. The MVPs were the bunnies and their speed.

With a full critter team, not only was the AOE weak against them, but they also couldn't be rooted/stunned. This neutered Magmatron and Electron somewhat (the damage was still high and shouldn't be ignored), which let us focus on Arcanotron.

Dodge and Burrow were the way to go to! My rabbits couldn't avoid EVERY attack from Arcanotron, but it was enough so that they could put some decent damage in on all the Minis. I had to really focus and think about each move before using it; any slip up would have been really punishing.

In the end I finally defeated this swap-crazy team - my Dust Bunny had 29 HP left. THAT'S how close it was. THAT'S how tough the battle was, at least with my limited collection on Alpha.

I think I would have had an easier time if I had access to all of my pets that I have on live, but I really couldn't say for sure. Maybe it wouldn't be easier; these Minis are no push overs.

Anyway, fight completed. It's been the most challenging (and frustrating) one on Alpha so far! I immediately went out and captured another 322 speed rabbit right after. Yenno, just in case this quest pops up again. ;)

Kudos to the pet battle dev team for this one. The encounter mechanics are new, different, and really make you consider your pets and strat carefully.

Tough fight, not impossible, but I could definitely see some players struggling with it. Pretty fun and feels rewarding when you get though!

Legion Alpha: Narcissa's Mirror (aka: *SQUEEING NOISES*)

I can't even begin to describe my excitement over a new toy coming in Legion (how we obtain it still TBA, however Wowhead has it listed as a purchasable item from a vendor for 1000 Pet Charms): Narcissa's Mirror!


This toy is sort of a sister toy to the Magic Pet Mirror, except instead of turning you into your pet, you turn your pet INTO YOU. How freaking awesome is that?

After some testing on Alpha, here's how it works. Keep in mind that all of this is subject to change, nothing is set in stone yet!

Legion Alpha: Pet Battle World Quest Updates

Alpha received an update yesterday (build 21531) and so did the Pet Battle World Quests (initial overview can be found here).

Here's a list of changes.

• Pet Battle quest is NOT available in all 6 six zones on a daily basis anymore. Yesterday there were only 2 quests up, and today there's only 1 Pet Battle quest available (second quest was hiding in Suramar; thanks to @SerrinneWoW for pointing it out XD). (see this post where I track the available quests each day)
• Pet Battle encounters are phased out unless they are the quest(s) of the day.
• You cannot re-enter the battle once you've completed the quest.
• Players sub-level 110 cannot battle the World Quest pets.
• New type of quest: Find and defeat or capture X wild pets.
• New achievement related to Pet Battle World Quests: Pet Battles > Battle > Battle on the Broken Isle (Complete 30 different Pet Battle World Quests - no reward (yet?))

Keep in mind that all of the above is still subject to change!

I'm a little sad to see that not all zones have Pet Battle World Quests available each day anymore. This greatly limits the amount of Pet Battle PVE content we'll have (initially) in Legion.

However a concern was brought up that the Pet Battle quests may take the spot of another type of activity, even though Pet Battling isn't as common a style of gameplay as questing, killing elites, etc. While I don't know if this reduction in the number of pet quests each day was made because of this concern, the change does seem to address it.

More testing will have to be done; it's not clear just how many Pet Battle World Quests are supposed to be available each quest rotation. One? Two? Enough to satisfy at least one objective in each of the emissary quests?

Personally, I'd like to see at least 3 up each day (half of total number of zones). Maybe 4. I think that would be a fair compromise. Depending on the randomization of quests each day, it would also still take at least a week+ to complete the new achievement.

Also, there was a new type of Pet Battle World Quest the other day - defeat or capture 3 different wild pets in the zone. One would think that that's pretty easy right? I mean, there's no legendary or elite/boss pet encounter to complete. However, I actually found this a bit more challenging purely due to travel time and time constraints.

Unlike the static PVE encounters, your objectives are spread out all over the zone. The challenge isn't in the battle, it's simply FINDING the battle.

For my quest, I had to defeat or capture a Vale Flitter, Shimmering Aquafly, and Spring Strider. The first one was easiest to find, but the last two were a lot harder since I wasn't very familiar with the zone yet.

On top of that, there was only ~20 minutes left on the quest duration before the World Quests changed for the day. That added even more pressure.

Some unknowns: Are the quest objectives static or will they change? Does each zone have a similar "fight 3 different wild pets" quest? Since I didn't have much time, I was unable to test if secondary pets counted towards completion. The Vale Flitter and Shimmering Aquafly were both primary pets, and I never found a Spring Strider.

So I'm not sure I like that type of quest. Maybe once I'm more familiar with the area and know where to find each wild pet, it won't be as bad. But I also worry about competition over these wild pets to not only complete the quest, but also collectors simply trying to collect them. Will there be enough pet spawns to adequately meet the needs of the number of players participating? We'll have to see I guess.

