Project Lore

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

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If you are a regular to the Project Lore Blog then you probably already know my in-game addiction, non-combat pets.  The cute designs and animations of most of the vanity pets have allowed my love of animals IRL (I've owned or own ferrets, various aquatic beings, cats, dogs, turtles, and so on) to easily segway into the digital realm.  I was so bad in the early days of WoW that I had two bags dedicated to the useless little critters.  Image explaining my lack of fire pots to my hardcore raiding buddies because I grabbed my bag of cockroaches, cats and parrots (my first in-game pet) instead.  Woops. With the Midsummer Fire Festival back in action I've once again trudged off to Slave Pens to melt Ahune.  All in an attempt to score a Scorched Stone, that, according to WoWHead, has <2% chance of dropping.  I began my audacious task this morning with a bunch of guildies, and if the pet dropped our first round of attempts you better believe this post would have a much different tone.  Obviously, the mini MC mob continues to elude me.  And my attempts are already done for the day on Solidsamm. Here's the issue with Ahune, and the only piece of loot that keeps him interesting, people lie to get to him.  Don't believe me?  Just spam "LFG Ahune Must Have Summon" and see how many people will @ you who either A) have used their daily summon or B) haven't done the quick quests to get the summon yet.  The rule that I have always gone by, and been asked to comply with, is that if you don't have the summon (or can't provide one on an alt) then you aren't allowed in the group.  The last thing pet collectors would want is to lose the Scorched Stone roll, probably the only one they will see in the short time span, to a random unappreciative player who didn't even contribute an attempt.  But it's difficult to tell who actually has a summon left and who doesn't.  The only trick I've seen is to make sure that your quest log says everyone else in the party is on the same quest.  Not a flawless system, as they may not have picked it up yet.  Anyone have any other ideas? The moral of the story is that if you can't contribute a summon, then DO NOT GO TO AHUNE.  I am even referring to guildies.  If you aren't absolutely 100% positive that you can pass such a sought after item, then don't go under any circumstance.  At level 80, with a crappy non-80 healer, the encounter is ezmode (Ahune didn't scale up for Wrath), so they don't need your "help." Outside of the pet and the achievement, there is no reason to go to the Ice Lord.  Save yourself the drama and just sit it out. This has been a Public Service Announcement by Pet Lovers Everywhere (TM). Titles (Alliance/Horde) are not for me, but I am sure there are many of you out there already hard at work on your respected recognition.  Outside of Ahune's sacred gift I am working on a Captured Flame for the priest and enjoying the fire works, juggling and general summery fun that the Festival brings to Azeroth.  Perhaps I should work on my thievery...What are you goals? The Midsummer Fire Festival ends July 5.

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Good lord.  You do a post on just recently announced content and the day it goes live Blizzard drops a cavalcade of new information on the WoW playing populace.  I don't know about you, but when this much information comes out at once I tend to become overwhelmed.   Sure, there isn't much to digest rogue-wise (yay Axes! </sarcasm> Daggers fo' lyfe yo!), or even priest-wise, so that cuts out most of the critical thinking that goes into patch notes for me.  With nothing to QQ about I have been focusing on the little gems and locating overlooked modifications. For example, the ability to level in battlegrounds (via quests, not killing people, which would be cooler) is one hot tamale.  It's also a feature that has been requested for some time.  When this was originally discovered pre-patch notes, people were worried about the state of twinking.  Well, Blizzard has all those level 19 rogues in VanCleef gear covered with the power to turn off XP gain.  That feature is simply huge and goes well beyond twinking to "classic" servers.  While not exactly the same as a vanilla or TBC locked server, turning off your XP gain can enable nostalgic gamers to level a character to 60, or 70, and play as if it were 2004, or 2007!  In the end I think this is a great solution to the classic server problem.  It enables those rosey-eyed gamers to (almost) get what they want, but doesn't cost Blizzard much of anything. My fellow vanity pet collectors are likely rejoicing over the new critters we can add to our stables.  It isn't just a token addition either.  Sure, the Argent Tournament has another one, and you can go the cheesy way and purchase one from Breanni, but the true nuts will be out in Un'Goro, Stranglethorn Vale and numerous other areas farming the pets from elite raptors across Azeroth.  A total of 8 vanity pets have been added to the game (not including Argent Tournament rewards).  Pet owners aren't the only players getting some dinosaur action.  Horde players can pick up a poisonous Ravasaur mount from the trainer in Un'Goro.  Yes, the mount is Horde only. We also have more profession changes.  The biggest one that I came across was the change to potion stacking.  No longer will raiders have to dedicate a full bag to their assorted potions, as they will now stack to a respectable amount, 20.  Of course I foresee most raiders filling their bags with stacks of 20 anyways, crazy blocks that they are.  In Cooking we have the tweak to the Chef's Hat.  The fashionable cookware not only makes you looks good, no to mention dedicated to the art of cuisine, but enables Wolfgang Puck impersonators to cook faster.  I'll be picking up one of these bad boys for that utility.  Still no concrete data on the "increase benefits" to the Engineering goodies though, but it's nice to see that Potion Injectors give an added 25% benefit when used by a tinkerer.  Gas cloud discovery is being moved to the Mote Extractor and off the Goggles.  What the hell took so long? Call of the Crusade is shaping up to be a nice patch.  It may not have an ostentatious sized raid like Secrets of Ulduar, but it does have a copious collection of changes.  What diamonds in the rough have you most excited?  Perhaps actual (epic) diamonds?  Maybe the bloating of the Dalaran Sewers Arena map?

