WoD pet news speculation and datamined

[Ryken]

Holy moly there are a LOT of new pets added. 600 pet achievement is in, reward is Stormwing, he looks pretty awesome

[Grarn]

Came across a pet trainer in Spires of Arrak. Veshaar at Veil Terokk. Pets are only rare quality.

Darkwing, flyer. P 325 S 390
Shadow Talon
Consume Corpse
Anzu's Blessing

Great Kaliril, flyer. P 289 S 390
Quills
Caw
Slicing Winds

Apexian Construct, mech. P 289 S 260
Batter
Entangling Roots
Featheren Frenzy

[Adal]

In the last patch, 2 pets (long awaited!) seem related to the pre-WoD events :

• [pet]Bronze Whelpling[/pet]
• [pet]Hogs[/pet]

[Xtrm]

Not only were there 23 new pets added this build, there are legendary battlestones, or at least stones that look like yellow-orange battlestones and MMO-Champion lists them as "icon_upgradestone_beast_legendary.jpg". This is promising!

[Poofah]

Here's Bronze Whelp's wowhead page, currently it looks like it will drop from the random Iron Horde mobs in Blasted Lands that will come with the WoD gate opening event. The moveset is a bit nonsensical though (Arcane Storm plus a stun...?).

http://wod.wowhead.com/npc=7546

[Dakender]

Can't find the post at the moment, but someone was asking about "Rematch".... well, it's been updated to work with Beta

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/i ... rbeta.html

[Quintessence]

Not only were there 23 new pets added this build, there are legendary battlestones, or at least stones that look like yellow-orange battlestones and MMO-Champion lists them as "icon_upgradestone_beast_legendary.jpg". This is promising!

LeCraft clarified that these icons aren't for legendary upgrade stones. Instead, they're tied to the leveling stones.

[Ryken]

Found the final spore pet, crimson spore was where I thought it'd be, in the Crimson Fen, southwest corner, coming out of Tangleheart, turn directly left and jump up the mushrooms!

[Ryken]

I like the new Lil' Stitches, chew pets works really well on him

[Adal]

In the last patch, 2 pets (long awaited!) seem related to the pre-WoD events :

• [pet]Bronze Whelpling[/pet]
• [pet]Hogs[/pet]

And [pet]Iron Starlette[/pet] too.

[Quintessence]

I like the new Lil' Stitches, chew pets works really well on him

I found a few pets that work pretty well on the updated Stitches Jr. fight.

The biggest change is that he no longer has the Boss passive. Iron Thread is still a thing, but it's manageable.

Another thing I noticed is that your pet team takes damage when you forfeit. This happened before with the BoF NPCs, but it wasn't intended. Hopefully that will get fixed before release.

Pets that I used: [pet]Stinker[/pet] (1,2,2), [pet]Fjord Worg Pup[/pet] (P/P 2,2,2) and [pet]Mr. Grubbs[/pet] (1,1,2).

Stinker was by far the MVP of my team. Self heal, team heal (because Cleave) and only comes as P/P making Scratch consistently hit just hard enough to overcome Iron Thread. He can usually take down Stitches to half health, and with extremely good RNG Stinker can solo the fight.

The Fjord Worg Pup was also pretty good against Stitches, even though it doesn't have any defensive moves. Only problem is that to land any attacks, you MUST have Howl up and unfortunately that has a cooldown. My Pup still did decent damage being P/P.

Mr. Grubbs filled the last spot and did about as well as the Fjord Worg Pup, but not as consistently. Like the pup, you need to keep up Acidic Goo to land any hits, but even then, Chomp has a damage range so every now and then Stitches will block the attack. Same with Burrow. Even with a little extra Power (Grubbs is H/P), I noticed a few blocked attacks. Mr. Grubbs' Burrow helped with avoiding Stitches' Enrage though. Maybe a grub/larva that's P/P (if there's even such a thing) would do better.

