September 2008   « Archives | Current News »

Recently, news of a new recipe for Critter Bites turned up on MMO Champion. Unlike Pappa Hummel's famous pet biscuits, these tasty morsels affect neutral level 1 critters rather than vanity pets. So why are we mentioning them here? Because these treats will enable us pet freaks to run around with previously unattainable critters, such as crabs, deer, and squirrels!

UPDATE: It turns out that critters will indeed follow the feeder around just like a typical vanity pet, but the effect only lasts 3 minutes. However, the good news is that players can have as many critters follow them as they have Critter Bites!

Numerous reports have trickled in from players who managed to keep their Winter Veil Gift box from last year's Winter Veil event. You might recall that this item had a 100% chance to drop a Clockwork Rocket Bot, making the Rocket Bot a neat, but fairly common pet. However, this year, the same Winter Veil Gift will instead drop a Crashin' Thrashin' Racer Controller. Note that this is NOT a true companion pet. Rather it's a player-controlled entity, just like a Steam Tonk. Thus, it won't be listed on this site.

So why mention this new toy at all? Well, the real story is that this item seems to be taking the place of the lovable Clockwork Rocket Bot. Additionally, a new achievement for owning the "vintage 2007" Rocket Bot seems to confirm that this pet will no longer be available to collectors. So its original rarity assignment of uncommon has been adjusted to rare. It may even be adjusted to very rare when a few more years tick by.

NEW PET ACCESSORY! In the latest Wrath build, my pet supply vending counterpart is selling an all-new pet accessory—a grooming kit! It's a single-use consumable (stacking in lots of 10) that truly makes your pet "shine". The sparkle effect, which looks very similar to the sparkles that rise from a lootable object, can be seen on Murky in the lower right of this screenshot. With the addition of this item, I'm thinking that an annual pet show could be the ultimate new guild event... so long as Murky wins 1^st place.

In about a month, I hope to have the WarcraftPets store online, giving fans a fun new way to support the site. But before you guys can "gear up" WarcraftPets-style, I need your help! I'm planning to open the store with a few different T-shirt designs. The logo alone (pictured at right) will be available, but I'm hoping to dress it up a bit with some additional flavor text. That's where you come in...

UPDTATE:
Wow! I received a ton of ideas—too many to count! In fact, I've got all the suggestions I can handle for now. I've got enough to make over a hundred different shirts, and I only intend to make a few to start, then maybe a dozen more over time. My sincere thanks to each of you who took the time to submit your ideas.

Free T-shirts Clarified
I received so many suggestions that I even got some duplicates. I did promise a free shirt to anyone whose idea I incorporated into one of my designs. However, I must clarify that the free shirt will go to the FIRST person who sent the idea. For example, a handful of visitors suggested "Got Whelp?" with silhouettes of the whelplings. I intend to develop that idea, but I can really only afford to give away one shirt per suggestion. Sorry.

Anyhow, check back for news of the store's grand opening. Hopefully it will be up and running in early October.

No, probably not. I wanted to quell this rumor before it starts. A new item showed up in WoWhead's beta database: Certificate of Ownership. This is an item created through the new Inscription profession. While the text says, "Allows you to rename your pet," we'd bet dollars to donuts (mmmm... donuts) that they're talking about renaming hunter pets.

Aside from the large amount of work on the part of Blizzard developers to implement companion naming, we have another reason to believe this item won't effect vanity pets. Blizzard recently updated their official Small Pets page and the very first bullet under Other Information states very clearly that small pets cannot be renamed. You also might notice that Blizzard was kind enough to provide a link back to this site for additional info (Yay!)

The new official Small Pets page also states that players can hit "Shift-P" to open up their pet tab. I imagine that's a shortcut quite a few of us will be using in the near future.

NEW PET ACCESSORY! Move over, Papa Hummel—there's a new pet treat in town! My pet supply-peddling namesake is now offering Happy Pet Snacks. These are single-use consumables sold in lots of 5 (stacking up to 20) that will make your vanity pet adore you! A heart effect appears above the pet lasting for five minutes per treat. This effect is reminiscent of the hearts that appear over the heads of guards during the Love is in the Air event. Indeed, companions have been receiving a lot of love from the developers as of late and I'm sure I speak for the rest of the community when I say, "Keep it coming, guys!"

NEW WotLK PET! Our friend El of El's Extreme Anglin', the best fishing fansite around, contacted us to report the first new vanity pet obtained via fishing in the expansion. Players who test their luck angling in the Underbelly of Dalaran might catch a very rare Giant Sewer Rat. This is one BIG rat! As seen in the preceding link, the Giant Sewer Rat is almost as big as El!

Check out El's full article for all the juicy tidbits about this new titanic rodent.

It looks like many of the changes to WoW that were slated for the expansion will be coming in the next big content patch. These changes include pets becoming spells, the ability to retrieve lost pets, the addition of achievements (which means achievement-based rewards, including the much-anticipated pet skunk sent by my NPC counterpart), and possibly changes to pet names as well. It's still unclear when this build will go live, but we're guessing it could be as early as the end of September. Another target release week might be the middle of October, after BlizzCon.

