Raiding with Leashes III: They Do Things, Yay!

I'm pretty excited for Patch 6.1 purely because of Raiding with Leashes III: Drinkin' From the Sunwell. I managed to collect all of the RWL pets on the PTR and man oh man, this set of RWL pets is my absolute FAVORITE so far. The previous two sets of pets were great, but Blizzard really outdid themselves with this newest one. It makes me wonder what they're going to do for RWL4. I can't even imagine pets being more awesome than this!

So what exactly makes the RWL3 pets so amazing? They ALL have idle animations/interactions. How freaking amazing is that? Besides looking neat, each and every one of the pets (PLUS K'ute, the reward) does something interesting. I LOVE pets that do more than just sit around while waiting for me to take them on an adventure.

Some collectors may not agree and might find their idle animations annoying, which is understandable. But the fact that Blizzard took the time to put in those extra animations deserves some recognition and a tip of the hat. They certainly didn't have to give the 13 new pets 13 different animations, yet they did. So even if you're not as enthusiastic about RWL3 as I am, it should still be noted that extra time and effort was spent on these pets. It's something I'm in awe of and grateful for. :)

Anyway, onto the awesome RWL3 pets (in no particular order). The screenshots of the idle animations/interactions really don't do them justice, by the way. They are much, much cooler in person. I can't wait to collect these pets once 6.1 is released. I'm just dreading having to clear Hyjal Summit over and over. Yikes. :P


     
Abyssius - Supremus, Black Temple
Abyssius will occasionally get "stunned" (first image above) and then fall apart (second image above). Don't worry, though, he'll pull himself back together and will be as good as new. Every now and then he'll get stuck in place and won't follow you, but I'm not sure if is intended or a weird glitch.

Datamined Goodies From Patch 6.1 PTR

The 6.1 PTR is upon us! Servers aren't up yet but they should be in the very near future.

Even though servers are still currently unavailable, datamining has begun and the next content patch has quite a bit of stuff for pet collectors and battlers! I'm so excited, I can't even haha :D

There are 15 new pets so far, one of which seems like a test-pet or placeholder.

Leviathan Egg - Leviathan
Grotesque Statue - Grotesque
Shard of Supremus - Abyssius
Fragment of Anger - Fragment of Anger
Fragment of Suffering - Fragment of Suffering
Fragment of Desire - Fragment of Desire
Sultry Grimoire - Sister of Temptation
Smelly Gravestone - Stinkrot
Hyjal Wisp - Hyjal Wisp
Sunblade Rune of Activation - Sunblade Micro-Defender
Void Collar - Chaos Pup
Servant's Bell - Wretched Servant
Holy Chime - K'ute
Race MiniZep Controller - Race MiniZep
My Special Pet - My Special Pet

The first 13 pets in the list have a special place in 6.1 - pets from Raiding with Leashes III: Drinkin' From the Sunwell! We're finally going to travel to Black Temple, Hyjal Summit, and the Sunwell to seek out the pets that those bosses have been hiding all this time. ;)

Much in the same way the previous RWL achievements awarded a pet for completing them, this latest one rewards K'ute after you've collected the 12 listed. Judging by the name of the item that teaches K'ute, and the name of the pet itself, I can only conclude that it's a little naaru pet. Or at least I can hope!

The last two pets, Race MiniZep and My Special Pet are still unknowns.

However, the Darkmoon Faire might be getting a new challenge, The Real Big Race. It's likely the racing feature that was previewed during the WoD beta but had to be postponed and was not released at launch. If so, could the Race MiniZep be a reward from completing the related racing achievements? Or perhaps simply a new pet to buy from the faire? Maybe it's something else entirely? Hopefully the PTR Pet Journal will shed some light on this once servers come up.

As for My Special Pet... I haven't the slightest clue. It's currently lacking an item and spell image on Wowhead and MMO-Champion so I can't even speculate at the moment heh.