I've noticed that breed is fairly important if you want to go with all Critter attacks against Stitches (disclaimer: you don't have to go with all Critter attacks, I'm sure there are other abilities that would do just fine).

There are only a few Critter abilities that hit harder than 500 damage, and with the changes in WoD many now have damage ranges so they're not guaranteed to be effective against Iron Thread. Power helps. So do damage increasing debuffs (that don't require damage to be inflicted to actually be applied; Stampede won't work on it's own for example).

I think the changes to Stitches Jr. are good, and increases the variety of strats you can use to win. It's still not "easy" (keep in mind easy is subjective), but it doesn't require a very specific team anymore. Difficulty falls in line with the other menagerie challenges.

As a side note, LeCraft mentioned that they're still trying to decide how hard these battles should be. Difficulty may change by WoD's release.

[GilroyKilroy]

Level 3 pattern is still locked for me even after I just received the achievement

[Kpb321]

Try Mr. Wiggles with (1/2/1) or (1/1/1). Uncanny Luck ensures that Hoof will always hit for the high end of the range or crit and should easily get above the Iron Thread requirement.

[Poofah]

So Iron Thread changed, correct? Previously it was a shield for ~120 damage, and now it's 'ignore attacks that do less than 500 dmg'.

http://beta.wowdb.com/pet-abilities/1390-iron-thread

Even with a little extra Power (Grubbs is H/P), I noticed a few blocked attacks.

I really like the new design, since it forces us to think a bit differently about how to approach the fight. And it sounds like he's totally beatable as is.

*But*, I bet people will get annoyed with how that shield interacts with the new damage-range abilities. Chomp will never be reliable -- there isn't a pet with high enough power to hit through Iron Thread when it rolls low (even with Acidic Goo), which is 50% of the time. Hoof isn't reliable either unless you also use a +accuracy buff. And Scratch damage is low enough that you really need a 325+ power pet. So there's only a small list of pets that are really ideal:

Stinker (Scratch)
Core Hound Pup (Scratch)
Giant Sewer Rat (Scratch)
Red Cricket (Skitter)

Mr. Wiggles (Uncanny Luck + Hoof)

Guchi Swarmling will be able to land Chew every other turn, and Chomp half the time.

Pets with Pump will probably be a good choice, especially aquatic ones with Cleansing Rain in addition. And then there's Land Shark, with Focus/Tail Slap.

If he still has ~3000 health, then it should be pretty easy even with sub-optimal pets though.

[Quintessence]

So Iron Thread changed, correct? Previously it was a shield for ~120 damage, and now it's 'ignore attacks that do less than 500 dmg'.

Yea, Iron Thread was redesigned. I think it's a good compromise between both Boss passive and the original Iron Thread.

I really like the new design, since it forces us to think a bit differently about how to approach the fight. And it sounds like he's totally beatable as is.

Agreed. I really like this retuned version. Requires some knowledge and a little bit of planning, yet doesn't need very specific strats. It's a good step up from the Pandarian trainers and the Celestial Tournament.

[Luciandk]

the newest build reveals the challenge mode pet reward. Deathwatch Ravager.

Must be this one, as its tagged guild vendor
http://wod.wowhead.com/npc=84521#petabilities

[Adal]

[pet]Winter's Little Helper[/pet] has finally its new model (in the last patch).

[Adal]

And, it seems (can anyone verify?) new models for [pet]Guild Herald[/pet] and [pet]Guild Page[/pet] (for Alliance).

[Grarn]

And, it seems (can anyone verify?) new models for [pet]Guild Herald[/pet] and [pet]Guild Page[/pet] (for Alliance).

Yeah, they're using the new human model. Rotten Little Helper also has the new gnome model and the skin is quite darker, more gray than green.

[Adal]

And, it seems (can anyone verify?) new models for [pet]Guild Herald[/pet] and [pet]Guild Page[/pet] (for Alliance).

Yeah, they're using the new human model. Rotten Little Helper also has the new gnome model and the skin is quite darker, more gray than green.

Thanks!