Mania’s Arcania

Hunter pets in the World of Warcraft.

Happy Birthday to Warcraft Pets!

Warcraft Pets, the best WoW mini-pet site on the web, is celebrating its third birthday today!

Warcraft Pets is one of my favorite WoW sites. It combines an adorable but uncluttered look with exceptional functionality. (Check out my mini-pet collection!)

In addition, Warcraft Pets has been an inspiration to me for my own sites, including Warcraft Mounts and WoW Tabards.

I’ve chatted with Breanni, maven of mini-pets, several times and I’m always impressed by the time and effort she puts into her site. I have some conception of how time-consuming running a site can be, but … I am fundamentally lazy.

Breanni isn’t. She serves her community well.

So happy birthday, Warcraft Pets. May you enjoy many, many more!

Noblegarden: Sit Still Or Hop Madly?

Noblegarden has started! And it wasn’t five minutes before I saw the first bunny-on-bunny violence .. or at least excessive yelling and use of obscene language.

The problem, so far as I can tell, is that about have the population of any given realm believes that the “right” way to gather eggs is to find an egg spawn spot and sit in front of it until an egg spawns. That eggs is then “theirs” because they were specifically waiting for it.

The other half of the population believes that the “right” way to gather eggs is to hop frantically from spawn spot to spawn spot, grabbing any egg that happens to spawn and isn’t grabbed by someone else first. That egg is then “theirs” because at that point, it’s in their inventory.

Unfortunately, these two methods don’t necessarily work well together. When an egg spawns by a sitter and a passing hopper grabs it … well, there may be words. And regardless of your personal predilections, I find that too much yelling can get on my little bunny nerves.

Personally, I love hopping frantically … in general, I mean, not just when gathering eggs. There’s something about being a bunny that makes me want to hop about frantically, and it’s not just that I can’t mount up without dropping the shapeshift, either.

At any rate … try to have fun gathering your eggs. If you aren’t having fun, skip it. There’s no title for Noblegarden and it’s not part of “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” either.

Edit: Sheesh — I completely misread my Achievement panel. Noblegarden does have a title — “the Noble” and is part of “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been”. I apologize for the misinformation.

Thanks for catching me, Kestrel.

Hunter Pet Haiku – Popular Winners

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 5:29 pm UTC - Community

The voting for the most popular of the 43 (!) entries to the Hunter Pet Haiku Contest is finally over, and we have our winners!

As an aside: I have to keep putting the (!) after the number of entries, because I was expecting maybe 10, if I got lucky. I am thrilled that so many hunters decided to participate.

Hunter Pet Haiku – Popularity Run-Off

The first round of voting for the most popular haiku is done, which means that we’re ready for the run-off round!

The top three entries from this run-off vote will receive excessive applause and laudatory congratulation here, as well as a special forum title on the WoW Petopia Community forums if they happen to be a member.

Here are the nine run-off contestants:

Hunter Pet Haiku – Other Contestants

Last time we caught up with the winners of the random drawing portion of the Hunter Pet Haiku Contest. Today I wanted to spotlight the other 43 (!) entries.

At this point I am not going to attach names to the entries because I don’t want the votes turning into a personal popularity contest. *grin*

Feel free to discuss the entries in the comments, but do please be polite. In particular, I’ve decided to accept these entries as valid, so let’s not quibble about syllables.

Remember, if you want to vote you can either hit the forums or e-mail me and I’ll add your vote to the total.

So here, without further ado, are the rest of the haiku! (Yes, that rhymed.)

Hunter Pet Haiku – Game Time Winners

The Hunter Pet Haiku contest ended a mere 8 hours ago and I have already drawn and contacted the three random winners who will be receiving a free month of game time.

Since you can only win one of the two categories, these three are not eligible to win the popular vote. So I thought I’d share their haiku with everyone here, so you can appreciate it properly … and then go vote for your favorite haiku among all the entries on the WoW Petopia Community forums.

