Blog Azeroth: Future Raid-Drop Pets

I'm rather late in getting around to posting my response to Effraeti's (of Awaiting the Muse)question...

While running through MC, BWL, AQ40, and Naxx over the weekend, I got to thinking...

 

If a future patch adds more raid-dropped pets like those introduced in 5.1, what pets would you like to see? What raid and boss would they be available from?

It's taken me so long for a few reasons - one being the festive season but the main issue being I have very little experience and therefore knowledge of any raids! Nonetheless, I love collecting and battling pets so I wanted to think up some sort of reply.

For me, the addition of raid-drop pets and the achievement Raiding With Leashes was really exciting. It gave me a reason to go to these old raids that I'd mostly never heard of. I had cleared the Molten Core a few times with my guild but it was this achievement that made me go back.

So, all I can say is that I would love for there to be more raid-dropped pets added in the future. Where and who they're mini versions of - I have no idea!

Got him!

In my last blog (link) I spoke briefly about my boyfriend finding a Scourged Whelpling and my minor touch of jealousy. Well, I've finally got one of my own... thanks to my lovely boyfriend! After work last night my boyf was playing WoW and I asked him to pop to Icecrown and have a quick look. To both of our surprise, there were several whelps in the area and continued to spawn for around 5minutes. To reiterate, this was not after a server restart and was at approx. 4:30am server time.

Yayyy!

The geotag above shows where exactly I caught my rare whelpling. I had expected the to spawn slightly further north around the pit/crater but got mine south-east of there. However, others were spawning further north.

Capturing this guy also meant that I finally achieved Northrend Safari.

I'm a very happy bunny and best of luck to anyone who's also after one of these guys!

Un-Healthy Competition

Last night, well this morning, I got home from work to find my boyfriend was still awake. I asked why he was still up at 6:30am and he told me he'd stayed up for the server restarts and had something to show me. I assumed it was a Minfernal which didn't bother me as I've already captured one. However, when he said it was a Scourged Whelping I must admit to being rather jealous and a little angry! It's the last pet I need for Northrend Safari.

Anyway this got me thinking about my own in-game competitiveness and in-game competitiveness in general. Personally, I don't think I'm very competitive, with one exception - pet battles. Only 3 or 4 people in my guild are into pet battles and this includes me and my boyfriend. The two of us do compete and compare who has what pets etc. But other than this I'm fairly relaxed.

Something that's not uncommon in-game is people getting competitive over gear. This can occur at a variety of levels, right the way up to ninja-ing gear. As mentioned above I'm quite laid back and to me my ilevel means nothing! But to some people ilevel is everything. People at the oppoiste end of extremes, to myself, can even get aggressive over gear. Such an incident happened within my guild a few months back: four guilides were running a dungeon together with one random. During a loot role one guildie rolled need, with the intention of mailing said piece of gear to a different char and they already had an excuse/reason lined up - 'they were fed up of people doing it to them'. Personally I don't agree with this behaviour and think it makes you no better than those you're complaining about. Also, there can be wider repercussions. I think people are well within their rights to report this behaviour to the offending persons GM - if they can be bothered. Whilst I think it would take something a bit more that a ninja for me to worry, I certainly would if someone was being abusive in a dungeon.

Christmas Chaos!

Today, I've woken up to the realisation that I'm very behind with my list of stuff to do this week before Christmas. Working nights hasn't helped - that is for sure. I spend my evenings doing housework, cooking etc and playing a couple hours of WoW before work. As a result, I've not progressed too well concerning Winter Veil and the Merrymaker. I wanted to have this achievement complete before Christmas but it looks like I'll be finishing it off afterwards.

More urgently, Christmas is just one week away! My boyfriend doesn't want anything in real-life, so I decided to get him something in-game. But... what do you get someone who's banking alt has over 200K gold and as a result they have almost everyhing they could want? There's one in-game pet that I happen to hvae two of that I know he lacks so my plan is to cage it up for him. I'll have to think some more about what else to get him.

Even more importantly though - I have to sort my gift for my Furtive Father Winter recipient! I now know who my recipient is am working through a series of ideas but it's proving much harder than I frirst though. I'm still really looking forward to making said gift - once I've decided upon an idea / theme to go with. Oh well, it's all good fun!

Dalaran Crater & the Lofty Libram.

One of the Winter Veil quests (You're a Mean One...) requires you to travel to the Hillsbrad Foothills. Whilst there I decided to check out the Dalaran Crater. I'd never really paid much attention to this area and it was only due to being in the zone and the Lofty Libram battle pet that I bothered.

