Sprite Darters and Westfall Chickens for the Horde
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 9th 2009 at 9:00AM
When it was mentioned that Dig Rat Stew is becoming available to the Alliance, our Horde readers quite nearly rebelled and marched to Irvine to kick over Blizzard's statue. Where was the Horde love? I can tell you where! It's coming in the form of pets. In patch 3.1, two of the Alliance exclusive non-combat pets are being opened up to the Horde: The Westfall Chicken and the Sprite Darter from Feralas.The Chicken quest (CLUCK!) can now be picked up by Horde players as well, via spamming /chicken at chickens around the world. While Alliance players buy the Special Chicken Feed needed for the quest from Westfall, the Horde can now buy the feed from "Westfall" William Saldean in Brill. Technically the Horde had access to this pet before, but it was a real pain. You had to wait around for an Alliance player to do the quest, then steal their egg off of the ground before they could loot it. Harsh. Now you can do it on your own, in your own town.
The Sprite Darter quest is still exclusive to the Alliance, but there's another way for the Horde to get their hands on it now: Killing the Sprite Darters of Feralas. We don't know how low the drop rate is yet, but it's safe to say that the Horde is going to drive the Sprite Darters to extinction. Alliance players, note that you cannot kill these Darters. We still have to do the quest(s).
See? Blizzard loves you, too. They love all of us equally. ...Usually.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Galtak Mar 9th 2009 9:04AM
I thought the egg could be looted any amount of times before it naturally despawned?
Boydboyd Mar 9th 2009 9:33AM
Nope, once it's looted by the creator (the person doing all the /chicken), it disappears.
Catiya of Feathermoon Mar 9th 2009 10:33AM
That's also not entirely true. /Anyone/ horde or alliance can loot it once it's on the ground. I did it on an RP server, parked my horde a few feet away, had my ally do the quest, logged back on the horde and now I have the pet. Only one person can loot the egg before it despawns, though.
Molly Mar 9th 2009 10:51AM
I can't believe everyone is QQing about this change! For me, it's not about balance or fairness. It's about, hey, my druid will finally be able to have a cute little faerie dragon, whoo! What's wrong with making changes that make people happy, and don't change anything for you besides what pets your guildmates are pulling out in raids?
Sinthar Mar 9th 2009 9:08AM
Now if they are gonna equalise ALL the differnces between horde n alliance this would make sense, but i cant see them doing that - so this imo is just an 'achievement' tweek, so satisfy more whingers. How about the rare pets that only horde can get being available, not rat dig but say the cat from the old dalaran site that only horde can get- how about equaling the sides for BOTH sides. Not just ohh we give alliance once - so well give the horde two to keep em happy?
Gnosh Mar 9th 2009 9:11AM
That tabby is a RARE-ass drop for us too. It's our White Kitten.
If they make that alliance-farmable, put a Little Timmy in Org as well.
frodo34x Mar 9th 2009 9:19AM
The Maine Coon (now Black Tabby) is BoE, so Alliance players could theoretically buy it from booty bay. The Sprite Darter, however, was a BoP quest reward that was literally impossible for Horde players to get.
The change to the Sprite Darter means that there anyone from either faction can get all pets currently in game. The change to CLUCK! just seems to be there to make it a little easier for Horde toons.
Siddaru Mar 9th 2009 9:20AM
There is no rare pet that "only Horde can get." The black tabby is just like a vendor pet, you can just buy it over the neutral AH. Right now the only pet in the entire game that is limited to one faction is the Sprite Darter.
Nathanyel Mar 9th 2009 9:22AM
You are right kinda. A new, horde-only quest pet would be better. Maybe even a Westfall Chicken equivalent, to even things out, but that'd probably be unnecessary.
Sinthar Mar 10th 2009 3:47AM
Please look at my comment - see where it says 'BOTH'. I FULLY AGREE ALL PETS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE TO BOTH - REPEAT BOTH - and once again BOTH SIDES. That include sprite darter, kittens and any new pets blizz thinks up. Although i dont actually know if timmey can be traded with from horde, im assuming its unlightly at best. But then theres a lot of pet vendors in both sides citys, timmey only a 'rarer' one with limited stock, similar to the Fair one. But then id class the white kitten as alliance obtainable only too. So would fall into the category of IT SHOULD BE BOTH SIDES.
Although technically you are correct. There are two pets only one side can get (alliance obv), but imo having to buy a rare drop pet only one side can 'obtain' off the mob, off the AH sucks. I notice that theres differences in recipes etc too. Dig rat Stew i ended up lvling a chr so my alliance main could get it, so there no reason why you cant lvl an alliance for the egg and white kitten - at least you dont have to lvl to 30ish to stand a chance to find and kill the mob that has what you want, the alliance ones can be done easily and quickly- not lvling a chr you dont wanna play to obtain a single recipe. And if you are saying the achievement systems skewed cos of two pets - look at the loremaster achievement - i notice horde need significantly LESS to obtain it. All these areas need looking at if you expect ppl to think that the two sides are 'equal', as well as far more.
Oh and @ slunk, well if you read up im sure ull appreciate the ironey, but you can buy those off the AH , and for FAR FAR less than any rare pet (about a factor of 100x - recipe goes for about 8-10g on my server, pet goes for 2k+ IF you can get some hordie to put it on- and thats a BIG if)
And wtf you on about the pet in dalaran? You talking about the floating skull or the 'tomb' achievement reward or what? What 'walk of shame'?
Angus Mar 9th 2009 10:04AM
You did say everybody should get access to all the pets, like the black tabby.
But you also forgot to mention little timmy's pet, which is just as rare as the black tabby. You have to wait around Stormwind for the spawn, we have to sit in a level 10 area and do the same. They really are roughly equal.
