Project Lore

With all the well-deserved hoopla regarding BlizzCon and WoW Cataclysm over the past few weeks, I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at some of the user interface changes we saw implemented nearly a month ago, in Patch 3.2, now that we've had time for the content to sink in a bit. It seemed that while many of us were excited to see these changes made, a large number of players also were concerned that the changes would make the game too easy, or even dumbed-down. This always seems to be a difficult line that Blizzard must walk when making content changes - and players aren't always happy with the results. Now that we've had a month to adjust to the changes, let's take another look at some of what was implemented:

• How about that auto-complete for character names while in chat, for mail, etc? It certainly simplifies chats and invites, especially for those toons with special characters in their names.
• I'm a fan of the casting bars that now show under target nameplates. It makes timing interrupts considerably easier. But I suppose that also could be considered a bad thing if I was the one being interrupted.
• The double-paned questlog makes viewing quests a bit easier - I basically already had this through the DoubleWide addon, but now it's built in to the standard WoW UI.
• Automatic item comparisons per armor slot and the ease of seeing vendor sell prices also are a welcome addition in my book, but also both are similar to the addons RatingBuster and Auctioneer.
• Druids now can see their mana bars when shape-shifted. Sounds handy.
• Have you found it helpful to have the item level on tooltips? I'll admit, this one I haven't done much with yet.
• Another useful addition - options menus now display an exclamation when they have new features.
• Remember all of those Quest helper additions that were on the 3.2 PTR patch notes? The ones that probably were the most widely debated for their simplification of questing? Well as we've all probably figured out by now, those never made it onto the regular servers. But it should be interesting to see if they were scrapped altogether or if they'll make another appearance in a later patch.

So in retrospect, now that we've had some time to adjust to all these changes, what do you guys think? Are you happy with what Blizzard has brought? Perhaps now couldn't live without some of the changes? They may be minor in the grand scheme of things, but I always think that the UI changes can bring so much to the game in their functionality. I also would say that first starting out on the game can be a bit intimidating. I would argue that many of these changes simplify aspects of the game that wouldn't necessarily affect the actual gameplay, but moreso the ease of getting around the interface and learning how to play. Perhaps Blizzard's looking to expand its market... or perhaps I'm just trying to make something out of nothing. What do you think?

Click to read more ...

It was the Friday after patch day, and my buddies in our small guild were itching to try out some of the new 3.2 content. Considering there were five of us online, we thought the best place to start would be besting the Black Knight in the new 5-player dungeon, Trial of the Champion, in the Crusaders' Coliseum. Here's the lineup: Warrior tank, Paladin DPS, Warlock DPS, Shaman Healer - all level 80s, and my lonely level 79 Rogue. I'll be the first to admit that we weren't super-well prepared for this dungeon, even on normal mode. One of us had never jousted before, and I'm still getting used to the shield-break, charge and thrust rotation while mounted with a lance. So I was a little unsure of what we were getting ourselves into when the dungeon began and we had to mount up and face several waves of javelin-wielding champions. But the strategy was pretty straight-forward: focus on one at a time until they are dismounted, then trample them to prevent them from getting back up. Then it's on to the hand-to-hand combat. Once through this set, you go on to encounters with several more argent trash followed by a nice fight with either Eadric the Pure or Argent Confessor Paletress. It was Eadric for us. Not the smoothest of kills; he's a bit tricky right at first before the tank picks up aggro, and even after that has an annoying Vengeance buff causing him to crit often. But we kept on him and took him out. Well, took him down to 1 HP, anyway. Then he ran away, like the bitch he his, but not before throwing in his loot chest. Thanks. Finally, on to the main event: The Black Knight.  From what I can gather from the Project Lore forums, it appears that several of us here already have tried out this new dungeon, but if you haven't and dislike spoilers you may want to stop reading here! This guy doesn't like to stay dead - he comes at you in three phases. And that's where my relatively inexperienced group wiped several times before we got the hang of things. The Black Knight starts out as a forsaken, then a skeleton and finally a wraith. Probably the most trouble we experienced was in the second phase when he started summoning an exploding Army of Dead. We talked through a couple of possible strategies - kiting the Black Knight to avoid the trash Ghoul Explosion, or throw some nice AoEs to kill the ghouls before they explode all over you. Neither of those seemed to be working for us, so we instead just ignored the jerks and focused all of our attention on the main battle at hand. It worked. When we downed the Black Knight in that form and saw the ghouls channeling their explodey spell, we just ran away. From there, the boss enters wraith form, this time without any adds. He consistently casts Marked for Death on his enemies, which increases their magical damage two fold, and can make things sticky if you drag out the fight too long. Each DPSer pulled out all the stops at this point, and finally the Black Knight was downed... for good this time. The best part: My very first purple item (/dance), and a pretty darn good one at that, at least for a 5-man on normal difficulty. Now I just have to finish off my last half-level to 80 so I can equip this beauty - Uruka's Band of Zeal. Overall, I'd say the coliseum is about what I expected. Granted, I haven't checked out Trial of the Crusader yet (beyond watching Juggy and the TRS Guild take it on), but got a decent preview of that through the smaller battle. It's pretty short and to-the-point, which to some may be a disappointment. Others say they've felt underwhelmed by the small scale of the coliseum itself. And I can see that point. But as for me, I was happy with it, and plan to keep running it to get more loots! Hopefully next time, it'll go a bit smoother! Any of you who have tried out the Crusaders' Coliseum so far? What are your impressions of either instance?