My boyfriend filled me in on the lore as a circled the site in search of the Libram. I was surprised at how pretty and peaceful the site was. I saw a paw print on the map, a rat, and went to battle it in the hope it would spawn a Libram. A troll beat me to it, so I continued on my route. Within seconds a new paw print appeared and this time it was a Libram. Nice bit of luck!



North of the crater.

 

South of the crater, above where I caught theLofty Libram.

With my Lofty Libram.

The Pet & Mount Store - Some Recent Purchases

The Blizzard Store have been doing a fair few offers recently. Last week, in-game mounts were half price (reduced to £8.50 each) and now the in-game companions are reduced (to £4.50 each). The Blizzard Store is in itself an interesting topic. I have no objections to Blizzard selling in-game pets / mounts for real-life money. At the end of the day they aren't a compulsory part of the game and people buy them voluntarily if they wish to. Despite this, some peopls will (and do) argue that Bizzard are trying to make money out of the fan-base. Perhaps this is true, but it should be remembered that these same moaners often stll have active subscriptions to the game and are themseslves paying Blizzard each month to play the game!

Anyway, this post is really just about my recent purchase and my surprise gift. I have always loved and wanted the sparkle pony (Celestial Steed). Last week I was in two-minds about purchasing the mount. My two arguments were : Could I afford to spend the £8.50 on an in-game item? vs. Would it make more sense to buy it cheap now? In the end I flipped a coin and purchased the mount. I didn't see my boyfriend until the next day as he was leaving for work and all he said was "check your e-mail". I realised that he, knowing I was in two-minds about the purchase, had also gone and got me the mount. Fortunately, Blizz are refunding this purchase.

The last three days I've been quite ill and in a bit of a daze. Last night, I was sat minding my own business when he told me to check my e-mails. This time he had purchased me a Moonkin Hatchling. These guys are so cute and probably the only pet I would consider purchasing. You also, to some extent, get two pets out of it. They come in two colour morphs - blue for Alliance and brown for Horde. My boyfriend also purchased himself a Moonkin Hatchling aswell as a Pandaren Monk (whom he's named 'Po').

Caught in a Sandstorm

Earlier this evening I was on my usual circuit looking for pets when a bit of luck struck. I took the portal from Stormwind to Uldum and then flew (on my new sparkle pony - aka the Celestial Steed) to Tanaris.

As soon as I entered the zone the ongoing sandstorm became very apparent. I had never witnessed a sandstorm and wasn't sure what to expect. Asking around in-guild revealed that most people had never seen one so I was still a little in the dark. However, the recent hotfixes did include making such events more obvious.

Stormy!

Just in case you haven't worked it out already - I was in search of the Silithid Hatchling. These guys only spawn during sandstorms and within two areas of Tanaris - the Noxious Lair and Gaping Chasm.

I caught mine within the Gaping Chasm and can report that not only were there several within the area but that they continued to spawn throughout the sandstorm. I battled several and got an uncommon quality one.

With my new Silithid Hatchling.



Blog Azeroth's Furtive Father Winter 2012

I've decided to take part in this years Furtive Father Winter event. This isn't exactly a Blog Azeroth: Shared Topic more a Blog Azeroth community event. It is being hosted by Akabeko over at Red Cow Rise and has been featured by WoW Insider this week.

The event is basically a virtual secret santa with participants being given a gift recipient whom they have to purchase (or rather produce something) for. For more information on how the event works see Redcow's original post and the Blog Azeroth thread.

I'm really looking forward to this event and would like to encourage everyone interested to take part - after all the more the merrier!

Kun-Lai Summit & the Draenei with Glasses?

Yesterday, I wrote my piece for the Blog Azeroth shared topic about Winter Veil (link) and this really helped me to focus on what I want to achieve before the new year. I'll be the first to admit that Pet Battles have absorbed a large amount of my in-game time! Even when I'm not battling / leveling my pets I often find my self circling around spawn points looking for certain, more elusive pets.

Anyway, last night I had a new-found focus and with it being my one night off work decided it was time to get back to leveling my hunter. She was about a third of the way through level 87 and located just insude Kun-Lai Summit at Binan Village. I quested from here through Westwind Rest, the Yaungol Advance, One Keg and up to Zouchin Village before moving on to the Townlong Steppes. Shes now level 88 and that one step closer to level 90.

Along the way I took a few screenshotes (below) and managed to achieve Quality & Quantity, brining my total number of unique pets up to 349. All-in-all not a bad evening.



At Lao & Son's Yakwash.



Mishka, the Draenei with glasses, at Westwind Rest.

Whispercloud Rise.

Gateway in the Shado-Li Basin.

