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18 December 2014

Warlords of Draenor Crafted Engineering Pets


The engineering profession in Warlords of Draenor gives you access to three crafted pets, which are easy to buy on the auction house if none of your toons is an engineer. Personally, I'm always strapped for gold, so I took the time to craft my pets on my alt (my rogue is an engineer).

The pets are "gated" in a way because they require a BOP engineering material called Gearspring Parts. You can only make a handful of these parts each day, and each pet requires 50 or 30 Gearspring parts, in addition to another crafting material. However, as long as you're patient, it shouldn't take too long to craft all the pets, as long as you're not in a hurry to make your engineering goggles!



The Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar is a pretty awesome pet because it's not a common shape (it's not like you have 1,000 boars in your pet menagerie like you do snakes, squirrels, and rats!). You'll need 50 Gearspring parts and 40 Sumptuous Fur to make your Frostboar.


The Frostboar's abilities feature a variety of damage types including Mechanical damage, Humanoid damage, and Beast damage. He also has the Decoy ability (very helpful in many pet battles), as well as a heal that heals 100% of the damage dealt.


Your next available engineering pet is the Mechanical Axebeak, and he's easier to make than the Frostboar with just 50 Gearspring Parts required.


Interestingly, the Axebeak is actually a Flying pet even though it's crafted by engineers. The Mechanical Axebeak deals Flying, and Beast Damage, and he's also got the Decoy ability, just like the Frostboar. He also has Hawk Eye (which is a crit chance increase), which I feel is a "meh" talent.


Your third pet is the Mechanical Scorpid, and he's pretty easy to make with just 30 Gearspring Parts and 10 Blackrock Ore (which you should have tons of if you've been farming your garrison mine!).


You've probably alrady got a few scorpids in your collection of pets, so you won't be wowed by the way this pet looks. It's a Mechanical that deals Beast damage, as well as some damage-over-time abilities.

Fortunately, the crafted pets available at the start of Warlords of Draenor are simple to make and require almost no farming. They just take a few days to craft the materials and are quite cheap if you make them on your own. After a while, they'll probably be pretty cheap on the AH as well.

17 December 2014

Get Multiple Pet Quest Dailies with Multiple Pet Menageries



I just leveled up my rogue and at level 100, I built her a pet menagerie (just like my main, a warlock). My rogue is my second level 100 toon, and I figured the daily quest from the pet menagerie building would be account wide.... but it's not!

Therefore, don't neglect building your pet menagerie on your alts! You'll get to do the pet daily "Scrappin" with every menagerie you build!

I can't decide if I feel like a noob learning this information or whether I should feel excited that I get more pet dailies.... probably a little bit of both!

And, just for fun, because I'm bored today:


16 December 2014

Sentinel's Companion from Frostwall Tavern (or Lunarfall Inn)


If you've installed the Inn in your garrison, you've got access to several quests with pet rewards. Being a pet collector, I decided to toss my lumber mill and install an inn instead. I wanted the lumber mill for the resources at first... but then I realized the inn is so much better! You can also get Millhouse Manastorm as a follower from the inn... definitely worth it. It seems like the trading post is better for resources than the lumber mill anyway.


One quest you'll get will be called "The Huntress" and your reward will be a beautiful flying pet called the Sentinel's Companion. The quest will require you to pick up a quest item in the Shadowmoon Burial Ground instance and kill the last boss.

If you look on your map when you're in the instance, you'll see where you need to go to pick up the item. It's sitting in the corner of that room with some candles, skulls, and bones. Just hover your mouse over it and you'll be able to pick it up. Overall, not hard in the least to get this pet, and it's beautiful!


As a flyer, the Sentinel's Companion has some standard flyer type attacks like Peck and Nocturnal Strike. It's also got an evasion ability, an RNG stun, and Moonfire.



REMEMBER: You must kill the last boss of the instance! Don't hearth out early and leave the quest half-finished!

Also, the inhabitants of the inn seem to come and go... at least for the level 2 tavern... if you pick the quest up and don't complete it the first day, you might need to wait a few days to turn it in when the NPC returns to your inn.

12 December 2014

Get the Hydraling from Varasha's Egg in Spires of Arak


If you wander into The Writhing Mire in Spires of Arak, you can find an egg in a cave that will spawn a rare mob named Varasha. After you kill her, you can loot a nearby nest to get the Hydraling pet.

I'm not gonna lie, this mob hit my 99 rogue pretty hard. I actually had to vanish the first time because cheat death proc'd. I've been mindlessly collecting treasures on my rogue for the crazy XP, and I just wandered into this cave to get the pet.

Varasha is immune to stuns and incapacitates (gouge), so if you're reliant on stuns and control to kill (and you're trying to get this pet without gear at a level that's less than 100), make sure you're careful about the mechanics. Avoid the poison puddles and strafe when Varasha does her spew move.

If I'd been paying more attention, I could have avoided more of this damage....



To get this pet, you'll travel to the western coast of Spires of Arak to The Writhing Mire. You should see a little "X" on your map that will let you know there's something to kill nearby. It might look like the X refers to a spot on the surface at the water's edge, but that's not the case.


You actually want to go in the cave that's just beside the water. Inside the cave, you'll find a little pedestal and an egg. If you click on the egg, you'll spawn Varasha, she'll come marching into the cave, and you can kill her. After the kill, you'll need to loot the egg again to get the pet.


The Hydraling is an Aquatic pet and he has an interesting skill set. He has some Aquatic attacks (as is expected), plus he has Call Lightning. It should be fun to level this pet and slot him in for some battles...





