An Unexpected Find

Today I went out and captured some new Yellow-Bellied Bullfrogs (secondaries in battle) to test whether or not they would maintain their captured size. Originally i was going to simply edit my previous post to add an update on my findings, but in the process of testing I ran into yet another wild pet that comes in different sizes lol.

Much like the bullfrog, the Golden Civet Kitten can come in two sizes, big and small. They also retain their statures even after captured.



So that's another set of pets added to my collection heh.

As for the Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog, it appears that newly captured secondaries are keeping their sizes. That would be a good thing except now I want to keep both the large and small version plus my size-changer. I guess it's not really a bad thing except that my Pet Journal will quickly fill up if there are more cases similar to the bullfrog one. And my journal will feel a little more cluttered than normal.

Although I don't usually name wild pets (there are just too many!), I felt that these needed names for quick referencing (between the big one and small one). Luckily the bullfrog and civet kitten only come in two sizes, so "senior" and "junior" fit quite well. :)

Why You Little (Large?) Yellow-Bellied...

A user on the WarcraftPets forums pointed out another wild pet that comes in different sizes, the Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog. Unlike the Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling, this pet only comes in two sizes, big and small.

After learning about this I set out to capture a second bullfrog. My original one is the large version, but it didn't take me very long before finding a small one. I quickly nabbed it and then placed both the original and the new bullfrog on the same team to get a better size comparison (like I did with my gryphon hatchlings).

Only then did I notice something odd occurring. The first battle with my froggy team went as planned. Big bullfrog went first, small bullfrog was second. Great, but oh drat, the screenshot wasn't the best. So I tried again. The second battle had me scratching my head since both frogs looked exactly the same size. So I tried again. And again. And again.

To confirm my suspicions I ended up simply summoning out my original "large" bullfrog and placed it next to random frogs.



The images above show only one bullfrog next to the wild one (the green one is mine, red one is wild). Yep, my original is a size-changer.

So far I seem to be the only one with this issue. One possibility, as Peanutty suggests, is that my frog was a secondary pet in battle and captured before the fix was implemented so that pets retain their captured state (color and size).

The dilemma now is do I keep the second Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog that hasn't had any issues with maintaining its small stature, or do I release it since I have kind of have both sizes in my original frog? I'm leaning towards releasing the new one. If they ever fix my size-changer, it's not as though it will be too difficult finding another bullfrog, right? I can easily go out and capture the size that I don't have.

This incident makes me even more curious about the hundreds of other wild pets out there. Are there any other pets in my collection that are size-changers too? What sizes am I missing? If only there was an efficient way to check them all. I guess I'll have to continue relying on the awesome pet collecting community to keep me informed. :)

Get Your Very Own Lovable Leafy Companion

The Blizzard Pet Store is having a small sale and the Blossoming Ancient is 35% off of its original price. For $6.50 you can basically have 4 pets in one! :P

Not only do the pets have their own unique look for each season, they also have a different idle animation too.

- Spring = spreads flowers on the ground around itself
- Summer = beam of sunlight shines down on it
- Autumn = casts falling leaves from its branches
- Winter = creates a small snow flurry around it

For those still seeking the seasonal-exclusive pets the Blossoming Ancient can also be an in-game timekeeper. Unsure what season it is? Summon out your ancient and its leaf color will remind you!

This sale ends June 3, so don't put off adopting this pet for too long. If you get one now, you'll be just in time to appreciate both its spring foliage now and then its summer colors mid-June. :)

WoD Alpha: New Achievements and Pets

UPDATE: Looks like there are two new battlestones for testing - Training Beast Battle-Stone of Testing and Training Battle-Stone of Testing. These stones are epic quality and instead of raising a pet's rarity, it allows a pet to gain one level upon use. Interesting!

MMO-Champion is reporting a new WoD Alpha build. Datamining has revealed a couple of new pets and some new (test) achievements.

New Achievements
The new achievements fall under the "Battle" section and involve unique challenges for battlers. Note that most of these have the prefix "[TEST]" and may still be works in progress. The end result might not be what we see today.

Beast Beat-down - Finish a battle with a Beast ability.

Hydraulics - Win a pet battle with an Aquatic and a Mechanical pet on your team. 5 points.

If One Is Good... - Win a battle with 3 Vengeful Porcupette pets.

Survivalist - Win with three pets alive!

We've Got a Bleeder! - Win a pet battle with Bleeding as the final damage.