Click to read more ...

Patch 3.2 Executing.... Whenever Blizzard decides to lay a patch on us I hold my breath.  Sure, I want the bounty of content, but sometimes that isn't all we receive.  Oftentimes we'll be stuck at login screens, the World Server will be down, our add-ons will cease to work, or worse, fail to do their jobs appropriately.  And that's just some of the "features" that we hope to see on a Tuesday evening.  More painful are the Slowsky approved download speeds, constant reboots, authentication problems, massive lag, or lag spikes, and the realization that nothing is going to be accomplished till Wednesday.  Think I am being a bit dramatic?  Then allow me to refresh your memory of Patch 3.0.8. I was as excited as anyone for Call of the Crusade (the game can never have too many 5-mans), but I had my reservations about the patch actually going live.  Boy have I never been so glad to eat my words before. Blizzard delivered the patch with only slightly extended downtime.  While I didn't login till a few hours after my server returned from dead, I was greeted with a stable, normal latency experience the entire night.  It didn't matter if I was running around the generally packed Dalaran or the newly flooded Argent Tournament grounds.  It was all entirely playable on Magtheridon (NA).  The post-patch trauma has been so negligible that I've been able to run through the dailies, grab a level and change on Solidsagart and tackle the new dungeon (repeatedly), along with some heroics.  And that was just on Tuesday! To round out the objectiveness of the post I should point out that it hasn't been all roses.  Roughly half of my add-ons were broke (and some remain unfixed by authors too busy with content) by Patch 3.2.  I've encountered the Trial of the Crusade opening encounter bug (is there an accepted name for it?) roughly half of my attempts.  Last, but not least, is the ninja change to Malygos, I doubt it's a bug, that gave our raid a bit of pause.  The big blue dragon's Vortex drops players off far farther from their original location than ever before.  And no, I still haven't kill the crazed warmonger. I heard there was something up with Kel'Thuzad, but haven't come across the lich recently.  Has anyone experienced anything wonky with that encounter?  How stable has your server been since patch day?  Have you been able to chain those heroics? All things considered I believe Call of the Crusade was the most expertly executed patch in recent memory.  Certainly since Wrath of the Lich King's launch back in November.  Dare we assume Blizzard is finally getting the hang of the patch spiel?!

Click to read more ...

