Five Point Three Pets

Keeping pet collectors/battlers busy, Patch 5.3 introduced 20 new pets into the mix.  These pets can be acquired from old/new raids, pet battles, zone drops or can be bought with in-game/RL currency.  Here are the available pets and some that I have acquired already.

Karazhan

One of my favorite old raids to run, I ran this the first week of patch 5.3 with six different toons and didn’t manage a single pet drop, lol.  I didn’t even get the Big Bad Wolf as the Opera event once.  But I had some generous friends that helped me with a couple of them.

Tyledres, the Lil’ Bad Wolf – from the Big Bad Wolf from the Opera Event.  A surprise gift from Tyledres, I received this pet on the first day of 5.3.  Thanks Ty!

Stormer, the Menagerie Custodian – from the Curator.  I’m a big fan of mechs and was really excited when they made the Sunreaver Micro-Sentry a pet, which Luxy had given to me as a gift back in 5.2.  This pet shares the same color, just a different color scheme.  I named this pet after a Lego Hero Factory toy that I have that looks pretty close to it.

Ermyc, the Netherspace Abyssal - from Prince Malchezaar.  Cymre has been trying to get me a pet that I didn’t have for a long time now, so she finally managed to do that, lol.  The best part of this pet other than the awesome model?  I don’t have to do the Chess Event anymore! Woohoo!  Thanks Cym!

Fiendish Imp - from Terestian Illhoof.  The last pet I need from Kara and I’ll be done with farming for pets in Kara.

Tempest Keep

I’m glad that a pet doesn’t drop from Kael’thas Sunstrider; I haven’t figured out how to solo him on my pally yet and I’m not sure if it’s possible with the stupid mind-controlling that goes on in that fight.  The rest of the bosses aren’t too bad, though.

Meggatron, the Pocket Reaver - from the Void Reaver.  I originally tried to name my Personal World Destroyer Megatron, but Blizz won’t accept that name for a pet, so I named it Galvatron, which is probably better cause he’s more purplish in color.  After acquiring the Pocket Reaver, I still wanted to give him the Decepticon’s leader’s name, so I settled for a different spelling instead.

Phoenix Hawk Hatchling – from Al’ar and Lesser Voidcaller - from High Astromancer Solarian.  Two more pets to go and farming for Tempest Keep pets will be complete.

Serpentshrine Cavern

I’ve only run this raid twice before patch 5.3, once to get the achievement for completing it and the other to fish up The Lurker Below for The Lurker Above achievement.  Now I have a reason to come back, lol.  Soloing Lady Vashj took me long to do, but it definitely can be done, just make sure to kill the Coilfang Elites before they can fear you and kill the Tainted Elementals quick to get their cores to push the Lady into Phase 3.

Andre Teh Giant, the Tideskipper - from Morogrim Tidewalker.  An homage to the late wrestler of WWF (it will always be this acronym to me, it’s what I grew up with and WWE has never sounded right) and the movie The Princess Bride fame.  His epic fights with Hulk Hogan were always the best.

Tainted Waveling - from Hydross the Unstable , Coilfang Stalker - from Lady Vashj.  Just need these two and the Serpentshrine Cavern will be done.

Collecting all the pets from Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern earns you the achievement, Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition and rewards you another pet, Tito.

Isle of Thunder/Giants

The Isles of Pandaria have two pet drops that can be farmed off certain mobs.  I was lucky enough to find them cheap on the auction house, which saved me from having to make trips out to the Isles.

Cera, the Direhorn Runt - can drop from the Direhorns on the Isle of Giants.  Cera from The Land Before Time movie was the only baby triceratops name I could think of.

Col Mustard, the Filthling -  can drop from the Quivering Filths on the Isle of Thunder.  I honestly don’t know why named the Filthling that, maybe it was the only yellow thing I could think of or I just had the game Clue on the mind, lol.

Throne of Thunder

To keep your Living Sandling, Ji-Kun Hatchling and Son of Animus company, there are more pets to collect from the current raid of MoP, Throne of Thunder.  I haven’t gotten my hands on any of these yet, nor seen them on the auction house, but Zari did get a Pygmy Direhorn on a LFR he recently did.  That would go perfect with the Horridon mount I got, so I could finally reunite the family together, lol.

