Monday, August 4, 2014

WoD Beta: Patch Day Full of Mixed Emotions

A new beta patch was released today. The servers went down just as I had time to sit down at my computer, so what did you know the DMF was finally back from the void (all weekend the error of instance not found kept popping up) but I was too late to take a look at all the new neat stuff. At least that was this afternoon.

Once beta maintenance was finished and the servers came back up, I popped on to see what was new. The Pet Journal had 5 new pets in it, but Wowhead and MMO-Champion datamined 5 additional pets not yet added.


Fruit Hunter (BoP) - Drop: ?


Hydraling (BoP) - Drop: TBD


Land Shark (BoU) - Fishing (skill 700), Vendor: Nat Pagle (garrison), Costs 50 Nat's Lucky Coin (Requires "Good Friends" rep with Nat Pagle)


Lanticore Spawnling (BoU) - Drop: The Lanticore, Zone: Upper Black Rock Spire


Nightfeather Hatchling - Pet Battle: ?

The five pets that were not found in the journal (all BoP):
- Brilliant Spore
- Crimson Spore
- Seaborne Spore
- Umbrafen Spore
- Zangar Spore
First and foremost...LAND SHARK! I think we've been waiting for the shark pet for a while now, huh? The Baby Shark was first datamined in 2008, pre-WotLK, but it never made an appearance as a collectible pet. Leave it to Nat Pagle to catch them and sell at a premium price.

And boy is that price high. 50 coins! According to El, the coins can be obtained by turning in "Lunkers" (special fish) to Nat Pagle. Turning them into him also rewards reputation (350), and you need to be "Good Friends" with him to purchase the pet. While I'm excited for the shark, can't I just buy Nat a beer? :P

The other pets are also pretty interesting. I have to say the Lanticore Hatchling looks pretty BADASS and I'm intrigued about the UBRS drop. Wowhead currently lists The Lanticore as a rarespawn in UBRS. How rare will it be? I don't know but I'm hoping it won't be too elusive.

There seems to only be one new wild pet in this patch, the Nightfeather Hatchling. I'm glad to see another one added, to be honest. We have a ton of drops and rewards and vendor pets, not so many wild ones. The ones that are in the journal at the moment are somewhat, dare I say, boring? Only because the majority of them are different pets using the same model with different skins. Not that I mind. But when comparing wild pets to all others, so far WoD has a much wider variety of the latter than former. Hopefully that will change as the course of beta continues.

Erm, what to say about the spore pets? I have no idea! I'm guessing these might look similar to actual Spores (in different colors), but who knows? I don't think they're quite finished yet (still using balloon placeholder models), so we may see them in a future patch.

Let's Go to the Darkmoon Faire!
Another new pet-related thing: new DMF pet battle. :D Since the beta went down earlier, I was unable to try out VonFeasel's battle. So I fixed that and went and kicked his butt. :P His team consisted of Syd, Mr. Pointy, and Otto (omg cow pet!).


I took a page from Lio's book and used her strat, but with one pet modification. My team consisted of Jade Owl (1,1,1), Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot (1,2,2), Lil' Bling (2,2,1). The biggest annoyance is VonFeasel's second pet, Mr. Pointy, and his shield. With Lio's advice about picking mechs that were hard hitters, though, it wasn't a tough fight. I never knew cows knew magic! :P

Speaking of cows...developers Jeremy Feasel and Jonathan LeCraft had some interesting exchanges on Twitter about the "TinyCow operation". What could this mean? A cow pet MUST be in the works, right? RIGHT?! My expectations are totally not through the roof for a calf now. Yea, totally. *cough*

Back to the faire, there are new dailies/mini-games at the faire, but they're not pet-related. I had a blast with the rings, and if you complete the achievement to collect 50 of them, you receive a vanity item. Let's just say I'm absolutely in love with it. I'll just leave this image here since it speaks volumes.


Garrison Updates
There's a new achievement, Draenic Pet Battler (win 1k pet battles in Draenor). The reward: Unlocks Pet Menagerie, Level 3 Blueprint. What could a tier 3 menagerie have in store for us? New items to purchase from Lio the Lioness? MORE pets wandering around your garrison? An even better trap? I'm pretty curious and excited to find out!


Other perks that had me bouncing in my seat, the pets that wander about your garrison finally use the names you assign them in the Pet Journal. The bug where they could be killed from player attacks was also fixed, as was the incorrect "wild" or "boss" icon floating above their heads.

The only downside to all of these awesome things is that they no longer interact with you or each other. SUCH SADNESS. It was a huge shock to me and was a colossal disappointment.

Having multiple pets out that respond to me was something that I was looking forward to in the garrison. Now that this is gone, and there's no indication if the feature will be coming back or not, I'm torn about feeling happy that my pets now have personalized names. For a while I was fluctuating between happy, sad, happy, sad. I'm still not sure how to feel about all of this.


I'm grateful for ALL the pet content implemented so far, that goes without saying. Just...let me sit in a corner with my Filthling(s) for a while. Oh, the memories of an earlier time (on beta)... :(

On another note, the daily quest from Lio the Lioness now rewards 15 Pet Charms instead of battle-stones. Yay, finally the source of this currency. More hats and treats!

Misc
Lastly, there's a new tailoring pattern for a pet vanity item, Murloc Chew Toy. It sounds like it will work the same way as the Fetch Ball does, but instead of a ball it's a murloc plushie? Hm...not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I'd like to keep the murloc toy for myself, if possible. :P

At the very least, if my pets get this new toy, can they um...not use their face all the time to pick it up (like with the Fetch Ball)? I mean, some pets have HANDS but they still insist on grabbing it with their head. So silly! XD

No clue how we'll get the recipe for it. It looks like I need to level up my toon with tailoring fairly soon, though. Not only will there be a craftable pet (Elekk Plushie), but now a toy. MAKE ALL THE THINGS!

Edit: More new pet toys! Rubber Duck, Discarded Bone, Small Football.

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