The requirement trend for these latest achievements seems to be a special trick or maneuver to earn a win. I could see this becoming a thing, evolving to include more and more difficult feats. Win a battle using only damage over time attacks! Or.. Outlast your opponent with only avoidance and heal moves! Use 3 Viscous Horrors to win a...err... maybe not that one. :P

It's kinda fun to think about the different challenges developers might come up with for us, and ways to complete them. I bet the devs will have just as much fun brainstorming ways to stump and infuriate us. XD

New Pets
The two new pets that were included in the latest alpha patch are the Grovestrider Hatchling (BoP) and Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar (BoU). I'm pretty curious about both pets, since a grovestrider makes me think of a Darkmoon Strider (but maybe more SAVAGE?), and a the boar most definitely sounds like an engineering pet. It would be our first true boar companion, even if it's mechanical.

I'm torn between hoping for a traditional boar model or a new SAVAGE one. Call me crazy, but those little baby swine are kinda cute. Then again, a mechanical anything will likely not be on the cuddly side. Unless you're a gnome. Pretty sure they cuddle their wrenches at night as they sleep. :P

A Tremendously Terrific Trio

I was recently made aware that the Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling comes in three different sizes. They retain their size even after capture, meaning you can have all three in your collection.

This may or may not be a well known trait of this wild pet, but I was completely in the dark. Unless I'm using the same pet as the one that I'm facing, I often don't notice any size differences. Maybe I'm just not that observant. :P

After I found out about this neat little detail, I went out and captured the two sizes that I was missing. To reduce the guess work, I added my existing gryphon pets to my team so I could compare it with any of the wild gryphons I came across.

A great tip that Peanutty mentioned: if you find the Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling as the secondary pet in battle, but it's not the right size that you were looking for, simply forfeit and reengage the battle. Much like different wild pet colors, disengaging and reengaging the match changes the secondary pets' attributes.

Once the new gryphons were secured, they were immediately upgraded to rare and leveled to 25. I normally don't name my wild pets (there are just too many!) but these guys were special. Since I don't know any trio of famous/noteworthy gryphons, I named them after Scrooge McDuck's nephews from DuckTales (Huey, Dewey, and Louie). If Blizzard adds three duck pets in the future, I may have to find different names for them. XD

The best way to compare and view their size differences is by putting them all on one team and engaging in a pet battle.


During the battle you can easily identify the largest of the three, while the middle-sized and smallest one are harder to tell apart.

The BEST way to see the size variation is at the end of the battle, when all three line up in a row.


That moment is fleeting though and I had a hell of a time trying to get a screenshot of their lineup lol.

It's been a while since I had something to collect, so this was a fun mini-adventure. If there are any other wild pets that come in different sizes (and maintain the varying sizes after capture), let me know! There's no question about it, they MUST be added to my pet army. :3

Escort an Orphan, Collect All the Pets

Children's Week is currently in full swing. There are many pets to collect and achievements to complete.

For those interested in just the pets, if you have multiple characters, you can complete the quests and pick a different reward for each toon. Pets are account-wide, so unless you have a preference for collecting all of the Children's Week pets on a single character or wish to earn the achievement Veteran Nanny, you can collect all of them in the same week.


There's a total of ten Children's Week pets, spread out across three expansions (Vanilla, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King). Unfortunately, Pandaria seems to be devoid of any orphans to help, at least for now. Maybe there will be new quests and pets in Pandaria and Draenor in the future.

Wowhead has a great guide that covers collecting the pets as well as the achievements.

Other helpful write-ups for Children's Week detail how to complete School of Hard Knocks. If you're like me and really find PVP unbearable, this achievement may seem daunting. Here are two guides that may help reduce any stress and anxiety, as well as tips on how to get it done - Wowhead's 'Children's Week Guide - School of Hard Knocks How-To' and Cynwise's 'The School of Hard Knocks'.

The achievements aren't necessary for collecting pets, but it's a good way to feel even more productive during this fun-filled week. Collect tons of pets and how about being one step closer to that Violet Proto-Drake? It couldn't hurt. Well, it might hurt your orphan a little. Battlegrounds aren't a friendly place for a little kid! ;P

Viscous Horror's (Horrific?) Fate

WarcraftPets users recently discovered that the extremely rare and elusive Viscous Horror suddenly became not so rare and elusive on US horde and alliance Auction Houses. Taking a quick glance at the Undermine Journal (US alliance and US horde), it would appear that yes, this pet has suddenly shot up in supply.

For those that don't watch the market or know much about the history of this pet, such a large number of Viscous Horrors on multiple auction houses across both factions is not normal. This pet is fairly difficult to come by, as it drops deep inside a raid instance and only from Normal or Heroic mode. Granted that Throne of Thunder is the previous tier, it's still a tedious clear. It didn't help that the pet was released in the last half of the tier, when ToT's relevance was slowly dwindling and coming to a close. All of these factors make the Viscous Horror highly desirable yet scarce.

