Massive Update to Free Pets!

I was torn, for a moment.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine indicated he was quitting Warcraft. He might come back for Warlords of Draenor, but likely won't, he said. Tired of paying for a subscription but not playing, he said. Oh, and did I want his extra pets?

Inside I'm all fuck yes but outside I offer a humble sure! and he then spends the next hour caging and mailing me his tradeable pets---twelve parcels packaged to the brim with battle pets. Once I saw the collection, my jaw nearly hit the floor: max level Anubisath Idols, a max level Crawling Claw; rare world drops; duplicates of the Pandaren Spirits; a Hyacinth Macaw.

This was no ordinary pet collection. It was then I realized the gift was worth well over 200,000g as the market currently stands. And that's why I've sat on these additions for so long. I wanted to decide what would make me the bigger idiot: selling the lot, or giving the lot away.

As you've probably gathered, I've decided to add them to my Free Battle Pets. I went ahead and cleaned up the list so that pets purchasable with gold via vendors are no longer included. Additionally, you'll see a handful marked "on hold." Those I plan to offer friends & guildies first before I make them available to the general public.

Hit me up on Twitter, leave a comment on the post or add my battletag if you're interested in any of these. As usual, I'd like people to limit themselves to two pets.

View the Updated List

Spending the Gold Cap #9: The day I spent over 300,000g on battle pets

What else to do once you hit gold cap, other than spend your fortune? In the Spending the Gold Cap series, I account for the money I earned as I spend it on Unclaimed Black Market Containers, and the occasional pet or mount from the auction house. There will be tears.

Yesterday, I freed myself of any lingering attachment I held to the half-million remaining on my banker's server and spent over 300,000g in a matter of minutes. Didn't even bat an eye, didn't feel even a slight tinge of regret. 

Earlier that morning, I was tooling around on my main server when I saw a player selling a Magic Rooster Egg and the Reins of the Swift Spectral Tiger in trade chat. My auctioning activity on Emerald Dream has been mostly light until recently, my liquid gold hovering right around 150,000g. I asked the player if they'd take that sum, fully well knowing what the response would be. But if I could come up with another 100,000g, the Rooster Egg was mine, they said.

That triggered something in my brain, my thoughts settling upon the remaining sum stranded on my banker's server. I wondered to myself how I could realistically spend that money. Sure, it would be nice to win a rare mount through the BMAH. However, as the appearance of Mimiron's Head taught me last week, that's a hell of a lot easier said than done. While I would've gladly dumped the entire half-million in that single transaction, I couldn't even stay alive long enough to place a bid. I guess a level 85 in a black tuxedo makes an easy target.

At auction's end, the thing sold for 10,000g more than I had. That experience, coupled with the inability to purchase the Rooster on my main server pushed me to decide that it's time be a bit more spendy and much less discerning when it comes to the money that's left on Bonechewer. 

On a whim, I sauntered over to the Auction House in Dalaran to search for tradeable pets I'm missing, a list I compiled easily at Warcraft Pets. Shockingly, the most expensive pet, going for a 135,000g buyout, was the Ethereal Soul-Trader. There was also a level 25 Spectral Tiger Cub going for much less. I knew that both of the prices were well under the U.S. market average. Hell, the Soul-Trader sells on Ebay for anywhere between $100 and $300 real dollars.

I polled Twitter, and with a wise suggestion by a fellow goldmaker, I nabbed the Soul-Trader for 129,000g and the Spectral Cub for much less. Of course, that doesn't account for the more than 300,000g spent. No, the remaining sum went towards additional pets---11 of them in all---each accessible via in-game channels, but ones most players will not organically acquire because of RNG. When a Blackfuse Bombling drops, some people see a cute little pet, and other people hear the cha-ching! of gold being made. 

I am, and have always been, a patron of both.

So while I won't bother listing which pets I acquired beyond the two above out of respect for my pet-collecting purist friends, let's just say I'm probably farther than most when it comes to Liopleurodon's handy little Warlord's checklist. The accounting:

543,414g

- 129,000g¹

-177,282²

Total Remaining Gold: 237,132g

                                                 

¹Etheral Soul-Trader.

²Spectral Tiger Cub all 11 mystery pets.

Spending the Gold Cap #3: Competition for containers

What else to do once you hit gold cap, other than spend your fortune? In the Spending the Gold Cap series, I account for the money I earned as I spend it on Unclaimed Black Market Containers, and the occasional pet or mount from the auction house. There will be tears.

