Dailies and Traps

Blizzard is currently looking into the Pet Battle dailies not resetting and the strong trap not being awarded to eligible players.

Dailies not resetting:

"If you're not seeing the daily quests for a continent, have you earned the Taming achievement to unlock them for that continent? Did they show up once and then never come back? (not resetting) Are any working at all, and if so, which ones?

Note: Taming Kalimdor is Horde only, and Taming Eastern Kingdoms is Alliance only. This was done via hotfix so the UI in-game will not update until 5.1, which is why you may see completion swap between the two. Not to worry though, the data is all there and will be resolved with the 5.1 patch." - Bashiok

Traps not applying:

"We applied a hotfix to attempt to resolve issues of not properly receiving the upgraded Strong and Pristine traps. Please let us know if you're still having the issue, what character and realm is seeing the issue, and once you received the achievement, did your trap art, tooltip or icon change to reflect an upgraded trap?" - Bashiok

If you have additional information or details that will help developers sort out these two major bugs, head over to each thread and leave a response. Hopefully the more they know, the sooner a fix will come. Knowledge is power! :P

Wild Pets With Unique Models

These wild pets have unique models, and are "one of a kind". They currently don't share the same look with any other companion, but there is always a chance that future pets might use the same model.

Anodized Robo Cub (17 Winterspring)

Blighthawk (10 Western Plaguelands)

Coastal Sandpiper (25 Eye of Azshara, 25 Azsuna, 25 Suramar)

Diemetradon Hatchling (15 Un'Goro Crater)

Fjord Worg Pup (20-21 Howling Fjord)

Flayer Youngling (17-18 Hellfire Peninsula)

Fledgling Buzzard (4-5 Redridge Mountains)

Gazelle Fawn (1-2 Mulgore)

Giraffe Calf (9 Southern Barrens)

Harpy Youngling (3 Northern Barrens)

Little Black Ram (3-5 Loch Modan)

Minfernal (14 Felwood)

Qiraji Guardling (16 Silithus)

Ravager Hatchling (3-5 Bloodmyst Isle)

Restless Shadeling (17 Deadwind Pass)

Scalded Basilisk Hatchling (18-19 Blade's Edge Mountains)

Silithid Hatchling (13 Tanaris)

Sporeling Sprout (18 Zangarmarsh)

Stunted Shardhorn (21 Scholazar Basin)

Tiny Bog Beast (6 Wetlands)

Tiny Harvester (3 Westfall)

Tiny Twister (7 Arathi Highlands)

Tundra Penguin (20-21 Borean Tundra, 22 Dragonblight)

Twilight Fiendling (23 Twilight Highlands)

Venomspitter Hatchling (5-6 Stonetalon Mountains)

Young Mutant Warturtle (25 Dalaran (Broken Isles))

Player vs. Statue

I haven't run into too much problem in regards to PVP while out hunting for pets. Since the "old world" isn't as hip a place to be anymore, most of the zones are pretty void of people, which makes it easy to move around and battle in peace.

The only time(s) that I've had a run in with horde is while I was battling in Pandaria. I managed to get away each time (just barely!), but it put a damper on my Pet Battling experience. Thankfully, the exact same wild pet that I was fighting respawned (both had rares on their team lol). So it wasn't a complete downer.

When I mentioned to guildmates that horde were poking at me at the most inconvenient times, though, they were pretty shocked that others could attack someone engaged in a Pet Battle. My guildies thought that you would be phased out, and were surprised to hear that the person in a Pet Battle just stands out in the open for all to see (and attack).

I had to explain that yes, you aren't invulnerable, but you do get a shield that reduces incoming damage for a short period of time while you gather your bearings.

This didn't seem to ease their disbelief, and as one guildie put it, "That's not player vs. player. That's like player vs. statue."

That comment stuck with me. It really IS like someone hitting a statue and then that statue comes to life. Sure the person in the battle can sometimes see the other person coming, but what choices does the battler have to truly make it "player vs. player"?

Forfeit the battle, lose the current pet team they were up against, just to fight off the enemy player? That doesn't seem like a very ideal choice to me. At least if the player stays in the Pet Battle and gets knocked out by an attack on them, the same exact wild pet will respawn. If they forfeit, the companion disappears.