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Better Get Used To This View... The Argent Tournament has become a big part of my daily routine.  Thanks to the clusters of quests and little downtime between them, it's a perfect place to begin my day collecting coin.  Then there's the added bonus of the "new hotness" content, helping me finish up my Exodar reputation, new Achievements (yes, I said Achievements), and most important, non-combat pets!  It's these little useless critters that have kept me returning to the Argent Tournament grounds day after day. It didn't hit me until recently that I would be a staple at the tent for the foreseeable future.  Originally, I was striving for the pets and the Argent Hippogryph, but that all changed when I calculated the amount of badges, therefore days, I would need to hand over to the quartermasters.  450 Champion's Seals for everything.  At a maximum of 5 seals per day, Solidsamm would become less of a staple and more of an Argent Tournament member!  We are talking 90 days, three months for all of this stuff.  Deep breath.  At least we receive 50 Seals from Championing all the factions, dropping that number to 400 and only 80 days.  God forbid I wanted to get some of the mounts... The aforementioned benefits help ease the pain, but they will only last for so long.  I've been picking up Champion's Writ instead of the sack of coin to move Exodar's rep along faster.  Around the same time I finish Exodar's rep grind, I will be completing the last Valiant challenge for my final faction (Ironforge).  At that point, I will lose the additional income of 50+ gold a day from those quests.  Sure, I may have 10,000 gold already, but the easy income offsets the monotony.  With the vanity pets soon to become the only driving force for my participation in the tournament, I doubt they'll all be by my side quickly.  Hmm, perhaps I should just sell them to the horde for thousands of gold... I'm lucky enough to have Naxxramas and solid crafted gear, so I did not waste Seals on other things.  How has the Argent Tournament been treating you?  Anyone crazy enough to try to collect all of the mounts?  What's an additional 2700 gold, 225 Seals and another 45 days in the grand scheme of things, right? Oh, and this should be the first Achievement section - outside of Northrend's exploration - that I finish in its entirety.

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Children's Week is only a few days old and I have already completed what I set out to do.  I have said in the past that I am not a big Achievement person, so what I wanted to accomplish is far less than many other people.  In fact, all I cared about was grabbing the pair of pets for escorting orphans all over Azeroth and Outlands.  After some creative travelling, tiring flights and a bit of hoofing it, I turned in my whistles and snapped up Sleeping Willy and that cute-as-hell Turtle.  I still think Egbert is the best pet ever though. I came across this little gem over on WoWInsider a scant few hours before I completed my mission.  I read the headline and knew that my fear of Achievements was coming true, if just a little.  One of them was ruining the gameplay experience for many players, while frustrating the others to no end.  My GM was actually on both sides of the issue, trying to score the achievement but becoming incredibly frustrated by everyone sitting in their base, hoping to return a flag with their brat out.  He was so irate that his wife had to leave the house to avoid the cursing, anger, frustration and likely the destruction of a perfectly good keyboard.  I can attest to extensive use of the Caps Lock key, and a nice selection of four letter words.  My poor virgin eyes. To elaborate, the way I view the Achievement system is to promote extended play, while enabling players to show off their feats.  In theory, its a very sound addition to any video game.  Instead, this "controversial achievement" has created a firestorm in the Battlegrounds, leading to selfish play and highly unusual experiences.  It wasn't since WSG was first released that I have been in a BG that was so long, unproductive and painful, and I wasn't even going for the achievement!  I queued up solely to experience some of the pain that my GM was lamenting about.  Sadly, all I ended up doing was helping the Horde players with their achievements.  The greenskins allowed me to walk to the flag, unstealthed mind you, and cap it.  At this point I was pummeled by ten angry players and their orphans as they spammed right click to pick-up the flag.  What violence the young minds have been tainted with. How have you found the Battlegrounds recently?  Are they as frustrating as my GM would leave the guild to believe or is he just having bad luck?  Has anyone become desperate enough to try to trade flag caps with the opposing faction?  This is the first time that I have been happy to not care about achievements.  What a terrible time to first experience a BG to boot.

