Up, Up, Here We Go

I'm currently working on 3 alts on the PTR to make sure I can buy all 6 pets in this one week that the DMF is in town. All the information gathered after purchasing all the pets will help towards creating the pet profiles over on WarcraftPets.com!

Previews of at least one to three pets should be coming soon. I'm still debating which pets I want to test out first. If they have any particularly neat animations, I'll probably take some video.

Anyway, while waiting for the dailies to roll over and while I'm working on that strength quest (whew, 250 mobs is a lot for a resto druid!), I decided to take some screenshots of the lovely balloon pets (even though they're NOT true vanity pets).


Flimsy Green Balloon


Flimsy Yellow Balloon
Although these balloons are NOT true vanity pets and require the DMF to be in town, these two "pets" are pretty endearing.

Take note of the vendor that sells these festive items, Carl Goodup. Does the name seem familiar? No? It's a nod to the Disney-Pixar movie "UP".


One of the main characters of the movie is named Carl. If there's anyone who's perfect for the job of selling balloons, it's Carl. :P


He's married to Ellie, who also seems to have inspired an NPC. Ellie Goodup can be found wandering the fairgrounds as well. I think I've seen her walking an exotic, giant cat on a leash a few times! She was definitely the feisty and adventurous one in the couple lol.

The movie is absolutely heartwarming and such a wonderful story, and I still can't watch it without tearing up during the first 10 minutes. I'm glad there are developers over at Blizzard who think so too, and thought it was worthy enough for not one but two NPC tributes.

I just love finding these little easter eggs and pop culture references in-game, especially in the least expected of places. Now if only there were an overly excitable puppy pet named "Dug" to go along with this Goodup family. :)

Come One, Come All - It's the Faire!

WarcraftPets has a news post that answers a lot of the general questions about the revamped Darkmoon Faire, and MMO-Champion has a great list of all the possible quests that reward tickets (needed to purchase the new Darkmoon Faire pets). Be sure to check both out. :)

For all 6 pets, a total of 540 Darkmoon Prize Tickets is required. Since ticket collecting seems very dynamic and probably depends on an individual's decision on how much time/energy they want to invest into saving up enough tickets, it's really tough to estimate how long it would take to acquire all 6 pets.

If the profession based quests and the "strength" quest is repeatable once per Darkmoon Faire week (in other words, once per month or a "monthly"), and you finish the max of all 6 trade-skill based quests plus complete the dailies every day (including the night the faire comes to town, before the dailies roll over), I estimate 2-3 DMF weeks before you can obtain all the pets. You could probably buy at least 2 pets each time the faire is in town.

Unfortunately it's note quite as clean cut as that, though.

Sea Pony!

Note: Pet is on Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuits; actual size of the pet is smaller.
Thanks to El's Extreme Anglin', the Sea Pony pet was confirmed as a fishing drop from open-water fishing on Darkmoon Island. The new zone requires a fishing skill of 75 for non-junk catches. With this knowledge in hand, I set out on the PTR to catch the Giant Sewer Rat version 2.0 lol.

About an hour and a half and 190ish fish later, Sea Pony! I took some video of what it looks like since the summoning for this companion's pretty unique. Not in the video: The Sea Pony flies alongside its owner.


I don't know if it's the name of the pet, it's large jewel-like eyes, or the little squeal vocalizations it makes when you click on it, but I find this pet absolutely adorable. :) It's just the sweetest little thing; I can't wait to fish and fish and fish for this companion in the next patch!

PS: I'm REALLY grateful that there's an area where you can fish for it that's considered sanctuary. I'd rather not fear for my life while trying to fish for hours on end for the Sea Pony. So thanks to the developers for this one!

Testing of DMF On PTR Begins!

This is day one of the DMF testing on the 4.3 PTR. YAY! Here's the rough and general info on the new pets so far:

- DMF vendor's name is Lhara

- 90 tickets per pet

- reputation is NOT required to purchase the pets

- you can earn at least 55 tickets on the first night

- old tickets CAN'T be used to purchase the pets, and are turned into "Tattered DMF Prize Tickets"

- dailies and profession based quests reward tickets (varying amounts, but usually 3-5 tickets each)

- 5 dailies reward 5 tickets each

- 6 profession quests reward 3 - 4 tickets each (unsure if these are NOT repeatable each day, but might be "monthlies")

- 1 "killing" quest rewards 10 tickets (unsure if this is NOT repeatable each day, but might be a "monthly")

- 9 Darkmoon Faire Artifacts that start quests which award tickets (unsure if these are repeatable)

- 3 artifacts award 5 tickets each
- 5 artifacts award 10 tickets each
- 1 artifact awards 15 tickets

Keep in mind this is the PTR, and numbers and amounts could change before the patch is released.

Follow me on Twitter if you want to keep up with the latest! Otherwise stay tuned for a full and more complete post on the new and revamped DMF and its pets.

Click the break for more screenshots of the new pets!

TCG Class Starter Decks - Release Date

Cryptozoic has announced that they are releasing the WoW TCG Fall 2011 Class Starter Decks on December 6, 2011. The decks will cost $10.99 (USD).

Unlike expansion decks, this special release will include card reprints from older decks and each class starter deck will be tuned so that new TCG players can pick one up and be ready to play.

