Do you remember your first vanity pet?

Do you remember which of your many vanity pets was the very first you got? I was trying to figure that out today and I realized that I couldn't recall it.
Unfortunately I expect that not even Blizzard can track the exact truth, since creation dates probably got wiped when the pet journal was introduced, but I thought that perhaps looking at the list would jug my memory, so I opened the pet journal to give it a go.

First I unticked all pet gained through pet battling. Having played since 2005 I was certain that my first pet would not be amongst those. I also unticked Blizzard store pets and pets gained from the trading card game as I didn't start getting pets from those until the summer of 2008.

This left me with quite a long list still. Scanning through it I narrowed it down to 3 pets.

The mechanical chicken is the one I think is most likely.
You get it from the quest An OOX of Your Own which opens up after you have done the escort quest for 3 mechanical chickens in 3 different zones. 
I am pretty sure I did this on my very first character, which means I should have gotten this pet at some point during 2005. 

The question is whether I completed the quest chain before or after May 2005 because if it was after, that leaves room for my guess number 2.

Speedy is one out of 4 different pets you can get from the original Children's week quest line. 
The other choices are Mr. Wiggles, Scooter the Snail and Whiskers. I am 100% certain that I chose Speedy as my number one, I vividly remember having a hard time picking between him and Mr. Wiggles and ending up with him as my choice. I don't remember if this happened in 2005 or if it wasn't until 2006 that I realized this quest line was available. Looking through the list though I have discovered that I am still to pick up Whiskers and that I have 2 Speedy's which is a bit silly, but at least I know which reward to pick next year! 

The Winter Reindeer along with the Tiny Snowman and Father Winter's Helper is another good guess. The pets were introduced to Winter Veil in 2005 and you could get them from opening the presents under the tree. 
I know that I have done this every year since the beginning so the question is just whether or not I received one of the 2 above pets before getting either of these 3 Winter Veil ones. 
Sadly I can't remember, but all of these 3 pets required a snowball to summon back before they were put into the pet journal, so even if one of them were my first pet, it hasn't seen much use as snowballs were rare except for during the holiday. 

Given that my first character was an Undead, it would actually have made a lot of sense if my first vanity pet had been the Undercity Cockroach. But it wasn't. In fact I didn't get any cockroach until I wanted to test out the Apocalypse ability when fighting Dos-Ryga. 
Why you ask? Well I think they are ugly and disgusting, even in pixel form, but the main reason back in the early days of WoW was that even 50 silver was quite a big deal. Remember this was back when a slow mount cost 40G and the fast one 600G. Not many people could afford the latter, but I got mine the moment I turned 60. One of the reasons I could afford that was because I didn't spend money on anything that wasn't absolutely necessary and that is how I know for a fact that my first vanity pet must have been from a quest or an event.
So this is my guesses for my first vanity pet. Do you remember which one was your first?

Which Battle Pet are you?

Have you ever considered which vanity pet in World of Warcraft you resemble most?

Take this quick quiz to find out!


Did you get the result you expected? If not which vanity pet would you like to be if you could pick any of the 500+ currently ingame?

What will happen to Pet Battles in Warlords of Draenor?

As expected, there were not much said about pet battles at Blizzcon, but in the "ask about everything" panel someone asked the question that us pet battlers have been wondering. How will Pet Battling work in Warlords of Draenor. Will there be more levels to grind for all of our pets? And will we finally get a legendary quality?

The answers given were brief and not very detailed, but hopefully they mean that pet battles will continue to be exciting in WoD.
Cory Stockton said that they were not looking to increase the levels for battle pets and that makes me super happy. I don't know about you guys, but I have a ton of level 25 and the thought of having to level them to 30 does not sound like fun. So yay for not raising the level cap!

Instead of increasing the level cap, the developers are looking at expanding the collection aspect. This to me sounds like there will be a ton of new wild, quest reward and dropped pets in Draenor. They also want to add more trainers which will hopefully give us some new challenges.

The most interesting thing though was that in the new player made garrisons, it will be an option to have a Pet Stable. It didn't sound like they had really finalized the purpose of this building, but Cory did mention a unique trainer and epic pet battles so it could end up being really exciting.

All in all it sounds like pet battles haven't been forgotten for Warlords of Draenor, but unfortunately it doesn't sound like it is a big priority either. I would have loved to hear something more and for the devs to show us some unique and creative ideas of where to take pet battles, but hopefully we will see something once they start polishing the new expansion.

Lets say I am semi excited about the future of pet battles. What about you? 

Pet battle challenge of the month - November 2013

The challenge of November is all about themed pet battle teams.
Pet battling is not all about winning, it is about winning while looking cool and nothing says cool like an awesome themed oet battle team.

This month I challenge you to put together a pet battling team that has a clear theme to it.
It can be a theme based on the names you have given your pets, it can be a team that only uses a particular familie of pets or it can be another thematic focus.
The most important thing is that the theme is clear to the opponent.

Prizes
As last month there will be two different prizes one for people on the EU servers and one for people on all the other servers.
For the EU servers you can choose between a green level 25 Azure Crane Chick or a level 1 Phoenix Hawk Hatchling.
If you are not on the EU servers you can win a Medal of Honor Steam Key.

How it works
Create an awesome looking themed pet battle team, then test it out in battle. Make sure it can at least win once in a while. In the comment section below describe your team and the theme. If possible link to a screenshot of the team in action although this is not required to enter the competition.

How do I win?
The competition ends at midnight CEST on the 31st of October and once it has ended I will pick a random submission.