The Brawler's Guild

I've recently been spending a fair amount of my in-game time within Bizmo's Brawlpub (aka the Brawler's Guild) so I thought I'd have a bit of a ramble about it. Normally, my knowledge of in-game items, events etc. is quite poor but it seems that I know more about the Brawler's Guild than a good two-thirds of my guild!

Inside Bizmo's Brawlpub.

Firstly, I've had a few of my guildies asking where it is. For Alliance the entrance is within the Deeprun Tram, Stormwind end. As you enter the tram 'station', head left to the ramp (that you use to get back up if you fall off the edge), down the ramp and its opposite you. For Horde I believe it's in Orgrimmar but I'm not sure where.

More Pets...

After capturing my Minfernal on Sunday (link) I seem to have had some luck concerning the capture of battle pets. Considering that my play time has been limited due to work I've managed to tick a few off of my list of "must haves". As previously mentioned, the recent Patch (5.1) introduced both new wild pets and pets that drop from old raid bosses - and these pets have been on my list.

Since Sunday I have captured the following: Infinite Whelpling, Mini Mindslayer, Emerald Proto-Whelp and the Darkmoon Glowfly. I also saw Harbringer of Flame drop but lost the roll.

I found my Infinite Whelpling just outside the Caverns of Time. There was just the one and the capture was fairly simple. Once I'd won the battle and phased back out someone else had just appeared and was flying around presumably in search for one of these guys. I'm really impressed with how these guys look and their symbol.



Outside the Caverns of Time with my Infinite Whelpling.

 

My very own Minfernal!!!

Finally, I have my very own MINFERNAL!!! Normally I wouldn't go into much detail about the capture but as it's Minferal it's a bit different.

Yayyyy!

Large map to show exact spawn location within Shatter Scar Vale.

 

I was just on my usual route looking for pets. I decided to spend a little time in Shatter Scar Vale, Felwood. There were a few people around but not that many (5 max.). There was a Pandaren killing the larger infernals that the tool tip suggests these guys should spawn from.

Arcane Eye, Cogblade Raptor & the Nexus Whelpling!

This post, incase you haven't guessed already, is about me capturing the Arcane Eye, Cogblade Raptor and the Nexus Whelpling. Yet again I've been short on time and haven't got much done in-game. I have just started a temporary Christmas job that involves me working nights. Despite this impacting on my play time I'm hoping that it will have a silver lining and that it will increase my chances of getting more elusive pets (i.e. Minfernal and the Scourged Whelpling) after server restarts as I'll just be getting home. But we'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, last night (Saturday) I was online for about 3 hours. I started of on my mage portaling my way around looking for pets to capture. As usual no sign of Minfernal so I headed to Deadwind Pass in search of the Arcane Eye. I completed the pet battle daily and found an eye on top of Karazhan, poor quality.



With my Arcane Eye, Karazhan.

 

1 Month of Blogging & My 3rd Level 85!

So today (well technically yesterday now) marked a month of me blogging. As this was my first blog I wasn't sure how well I'd take to it or if I'd even manage more than a couple of posts. So far I've really enjoyed it and will be sticking around - for a bit longer atleast.

I think the IntPiPoMo event has helped me to continue posting as it's given me a daily target of a post including ~5 screenshots. It has also introduced me to geotagging and I now have my own WyriMap. Even though I have now completed my IntPiPoMo 2012 challenge I am going to continue to take screenshots and posting them.



Twilight Highlands.

IntPiPoMo 2012 #9: Uldum

Here we are, at my last installment of IntPiPoMo 2012! I've really enjoyed it and it's inspired me to keep taking and posting screenshots - especially now I have my own WyriMaps map complete with geotagged images (link). Again, I'd like to thank Angelya at Revive & Rejuvenate for organising this event.

Yet again I've been leveling my mage - just for a change. I've been through Uldum and have now entered the Twilight Highlands. Personally I think Uldum is a brilliant zone. I enjoy the quests and its Egypt-esque feel. I've attempted to take a variety of pictures from the zone, encompassing water features, sand, plants and of course pyramids...

Vir'naal Oasis mini-waterfalls.

   

IntPiPoMo 2012 #8: Deepholm

Today has yet again be all about leveling my mage. Shes now level 83 and half way to level 84. Spent most of it questing in Deepholm and dungeoning. Today I got into the Stonecore and The Vortex Pinnacle. A while ago I was lucky enough to get Reins of the Drake of the North Wind which I still use regularly on my hunter.

Inside the Temple of Earth.

MoP 10-day trial: Take 2!