That being said, you pretty much are frozen in place until the first attack kicks you out of the battle. So a statue is a pretty accurate description.

I don't fully agree with this, and I fail to see how this promotes healthy world PVP (more like world PVS, player vs. statue lol), but I have to admit that I can't see any way around it.

Developers can't make you immune to player contact while in a Pet Battle because that would be too overpowered. It would allow a quick and cheesy escape from actual PVP.

It can be frustrating to be up against someone of the opposite faction, but suddenly that person disappears or phases out. Making a Pet Battler phase out would be the same thing.

It would be equally as irritating if you were immune to all damage upon entering a Pet Battle. Find yourself in a sticky situation? Get out of combat, find a wild pet, enter a Pet Battle, and bam! You're safe. Indefinitely. Kind of a cheap get-away, yea?

So while I don't exactly like it, I do understand the need for this design model. It can be frustrating and discouraging if on the receiving end, but it seems to be the fairest compromise.

Big Numbers

The Brilliant Kaliri is one of the pets on my main team, and it is amazing when given the opportunity!

I've mentioned it before but the ability Predatory Strike (unlocked at level 20) is awesome. It hits hard but on top of that it instantly kills the opponent if the opponent is below 25% health. So even if the pet survives with just a few health left, it will immediately drop dead as soon as the kaliri's strike attack is over.

This is especially useful when battling tough Tamer teams. Instead of spending two or more rounds trying to whittle down their pets' health, once it's brought down low enough, the Brilliant Kaliri can take it out in one fell swoop.

And let me tell you, it's not a pretty swoop either.



click image above to view larger version
You're not seeing things. I did not edit the text. Predatory Strike really CAN hit/crit for that much!

Normally such a number would be OP and nerfed to the ground, but since this damage is only due to the "instant kill" portion of the Predatory Strike attack, it's really just superficial. Not to mention that no pet has 22,000 health at less than 25%. The big numbers just look cool and don't really affect gameplay or the battle.

Even so, this pet is definitely one of my "go to" companions when it comes to battles!

Dailies Confusion

UPDATE: Confirmed it's a bug. ALL Tamers should have daily quests on the continent you've completed. Any dailies not showing up is a bug. I know, I know. "Duh", right? But I just had to put my doubts to rest. :)


I'm still in the process of trying to figure out how the Tamer dailies work. From what I understand, after defeating a Grand Master, all the Tamers on that continent will offer you a daily once per day. So far, this hasn't been the case.

Originally, the dailies were bugged and after completing them once, you couldn't pick them up again. They just wouldn't reset. A hotfix was applied in hopes to fix this issue, and it seems to have only partially done the trick. Instead of resetting them all, only a few dailies are repeatable. And it's random each day.

There are rumors that each continent will only offer one Tamer daily per day, and it's random. I find this hard to believe since I just completed two dailies for EK today, and four yesterday night. But if each continent is really supposed to only have one daily, then multiple NPCs offering the daily is a bug.

If the latter isn't the case though, then dailies are still not being reset properly. The Grand Master of EK hasn't had a daily quest available for two days straight, while the others seem to have one on and off. I mentioned that I was able to complete four yesterday, but only two today.

Another possibility is that a random number of dailies (but not all of them) will be available each day. Again, this is hard for me to swallow because that would mean players would need to travel to each NPC every day just to find which ones are offering the quest. I mean, I know Blizzard wants to make stuff challenging and all, but I can't see them making it THAT inconvenient.

So right now things are pretty up in the air. Are dailies supposed to be available from every Tamer (like they were originally presented)? Only a random few? Only one per continent? I'm pretty eager to find out the answer.

Race-Specific Pet Workaround

TheChamberlain from WarcraftPets found a workaround for the bug that prevents newly created characters from learning the race-specific pet (if the account already has Pet Battles trained).

The trick is to not log out until you've reached a trainer to buy the pet. Apparently if you log out before then and then log back in, the game will not recognize that your new toon already knows the Pet Battle ability. If you don't log out at all, there's no reason for the NPC to not sell you the race-specific pet!

You'll still need to get to at least level 5 and have enough money to purchase the pet from the trainer. For Goblin, Worgen and Pandaren, that means finishing the starting zones completely before making your way to a major city.

