Is "Soon" Really Soon?!

UPDATE: UHM. YEA. XD Get ready for a flood of information and updates!

Interpret this Tweet made by Cory Stockton ‏(Lead Content Designer) as you will:

"I sense big things in this "Possibly maybe" patch for tomorrow. Well, maybe I should say small things. ;)"

Meep! Possible big little beta patch coming this weekend?

*cough*TIME TO CATCH ALL THE THINGS?!*cough*

Here's hoping it's not too buggy. :P

Blub Blub

It was a fairly short and easy-going grind to honored with The Anglers for the Tiny Goldfish on the beta!

So far it doesn't seem like the Tiny Goldfish has any vocalizations, although it does make a neat "bubbling" noise when summoned. I've tried a few emotes with this companion but it just doesn't seem interested. I haven't attempted to get it to interact with any other pet yet, but by the looks of it, it appears that this fish is content with just idling about next to you lol.

The large chunk of reputation gained while questing really helped boost my progress further than if I had just done dailies. I didn't try to fish up any of the rarer fish to turn in to Nat Pagle for additional rep, but it was still a relatively quick rep grind even without those extra dailies.

The standard dailies were straightforward and fairly easy, although there were a few that particularly bugged me.

- The Snapclaw quest was especially frustrating because only one player could loot the quest item, even if you were in a party and all members were on the same quest. You can even loot the quest item if someone else (even someone of the opposite faction) tags the mob (you just have to tag the mob as well and be the first to loot the body).

On top of the looting issues, the quest mob has a pretty long respawn timer. Be prepared to sit around waiting for a while if you get this daily.

Hopefully this daily quest gets sorted out and fixed before MoP goes live.

- Like Bombing Fish In A Barrel daily quest was simple but because there's no "smart" targeting for the bombs and the mobs are constantly moving about, I found myself mainly chucking the quest item (bombs) at a group of sting rays and just hoping that one would land just as a sting ray was passing by. I could see some players getting frustrating with this especially if there are a large number of players doing this daily all at once.

- The daily quest Fishing for a Bruising was your basic kill X number of mobs. Except that if you head to the questing area at the wrong time, all the mobs that you need will already be tagged by the NPCs. In order to get new (and therefore taggable) mobs to respawn, you have to first kill off the ones the NPCs are attacking. Thankfully the respawn time isn't too bad, though.

The one daily that I enjoyed doing the most was Jumping the Shark. It was fun, quick, and who doesn't love being able to punch a mob in the face with your bare hands? :P My druid is STRONG! Yeaaaa! *cool sunglasses*

Unfortunately I haven't tried out all the dailies yet since they're on a somewhat random rotation, but I'll keep checking each day.

Murloc Blues

UPDATE: Blizzard is now aware of the situation and they're working on getting the pet mailed out "soon".

It's been 4+ weeks since the end of the Arena Pass (5 weeks and a day to be exact), and there's still no sign of Murkimus. Players are starting to get anxious, however there is an EU blue poster that said:

"We are currently investigating this matter where players are eligible for the pet but have not yet received it. We will get back to you on this as soon as we have an update :)"
- Nakatoir

Hopefully this is an indicator that our little murlocs will be on their way to us soon. Also hoping that this "investigation" also applies to all regions and not just the EU servers.

If my memory from past years is correct, I think most players received their pets between 4 - 6 weeks after the end of the Arena Pass event despite the official ToU stating:

"The pet will be mailed to the character(s) on the account within four weeks following the end of the Arena Pass Service."

I'm not too worried but I AM starting to feel a slight onset of 'Gimme!' coming on lol. Especially since some players in the threads listed above claim that the titles that were also part of the reward were already handed out.

"Arena Pass Participants who have played one hundred (100) Arena Matches as a member of an Arena Teams that is ranked in the top 1,000 of all Arena Teams at the end of the Arena Pass will receive the “Vanquisher” title for characters on the World of Warcraft account registered by the Arena Pass Participant that are level 71 or higher."

Back to more waiting I guess!