Until now, that is.

About a month or so ago, checking the Undermine Journal would show maybe one to three available at any given time. Trust me, this pet is still missing from my collection so I used to check up often on its availability. Only recently did I stop keeping a persistent eye on it, but it appears that the jump in its numbers also only happened recently (likely starting in April).

So what could cause this increase in Viscous Horrors on the market? The first guess (as apparent by the forum thread linked at the start of this post) is duping. "Duping" (short for duplication) isn't a foreign concept for pet collectors. Although it's never been officially proven or confirmed, it's speculated (and wildly believed) that many of the highly coveted TCG pets that started popping up last year were the results of a game exploit. In other words, someone or a group of someones was creating the same pet over and over using unintended means. I won't go into how it's done, as I don't really know myself (I've only heard rumors), but IF it can be done, it's not surprising that the process can be altered and applied to a non-TCG pet.

But that's just one possible reason for the large number of Viscous Horrors we're seeing now. There are others, although they aren't as sensational or controversial. I have my doubts about these possibilities, yet I can't dismiss them without solid evidence.

- Increased number of players doing old content?
- Stealth buff to the Viscous Horror's drop rate?

Without seeing actual numbers, it's hard to say whether or not there's a sudden influx of players specifically aiming to clear Throne of Thunder up until Primordious on Normal mode each week. In my own small circle of the WoW population, most players are burnt out on the game and raiding. But like I said, my sample size is quite tiny and it's not uncommon for players to focus on older content for achievement and completion reasons towards the end of an expansion.

The second possibility is harder to argue for; it would need confirmation from Blizzard. They've adjusted drop rates for content that was outdated before, but by this much and within the same expansion? I'm dubious about it. It's still something that we can't count out until we hear a 'yes' or 'no' from Blizzard.

Perhaps it's due to our attraction to the scandalous, but the "duping" idea is currently the most accepted explanation for the sudden burst of Viscous Horrors. It doesn't help that the "duping" of this pet was actually announced prior to any of this. A WarcraftPets user claims to have spoken with a duper in January of this year, and they report that the person mentioned the next pet in their sights was the horror. It's likely that this only added to the community's bias. Until we hear some official word, all we can do is speculate and wonder.

This increase in Viscous Horrors may be a blessing for some, as larger supply will slowly drop the price making it more affordable for more collectors, but a curse for others who used the pet as a bartering tool due to its high worth. It may yet be a curse for all of us if the horrors are indeed being duped and these pets-that-shouldn't-be can be tracked by Blizzard and revoked due to their unintended existence. I should note that I haven't heard of Blizzard taking back other pets such as the Ethereal Soul Trader and Spectral Tiger Cub, both believed to be victims of duping. So I don't know how likely it would be for duped Viscous Horrors to be taken away from legit players who were unaware of the nature of the pet they purchased.

We'll see how this impacts the pet market and community in the long run. The increase in Viscous Horrors and price decrease was bound to happen at some point in the next expansion, although at a much, much slower and smaller pace. So maybe this was just the inevitable occurring sooner rather than later, and at a breakneck speed. It's hard to say and now we'll never know since these (cloned?) pets seem to be here to stay.

Pet Breeding Postponed - I Ain't Even Mad

There has been a lot of speculation on pet breeding, a feature that was vaguely mentioned at BlizzCon of last year. It was never fully and properly announced as an official addition to the upcoming expansion, so anything and everything "known" about it is still very much up in the air. Nothing has been set in stone as far as we know.

This was made even more apparent when Mumper recently Tweeted the following:

"We decided against pet breeding for the 6.0 launch. Mainly balance and content concerns."

Does this mean the idea is scrapped completely? It doesn't seem that way, but we'll have to wait and see. There's no mention of completely abandoning pet breeding, and as Doobjanka comments, the postponing of the feature may only be intended for the general 6.0 launch (pre-expac and post-expac launch).

It would make sense to hold off on such a potentially game-changing mechanic until the first major patch of the expansion, just so everyone can settle in first and see where things stand in terms of gameplay and balancing. Even then, it's possible that pet breeding may be pushed back even further to round out the "end game" for Pet Battles in WoD.

All of this is, of course, just my own interpretation. We won't know anything until Blizzard announces their plans. Things could change after any type of announcement too.

Some collectors and battlers may be disappointed or frustrated with the lack of updates and concrete information on breeding, and this latest mention of postponing its release could be quite upsetting for those looking forward to it. It's understandable as it was the big selling point of WoD for pet enthusiasts, and without pet breeding, it's looking like the expansion will only have more of the same (so far). Garrisons will likely be the new time-sink, but I'm sure many were looking forward to a feature that was aimed specifically for Pet Battles.