It's not that I haven't been trying for Unclaimed Containers since the last post three weeks ago. Believe me, I have---though my own forgetfulness will occasionally contribute to me not rechecking the auction house when I should be. However, containers have been selling for as much as 20,000g, a price that gives me pause. As you can guess, I haven't been on the winning end of many containers this month...ONE so far, to be exact.

I know. One isn't really worthy of an entire post, unless it has yielded something amazing. Well folks, I'm breaking that rule. This week's item isn't a total loss right out of the gate. So let's get right to the accounting:

Last tally: 816,267g

+ 177g¹

= 816,444g

                                        
¹ Did a small amount of questing with a friend who returned to the game.

UNCLAIMED CONTAINER

Contained: Teldrassil Sproutling
Purchase Price: 11,570g
Resale Value: ≈ 2000g

It definitely lessens the blow when you win an item that can potentially be resold. Like the pattern I won earlier, I can fortunately list this item on the auction house. When I first unboxed the item, there were none listed, so I posted mine for the high price of 5,000g. At relist, there was another going for 2,000g. As always, I'd be happy to recoup any amount of money at this point. As it currently stands, to date, I've managed to spend 1/5th of my fortune:

816,444g

- 11,570g

Total Remaining Gold: 804,874g

WoW Weekly: Treasure Island

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

Oh, Timeless Isle, you. A wide-open, unexplored expanse. Grounds of the ultimate pet battle tournament and frustrated alt-gearer's wet dream. TI. Your parallels are not lost on me.

Since I'm still LFW, I was able to hop online just after servers came up on Tuesday. First thing on the list: acquire legendary cloak. After speaking with Wrathion, everything was falling into place. Then I arrived on the Isle and became horribly, horribly distracted. I could knock off the quests one-by-one, but why would I do that when there are giant Celestials battling massive parties of fellow Horde right there in the courtyard? When I finally wrestled myself away after besting our four wise guides in order to quest, I was distracted by treasure chests, rare spawns and random events. 

After finally acquiring the cloak, I'd spent a good part of the afternoon on the Timeless Isle, each of my max-level toons having 496 gear in nearly every item slot for both specs. Yikes. Almost seems too easy. Especially when you find this---an in-depth guide to the location of ALL of the island's lootable chests---something I used when I returned to the island on an alt. However, the level of cooperation between players and factions on my populated PvP server that was brought on by the novelty of the content quickly faded and the island devolved into a everyone-for-themselves bloodbath. 

I'm glad to have finished most of the Isle's content on the first day. In other non-news:

• Unsurprisingly, the RNG gods have moved on to help someone else. Then again, I'm really only still after Ashes, which has more do with endurance now than luck.

• Found a group to kill Ordos, the boss accessible to only those with the legendary cloak, through Open Raid. Simple fight---a DPS race more than anything. 

• Failed miserably at the Celestial Tournament. If you want to see how far along pet battling's come, check out the tourney (assuming you have the requisite 15 max level pets---though you'll never win the tournament with just 15). This is serious stuff, and pet battlers will have to be cunning in order to progress---but look no further. Lio has a comprehensive guide that will help get you through over at Battle Pet Roundup. 

• Put together a new transmog (pictured in the header) for Elepheagle, mainly because of the legendary cloak effect animation. The "blue wings" were really clashing with the burnt orangey-yellows of my previous set. Consequently, I've abandoned the quest for two other sets simply because of the time involved---going to take a break from fashion design for a while.

Have you been enjoying your time on the Timeless Isle? 

WoW Weekly: Totally Soloable

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

So I'm plunking around Northrend, trying to sneak up on the last two mobs required for the Frostbitten achievement. Believe me, finding Loque'nahak is not an easy task; and once I do, I won't be able to kill the beast without incurring some nerd rage if any hunters are within earshot. I check my map, and that's when I see it: Wintergrasp. Why care about Wintergasp? The fat mammoth in the picture above is why.

Other things I'm up to:

• Grand Black War Mammoth is mine. For most decently geared level 90s, the bosses in Vault of Archavon won't cause much grief. Just burst them down and move on---the mount itself has an approximate 1% drop rate from each boss, so I was quite surprised to loot this guy during my second week in, much to the chagrin of a rival mount collector-friend of mine.