Once the competition is over the winning team will be announced here and provided I have access to the pets used in the winning team I will also make a video showcasing the team in action. If you enter the competition, please make sure you check back here so we can arrange handing over the price.

Top 3 Undead Battle Pets

Undead vanity pets are great for pet battling. Their racial is awesome and they usually have good abilities. Furthermore they are a great counter to the Anubisath Idol and the  Kun-Lai Runt, which seems to be a staple in 50% of all Pet Battle Teams.

Unborn Val'kyr

Pic © Blizzard

This undead pet is awesome because of its versitility. With shadowslash, curse of doom and unholy ascension it is great for killing off elites in PVE. And with the fix to Haunt in patch 5.4 it is now a stable in many PVP teams. Haunt + Curse of Doom allows you to do a lot of damage, while being untouchable  yourself.
The Unborn Val'kyr also gets extra points for one of the coolest idle animations. Kill off a normal critter and standby while your Val'kyr brings it back to life.

Mr. Bigglesworth

Pic © Blizzard

A pet with very high survivability in pet fights. With Ice Barrier it can block off two enemy attacks, while Ice Tomb will keep the anemy pet frozen and on top do a good amount of damage.
Also with a speed of 325, Mr. Bigglesworth is faster than most other pets which is both good for his pounce ability and gives you and overall advantage. Faster is almost always better. 



Giant Bone Spider

Pic © Blizzard

Even though the swapping spells were nerfed in patch 5.4 they are still a great way to control the fight. A lot of teams are dependant on set moves to work out and you can really mess up an opponents tactics by swapping out their pet. On top of that the combination of dotting up an enemy pet and then swapping it out so it can't retaliate is very powerful.




Worthy mention

Pic © Blizzard

The Creepy Crate is a great undead battle pet as well it has Cure of Doom and Agony which makes it a great dot pet. It also have Bonestorm, which is great for Taran Zhu in the Celestial Tournament, but also works great against other opponents as long as they have at least one humanoid in the team.
If Death Grip and Devour swapped place, this would be in the top three, but even as it is, it deserves a mention!

This is my top 3 of the best Undead Battle Pets. What is yours?

Pet battle challenge of the month - October 2013

When I finished the achievement "No Time To Heal" I was a bit sad. While I was thrilled to complete it, I was also aware that it was one of the only really challenging achievements for pet battlers in the game.
Since then I have tried to set myself challenges when doing pet battles and I have had a blast.
As I know I am not the only one liking a challenge I figured I would include you guys. And to make it more fun I will make it a monthly competition complete with prizes!

Prize
The idea for prizes was to give away different vanity pets, however since the servers are divided based on region it is only possible for me to offer vanity pets to people on the EU servers. For people in other regions I will instead try and come up with other prizes (although it may not always be possible.)

For this first challenge the prize I the EU server price is a shiny Azure Crane Chick leveled to 25. It is P/P and it is unfortunately green as I didn't have a stone, but at least you will only have to redo 2 levels at max.
If you are not on the EU servers you can win a Mirror's Edge Steam Key. (If you are on the EU servers and prefer the game key rather than the vanity pet, then we can talk about that as well. :))


The challenge:
Win 3 PVP matches in a row with an all Aquatic Team.

How it works
To enter the competition  take a screenshot of the all Aquatic Team that you have managed to win 3 pvp battles in a row with. Please make sure that the abilities you use are clearly visible. Once you have the screenshot upload it somewhere and throw a link in the comment section below or link it to me on Twitter. Also include a line or two about how you play the team to win. Alternatively, please write up the names and abilities of the pets in the comment section below along with a short description of how you play the team. You are also welcome to include breeds, but it is not a requirement.

Of course I have no way of knowing whether or not you actually managed to beat 3 enemies in a row with your all Aquatic pet, but I trust you guys and also, where is the fun in cheating? ;)

How do I win?
The competition ends at midnight CEST on the 31st of October and once it has ended I will pick a random submission.

Once the competition is over the winning team will be announced here and provided I have access to the pets used in the winning team I will also make a video showcasing the team in action. If you enter the competition, please make sure you check back here so we can arrange handing over the price.

Please share this blog with your friends and make sure you subscribe here and to my Youtube channel to participate in future competitions and to get more ideas for pet battle PVP and PVE strategies.

Is the Terrible Turnip any good?

Today I am going to have a look at the Terrible Turnip and discuss whether it is a good pet or not.

How to get the Terrible Turnip
The Terrible Turnip can potentially drop when you harvest your crops at the farm in Halfhill in Valley of the Four Winds. The drop chance seems fairly low, but if you have no luck with your drops, then you can always go to the auction house and see if you can not purchase it there.

Strenghts
Diverse and unique set of abilities. Great as a counter against pets that rely on object creation such as Clockwork Gnome.

Weaknesses
Low damage attacks, does not fare well against teams using sandstorm.

Works well with
Any pet that has call lightning to make extra use of Sons of Root. Can also be used in Sunlight teams as the pet that sorts out the weather effect.

Best uses for the Terrible Turnip
Even though the Terrible Turnip is a decent PVP pet, the best use of it is to tame new pets in PVE. Weaking blow and sunlight is a great combo to quickly get a pet to 25% health without being afraid of accidentally killing it. 

Why should I get it (conclusion)
You should get the Terrible Turnip as it is a fun pet to PVP with and it will save you a ton headaches when trying to capture wild vanity pets. Also it is super cute and who doesn't want to be followed around by an oversized vegetable?

Do you have the Terrible Turnip? What is your favourite aspect about it?