Pet XP Food Stacking Hotfixed?!

[Kurasu]

Is it just me, or have they hotfixed the ability to use both pet foods as of... well.... today?

Yesterday, hell *this morning*, I was happily using a sausage and a burger (5% and 10% food respectively) in pet grinding.

A couple minutes ago, I tried to use them. I got told, "A more powerful enchant is already in effect" when I tried to use the sausage (after using the burger). Confused, I removed the burger.

Used sausage. 5% buff came up.
Used burger. 5% buff was overwritten by 10% buff.

[Threecrows]

Yup...

Confirmed. Same here.

That's got me a little concerned about Monday's "Super Squirt" day.

[Kurasu]

I wouldn't worry about the 'Super Squirt' day. It'll still only be two or three battles to fully level a pet.

Unless you mean whether Squirt's XP will be nerfed altogether?

[Threecrows]

... Unless you mean whether Squirt's XP will be nerfed altogether?

Yes, that's what I was referring to. Hopefully not.

[Jerebear]

Make sure to report this via the ingame bug report system. On the more likely chance it is a bug, this will help it get fixed faster (especially if enough people report it).

[The_guy]

Someone in a pet discord im on said the reason for the hotfix was that you could stack buffs to 1000%. So instead of fixing it just made it one buff at a time to stop the stacking. Though just to be clear ive never done it or seen it, but thought id post it here.

[Gráinne]

Ah I see.

Someone [[name & site redacted - Quint]] published an exploit that pet buffs stack infinitely, so you could put on burgers on top of burgers on top of burgers and level a couple of level 1s to 25s in one wild battle, with enough burgers, then sell the 25s for more gold. While I have used sausage and burger together, it never occurred to me to try to stack burgers.

I'm guessing that the devs put a panic fix in place for now.

We'll have to see how this shakes out.

[Callena]

Just came on to see if anyone else had noticed buffs being removed...

I logged in on my alt which is parked at Ashlei and didn't notice the buff had gone until my levelling pets only got to lvl 13 instead of 15. Thought perhaps I'd cancelled the buff by mistake so used another treat but it didn't apply (no error btw it consumed the treat but didn't apply the buff!).

Rather frustrating change!

[Quintessence]

I hope developers find a different way to address the exploit. For those that stocked up on a lot of Lesser treats, perhaps a way to convert those into the 50% ones instead.

Gráinne - I've removed the name of the player and site on which the exploit was revealed, just to be on the safe side.

[Gráinne]

Fair enough, Quintessence. Since the exploit was fixed, I saw no harm in it.

I did think it was worth showing why the devs probably don't want to remove the stacking of burger and sausage, but are just in the first reflexive reaction to prevent this from spreading and devaluing pet levels.

I hope, when they can get more time to plan a reaction, they can restore the normal stacking.

[Annieb]

Wow...it never occurred to me to even try to stack multiples of one type of buff 0.o (not that I would have done it anyhow, since that's never been intended)... I was just going to say that I too had noticed that there was a stealth hotfix. I hope they don't nerf Squirt too =/

I only noticed about the 2 pet treats being nerfed because now that I've finished all my own pets, I was going to start on my husband's account

[Jerebear]

I tweeted @warcraftdevs but I doubt I'll get a response. I'm one small voice in a large sea of messages to that account. has anyone reported it via the ingame bug interface (since they haven't announced the change)?

[Kurasu]

I'm not going to lie: I used the stacking buff to get things up to level 25 to sell.... but not in the exploit way. Just 1 hat + 1 sausage + 1 burger + 1 pet weekend and/or Squirt.

What with how fast and easy tokens are to get nowadays, though, honestly leveled pets *are* mostly devalued. Considering it's only 45 tokens to get a level 25 pet like that.

.... which is sort of funny, considering that for 25 +1 stones it costs 75 charms.

.... which is off topic, admittedly. My point being that I don't think they're going to make them stack again, simply because it's already very easy to level pets, and so stacking 5% and 10% pet XP isn't necessary and, if it's being exploited, is just better off removed altogether for ease of coding. At least that's my guess here. :/

It would be super nice if they made them stackable again, but I strongly suspect that they originally weren't meant to be stackable, and they just went "Well, it's a minor thing," ..... until it wasn't.

[Disgracedsaint]

Also be careful not to use a sausage treat on a different pet after you used a hamburger, it will waste the sausage.

[Kurasu]

Also be careful not to use a sausage treat on a different pet after you used a hamburger, it will waste the sausage.

The treats are 'per player' rather than 'per pet'. If anything, why you use them on the pet at all makes no sense, considering that it gives the *player* a buff that stays after you have a different pet in play.

[Irockhound]

I posted a bug ticket but haven't heard back yet and will post when they do. Yesterday when I tried to put the lesser treat on after the full treat it said a stronger spell exists and didn't take the lesser. I tried today to see if it was fixed and it burned the lesser treat. I agree that the response was a knee jerk to the exploit and the only way they could stop it in the short term was to restrict to one buff. Always takes one to ruin for the many.

Blizz responded: text below. Basically in a nutshell yes we hotfixed it and we know people are upset, add your voice to those complaining to be heard.

"Thank you for getting a hold of me with your question about your Pet treats no longer stacking. I know our little guys can get hungry and sometimes one treat just wont do! I took a good look into this for you and found it was actually changed in last weeks hotfix patch.

this means it was an intended change and not a bug. there has been some concern voiced over it on our forums and I recommend you add in your concerns as well. Suggestions are always welcome and help us look at ways to make the game better for you.

topic/20759209045 (I can't post links since new to posts so this is the thread on blizz forums)
thats the forum thread where people are discussing it. I recommend adding your thoughts to it as well."

[Quintessence]

Update from @WarcraftDevs: https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/status/920729253498445824

We've just applied a hotfix that should make it possible for you to again feed your pet both a hot dog and a hamburger, as nature intended.

[Kurasu]

I've never been so happy to be so wrong. Thank goodness!

[Archvaldor]

I agree that the response was a knee jerk to the exploit and the only way they could stop it in the short term was to restrict to one buff. Always takes one to ruin for the many.

No one ruined this but Blizzard.

Two weeks ago someone posted on their official bug report about the glitch. I saw it and made a video about it. That's all I did-it was presumably going to be fixed anyway, so I thought people should have some fun with it.

Subsequently they messed up the fix after a lengthy interval. It is a very simple logical operation and whoever messed it up should be fired. The problem was caused by a lazy coding and a company that can't hire programmers with functioning brain cells.

[Gilneas]

Wow.

That's quite the over-reaction. They put a temporary fix in so that exploit wasn't possible, and now they have a permanent fix out. Took less then a week. No one is lazy or should lose their jobs over something so silly. To even suggest that... yeah, I don't know what a good comparison is but it is totally inappropriate.