Posts with tag vanity-pets

We're Going To Need A Bigger Bag. Yes, Blizzard, we do need a bigger bag. Thank you for pointing out the startlingly obvious. Instead of giving us bigger bags, you decided to compound the problem by giving us new and awesome toys. What am I supposed to delete to make room for my Falling Flame? It certainly won't be my Golden Banana or Rainbow Generator. I guess I'll just make do with only having 3 free bag slots.

Before this turns into a rant on bag space, let me get right down to it: Falling Flame is just awesome. It's one of the many new vanity items available on the Timeless Isle.

Those cute little in-game pets -- they're not so innocent. Once you allow one of the little buggers to slip past your legs and dash into the house, there's no getting all those muddy little paw prints off the floor (or the couch). Is there anybody out there who can harden their heart after just one? I'm afraid to even dip a toe into those waters, fearful that Lil' Ragnaros will begin bellowing "By PayPal be purged!" as my pet tab ticks inexorably upward. Indeed, I whisked him from my Amazon wish list the morning I realized in horror that should someone ever bestow me with his code, the door would stand wide open to the rest of his irresistible little friends.

So how are you fine, upstanding consumers coping with the pressure? Have you snatched up a brand new Swift Windsteed? Do purchasable pets and mounts hold no interest for you? Do you pick and choose? Collect them all?

---

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him.

As we approach the end of the Cataclysm expansion -- there are maybe four months left -- playing the Auction House gets a bit trickier. There's less enthusiasm on the part of buyers. More scary, though, is that the launch of Mists of Pandaria is about to render a lot of markets obsolete. It happened in Wrath and in The Burning Crusade too -- those potions and flasks that were top of the line suddenly became worthless. Gear that once cost thousands of gold could be had for hundreds. It's the nature of our in-game hobby. If you sit on stock, you're going to lose a fortune. (Shamefully, it happened to me out of laziness.)

But not everything is set to crash. A few select items are going to increase in value, if not in the days leading up to MoP, then shortly after launch. These are the items you need to fill your bank tabs with. But which ones are they? What should you sell ASAP, and what should you buy?

The Pet Battle system is one of the most anticipated features of Mists of Pandaria, and the Warcraft Pets forums has uncovered some awesome wild pet information. Eastern Kingdoms seems to have been populated with some wild pets that eventually will be able to be fought and tamed in turn-based battles similar to a popular game we have all had contact with in the past.

Some pets are unique to zones, such as the Adder in the Blasted Lands or the Swamp Moth found in the Swamp of Sorrows. Some pets even have a localized spawn location, like the Tiny Harvester in Westfall over by Fulbrow's Pumpkin Farm. Specialized spawn locations for very rare pets? I'm intrigued.

Hit up the Warcraft Pets forums for a full list of wild pets that they've found so far. If you're fortunate enough to be in beta, lend a hand with their list.

---

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

---

• Father Winter's Helper: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Father Winter's Helper. Requires a Snowball to summon. Helpers are very busy year-round, and only have leisure time during the Feast of Winter Veil.
• Tiny Snowman: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Tiny Snowman. Requires a Snowball to summon. Build or destroy a tiny snowman. The snowman is larger and lasts longer during Winter Veil.
• Winter Reindeer: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Winter Reindeer. Requires a Snowball to summon. reindeer. The Winter Reindeer only dresses up for Winter Veil.
• Winter's Little Helper: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Winter's Little Helper. Requires a Snowball to summon. Helpers are very busy year-round, and only have leisure time during the Feast of Winter Veil.

A minor change, but it does mean that the pets, once able to be summoned year-round, are now limited to the few short weeks that Winter's Veil is available -- and it also means that the Snowmaster 9000 suddenly got a lot less handy to have around. While it's nice that the pets no longer require a reagent to summon, it seems like the trade-off for this is pretty restrictive.

Along with the changes to existing pets, there are a ton of new pets to snap up. Follow after the break for the full list.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the auction house. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him or tweeting him at @foxvanallen.

I will admit, I'm a sucker for collecting in-game pets. Maybe it's because I like having someone following me around, even when I'm soloing content. Maybe it's just because of the obsessive-compulsive Pokemon instinct, where I gotta catch em all regardless of the consequences. Maybe it's just because I like tiny animals that depend on me.

I'm far from alone -- collecting pets in WoW is serious business. There are achievements involved. Exclusive bonus pets. People have even created websites devoted to the hobby of collecting vanity pets.

People love pets. And people will spend lots of money on the things they love, which makes making, buying, and reselling pets a very profitable endeavor indeed.

Companion pet collectors, Blizzard has heard your cries for new pets and rewards for collecting 100, 125, and 150 critters. Nuts, who is probably some kind of squirrel (duh), is the new reward for Littlest Pet Shop. Nuts will no doubt add to the wonderful world of WoW companion pets and provide even more awesome jokes for trade chat.

Other pet collecting achievements have also been given rewards. Both Petting Zoo and Menagerie, the achievements for collecting 100 and 125 companion pets respectively, will grant the player pet biscuits. We have no idea how many uses these pet biscuits have, but it appears they will work the same as the WoW TCG's Papa Hummel's Old Fashioned Pet Biscuits.