So yes, if they make the black tabby available to the alliance, they SHOULD have a "Little Timmy" show up in UC or Org.
This I love:
"look at the loremaster achievement - i notice horde need significantly LESS to obtain it."
Do you know why? Because they made sure the Alliance had more quests available. There are certain points in leveling as a Horde where you hit a virtual brick wall. You have to go all over the place to find a few quests to get you bumped into the next level category so you can start new zones. Effectively you run dry and hit a brick wall where grinding is your best bet.
Half the time the new zone quests are not even Horde only.
Why does the Horde have to do less quests? Because If they made it the same it would be near impossible. The Horde just plain doesn't have as many quests. So is the bias favoring Horde, or does the fact that it makes getting up in levels a real pain make the bias more towards Alliance?
PeeWee Mar 9th 2009 10:34AM
@Angus:
"There are certain points in leveling as a Horde where you hit a virtual brick wall."
Huh? What are you smoking? On this toon I just dinged 58, with not a single quest done in Winterspring, Silithus or any of the Plaguelands. The only "virtual brick wall" I've encountered is the one where your quest log is full.
As for my other toon on Horde-side, he dinged 68 with Blade's Edge Mountains, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Vally still untouched, and he still had a few non-group quests to do in Nagrand. With still another quest hub to do in the Howling Fjord (haven't been to the Tundra yet) he's 72.
Where is this "virtual brick wall" you speak of, cause I sure as hell can't see it? Is it in the 72-80 bracket, you mean? Well, I could go back to Azeroth and ding 63-64 before I clear out the Outlands and end up at 72-73 before I go to Northrend with my new toon. That way I'll ding 80 with at least three zones untouched in Northrend.
And as a side note, both toons are solo-levelled, not a single instance done, apart from when I boosted other peeps in the guild.
"Effectively you run dry and hit a brick wall where grinding is your best bet."
You're doing something horrifically wrong.
Molly Mar 9th 2009 10:51AM
I'm willing to bet he's talking pre-2.3, at which point that was true, and happened somewhere around 20-30 if I remember correctly. Even Jame's guides, the best in my opinion, had you grind out levels around that time.
Karilyn Mar 9th 2009 11:09AM
@Peewee
You must be new to the game. EXP requirements to level up to level 60 have been lowered many times over.
I think you need to do only about 1/4th of the quests that you needed to do prior to Burning Crusade in order to reach 60 now.
In other words, the Brick Wall no longer exists because quests and mobs now give a LOT more EXP, but it used to exist.
mazokuranma Mar 9th 2009 11:30AM
There was never a brick wall at all. I leveled a human mage to 60 and then a tauren shaman to 60 pre-BC and had no problems.
My friend complained about this and I started checking what quests he'd done. He hit a brick wall because he'd leave areas without finishing all the quests. Then he'd have to come back and get less xp because he'd outleveled them or go ahead to red quests and end up dying because the mobs were too high.
That said, horde will run out of quests faster. My mage hit 60 in WPL with only a few EPL quests and none in Silithus. My Tauren was actually in Silithus, having completed both WPL and EPL. The only 'brick wall' I ever even came close to seeing was self-imposed because I really hate Silithus. I stopped at 59 for like two weeks.
Gordal Mar 10th 2009 10:09AM
@Angus
Really, the discrepancy between the Loremaster achievements is due to the fact that the Alliance have a boatload more "feeder" quests. Small, low-reward quests that usually require talking to another NPC.
Horde quest chains go like this:
NPC: Go kill ten Bears...
NPC: ...then kill ten Angry Bears...
NPC: ...and once you've done that, kill ten Furious Bears.
Alliance chains, usually in the starter areas, tend to go:
NPC1: Go talk to NPC2 this information I have for her, even though she's in earshot of me.
NPC2: Thanks for the information that dude over there could have just yelled across the room. Tell him something from me.
NPC1: Okay, thanks for letting me know that. Go kill ten Bears and tell NPC2 you've done it.
NPC2: Okay, go tell NPC1 that you've told me you've killed ten Bears.
NPC1: Thanks for letting me know that you've let her know that you've killed ten Bears. Go kill ten Angry Bears...
... And so on. No wonder Alliance brains turn to mush by the time they reach level 30.
Sinthar Mar 10th 2009 11:00AM
@ Gordal
Never seen it put quite like that - but if it wasnt so close to not being exaggerated id be pissing my pants now. (Still smiling tho). Esp the bit about most alliance brains turning to mush before lvl 30. :) Personally i try to avoid the 'fed-ex' q's too - u know the - deliver this parcel to the other side of the world - u get there then - oh thx - please give him this back for me- after 8 or so trips from one continent to the other, you finally realise you could earn more xp from killing boars in elywin.
I STILL say equalise BOTH sides (yeah i know its redundent to say both but some would still qq if i just said equalise the sides - mostly alliance mush brains). If for no other reason than to STOP THE SODDIN QQ.
Gnosh Mar 9th 2009 9:09AM
Nope, one each (as of a couple months ago at least). But then again, it's not that hard to just keep spawning them. A buddy of mine got on an alliance alt and scrounged up eggs for a 20-man raid for 2g a pop. Took about 20 mins (with a portal to Stonard to start and one to Dalaran afterwards).
slunk Mar 9th 2009 9:14AM
Alliance still have Tasty Lion Steak, Kaldorei Spider Kabob, and Roasted Moongraze Tenderloin exclusive to them.
The pet in Dalaran can be obtained by Alliance who haven't done their the walk of shame yet.
Lyonesse Mar 9th 2009 9:32AM
No they don't. They are not BoP and can be sold/bought through the neutral AH. In fact, if you are going for Chef de Cuisine (160 recipes, which I have), you need these 3.