Tiny Goldfish

Now that I'm 90 on the beta, I've been working on gaining reputation with The Anglers so I can purchase a Tiny Goldfish pet!

This BoU companion is sold by Nat Pagle at the Anglers Wharf in Krasarang Wilds (level 86-88 zone). It requires a reputation of at least honored with The Anglers and costs 250 gold.

Even though The Anglers main hub is located in the Krasarang Wilds, this is not where your reputation grind starts. Instead, your journey will start in the Dread Wastes (level 89-90 zone).

As noted on El's Extreme Anglin', you can start earning The Anglers reputation even before reaching level 90. However, there is a prerequisite quest chain you must complete before gaining access to the main Anglers' story line and quests.

Pet Battle Dailies In MoP

If you haven't been keeping up with the WarcraftPets Forum and the MoP threads, this post about an auto-accept quest to battle a Pet Tamer after defeating a critter in a pet battle, along with a search result for a specific tamer NPC, has my mind brewing with possible pet battle challenge scenarios.

In the recent beta patch, pet battles dailies (yes, dailies) seem to have been added. This is where the two versions of a tamer NPC comes in. One is for the initial auto-accept quest, while the second one is the NPC for the daily quest. Also, it should be noted that one quest rewards a Sack of Pet Supplies, while the other only rewards gold. I think only the initial quest rewards the Sack of Pet Supplies.

So it's speculation time again!

Disclaimer: Until pet battles has been unlocked and this can be confirmed, take this all with a grain of salt. I might be right or I might be wrong. This is just me spewing ideas through my fingers, onto the screen, and into your eyeballs. :P

In light of these intriguing finds, here's what I think encounters with Pet Tamers might be like:

1. Capture X number of pets or capture/defeat a pet of a certain level/type.

2. Auto-accept a quest to find and defeat a specifically named Pet Tamer. (Quest is non-sharable)

3. Battle said tamer, and if you defeat them it unlocks step 4.

4. You can battle that particular Pet Tamer once per day. (Daily quest version)

5. The Pet Tamer will either direct you to a higher level Pet Tamer or you'll need to capture X number of wild pets or defeat a certain wild pet to unlock another Pet Tamer quest.

What's inside the Sack of Pet Supplies? Could there be Battle Pet Bandages (yes please!)? Pet biscuits? Toys? Maybe even a pet? It will be interesting to find out!

If this is really how the pet tamer battles will play out, what does this mean for collectors who are interested in battling? Well for starters, leveling up pets will be a requirement, since it's not clear which level of wild pets will have to be defeated in order to unlock the auto-accept quest to challenge a Pet Tamer. Having a complete battle team of three will also be necessary since Pet Tamers aren't exactly push-overs.

The concept of having to unlock so many aspects of Pet Battles might work out or it might not. It will be up to us to test it out and to make sure it flows seamlessly and isn't too tedious. I can't wait to test this all out "soon". :)

You Do Not Meet The Requirement

Khorah from WarcraftPets asked a really good question about the vanity pets that have unique functionality that will be accessible to all toons in MoP. Namely the Argent Squire and Gruntling as well as the Guild Herald and Page. Will these companions behave the same way regardless of the toon you summon them on?

The simple answer: Nope!

Currently you can summon these pets on any toon (regardless of faction), but unless you've purchased the Argent Pony Bridle for the Argent Squire/Gruntling on the toon you're summoning the "pet" on, you won't have access to his additional mail, vendor, and banking features.

The Guild Herald and Page are in the same boat as the Argent companion. Unless you're on a toon that's in a guild, the vendoring aspect of these two pets won't be available to that particular toon. You can still summon them, but they will just be humanoid companions without any additional vendoring ability.

Side note: I'm still not sure if we'll actually be able to summon cross faction pets once MoP goes live. At the moment, I can summon my Argent Squire just fine while on a horde character on the beta. This might be changed in a future build, though. We'll see.

I'm also unsure if you'll be able to "use" these companions' additional features if you DO meet the requirement(s) but they're of the opposite faction. Asking an alliance Guild Page to sell stuff to your horde character seems kind of strange. And how on earth do you coax an Argent Gruntling to accept a Pony Bridle that was purchased from and meant for alliance lol?


