All About the Pandas

I guess in celebration and anticipation of the next WoW expansion, MoP, Blizzard's cutting the price of the Pandaren Monk in half! Normally this martial arts, beer drinking bundle of fluff is sold for $10 (USD) from the official Blizzard PetStore, but from now until December 19 you can purchase the monk pet for $5.

Time to spread the panda love this holiday season? Here's a monk for your monk so you can monk! :P

DMF Aritfact and Ticket Details

Here are summaries of the blue responses to the inquiries about the DMF artifacts:

- Players with the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide in their inventory WILL be able to collect artifacts even when the faire is not in town. (source)

- The total number of tickets that can be acquired each month in an ideal situation (NOT including the extra day if you do the dailies before they reset on Sunday) = 145. (source)

NOTE: As noted on my Darkmoon Prize Tickets page, completing the dailies before they reset will net you an extra days' worth of tickets (5), bringing your monthly total to 150 in an ideal situation.

Being able to collect artifacts even when the event is over is GREAT news for collectors! This means we'll be able to make the most of our time and be sufficiently ready for the next DMF. Not to mention we won't have to grind in a panic when the faire is in town for extra artifacts in preparation next month's faire.

Although Bashiok did not specify that artifact turn ins would indeed be repeatable each month, the total tally that he provides indicates and implies that they will be "monthlies".

I'd also like to note that the Bind on Pick Up nature of the dungeon dropped artifacts (so long as you don't right click and accept the quest given by the artifacts) that was officially stated by Blizzard doesn't seem to be true (at least last I checked). Perhaps this will change in the future, but for now farm your heart out and check the AH for any artifacts that might be especially tough for you to find.

Taking all of this into consideration, though, the minimum amount of time to purchase all 6 companion pets will still be roughly 4 months at the very least. Results may vary from player to player, but I wouldn't concern yourself or worry if someone else has collected one or two more pets sooner than you. Go at your own pace imo, and enjoy the content! :)

This Shhh Is Bananas

I just bought my first Darkmoon Faire pet, the Darkmoon Monkey! What a cutie, but I still wish he had a unique idle animation or interaction with the environment, players or other pets. I can just see him throwing a banana peel at someone, causing a slip and fall animation (that doesn't actually stun or impair the player, of course). Oh well. Even without an animation, I'm happy to add him to my collection!

For those who are wondering how it is even possible to have enough tickets already, if you find and turn in enough artifacts, you can gather enough tickets to purchase one pet.

I made it a point to gather at least one of each artifact and turn them in. I'm just missing A Treatise on Strategy which sounds like a classic Cata 5 man Heroic drop (not from the new Hour of Twilight heroics), and the Soothsayer's Runes which is a 10 or 25 man raid drop.

The artifacts are surprisingly easier to obtain than previously thought, so long as you have the time and energy to farm for them. Although the dungeon artifacts are not 100% drop rate off of bosses, they can come from lower level instances. This means a max level toon such as myself can solo older content over and over again until an artifact drops. Whether or not this is a bug, I don't know. Seeing as how most of the artifact quests only require level 15 to begin, this may be intentional. Only the classic Cata 5 man Heroic and raid artifacts require level 85.

The battleground artifacts are pretty straight forward, so it was just a matter of running bgs until all three dropped for me. I found the biggest challenge was staying alive long enough to loot any slain opponent's bodies! Healers have it rough, especially if they don't actively PVP or have any PVP gear! :P

Now that I have my first DMF pet, the rest of my week will be spent on finishing up dailies each day and hoping for those last two artifacts to drop for me. Unfortunately, because of the reduced ticket reward change, I'll only be able to purchase one pet this month. Next month, though, if all goes well, I should have enough to purchase two. Hopefully the artifacts will be repeatable next month. We'll see!

Welcome to the Faire!

It's finally here! The Darkmoon Faire! First night and guess who I found enjoying the petting zoo area? XD


I gave Breanni a hug and made sure to pet the little penguins wandering around the area. :) Such nice and cute details are what makes events like the DMF so neat.

The Sea Pony was a quick catch for me as well as many of my guildies. Only 10 casts and I reeled mine in! I'm not sure if Blizzard will nerf the droprate or not (I've heard some players are having far less luck with fishing up this pet). We'll see.

I've completed all my dailies and profession quests, so now I'm just working on the miscellaneous quest to collect 250 trophies. It seems as though you need to have the killing blow for it to count and give you the ear. This is unfortunate for healers in 5 man dungeons and battlegrounds, and I guess that means I'll be heading out to grind out trophies on my own.

I'm also on the hunt for all the DMF artifacts. So far I've found two from the new 5 man dungeons, the Imbued Crystal and Mysterious Grimoire. Two out of five artifacts, not a bad start! I haven't been brave enough to wander into bgs yet, though. :P

So with artifact hunting, trophy grinding, and daily completing, I'll be keeping busy for a bit! My goal is to purchase at least one pet this week, but we'll see. With the reduced number of tickets rewarded for completing the dailies, I'll definitely need to find more artifacts to turn in to collect enough tickets to buy a pet.

Biggest dilemma? Which pet to buy first! :P

DMF Pets Will Take Longer

Just confirmed on an oceanic realm that the number of tickets rewarded for dailies has been reduced. Unlike on the PTR where the dailies awarded 5 tickets, they only award 1 ticket on live servers.