First, some fun numbers:

• A total of 29 people entered the contest.
• They submitted a total of 51 43 entries. (Multiple entries didn’t improve your chance in the random drawing, though. And you can only win once anyway.)
• The most entries I got from any one person was 5. The average number entered was around 1.6-ish.
• We’re going to have to run 5 voting polls on the forums to accommodate all the entries. After that, we’ll have a run-off poll to choose the most popular haiku.
• It’s taken me five hours so far to get myself organized to post some, but not all, of the entries on the forums. This may well be because I am very tired right now.

Don’t Forget To Send Me a Haiku [updated]

And the haiku contest is closed!

I will be going through the approximately 30 entries tonight and getting them posted.

I’ll also be doing the drawing for the random winner and hopefully getting them posted on the forums as well.

This should be fun! You guys sent in some great entries.

[original post follows]

You have less than 24 hours to compose a stunning haiku about a hunter pet and send it in!

Haiku don’t take long to write, and you can win (somewhat) fabulous prizes and the approbation of your fellow hunters.

You can read more about the rules of the contest in my last post: Contest: Hunter Pet Haiku.

Contest: Hunter Pet Haiku

So it happens that I have a couple of months of free game time to give away.^*

I’ve been trying to think of an appropriate contest — something interesting but also easy. I wanted something creative, but I didn’t want it to be a huge hassle for anyone, including me. And honestly, I don’t want to have to judge anything creative because I know how creative you people are and I know I can’t choose between a whole bunch of great entries.

But last night as I was falling asleep I hit on the perfect thing: haiku.

Questing in Style

Lately I’ve been lackadaisically working towards the Loremaster achievement on Mania. (I want the tabard.)

I finished up Outland and Northrend first because I find per-zone count of quests both convenient and satisfying, but now I am working on Kalimdor.

(As an aside, I’ve been posting some of my more pithy-but-certainly-not-interesting-enough-to-make-a-post-out-of thoughts about my travels on Twitter.)

Anyway, since I outlevel the content in Kalimdor by at least twenty levels, and usually more like fifty, I figured I’d do my questing in style.

Above and to the left is my favorite questing shirt right now: a Watcher’s Tunic from a level 68 group quest in Nagrand. On a female character, the color of the sleeve fabric changes to match your skin color, leaving you with a spiderweb or fishnet effect.

The sleeves flare out at the bottom, though … which looks a bit odd if the fabric is supposed to be skin. But a pair of gloves fixes that! I am still looking for a pair of pants and a pair of gloves that look really good with this tunic, but for the moment I’m just wearing it with my normal combat gear.

But that’s not my only questing outfit! I also have the purple pleasure that you see above and to the right: Mordant’s Travel Tunic and The Wanderer’s Cover (both courtesy of quests in Dustwallow Marsh).

I know that you can put together some really nice purple outfits if you try, but I just happened to pick these two pieces up while I was doing quests in Dustwallow. Coincidence, or does Blizzard employ a fashion consultant for quest rewards?

And finally, for those times when I want to look like Wonder Woman, we have a Gleaming Scale Breastplate to the left, also from Dustwallow Marsh.

My thanks to Letters From Birdfall, by the way, for a recent ‘Outfit of the Month’ post that got me thinking about my own outfits again.

In Praise of Cooperation

One of the things that has always bugged me about World of Warcraft is how the trumped-up hostilities between the Horde and the Alliance interferes with cooperative gameplay.

Okay, yeah, there’s PvP and that’s supposed to be a decent chunk of the game. And yes, sure, there’s lore and lore is important — I get that.

But Mania the character has no beef with most of the Alliance (except humans — she hates humans) and Mania the player could often use their help. And not being able to talk to them makes that a bit of a pain.