I've already tried this on a goblin character, and next on the list is Pandaren and Worgen. Yes, shame on me, I don't already have these races as alts. :P

Anyway, good luck to everyone seeking the race-specific pets. Hopefully there will be an official fix for this, but until then, this workaround seems to do the trick.

Caught Me A Cocoon

I've had some interesting encounters while pet battling. Some of abilities and attacks are quite amusing. I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching my Darkmoon Zeppelin's bomb fall onto the opposite team. XD

One particularly funny situation I've run into is when capturing moths. Their cocoon strike attack encases them in a, well, cocoon right? Well this is what happens when you happen to trap a cocooned pet...


Rofl. It looks absolutely ridiculous! Best part is that if there's still another pet to fight against, the captured moth will remain in this state for the duration of the battle. I've only had it happen a few times, but I get a kick out of it every time. :P

On a side note, I've finally finished collecting all the new crafted pets! Thank you to another guildmate of mine who crafted the Jade Owl for me. It was the last one I needed!

I also managed to reach 400 unique pets, and finally received Venus. :D Such an awesome looking pet, but I kinda wish it had a unique animation. Eating a flying bug would be appropriate lol?


If you don't get the reference, it's from the movie Little Shop of Horrors. I watched it when I was really little, and ever since I've always wanted a talking, murderous plant of my own. XD

Venus behaves much like the Ammen Vale Lashling, and will burrow into the ground when idle. Only its gaping mouth remains above ground. It looks a bit creepy with all those teeth poking out haha.


I'm going to start working on collecting the Jade Tentacle next! Oh, and can't forget about all the other wild pets left to capture. :)

Hotfixes

Lead content designer, Cory Stockton aka Mumper, recently tweeted that the cost to train Pet Battles has been reduced.

"Just hotfixed the cost of Battle Pet Training to 10g. We still don't want newbie players but 100g was obviously overshooting that goal."
- source

He also mentioned Pet Battles achievements.

"Another note on pet battles, Taming Azeroth achievement is setup to complete with either Taming Kalimdor or Taming EK, you don't need both.

Note that the display is wrong in 5.0.5 since the change was made via hotfix. Functionally, it will work though. UI is fixed in 5.1.0."
- source and source

This last bit of information is good news since completing both EK and Kalimdor can be tricky. Completing the EK achieve is easier for alliance while the Kalimdor one is easier for horde. It's not impossible, but it's somewhat of a hassle, especially if you don't have any alts on the other side.

UPDATE: And another hotfix! Hooray for Tamer dailies finally resetting. :D

"We found the bug with pet battle daily's not unlocking. It's been hotfixed and they should work now, cross faction. Thanks for the reports!"
- source

Collecting MoP Crafted Pets

Tonight I spent quite a bit of gold power leveling my paladin's engineering to a high enough skill level to craft the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling.

I had to farm the Spirits of Harmony since they're soulbound, though. It was quite the challenge since my pally is still 85 lol.


All in all, totally worth it! I find its skin a little strange looking, though. Especially on its nose area. The dark area makes it look odd and I just can't get used to it.

On top of the dragonling, a guildmate of mine crafted the Sapphire Cub for me! :D Many hugs and thanks.


I absolutely adore this pet's model; it's so unique! Would be awesome if it came in other colors. ;)

I've already made myself both inscription kites, so now I just need to get the other JC crafted companion, the Jade Owl, and I'll be done with all of the new craftable pets. Crossing my fingers that I come across one soon!

Wild Pets Re-Introduced

I've been pretty engrossed in Pet Battles these days. So much so that I've neglected gearing up properly for raiding (which starts next week for my guild, meep).

There were some hotfixes recently, but I don't think I'll go over them. Most of them were changes to pet abilities/attacks and bug fixes.

6 wild pets that were removed from the Pet Journal just before MoP was released were re-introduced into the journal.

- Devouring Maggot
- Emperor Crab
- Feverbite Hatchling
- Garden Moth
- Shrine Fly
- Silkbead Snail

I'm not sure if the others that were omitted from the journal during the beta will make it back into our collections. We'll see.

WowInsider has two articles that are wroth the quick read, "How to get a Hopling pet" and "How to choose between the same pets, but different stats".

Other than that, it's back to hunting for pets!