SC2: HotS Release Date

It's like banelings, banelings, banelings, whooaaaa, like a deadly green landmine!


Couldn't resist!

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm release date was announced today; March 12, 2013.

What's with SC2:HotS? If you order the CE version, you get the Baneling pet!! :D But that's not all, according to Warcrafpet's Twitter, if you pre-order the Digital Deluxe version NOW, you'll receive the companion instantly! As in... today. XD

I just ordered mine, and once the WoW servers come back up, we'll see if this is true or not. If so, I can't wait to start leveling the Baneling!

The Digital Deluxe CE costs $59.99, while the physical box CE copy will likely cost a bit more ($90ish..?) but I haven't read any announcements that pre-orders for the physical version are available yet.

I'm very excited and pleased with Blizzards new approach to CE versions of their games. It's a little less pricey, yet still comes with the bells and whistles that I personally want. The art books, making of DVDs, etc. are really interesting, but those are things that I browse through maybe once and then store away safe and sound. So it makes much more sense for me to purchase a digital version.

Anyway, to order the SC2:HotS Digital Deluxe, go into your Battle.net account management and if you already have SC2 linked to your account, you should see a green arrow (upgrade) indicator on your SC2 game listing. Click that and it will take you to the SC2 page. The purple box in the lower right hand corner will have both normal digital upgrade as well as Digital Deluxe available.

More Pet Updates - Undocumented Changes

Thanks to the awesome users over at WarcraftPets, here are some undocumented changes that were discovered in the latest beta patch.

Biggest things to note:

- The Pet Journal now shows a wild pet's special spawning conditional. Here are just a few examples:






Note that not all wild pets require a unique time of day, weather condition, or season. So if you don't see any spawned in the area that they're normally found, someone might have just battled/captured them all and they will probably just take some time to respawn or they're just that rare.

- Wild pets will decrease in level when captured. I haven't tested this myself, but it sounds as if capturing a wild pet will yield a pet that has some level shaved off of it. The example provided: capture a level 23 frog but wound up with a level 19 frog in the Pet Journal.

- Player spells, abilities and attacks can now kill wild pets. Unsure if this is intended or not.

- Hostile mobs can attack you while you're engaged in a Pet Battle, which would result in a premature end to the encounter. Unsure if this is intended or not.

And just for funsies, here's a couple of screenshots of the Baneling as previewed in the Pet Journal!




Awww! You might think it's got a face that only a Queen could love, but I find it adorable. :P

It's Like Banelings, Banelings Whoaaa

I take one day off from my computer and a new beta build comes out. Figures! :P

Since I'm still in the process of catching up on everything, here's all the new additions, updates, and changes via WarcraftPets News.

There was a lot of stuff datamined, and I'll be damned if I rewrite all of that out again. XD

Stuff I'm most excited about:

- SC2: Heart of the Swarm CE redeemable pet is a Baneling! I am absolutely NOT skipping getting this comopanion. I'm not a huge SC2 player, but I really enjoyed playing and watching the campaign. (Long-live the Queen of Blades!!!!)

The following video is a necessary for those who aren't especially familiar with Starcraft 2, and is just plain old fun for those who are. :P


- Cooking will be able to craft Red and Blue War Fuel.

- Not only that, but Engineers will be able to craft the Warbot itself!

- JC'ers will be able to craft the Sapphire Cub and Jade Owl.

- Magical Mini-Treats, Magical Mini-Treats, Magical Mini-Treats! I can't tell you how long I've been hoping and waiting for these to be implemented. I enjoy larger mini-pets, but at the same time I absolutely ADORE tiny-itty-bitty ones. I'm extremely happy and grateful that developers took some time to create these. Now to figure out where they come from...

There's more that I didn't mention here, so be sure to check out the WarcraftPets page that I linked above.

I'm not sure where the recipes for the professions come from, but they all seem to be BoP as are the items they create. With pet collections being account-wide, this shouldn't be an issue for those with alts who have the professions listed. Although to enjoy the Warbot fuel, players will probably need to pick up cooking for each toon they want to use it on. Luckily, the fuel recipe only requires level 1 cooking skill.