The other changes made seem more like bug fixes than anything. Being able to enter any Pet Battle World Quest, whether or not it was part of the day's rotation didn't seem like it was intended. Nor did the ability to repeat the fight over and over again, or sub-level 110s being able to engage in the battle.

Legion Alpha: List of Pet Battle World Quests

Keeping track of Pet Battle World Quests from Legion Alpha. My original post on this new feature found here, and an update to World Quests here.

► DAY 1 quests completed:

Azsuna - Training With the Nightwatchers (Nightwatcher Merayl, reward: Flawless leveling stone)
Pets: Breezy Book, Helpful Spirit, Delicate Moth (all level 25 rare)

Dalaran - Fight Night: Sir Galveston (Sir Galveston, reward: Magic leveling stone)
Pets: Sir Murkeston, Coach, Greatest Foe (all level 25 epic)

Val'sharah - Only Pets Can Prevent Forest Fires (Living Coals, reward: Polished Magic stone)
Pets: Cackling Flame, Devouring Blaze, Living Coals (all level 25 rare)

Highmountain - Snail Fight! (Odrogg, reward: Dragonkin leveling stone)
Pets: Rocklick, Slow Moe, Snot (all level 25 rare)

Stormheim - My Beast's Bidding (Robert Craig, reward: Undead leveling stone)
Pets: Thrugtusk, Wumpas, Baeloth (all level 25 epic)

Suramar - Threads of Fate (Felsoul Seer, reward: Polished Humanoid stone)
Pets: ??

Pet Battle World Quests: First Look

UPDATE: Pets do earn experience for completing these Pet Battle World Quests encounters. My level 1 received 3625 xp from the Stormheim battle (My Beast's Bidding - see end of post for details). The battles are repeatable, but I'm unsure if that's intended or not. If yes, could make for some convenient grinding/leveling...?

Oh and I didn't notice it before, but the World Quests changed yet I was still able to repeatedly battle an NPC from the previous rotation. Definitely not sure if that's intended or not.

Good to see a rare quality battlestone as one of the rewards though. I say that but 4 other quests are Polished stones...zzzzzzzz. lol

UPDATE #2: Amalia was today's Dalaran Pet Battle World Quest! My level 10 pet received 4750 xp from her team of 3 level 25 rare quality pets. Can battle her repeatedly, but you don't receive the World Quest reward (battlestone) after the initial completion.

Keeping track of the quests, rewards and enemy pet teams towards the bottom of the post.

UPDATE #3: You can enter the World Quest pet encounters even before you're level 110. You won't get quest completion or any of the rewards (you do receive player experience though - 3762 xp @ level 100 from Rocko). Not sure if that's intended, but if it's intended then I guess it'll be great for alts/lower levels and pet leveling.

UPDATE#4: If you don't complete a Pet Battle World Quest and leave it up, it will automatically change once all of the quests rotate. Can't "save" quests for next day.

---------------------------------------------

I finally hit level 110 on Legion Alpha! First thing to test: Pet Battle World Quests. Here's a quick breakdown of what I've discovered so far.

• One Pet Battle World Quest per Broken Isle zone (includes Dalaran as a zone), which comes to a total of 6 possible Pet Battle encounters at any given time.
• One quest per reputation objective. Example: Only the Pet Battle World Quest in Highmountain counts towards Highmountain Tribes. See this GIF as an example - highlighted quest marker = counts as part of the objective.
• Despite only receiving two emissary objectives for specific zones, you can still go and complete any and all of the Pet Battle World Quests that are currently up.
• Simply approach the Pet Battle area that's listed on the world map and you'll see an RP pop-up (similar to this dialogue, Tournie Announcer is specific to Dalaran though) and auto-accept the quest.
• Battles are repeatable, but offer no rewards after the initial completion (unsure if intended).
• Haven't tested whether or not these battles yield pet experience.

As mentioned in my feedback post on the official forums, I think the Dalaran battle is a bit overtuned relative to the rest of the encounters. Everything else was your standard, fight 3 level 25 pets though. (Details on each of the quests that I completed for this first round can be found after the cut.)

So far the rewards leave much to be desired. At least from a veteran's point of view. Battlestones? I have a decent number already, so one battlestone isn't really going to get me super excited to travel out and battle.

If anything, the prospect of fighting something new will probably be more of a draw for me. At least the first time. Depending on the (randomized?) reward, I may not travel out to complete the same quest a second time.


And can we talk about these Polished Battlestones? Why they're in the rotation as a reward, I don't even know. Even those newer to Pet Battles quickly grow out of uncommon battlestones. These just don't cut it as a reward at this point IMO.

Things I'm hoping to see: different rewards. Pet Charms, toys, rarity stones, new pets, etc. More varied rewards each round of Pet Battle World Quests too. Maybe one day 3 could give battlestones while the other 2 reward Pet Charms. Next day 4 battlestones and surprise, a new pet! Something like that.

