One, Two, Three and Me!

normally i don't invest too much time on my baby hunter, but i just couldn't resist the temptation of gathering a matching set of vanity pet (winterspring cub), mount (winterspring frostsaber), and hunter pet (frostsaber pride watcher). it's a winterspring cat family!

i don't think i'll be attempting to do this again for any other pet/mount even though the grind wasn't too bad at all. now, the time it took to get the screenshots just right... THAT was the most irritating part lol. well, we'll see.

of course i had to edit the image since when you mount up your combat pet disappears, but i think it turned out quite well nonetheless. :)

Three New Goodies and 4.1 Previews

mmo-champion found THREE new possible pets in the latest PTR build:

- Pterrordax Hatchling
- Voodoo Figurine
- Guardian Cub

while we don't have any information on where or how or even if these will be available to players, both the pterrordax hatchling and voodoo figurine summoning spells have similar flavor text as other rare archaeology items. it seems very likely that these two companions will be discovered through this profession. possibly fossil and troll digsites? that would be my best guess! not a guess now since wowhead is listing both under the aforementioned branches. the hatchling will require 120 fossil fragments, and the figurine will require 100 troll fragments with 3 keystone slots. as with all things PTR, this may change before patch 4.1 is released.

there's already speculation on wowhead's PTR site that the guardian cub will be a small mini-pet version of the new mount that blizzard announced it would be releasing as a blizzard store item in the near future. we will have to wait and see on this one.

last but not least, blizzard released an official preview of some of the new pets coming in patch 4.1. going from left to right - lashtail hatchling, nightsaber cub, winterspring cub, panther cub, legs.

in light of this preview, there are a couple things that are highly likely:

1. patch 4.1 will be released before children's week (before may 1st)

2. the lashtail hatchling will indeed be available as a pet (and she'll look slightly different than the razasshi hatchling, yay!)

3. YES, legs will be a baby marshwalker

Finally Some PTR Fun

"i could be convinced to part with one... IF you'll promise to give the cub a good home."
yay for being on the PTR, finally! boo for having to use a premade character instead of being able to use my toon.

anyway, as you can see from the above screenshot, i paid drrum's NPC a visit! when you speak with her to purchase a winterspring cub (50 gold and NOT bind on pick up), she gives you a warning that you need to promise to give the kitten a good home. aww :)

both the winterspring and nightsaber cub have the same model, idle animations, and on-click vocalizations. their current model is basically an opaque version of the spectral tiger cub.




both the new cubs also have a sit animation like the spectral tiger cub, when idle for too long. however, they have an additional idle animation where they lie down and rest their chin on their front paws (very much like the druid cat form version of sleep). it's cute. :)

i still haven't gotten around to trying out ZA to look for mojo, but i'm hoping i have some time to do so before patch 4.1 comes out. if the theory is true that the panther cub will be a rare drop, like the razzashi hatchling was prior to the removal of the raid version of ZG, i'll have to start looking for panthers within ZA and ZG or around those zones. same thing for the lashtail hatchling. then again, that's IF. there still hasn't been any confirmed source for either pet yet.

Can't Get Enough Cubs and 4.1

mmo-champion has a post dedicated (almost) entirely to the new possible mounts and vanity pets found on the 4.1 PTR. if you missed wowhead's 3D models of the baby felines, mmo-champ has a screenshot showcasing them.

just to clarify some things - although there are five different colored cubs, so far i've only heard of TWO being actual vanity pets and that are available to players on the PTR - the winterspring cub (purple stripes) and the nightsaber cub (the black cub with grey stripes). the panther cub (all black) is speculated to be a (rare?) drop from a mob found within the new ZG 5 man instance or other troll-ish area/zone. no confirmed drop has been found yet though.

also, mmo-champion mentions the following in their post:

"Nightsaber Cub will be a WoW TCG rewards but other versions of the panther cubs will be available through questing/rare drops apparently."

what can we take away from this? it sounds as though there may be more than one way to obtain a nightsaber cub, but we'll have to wait for more information on this one. perhaps rather than the nightsaber cub, this info was meant for the panther cub?