Fun fact: If you do summon a cross faction pet and try to talk to him, the speech will be jumbled jargon. Very fitting and amusing!

I'm not sure whether or not I'm for or against being able to summon a horde pet while on an alliance character or vice versa. I think it's pretty interesting for RP purposes (I'm thinking something like, "I captured this alliance and now he's my prisoner of war!" lol), but it does feel a bit out of place at the same time.

It also puts pressure on collectors to create toons for the "other side" just to collect a companion. Not everyone is against jumping through hoops for their collections, but some might feel disgruntled about having to level up to the appropriate level for the Argent pet and reputation grinding with a second guild to acquire the Herald and Page.

But to each their own! Personally, I'll be working on my alts to gather as many pets as I can, regardless of faction.

PS: For those who already completed the pet collecting achievements on one toon, you'll be able to summon the reward pets (such as Nuts) on all toons in MoP. This is due to the fact that the completion of these achievements will be cumulative across all your characters.

Do All The Things

I've been slowly but surely leveling a character on the beta to 90. This is in preparation for when Pet Battles is finally unlocked and available for testing. Well, not JUST for Pet Battles, but I would be lying if I said that hunting for those wild companions in level 90 zones wasn't a large motivator for me. :P

During my time spent leveling in Pandaria I've seen some absolutely lovely wild critters that I can't wait to capture for my collection. So far I'm particularly fond of the Grassland Hopper.

Being a druid allows me to temporarily "tame" one (if it's not flagged as a capturable wild pet), but unfortunately the Charm Woodland Creature ability is bugged. If I mount up after using this ability on a critter, my new little friend will freeze in place and not follow me. To work around this I've been using my travel form more and more.

Side note: I'm still not fond of the fact that the critter despawns if I zone or log off. Despite it being a one hour buff on the "pet", it seems like such a waste since it disappears whenever I have to hearth to do something mundane like deposit stuff in my bank or switch some talents around. I basically have to stay in the area that I found the creature in if I want to make the most of the glyph/ability.

Anyway, since I'm leveling alone on the beta, I've had ample time to think about what my goals should be once I reach level cap. Pet collecting won't be as simple as it has been in the past, where the biggest decision was to decide which new pet to collect first.

Black Market Auction House - What's For Sale?

Wowhead News has more information on MoP's Black Market Auction House. Check out their post for all the details on where it's located, the costs, etc.

What I'm more interested in are the possible items sold on the BMAH. I spy with my little eye some rare pets!

Remember that this system may still be incomplete and might not be set in stone yet. What's previewed on the beta might not be the final version. And yes, I feel this warning is warranted since some might get a bit miffed about a few of the items being sold on the BMAH.

General Pets For Sale
So far Breanni looks like she's found a supplier for most of the Argent Tournament pets. She's also selling some (might not be all) of the pets that can also be found from the random dungeon Call to Arms reward bag, Satchel of Exotic Mysteries.

I'm not entirely sure collectors are going to be all that willing to drop 10,000 gold on either grouping of pets, though.

The way I see it is that mainly seasoned players will have an excessive amount of gold to spend, but these older collectors will either already have these pets or are more savvy and can manage to acquire the Argent Tournie pets and miscellaneous companions through other (cheaper) means.

Newer collectors will probably find the BMAH prices too high and stick with the Neutral AH or even the basic AH for these two categories of pets.

Some collectors will take the traditional route and farm for these pets on their own.

This is all just speculation, though, and I'm sure some will be quite thankful that they won't have to travel all the way to Icecrown every day to complete the tournament dailies. Server prices vary as well, so who knows? Maybe the BMAH will be cheaper than the Neutral or regular AH on some servers.

Still, 10,000 gold for an Obsidian Hatchling? Breanni really overpriced that one. :P I don't know how much effort it takes for some players to get to Dalaran these days, but it can't be 10k gold's worth!