One thing that we need to keep in mind, though, is pet breeding was never officially announced. Things change and perhaps the idea that was initially presented needed to be re-addressed before being fully implemented and released.

It's a good thing (I hope). This may mean developers are slowly weeding out issues and problems with the original idea and creating something even better. It also gives the community more time to present concerns and feedback on the idea. Although without knowing much of the details, all we can do is brainstorm and speculate.

My hope is that with the aid of our community and more time, pet breeding will be a well-thought out and fully functional feature. I'd much rather they get it right (and take more time to do so), rather than pushing it too early (with all issues and bugs still attached).

Personally, I was never completely sold on the feature to begin with. I'm not a pet battler at heart, so the concept of creating pets with ideal breeds wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I don't ignore pet breeds entirely, and I do take note for certain pets, but it's not something that I'll painstakingly devote myself to in order to conjure up the "perfect pet". To me, breeding for the sake of creating the ideal breed/type of pet sounds as though it would cause more problems in the community and general WoW community than anything else. That isn't to say I wouldn't take part, I totally would, but I probably wouldn't invest all of my time into it like I would with collecting pets.

However, pet breeding for the sake of creating vanity pets (new/different skins, animations, etc.) would be something that I'm highly interested in. If there's a new color of rabbit out there, I'd love to add it to my collection. From my understanding of it, though, it doesn't sound like that's the direction they are looking to go. If it is, it would probably cause less balancing headaches since it wouldn't be an integral part of Pet Battles gameplay. Vanity is vanity and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So I guess you could say I'm half-heartedly interested in pet breeding (if and when it ever makes it into the game and depending on what breeding is all about), but at the moment I'm not heartbroken or anything over the postponing of the feature. As with all things pet-related, it would only be natural for me to feel disappointed if they announce that the idea is scrapped completely, but that's a bridge we'll have to cross when we get to it.

We can only remain hopeful that they're working on making it amazing and solving any concerns/issues that have already popped up regarding breeding. That's the optimist in me. The realist knows that things can and will change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. So long as these changes don't blindside us and Blizzard is open and sincere (and we keep an open mind), I think we'll be ok.

BlizzCon 2014 Dates Announced

Blizzard announced the dates for BlizzCon 2014: November 7 and 8! Tickets cost $199 each and will go on sale Wednesday, May 7 at 7 PM (Pacific Time) and Saturday, May 10 at 10 AM (Pacific Time). They have yet to announce the price and sale of the Virtual Tickets.

I'm quite excited as this year marks WoW's 10th Anniversary (and I believe Warcraft's 20th?), so it's a pretty special occasion. I've already set aside time in my fall schedule just for BlizzCon this year, so I'm really amped to go. It will all depend on whether or not I can get two tickets, though, and that's up in the air still. Crossing my fingers and practicing throwing money at the screen.

Needless to say, I'm already wondering about the BlizzCon 2014 goodie bag. What's inside?! Pet? Mount? Some other awesomely awesome gift? It's a notable year and although I shouldn't expect anything, I still can't help but think something special to commemorate the occasion for BlizzCon attendees and Virtual Ticket holders would be appropriate. For $200 per ticket, maybe it should be expected? Perhaps Blizzard should at least announce the contents of the goodie bag sooner rather than later.

Regardless, I'm still excited. I wasn't able to attend last year's BlizzCon, and although I was able to cover any pet-related news/info quickly and efficiently from home, I regret not being able to meet and hang out with all the pet collectors/battlers/lovers at the WarcraftPets meet-and-greet. Not to mention I could have poked at some developers. :P

Well, we'll see what happens come May 7 and May 10. Those days will be the deciding factor.

WoD Alpha: Iron Starlette and Peacocks

There was at least one other new WoD Alpha patch between now and my last post, but unfortunately the pet updates have been slow coming.

In the latest build, Wowhead lists only one notable pet-related change: Sphere of Ultimate Destruction renamed to Iron Starlette.


If you'll remember, LeCraft mentioned this yet-to-be-named pet on Twitter in early March, and one of the suggestions for the name was...*drumroll* Iron Starlette! :)

The only other update that caught my attention was the new mage polymorph: PEACOCK. Yes, that's right. A peacock. Mumper previously mentioned that they were working on a peacock pet, so with the implementation of this polymorph, I can only hope that the pet is well on its way and will be coming to a pet collection near you soon. It would make an excellent addition to my Look-a-Like Challenge - peacock pals please!

That's it for now, but hopefully we'll see more in the near future. I'm starting to get antsy - MOAR PETS.