Another interesting addition coming is Ultimate Battle-Training Stone. If you tested content on the WoD beta, this stone might look familiar to you. It instantly grants 25 levels to a single pet, but unlike the version from the beta, this one is rare quality (down from epic) and is consumed when used. The beta version was only for testing purposes; it's hard to tell if this new battle-stone will see the same fate - for testing only, never released on live.

Other things to note about this stone: BoP, has an item level of 100 and requires level 90 to use. Signs that this might actually be implemented? Or just details that were included for completion's sake?

Also, I have to wonder where would this highly-desirable stone will come from. Is it a one time deal, or can it be obtained repeatedly (however easy or difficult)?

So many questions! Here's hoping they're all answered in time. It's good to see more pet content coming in the future. :)

Oh, and this isn't really a pet (even though many have supported the idea) -- 6.1 might bring a personal Pepe! Completing the achievement What A Strange, Interdimensional Trip It's Been rewards the toy, Trans-Dimensional Bird Whistle. I think it's as close as we can get to a Pepe pet, so yay! :D

Cooking Up (Lil') Leftovers

The RNG gods must be generous lately; three pets dropped for me this week. Thank you RNG!

One of the pets that I finally managed to collect is Lil' Leftovers. This little guy was frustrating to get, not because I had to cook a ton of Draenor food before he finally dropped, but because of how random the drop was.


I finally received the pet while cooking Blackrock Barbecue. I had enough mats to craft 28 food, but the pet dropped on the 27th.

To be clear, when I say "28 food" I don't mean 28 stacks or 28 individual pieces of Blackrock Barbecue. As you can see in the image above I have way more than 28. The number I'm talking about is the number that you see in the crafting window when you begin cooking. 28 crafts of the food.

People report various numbers of when they received the pet, which can make the process of trying to get Lil' Leftovers more frustrating for some because their own numbers don't seem to match up. "I cooked 1,000 of X food and it dropped!" Does the person mean they cooked 1k stacks? 1k individual pieces (50 stacks)? Or 1k crafts? Depending on how the reader interprets the statement, cooking could be a huge disappointment or huge surprise for them.

It's difficult to pinpoint the actual number that Lil' Leftovers has a chance to drop because of how cooking works now. Each craft creates more than one piece of Draenor food (the higher your cooking skill, the more you create each time - 6 to 9 pieces being the max). Compound that with the different values that players report, it's hard to give an accurate estimate of when you may see the pet. So really, the best thing anyone can do is to just keep trying.

27 crafts may seem like a small amount (it truly is when you look at the bigger picture), and I feel lucky to have finally proc'ed the pet. But I actually cooked way more than 27 prior to that. I lost track towards the end. I'd say I've cooked well over 500 crafts since the beginning of WoD. Maybe closer to 1000 crafts. That means roughly 300 stacks or 6000 individual pieces of (100 stat) Draenor food. So. Much. Food. And nothing to do with it! Thankfully the AH is there and I was able to make a small profit from my efforts.

At first I was just vendoring the food because I really didn't have the space or desire to keep any of it. With Savage Feasts being so easy to acquire and feeding a large number of raid members, the food from Draenor cooking is kind of useless. Of course there are still people out there that will buy crafted food, so if you don't want to feel like you're cooking just for the pet, I'd recommend using Undermine Journal to check which 100 stat food is selling the best on your server.

That's what I ended up doing. Turns out crit, mastery, and multistrike food sell for the most out of all the 100 stat cooked foods on my server, so I focused on crafting those instead of cooking whatever I had mats for. Whenever I accumulated a hefty amount of garrison resources, I would buy 200 meat (sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how cheap or expensive it is each day) from the Trading Post. My stockpile of fish is almost un-ending since I'm still hunting Lunkers, so I was able to craft 28-30 100 stat food at a time (roughly 8-9 stacks). This method paid off in the end, not only with the pet but I earned a nice chunk of gold too!