We were one of the first to bring our readers an extensive, even exhausting (for me at least), look at everything the Argent Tournament had to offer upon its release.  The solo content of Patch 3.1 brought players a large collection of new quests, an original mode of play (jousting), the opportunity to make obtuse amounts of gold in a short time frame, an easy way to level up the old city factions and the Argent Crusade, mounts, pets and even the ability to gain reputation with the Silver Covenant/Sunreaver faction for the first time.  Save Threat From Above, it was an entirely soloable experience. In sticking with my plan, Solidsamm spent a good amount of time in Icecrown getting a feel for the new quests, flying around the updated tournament grounds, and taking in the sights.  If you've just decided to tackle the Argent Tournament for the first time then be sure to check out the original guide.  The following only pertains to the newest quests additions.  These quests are only accessible if you are Exalted with the associated factions.  You can check your standing with any of the factions by checking your Reputation pane (default 'U') or by viewing your Argent Tournament Achievements (default 'Y' then select World Events and scroll to Argent Tournament). Most of these tasks are located very close to the Argent Tournament.  However, there are a few exceptions were Blizzard saw fit to send us out on our flying mounts, such as Breakfast of Champions' Storm Peaks run.  Assuming you still want to do the four dailies from Patch 3.1 (still offer the most money), you'll now have the opportunity to gain a guaranteed 10 Champion's Seals a day to put towards the new loot.  I'm already working towards my new squire. Overall, it appears that the quests are designed better than before thanks to the everyone being randomly assigned five of the jobs below.  No more Battle Before The Citadel-type lag sessions. <Crusader> Quests: You'll randomly be assigned two of these.  Generally, they send you off to kill a non-elite named target that respawns very quickly.

• Deathspeaker Kharos - Kharos is camped out with his underlings directly west of the tournament grounds.  You can take him out as you are hunting for Black Cage Keys for You've Really Done It This Time, Kul.
• Drottinn Hrothgar - Drottinn is the leader of the Kvaldir that exterminated the Tuskarr settlement, which was recently discovered directly north of the grounds.  He's located by the three heads (Tuskarr impressions of Easter Island statues) on the eastern part of the Hrothgar's Landing island.  The heads are viable on the map of the island.
• Get Kraken! - We're off to support the Sunreaver and Silver Covenant naval forces in this one.  On your way towards Hrothgar's Landing you'll see the boats under assault by Kvaldir raiding parties, and even Kraken that they have found a way to control.  Fear not, you're tasked with raining fire upon the wicked from the seat of an Argent Hippogryph, so the quest is as easy as the rest.  Just don't forget to get on said mount!
• Mistcaller Yngvar - Found in a cave located on the west side of Hrothgar's Landing.  You must use the provided trinket to reveal him before he can be easily dispatched.
• Ornolf The Scarred - Ornolf isn't anymore challenging than the rest of the named mobs, but you'll want to clear the boat a bit before you challenge him.  His ship, Bor's Fury, is located in the southeast area of the island you're sure to become so found of.
• The Fate Of The Fallen - This quest sends you the farthest away from the grounds of any of the <Crusader> unlocks.  It's also the most difficult to figure out exactly where to go, as theIronwall Rampart is not labeled on the interactive map.  Just head directly east of Aldur'thar (it's labeled on your map, and is southeast of The Shadow Vault) and you'll see the needed crystals and mobs on the ground.  There is no need to even fight anything.

<A Silver Confidant>/<The Sunreaver> Quests:  You'll be randomly assigned three of these, bringing your total up to five new dailies a day, nine overall.  Unlike the <Crusader> unlocks, these quests are more involved and tend to send your farther away from the grounds.