Pygmy Direhorn – drops from Horridon LFR/Normal/Heroic

Living Fluid - drops from Primordius LFR

Viscous Horror - drops from Primordius Normal/Heroic

Other 5.3 Pets

Stunted Direhorn -  awarded from the Brutal Pet Brawler achievement, which involved winning 250 PvP pet battles through the Find Battle system using a full team of level 25 pets.  I’ve maybe done one battle and didn’t bother with it again.  Looks like this will be a project to work on for another time, lol.

Trizilla, the Gahz’rooki - sold by Ravika, the Darkspear Rebellion Quartermaster, for one Radical Mojo.  I’ve always thought that Gahz’rilla from Zul’Farrak was a cool-looking boss and this pet is a nice memento to have of that instance.  I could have picked one of Godzilla’s enemies, King Ghidorah, to name my ‘rooki, but it has no wings, so I decided on a three-headed name for the rampaging monster.

Blossoming Ancient – a pet soon to be available for purchase from the Blizzard Store.

And last, but definitely not the least, Lenneth, the Unborn Val’kyr – a rare drop that could spawn in different spots all around Northrend.  Probably the most coveted pet among all pet collectors out there, I know it was definitely mine.  It’s the closest thing to getting the winged humanoid, Mini Tyrael, without having to drop some serious cash money, unlike a certain ballin’ Tauren Druid I know =P.  There was a mystery in the beginning in how collectors were going to be able to get their hands on one of these Val’ks, but it turned out to be not so difficult to capture one, unlike the Minfernal.  Many of blogging friends can attest to this, as they were capturing it within the first week of the new patch.

It took me a few days of searching around Northrend, but I finally found her all by her lonesome, in the northwestern edge of Sholozar Basin.  She was of Poor quality, but I had a Battlestone ready to instantly fix that.  The battle almost went horribly wrong when I used my Dancing Water Skimmer to battle her first.  I used Water Jet with the intentions of slowly getting the Val’k's health down low enough for capture when the ability suddenly crit for big damage and almost one-shotted her, lol.  It took two Pristine Traps to capture her and she was finally mine, barely averting disaster.

The name Lenneth comes from one of my favorite games to come out of the original Playstation console, Valkyrie Profile.  Next to Final Fantasy VII, this was one of the best RPGs from beginning to end, imo.

from fanpop.com

I think that last image fits the pet perfectly, don’t you think? =)

So how’s your 5.3 pet collection coming along?  Got any interesting names for any of your pets?

¡Viva la Darkspear Revolución!

***SPOILER ALERT!!!  The following post contains events from Patch 5.3, so read at your own risk!***

“Da Darkspear never gonna give up.”

- Vol’jin

Patch 5.3 hit last week and the time to end Garrosh’s reign as the leader of the Horde and take back Orgrimmar has begun!  The first thing I did Tuesday was to start the new questline, which involved the new scenarios.  With these new scenarios came Heroic versions as well and weren’t too difficult to complete.  Completing your first Heroic scenario of the day can reward you with a ilevel 516 item, which is a nice upgrade from your standard ilevel 502 drops from LFR Throne of Thunder.

The first scenario you’re given by Lorewalker Cho is Blood in the Snow, which is a story told from the Alliance side, so Hordies get to be transformed into the Alliance, similar to the Culling of Stratholme instance.  This scenario was pretty quick, just be careful of the patrolling mobs, they could make your Heroic run messy.

The next scenario you’re given is the Dark Heart of Pandaria, which involves investigating the hole that the Horde dug up in the Vale of the Eternal Blossoms.  The only tricky parts I found here were pulling too many of the Elementals at the beginning and make sure to keep moving on the last boss.

I also noticed this giant Mogu NPC named Norushen at the end of the scenario.  I wonder what role he has in all of this..

Afterwards, Cho sends you to Sen’jin Village to meet with Vol’jin, Chen and Thrall.  Vol’jin plans on taking over Razor Hill, which will act as his staging grounds for the upcoming assault on Orgrimmar.