I should mention that I have yet to hear a report that the pet dropped for anyone while they were crafting the 75 stat food. That isn't to say that Lil' Leftovers CAN'T come from Meat and Fish Dishes, there's no official word or any solid proof that it can't. But anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that the pet comes from 100 stat food and Feast of the Waters or Feast of Blood. Or perhaps it just has a higher chance to come from the Delicacies and feasts compared to the lesser Draenor recipes.

It's a long, grindy process that can sometimes feel pointless. Cooking isn't exactly useful this expansion, with Savage Feasts being relatively superior and all. You can still gain something from cooking if you take a few extra steps -- check Undermine Journal weekly (or even daily) and prioritize cooking the 100 stat food that sells for the most on your server. Sometimes what you put up on the AH won't sell, but as with cooking for the pet, persistence should pay off in the end.

As a side note, I mentioned this before but completely forgot about it. When I tried to feed my Lil' Leftovers a Magical Pet Biscuit I got a surprise, "Food cannot eat food" haha! XD


It's such a small detail but I love it and makes me so happy for some reason. :)

Current Collecting Progress and Thoughts on Hatespark

I haven't had a chance to sit down and write a proper blog post due to a busy RL, but I'm going to remedy my lack of posting right now. Yaaay...? Hopefully I'll find time to write more in the coming month(s)!

My collecting spree has pretty much ended now that I've obtained nearly all of the "guaranteed" pets. The only ones left on my immediate list are highly RNG-reliant and/or are still unimplemented (I'm looking at you Sea Calf). Still, I managed to add two new pets my collect recently, both of which I'm glad to have!


Syd the Squid finally dropped for me on month 3, day 3 of the Darkmoon Faire. I guess VonFeasel needed quite a bit of time to warm up to me; I'm glad I finally made a good enough impression on him. :P To be honest, I wasn't hopeful for anything this month and was fully prepared and expecting to go another month without seeing the little squidy. I'm ecstatic that I was wrong!

What I am a little disappointed about, though, is that Syd doesn't seem to have any interesting idle animations/interactions. I mean, Mindbender Ghur'sha from one of the Throne of Tides encounters has no qualms about sitting on your head, although it does mind control you in the process. But how neat would that be if Syd randomly sat on your head from time to time? Sure, there's the Tentacled Hat from fishing but it's just not the same. I don't know about everyone else, but I'd proudly wear Syd on my head. :P


The other pet that was recently added to my collection (as of today) is the Deathwatch Hatchling, WoD's Challenge Mode pet. A guild called Check Please on Ysera earned guild-gold in all WoD Challenge Modes and was kind enough to open up free invites to collectors seeking this pet. Truly a generous offer! They're closing invites soon, which is understandable. They've already given so much to many, many collectors; no hard feelings if they can't or choose not to keep up with the demand. :)

The ravager model looks neat in general, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well the Deathwatch Hatchling matched the color-scheme of my draenei DK that I created to level in Check Please. Dare I say that it was just meant to be? lol naaah :P

Aaaand Other Stuff
The WoW 10th anniversary event was extended by a week, which is a good thing... I think? This will hopefully give collectors an extra chance to get a hold of their own Hatespark the Tiny from the anniversary edition of Molten Core. More Hatesparks floating around might also drive the prices down on the AH a little (just a little though).

My experience with the anniversary raid was pretty rough, though, so my hat and heart goes out to those still running it in hopes for the pet. I hear that some runs aren't quite as bad now, and there's actually some organization between raid members. Regardless it's still a hefty time investment (a few hours, even with a solid group), with no guarantee that the pet will drop. Pretty disappointing for us collectors, if you ask me.

So while it's great that the opportunity to collect Hatespark directly from the raid is still available (ends January 13), it's only a small consolation for those seeking the pet. There are other factors that trump the extension of the event. Limited availability, limited time, drop rate that's not 100% or even close to, large time investment and possible toxic raiding environment. All of these things puts a stress on those that consider pets the opposite of "optional content".

