February 2016   « Archives | Current News »

New Pet Battle Quests
In conjunction with the many pet NPCs and boss pets coming in Legion,
there will be new Pet Battle quests to complete.

Here's an early overview of the new quests. Keep in mind that these might be a work in progress, and more could be planned for the future.

• 6 new daily quests
• 1 new weekly quest
• 5 new undefined quests

The daily quests and weekly all reward four (4) Pet Charms each. These quests are account-wide, which could indicate that they're trainer dailies.

Oddly enough, Battle Pet Tamers: Warlords
is still offered by the Menagerie NPC (pictured right), who has moved to Breanni's shop in Dalaran.

We'll have to wait and see if this is just temporary, or if this quest will receive an appropriate update for the expansion.

It's not entirely clear what the five remaining undefined Pet Battle quests are, however one particular quest might provide some insight.

Hungry Like the Wolf

A Wowhead comment revealed that one of the undefined quests, Wildlife Protection Force, is a Bonus Objective found in Highmountain.

Approaching the Hungry Icefang will automatically trigger and accept the world quest (pictured right).

To complete it and save the adorable elderhorn calf, you'll need to defeat the Hungry Icefang in a Pet Battle.

The wolf is an epic quality elite NPC, accompanied by two random wild pets of varying breed and quality.

The Hungry Icefang is not always available to battle. When it spawns is seemingly random, and what causes it to appear is still a mystery.

This quest, along with the four other undefined Pet Battle quests, are all set to reward a Common Bag of Loot, gold, and Highmountain Tribe reputation.

You can enter battle with the Hungry Icefang repeatedly, however defeating it doesn't yield any reward at the moment. We'd love to adopt the elderhorn calf though!

Hopefully these five Pet Battle Bonus Objectives plus new trainer dailies will keep us busy in the expansion. We can only hope that these quests are just the beginning of the Pet Battle adventures in Legion.

We're ecstatic to announce not one, but two new Site Admins: Azaelia and Liopleurodon!

Azaelia will be filling the role of Community Leader, while Liopleurodon will be taking on a new admin position as Content Creator.

Welcome to the Team!
Azaelia is a long-standing, active member of the WarcraftPets community, and as an avid collector for many years, she will be a fountain of knowledge for new and old collectors alike. Friendly and welcoming — a perfect fit for Community Leader!

 

Liopleurodon, co-author of our Pet of the Month series, is a passionate collector and battler. She's always up-to-date on the latest Pet Battle news and events. She manages her own Pet Battle blog, Battle Pet Roundup, in addition to writing Pet Battle articles for Blizzard Watch, a Blizzard fansite.


Thank You WarcraftPets Community
We'd like to offer our sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to apply. We were overwhelmed by the sheer number of talented and enthusiastic individuals who applied for the positions.

We're excited to have Azaelia and Liopleurodon join the WarcraftPets team. Feel free to welcome them and offer your salutations in the comments and wall posts.

Welcome aboard, Azaelia and Lio!

A new Legion Alpha build was recently released, and there are new pets! [source]

New Pets
There were 8 new pets datamined from the latest Alpha patch. It's still a mystery how we'll obtain them.

• Baby Elderhorn (pictured right)
• Celestial Calf
• Corgi Pup
• Felbat Pup
• Fledgling Warden Owl
• Sunborne Val'kyr

Two of the new pets will come from professions — Trigger (Engineering) and Wyrmy Tunkins (Archaeology) (both pictured below).



We're excited to learn more about these new pets, as well as many of the previously datamined ones!

List of all Legion Alpha datamined pets

Dalaran Updates
There were two notable updates to Dalaran in the recent Alpha patch.

Dust Bunny Changes
We previously covered how collectors would catch the elusive Dust Bunny in Legion. However, the spawning mechanic of this wild pet was changed.

Instead of a single spawn within Dalaran's barbershop, players now receive a 5 minute buff when clicking the rug that previously spawned the bunny. Note: The rug will still despawn when it is activated, and will take roughly 10-15 minutes for it to respawn.

The buff from the rug, Spring Cleaning, grants the player the ability to see wild Dust Bunnies in Dalaran. The wild pet is not visible otherwise.

Players will usually find a few Dust Bunnies throughout Dalaran. Who knew the entire city was so dusty? Good thing pet collectors will be around to help clean up!

 
Pet Battle Tournament Island Updates
Dalaran received another update to what we previously reported as the Pet Battle Tournament Island.


The floating island just outside of Dalaran no longer hosts a tournament area. Instead, three NPCs have replaced the Tournament Announcer and his pet area. The announcer still makes a brief appearance in the form of a quest objective pop up though! (pictured above)

Sir Galveston, Bodhi Sunwayver (pictured right), and Tiffany Nelson — all three are Grand Master Pet Tamers, however only one can be interacted with.