Different types of battles. Throw in some curve balls that make me rethink my strategy. BUT! If these World Quests are meant more for newer Pet Battlers, then perhaps I'll have to wait for new challenges.

What concerns me is the longevity of this content. Once we've completed all of the battles at least once, collected the new pets (if there are even pet rewards for these quests), what will keep us coming back for more? The battlestones? Or will the "good" rewards be so rare that we'll be required to check back as often as possible?

Anyway, I'm beat. Spent all night reaching max level and then checking out these new battles. I'll add more to this as I come across it, but I'm way too exhausted to press on for now.

Below are the first 3 days of World Quests. I'm keeping a much longer list of encounters on a separate post found here.

More Legion World Quest Thoughts and Questions

Both MMO-Champion and Wowhead have quick previews of what the max level World Quests will be like in Legion.

I'm still working on getting to 110 on Alpha so I can check out this new content for myself...almost there! But for now, these previews will have to do.

Unfortunately I'm left with more questions and thoughts than conclusive answers.

• Not all Wolrd Quests will be available for the same duration of time - What's the duration on each Pet Battle World Quest? How quickly will they rotate?

If they rotate too quickly, some may not get to experience a certain encounter. If they change too slowly, it could cause some to lose interest in the feature entirely.

• Reward for Pet Battle World Quests appear to be a (single) leveling battlestone (that I've seen so far) - Will the reward be JUST leveling stones? Or will they reward other things such as rarity battlestones, Pet Charms, etc.?

For newer/casual collectors and battlers, this sort of introductory Pet Battle content (IF that's the intent) will be great (if the encounters aren't super hard, that is). Catch up by doing a Pet Battle World Quest (each day?) to collect some stones and get that army of pets leveled up faster. 

For some veterans, one battlestone might not be enough to keep them interested after they've defeated all of the World Quest challenges at least once or twice.

• Pet rewards to keep everyone interested, yay! - But will the new World Quest pet rewards be exclusively from the Pet Battle World Quests? Or will there be a chance they come from other types of content (PVP, PVE, Dungeon, etc.)? Will the reward match the activity, or will the loot table be shared across all types of World Quest content?

According to Jeremy Feasel on the official World Quests thread, "There will still be random, rare toys/mounts/pets from a variety of activities, this is simply a philosophy for World Quests." 

This leaves me wondering just how random it will be. Random as in, 'sometimes X Pet Battle World Quest will reward a battlestone, but it has a chance to reward A, B, or C pet other days!' Or random as in, 'sometimes Y and Z PVP and Dungeon World Quest will reward a new pet!' 

If I have to complete a PVP World Quest for a pet...I'm probably going to be really stressed out. :(

Other things:

• Seems like one Pet Battle World Quest option per day/hour/week(???) for each zone/emissary, however we do know that there are a few different Pet Battle World Quests for each zone, so it's likely they will rotate.
• It's still unclear if the World Quests are account-wide or not. I'm going to guess not, as it's dependent on a toon being max level.
• Will the pets rewarded through the World Quest feature be cageable? Will they come in different breeds? What will entice us to keep doing the quests/collecting?
• Difficulty level of each Pet Battle World Quest encounter is still somewhat unknown. Will the difficulty fit the reward?
• If these battles are intended to be more for newer, casual, intermediate pet collectors/battlers, will it put off veterans? What about Pet Battle PVE content for sub-level 110 characters? Assuming there will be such content, how will that fit into the scheme of things? (Possible progression Pet Battle path in Legion = New Broken Isle trainers, then level 110 World Quest Pet Battles, and finally 'end game' ??)

Hopefully once I test the World Quests out for myself, a lot of these questions will be answered. I'm especially curious about the rewards though. Curious about what they are, and whether or not they'll be satisfactory for the majority of pet collectors and battlers.

Legion Alpha: Pet Battle World Quests Ready For Testing!

Exciting news for Legion Alpha today -- World Quests will be ready for testing once the patch has been deployed!

TLDR World Quests: Once you've reached level cap (110), you'll have a variety of content to completely daily/weekly (including Pet Battle content!). It's sort of like an evolved version of daily quests, but maybe not so daily. For full description and details on World Quests, check out the official post by developer Muffinus himself!

We've already had a very small taste of Pet Battle World Quests (I blogged about their initial yet incomplete addition to Alpha here and here), and since then more encounters have been added. Presumably a few for each zone.

Why bother seeking out and completing these Pet Battle World Quests though? According to Muffinus, there will be new pet rewards for doing so. Eeep!

I'm excited yet overwhelmed with this news. Excited because YAY PET CONTENT! Overwhelmed because...

Well, for starters you must be level 110 to unlock World Quests, and I've been somewhat avoiding leveling. I'd like to save as much of the story and questing as possible for when Legion goes live so I can experience it together with the OH. Unless premade level 110 characters are made available, it looks like I'm going to have to spoil it for myself (and the OH). Bummer.