Yesterday I received an email from Blizzard informing me that I was eligible for the Mists of Pandaria 10-day free trial. Having already experienced the trial (link to previous blog) I didn't think I could get it again. This morning I activated the trial on battle.net and attempted to take my hunter through the portal at Stormwind. Unfortunately it didn't work and thinking nothing of it I got back to leveling my mage.

For some reason I again attempted to use the portal on my DK, about an hour ago. To my surprise it worked! It seems you can experience the MoP 10-day free trial atleast twice. Whether or not this is meant to be the case or it's a glitch I don't know.

Unfortunately, my two level 85s have reached the experience cap so I'm just going to use them to farm up some more fruit and veg until my actual copy of MoP arrives in the week.

Below are some screenshots...

Shrine of Remembrance.

IntPiPoMo #7: Mount Hyjal

This afternoon I've been leveling my mage from level 80 to 82 in Mount Hyjal. Mount Hyjal has some amazing scenery - from lush forests to burnt out areas. It's also been a great opportunity for me to level some battle pets and to collect a new one. I already had the Gold Mini Jouster and took it as an opportunity to get the Blue Mini Jouster aswell. In addition to questing I've also been doing dungeons (namely Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Cavern). Unfortunately, the dungeon queue's have been rather long despite there being a large number of people leveling around me.



Arrival at Nordrassil.

  

IntPiPoMo #6: Goblin Starting Area

Today I have been leveling a goblin rogue to help my boyfriend complete Turkey Lurkey. I have previously leveled a goblin rogue but on a different server. I really enjoyed the goblin starting area - Kezan and the Lost Isles and the second time around was just as good!

I've taken a lot of screenshots on my travels as I'm not sure how likely I am to return there - it certainly won't be any time soon. My main priority at the minute is leveling my mage to 85 (she is now level 80). Oh, and I've got MoP on order now (as it was cheap on Amazon) so when that arrives early to mid-next week I will be delving into Pandaria!!!

After much deliberation I've picked out ten of my screenshots...



Riding in my hot rod!

 

IntPiPoMo 2012 #5: Thanksgiving Edition

Today is thanksgiving in America and Canada so for this edition of IntPiPoMo I'm covering some content from the in-game Pilgrim's Bounty world event. This was my first experience of the Pilgrim's Bounty event and I really enjoyed it. Turkey Lurkey was probably the hardest of the individual achievements but I got there in the end with the help of some guildies. The reward for completing this world event is the title 'the Pilgrim' and a Turkey Cage (Plump Turkey).




My new plump turkey pet!

IntPiPoMo 2012 #4: Eastern Kingdoms

Firstly, I would like to thank Cees-Jan aka WyriHaximus, the developer of WyriMaps, for making it so that when I geotag my screenshots they now appear on the map. You can view my screenshots at http://wyrimaps.net/wow#m:admiring-azeroth.

Today, I've taken a few pictures from around the Eastern Kingdoms. Most of these screenshots were taken whilst leveling my pet battle team. Obviously the Eastern Kingdoms is quite a vast area so I've barely covered some of the amazing places there.




Harvesters and stormy weather in Westfall.

Second-Hand Pet Prices

When Pet Battles first went live I was curious how this would impact upon the prices of pets on the auction house. I noticed that there seemed to be a 'second-hand pet prices'. So, what exactly do I mean by this???

Just to recap a few points regardign battle pets. All wild pets can be captured via pet battles. These wild caught pets can not be caged and sold/swapped etc. However, pets that have been purchased from vendors, given as quest rewards etc can be.

On the auction house, pets for sale are now listed under two categories. The first is listed under 'Miscellaneous - Companion Pets' (see pic, blue highlight). Pets listed under here are new and unused. The second set of listings are under 'Battle Pets' (see pic, red circle) and these pets are those that have been used and later caged for resale. Quite simply, these are second-hand pets.

Earlier today, whilst browsing the AH, I noticed some good examples of what I mean by 'second-hand pet prices' and these finds have inspired this blog.

IntPiPoMo 2012 #3: Stranglethorn Vale

Today I've been working on leveling my pet battle team. In particular I've been working on my, as of yet unnamed, Terrible Turnip and Viv (Voodoo Figurine). Both of these pets started at level 1 and I've got them to around level 9/10. When leveling my pets I following a set route through the Eastern Kingdoms that I've found works very well. This route includes both Northern Stranglethorn and the Cape of Stranglethorn.

Generally, I really enjoy questing, pet battling and spending time in Stranglethorn Vale. There's some amazing scenery from waterfalls to ancient ruins. I've also spent many a Sunday afternoon there in an attempt to win the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza and get the Accomplished Angler achievement. Unfortunately, the fishing competition has been suspended for some time now, as a result of CRZ, but hopefully not for much longer.

