Vanity Pets Archives - Anexxia's Bible of Dreams

Too Many Pets?!?!?

So far, it’s been pretty smooth sailing for me with the Mists of Pandaria launch. The ship quest line worked fine, as did questing w/Wrenz cross-server (since we both want to play our shadow priets atm.) Only one small issue cropped up for me last night, right after receiving Mr Fishy, a new companion pet. I went to learn him and was faced with the most horrible text I have ever seen:

Can’t add companion to your account.
You have too many pets.

WTF?!?!?!?

510 pets is too many pets? But I don’t see any duplicate pets I can cage and sell or give away. What is going on here?

Determined to figure this out, I went to the pet battle trainer to see if she could help. I learned pet battling and accepted her quest then opened my journal again. Still not seeing how man of each pet. So, I picked one I knew I had too many of, the blue dragonhawk, and searched for it. Sure enough, I got a list (by searching dragonhawk) that showed every individual occurrence of dragonhawk in my pet hournal.

I started right clicking on and choosing “put in cage” for each of the duplicates, to clean up my pet journal. The good news is since these are pets that are sold individually, they are able to be caged and sold (well, if anyone wants them.) Many other pets require that you set them free to get rid of your duplicates

And here is the happy ending to my story, my new friend, Mr Fishy!:

Darkmoon Island: Fun for All Levels

I spent some time tooling around on Darkmoon Island this past Sunday, running errands for some carnies and fishing up a storm. the fishing is what netted me the Sea Pony vanity pet you see in the screenshot above. It too fewer than 50 casts off the coast (both in and outside of wreckage pools) to catch this guy. I obtained my second sea pony, on my Forsaken shadow priest, in a scant 12 casts. But in contrast, my gnomey shadow priest fished the coast off and on for several hours (while I baked cookies) and never saw a sea pony land in her bags.

The sea pony fishing wasn’t the only excuse to bust out my mad professional skills on the island however– there are quests you can complete for all flavors of professions, netting you some rep with the Faire, plus prize tickets and cash or XP depending upon your level. Some of the professional quests will require that you bring some supplies with you (or head out the portal to your staging area at the end of the dock to go grab some.) Thus I started bringing my stack of flour with me on all my chefs, and blue dye/red dye/simple thread on my tailors.

One of the more silly but fun aspects were the many new World event achievements the Faire brought with it, including the “I was Promised a Pony” achievement. As seen below, there are some ponies you can abscond with and ride around the island on for a bit. And who doesn’t like ponies?? EVERYBODY likes ponies. But I digress.

The Faire also hands out some quests that involve incenting you to grind mobs complete Battlegrounds and Dugneons back on the continents. Thus, even though there is a little bit of a grind involved if you plan to save up your tickets to purchase some of the fabulous prizes (which include mounts and vanity pets, heirlooms, and replica tier gear) they actively aim to make it feel less grindy than Firelands for instance. Somehow I doubt I will return to the Faire to play the games very often, or complete the in game challenges to rack up the tickets for even one pet, but it was a nice day’s excursion to bring out my favorite toons to go see.

What Can a Guardian Cub Buy You?

Now that the 24-hour cooldowns have passed and the Guardian Cubs have started popping up on auction houses all around Azeroth, ranging from $9500-$20,000 G, I have to ask: does this RMT transaction really amount to much given the current state of the WoW economy? What can you actually *buy* for 10k-20k G anyhow? In my opinion, not much that matters.

Sure, you can upgrade to the fastest flying speed, or buy epic flying for another alt, or finally build yourself a mechanohog. But other than a few bits and bobs in the forms of random raid BOEs, there really isn’t a whole heck of a lot you can purchase with G in game that matters.

When I asked on twitter last night what those folks who’d purchased the cub for resale planned to do with their profits, no one replied with any big plans. Perhaps some were going to sell a couple of cubs to save up for something like the Spire of Scarlet Pain, or perhaps others might intend to blow their proceeds on purchasing other vanity pets for their pet collectors, but I suspect that many folks were just going to stash the cash away in their WoW bank accounts, and use it for the more mundane every day expenses that eat through your saving (i.e. repairs and enchants and gems etc.)

To me at least, it feels like the Real Money Transactions (RMT) tree fell in the Azeroth woods but no one heard it fall.

Oh Hai There Creepy Crate!

Hallow’s End is upon us once more!