• A Leg Up - Apparently the Kvaldir were hungry, so they stole some of the food en route to the grounds.  Thanks to the chilly weather up in Icecrown the food stays fresh even though its strewn across Hrothgar's Landing.  If floor pie meat isn't to your liking, then you can always thin the Kvaldir ranks for some untainted meat.  Snob.
• Breakfast Of Champions - Mmm Wheaties.  Wait, the Jormungar eat their own larval young?  What are they sharks?  To keep the Dune-inspired creatures healthy, so we can kill them in the Coliseum, we have to feed them their own species' eggs.  Eggs which are located dead center of Storm Peaks - as in outside of Icecrown.  Enjoy the lengthiest trip the patch has to offer.
• Gormok Wants His Snobolds - You're off to Storm Peaks once again.  This time you'll be slightly closer to home.  Head over to Garm's Bane, just northeast of K3, and capture some Snobolds to put the blubbering baby to bed.  I guess even giant monsters can have "binkies."
• Rescue At Sea - You'll come across the besieged The Wavecrest as you head up the east side of the strait to Hrothgar's Run.  Board the ship and drop the seaweed filled creatures.  Beware of the Krakens though.  They have a knockback that can put you in the drink, and thus, in their reach.  Perhaps the riskiest of the quests.
• Stop The Aggressors - Kill 10 Kvaldir; the new school Training in the Field + two.
• The Light's Mercy - This follows The Fate Of The Fallen, only now you are praying over the fallen Tuskarr on the island to the north.  Again, no need to even fight.
• What Do You Feed A Yeti, Anyway? - In celebration of Shark Week Blizzard has us tossing fresh chum, located on the boats, into the North Sea to attract sharks, or even a Kvaldir.  The drop rate on the shark meat (and seemingly all other quest drops) is 100%.
• You've Really Done It This Time, Kul - Head directly west to Deathspeaker's Watch, run by Deathspeaker Kharos, and kill mobs until you have saved four Aspirants.  You'll need a fifth key to free Kul, whom is located on the right side of a raised platform.  If you spot the body of The Black Knight, then you've found the correct platform.  Like the Isle of Quel'Danas key daily, the keys are not 100% drop rate.

There you have it, a breakdown and easy-to-navigate guide for the Argent Tournament's new daily quests.  I guess all the jousting ideas went into the instances, as none of the dailies have you mount a stead. Once more, if you aren't Exalted with the factions you will not be able to partake in these quests! And yes, The Black Knight has returned, and he's even more powerful than ever.  You can start his new questline by picking up The Black Knight's Curse from the main tent.

Click to read more ...

Just now, Blizzard's official Call of the Crusade page was updated to include the Patch 3.2 Trailer along with a summary of what the latest content patch brings to World of Warcraft. The trailer shows brief clips of a bunch of different boss encounters in both the 5-man instance and the new raid instance. Unfortunately, it doesn't include nearly as much lore or even any dialogue like the Patch 3.1 Secrets of Ulduar Trailer did. I suppose it is at least a bone thrown our way in order to hold us off for just a couple more hours before the realms come up, but I wish there was that little bit of back story besides, "The Argent Crusade calls and the players answer." It may have just been a last minute highlight reel from the PTR to appeal to those who wanted a trailer for 3.2, but given the quality of both Wrathgate and the 3.1 trailer, I am pretty disappointed. Other than the trailer, there's also a nice desktop background available for download to show off the latest and greatest content in WoW. What are your thoughts on the short video that Blizzard published?

Click to read more ...

