Thursday, July 10, 2014

WoD Beta: New Pets and a "Jumping Bug"

Four new pets added to the Pet Journal in a recent beta update:





- Draenei Micro Defender: Unknown drop (NYI) (BoP)
- Dwarf Gronnling: Unknown drop ("Your weapon")
- Molten Corgi: Unknown (BoP)
- River Calf: Wild, Found in Nagrand, Draenor (may also be known as Hippo Calf)
The Molten Corgi's model hasn't been implemented on the beta yet, and it's currently just a white and blue checkered box. Am I the only one who wants to see one of these NYI boxes as a real pet? I'd call it my rubik's cube. :P

Wowhead has a better image of what the Draenei Micro Defender will probably look like. The Pet Journal version seems incomplete, as the pet is missing its two shields.

Speaking of models and looks, two of the previously datamined pets seem to have received updates in this latest patch.


The Leatherhide Runt's model remains the same, but it looks like the coloration was changed somewhat. Lighter red-brown than the standard Clefthoof.


And the Grovestrider Hatchling seems to have been completely replaced with a new model entirely. Prior to the update the pet looked closer to the Darkmoon Hatchling. I'm not sure if this change is intended or if it's a placeholder model for the gorvestrider.


Jump For Pets!
Literally. No, I mean you can literally jump up and down and a pet will pop out on the beta.

The caveat? This is limited to only the "Helper" pets, which require a specific season to stay summoned out. Here's a video of what the bug looks like.


Steps to reproduce the bug:
1. Summon one of the Helper pets.
2. It despawns due to incorrect season.
3. Player character jumps up and down, causing an automatic re-summoning of the pet.
4. Repeat.
This doesn't appear to happen on live servers, and only occurs on the WoD beta. I'm hesitant to actually call this a "bug" though, since bugs are generally bad and unwanted things.

I'm wondering if this is actually intended, and if it isn't if it's something players would want to stay. There are pros and cons to having something like this "on action summoning" ability.

Pro: It allows for easy/quick summoning of the Helper pets outside of the winter season. Want to summon the pet without resorting to the Pet Journal, a command, or a macro? Just jump up and down on your toon!

Con: Chat spam. Two out of the three Helper pets have dialogue when they're summoned outside of their season. As you can see if the video, they can be pretty long-winded. Having someone constantly jumping up and down to re-summon their Helper pets could get annoying for those around them due to all the chat spam.

The thing about the con though is that technically someone can already do that by simply spamming their summoning button in the Pet Journal. Or macro'ing it. Having the ability to summon on jump just gives players a faster route of doing this, even if it's not their intention. Unsuspecting players who aren't aware of this "bug" and love to bounce around while doing other things could end up unwittingly spamming the hell out of everyone around them.

In the end, this really is a very, very minor thing. I'm sure there are plenty more pressing issues to address and fix on the beta. But I can't help but wonder how the community views this type of bug (or feature if it's intended).

Is it an ability that's actually a desirable feature for these pets? Or would it be an annoyance due to the chat spam that would occur?

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