• Taking a break from pet battling---I had a good run getting into PvP, but simply got bored. I'm looking forward to patch 5.4 and the new pet battle tournament.

• Decided my warlock needs to have the Felheart set, as the Felheart Gloves were the first epic I ever received in game wayyyyy back in Vanilla when I was brought into a Molten Core run that one time. The pants and boots remain to be collected.

• Since I went through the trouble of crafting Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, I figured I may as well try for (did someone say) Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker. I was rather shocked to see one-half of the bindings drop on the first time I brought my death knight in.

• The Thursday night raid roster is still being finalized---we have six core regulars who've been present since the beginning (July); I'm in talks with three potential recruits, which means one more player is needed to provided the bare-minimum roster of 10 players. We're really itching to spend some time in ToT before the patch drops on September 10th. 

• I've chosen to turn off trade chat on all of my toons for the time being. For the sake of my own sanity. For those who stomach trade chat daily, I call on you to be part of the solution.

How 'bout you? Any particular goals you have set for yourself?

WoW Weekly: Madness!

And stay down!

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

It's Tuesday! And there's no downtime...and since I'm currently Looking-for-Work and the grass isn't menacingly tall, I'll be spending at least part of the morning in-game. Where I once again absolute do not see Ashes and debate whether or not I should figure out how to solo the encounter on my warlock. Cause then I'd have up to four chances per week. Sheesh. That's dedication madness!

Additionally, I'm hoping this week turns out to be the week where I acquire the final three Runestones I need to move onto the next part of the Legendary Chain. I've been averaging approximately one per week -- the token Runestone you're guaranteed from Lei Shen. Keeping that average in mind, three is a lot to ask, so I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: I ran the first leg while editing this post and saw TWO Runestones drop. Looks like this week's the week...madness!

In other self-centered news:

• I spent some money and nabbed nine pets off the auction house, bringing my total uniques to 487. I've amassed 52 level 25 pets, meaning I should be in OK position for the Celestial Tournament come 5.4. If you'd like to see how that's shaping up, Liopleurodon has an excellent overview from her time spent on the PTR.

• In a rather serious post, I issued a subtle call to whoever would listen in the WoW community to stand up in the face of other players' negative/toxic/offensive language and behavior. 

• Yesterday Blizzard issued more information on how Virtual Connected Realms will work. From the sounds of it, the feature will be released sometime during 5.4 and will initially be targeted to a select handful of low-pop realms, dashing my dreams of 5.4 being the patch that packed the arsenal of tools I needed to finish filling a 1-night-per-week progression raid group.

• Speaking of raiding, our 1-night group is shaping up---just need to fill a couple more slots. With key positions filled I should be able to focus on playing casually while readying Elepheagle for patch 5.4

Battle Pets: Level 1 to 25 in FOUR fights!

8.30.16 - Legion Update - this guide has not been updated since MoP, and I have not kept up with the pet battle side of things in Warlords of Draenor. That said, this guide will still work, as it doesn't take advantage of Howl Bomb, but at the same time there may be more efficient methods to level pets in Draenor that I am unaware of.

---

I bet the bounce rate on this page is going to be ginormous since being able to level a pet from 1 to 25 in four fights has so many prerequisites that its usefulness is limited to veteran pet-battlers. Literally: in order to do this right, players must have access to the Beasts of Fable quests at minimum, and even then players aren't guaranteed to have two of the items that make this possible: Pet Treat and Lesser Pet Treat. Both of these items are a must-have; they have chance to drop from reward bags players acquire from the Beasts of Fable quests and the weekly PvP pet battle quest.

Yeah, so it's kind of cheating---the treats will stack with each other, meaning you can have one of each active at any time to provide +75% XP gain. Throw on a Safari Hat for good measure and you're four fights away from raising that noob pet to max level (note: you may be able to do this without the Safari Hat, but why would you?). The order of these fights doesn't matter---in fact, any four pandaren master tamers will do the trick.

Here's what it looks like:

Fight 1 - Aki in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms - Level 1 to 14 (+6706XP)

For easy-mode, use: Anubisath Idol

While it is entirely possible for your level 1 pet to survive Aki's grasshopper's first attack, it's not guaranteed. The Anubisath Idol can nearly solo the three on its own thanks to Sandstorm and Deflection. To be safe, start with the Idol, cast Sandstorm and swap your leveler in for a round---they won't take any damage. Swap the Idol in and kill the grasshopper. Use Deflection on Aki's next pet's first move, then use Sandstorm again to remove its weather effect. Finish off the second pet. The Idol may die facing the third pet---En-Bee-Dee---just finishing him off with your third pet. A flyer will work best for this.