Most notably (from a pet collector's point of view) is that the Fall 2011 Class Starter Deck will have a chance of yielding pet loot cards from previous expansions, namely the Spectral Tiger Cub and Dragon Kite, amongst other desirable loot cards! For more information about this product, you can read more about the Fall 2011 Class Starter Deck here.

I'm debating with myself whether or not I should try my luck with one of these starter decks. I've been itching for a Dragon Kite, but then again I should save up for future (guaranteed) pets. :P

4.3 PTR: Holiday Pets BoE

MMO-Champion is reporting a very interesting change that was discovered on the 4.3 PTR: many holiday pets are NOT Bind on Pick Up anymore! They are currently Bind on Equip on the PTR. :O

Here are the holiday pets have been noted to have changed to BoE:

- Spring Rabbit's Foot (Noblegarden)
- Truesilver Shafted Arrow (Love is in the Air)
- Captured Flame (Midsummer Festival)
- Sinister Squashling (Hallow's End)
- Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm (Brewfest)
- Feline Familiar (Hallow's End)

MMO-Champion also notes that the Winter Veil pets have been changed as well, but just their tooltips have been altered. They've always been BoE:

- Green Helper Box (Winter Veil)
- Red Helper Box (Winter Veil)
- Jingling Bell (Winter Veil)
- Snowman Kit (Winter Veil)

As you can see, not all of the holiday pets are listed. Those that aren't included above may have also been changed to Bind on Equip, or they may not.

Another thing to note is that the pets on the list are PURCHASABLE companions. They are the holiday pets that can be purchased from a seasonal vendor or from the AH. Pets such as the Frigid Frostling and Toxic Wasteling, which are currently exclusively found through the holiday loot bags after your first holiday boss kill of each day, are still showing as Bind on Pick Up on Wowhead's PTR database.

We'll have to wait and see whether or not this change to the holiday companions goes live. Blizzard could change their mind before the patch's release date. Or it could just be a very big bug, but it's unlikely since this change seems to span multiple in-game seasonal events.

I'm actually slightly looking forward to this change. It will mean I'll have to destroy fewer pets just because my character already knows them. Plus if this change goes live I think many of my alts will be receiving presents in the mail during specific holiday events! :P

Day One of Guardian Cub Sales

Well, it's been 24 hours since the Guardian Cub was released, and people have started posting them on the AH and advertising them in trade chat. So far the going rate on my server seems to be 10k to 15k gold. But as was pointed out on WarcraftPets' Facebook, anything above 5k is a rip off. And anything less than 3k is a great deal!

I'd say this is an accurate benchmark. Just yesterday a gold seller was spamming in trade chat that $15 (USD) would get you about 10k gold. So if we take the price of the Guardian Cub ($10), it should bring in at most 7k (and that's if you're not looking to make a profit, just a direct cash to gold conversion).

Anyway, this is just day one of sales. I'm not going to actively follow the price trend but I'm going to make a point to check up on how the cub sales are going from week to week. It's an interesting situation for a companion pet, and one of the first of its kind.

Giveaway Contests

Both Wowhead and MMO-Champion are doing giveaway contests for the new Guardian Cub! MMO-Champ has 15 cubs to hand out and Wowhead has 3 cubs.

Simply sign up and leave a comment on the threads linked above and you'll be in the running for the random drawing. MMO-Champion's contest ends 24 hours (starting from the date/time of the post), while Wowhead will be doing their random drawing 5 PM PDT on November 2nd.

Good luck to all those entering!

Guardian Cub In Stores Now

"Orphaned by its titan creators, the fledgling Guardian Cub has taken wing to look for a happy home."

Well let me be the first to say the titans must be crazy to let this cute little one go!

The infamous and somewhat controversial FIRST single-use PetStore companion is now for sale for $10 (USD).

It's a really simple purchase, and very straight forward. You choose which character to redeem the Guardian Cub on during the check-out process (BEFORE you pay). Of course after payment, you may need to wait a little bit before the item is mailed to you in-game. I'm currently waiting on my little guy. :)

Much like I mentioned before, IF Blizzard makes pets account wide in the future (hopefully in MoP) or at least accessible to all toons on a server, then this pet will effectively become just like the other PetStore companions (although I'm not sure if FUTURE characters made on the server after you add a cub to your collection will count or not). We'll have to wait and see on this feature, though.

Since this pet has a 24 hour cooldown on it before it can be traded or sold in-game, there aren't any up for sale on the AH yet. I'm curious to find out how people will price this pet and how long it will take before sales drop off and players stop selling it altogether.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the company of my newest family member! :D

Shake Your Maraca

Hallow's End is over, but there's still one more holiday to celebrate before Pilgrim's Bounty. Day of the Dead!

This holiday awards you with the TEMPORARY pet, Macabre Marionette. Of course this means that this companion is not a true vanity pet, but it's absolutely adorable all the same. I certainly wish it was a true pet that I could add to my collection. :3

BTW, it looks as though the bug of previous years has been fixed, and you should be able to complete the quest that rewards the Macabre Marionette even if you've completed the quest a previous year.

Remember, in order to access the quest you must have your Bouquet of Orange Marigolds equipped. Use it to see the ghostly NPC of your race that hands out the quest. You can purchase a bouquet from the Day of the Dead vendor located next to Catrina.

Note: The event for humans (Stormwind) has MOVED from outside the major city to inside. A map of where Catrina and her festivities can be found here. A very fitting place, indeed. :)

A definite place to complete the quest is Dalaran if you're having trouble locating a spirit to give you the quest.