Ten Things About Pet Battles

WoW Insider‘s Breakfast Topic this morning requests retrospectives on the Pet Battle feature. This reminded me of Navimie’s “10 Days of Pet Battles”, which I bookmarked even though I wasn’t into pet battling when she first published it because I’m fond of survey memes and thought it would be fun to do sometime down the road if I ever did get into pet battles. I’m still no Pet Battle pro, but I think I’ve got enough experience now to give at least short answers to Navi’s questions.

1) Your first day pet battling.
I wrote about this when it happened; I was given a Pandaren Air Spirit for #FFW2102 and felt that I shouldn’t let such a fancy pet lie idle.

2) What pets don’t you like and why?
Snakes and spiders really annoy me. Too many times I have pulled a pet off the front line too late and it died from poison ticks a round or two later. I think I might have a snake or two in my collection, and maybe even a spider, but I won’t be leveling them. Okay, maybe the snakes, because I did like catching garter snakes when I was a little kid. But not the spider!
I don’t like the various diseased undead pets because they are just too creepy and icky. I have tamed a few of them to get “tame a pet in X zone”, but I’ve released all of them except the Scourged Whelpling. I kept that one because it is one of the few tamable (as opposed to dropped) dragon whelps.

3) Who is your favourite pet? If you could bring it out into the real world, tell me what you imagine you would be doing.
I’m not sure I have a favorite pet, because so many of them are wonderful in such different ways. But if I could bring one out into the real world, well, I’ve been reading books with gryffins in lately, so right at the moment, I’d probably choose one of the mythological creatures such as the gryphon hatchling, the hippogryph hatchling, or the wind rider cub. My sister’s dog might like such a playmate while it was little, and who hasn’t wished they could have their WoW flying mount in the real world?

4) What was the most epic pet battle/capture you ever had?
There was once this battle where I’d managed to cage a rare specimen of a pet I wanted, but I won the battle only by the slimmest of margins — I was quite worried that I might end up losing it. Alas, I don’t remember anymore even which pet it was that I captured, so maybe it wasn’t that epic after all? I prefer to run my pet battles relatively close to the edge, with pets fairly close in level to the enemy team, ending with all of my pets at low health. I get better XP, and it somehow feels more sporting that way. So, in a way, most of my pet battles are a bit dramatic.

5) What pet do you want more than any other pet? What would you do to get it?
Last May, I made a list of my ten most-wanted not-yet-obtained pets. Let’s see how I’ve done with acquiring them:
1) Dragon Whelps — captured Scourged and Infinite Whelplings
2) Civet/Otter/Mongoose
3) Tanuki/Bandicoon
4) Bucktooth Flapper/Thundertail Flapper
5) Hedgehog
6) Red Panda — the Pet Battling Monk declared her disinterest in doing the Beasts of Fable by purchasing a Sunfur Panda off the AH. She also declared her disinterest in doing the Pandaren Spirit Tamers by purchasing the other three Pandaren Elemental Spirits from the AH. She does, however, plan to do the Celestial Tournament, and Xu-Fu will be her first pick!
7) Anubisath Idol — named “Tartan” in honor of PlaidElf, who was helping me with AQ40 when it dropped; she already had one
8) Qiraji Guardling
9) Unborn Val’kyr — I’m still looking for an Unborn Val’kyr, though I don’t actually go hunting for her that often. I really should start checking the spawn sites in at least one zone (probably Howling Fjord) at least once a day, and then eventually patience and persistence will pay off (hopefully with at least an uncommon on the first try!).
10) Direhorn Runt — bought on the AH after proving to myself that trying to farm it would be exceedingly boring

6) What pets have you got in your favourite team(s)?
The Phoenix Hatchling rocks in my Cassandra Kaboom team; he could beat her whole team single-handedly when he was still a couple levels lower than them. Likewise, the Anubisath Idol is excellent against Grazzle the Great’s three Onyxian Whelplings. My other Kalimdor and Outland teams work, and some of them are even getting to the point where I think I can probably put in a carry pet or two, but they’re not really awesome yet. I’m also currently working on leveling enough of the right families of pets to defeat the Northrend trainers.

7) Do you use mods? If you could only have one pet mod, what would it be and why?
I only use one mod, Pet Battle Teams. I picked it up when the Pet Battling Monk got to Outland and the number of different team compositions got to be so many that I wanted to have saved teams instead of recreating them from scratch, using my paper notebook, each day.

8) What is the stupidest thing(s) you have ever done in a pet battle?
Oh, the same stupid things everyone does — not checking the health of my team before a battle or not checking if the team I currently have loaded is an appropriate level relative to a wild pet. I also have a bad habit of leaving DOT’ed pets on the front line for too long, so that they die from the DOT even after I swap them out.