Anyway, on with the screenshots...

Entrance to Zul'Gurub.

   

IntPiPoMo 2012 #2: Outland

For my second installment of IntPiPoMo 2012 I have decided to feature Outland. I flew through Outland last night in order to complete Terokkar Turkey Time (part of Pilgrim's Bounty) and made a few detour's to take these screenshots.

I've always liked Outlands particularly because it's so different to the rest of WoW. Whilst I view much of Azeroth to be old aged (from a time of magic, swords and dragons) for me Outlands represents a more extra-terrestrial world. Aside from this, I think the zones themselves and the quests are rather unique within Azeroth and no where looks quite like it!

Looking back at the Dark Portal. Hellfire Peninsula.

IntPiPoMo 2012 #1: Northrend

As mentioned in my post earlier today, I have decided to take part in IntPiPoMo 2012. In brief this event involves taking 50 screenshots throughout November and was set up by Angelya of Revive & Rejuvenate.

I'm a little late starting as were already half way through the month but my aim is to take 5 screenshots a day from now on. I have also decided that each set of 5 pictures will follow some sort of theme - whether it be a particular continent, event, or even just one specific location.

Also, as previously mentioned, I will be attempting to use WyriMaps to enable you to see roughly where the screenshot was taken from etc.

So here goes...

Happy Return!

On Thursday I had the final part of my masters course, my viva voce - an oral exam. Thankfully it went well and the questions about my thesis were fairly simple compared to the more complex ones I had prepared for.

Last night (Saturday) as a little reward the boyf bought me some game time, wooo! So, finally after several weeks of not playing I am back in the game - which should help me to blog more.

The first thing I did was log my banker and check out the auction house. After a quick browse I found that the Terrible Turnip had dropped down to just under 500G. Just 5 days before (last Monday) my boyf had purchased one for around 900G. I decided to buy one, primarily for their weakening blow ability which is ideal for collecting other low level pets. I know that they can be farmed via the ominous seed but as I no longer have access to MoP content this isn't an option for me. In fact, later in the evening a guildie was lucky enough to farm one up.

Mysterious Minfernal

On my quest to achieve That's a Lot of Pet Food and various other battle pet related achievements, a number of pets have eluded me. This list includes the Scourged Whelpling, Nordrassil Wisp and of course Minfernal. Until this morning I was yet to see any of these in the wild or even one that another player had tamed.

I use two key sites when I'm looking for battle pets in order to find the spawn spots and additional information about timers etc. These sites are Wowhead and Warcraft Pets. Warcraft Pets has an additional feature that makes it especially useful - you can track your pet collection. My collection is available on there via the community tab and collectors by realm (just search for Jojo or Oogleme).

Blog Azeroth: Thanksgiving Event 2012

I joined Blog Azeroth a few days after starting up this blog. I joined to meet some fellow bloggers and specifically to get involved in community events. And here it is, my first shared topic blog.

This shared topic is the month-long Thanksgiving Event 2012 and there's still time to write your own blog if you haven't already! For my thanksgiving post I am going to thank those who have helped me along my way through Azeroth.

The Virtual Me

It's been a few days since my last post and I've mostly been busy and played a little SWTOR. Hopefully, I'll be back playing WoW by the end of this week and can get back into the game and writing some more relevant blogs.

For today I thought I'd follow on from my first blog and talk about my in-game characters as I haven't really introduced them. Personally I have a number of characters (alliance & horde) of varying levels spread across several servers. Despite this I mostly play my alliance characters on Dragonblight-EU. I have 7 characters (including a monk that I made during my MoP trial) all within the same guild and a banker within my own guild. I won't be talking about my banker as he (yes, he's male) is purely in existence for storage and AH purposes.
 

Why WoW?

Having no game time and no money for any I've re-download Star Wars: The Old Republic to play the free trial to level 15. I initially played SWTOR back in 2011 when there was a free weekend. Being back on SWTOR has got me thinking - what is it about WoW that I enjoy and that makes it the MMORPG for me.

I was very happy to see they'd kept with
already established species.
This is a female Cathar called Yael.

Being an avid Star Wars fan I was extremely excited when SWTOR was announced. I signed up to their emails and followed the games development. When the game came out I didn't buy it and decided to wait for a trial and try it out first. I remember the day I received an email saying I was invited to a free weekend. Once the game client was downloaded I got straight online. It's probably worth pointing out that at this point I did not have my own WoW account. I had however experienced the game so had some idea about MMORPGs etc.