If you do not have an Anubisath Idol: Get one. Otherwise, any pet with Sandstorm will make this fight considerably easier---just use it like you would were you using an Idol. If you don't have a pet with Sandstorm, your level 1 pet can often survive one round from the grasshopper, provided there are no crits. The key then is to start with your leveler, swap it out and counter Aki's three pets with two from your arsenal. At the end of the day, the Idol makes this fight downright trivial.

Fight 2 - Nishi in Valley of Four Winds - Level 14 to 20 (+8510XP)

Use a strong aquatic, as you're facing two elementals and a beast.

Nishi's no longer a pushover thanks to a change in patch 5.4. Siren, the pet she starts with, has been buffed. Solar Beam hurts, especially when you're also dealing with the pet's damage-increasing weather-effect. Avoiding Solar Beam will make this fight considerably easier. It should be the third ability Siren uses; I usually eat the Solar Beam, but reduce the damage it does by changing the weather before Siren casts it. Do what works for you.

I normally wait until Nishi's second pet dies to swap in the leveler, but this isn't necessary. I recommend finishing the battle with a mechanical pet.

Fight 3 - Yon in Kun-Lai - Level 20 to 24 (+6706XP)

For easy-mode, use: Emerald Proto-Whelp

Apply the Proto-Whelp's damage-reduction ability and you'll burn through Yon's first two pets before you know it. Otherwise, know that Yon starts with a flyer whose main ability is a multi-strike attack---if you have any damage-reduction buffs, just like when using the Anubisath Idol with Aki's grasshopper, these won't damage you. If you aren't using a Proto-Whelp, your first pet usually dies partway through facing Yon's second pet---here I'll bring out the leveler to hopefully finish it off---remember, your leveler is 20 now and thus can do decent damage as well as take some hits---then swap in a mechanical to finish the battle.

Fight 4 - Your Choosing/Burning Pandaren Spirit

For easy-mode, use: Pandaren Monk and Anubisath Idol

I went to the Burning Pandaren Spirit just because I have decent pets to counter the burning spirit's and it was closest. Really---if there is another tamer in Pandaria you're comfortable with, go for it. Any win will net you the remaining experience you need to get to max level.

For this fight, start the monk and use Jab. Then use Focus Chi---your opponent will use Lift Off here. Finish the pet with Fury of 1,000 Fists. Missing this attack can complicate the rest of this fight. Assuming you've killed Burning's first pet, continue to damage the next pet until your monk dies. Bring in your idol and finish the second pet using Crush while applying Stoneskin and using Deflection to counter the elemental's one devastating attack---once you time this right you'll be using Deflection the round after it comes off cooldown. The third pet here is a flyer with a multi-strike attack which gets completely negated by your idol's Stoneskin.  I usually drop the third pet low enough to where I can bring in my leveler for the last few hits of that fight.

Congrats! Now wasn't that easy?

Battle Pet Spotlight: The crotch-sniffing Spawn of G'nathus

No matter which way I turned, Spawn of G'nathus displayed an alarming obsession with sniffing my shaman's crotch. 

Aquisition: 100% drop rate from G'nathus in Townlong Steppes

Ability 1: Swallow You Whole / Jolt
Ability 2: Dive / Lightning Shield
Ability 3: Thunderbolt / Paralyzing Shock

Ok, maybe this pet isn't a crotch-sniffer. Maybe I was just experiencing a freak set of circumstances that caused my little guy here to orient his head towards my shaman's nether regions wherever I went. Maybe I just needed an attention-grabbing headline.

Either way, does that guy look familiar to you? Probably not. Heck, as of this posting only 8% of collectors over at WarcraftPets have that little guy, despite how easy he is to own. And as you've most likely noticed, he (mine's a male named Creepy Jay because of all the crotch-sniffing I definitely witnessed) packs an interesting punch with a nice smattering of devastating aquatic and elemental abilities. He's also one of the faster non-flying pets at 289 speed at level 25. If you're not interested in the whole pet battle thing, know that the Spawn of G'nathus is tradeable/sellable, though it's not regularly seen on the auction house---price history listings indicate it's been listed from anywhere between 2,000-17,000 gold.