Go forth and collect, companion pet enthusiasts. Nuts will be waiting for you in patch 4.2.

---

The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

---

From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame.

When was the last time you received a thank-you gift from a vendor you patronize regularly on the auction house? For anyone who plays Alliance-side on Cenarion Circle (US) and is even vaguely interested in collecting pets, it probably hasn't been long at all. CC's healthy market for pets is driven, fittingly enough, by a player named Healthypets.

Looking for a particular vendored or crafted pet, but don't feel like slogging across the world or juggling cross-faction AH shenanigans to get it into your hands? If it's not already listed on the auction house, it should be merely a matter of days before Healthypets will pop up a fairly priced selection. Buy more than a few? Regular customers get thank-you gifts -- that's right, a free pet mailed to you from Healthypets, for no other reason than to simply thank you for your patronage.

This utterly charming player and his equally charming business (because come on, who wouldn't want to own a healthy pet?) have made it easy for players to stock up on many of Azeroth's collectable pets. After one especially satisfied customer wrote in to The Classifieds with a Random Acts of Uberness for Healthypets, 15 Minutes sent in an anonymous alt to investigate -- and she ended up with her own healthy handful of healthy pets, including not one but two separate thank-you pets. We got in touch with the 56-year-old, self-professed "regular guy" behind Healthypets to find out what goes into this successful, player-pleasing business.

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

I'll admit, I have an obsession with companion pets -- much to my warlock's chagrin. She'd much prefer to burn the little critters, but I can't help amassing as large a collection as I can. At last count, I had over 100 pets and am still striving to get even more. While I have several titles, special mounts, and the like, I devote more time to building my pet collection than anything else.

Of course, my collection wouldn't be where it is today without the help of some really good friends (especially the one who tirelessly slaved away killing Bogflare Needlers for my coveted Captured Firefly -- eeeek!).

Do you collect anything in WoW? Whether it be common things like mounts or titles, or something a little more obscure, I want to hear about it -- unless, of course, you have a better pet collection than I do. Don't make me cry.

---

For a long time now, the Wintersaber Trainer grind (for the Reins of the Winterspring Frostsaber) has been one of the last holdouts of the old world's long, slogging reputation grinds, featuring repeatable quests that give relatively small chunks of reputation and require slogging all over a zone. Admittedly, the grind is a lot easier these days thanks to tweaked drop rates, slightly higher reputation gains, and old world flight, but it still stands as a symbol of a different time.

In patch 4.1, this will stand no longer. The Wowhead blog is reporting the Wintersaber grind is being turned into a series of daily quests that put you in charge of the care and feeding of a Winterspring Cub on the PTR. After 20 days worth of dailies which earn you Winterspring Cub Whiskers, you'll be able to turn in the They Grow Up So Fast quest for your very own set of reins. In addition, you can buy a Winterspring Cub permapet from a vendor in Everlook. It's Bind on Equip and sold by a neutral vendor, so even Horde and Bloodsail Admirals can get thier hands on it.

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

It's another raid night, and I need another mini-pet out. But there are so many options, however shall I choose? The adorable Hippogryph Hatchling? The nigh impossible-to-obtain Hyacinth Macaw? A flashy collector's edition pet? Nope, not tonight. All I want is my Orange Tabby Cat.

Why such a commonplace, easily accessible, inexpensive, almost downright boring pet, you ask? Well, because he's a mirror image of my IRL cat. When I first started playing the game, my Orange Tabby Cat and I traversed many mountains, open plains and snowy hills together. It seems fitting to bring him out on raid nights; as he was there from the beginning, so will he be with me in my final triumphs.

Are there any in-game animals that remind you of your RL furry friends? A hunter pet you bring out on special occasions? A mount you seek out on all your characters? Maybe there's one you find particularly lucky? Or perhaps you have a small, ordinary mini-pet to walk beside you in Azeroth, as your RL pet purrs on the back of your chair?

---

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Blizzard has been selling us in-game items for a while now; however, it has kept this to noncombat pets and mounts -- things that, outside of counting for totals for achievements, have little to no real effect on gameplay. Some of the items Blizzard does for self-profit, and sometimes it sells in-game pets for charity. People who buy the items get different reactions from the community; the sparkle pony especially got a lot of hate.

Personally, I have not bought any of the real-money pets, partially because I am not a collector and partially because I felt that paying for downloadable content should add something major to the game experience. However, I am considering buying the Ragnaros pet for one main reason: because Rags is my major epic memory of vanilla WoW, I always felt he was an awesome model and so imposing, and many of us went around saying "too soon" on Vent.

Have you bought any of the vanity pets? Do you buy them all as a completionist/collector? Do you pick and choose the ones you think look cool? Do you only buy the charity pets? Or do you avoid real money transactions in games altogether?

Blizzard is previewing the two pets that will be offered this month in the Blizzard Store: Lil' Ragnaros and the Moonkin Hatchling. Lil' Ragnaros, pictured above, will not be associated with a charity. As reported before, however, a portion of the proceeds from the Moonkin Hatchling will be going to a charity that has yet to be named. Blizzard has not announced when these pets will be available to purchase or for how much. If they keep the same pricing as last year, however, the pets will be $10.00 (EUR 10,00) each.

The full announcement by Blizzard and action shots of the hatchling are after the break.