Secondly, there are still some unknowns that may impact how the Pet Battle World Quests are received by the community.

Since there's a possibility of receiving a pet reward from the World Quest loot bag, many collectors will feel it necessary to complete the quests as often as they can.

• If the quests are per toon and not account-wide, it will give those with multiple max level characters the advantage.
• If the quests are account-wide, it will be a longer and heavier RNG-riddled ride. (Personally, I do NOT prefer this over the former above.)
• If the quests are random per toon/account/person, RNG will be the largest factor in which Pet Battle World Quest you get each day/week.
• And if the reward bag loot tables are not shared and are dependent on the pet encounter, then RNG will also play a big part in which new pet you can receive. Meaning you'll need/want to check back as often as possible to ensure you're receiving the full rotation of pet objectives each day/week.

There are other things to consider as well, such as location, travel time, difficulty, etc.

The difficulty level of these World Quests should definitely be noted and considered carefully. Without a doubt some will consider this new content "too easy", while others will view it as "too difficult". Where should the difficulty level fall though?

We saw how the Menagerie's initial difficulty level was NOT favorable, especially since it was a feature that everyone kind of had to experience.

However, Pet Battle World Quests are somewhat different in that they are part of a larger pool of quests. You don't HAVE TO pick the Pet Battle content; there are other types of quests to complete to satisfy the overall objective.

So does this mean these new encounters should be on the same level as the nerfed Menagerie battles? I don't know yet. It depends, really.

Can you pick and complete the other types of World Quests (PVE, PVP, etc.) PLUS the Pet Battle quests? If so, some will definitely do so for the chance of more rewards. And if that's the case, perhaps the Pet Battle fights need to be accessible so that even beginners or "casuals" can complete them.

If World Quests are not as open choice as that and you can really only choose one "path", then the battles need not be super-easy. I mean, mainly those interested in pets will be willingly throwing themselves at legendary and boss pet challenges.

Then again, do we NEED tough Pet Battle content early on in an expansion? Difficulty should ramp up towards "end-game" right? That's assuming, of course, there is an "end-game" for Pet Battles in Legion...we still don't really know yet!

Anyway, this is all speculation and pondering on my part. Testing will reveal a lot more and hopefully some solid feedback will help make this new pet stuff awesome. :)

I'm just sad that I need to start leveling. Not only will I be behind on Alpha, I'll also be spoiling some of the questing content. #firstworldAlphaproblems T^T

Edit: Also just thought of something else -- If Pet Battle World Quests require level 110, does that mean there will be no battling content until max level? Other than collecting, what pet content will sub-level 110 players have?

Legion Alpha: New Dust Bunny Rug

It's been a while since the Dust Bunny was last seen on Alpha, but good news is that we finally have an update (thanks to a tip from a WarcraftPets user)!

Previously, there was a rug in the new Dalaran barber shop that you could click on. Originally this depsawned the rug and spawned a single wild Dust Bunny in its place.

The rug was then updated in another Alpha patch, and it no longer disappeared or spawned the pet itself, but instead gave you a Spring Cleaning buff that allowed you to see wild Dust Bunnies all over Dalaran.

And then the rug disappeared completely. For a while too.

It was a mystery what happened to it; was the Dust Bunny mechanic being reworked? There were some issues with the rug's cooldown, so it's possible it was getting fixed.

Was it being moved entirely? Maybe the barber shop owner sent it out for dry cleaning... lol.


Well the Dusty Rug (hovering over it brings up a tooltip with that name) has finally revealed itself once again! Instead of a blue and gold rug, it's now a sort of dirty-gold and silver rug (pictured above).

This new rug can be found on the second floor of the Legerdemain Lounge, and it grants the same buff as the previous rug did. You can see bunnies running around for 10 minutes before poof, they vanish back into dusty shadows.

Unfortunately, the new rug has some unknowns to it. Cooldown? Maybe, but after clicking on it once with one character, even after some time (10 minutes+, the duration of the buff and then some) I still couldn't click on it with that same toon or any other character.

I then noticed that there are a few of the same type of rug in the upper rooms of multiple Dalaran establishments.

Perhaps instead of simply a cooldown on the rug, there's that PLUS a random spawn factor. Maybe the rug in room A will be clickable, then room B or even somewhere else. It would definitely make collecting this pet more challenging, and would also add more value to the wild pet as there will probably be some competition over the rug spawn.

That's just my guess for now though. More testing will have to be done to determine just what the heck is going on with this weird rug. If you have any insight on what's going on with the Dust Bunny rug, please share! :)

Have I said 'rug' enough in this post? Rug rug rug! :P

Legion Alpha: Pet Cap Increased (ahhh!)