Kill big eel, get little eel

Getting the Spawn of G'nathus is actually quite easy, but you're going to need a friend or two. More if you want the fight to end quickly, as G'nathus packs 43.6 million HP and hits as hard as a raid boss. Our group's decently geared tank was taking hits upwards of 300k. Our first kill took a little longer with just a tank, healer and damage-dealer---recruiting a second DPS made additional attempts go significantly faster.

The large, eel-like creature patrols along the northern and eastern shores of an island named Shan'ze Dao in Townlong Steppes. If you spent any amount of time doing Shado-Pan dailies, you've no doubt been to this island. He's surrounded by non-elite sharks, many elite Spawn of G'nathus (they don't drop the pet), and a harmless patrolling leviathan---make sure your tank waits to pull until G'nathus is in a relatively uncrowded area. G'nathus has a frontal AoE-type ability, so the healer and any DPS should be behind the boss---but really, its damage isn't anything to worry about. As long as your healer isn't sleeping, you'll be fine---simple tank and spank.

And there you have it! He's on a fifteen minute respawn timer, so farm at your leisure. If you're looking for fast & efficient ways to level your battle pets, please check out my guides link in the main navigation.

Note: if you're really struggling with this fight, Starre suggests bringing a warlock for Curse of Exhaustion in the comments below. The slow meant their group didn't even need a healer.

WoW Weekly: Extra play time

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

When I suddenly find myself with extra WoW time, my completionist-leanings tend to kick in. I browse my achievement pane, keeping an eye out for particularly fun tasks, or ones that can be completed relatively easily--most of the time. This week, I had my sights set on Terrific Trio. Given this expansion's general unfriendliness towards alts---which I admit, is getting better with each patch---I haven't spent much time on other characters. But in preparation for the Emerald Dream 1-night Raid Team's inaugural run, I thought it might be wise to have a viable tank on the side in case we needed it. And we did.

That said, anyone looking for a raid experience without the massive time commitment should contact me. We're doing Thursday nights from 7:30pm-11:00pm---earlier Pandaria raids for now until we fill up. I anticipate we'll be transitioning into Throne of Thunder within the next 2-3 weeks, and should be able to make decent progress before 5.4 drops and flex raids are introduced.

Given it's been seven months since the first WoW Weekly post, I thought I'd take a look at what's on the first "to-do list" and tally up what I've completed and what's still missing:

• Raiding with Leashes has been complete for quite some time, though the Lesser Voidcaller pet from its counterpart, Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition still eludes me. I even ran three characters through that place this week. Perhaps I'll have better fortune next time.

• Speaking of the Eye, the Ashes of Al'ar have proven to be super, super rare. Who'da thunk it. Good news is, I can wipe the floor with Kael'thas in my sleep. So I guess let me know if you're having any trouble with that fight.

• I haven't been to Onyxia's Lair in several weeks---and the last time was to help a friend. Regular visitors here might know that the Reins of Onyxia dropped for me not too long ago.

• Malygos is soloable by a 474 Blood Death Knight I can now confirm. Requires perfect execution of the 1-1-2-3 sequence in phase three, and I seem to be able to manage that now most of the time. Still after that pesky Blue Drake.
  
• What We've Been Training For has provided a ridiculous amount of fun. I wrote a post about one of my favorite battle pets, the Giant Bone Spider. You should consider adding one of these to your roster.

• Every once in a while I'll run Stratholme back-to-back until I received the error message about entering too many instances. I've been casually after Deathcharger's Reins since Vanilla.

• Once deciding my discipline spec had to look distinctly different from my shadow spec, I've set about compiling the Avatar's Raiment set.Got all of the tier pieces this week--just need the accessory pieces to round out the look.

• I've established a personal goal for Elepheagle and the Hydraxian Waterlords: exalted by Blizzcon. Not a very lofty goal, since I'm about eight runs out, but I am really sick of Molten Core. I have the legendary two-hander and each piece of the shaman tier from that era. I just want it to be over with.

What about you? Are there mounts on this list you're after, or perhaps have already earned?