I've always been in the boat of balancing the factors that collectors will have to contend with, in order to create fun, fair and desirable content. That being said, I can't say that I consider the pet drop from the anniversary MC to be very balanced. Maybe the drop rate could have been adjusted, or a mechanic should have been implemented to increase your chances incrementally each time you run MC.

I hope that in the future, limited availability pets similar to Hatespark the Tiny will be distributed in a less punishing fashion.

Sha'tari Defense Reputation Grinding and Sky Fry

I recently ground out my Sha'tari Defense reputation to Revered and purchased the Sky Fry pet. It was quite a long process but worth it! Although earning rep is straightforward, just kill related mobs - no quests, I figured I'd share my experience since I deviated from the standard path towards the end of my adventure.

The Sha'tari Defense faction is unlocked on the Alliance with a level 2 Trading Post. After building and upgrading, you can immediately start earning reputation by killing level 100 related mobs in Talador.

Initially, I just did the Apexis daily in Shattrath whenever it popped up. Assault on Shattrath Harbor involves non-elite mobs, while the Assault on the Heart of Shattrath involves killing elite mobs. The latter yields more rep but is obviously tougher since the elites hit harder and have more health. Thankfully, my OH was willing to help out which made the daily go by quicker.

Unfortunately, the daily itself doesn't reward reputation upon completion. Why it doesn't, I have no idea. It seems backwards to me that they wouldn't award rep. What am I earning Apexis crystals for if not the reputation items and pets? So Sha'tari Defense rep was slow grinding, since I only went to Shattrath to kill mobs on the days the associated daily was available.

It's totally possible to go out, kill the mobs, and earn reputation when the daily is NOT up, but I didn't felt very motivated. The lesser mobs reward 5 reputation each, and the rest range between that and the bigger mobs which reward 16 reputation. Shattrath is a fairly spread out area as well, which means time spent waiting for things to respawn or moving to another area. It just didn't feel very efficient or inspiring.

Still, I managed to grind my way to Friendly with the Sha'tari Defense just by heading to Shattrath on days the Apexis daily was located there. I was dreading getting to Honored and then to Revered, though. The daily isn't up every single day, and I just couldn't convince myself to travel to Shattrath on my own to kill things.

So I called upon my OH for some ideas. He looked it up and found another spot that awarded reputation per mob kill. North of Fort Wyrn, there's an orc base with normal and elite mobs (The Path of Glory). I vaguely recalled the area from beta, but didn't think it would be any better than Shattrath. How wrong I was!

The mob density is quite nice and the respawn rate is pretty good. There's not a lot of player traffic going through there, so there's almost always something for you to kill.


We started out by killing the normal mobs, following a circular path around the orc compound (as seen above), avoiding the elites because OMG 587K HP tightly packed together in a death ball. Each normal mob was only awarding a smidgen of reputation though, and this was starting to grate on our nerves. At the rate we were killing, it would take a really long time to reach Revered. We managed to get to Honored, though.

But this is when we decided to take a risk and just go for broke. Elite mobs or nothing! We started out killing the group of elites at the entrance of the path. My OH is a prot warrior and I'm a resto druid so he pretty much tanked the damage while I healed him. Eventually we moved on to two packs of elites, always using our garrison ability, Guardian Orb.

After experiencing two packs, we felt adventurous and challenged ourselves to take on even more. Traveling deeper into The Path of Glory, there's an army of elite Grom'kar Siegebreakers along with a few Grom'kar Warbeasts. Uuhhh, why not?!

It took us a few attempts to figure out how much was doable for us. We settled on two to three packs each pull, one pack being a pat in front of the cannon. Pulling more than that almost always resulted in our deaths as the damage was just too much for our current gear levels (650+).


