Beta Pet Renaming

After seeing a retweet from WarcraftPets, I just had to check it out for myself: renaming companions is now ready for testing on the beta! Yay!


To rename a pet, go into the Pet Journal and right click on the pet. Currently you can rename your pet as many times as you want. The pet's name can include spaces but no special characters.

Side note: There's also an option to "release" the pet you've right clicked on. That option doesn't do anything at the moment, but I'm wondering if it has something to do with trading/selling pets? We'll see.


Once you've renamed your pet, it will automatically change to that name (if you have that pet out). It's a bit buggy, though, because when I unsummoned my pet and then resummoned it, the name reverted back to its original default name. If I unsummon it and then resummon, the new name shows up.

Not sure if this is intended and/or if this will change, but if you rename a pet but summon it using your spellbook companion tab, the new name isn't used. It's default name for the companion is used instead. So far only pets summoned using the Pet Journal use the name you've assigned.


And here is my little Armadillo Pup, renamed to Arnold! Not very original, I know. :P

Beta Pet Journal Gets Tooltips

In the latest beta patch the Pet Journal was updated. Tooltips and an area for pet stats! The new tooltips shows the cooldown for each ability (example: Cleansing rain has a 5 turn Cooldown), as well as which pet family the skill is strong/weak against. Stats are still largely missing, but at least they're slowly working an area in for them.

The artwork for each pet category was also refined, but I'm sure most see that as just a minor detail. (Lovely touch up nonetheless!)

The "info" option for each companion is still NYI, and clicking on it doesn't do anything yet. Pet Battles are still a no-go on the beta as far as I know too.

Well, one step at a time. :)

Kalimdor received some updates in the wild pet department with more zones being populated. Oh, and instead of the orange bunny icon on the minimap, the tracking feature uses a brown paw print now. Personally, I was growing fond of the orange bunny. :P

UPDATE: Looks like Outlands is starting to fill up with wild pets too! New thread over at the WarcraftPets forums for the Outlands areas. :D

This, That, and Giveaways!

MMO-Champion is reporting that a new beta build should be released sometime by the end of this week. While nothing pet-related seems to have been datamined (yet), I'm hoping for another wave of newly implemented wild pets on Kalimdor. Maybe we'll even get to see our first preview of the Pet Battles UI/combat? I'd be interested in an updated Pet Journal too.

The anticipation! Ahhh!

In other news, WarcraftPets is having their 5th anniversary today, and to celebrate they're giving away lots of TCG loot cards this weekend! Be sure to check that out. You never know when a companion loot card might be up for grabs. ;P

So happy fifth WarcraftPets! The best part about helping out with the website is working with fellow vanity pet lovers and enjoying the company of an awesome community. :) May there be many more bright and pet-filled years for the site and community! ♥

List of Pet Battle Abilities

MMO-Champion is starting up a list of known pets and their abilities. You can filter/sort by name, type, power, etc. It also shows the (base?) stats of companions. Each ability's individual page shows which family of pet the attack is strong/weak against as well.

This information will definitely come in handy when picking your Pet Battle team, especially since there are just so many companions to choose from. It can get quite overwhelming pretty quickly!

The lists aren't complete yet, as more pets/abilities are still being added into the beta for testing. I can't wait to see the final product, though. It might be a very long list. Thank goodness for filters!

Owen's Wishing Well

While checking out the new Jade Forest zone, I stumbled across an absolutely breathtaking spot in the northern area, slightly northwest of the Ruins of Gan Shi. It's a very serene area with a single fountain and a bunch of Wishing Frog critters wandering about.


This fountain area was flagged as Owen's Wishing Well, and upon getting closer I found a Lucky Golden Coin sitting on the well's wall. It was clickable so I tossed it in and gained a buff called "Made-a-Wish" that didn't seem to do anything but lasted 10 minutes.

What attracted me the most was the bird that was perched on the fountain. It was stunning and kept fidgeting around, so I was almost scared that my approach towards it would cause it to fly away.


At first I thought it might be a rarespawn or even a rare critter, but it turns out it was just part of the scenery. Bummer!

The colorful feathers and large beak make me think of a kingfisher. It's an absolutely gorgeous creature that I would LOVE to add my collection if I could.

Annual Arena Pass Event

Get ready for some arena-ing if you haven't already acquired a Murkimus the Gladiator! Sign ups for the 2012 Arena Pass starts on April 10.

As in previous years, it's likely that the cost will be about $20, and to be eligible for the pet, players will need to be on a team of three that participates in 50+ rated games.

I think I'll actually go for Murkimus this year. I'm still hanging onto that old stash of birthday/X-mas money that I was hoping to save for a TCG pet, but I have yet to see a deal that's within my budget. I can definitely afford the Arena Pass, though.

Anyway, looks like I'll need to start hunting for a team of two other collectors to create an arena team for the Arena Pass!

Edit: Forgot to mention that winning isn't a requirement. Just participating in enough rated matches will qualify you for the pet. If winning were part of the prerequisite... well let's just say there's no way I'd have any chance hah!