There's a crapload of stuff to do in this upcoming patch.  Thanks to Blizzard's shift in patch design, from just high end content to a solid mix of content for all player types, the Call of the Crusade patch has my head spinning.  I hope you have a grasp on the content thanks to our extensive coverage, but that doesn't mean you have a plan for tonight.  I love content, so my plan is already in the works. I'm a realist.  I will be shocked, stunned, stupefied if the servers come up on time.  Let alone coming up and being stable enough to raid, heroic get anything of substance done.  My pessimistic outlook on patching doesn't mean I won't be logging in though.  You damn well better believe I will be spamming the servers next to each and everyone of you.  Downloading the patch is of the utmost importance, but I haven't seen it available anywhere as of the time of this writing.  The first order of business that we should all take care of upon logging in is following Heartbourne's advice, and dumping the old and busted emblems for some new hotness.  With a purse full of Emblems of Conquest I will be able to pick up a few minor upgrades before venturing into the new 5-man and old heroics.  Then Solidsamm will revisit his old stomping ground of the Argent Tournament.  He's heard through the grapevine that there's a lot more to do up there these days.  Not to mention that the Black Knight has been heard calling him out. My little stabbing machine can receive his fair share of upgrades from Conquest and Triumph badges, but its Solidsagart who can benefit the most.  I'll surely get called into heroics and raids during the week, but my main focus is going to be on the priest.  I'd be absolutely stupid to not hit level 80 on my healer ASAP.  With everyone and their brother once again running heroics it'll be incredibly easy to find groups, and fairly easy to collect badges for her.  Much to the hardcore playerbase's chagrin, she'll be geared out the wazoo in no time.  She'll just have to wait until Solidsamm conquers the new 5-man dungeon. Those are the basic starting points for me.  What are you going to do as soon as the servers return to a stable state?  Return to the Argent Tournament grounds for the new dailies and easy money?  Continue working on your pile of Champion's Seals for the mounts and pets?  Go Raptor hunting?  Or are you going to just dive right into one of the four levels of the Argent Coliseum's raid content? As with all patches, I will be rapidly filling my coffers thanks to all the needed materials I have been hording for weeks.  Gnomes love gold almost as much as Goblins.

Click to read more ...

The inability to launch instances this late in Wrath of the Lich King has always been odd to me.  Like many of the people in my guild, and likely a large part of the WoW populace, there is almost no reason for me to enter any 5-man dungeons.  That isn't to say that I don't do it here and there, but my frequency in no way compares to Solidsamm's marathon sessions during the early days of level 80.  I am sure many of you agree (that is until Call of the Crusade drops with its Emblem changes), and yet, just as many of us continue to get the dreaded "Additional instances cannot be launched" when trying to open an instance.  This is an especially painful message after having just attacked a raid full of Horde. Logic would state that if less people are running dungeons there should be more "room" on the instance servers.  According to Vrakthris it isn't that cut and dry.  But one should never apply logic to system architecture and computer programming.  There are a numbers of reasons why this isn't a one-to-one situation.  For example, if instances are given some sort of weight (5-man = one, 10-man = 2, 25-man = four) depending on how stressful they are on the hosting machine, then the server could theoretically be just as full as ever. Whatever the real design flaw is, it appears that Blizzard's architecture people have found a solution.  According to Wryxian, over on the EU forums, the recent extended maintenance and server restarts are directly related to fixing the instance problem.  Wryxian explains that "each group", presumably each Battlegroup, has to come down not once, but twice for the fix, and that things do not always go smoothly. I haven't located a post that mirrors the undead crocodile's statements on the North American forums, but it's probably safe to assume the same thing is happening here.  After all, my server was down for some extra time this morning, including a reboot during my Drakuru battle (I died!).  With Call of the Crusade's background downloading initiated, the fix may come just in time. I've had to deal with it more and more recently, but the wait hasn't broken my spirits.  Getting a group still remains far more difficult.  How bad has the stubbornness of the instance server been on your realm?

Click to read more ...