(click to view larger image)
First pull = the pat that walks up to the cannon + the two groups next to the cannon. Second pull = the group directly in front of the warbeast.

The main thing was we had to wait 5 minutes between each pull for the Guardian Orb to come off of CD. This ability was vital to our success since neither of us had the damage to defeat all of the mobs in a timely manner, before our faces got smashed in by 30ish orcs. The downtime wasn't too terrible and it allowed for the groups to respawn in full.

Because these mobs were elite, they awarded 16 reputation each. YAY! In the end, we were earning roughly a bar every pull. Now THAT'S what I call reputation grinding! :D

It still took quite a few hours to finally get to Revered, and any slip-up or mistake was usually fatal. But we did it! We were just a group of two, so I imagine a bigger reputation grinding group could do even better. Either garrison ability would work well here.

It's a long journey if you're going at it alone, but if you can find a rep farming group that's headed to The Path of Glory, it will speed things up immensely. If you can get exalted with another Draenor faction (I recommend Steamwheedle Preservation Society because that's the easiest IMO) and upgrade your Trading Post to level 3 (perK: 20% faster reputation gain in Draenor), that helps too. I did it a bit backwards and upgraded my Trading Post AFTER I reached Revered with Sha'tari Defense. *derp* :P

As a side note, the Sky Fry was only uncommon quality when I added it to my Pet Journal. I wonder if this is a bug. I mean, it was a lot of work so it seems slightly anticlimactic that the pet needs a battlestone.

Is the Bone Wasp for horde the same? If someone who has purchased a Bone Wasp from the Laughing Skull Orcs vendor could let me know, that would be great. :)

Happy Holidays From Storm Peaks

Took a little vacation and treated my Snow Cub to a wintry wonderland in Snow Peaks. :)

Wishing everyone a safe, wonderful and pet-filled holiday season! ♥

Blizzard Store Pet Sales and Wowtcgloot Giveaways

Blizzard is having a limited time special sale on Store mounts and pets. 50% off (US AND EU) almost all mounts/pets (Argi and the new reaver mount not included)! Sale ends January 5, 2015, so there's still lots of time to buy a pet (or two...or three :P) either for yourself or as a gift for someone else.

If you're looking to round out your collection with a new store pet, now is probably the best time. Half off is a pretty damn good deal, and it's a rare occasion where almost ALL pets go on sale. Happy holidays to us? XD

Wowtcgloot.com Giveaways
Another special going on is from Wowtcgloot.com. They're holding a raffle that includes some rare/common TCG pet giveaways and a limited time sale that also includes TCG pet giveaways.

More information and details: Holiday Raffle (contest ends January 1, 2015) and Christmas Special (available while supplies last).

There are some neat TCG pets up for grabs.

Ethereal Soul-Trader
Bananas
Purple Puffer
Gusting Grimoire
Eye of the Legion
Spectral Tiger Cub
Purple Puffer
Murkablo (BlizzCon 2011 pet)

These pets aren't quite as rare as they once were, with all of the "dupes" and stuff going on. Still, if you can afford it and are interested, don't pass up a chance at winning one (or more?!) of these pets. :)


Edit: Wowhead Giveaways!
Wowhead just announced a giveaway as well. Prizes include the following pets:

Deathy (BlizzCon 2010 pet)
Gregarious Grell
Blossoming Ancient

Good luck to everyone entering!


Another edit: MMO-Champion Giveaways!
MMO-Champion announced their own giveaway that includes pets! This one has a fairly short deadline (ends December 25th), so enter quickly! More TCG pets!

Sand Scarab
Purple Puffer
Eye of the Legion
Landro's Lil' XT
Landro's Lichling

Deathwatch Hatchling - A Generous Offer

Warstar from WarcraftPets recently posted that their guild is offering free invites to collectors for the Challenge Mode pet, Deathwatch Hatchling. The alliance guild is called Check Please and can be found on the US server Durotan-Ysera. For invites, contact Warstar (battletag can be found in the forum thread).