Once Razor Hill is under control, Cho will send you on a quest in Kun-Lai to help Seer Hao Pham Roo get to the top of Mount Neverest where he gives you information on the final Sha and rewards you with ilevel 502 boots.

Back in Razor Hill, you’re given a weekly quest to gather supplies from certain mobs in the Northern Barrens to assist in the siege of Orgrimmar efforts.  You need to collect 150 supplies of wood, meat, stone and oil and you’re rewarded with 200 Valor points and a Radical Mojo.  The Radical Mojo can be used to purchase a mini hydra pet, Gahz’rooki, a Brawler’s Guild quest or to convert any of the Kor’kron vestments you find in the Barrens to a ilevel 489 armor piece for your spec.  Kinda pointless for your main toon since they should have better, but would definitely help out any alts that might need it.

After completing the weekly quest, you’re rewarded with an achievement.  If you are Horde, you are also granted the title, “Darkspear Revolutionary”.

Sadly, it’s not a sharable title that you can have on your other Horde toons, so you’ll have to complete the questline again if you want it.  I think the title goes great with any Troll, but my hunter is only 86, so he’s got a long way to go, lol.

Completing the questline on the Alliance side grants you the “Hordebreaker” title, which sounds sooo much cooler.  I’ll have to get working on Val so that she can sport that title in true Alliance fashion.

I thought the story progression for 5.3 was done well, albeit short, but it definitely sets us up for what’s to come in the 5.4 raid.  Look out Garrosh, your time as ruler of the Horde is about to come to an end!

Secret Agent Val

My spy has been planted, now it’s time to go to work and learn all of the Alliance’s secrets…/grin

I finally got my Alliance human paladin, Valoree, to level 90 last night.  It was a long and arduous journey, especially not having any heirlooms that my Horde alts are so spoiled with.  And I wasn’t about to spend any money just to transfer a toon to mule my BOAs over to Winterhoof.

Val originally was part of a tanking project I was working on towards the end of Cataclysm.  My plan was to rotate each of the four tanking classes (Valoree – prot pally, Zackariah – blood death knight, Marrcus – prot warrior and Lorelin – bear tank) mainly through dungeons with a little bit of questing, until the rest state was used up.  I did this so that I could closely compare each class and their abilities, while learning how to tank on ones I haven’t done before, like bear tanking.  The project stalled and I managed to get Val to level 50 before Mists came out.

I started leveling Val again halfway through patch 5.1, not to restart my project, but for a totally different reason…I didn’t have the Alliance versions of the Guild Page and Guild Heralds (I swear I don’t have a companion addiction, lol =P).  I was already Honored with Crits at the time, so I made the grind to Exalted in a few days.  At that point, Val had made it to Outland and I figured I would just make the push to 90 to get the achievement.

Level 1 to 85 wasn’t too bad, but the grind from 85 to 90 was rough.  And I managed to do it all as prot, Val doesn’t even have a dual spec, lol.  I might spec her Holy to try it again. Might.

So what’s next for Val?  I might do the Operation: Shieldwall and Isle of Thunder quests just to check out the story on the Alliance side.  I do need to go to the Argent Tournament Grounds to get an Argent Squire to add to my companion collection (nope, definitely not a companion collector, not me =P).  And now that I have a maxed out Alliance toon, I can participate in future World events and earn some of the faction-specific rewards, like how the Horde got the Mini-mana bomb and the Alliance got the Tabard from the Battle of Theramore event.

And I’m still trying to get used to the setup and the location of the Shrine of Seven Stars in the Vale.  I haven’t “accidentally” flown into the Shrine of Two Moons like some others I know have….yet.

WoW TCG – Betrayal of the Guardian is here, so take a look, it’s in a “Book”

The latest WoW TCG Expansion, Betrayal of the Guardian, is now here and I just finished sorting through all the goodies after receiving them a couple of weeks ago.  The second set from the Timewalkers block, this set continues the theme of bringing back older characters from the past back into the fold.