Battle Pet Spotlight: Force Swaps with the Giant Bone Spider

Giant Bone Spider via Blizzard

Acquisition: Contained in Dusty Clutch of Eggs dropped by Maexxna in Naxxramas
Ability 1: Bone Bite / Poison Spit
Ability 2: Stick Web / Siphon Life
Ability 3: Leech Life / Death Grip

Sometimes, all your game plan needs to entail is throwing your opponent off of theirs. Former professional basketball player Reggie Miller was notorious for getting inside his opponent's head with a constant barrage of trash-talk. He taunted John Starks until Starks blew up, leading to his ejection from the game (shown above). Heck, Reggie once found himself on the receiving end of an eye rake and right hook from none other than Michael Jordan. Because of his unique talent of getting inside opponents heads and throwing them off their game, I'm tempted to called my Giant Bone Spider "Reggie." Let me explain.


If you're like me, you've already assembled a handful of teams made up of pets who have good synergy. Maybe their abilities complement each other, or perhaps their overall combination of strengths seems to provide advantages no matter which pets your opponent brings to the table. You may even have a solid plan when entering into PvP battles. Great...until your opponent shows up with a Giant Bone Spider. If this happens, abandon all hope plans you may have had and get ready to react. You're about to be thrown off your game.

With 289 speed, the Giant Bone Spider will strike first against the majority of pets, aside from those in the Flying family. Add to that, there are a couple of popular humanoid pets that will be utterly devastated by this undead creature. But the chaos, the ability to throw an opponent off of their game, comes via Death Grip: you'll be able to hit your opponent with a parting shot before swapping them out with a pet from their back row---their lowest health pet when applicable.

It's a great ability to mitigate damage with as well. For instance, if an opponent's pet applies a damage buff to itself, just swap it out. Opponent swaps in a pet that has a devastating attack with a nasty weather effect? Swap it out before your opponent gets to use it. Also, DoT up your opponent's pet with Poison Spit and Siphon Life, then Death Grip and the pet will either die in the back row or limp back into attack position with sliver of health, begging you to end its life. I've had opponents up and quit after my second use of Death Grip---they fold and crumble when unable to stick to their cookie-cutter predetermined plan of attack.

With a three-round cooldown, this ability will often be ready just about the time your opponent realizes what is happening. Which, most of the time, is too late. The Giant Bone Spider has become my default starter pet, and I've won 9 out of my last 10 bouts running Giant Bone Spider, Gryphon Hatchling, and Oasis Moth. To top it off, my bone spider solo'd an opponent's entire team last night to earn my 10th win for the weekly PvP quest. Though everything I've written thus far in this paragraph is partially based on luck, the Giant Bone Spider will be a regular on my pet battle roster.

ArWAAARRRK!: Peacock battle pet to debut soon™?

Update 6.7.13: The speculation I included in this post on the origin of the mystery sound in the Throne of Thunder musical score has been slain by the truth, delivered via Twitter by none other than Glenn Stafford, Senior Composer at Blizzard. That's right---conch shells can be turned into horned instruments.

Cool, huh? AND we're still probably getting a peacock pet.
---

@elepheagle @liopleurodonic @spacebard The chances are very good.
— Cory Stockton (@mumper) June 5, 2013

Earlier today in an innocuous response to a tweet from yours truly, Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton hinted that players will be seeing a peacock battle pet in game at some point. Why is this important, you ask? Well...it's not, really. If anything, it tells us that Blizzard plans to continue to support pet battles---something that shouldn't be surprising at all.

So, you want to know why I have peacock on the brain? Oh, you don't want to know. I'm going to let you know anyway. Early on after 5.2's launch, I noticed a curious vocalization that popped up during a lull in the musical score for the Throne of Thunder. Initially, I referred to it as a 'yodel' (which, admittedly, isn't very accurate), and a friend offered that it may very well be a peacock. Listen for yourself---the phenomenon takes place around 10 seconds in:


Now, let's compare that sound to the vocalization of a peacock:


Do you hear it? At first I wasn't convinced, but now I'm no longer sure. Whatever the hell it is, just what the heck is it doing on a music track and what significance does it have? I've reached out to Senior Director of Audio Russel Brower for an answer, and will update this post and tweet his response should he return my query.

Given that it's likely we'll see a new peacock pet soon, how do you think it will be acquired? Drop, or new tame? Reward for a meta-achievement, perhaps Raiding with Leashes III: the Frozen Wastes? I've also heard a rumor that peacocks are Ghostcrawler's super cool but as-yet unannounced special 5.4 game-changing feature.

Time will tell.