This is a really generous of Check Please, and I'm sure many collectors will be grateful for this offer! As a small reminder, you need to earn Revered with the guild and the pet costs 300 gold from the guild vendor. Also, if you do happen to join just for the pet, keep in mind that you're a guest in their guild. :)

I'm not sure if I'll be taking up Warstar on this kind offer; my guild will probably go for Guild Gold Challenge Modes eventually, so maybe I'll just wait for that. Then again, it's hard to resist collecting a pet that's just in reach!

Wood Wasp Colors

There aren't that many wild pets that come in multiple skins in WoD. So far, only the Thicket Skitterer and Icespine Hatchling have been confirmed to come in two different colors. But thanks to a heads up from Valianya, we can add another wild pet from Draenor to that list.

   
The Wood Wasp can come in two different colors, a light green and a dark green, as seen above. This came as quite a surprise to me since I've never seen the darker version in all of my pet battling adventures in Gorgrond. And I used that zone to farm a large portion of the (pre-nerf) 500 Draenor pet battles achievement! So as soon as I read the post on the WarcraftPets forum, I just had to see and collect one for myself.

The Wood Wasps flying around Ruins of the First Bastion area in Gorgrond all have the light green skin. It's hard to say whether or not they can spawn in as the primary pet with the dark green color (I've never encountered one), but it's definitely easier to find one of these if you find a Wood Wasp as a secondary in battle.

If you find a pet battle with a Wood Wasp as a secondary, just forfeit repeatedly until it shows up as the desired color. It took me many, MANY forfeits before I got the dark green wasp to join the battle.

Since pets lose a percentage of their health after each forfeit, the risky part was to make sure my pets had enough health to win the battle even after so many chain-forfeits. Thankfully, the Menagerie level 2 perk reduces the cooldown of Revive Pets to only 4 minutes while in Draenor. Plus I had some bandages on me, with a ton to spare on an alt.

This is certainly a wonderful surprise and I really like the dark green Wood Wasp. If I had to choose, I'd pick that one over the light green one. I'm not sure why. :P

Nerf to Draenic Pet Battler Achievement

Blizzard announced a surprising decision today through their official developer Twitter account.

"Blueprint-unlocking Achievement "Draenic Pet Battler" now requires 150 battles instead of 500. Tooltip updated to match next patch."

For those that have yet to grind out the Draenor pet battles for a level 3 Menagerie, congrats! It should be quicker than ever now. :) And if you were in the process of grinding out the previously required 500, you might now meet the requirements for the blueprints. Hooray!

It's likely that some will be upset over this "nerf" to the achievement, having spent the time and energy to complete the 500 pet battles. And it's only natural to feel upset. No one wants to feel like they wasted their time on something. How you express that frustration is what matters.


The original achievement from WoD beta
Me? I'm ok with it, although I'm pretty shocked that the devs would lower the requirement yet again. Originally, 1000 Draenor pet battles was necessary to unlock the Menagerie 3 blueprints on the beta. After some discussion and pleas from the community, that number was halved to 500, just as WoD was released. This new value felt more on par with other level 3 garrison building blueprints, and I felt it was a solid compromise between 1000 and a free upgrade heh.

I can't help but wonder, why drop it down to 150 of all numbers? Why not halve it to 250? Or lower it only slightly to 400? What was the decision making process behind this change that eventually led to settling on one third of 500 pet battles? I'm curious to know because it feels like an arbitrary number. It may also affect how we, the players, view future pet battle achievements and grinds (but that's yet to be seen).

In the end, I'm happy for those that will have a much more manageable Menagerie experience now. I'm still somewhat in a state of disbelief so I can't say much more than that.

I think Lio summed it up best, "[...] I'm all ????? tho bc I didn't think 500 was too bananas & most of the angst I've seen is over Unlock quest."

Yup. Dat unlock quest lol.