Blizzard is known for pulling random, often unrequested, features out of the collective brain trust and adding them to an upcoming patch without warning.  Normally people cheer for additions to the default setup.  Some of the features just don't cut it, falling way short of the robustness offered by the many add-ons already available.  Other changes are entirely unobtainable outside of Blizzard's doing.  Case in point, the changes to Raid Info in Secrets of Ulduar.  The change in code enabled players to accept or deny a raid lockout for various reasons.  If something wasn't right, then we'd be able to abort that cleared instance or one that started ages ago unbeknownst to us.  Without a doubt a useful addition which has made everyone's instancing less cumbersome. Following the same RaidID logic, Blizzard confirmed this week that Call of the Crusade will give players the ability to extend your raid lockout period.  No longer will you have to give up on an instance with just Kel'Thuzad up, or clear the beginning of Ulduar just to make further attempts on Yogg-Saron.  Instead members of a raid or party can chose, individually, to continue the instance at a later date by extending the lockout timer for another session (seven days for most raids, another day for heroics).  The lockout timer can be extended indefinitely.  Worried that you'll extend your lockout timer only to fail at completing your goal?  Fear not, Blizzard will allow players to drop the extended instance so long as nothing of substance was completed since its extension. Why would Blizzard do this you ask?  Eyonix has your basic sure-to-upset-the-hardcore answer.  "This new option is being added as a means to allow parties and raids to progress through an instance at their chosen pace". Initially I was annoyed with the announcement.  Not only did it seem to be a pointless waste of development time, but it removes one of the reasons for a lockout period to exist.  I got over those issues though.  The development time spent on the change is nothing in the long run, perhaps a week's worth of work for a programmer and some QA personal.  And the lockouts exist mainly to keep people from getting too much loot in a week, not as a race against the (long) clock.  In the end both casual and hardcore guilds will benefit from the change, and it is doubtful that the gear gap between the teams will shrink with the added feature.  Leave that up to the emblem changes. Time well spent or is this going to be a rarely used feature like in-game voice chat?  Another win for casual raiders and a strike for the hardcore?  As an added, perhaps unintended, bonus we'll be able to gear up our alts by taking over older, partially cleared (all hard modes downed) instances and cleaning up any remaining easy bosses.  That can't be bad right? For more details, check the latest official PTR notes.

Click to read more ...

Patches mean different things to different players. For some, it is looking forward to more adventure and exciting things to do. Others might be anticipating changes to their class or getting their hands on a new vanity pet. As GM of a raiding guild, I find it necessary to scrutinize patch notes in search of changes that may impact the way my guild operates. For example, in patch 3.1, they introduced dual specialization. This had an immediate impact in our raids. If we're facing a boss that only requires one tank, then we'll have the other tanks swap to their DPS specs. If we're short a healer, one of our DPS can swap over. Having raid members with well-geared secondary specs became important. In order to encourage our raid members to have well geared offsets, we changed our loot policies to offer gear for offsets at a discount DKP price, assuming no one needed the item for their main spec. Another smaller change in 3.1 was the duration change on flasks from two hours to one. As a result, we now make sure everyone is using their flasks in unison so we can time our breaks for when the flasks run out. As I peruse the patch notes for patch 3.2, there are a few line items that could impact the logistics of raiding. It will be interesting to see how guild officers respond to these changes. One of the first decisions guilds need to make is how will the new raid instance, Crusader's Coliseum, fit into their raiding schedule. While the new dungeon is technically a new tier of raiding, guilds may not remove Ulduar off their schedules immediately, like they did to Naxxramas when 3.1 hit. While the details aren't solid at the moment, it has been posted that the encounters in the Coliseum will be unlocked one at a time at the rate of one per week. Many guilds will still spend a lot of time in Ulduar while the bosses are slowly introduced in the Coliseum. Once all of the tier 9 encounters are open, there are more scheduling decisions to make. The Crusader's Coliseum (aka The Argent Coliseum) has both a normal and heroic version for both 10 and 25 players. The heroic versions of the instance limit players to a number of attempts each week, but open up greater rewards for those who succeed. With that in mind, do you try and take out Ulduar quickly and then spend the remaining time working on the normal version of the new instance? Or do you skip the gobs of easy loot from Ulduar in favor of the new content? How do you balance time spent in normal vs. heroic Coliseum? Interesting questions, indeed. Perhaps the biggest raiding change to be introduced in 3.2 is the extend raid lockout feature. When 3.2 hits, guilds will be able to decide if they want to prevent a raid instance from resetting on a weekly basis. Raid lockouts can be extended for up to an additional week to allow players more time to work on and clear boss encounters. With instances as big as Ulduar, many guilds begin to struggle towards the end of the instance because they run out of time to work on bosses like General Vezax and Yogg-Saron. How will your guild use this exciting feature? Players in 3.2 will have the ability to trade soulbound items with other raid members that are eligible for the loot. This feature grants you a two-hour grace period before the item is permanently bound and will save Blizzard GMs from throngs of in-game tickets from items that are distributed incorrectly. Guilds may decide, however, to use this feature as a time saver during raids. Instead of spending precious flask time distributing loot after each boss kill, the master looter can grab everything and hand it out at specified break periods. Obviously, this is more beneficial when you're clearing a lot of bosses in a night and can get complicated if you frequently have raid members leaving and joining throughout the night, but it is still a nice option to explore. The Call of the Crusade patch will change the way a lot of guild approach raiding. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Which raiding features are you most excited about in 3.2? How is your guild going to approach some of these changes? Share your thoughts and ideas with us.

