March 2010   « Archives | Current News »

UPDATE: We've received reports of EU players being unable to redeem the pet codes from plushes ordered through the US store. These codes are region-specific, so be sure to order for your region.

NEW Pets! We've just added three new companions to our pet database: Wind Rider Cub, Gryphon Hatchling and Purple Jade Leopard!

Wind Rider Cub and Gryphon Hatchling
As many of you already know, these two new vanity pets come with the purchase of their corresponding plush toy sold at the Blizzard Pet Store. These babies are too small to fly you around Azeroth, but they will happily follow you wherever you go. If you mount up, they'll take flight to keep up.

Even though they wear symbols of their factions, each pet can be learned by any character, Horde or Alliance. They are linked to your Battle.net account and all of your toons will receive them in the mail from Breanni. We don't know how long these cuties will be available, so don't miss your chance to own one (or both!) of these cuddly companions.

Purple Jade Leopard
We received a report that this pet is being offered as part of a special billing campaign in Taiwan. Players who prepay for 2 or 3 months of game time will earn this pretty kitty.

Now before everyone starts dwelling on the fact that some of us can't get cool crystalline cats like this one, or the Jade Tiger, or even the still-MIA Onyx Panther, we'd like to remind you that there are a number of cool pets not available on Asian servers. So instead of getting upset, try to enjoy the baby gryphon and wyvern and other neat pets scheduled to arrive in patch 3.3.3.

A new build of patch 3.3.3 came out on the PTR and MMO-Champion lists a newly datamined pet:

• Lil' XT - Right Click to set down or pick up your Lil' XT action figure.

So will it be the next Blizzard Pet Store offering, akin to Lil' K.T.? Will it be a new drop from XT-002 Deconstructor? As usual, we will have to wait and see. I hope the mini version is just as annoying as the big one - can't get enough tantrums, nope!

UPDATE: In an unannounced change with patch 3.3.3 the Kirin Tor Familiar has a new look. Whereas the old version was bright and cheery, this new version is more dark and sinister. Does ums wittle arcaney-kins need a happy wappy pet snack?

NEW Pet! With patch 3.3.3 comes a new pet for players to collect: Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot! Sure it's just a new color version of the 2007 Winter Veil Bot. And the only difficulty in obtaining it will be making your way through the lag in Dalaran to Jepetto's toy shop. But it's still a welcome addition to our ever-growing database of pets!

Changes in Patch 3.3.3
Here are some note-worthy changes that have gone into effect with the new patch:

• Pet Bombling and Lil' Smoky are no longer bind-on-pickup. Yay!
• Holiday bosses such as Ahune, Headless Horseman and Apothecary Hummel will be accessible through the Dungeon Finder. They will drop a loot bag which may contain rare items for each player only once per day (though you may continue to farm the boss multiple times for normal loot). We assume this means players will only get one chance per day to farm for holiday pets like the Scorchling, Sinister Squashling and Toxic Wasteling, though perhaps Blizzard will increase the drop rate to compensate.
• Players looking to add the Strand Crawler to their collection will have a slightly easier go at it, as the "Monsterbelly Appetite" fishing daily now takes place outside the Violet Hold.
• Murkimus the Gladiator is now available to all characters on WoW accounts that originally received this pet for participating in the 2009 WoW Arena Tournament. Previously, only characters that existed at the time of Murkimus' original distribution received it.

Other pets?
We still have no word on the other pets that were datamined from the PTR for this patch: Lil' XT, Celestial Dragon and Frigid Frostling. We will certainly keep you updated on any news. In the meantime, enjoy the new patch and the new pet!