Pet Details

Name	Talents	Damage	Armor	Health	Diet	Skills
Bat	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fruit, Fungus, Meat	Bite, Dive, Sonic Blast
Bear	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fish, Fruit, Fungus, Meat	Charge, Claw, Swipe
Bird of Prey	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Meat	Claw, Dive, Snatch
Boar	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fish, Fruit, Fungus, Meat	Bite, Charge, Gore
Carrion Bird	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Meat	Bite, Demoralizing Screech, Dive, Swoop
Cat	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Meat	Charge, Claw, Dash, Prowl, Rake
Chimaera	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Dive, Froststorm Breath
Core Hound	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Charge, Dash, Lava Breath
Crab	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Fish, Fruit, Fungus	Charge, Claw, Pin
Crocolisk	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Meat	Bad Attitude, Bite, Charge
Devilsaur	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Charge, Dash, Monstrous Bite
Doomguard						Avoidance, Demonic Pact, Warlock Pet Scaling 01, Warlock Pet Scaling 02, Warlock Pet Scaling 03, Warlock Pet Scaling 04, Warlock Pet Scaling 05
Dragonhawk	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Fruit, Meat	Bite, Dive, Fire Breath
Felguard						Anguish, Avoidance, Cleave, Demonic Frenzy, Demonic Pact, Intercept, Pet Passive (DND), Warlock Pet Scaling 01, Warlock Pet Scaling 02, Warlock Pet Scaling 03, Warlock Pet Scaling 04, Warlock Pet Scaling 05
Felhunter						Avoidance, Demonic Pact, Devour Magic, Fel Intelligence, Pet Passive (DND), Shadow Bite, Spell Lock, Warlock Pet Scaling 01, Warlock Pet Scaling 02, Warlock Pet Scaling 03, Warlock Pet Scaling 04, Warlock Pet Scaling 05
Ghoul						Claw, Death Knight Pet Scaling 01, Death Knight Pet Scaling 02, Gnaw, Huddle, Leap
Gorilla	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Fruit, Fungus	Charge, Pummel, Smack
Hyena	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Charge, Dash, Tendon Rip
Imp						Avoidance, Blood Pact, Demonic Pact, Empowered Imp, Fire Shield, Firebolt, Pet Passive (DND), Phase Shift, Warlock Pet Scaling 01, Warlock Pet Scaling 02, Warlock Pet Scaling 03, Warlock Pet Scaling 04, Warlock Pet Scaling 05
Moth	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fruit, Fungus	Dive, Serenity Dust, Smack, Swoop
Nether Ray	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fungus, Meat	Bite, Dive, Nether Shock
Raptor	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Charge, Claw, Dash, Savage Rend
Ravager	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Dash, Ravage
Remote Control						Activate MG Turret, Flamethrower
Rhino	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fruit, Fungus	Charge, Smack, Stampede
Scorpid	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Charge, Claw, Scorpid Poison
Serpent	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Dash, Poison Spit
Silithid	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fungus, Meat	Claw, Dash, Venom Web Spray
Spider	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Dash, Web
Spirit Beast	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Meat	Charge, Claw, Dash, Prowl, Spirit Strike
Sporebat	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fruit, Fungus	Dive, Smack, Spore Cloud
Succubus						Avoidance, Demonic Pact, Lash of Pain, Lesser Invisibility, Pet Passive (DND), Seduction, Soothing Kiss, Warlock Pet Scaling 01, Warlock Pet Scaling 02, Warlock Pet Scaling 03, Warlock Pet Scaling 04, Warlock Pet Scaling 05
Tallstrider	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fruit, Fungus	Charge, Claw, Dash, Dust Cloud
Turtle	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Fish, Fruit, Fungus	Bite, Charge, Shell Shield
Voidwalker						Avoidance, Consume Shadows, Demonic Pact, Pet Passive (DND), Sacrifice, Suffering, Torment, Warlock Pet Scaling 01, Warlock Pet Scaling 02, Warlock Pet Scaling 03, Warlock Pet Scaling 04, Warlock Pet Scaling 05
Warp Stalker	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Fish, Fruit	Bite, Charge, Dash, Warp
Wasp	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fruit, Fungus	Dive, Smack, Sting, Swoop
Wind Serpent	Cunning	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fish	Bite, Dive, Lightning Breath
Wolf	Ferocity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Meat	Bite, Charge, Dash, Furious Howl
Worm	Tenacity	+5%	+5%	+5%	Bread, Cheese, Fungus	Acid Spit, Bite, Charge

Combat Pets

Summon Pet

Pet users get a special, smaller action bar they can use to control their pet. Your pet bar disappears when your pet dies. You can modify the auto-cast status of pet spells in the pet spellbook.

Hmmm...

Pet Training

As your pet levels it gains new abilities and new ranks in abilities. A hunters pet also can gain abilities from his talent tree.