UPDATE: It's official... WotLK will be in stores on November 13, 2008! So hold on tight, folks... it's almost here!

REPOST: NEW WotLK PET! It's confirmed: the WotLK Collector's Edition pet will be the Frost Wyrm Whelpling and I, for one, think it's a great addition to the whelpling lineup.

Those of you who've played Warcraft III will remember the mighty undead Frost Wyrms who hailed from Northrend. So it's fitting to find one of their young as the WotLK CE pet, much like The Burning Crusade CE gave us the Netherwhelp, a creature indigenous to Outland.

Click here for additional details regarding the contents of the WotLK Collector's Edition. Some stores will be accepting CE preorders, but we do not have a list—check your local shops and online dealers for info.

According to recent post by Blizzard mod Tigole, certain ultra-rare pets are becoming bound to an entire account rather than soulbound! Here's an excerpt of Tigole's post:

The following items will be changed to "Account Bound " items:

• Murky (Blue Murloc Egg)
• Tyrael's Hilt
• Murloc Costume
• All of the collector's edition pets

Also, for the "pet" items, we're making it so that adding the pet to your collection will not remove the item from your inventory. With that change, you'll be able to learn Murky on any character on the same realm with the character that currently has Murky. It also means that if you own the original Collector's Edition, you'll be able to have all 3 pets (Zerg, Diablo, Panda) by mailing the items between characters. If this works out well in the Beta and people like the change, we'll keep it in.

So assuming this change comes to pass, it looks like those who enjoy collecting pets on a single character will be able to obtain all three of the original CE pets! This is just one more change in a long line of recent improvements for pet collectors. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say, "Thanks, Blizzard!"

REPOST: NEW WotLK PET! A new pet has turned up on the Beta and it's one we collectors have really been clamoring for—it's an adorable pet penguin! He goes by the name "Chilly" and he has a nifty swimming animation too!

UPDATE: Originally, this pet was available to beta testers on US realms. According to the in-game mail message, Chilly was a thank-you gift for players who linked their WoW account to their Blizzard account. However, Bornakk, an official Blizzard moderator, recently stated:

As of right now, there are no details on how this little guy will be available on the live realms.

So perhaps we jumped the gun on posting about how this pet will be obtained. It may still have something to do with linking WoW accounts to Blizzard accounts, or it may be obtained through completely different means. One thing is certain: as soon as we know for sure, we'll post the details here.

Happy Brewfest! Of course, we've got the site decked out with some changes to honor the event, but that's not what we're talking about here. There are a host of new upgrades for this year's event. The addition of the Grim Guzzler and the Dark Iron Dwarf attacks on the festivities are probably the most notable, but we don't want to ruin any surprises, so go poke around and have some fun (and some brew)!

The biggest change for us pet collectors is to the Wolpertinger. The quest to redeem this little fellow as a reward was removed and his tankard can now be purchased outright for 50 silver. This change is receiving mixed reviews by the community, as many were looking forward to doing the quest. Still, just because he can be bought, it doesn't make him any less cuddly.

Brewfest will be running through October 4th.

NEW WotLK PET! Reports are coming in of a creepy new pet that can be purchased in the beta. The Ghostly Skull, sold by Black Market vendor Darahir <Reagents and Magical Goods> for 40 gold, will make the perfect traveling companion for your new Death Knight. Darahir can be found peddling his wares in the sewers of Dalaran. The teeth-chattering skull emits an eerie blue glow while hovering next to its owner.

With the addition of this pet, plus the pet store (owned by my counterpart) and the Giant Sewer Rat, I'm thinking that Dalaran is going to be a very posh and popular place for pet procurists.

I'd like everyone to extend a warm, friendly welcome to Lurie and Sateena as WarcraftPets' new Site Admins! Lurie, our new Community Leader, has always held a deep fondness for the aesthetics of Azeroth. As such, he'll be fielding questions and comments concerning all things vanity pet-related. Meanwhile, you'll start to notice Sateena's name as the author of upcoming news reports. She'll be our resident Content Manager, working tirelessly to bring you the latest small pet news. Learn more about Lurie and Sateena.

Throughout the weekend, I'll be training our new admins so that they're fully prepared for the challenges that await them on Monday, when they'll officially begin helping to keep this site running smoothly.

NEW WotLK PET! As if little Chilly wasn’t enough to satisfy our cravings for penguin cuteness, it appears that a second pet penguin, named Pengu, will become available in the upcoming expansion! Reports from the beta are that Sairuk <Kalu’ak Quartermaster> in Moa’ki Harbor, Dragonblight is selling a [Nurtured Penguin Egg] for 10g. But he will only entrust this treasure to those players who have proven their utmost dedication to the Tuskarr by becoming exalted with The Kalu’ak. With any luck, Pengu will be just as cute and full of crazy antics as Pingu, the star of a Swiss claymation children’s show by the same name.

UPDATE: Our thanks to El of El's Extreme Anglin' for the screenshot.