Hasten ye to Orgrimarr and Stormwind to embark upon a new adventure, which will eventually result in this creepy crate following you home. He will clatter behind you all clickety clackety, occasionally popping up an eye– or a tongue– for a quick look around. Get him too close to a critter and ZAP! purpley lightning will wrap around them and suck them into the crate.

Watch out tho– I haven’t found a way to get rid of the foul stench from his green gaseous emissions…

BREAKING NEWS: There seems to be a shadow priest lurking within the creepy crate! the shadow orbs do not lie!

Kitten for Sale! Turns US$ into WoW Gold!

Awwww look at the cute widdle kitten. Isn’t he adorable? It’s hard to believe something so tiny and so cute could have caused such a ruckus this week, but this little guy sure did when he was announced as a new Blizzard pet store pet. The reason? Because this little guy, who sells for $10, is unlike his BOA predecessors that you buy for yourself or share a code with a friend via email. He’s a BOE that can be sold on the auction house.

Q: How does the Guardian Cub pet work? How is it different from other Pet Store pets?

Unlike the other Pet Store companions, the Guardian Cub is a tradable, one-time-use pet that permanently binds to a single character upon use. When you purchase the Guardian Cub from the online store, the character you designate will receive a bind-on-use item to carry in his or her inventory. You can either use the item yourself to permanently add the pet to your character’s collection (consuming the item in the process), or — after a brief initial cooldown period — you can trade the item to another player so he or she can add it to one of their character’s collections.

As you might expect, the WoW community has reacted with a number of tweets and blog posts, many of which characterised this as a “trial balloon” to test the level of acceptance (and revenue) such an item would generate. The announcement FAQ tackled the “Isn’t this a way for players to pretty much legally buy gold from you” with this Q&A:

Q: Could I put the Guardian Cub up on the auction house to try to make some gold if I wanted to?

While our goal is to offer players alternative ways to add a Pet Store pet to their collection, we’re ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services. However, please keep in mind that there’s never any guarantee that someone will purchase what you put up for sale in the auction house, or how much they’ll pay for it. Also, it’s important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. (You can read more about our stance here.) While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that’s preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling “black market” and account theft.

Personally, I have two serious pet collectors in game — one Horde-side and one Alliance-side. As such, I’m a huge fan of the BOA pets. Buy once, and see it on all your toons. I’d like to see this guy available in a BOA version in addition to this 1-time-use BOE version, but I doubt I’ll see that happen. This feels akin to the WoW TCG loot items, which I have agonized over more than once (who should get the spectral tiger cub??? OK, Candy got the cub, so Anexxia gets the Blazing Hippogryph), but in a more accessible format, and one that will put the cash back into Blizzard/Activision’s bottom line rather than in that of the third party sellers.

Will we see more BOE items for sale from Blizzard directly? Only time– and the proceeds from this little guy– will tell.

Three Things I Learned in WoW This Weekend

Rogues can use spirit/int leather gear.
It is perfectly acceptable for your mom to do your dailies and character leveling because you are so busy with work and things.
The vanity pet RNG hates me.

On newbie rogues

True story…I walked myself into Stratholme this weekend, on my shaman’s road from 45 to 50. It felt weird to be in there as such as a lowbie. But it felt even more weird to find myself arguing with a rogue about how it was inappropriate that he need rolled on a spellcaster chest. I especially enjoyed it when he told me I was dumb and should shut up. That’s the point at which the entire rest of the party lit into him.

Thankfully, I was eventually able to kick him from the group. Nd for the first time ever I used the following as my reason for kick: Bad.

Here’s the deal: I do not care what leather jerkin you had on previously. A spellcaster piece of leather is NOT an upgrade for you, mister rogue. No matter how much higher an ilvl. It’s just NOT. I hold you even more accountable for this nonsense than all those mages and warlocks who keep rolling against my clothies on spirit gear (b/c at least that stat USED to be helpful for them last expansion.)

On slacker kids who live at home with mom

Kid: “OK, guys I’m out, going to work. So it won’t be me on playing.”

Me: “So, you are account sharing?”

Kid: “Nah.”

Other kid: “His mom levels for him.”

Kid: “Yeah, my mom does my dailies and my leveling for me. I am real busy with work and stuff.”

Me: /facepalm

No offense buddy, but just wait until you move out into your own place and work a 40+ hour a week job. Get back to me THEN about being *so busy*. But then again you’ll probably just take all your laundry home for mom to wash…

On my inability to hit the 125 pet mark

I chased after Baradin foxes. I conquered Ahune daily. I killed creatures in EPL for hours. And yet my two pet collectors are still short of their 125 pet goals. Candy needs 1 more pet, while Nexxi is still 5 or 6 away from the goal.