A new patch was released for Legion Alpha. Here is what's new and/or changed. Will add to this list if there's anything else.

• Leather Pet Bed - Thanks Wayne for pointing this out! I saw something similar in a previous patch, but it wasn't specified that it was for companion pets.

New pet from today's Alpha build: Sting Ray Pup! Likely from fishing (Pet Journal description needs updating). pic.twitter.com/2dr7fsrqFl

— Quintessence (@perksnpeeves) March 31, 2016

• New pet in this build: Sting Ray Pup! The Pet Journal currently says it's from Nat Pagle in Draenor, but it probably just needs to be updated. I mean... unless we're going back to Draenor in Legion...uh, yea. ;p

• Pet Tournament Purse - I think this is new, but I'm not entirely sure. I may have simply missed it in a previous patch. Regardless, pet tournament inc!

AHHHH this is the cutest thing!!!! https://t.co/8reQgOs3Bp pic.twitter.com/tpn9HWi4Au

— Data Hunter Perculia (@perculia) March 31, 2016

• Sandpiper model - PLEASE let this be a battle pet! *squees* It's adorable!

• Ominous Pet Treat - Temporarily turn all of your pets into uhm... void...lords? Maybe similar to the consumable sold by the Ethereal Soul-Trader?

And the best for last... the most exciting update of all (drum roll please.......)

• Maximum number of pets allowed in the Pet Journal increased to 1500 (up from 1000)!!
  
  The catch is that you need an on-use consumable item to expand your journal. It's unknown where this item will come from -- achievement reward? Drop? Vendor? I'm leaning towards it being related to the upcoming pet tournament, but we'll have to wait and see.

Legion will allow you to collect up to 1500 pets! - https://t.co/tmimclkSNT pic.twitter.com/8gF4hC1X0d

— MMO-Champion (@MMOChampion) March 31, 2016

Legion Alpha: Highmountain Pet Battle Bonus Objectives

List of discovered Pet Battle Bonus Objectives in Highmountain. Each one is not always up/available.

Information from alpha, things are subject to change. Will update this list as more world quests are found. If you come across any not listed here, please let me know!

1.) Hungry Icefang (Wildlife Protection Force) - found by Wowhead user Illumina4

• located on the main path that travels south of Skyhorn (across the ravine/bridge)
• epic (purple) with "elite" buff
• joined by 2 random wild pets of varying breed/quaity (no buffs)

2.) Grixis Tinypop (Tiny Poacher, Tiny Animals) - found by @SerrinneWoW

• located on the main path that goes northeast from Bloodtotem flightpoint
• 3 epic (purple) pets (no buffs) - Gulp, Egcellent, and Red Wire

3.) Rocko (Rocko Needs a Shave) - found by ‏@tatianasaggio

• located inside Lifespirng Cavern (cave west of Thunder Totem), next to Gelmogg (hostile quest mob)
• single legendary (orange) pet
• only has one ability, Pound
• has the "crumble" buff

4.) Odrogg (Snail Fight!) - found by @tatianasaggio

• located inside Stonedark Grotto (entrance to the caves is just off the main path)
• 3 rare (blue) pets (no buffs) - Rocklick, Slow Moe, and Snot

5.) Bredda Tenderhide (Training with Bredda) - ???

Legion Alpha: Pet Battle Quests - Bonus Objectives?

Not a lot of Pet Battle updates has hit Legion Alpha, so there hasn't been much to pet related stuff to test. Yet.

For those eager to check out something (anything!) like me, here are some Pet Battle quests from the Alpha. Keep in mind some might be works in progress, placeholders, and/or NYI. These might just be the tip of the iceberg too, and more could be on the way. At least, we can only hope. :P

From the list, you'll see that there are 7 daily quests (account-wide) and one weekly (also account-wide). All of these award x4 Pet Charms each.

It's probably safe to assume that the daily quests will be trainer battles. Perhaps one per Legion zone? Can't say for sure yet; the trainer icons haven't been added to the in-game map on Alpha yet.

As for the weekly quest... I'm wagering that it will be similar to the current weekly Pet Battle quest, Battle Pet Tamers: Warlords. I should mention that that weekly is actually still available in Legion, in new Dalaran no less. It's odd but I think it's just temporary. Maybe the new weekly will replace it as testing continues.

The other undefined quests are a little tougher to pinpoint, however one Wowhead comment does provide some insight.


Bonus Objective RP:
"Mayla Highmountain says: That elderhorn calf is in danger! You have to help it!"

According to the Wowhead comment, Wildlife Protection Force is a bonus objective in Highmountain. There's even video from the commenter of the objective -- completing it involves defeating a level 25 epic quality Hungry Icefang in a Pet Battle.


It has 2 additional (random wild pet) teammates. The Hungry Icefang is classified as a boss pet and has the appropriate 'takes reduced damage' buff.