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My second favorite holiday inside Azeroth is finally upon us. While I am not certain where the IRL version of Feast of Winter Veil ranks (“Awesome, more socks!” and the inevitable, “No Grandma, I'm still not married.”), I certainly love Blizzard's version of the holiday season. It's partially because of the fact that Winter Veil isn't tied to a religion, thus leaving no one out. In the end it comes down to presents and food.  I tend to appreciate both.

First and foremost, it seems that last year's gift, the Clockwork Rocket Bot, is just that, only for last year. This Achievement pretty much confirms that, and if that is not enough evidence for you, then how about this one? I hope you are prepared to deal with tons of cars under your feet because another new Achievement is based around Crashin' Thrasin' duels. That, is in turn part of the Winter Veil's arching Achievement for the the Violet Proto-Drake.

Ugg, my hands hurt from all that linking. Hit up MMO-Champion.com for an all-new mini-guide on Winter Veil's Achievements presented by Boubouille. If he doesn't dish the details himself, then rest assured that he links elsewhere.

I will attempt to snag the race car for sure, and continue on my trend of preparing scrumptious meals for my friends. Beyond that, I doubt I will purposely go after anything. That doesn't mean I won't participate though. Players on the Magtheridon server are sure to see insanely high-priced cooking reagents from my Auction House alt, as I attempt to abuse the supply and demand curve. I wouldn't mind unloading this Preserved Holly for a tidy sum either.

I do have a bone to pick with Blizzard though. I am no Achievement nut, but I do have a tendency to try and pick up as many vanity pets as possible. Yet you guys have designed numerous ways to make my collection efforts fruitless, such as forcing me to chose between Egbert and Sleepy Willy. While Egbert obviously won, I was upset that I lost the chance for a personal C'Thun-inspired Broggok mob. It is that reason that I wish for the Achievement nuts to have to make a hard decision as well. How about a Naughty & Nice achievement, 30 Points to those player who get less than 25 HKs over the course of Winter Veil, 25 Points for those with more than 200 HKs. Mmmm, moral choices.

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Vanity pets, non-combat pets, small pets, companions, mini-pets, waste of bag space, whatever you know them as, they are here to stay. I am by no means a collector of the pets, but I know plenty of people who are. Way back in vanilla World of Warcraft, I had a guildie whose goal was to fill up all his bag slots with the buggers and then pull them out one by one during a Molten Core run. But just because I don't collect them doesn't mean I don't enjoy them or strive to achieve a few. This year's Children's Week brought the cutest pet I have seen in the game. Getting a hold of the foul beast meant that I had to spend a few hours running all over Azeroth to get Egbert's Egg. Seeing that little Hawkstrider wig out when you stand idle was well worth the time. Then Blizzard Entertainment got into the Olympic mood and added a Gold Medallion that would summon a small dragon known as the Spirit of Competition. This pet also required a bit of a time commitment. For each PvP battleground a player won, they had a chance to be rewarded with the item. The chance was fairly high, making the non-combat pet a fairly common one on my server. Nevertheless, being a huge fan of the Olympics and dragons, I had to have one. The Worldwide Invitational also had an interesting pet that I was not able to get my hands on, Archangel Tyrael of Diablo II fame. Shortly after people began populating the world with Tyrael – not to mention trying to get him to duel with Diablo – I heard that he wasn't that cool of a pet. In fact, Tyrael has one animations to speak of, crossing his arms. He also responds to /dance, he just won't stop dancing until he is re-summoned. Seeing as my main is a rogue, I don't get to run around with my pets too much. It wasn't until I ran a string of heroics and some Karazhans that I realized the Spirit of Competition doesn't have any animations to speak of either. It just floats there, acting like a Wind Serpent. Lame. So what this means is that the last two semi- to near- exclusive pets have almost no animations, idle or emotes, to speak of. It appears that the newest pets have had far less time put into them than the easily accessible rewards from Children's Week or the dozens of other companions running around. I know vanity pets aren't that big of a deal but these are supposed to be the exclusive ones, they should be the coolest to own. What's up with that Blizzard? Did they finally revolt?

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