Approaching Bodhi Sunwayver will trigger a World Quest, Fight Night: Bodhi Sunwayver, and you can battle his team for a small reward. He has three level 25 rare quality pets: Itchy, Salty Bird and Grommet.

Currently this bonus objective can be completed multiple times on the same character, rewarding gold, player experience and pet experience each time.

Developer Jeremy Feasel has confirmed on Twitter that the ability to complete the quest repeatedly in this manner is a bug and is not intended. Pet Battle quests are still very much in development and not quite ready for official release.

Pet Battle Tuning In Legion
Blizzard posted a discussion thread regarding some Pet Battles abilities that may see some updates in Legion.

"We’re getting close to deploying some changes to pet battles that we’ll test in the Legion Alpha. We wanted to outline some of them here for you, so that you have a thread in which you can talk about this with us. As always, these are changes we’re testing, subject to further change, not final, etc."

The proposed changes are for the following. A full list with explanations of tuning changes can be found in the discussion thread.

• Undead racial
• Frog Kiss
• Sleeping Gas
• Thunderbolt
• Avalanche
• Grave Destruction
• Carpnado
• Arcane Storm
• Psionic Strom
• Cleave
• Graves

Constructive feedback regarding the above is encouraged and can be posted to the official discussion threads. [US forum] [EU forum]

This Lovefool needs no introduction — this month we're covering Peddlefeet!

Collecting Peddlefeet
The only thing you'll need to collect Peddlefeet is the power of love!...And a handful of Love Tokens. Mainly the Love Tokens.

This goblin companion can be purchased from Lovely Merchant for 40 Love Tokens during the in-game holiday, Love Is In the Air.

There are three main ways to gather tokens: defeat Apothecary Hummel once per day, complete event quests, or farm for Lovely Charm Bracelets.

Defeating the holiday world boss, Apothecary Hummel, will reward a Heart-Shaped Box on your first kill of the day. Opening this will reward between 5-10 Love Tokens.

Hummel will also drop a Faded Lovely Greeting Card on your first kill of the event, which starts a quest chain that unlocks the daily quest Crushing the Crown. Once unlocked, this daily can be obtained from Detective Snap Snagglebolt in Orgrimmar or Inspector Snip Snagglebolt in Stormwind. The quest scales with your level and rewards 5 Love Tokens.

In addition to Crushing the Crown, there are two more dailies that also reward 5 tokens each. You can pick up these quests from Public Relations Agent and Kwee Q. Peddlefeet in any capital city.

The daily from the latter requires a Lovely Charm Bracelet for your faction leader. You can turn in a bracelet to each of the four faction leaders to receive a total of 20 Love Tokens per day.

To gather Lovely Charm Bracelets speak with Kwee Q. Peddlefeet and request a Lovely Charm Collector's Kit. With this item in your inventory, any creature kill that rewards honor or experience will drop a Lovely Charm. Turn 10 of these charms into a bracelet to present to your faction leader.

You can also turn in the bracelets to the Lovely Merchant for tokens at a one to one exchange rate. Collect and trade in as many bracelets as you want; there's no limit.

Celebrate this season of love and friendship with Peddlefeet by your side. Just be sure to watch where he's pointing that bow and arrow.

Battling with Peddlefeet
Peddlefeet's moves are heavy on the heart-shaped frills. Rockingest among these is definitely the third slot ability, Shot Through The Heart. This ability acts like Deep Breath, with a charge turn followed by a big hit the next, only with far less panache. Sharing that slot is Love Potion, which makes for a very tough decision: sustain or burst damage?

The first slot offers a couple interesting options as well. You can opt for the no-frills filler Bow Shot, or switch to the AoE move Rapid Fire. This decision should be made based on the order you wish to use Peddlefeet, since the damage dealt to each pet remains static. As such, if he's up first Rapid Fire may be the better choice, but if not go with Bow Shot.


Peddlefeet's middle slot offers a stun no matter what, but it's another tough choice. You can either use Lovestruck, which is only a stun, or Perfumed Arrow (pictured above), which deals the same damage as Bow Shot, but offers a 25% chance to stun to boot.

In most cases I would choose Lovestruck, just because the low chance stun of Perfumed Arrow means it's pretty much impossible to control. It's less fun that way for some other battlers, so by all means choose the Arrow. Just don't rely on it to stun every time, or you'll be walking away broken hearted.

Check out our forum thread discussion on Peddlefeet and submit your own thoughts on this pet.