What's interesting about this bonus objective Pet Battle is that the NPC is not always present, as mentioned in the Wowhead comment. Yesterday, I traveled to the very spot where it spawns (shown in the user's video) and found that it was not there too. I checked back throughout the day, still didn't find anything.

You would think that this would be discouraging, but I had a hunch that this NPC spawn might be a special one.

Judging from the video, the time of day that the poster found the Hungry Icefang was nighttime. Perhaps late night. So I decided to check at around 10 PM server time, and ta-da! The boss pet was there in all its fearsome glory. (Poor little moose calf, I'll save you one day soon!)


I can't 100% confirm that the Hungry Icefang will only spawn at night, but I plan on checking back every night to test the idea.

While I'd love to be able to test the actual battle itself, I still don't have a full team of 25 pets yet on Alpha. Leveling up a pet is currently a pain as there's a nasty bug where your client crashes after completing a battle. So... more waiting!

I'm pretty eager to complete this bonus objective though; I'd love to know what the Common Bag of Loot holds. It's the reward for all of the undefined Pet Batttle quests (likely all bonus objectives), but also for other quests not related to Pet Battles.

I have to wonder, is its loot table shared among all of the various types of quests? Can I get a pet-related reward from doing some miscellaneous quest elsewhere? Or will the bonus objective determine the loot? It could even just be a placeholder reward too.

So stuff is still up in the air, which is expected since we're still in Alpha. I can't wait to be able to copy over my account data from live and have a full army of level 25 pets to test everything out. But that might not be possible until much later on in testing. I'll just have to be content with figuring out the mystery of the Hungry Icefang spawning...for now. :P

Edit: Additional questions about Pet Battle bonus objectives - Repeatable? Once per day, per toon? Account-wide? Or only once per toon, ever?

Also, update on Hungry Icefang spawning - Checked back at 6pm server time and it was spawned. Going to check at an earlier time to pinpoint the exact time it spawns. When it despawns...testing that might be tougher. If it's only up at night, I imagine it will disappear (early?) morning. I...am not a morning person lol. :P

Edit #2: Checked at 6pm, 630pm, and 7pm server time. Hungry Icefang wasn't up, which basically tosses a rock at my theory that he has a set spawn time. So the only noticeable pattern is that he doesn't show up during the day, and he only shows up at night. When at night is still up in the air.

Edit #3: It's noon and the Hungry Icefang is up. WTFF. There goes the theory that it only spawns at night. At this point I have NO IDEA what the spawn mechanic for this boss pet/bonus objective is. Random is random?!?!

A Wild Dust Bunny Appears! (Legion Alpha)

I was recently pondering the whereabouts of the Dust Bunny in Legion's Dalaran, and it looks like someone has found its hiding spot!

Anne Stickney of Blizzard Watch happened upon the Dust Bunny while testing on Alpha. You can read more about her discovery in this article written by Liopleurodonic.

With news of the Dust Bunny's discovery, I had to go and check it out too.

   
Upon entering the Barber Shop in (new) Dalaran, there was a Dusty Rug (Wowhead object link not yet available) waiting. Clicking on it removed the rug to reveal a wild Dust Bunny.


You can see the paw print icon pop up on the mini-map if someone else "summons" it.

It was a close battle, not having any max level battle pets on Alpha, but I managed to secure my own poor quality bunny. It spawned in as a level 25 solo wild pet; capturing it brought it down to level 23.

Much of the room is considered obstructed, but I did find some sweet spots. You'll be able to battle the bunny if you stand at the stop of the stairs or in between the first two barber chairs. It's strange since most of the room is clear and flat space, but *shrug*.

Curious if I could capture another, I waited the roughly 15 minute respawn timer and clicked on the rug again. This time the bunny spawned in as uncommon quality.

Good news is that yes, you can collect the maximum number of Dust Bunnies allowed in the Pet Journal. This being a wild pet and all, it only makes sense.


The bad news... it's a wild pet, so it CAN be killed by player attacks. I actually found this out on accident, while I was messing around with my hunter's attacks. Oops, sorry little one. :(

Perhaps this specific pet, being uniquely spawned and a SINGLE spawn, should be immune to player abilities/attacks. Otherwise, I could imagine it very easy to grief someone attempting to collect their own Dust Bunny.

Speaking of others collecting this odd critter -- if you summon the bunny but don't engage in battle or capture it, someone else can come along and battle/capture it instead. Or it can just happily sit there until it despawns. I didn't stick around long enough to see how long it took for the rug to reset and despawn the wild Dust Bunny, but I'm guessing it's the same amount of time as the rug's respawn timer.


