Speculation on 5.4 and Epic Pets

[Luciandk]

Facts:
We know epic pets is comming in 5.4. Blizzard have said there will be a handful of them and a cool way to obtain them.

That leaves me wondering..


When looking at the Legendary quest currently running, in Chapter 4 we have been attaining the Celestial blessings to empower ourselves so we could contain Wrathion's draconic power he wanted to bestow on us so we could stand against the Burning Legion.

So Im thinking it perhaps might leave him diminished and he chooses to acompagny us, his mortal champion for protection and to see the end of the comming invasion. Cue Lil' Wrathion in whelp form as a flavor reward just like Lil' Tarecgosa, but highly possibly of epic quality.

[Ainyan]

The problem is, Wrathion's whelp form is literally just a dark whelpling. Cute, but very underwhelming. They'd have to redo his entire draconic form to give him a Li'l. Not that I would object to this, mind you - but they haven't bothered to give his draconic form special art assets yet.

[Luciandk]

And blizzard have redone plenty of existing models in the past with new artwork. Doubly so if they might want to hide he could become a pet.

Thorim and Kalecgos are two npcs that have been retroactively updated with a newer model everywhere.

[Chrth]

I've already named my Dark Whelpling as "Wrathion"
and I tend to smack him every time I'm in an LFR I don't need to do to have a small chance at a Titan Runestone that didn't drop after five wipes on Durumu.

... that said, I don't see Blizzard doing that. I suspect the Epic Pets will simply be the reward after an almost legendary-style quest/pet battle chain. Like getting the Panda from beating all Beasts of Fable, but a more convoluted/complicated method than that.

[Quintessence]

If the epic pet(s) are rewarded from Wrathion's quest chain, I will be VERY disappointed. I've had no desire to do the legendary quests this expansion, as I haven't found it to be very "legendary" at all. But that's a different discussion. I'm probably 1 out of a hundred that didn't bother with the quests, though, so meh.

Anyway, if they add a pet reward to the end of that chain, that means I'm going to have to power through from start to finish, and pray I complete it before the end of MoP. Pretty frustrating. It'll make it pretty mandatory for collectors/battlers to do; what will happen to those that start collecting after MoP? Will they have a tough time completing the quests since there will be fewer people doing ToT and other raid instances?

This would make it troublesome for some players to get (after or even during this expansion), which would make it frustrating for battlers since an "epic" pet will probably be a MUST in their battling line up. By no means should the epic pet be "easy" to acquire, but since everyone will want/need one, wouldn't it make more sense to make it more widely available?

[Syrrie]

Facts:
We know epic pets is comming in 5.4. Blizzard have said there will be a handful of them and a cool way to obtain them.

Do you happen to have a link to where this was said?

[Luciandk]

Was in an interview. Found a copy of it here:

http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3865
Infact a thread I myself posted earlier.

Epic pets soon? And if so is it just going to be through an item like epic pet battle stone, or something more interesting?
Current plan is to introduce a couple epic pets in 5.4. We are working on a cool, new way to obtain them as well. Pretty hyped about it.