Click to read more ...

Non-combat, Vanity, Companion pets.  Call them whatever you want, these fluffy critters make me coo like a school girl and giddy as if a new Hello Kitty product was announced.  It's a sad state of affairs, but I'll admit that my manhood goes right out the window whenever I happen upon a fluffy animal, in game or out.  Consider me the male Elmyra. I blame Boubouille for my further emasculation.  The game file spelunking, PTR canvasing leader of MMO-Champion has dug up new information for us once again.  The weekend update unveiled fifteen or so non-combat pets (my name of choice) that are going to be added to Azeroth in the upcoming Call of the Crusade patch.  In a move to keep me from staying up for two weeks straight, Blizzard will be releasing the dozen plus pets over the course of the patch, rather than unleashing them all at once. We'll start with the unknowns before moving on to the previously revealed critters.

• The Macabre Marionette is a new pet rumored to be linked to the upcoming Day of the Dead seasonal event.  A mini skeletal pirate isn't exactly my idea of a companion, but I'll take it.
• The Calico Cat is the first of a feline triple threat.  She's nothing special, your standard cat model with a new paint job, but everyone lovesCalicos.  Currently the multi-colored kitty is not available from the Crazy Cat Lady on the PTR, so its location remains unknown.
• If you are one to shy away from the mutant cat due to allergies, then you will be happy to know that Patch 3.2 will be bringing not one, but two hypoallergenic furballs.  They are to come in stone forms, Onyx and Jade.  The rocky members of species catus have been attached to separate achievements.

On to the known beasts.

• Northrend's Children's Week will bring lil' game hunters either a Curious Wolvar Pup or a Curious Oracle Hatchling.  Neither looks like they can top the cutest pet currently in the game, Egbert, but I'll be flying around Northrend anyways.
• The Shimmering Wyrmling gives players something to look forward to when they hit exalted with the Silver Covenant or The Sunreavers.  A feat many of us have already accomplished thanks to The Argent Tournament.  "Freebies" are nice.
• Last, but certainly not least, is a collection of what could be the cutest pets ever viewed since the application of the wide angle lens on animals, mini big-headed Raptors.  There's a total of seven of them available as drops off of rare raptors throughout Azeroth and in instances.  The promised eighth velociraptor can be purchased for 50 gold from Breanni.  Seven farmable pets at once.  There goes a week, of sleep.

They may not be furry, still covered in their eggs or exactly cuddly, but damn if those killer dinosaurs aren't cute.  I can't really decide which reduces my manliness the most, thus the first I will far for, but I think I have it narrowed down to two.  It will either be the ZG raptor, since I could solo it, or the Leaping dino, for the off chance that the animation is amazing.  You can check out the rest of the carnivorous beasts and where to get them at the full post. It's nice to see Blizzard paying more attention to all those mount collectors out there.  I just hope they keep up the good artistic work by allowing the developers time to fully animate the beasts, giving each animal its own personality.  I've already got the Wyrmling in the bag, as I assume many of you do.  Who's going to be farming raptors, cats and keeping orphans busy with me? "I'm gonna hug you and kiss you and love you forever (and never use you up)." - Elmyra

Click to read more ...