Just like the prior set, War of the Ancients, each booster box comes with 36 packs, with 15 game cards per pack.  The Epic Collection box contains the following goodies:

• 1 Collector’s box
• 6 Booster packs
• 1 Playmat
• 1 Deck box
• 15 Card dividers
• 1 Visual Spoiler
• 5 Foil Hero cards
• 1 Loot card (for this set, it’s the Gusting Grimoire)

Here is a sample of what you will find in the Betrayal of the Guardian set:

Magatha Grimtotem and Zul’jin

Khadgar and General Turalyon

Some familiar faces you’ll see when you visit Karazhan….

Thrall’s Poppa and Momma

Some of the coolest legendaries you’ll find in-game, Atiesh and the Warglavies of Azzinoth

I was kinda bummed that one of my favorite artists, JonBoy Meyers, didn’t have any cards in this set, but I did find some cards from another favorite, Gonzalo Ordonez.  He also did the artwork for Atiesh and Magatha Grimtotem.

And the winner of the “Best Flavor Text” in this set goes to Don Carlos’ Famous Hat, lol.

And the Phat Lootz! Cha-Ching!

Gusting Grimoire

The common loot card of the set, the Gusting Grimoire is a Magic-type companion/battle pet that shares a similar model to the Lofty Libram, only with rounded corners and a different cover.  The Grimoire shares the same second-line abilities as the Libram, but their first-line abilities are different.

Here are the Grimoire’s abilities:

• Fel Immolate
• Agony
• Meteor Strike
• Shadow Shock
• Amplify Magic
• Curse of Doom

I named my Grimoire, War, and my Libram, Peace, get it? LoL

Dark Portal Hearthstone

The uncommon loot card is the Dark Portal Hearthstone, which is an on-use item that actually doesn’t give you an extra Hearth, but instead replaces your regular hearthing animation with a much cooler one.  This is also similar to the Ethereal Portal loot card from the Icecrown expansion.

Here is the Dark Portal Hearthstone being used in front of the real Dark Portal, lol:

Ghastly Charger

And finally the rare loot card from the set, the Ghastly Charger.  When I first saw images of this mount, I knew I was going to redeem it if I got one, I really like the look of the spectral mounts.  So after I got lucky with my RCG (random card generator) and pulled the loot card out of one of the packs, I headed straight for Landro Longshot to claim my prize.

Here is a shot of the Charger in front of Karazhan:

So what’s better than running around on top of a spectral skeletal horse?  Well, I wanted to get a screenshot of the mount on its hind legs and found a nice surprise when I hit my space bar….

….it flies!  I didn’t realize that the mount would be similar to the Headless Horseman mount.  Woohoo, a new ground/flying mount! =)

Take a look, it’s in a book

So, interested in owning your very own Grimoire? Well, I’m giving away two Grimoires to two lucky readers, all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this post, telling me what your favorite or most memorable book or books are and why. I’ll go first.

One of the most memorable series I remember reading were the Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern books.  During middle and high school, I spent a lot of time at the local library after school waiting for my ride home, immersing myself into the fantasy world of dragons.  McCaffery’s books immediately got me hooked on these mythical creatures; maybe that’s why it was so easy to pick up WoW, with all of the flying beasts it contains, lol.

So get your comment in by Saturday, March 16th at 12 am US-EST and you will be included in the drawing.  I’ll throw all the names into the same Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron I used last time for the Eyes and draw out two random peeps.  Good luck!

UPDATE:  Thanks to everyone that commented, I know I said that I was going to give away two Grimoires, but I found an extra one to give away, so congrats to Tome, Tyledres and Arioch, you guys are the lucky winners!

Da Claw and Da Bug

The pet RNG gods took pity on my soul this weekend and Brann gave me enough of the right fragments to finally discover the final archaeology pet in my journal, da Crawling Claw!

To celebrate this moment, I’ve compiled a few other famous “claws”:

Bruce Lee vs. Han with his claw

Inspector Gadget’s Dr. Claw

Toy Story and “the Claw”

Wolverine and his claws

And speaking of gods, I didn’t realize how close I was to solving a certain Nerubian artifact, so I used my leftover crates to discover da Blessing of the Old God, which is a cool on-use item that transfers you into a Green Qiraji Battle Tank for 20 seconds.

Not quite the “bug” I was looking for, but I’ll take it.  =)

Brann is safe from punting…for now.  Let’s hope I don’t have to wait as long to solve this, lol.