so again, currently only 2 out of 5 models have been confirmed as true vanity pets on the PTR. this could change between now and release of patch 4.1. i'm sure that many would agree with me when i say i'd love to be able to collect all 5 different cubs, though. :)

last but not least, harval from WarcraftPets.com found an interesting bush chicken spell. it hasn't been assigned a proper item ID, summonable NPC, or even an actual name (lol at "summon test pet"), but for all those who adore the waddling little critters in twilight highlands, cross your fingers! maybe developers will sneak in a bush chicken companion in the future.

sadly, due to a bug (that's existed since 4.0.6 apparently), because i participated in the cataclysm beta, i'm unable to take part in the 4.1 PTR. this is afflicting many players, but not all beta participants. until there's a work-around or fix, i'll be relying on reports and information found outside of the PTR for any updates on 4.1. it's not ideal, but i've been pet starved lately so... i'll take what i can get! XD if you have any new info, feel free to comment or send me a message through WarcraftPets.com.

4.1 PTR Kitty Cubs

for my sake and those who are also a bit OCD with organization, here's a better than my previous post list of current "knowns" found on the PTR about the 4.1 feline cubs:

nightsaber cub - redeemable from landro longshot in booty bay. this pet will be the common loot code for the TCG expansion deck, "Twilight of the Dragons", due for release in late june.

wintersaber cub - this item is NOT a vanity pet. it is a quest item that is provided to alliance players during their grind for a frostsaber mount. (please note the differences in the name of this cub and the next cub listed. i will be referring to each accordingly from here on out.)

winterspring cub - vendor in everlook inn in winterspring, Michelle De Rum, currently sells the winterspring cub for 50g. this IS a non-combat pet and its summoning spell can be learned.

panther cub - unknown source atm, however wowinsider has a short video of this pet's model and possible idle animation on youtube.

Nightsaber + Winterspring Cub

update #1: wowhead has some nice 3D images of the possible cubs over here!

update #2: wowinsider has a screenshot of landro longshot offering the option to redeem a nightsaber cub. the post also discusses the theory of one or more of the datamined cubs being available as a digital (or even plush?) sales item via the blizzard PetStore in the future. (we'll have to wait and see)

update#3: there may be more than one winterspring cub in the works. judging from the 3D models wowhead has discovered, and the item and spell(s) for the winterspring cub, an actual vanity pet may be available as well as the mount quest item.

a few users over at WarcraftPets have already found possible locations for both the nightsaber cub and winterspring cub on the PTR.

the nightsaber cub is currently an option from landro longshot under "Twilight of the Dragons" on the test realms, so there's a high probability it's the common loot card from the next, next TCG expansion set (after "War of the Elements", which is releasing in march or april, i believe).

the winterspring cub, as one would expect, has been found in winterspring on the PTR as part of the frostsaber grind for the mount. it looks like the alliance version of the mount quest(s) has been updated to match the horde venomhide mount quest(s) in un'goro. currently, the winterspring cub doesn't seem to be a true vanity pet, though, and is only part of the mount grind and usable only in the questing zone.

it's still fairly early so things could change. we'll just have to wait and see!

SQUEE! 4.1 Loves Collectors

LOTS of new pet-related news from the PTR 4.1 on mmo-champ!

new achievements:

- Petting Zoo: Collect 100 unique companion pets.
- Menagerie: Collect 125 unique companion pets.

new pets:

- Nightsaber Cub
- Panther Cub
- Winterspring Cub

not so new pets:

- Landro's Lichling (very likely the re-skinned version of lil' k.t. that was announced as the next WoW TCG common loot item back in january)
- Landro's Lil' XT (this pet is already in game, but the "new" one discovered on the PTR is likely a re-skinned version)

no info on if the two new achievements will have corresponding rewards or not, but there's still time before the release of Patch 4.1, so we can hope! there's also no info on how to obtain the new pets either.

i'd like to note that the three new pets already have placeholder item IDs as well as spell IDs. this, however, does NOT guarantee that they will go live. anything found on the PTR always has the chance to NOT go live. just keep that in mind.

also, landro's lil xt has two spell IDs listed on wowhead's PTR site atm. it doesn't make much sense that blizzard would release a THIRD version of lil' xt, so my best guess is that this newest one will be what the TCG version was SUPPOSED to look like (but for whatever reason, was not released as). if this is true, this will likely drive the price of this common loot item pet up a bit since it will be more unique and not a carbon copy of a blizzard PetStore item.