TCG Pets
I've gone over the basic list of possible pets found on the BMAH, so let's discuss what might be the more controversial list: TCG pets.

At the moment there are only three TCG pets that might be sold on the BMAH, but they're especially rare. THESE companions would be worth the 10-20k gold (starting price), for sure.

- Dragon Kite
- Hippogryph Hatchling
- Bananas

What makes me concerned about the sale of these rare TCG pets is that some collectors spent quite a bit of real life money to acquire them. Will they feel somewhat cheated? Would they have dropped X amount of cash on the pets if they had known they would some day be able to purchase them in-game for gold?

On the other hand, many collectors who wouldn't normally have a chance at the rarer TCG pets finally have a shot at acquiring them.

Now it's just a matter of how fast you can reach the gold cap, as there is no buyout option or bidding cap (that I'm aware of). This might mean the winner will ultimately be who can bid the max amount of gold the quickest.

Also remember that the pets for sale on the BMAH will be on a possibly random rotation, so it could take months before a TCG pet pops up. It might not even be the one you're looking to buy. Collectors will be playing with the odds here, and there's no guarantee they will win.

It's the same with many auctions in real life, however there's a higher chance for a definite win when dealing with sales on Ebay or other websites. At a higher cost, of course.

I suppose it's the best compromise if you think about it that way. You can either take your chances in-game with the RNG of a specific TCG pet showing up for sale and attempt to be the fastest to bid PLUS be the highest bidder, OR you can spend real life money for a card on Ebay but feel slightly more confident that you'll win it.

In the end, I don't think the BMAH will make or break pet collecting. It will make a few pets slightly more accessible, but it's in no way a guaranteed or efficient source for companions. Collectors will still be trucking along in the same way that we've been collecting for years and years - hunting, grinding, and waiting. Oh, and can't forget capturing come MoP! :)

Dread Wastes Not So Dreadful?

Thanks to the Pet Journal, two more pets have had their sources revealed! Or maybe these are just placeholder sources and Blizzard is trying to throw us off the trail. :P

According the journal, the Aqua Strider is a BoP drop off of Nalash Verdantis in the Dread Wastes (level 89-90 Pandaria zone).

In the same boat as the Aqua Strider is Grinder, who is also a drop off of an NPC from the Dread Wastes. Grinder is a BoP drop off of Karr the Darkener.

I'm not having any luck finding either NPC in any database at the moment, and I still don't have a level 90 toon on the beta so flying around searching for Nalash and Karr is a no-go for me atm. So unfortunately, I can't confirm this nor can I provide any other details.

Are these NPCs quest mobs? Rarespawns? What are their spawn locations? If anyone has more information on them, please share!

I'm a Lion-Dog

The WoW Facebook page has some interesting screenshots of a Quilen mount and companion pet, as well as a vague description of the two: "Tales of their existence will soon come to fruition in Mists of Pandaria."

Sites like Wowhead, MMO-Champion, and Wowinsider are already speculating that these two will be the MoP Collector's Edition goodies, the Imperial Quilen and the Lucky Quilen Cub.

Honestly? The pet looks more like a dog than a lion-like creature to me. Maybe a bulldog? One that has an overgrowth of fur around its neck. Or a puppy that's pretending to be a lion. Tricksy pup! I see through your lies. Lion-dog? More like a... lying dog. Eh, eh? No? Bad pun is bad. :P

Don't get me wrong, I think WoW could do with more puppy pets. It's just that this is supposed to be a Quilen, not a dog. Right?

This cross species combination has me slightly perturbed. I guess it's.. cute? I think it would look cuter if it was actually a dog pet, though. My brain just can't seem to accept that this is what a baby Quilen would look like.

I'm not sure what it is about this companion, but it just doesn't sit well with me. Is it due to the fact that it's so fluffy looking while its larger counterpart looks more stone-like and mythical/mystical? Possibly.

In any case, I'm quite interested in hearing more about these two in the near future. With the news of Blizzard releasing the opening cinematic for MoP in August, the details about the MoP CE will likely be coming "soon" too.