9) What is your favourite pet ability? If you could have a pet with your favourite abilities, what would they be?
Cauterize is what makes the Phoenix Hatchling so great against Cassandra Kaboom’s triple mechanical team. The Dark Phoenix Hatchling, which doesn’t have Cauterize, isn’t nearly as effective. The Anubisath Idol’s Deflection makes it a star against a dragonkin’s Deep Breath; on the flip side, when the dragonkin is mine, Deep Breath is pretty awesome. Pump, another two-round charge-and-blast move, is great, too. I use the Pandaren Air Spirit in a lot of my high level teams because I can set up Renewing Mists, then let it heal my other pets when they are on the front line.
Because I don’t have very many high level pets yet, I’m not very good with the subtleties of how pet abilities interact. I can about manage to properly use one pet’s coordinating abilities. I need someone like Liopleurodon to tell me how to make a team where pet A uses an ability that empowers the abilities of pet B.

10) Design a pet! What model would your pet have, where would it come from and what abilities would it have?
I really really want a Kodo Runt pet! It would be found with roaming kodo in either Mulgore or the Barrens, and it would have the same moveset as the Clefthoof Runt and Stunted Shardhorn.

transmogrification and leveling: inventory space versus XP

Heirlooms (and other forms of +XP bonuses), the LFD random-queue goody bags, and Transmogrification have really changed my leveling process. I used to level through the zones that had storylines I enjoyed and/or provided quest rewards with good stats for my character. Now, I typically level via a combination of questing and LFD: I quest through areas that have either quest rewards I know I’ll want for Transmogrification or storylines that I want to experience, and I LFD through all the rest. Inevitably — usually sometime in Outland — I find myself wondering if I should do a given set of quests now, while I can get good XP for them, or if I should just zoom through those levels in LFD and come back to do the quests later, when I am actually wanting to make a Transmogrification kit that uses those specific quest rewards, so as to save my inventory from becoming glutted.

If I know for sure that I will want to use the quest rewards for Transmogrification later, even if I don’t already have any specific kits in mind, then I’ll usually decide to do the quests now, while I can get good XP out of them, too.

If the quest rewards are things that I kinda-sorta like, but I’m not sure whether I’ll actually ever use them in a Transmogrification kit, then I’ll usually decide to do the quests later, to save inventory space.

How has Transmogrification affected your leveling process?

Swords and Ploughshares

Thunder Bluff Warrior of the Insurrection

Vicious Pyrium Shoulders, any sleeveless chestpiece, Shattered Hand belt, Imperial Plate Leggings, Jade Tiger Gauntlets, Grim Sabatons, Thunder Bluff cloak & tabard, Ymiron’s Blade
The Thunder Bluff Warriors who are occupying Razor Hill during the Siege of Orgrimmar wear neither gloves nor boots. If you have invisiboots, such as Griftah’s Authentic Troll Shoes or Ancient Skeletal Boots, by all means use them! Keija does not yet have any invisiboots, not having obtained any either by raiding or by grinding the necessary Kor’kron supplies during patch 5.3, but the Grim Sabatons blend in with the pants well enough to produce almost the same effect.
The NPC belt is the same style as the golden-brown Shattered Hand or blue-grey Grimscale belt, but in a warm grey color that is not available to players. I chose to use the Shattered Hand belt because I felt like the warm tones harmonized better with the tabard & cloak. The Jade Tiger gloves contain both silvery tones to coordinate with the pants and golden tones to coordinate with the belt and tabard, making them the best choice of Keija’s readily-available gloves.
The NPCs carry Ymiron’s Blade + Saltstone Shield, a brighter recolor of the Angerfang/Splinterspear/Bladestaff Hammer that is not available to players, a unique and unobtainable 2H axe, or sometimes even the giant totem that every Tauren player character dearly wishes she or he could wield.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry


Wyrmslayer Spaulders, Bloodscale chestpiece & belt, Brutish pants gloves & boots, Dire Maul, Shield of Maraudon
Oh oh oh! Oh no! I totally forgot that I had wanted to make this outfit for my secondary Warrior for Love is in the Air this year until after the holiday had come and gone. Fortunately, I had some screenshots of the holiday decor from previous years that were suitable for compositing.

Tiller with Shovel





Straw Hat, Ramshorn-Inlaid Shoulders, Armored Chestpiece of Eminient Domain, Field Plate Girdle, Antique Reinforced Legguards, Crystalvein gloves, Subservient Greatboots, Green Lumberjack Shirt, Tillers Tabard, The Shoveler
This outfit owes a great debt to Freyana’s fantastic entry for the final round of The Amazing Transmog Survivor Contest.