Battling Discussion on Peddlefeet

Pet of the Month is co-written by Liopleurodon, an experienced pet battler and long-time WoW player. She maintains her own Pet Battle blog and is a Pet Battle columnist on the fansite Blizzard Watch.

UPDATE: Wowhead has datamined more pet additions! [source]

Joining the Sunborne Val'kyr (a pet inspired by an idea from a player of the same name), another tribute NPC was discovered. Amalia and her team of corgis is a nod to @gloriaboboria, who is a big lover of corgis.

There are also three new pet toys: Flaming Hoop, Leather Pet Bed, and Leather Pet Leash.

A new Legion Alpha build was recently released. There's a new pet, new model, and the introduction of epic pets and battlestones. [source]

New Pet and Model
Another pet was added to the long list of possible pets coming in Legion.

The newest addition, Zoom (pictured right), is a snail proudly carrying a checkered flag. It's unknown where this pet will come from, but if the flag is any indication, we may see a snail race in the future!

All Legion Alpha datamined pets

Along with this new pet, a new model for a baby falcosauros was datamined.

The falcosauros pet comes in four different colors, and has four larger counterparts in the form of mounts — Predatory Bloodgazer, Viridian Sharptalon, Brilliant Direbeak, and Snowfeather Hunter.

Upgrading to Epic Pets In Legion?
Pet collectors and battlers are no strangers to epic quality pets. These pets are normally found as NPCs and in Trainer battles.

However, Legion might bring an end to that exclusivity, allowing players to upgrade their companions to epic quality.

The latest Alpha patch included Immaculate Battlestones, both a general version and family-specific ones. Using one of these on a battle pet will consume the stone and upgrade the pet to epic (purple) quality.

Epic battlestones and pets are still undergoing testing; there is no guarantee that players will have access to them in Legion. Developers are keeping an eye on any constructive feedback regarding this change.


Epic Battlestones
Currently, Immaculate Battlestones can be obtained from a Deluxe Mystery Bag, which is sold by a new vendor in Breanni's shop in Dalaran, Draemus. This NPC also sells the Fel Piglet, Nightwatch Swooper, and Plump Jelly.


The price for a Mystery Bag is 200 Pet Charms, but this could change during the testing phase.

Opening the bag will yield at least one random family-specific battlestone. It can be used on any appropriate pet of any quality and level.

Upgrading a pet to epic will increase its health, power and speed stats, but this is subject to change, depending on the effect that this will have on Pet Battles.

In response to concerns revolving around the introduction of epic pets to player collections, developer Jeremy Feasel notes that it might be possible for 'epic quality' to have a cosmetic-only effect on pets.


Additional testing and feedback is required before any official announcement is made regarding epic pets. We'll have more information and updates as it becomes available.

Last week we reported that epic battlestones and pets were added to Legion Alpha for testing.

There was a lot of great feedback and discussions about epic pets. Developers have reviewed player thoughts and concerns, and now have an official response regarding epic pets in Legion. [source]

Hi everyone!

First and foremost, thank you very much for testing pet battles in the Legion Alpha. We’ve heard your concerns and have decided not to move forward with epic pet battle stones in Legion.

To explain a bit about how we arrived at this point--

When designing rewards for the new battle pet features in Legion and the revamped pet store in Dalaran, we considered epic stones a potential direction to go. Some players are nearing the cap of max-level, all-rare pet teams, and we wanted to see if this space would satisfy their needs for a long-term future level of investment.

You have correctly identified a few of the issues that come up with this feature:

• New players now have a harder time catching up (though we could mitigate this by speeding up the early leveling process).
• Players with 600+ rare pets that felt as if they were nearing completion of their pet journal are back to having 600+ pets to level.
• Power Creep – older content is now easier, future content is harder for new players entering pet battles.

One of the things we like about pet battles is that much of the early content stays relevant through all of the expansions. Similarly, the collection aspect of battle pets works well when it’s wider (more pets to collect, more variety in abilities) rather than taller (more levels). Both of these are very good reasons to avoid adding epic pet stones.

This direction also pushes us to create content that tests max-level-pet-battlers in a way that is not purely numbers, but use of abilities, use of specific pets, and memorization of enemy strategies. The Celestial Tournament was a good example of pet battle content that rewarded a varied and filled pet stable. We have some exciting things in mind for future battles versus tamers!

It’s worth noting that this feature was not intended to replace any gameplay content. We’re working on all sorts of pet battle updates that we’d like to make in future patches.

Thanks again for all of your feedback. We really appreciate your great ideas and discussion!

Although epic pets will not be released in Legion, keep in mind that the idea could be revisited in the future should developers decide to take that route.

Thank you to the Blizzard Developers for taking all of the Pet Battle community's feedback into consideration, and we look forward to seeing the Pet Battle content planned for Legion!