/cry

At this point I am haunting my AHs trying to find affordable pets I do not have yet. Ended up buying the druid 4 pets yesterday otherwise she would still have not made any progress.

VANITY PET GODS WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME???

One Kitten Short of a Litter: Tuxedo Kitty Needed!

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I think I may have even mentioned it on twitter at some point. But I haven’t put it out here in the blog, so here goes:

What the World of Warcraft Really needs is a tuxedo kitten pet. I even have the perfect model for them. The adorable Mister Bill you see here. His special resting action could be catching nearby mice and birds and dropping them at your feet. And randomly scampering up trees, then mewing for you to come get him.

Heck, I’d happily settle for a full grown tuxedo cat even. And again, I have the perfect model for it:

Mister Bill used to sit for hours (usually on my SO’s lap) and watch us play World of Warcraft. He was happy that we had finally found a hobby that involved there always being a lap available for him to sit on. He was especially fond of the druids, due to their flight form. I think that if he could have played the game, however, he’d have definitely been a rogue, sneaking up behind the bad guys and going stabby stabby.

I know chances are slim of our ever getting a tuxedo kitty added to the game, but a girl can dream.

Mister Bill, we miss you.

Meeting my Cataclysm Goals: Sandstone Drake, Check!

Each expansion, I’ve had a goal in mind. For WotLK, it was to save Bolvar Fordragon. This expansion, from the moment I saw the Sandstone Drake, it was to be able to shift into a shadowy dragon. And as of this weekend, that goal is complete.

I didn’t want to get the Vial of the Sands for Anexxia, since she already has an awesome mount for shadowform– the Blazing Hippogryph. Thus, my Alliance shadow priest being the lucky recipient.

I’d burnt out on trying for the Vial on my alchemist after the fourth canopic jar full of nothing more than mummified remains. Thus, I’d started searching for the Vial on the AH every time I logged in, to get a sense of how much it was going for, so I could save up accordingly.

Just last week, I’d seen it up for 75k which was way too rich for my blood. But then something funny happened over the long weekend. Suddenly there was a price war, and we had three of them up with buyouts under 49k, and bids for 44k. Still a ton of cash, but then again, it cost me a lot of cash to make my motorcycle back in the day as well.

For those wondering just how I happened to have so much cash on hand, well that’s a direct result of being used to supporting raiding costs on two characters, but not doing any raiding, on the whole, for months. Instead of using up all my consumables and materials on myself, I’ve been selling stuff as I accumulate it. And continuing with my usual crafting. But not having anything to spend the cash on meant it piled up on the bank alt.

And thus, I’ve met my one Cataclysm goal to date. It’s great timing too — I’m about to be even more busy IRL due to a promotion at work. So even if I don’t play seriously for a few months, I’ll still be able to feel I’ve gone out in a blaze of glory, so to speak. And no, I’m not quitting WoW and I’m not stopping the blog, but I am a bit preoccupied with life outside of Azeroth at the moment. Catch you on the flipside.

Friday Five: Vanity Pet Edition

I know I shouldn’t love any of my vanity pets more than others, but I have to admit it: I do have my favorites. here are my top 5 favorite vanity pets, not in order because I really can’t rank them:

Spectral Tiger Cub. I wanted this guy ever sine I saw him previewed on a TCG promo back in the day. This little guy also wins the prize for being least expected birthay present ever.
Hippogryph Hatchling. This was my first ever super rare vanity pet. I’d received a box of the TCG cards as a gift from my SO after a particularly tough week traveling for work, and this loot card was in it. Totally unexpected and so adorable. I was totally annoyed when a vanilla WoW guild mate’s boyfriend bought her one of the cards off eBay after she’d admired mine in our raids.
Wind Rider Cub. Yet another awesome present from my SO. He is so adorable, and I love it when he flies along behnid me.
Singing Sunflower. It’s so nice to be out in the middle of nowhere and have this little pet start singing to you. You’re never lonely in Azeroth with this little lady by your side.
Moonkin Hatchling. I whined and pined and dreamt of having a mini me for my boomkin. And then this year, our dreams came true with the adorable moonkin baby! I seriously stood around in Dalaran dancing with this little cutey for a solid half hour after getting him in the mail.

What’s your favorite vanity pet?

When You /Dance, Baby Moonkin Dances With You

As a boomkin, I'm always dancing. But imagine my surprise when I found out that baby moonkin hatchling /danced right back with me!