Tiller with Shovel and Torch

Straw Hat, Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale, Kargal’s Breastplate, Marauder’s Belt, Togrik’s Legguards, Talhide Lined-Gloves & Boots, Wikket Wrap, Yellow Lumberjack Shirt, Shovel of Mercy, Grayson’s Torch
As it happened, it was more convenient for Kamalia to collect the low-level quest rewards than to watch for the identical Veteran’s armor to appear on the AH.
Fortunately, the Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale dropped for me on my first Trial of the Champions run. The first boss encounter is incredibly, exceedingly obnoxious to solo because the NPCs get to chain stunlock with no diminishing returns.
When I “Do the Right Thing” to get the shovel, I always rescue the humans and wish I could save the whole field of them. Poor things, they will need a lifetime of therapy to overcome the PTSD from that horrific experience.
Prior to Cataclysm, Captain Grayson offered his quests to Horde as well as Alliance, and I ran multiple characters up the coast from Grom’gol to his lighthouse in Westfall to get the torch. Nowadays, alas, though he remains neutral, Captain Grayson only offers his quests to Alliance characters. Horde characters should watch the AH for the Mistyreed Torch.

Tiller with Pitchfork

Straw Hat, Murkblood shoulders & chest, Brown Belt of Humbling Gravity, Expedition Pants, Silentleaf Gloves, Swift Cenarion Footwear, Blue Lumberjack Shirt, Nether Trident
At its core, this outfit is the same as my “Newsie” set. I’ve just switched out a few of the accessories.
Kate always wears one of her Monk class quest belts. Other characters should look for a relatively plain brown belt, such as the Belt of the Raptor.
One of the reasons why I picked this trident for Kate’s earlier Fisherman set is that it also makes a halfway-decent pitchfork for a Farmer set. The War Scythe or Grim Scythe would also be suitable weapons for a polearm-wielding class to use in a Farmer outfit.

Tiller with Staff

Straw Hat, Outlander’s Pauldrons, Blue Overalls, Willow Belt, Tangled Thread Gloves, Apprentice Boots, Red Lumberjack Shirt, Rosethorn Staff
I’ve seen several variations on the classic cloth “Farmer” look that use the Skein Woven Mantle. Indeed, I had one squirrelled away in my Transmogrification vault guild bank for Kaohana to use in a Farmer outfit. When I finally got around to making her one, however, I decided to do something a little different and use this set of shoulders that she already had soulbound, rather than adding yet another item to her overflowing wardrobe.
I thought about using a really plain “walking stick”-type staff model, such as Umbranse’s Staff, with this kit. The fancier Rosethorn Staff appealed to me more, though I’m not quite sure why it felt so appropriate for a Farmer. Warlock Farmers should of course use their Staff of the Left Hand Path/Staff of Justified Sins. WTB a Transmogrifiable Broom!

beach babes of Azeroth

click on the images to see the full-size versions of these pictures

I began this project last summer, as a follow-up to my rather crudely-assembled racial height and build comparison.

At the time, however, the sexism-in-WoW discussion was going around again, and I felt that it would be rather gauche to post what is undeniably an objectified image: I have reduced my models to shapes to be studied.

I’d been meaning to complete it anyway, but somehow BTH always seemed to already be using the tablet to work on his comic whenever I wanted to work on it

With all the wonderful new model previews being released, I figured I’d better finish this up quick, even though some of the subtleties of the stances and the shapes will soon be out-of-date.

I had been thinking I’d do a further follow-up of close-up studies of the front and profile shapes of the faces, because I feel like I still don’t have a really good grasp on how to make some of the races different from my standard way of drawing human people. I’d like to do a companion set of “beach bums of Azeroth”, too, because I feel that I understand the male shapes even less than the female shapes. Maybe I should wait on that until all the new models come out in 6.0, though.

Speaking of the new models, I’ve liked all the ones we’ve seen glimpses of so far, and I look forward to seeing the Night Elf, the Troll, and especially the Tauren. The new female Orc makes me wish I hadn’t deleted my level 35 Orc Enhancement Shaman. I do hope the shaved head texturing makes it into the final model.

the Underpowered Death Knight blows her horn

Thanks in large part to the sample-giving and crown-crushing Love is in the Air dailies, the Pet Battling Monk and the Underpowered Death Knight both dinged 80 this week.

I thought the Pet Battling Monk would bypass questing in Northrend by doing Archaeology in Eastern Kingdoms. As it happened, she didn’t do any more Archaeology — she ran LFD instead. I feel like I’m getting a much better understanding of the “spend mana, spend chi, drink tea” Mistweaver routine with this character than I did with my first Monk.