Pet Location

Your pet shows up on the mini-map. The mini-map is very useful for keeping track of how far away your pet is as you travel around the world.

Dismiss Pet

Right-click on your pet's name bar to see additional pet options. The Dismiss Pet command will cause the Hunter or Warlock's current pet to disappear. Warlocks will have to resummon their pet if they want it back, while Hunters can simply call it back. Note that if you get too far away from your pet, or if the pet gets stuck, it will automatically unsummon.

Abandon Pet

Hunters can abandon a pet forever in order to acquire a new one. If a less permanent solution is desired, they can stable a pet or use Dismiss Pet.

Stable Pet

Hunters can choose to stable their pet at a special stablemaster NPC, usually located in towns and cities. Stabling a pet is like storing it in a bank, a less permanent solution than abandonment. Once the pet is stored, the hunter can tame and train a new pet which can also be stabled or unstabled at any time. Only two pets can be in a stable at any given time while a third is unstabled and summonable at the hunter's command.

Pet Modes

While your pet is active you have several buttons to control it:

		Attack: Select a target, and hit the attack button. There's a hot key to do it too - look it up in the options/controls menu. Pets will try to get behind their targets when engaging in melee combat.
		Follow: This command tells your pet to ignore everything else and just follow you.
		Stay: This is useful when you want your pet to stay in place. You can leave it outside of town or a building, go do your business, and then come back to it.
		Aggressive: If a monster comes within range of the pet, the pet moves to attack the monster.
		Defensive: The pet responds if attacked but otherwise won't act.
		Passive: The pet just sits there and does not attack, even if attacked.

Pet Control

You need to manage the hate of the monster between you and your pet. If the monster attacking your pet is about to kill it then you need to either heal your pet or get the monster to attack you instead. You can transfer the monster over to you by casting spells or using abilities on the monster that cause a high amount of threat.

If the monster is too focused on you, you can use special abilities such as Feign Death, or have your pet use whatever abilities it has to make the monster angry enough to fight it instead. Learning how to properly manage monster hate can take some time. The goal is to keep both you and your pet alive until the end of combat.

Pet Stats

All pets receive a percentage of their master's armor, spell damage, spell resistances, attack power, and stamina. You can see these bonuses on your character screen under your stats. For example, increasing your Intellect will also increase your pet's Intellect as shown on the character screen under base stats.

All pets receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.

Rookie Mistakes

	If your pet is in Aggressive mode inside of a dungeon it will typically go crazy and attack every enemy in sight. Change it to Passive or Defensive mode.	Crikey!
	When traveling, make sure your pet is not in Aggressive mode. Otherwise, your pet will slow you down by attacking everything you pass. You should either change it to Passive mode or unsummon the pet if you don't think you will need it.
	At the start of a battle make sure your pet is attacking. If it is standing around, it's not helping. You can use hot keys to make your pet attack faster. To make the pet attack, press Control-1.

Pet Fun

	Go into a newbie region and use your pet to destroy some monsters. It is funny to have your pet do all the work as you watch!
	Kill someone with your pet in player vs. player combat!
	Use emotes (ex. /hug) on your pet!
	Use powerful pets to scare newbies. They will think it's a monster if they are not familiar with the pets that players can use.

Other Information

	Warlock and Hunter pets will be automatically dismissed when you summon a mount. These pets will return on dismount. This does not affect pet happiness for Hunters.
	Pets will not attack targets that are under the influence of crowd control (sheep, banish, etc.).
	Pets, summons and guardians are not susceptible to charm.
	If you tell your pet to attack a creature, it won't be distracted unless taunted.
	The pet action bar is greyed out while the pet is confused or fleeing.
	Pets of other party members display in the party UI. You can see pet health and harmful effects on the pet. You can turn this functionality on and off in the Interface Options menu.
	All pets receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.

Common Pet Questions

Can I give items to my pet?
No.

Can I name my pet?
Hunters can name their pets. Warlocks cannot.

Do pets take up extra experience?
No.

What classes get pets? Warlocks and Hunters can get permanent pets. Priests can control humanoid monsters as a pet for a limited amount of time. There are other ways to get pets. For example, Engineers can construct pets. There are items that players can find that create a pet for a limited amount of time. Players can also buy