This drastically reduces the number of tickets earned each month, and will change the number of pets that can be purchased. It also means it's going to take longer than 3 faires before all six pets can be acquired.

Bummer! I'll have to redo my calculations on my Darkmoon Prize Tickets page.

If my calculations are correct, in an ideal situation (that means 8 days worth of dailies PLUS turning in all of the profession quests, misc quest, and artifacts) it will take AT LEAST 4 months for players to acquire all six DMF companions.

Completing the dailies for all 7 days, the profession quests, and the one misc quest would mean it would take at least 5 months to collect all the new pets. This calculation doesn't include turning in any of the artifacts.

So while it's not a huuuu~uge change, going from 3 months to a minimum of 4 or 5 is a bit of a downer. Not to mention that there's no guarantee on finding or winning any of the DMF artifacts. Oh, that and the change so that some of the artifacts are Bind on Pick Up instead of Bind on Use. I guess it just means pet collectors will be grinding on dailies for longer than first anticipated.

Note: Although Blizzard has officially stated that any artifacts found within dungeons are BoP, I can place them on the AH and mail them. This might also mean they're tradable. I'm not sure if this is intended or a bug.

The Re-Haunting of Pengu

Many may remember Pengu, the lovable penguin pet that was once known for his red, demonic-looking eyes. Shortly after his release, Blizzard changed his skin slightly so that he lost his red eyes. "Exorcised" him, even. :P

Well as of 4.3, it looks as though Pengu's been taken over by an eerie spirit again!


Pengu has his awesome unique crimson eyes back as of the latest patch. Whether or not this was an intentional change, I'm not sure. It's also unclear if the re-haunting of Pengu will stay this way or if developers will find him another priest to exorcise his demons out lol.

Either way, I'm glad he has his iconic eyes back! It really sets him apart from Mr. Chilly, however creepy it may seem.

Tonight, Tonight

The Darkmoon Faire comes to town tonight! For Oceanic realms, it's already up and running, so don't be surprised if some players are reporting that they've fished up the Sea Pony already. I know I got way too excited and thought Blizzard had made it available outside of the faire event, but El reminded me about the whole time difference thing lol.

It's likely you'll still only be able to fish up the Sea Pony while on the Darkmoon Island (which is accessible only when the DMF is in town). But please correct me if you find out otherwise!

Also, tonight WarcraftPets.com reveals the updated website. Follow their Twitter and Facebook page for updates on how the site maintenance is going and any extended maintenance that might occur.

I'm testing the updated website right now and the new features are neat! I can't wait to see how other users will respond and receive them. Hopefully everyone enjoys all the new doodads and it helps the pet collecting community continue to thrive and grow in a positive direction. :)

Tonight's going to prove to be a hopefully productive night!

But I'm Not a Greench!

Blizzard released their official guide to the new 4.3 pets, and have confirmed another new holiday pet, Lumpy! It can be found within a Stolen Present, which is rewarded for completing the new Feast of Winter Veil level 80 daily quest You're a Mean One....

Since this is a daily quest, I'm wondering if it's supposed to act like the other holiday loot bag companions, and Lumpy will not have a 100% droprate. One try per day throughout the in-game event, except the "holiday boss" isn't in a 5 man dungeon this time. Hmmm! We'll have to wait and see.

Although Lumpy will probably share the same model as Pebble and other rocky elementals, I think it's kind of cute that he's a piece of coal. Who says receiving a lump of coal during the holidays has to be a bad thing? Not I, especially if it comes in mini-pet form in-game! :P I wonder if it will have any idle animations. Being coal... will it be flammable? lol!

Darkmoon Faire Artifacts Update

Just a small update on the artifacts that can be found once you have your Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide safely stored in your inventory (not available until the faire comes to town, which will be on December 4th):

According to an official Blizzard customer support statement, artifacts found within dungeons are now Bind on Pick up (previously not BoP on the PTR).

"However, as any of the carnival folk will tell you, it’s every man for himself out there. Quest items acquired from dungeons are Bind-on-Pickup, and once the quest has been accepted, the item will no longer be able to be traded."
- source

I'm not sure if the artifacts found in battlegrounds are still Bind on Use, or if they will also fall in line with the change to the dungeon artifacts. BG artifacts cannot be rolled on by other players, though, and can be picked up only by the person that is looting a slain opponent's corpse. Artifacts found in 5 man instances may be rolled by all players that can see the item (in other words, those with the Adventurer's Guide in their inventory).

While this change to the artifacts may not impact many pet collectors, it's still something to keep in mind when collecting tickets for the new Darkmoon Faire pets.

Lunar Festival Gets Pet Love

According to Atlasloot's tweet, the datamined Lunar Lantern and Festival Lantern will be from the in-game holiday Lunar Festival event for 50 coins of ancestry each lantern.

Last I checked on the PTR databases, the Lunar Lantern is the alliance version while the Festival Lantern is the horde version of the pet. This may have changed since then, but we'll have to wait for the holiday to come around to find out for sure. Note that both are Bind on Use, though, so it's likely that players will be able to acquire both on a single toon for their collections either way. :D How players manage to get both on one toon if there are horde and alliance versions... well that's up to each person to sort out. :P I know I'll probably need to level a horde or bug a few horde acquaintances for a pet trade!

The Lunar Festival was the last seasonal event that didn't have any companions associated with it, so with the implementation of these two pets, all holidays are covered! Yay lol. :)