Summoning your Dust Bunny will generate a puff of dust, with the pet's little nose sticking out. Adorable (and sneeze-inducing) or what? Really looking forward to collecting this pet once Legion goes live! :)

WoD Alpha: Reinstallation Sucks and Some New Stuff

New alpha build but it looks like I need to reinstall the entire thing so I haven't been able to check out the Pet Journal for updates. Damn you error #0! Tried clearing Cache and WTF, but that just led to being unable to even authenticate the alpha. Ran out of ideas and patience so bleh, reinstalling. If this doesn't fix it, I might need to just wait until the next patch to load into the game.

Anyway, Wowhead has some nifty additions from this latest patch. New pets and the Elekk Plushie achievements that were previewed last week.

- Spectral Bell which summons a Ghastly Kid

- New pets that are possibly wild: Gnawtooth Rat, Leatherhide Runt, Mud Jumper

- Wowhead is showing the sproutling pets with the same model as those little vicious flower creatures (Sassy Sproutling below), each one using a different color scheme


- The two Elekk Plushie achievements: An Awfully Big Adventure and Overstuffed

Once I'm able to load into the alpha, I'll update this post with any additional details I find in the Pet Journal.

Update: The sproutling pets were added to the pet journal but are only listed as a drop from Draenor for now. They do indeed use the SAVAGE flower creature model (yay!) And only the Leatherhide Runt and Mud Jumper are in the journal as wild pets. Not sure where the Gnawtooth Rat comes in (if at all). No other updates to the journal that I can see.

WoD Alpha: More Pets!

The alpha is down for the weekend (so devs can address a bug or two), but I managed to hop on for a few moments before it went down.

Wowhead datamined 7 new pets and the item that teaches the Weebomination pet was finally added.

Autumnal Sproutling - Bind on Use

Forest Sproutling - Bind on Use

Kelp Sproutling - Bind on Use

Nightshade Sproutling - Bind on Use

Sassy Sproutling - Bind on Use

Sun Sproutling - Bind on Use

Zomstrok - Bind on Pick Up

Only the Zomstrok pet was added to the pet journal and it resembles a Bogstrok. The flavor text is especially interesting, "Zomstrok is evil incarnate, the unholy mistake of someone maddened by isolation, a creation that could not be undone." Although it's a humanoid lobster-esque type of creature, this pet is currently Undead with multiple undead abilities. Work in progress? Or will this be an interesting pet from an interesting drop? We'll see.

I can't wait to see what the sproutling pets will look like, so hopefully they will get added to the pet journal soonish. :D

More WoD Previews From LeCraft

LeCraft Tweeted another teaser of what's to come in WoD.


"If you see this on PTR, don't worry... we'll be adding way more trainers to it."
It would appear that the developers have decided to implement the Elekk Plushie (perhaps as is) and award players who can defeat difficult trainer battles with this pet on the active team with an achievement. This was a pretty popular request by players once news of the plushie pet and its inability to be efficient or useful in battles started to spread. I guess developers liked the idea and decided to run with it!

Personally, I have mixed feelings. I'm up for the challenge but I still can't help but feel bad for a helpless stuffed animal/pet. As a child my toys were never the ones that got beat up, they always won the battles damnit. Even against each other, I made sure they all had a fighting chance... unless I didn't particularly like/enjoy the toy. I adore all my in-game pets, so I just feel guilty and somewhat sad knowing that I'm sending a less than optimal battler into a fight.

Anyway, hopefully the achievement will be interesting to complete and not too much of a pain.

Another tidbit LeCraft mentioned on Twitter is a nod to a fellow pet lover, Eleanor Wroblewski (aka: @undeadgoat on Twitter). This ghostly goat is appropriately named Eleanor and will be a "boss" pet that players can battle against. :D

There are quite a few nods to pet collectors/battlers and ideas from the community that are already popping up in WoD, and it's always nice to see more! Wowhead has a huge list of other community references -- just search for the word "pet" and you'll find many other awesome ideas that originated from pet lovers. :)

Accuracy Changes and WTB Killer Stuffed Animal

Another patch was released for the alpha and there were tons of accuracy changes for many pet attacks/abilities and a new pet was added.

Hit More, Miss Less
The accuracy changes come after a recent discussion on Twitter about hit chances versus damage ranges. Based on the feedback LeCraft received (which was overwhelmingly for higher accuracy/less RNG for hit) he Tweeted that the updates were implemented in the latest alpha build.

Wowhead has a full list of all the abilities that were changed, as does MMO-Champion (in a different format). I think nearly ALL abilities listed saw their hit chances go from less than 100% to 100%, which is wonderful considering even a 90% chance to hit will cause frustration due to unfortunate misses.

Because of the increase in accuracy to these abilities, the damage ranges were also altered (lowered) slightly. Judging by all of the responses to LeCraft's initial Tweet, though, I don't think many battlers will mind the damage changes (if exchanged for a better chance to land the hit).

We'll see if all of this sticks after more testing. So far the response to the accuracy changes have been well received. You could say it's a "hit" :P

Now if only something could be done about the "hit chance" of your capture crate when battling wild pets.