Flying Pandas

Ok, this isn't exactly a vanity pet, but I felt it was worth mentioning because it just sort of caught me off guard: Pandaren Dragonling. It's an engineering on use trinket that summons a Pandaren Dragonling to fight for you for one minute.

First thing that came to mind was a black and white (panda) themed dragonling.

...

WHICH WOULD LOOK RIDICULOUS. But awesome!

I can just imagine a fluffy looking, panda colored whelp. LOL! But it probably won't look like that and instead will likely look like an "asian-themed" whelp from panda-land.

Planning For the Next Couple of Months

Lots of beta stuff going on, and there's more to come I'm sure. Can't forget that there are two in-game holidays where pets can be acquired from this month! Noblegarden starts next week, just as the DMF ends, while Children's Week starts during the last week of April. Pets, pets everywhere!

I don't think either event will have any new pets to offer, but I'll be checking them both out anyway. I'm still hoping for that fabulously hot pink bunny to become a real vanity pet, rather than just a costume. Heh, if it were up to me, though, all pets would come in every shade/color. Think of the collecting insanity that would cause. *cackle*

After April will come May, which will be a relatively slow collecting time. The only thing currently scheduled is the DMF at the start of the month. Which is fine by me since May 15 is when D3 will be (hopefully) released! Can't wait to see the Fetish Shaman live.

There's also a chance that the next TCG deck, Tomb of the Forgotten, will be released some time in May. I haven't heard of an official release date yet, though. That expansion will contain the common loot card (pet!), Sand Scarab.

So even with beta going on, there's still vanity pets to look forward to on the live servers. I'm glad that I can hunt for new discoveries on the beta during the collecting downtime, but then go back to collecting things in-game when I've exhausted all my finds on the test realms.

Once D3 is released, though, I wonder if I'll have the time/energy to do everything. :P

Beta's Darkmoon Rabbit

UPDATE: Wamo has even more details about the encounter and the pet over on the WarcraftPets forums!

Someone found and killed the Darkmoon Rabbit on the beta, and it did indeed drop the pet!

Looks like the rabbit is a neutral mob and it spawns in the Darkmoon Cave on the faire island. Not sure of its spawn times but I'll be sure to check regularly now that a spawn point has been confirmed.

With 72 million health, it looks like we're going to need the help of a party or even a raid. I wonder if the pet that it drops will drop for everyone in the group/raid. Or if there will only be one drop and everyone will have to roll against each other. Last I checked, the Darkmoon Rabbit companion is Bind on Use, so we'll probably see it on the AH sooner or later going for a large chunk of gold.

Strangely, though, this companion isn't listed in the Pet Journal. Perhaps rarespawns don't show up in the journal, so as to keep their obscurity intact and keep them "rare"? That's just my guess so far. The Pet Journal's incomplete; the Darkmoon Rabbit might be listed in there in a future beta patch.

Anyway, check out the Darkmoon Rabbit kill thread that I linked. The rabbit pet is... PINK! Or at least that's what it looks like to me. And only for now (its tag says "Placeholder Art" so we can assume it'll be updated and changed in a future build). It's not the bright, hot pink bunny that was datamined just before Noblegarden was first released. Instead it looks like a lighter shade of pink, but pink is pink. Can't complain? :P

Personally, I'm inwardly cringing at the thought of collecting this particular companion. One, since I'm guessing it will be like a rarespawn, it will be highly sought after. I can imagine many people camping the spawn point and fighting to tag it (on PVP servers). Two, with so much health, you'll definitely need some help killing it, so take those rarespawn campers and multiply by 5-10 or more because they'll likely enlist the help of friends/guildmates. Three, the Darkmoon Island is only accessible for one week at the start of every month. I'm not exactly a huge fan of the limited time idea, but at least the pet is guaranteed to drop (I think?).... IF you're lucky enough to tag the mob, kill it before you're zerged by other players, and finally win the roll on the pet.

A lot of "ifs" are involved... more than my liking. It's not my ideal idea of "fun" but we'll see. Maybe it won't be as bad as I'm imagining it. I'm sure there will be some who enjoy this type of encounter at least.

PS: If this is an April Fool's joke, I totally fell for it lol. It seems totally plausible though. :P That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Pet Achievements Missing On Beta

It looks as though the collection achievements such as the Littlest Pet Shop are missing on the beta. I can't seem to find them in any section of the achievement window. What this means, I haven't the slightest clue.

One possibility is that it's being relocated into the new Pet Battles tab instead.

I don't think they'll remove the achievements entirely, as it would not only be a real shame but new collectors will lose their chance at the pet rewards from those achievements. But at the same time, with the Pet Journal and account wide collections being introduced in MoP, a collecting achievement is kind of pointless, isn't it?

Then again, if both the Pet Journal and individual spellbook companion collections are maintained, you could technically still track the number of pets for each individual character (since the Pet Journal and the spellbook are two separate things).

It's still early on in the beta, so we'll have to wait and see what Blizzard decides to do.

PS: And no, this is not an April Fool's joke heh.