The Pet Battling Monk also finally chose some primary professions. She took Tailoring because making one Imperial Silk per day just isn’t going to get all my characters’ inventories upgraded to Royal Satchels fast enough. Having two Tailors on my main server will keep poor Kaohana from being chained to Sunsong Ranch and the Silken Fields until Warlords is almost over. She took Leatherworking because I want to have a character who can wear the leather version of the Black Temple BoP crafted shoulders. Though she has trained those two professions, I haven’t put any time into collecting mats and actually skilling them up yet.

The Underpowered Death Knight did some Argent Tournament dailies and quite a bit of Northrend Archaeology to get to her ding. Though it may look, in that picture above, like she dinged from killing those two Gjalerbron vrykul, she actually dinged from picking up the Archaeology find that she was just about to survey for when the big dudes attacked her.

The Underpowered Death Knight celebrated reaching level 80 by doing a tour of all the Unborn Val’kyr spawn sites and digging up all the digsites along the way. Although she didn’t see an Unborn Val’kyr anywhere, she captured a few other nice pets, and she collected enough Vrykul relic fragments to piece together the Vrykul Drinking Horn. I’ve macroed the Vrykul Drinking Horn together with her Horn of Winter, so it should always be up when she’s in combat, at least. It makes her as tall as a Camp Winterhoof taunka, though not quite as tall as a Skorn vrykul.


This is better than the Crown of Eternal Winter!
Although obtaining the Vrykul Drinking Horn has satisfied her original reason for wanting to take up Archaeology, the Underpowered Death Knight will most likely continue to do Northrend and Eastern Kingdoms Archaeology all the way from level 80 to level 90 — I don’t have any great desire to take her through either the Cataclysm zones or Pandaria. And as long as she’s in Northrend, she might as well keep looking for an Unborn Val’kyr.

sweets and stars

A few outfits for this year’s Love is in the Air season…

Very Berry Cream

Alabaster Plate Pauldrons, Bloodscale chest belt gloves & boots, Commander’s Leggings, War Paint Cloak, Wound Dressing, Hammer of Destiny
This outfit just wasn’t complete without this specific weapon. Fortunately, one showed up on the AH at a not-too-outrageous price just when I wanted it. I keep wanting to call it the Hammer of Density, though…

Adorable Aborigine

Forever-Lovely Rose, Feline Mantle, Aboriginal Robe, Ambermist belt & gloves, Cerulean Filigreed Shirt, Sealing Heartstaff
I wasn’t completely happy with the lower-level version of this outfit that I posted last year. This new version, with the shoulders I wanted to use then but hadn’t yet been able to acquire, is much more pleasing.
Yes, I know that the Forever-Lovely Rose is not Transmogrification-friendly. It would be awesome if it was, though — Forever-Lovely Silk Rose, Forever-Lovely Patent Leather Rose, Forever-Lovely Mithril Filigree Rose, Forever-Lovely Eternium Rose… sigh.

Falling Petals


Seaspeaker Mantle, Wrathfin chestpiece & pants, Brigade belt gloves & boots, Snowfall Shawl, Felstone Reaver
Although Kamalia Prime hasn’t managed to come up with any outfits to wear the lovely Snowfall Shawl with, I knew right away that mini-Kam would need to get it so that she could wear it with her Wrathfin & Brigade set when Love is in the Air came around again. This outfit is just that earlier set updated with the cloak and new weapons — but what a difference they make!

Fuschia Fantasy


Junior Technician 3rd Grade Goggles, Gossamer Shoulderpads, Vestments of the Shifting Sands, Arcanist Belt, Astralaan Pants, Widow’s Clutches + Silkwood Cuffs, Ruby Slippers , Cloak of Azure Lights, Formal White Shirt, Staff of Twin Worlds
After having gone to rather a great deal of effort to acquire the Ruby Slippers and matching Widow’s Clutches, Kaelinda knew exactly which robe she wanted to wear with them first. Fortunately, it only took her two resets of AQ20 to get it. This robe reads as purple to my color-sense, but I know plenty of people who consider it to be pink.
I prefer to wear a white bodysuit underneath this style of robe because I am uncomfortable with showing this much skin — feel free to leave off the shirt and use more revealing pants if you so desire.

… plus a few more recent creations that I’m rather pleased with.

many whelps! handle it!

Visitors to my apartment, beware: if you show any kind of Leeroy-like tendencies, you may be swarmed by the dragon whelps lurking in my bookcase!

Two and a half years after I made the first one and several months after finishing the first set of five, I’ve completed the last of my planned set of dragon whelplings.

After I’d picked out materials for the original five dragonflights, seeing both orange- and purple-bellied dragons among the trophies of the Dragonmaw in Twilight Highlands gave me the idea of making an Onyxian whelpling, too. When I found some fun color-shifting fabric, making nether and chromatic whelplings gave me a perfect excuse to buy some. A white-on-black-on-black infinte dragonling would also be cool. And Lil’ Tarecgosa, with her fancy horns, presented an intriguing challenge.