New Tailoring Pet
A new pet was added to the Pet Journal, an Elekk Plushie. Since the Pet Journal is still incomplete on the alpha, LeCraft gave us a preview of what it would look like.


Tailors will be able to craft it, but the item is BoP. Currently the pet can be caged, though, so yay for us non-tailors! No recipe has been implemented for it yet.

Initially, this pet sounds pretty adorable, yea? It's a plushie of a baby elekk, how could it not be fluffy and cute? LeCraft mentioned some additional details on this pet that makes the cute-factor a bit sad, though.

"Well, it's a *regular* stuffed animal. Which means it just sits there and stares at you when you summon it." - Tweet

"And when you take it into pet battles... well they are all imaginary abilities. It just takes a beating." - Tweet

After learning this, it seems like it would be a little heartbreaking to send the Elekk Plushie into battle. I wouldn't want any of my pets to go into battle if they didn't stand a fighting chance at all. :( Except maybe if it was a pet rock. I would assume that a pet rock would be really difficult to "kill" (defeat) since it's... a rock and can withstand even the largest of hits. The only attack it would truly be susceptible to is perhaps some sort of crush that smashes it to pieces.

Anyway, it was revealed that because this pet would be the first of its kind (not a real battler, but can still battle), it's still undecided if this pet will actually be implemented.

"Yeah, we were worried people may not think it was funny. It may not make it."

Personally, I'm torn between being excited for a new profession crafted pet and sad that an adorable stuffed animal will get beat up in a pet battle. One person suggested that perhaps the Elekk Plushie should join the ranks of the other no-battling pets, like the squires, balloons, and kites. I wouldn't object to that, but at the same time I wouldn't mind seeing a fierce little stuffy kicking butt in a match. Maybe tailors should join forces with engineers and sew on some rockets/additional weaponry to the plushie pet. :P

Pet Battletaur
Last but not least, as mentioned in LeCraft's Tweet on the latest alpha patch, a new NPC was placed near the pet batttle trainers in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Pet Battletaur is a new vendor that provides players with batttlestones that increase pet level to 25 and raise quality to rare. This is likely only for alpha, and is meant to aid players test new pets/changes. The Mythical Battle-Pet Stone is BoP and not consumed when used. Very convenient for testing!

I doubt that this particular leveling stone will make it onto live servers, but we'll see. Maybe it will be an extremely rare find/drop. There are other versions of leveling battlestones that raise your pet's level by one only, which seems more reasonable for release.

First Wave of WoD Alpha Invites Out!

The Warlords of Draenor public alpha is now open! Yaaay!

Disclaimer: Be wary of phishing attempts on your account, and use discretion when opening any emails. Best way to check if you received an invite to the alpha is to log into Battle.net and check your account management page. On the right hand side (under the giant green "Add a Game Key" button) there's a link for Download Clients. Under World of Warcraft you should see a download link for "Beta Game Installer". Download, run that and your B.net launcher will be updated with an option to install and play the alpha.

Anyway, new stuff! It's not much but it's a nice start. Many of the previously datamined pets were added to the Pet Journal, with one new addition, the Albino Chimaeraling. Previews of the new pets aren't implemented in the journal yet; maybe we'll see them in the next update. Details of where each pet will be from were added, though. Keep in mind that they're still works in progress, and everything's subject to change.

Grovestrider Hatchling - Drop from Draenor

Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar - Engineering crafted

Iron Starlette - Engineering crafted

Mechanical Scorpid - Engineering crafted

Mechanical Toucan - Engineering crafted

Carrotus Maximus - World drop from Valley of the Four Winds (this is likely inaccurate and will probably be updated)

Lil' Leftovers - Cooking crafted

Weebomination - Unknown drop

Albino Chimaeraling - Looted from an egg from Shadowmoon Valley (Draenor)

Royal Peacock - Achievement reward (Draenor Pet Master)

All pets listed above are currently cageable but that will probably change.

Wowhead lists a few other new pets but I suspect that they are either NPCS or they won't be obtainable. Examples include an undead pet named Eleanor and what appears to be a clone of the Treasure Goblin, named Puzzle. Evil Widowling could be a new pet that wasn't included in the Pet Journal this time around but we'll see!

A notable new addition is Hogs which Wowhead currently lists as the in-game gift for WoW's 10th Anniversary. If it is it will probably be a small version of the infamous NPC Hogger. I'm thrilled to see this and I hope it's true! Any pet to help celebrate the upcoming anniversary is very much appreciated. :)

Other than the new pets, there aren't a lot of Pet Battle updates in this alpha build. There's a small UI change when you target a wild pet and then right click its portrait.


It's not a huge change and there aren't any new options in the drop down menu. We'll see if there's more to this change later down the road.

That's it for now - I'm sure I've missed something haha. I'm really excited to be on the alpha and I can't wait to discover and test more pet stuff soon!