11 December 2014

Get the Brilliant Spore Battle Pet in Spires of Arak


To snag the Brilliant Spore in Spires of Arak, you'll need to kill a rare elite named Rotcap. He's not hard and I killed him easily on my 98 rogue, so don't be afraid to just run right up and smack him with your spells, daggers, or maces.

Spires of Arak is kind of twisty, but Rotcap sits in a clearing that's just north of Axefall. He's also just south of a flight point, so if you don't have it yet, pick it up at the same time you get your spore pet!


The Brilliant Spore is a flying pet with some fungusy attacks, and it also has Explode, which kills the spore and hits the enemy for 40% of the Spore's total hit points. Just like the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling. The Brilliant Spore is clearly the prettiest Spore pet of Warlords.


You know, I'm not sure why a "brilliant" spore drops from a mob that sniffs his armpits.


How to Get the Crimson Spore in Gorgrond


I'll be honest with you. I had no idea this pet existed until I was traveling around Gorgrond to get treasures and happened to see a clickable item on a red fungus that turned out to be a spore pet called a Crimson Spore. This pet didn't show up on my Handynotes addon, which must mean I have an old version of the add-on or something... anyway, I'm betting that a lot of people don't yet know about this pet or want to find it, so here's a simple guide!

The Crimson Spore is a flying pet with a variety of damage over time (DOT) abilities:



You'll find a "Strange Spore" in the area with all the mushrooms and fungi on the eastern side of Gorgrond. See the map:


You can approach the spore from one of two directions. You can either go through Tangleheart and approach from the south or come from the north through the giant mushrooms. Either way is fine as long as you can make it to the ramp that you'll use to jump on the fungi that stick out of the wall.

Here's a really basic video on how to jump to the spore. I found it was easier to dismount, but that's probably just because I have a twitchy spacebar that does weird things. I know the quality of the video isn't terrific, but it should show you the basic path.


10 December 2014

Get Your Meadowstomper Calf in Nagrand


Warlords of Draenor features a few quest chains that feature a battle pet at the conclusion of the chain, and one of those quests occurs in Nagrand. Your reward is the Meadowstomper Calf, and your quest chain comes from a little goblin named Digrem Orebar at the Ring of Trials. If you follow the Nagrand quest chains presented to you when you enter the zone, this quest series comes up pretty quickly.

You shouldn't need to quest too much to arrive at it organically. However, you can probably just head over to the Ring of Trials and try to pick the quest up if you missed it or haven't started Nagrand during the leveling process.


Getting your Meadowstomper Calf requires completing three quests in this series:

1. Tastes Like Chicien
2. Fruitful Ventures
3. New Babies

Standard "go kill/collect this stuff" and a reward at the end. Nothing too complicated.


Upon completing New Babies, you'll get your Meadowstomper Calf, which is a beast pet that's Uncommon quality and has abilities like Trample, Primary Cry, and Headbutt. Useful against Mechanical pets and weak against Humanoids.




06 December 2014

Brutus & Rukus Garrison Pet Daily Guide


Brutus and Rukus are a pair of legendary beasts that hit hard and respond well to being hit even harder in return. As is so often the case with these battles, a Chrominius bomb with the help of the Pandaren Water Spirit's icy bonanza  is often the best way to take care of one these dudes. It requires a little switching, but if you use my team, it should be an easy fight. Just gotta hit them with some huge attacks.

Along with your Pandaren Water Spirit and your Chrominius, you'll want to use a Tranquil Mechanical Yeti. I don't know why they call him Tranquil when he's clearly a crazy beast.


To start, you'll bring out your Pandaren Water Spirit and cast Geyser and Whirlpool. Then, you'll switch to Chrominius and cast Howl and Surge of Power. This will kill Brutus.

Chrominius will probably die during his recovery from Surge of Power, so then you'll bring out the Pandaren Water Spirit again to fight the second pet, Rukus, and cast Geyser and Whirlpool again.

Your Water Spirit should be faster than Rukus, so unless there's some crazy unexpected crit, you should be able to get a second Geyser and Whirlpool off. When your Water Spirit dies, you'll bring out your Yet and cast Call Lightning and Ion Cannon. Rukus should die and your Yeti should have around half HP when the fight ends.


I did this fight a few times just to make sure the sequence of attacks would work, and I never had any problems with a pet dying early.

So, order of attacks:

Geyser > Whirlpool > Howl > Surge of Power > Geyser > Whirlpool > Call Lightning > Ion Cannon

Actually pretty easy, although I'd love to figure out a 2-pet team.

Here's a video of the fight with the above team:


04 December 2014

Fatos, Manos, & Hanos Garrison Pet Daily Guide


Manos, Fatos, and Hanos look like a warlock's demon decided to shack up with a mage's elemental and the result was something pink and evil. Each of these pets is a Magic pet, and they're total wusses! Just goes to show you warlocks and mages will never be able to work together in harmony.

To fight this trio, I used a Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, an Emerald Proto-Whelp, and an Onyxian Whelpling.


The Dragonling is definitely imba for this fight. Toss up Decoy in one of the first rounds to avoid a heavy-hitting Mana Surge from Manos (who comes out first), and then just Breath your way to victory. Use Decoy a second time if it comes up (it very well may).

No joke, your Dragonling will practically solo this entire team. These Magic pets won't be able to harm your Dragonling with any real huge hits, and your Dragonling's Breath will just tear them to shreds.


When I did this fight, my Dragonling lasted all the way until the last pet (Fatos) was at 204 HP. My Proto-Drake and Onyxian Whelpling were mildly annoyed to have been brought to the battle only to be forced to watch the action from the bench.

Video update!

I created a video of the battle so you can see how well the Dragonling performs in this fight. I notice that the fight tends to go a little bit better if your Dragonling actually lands an attack when he's got the 50% blind debuff. However, as you'll see in the video, you can still do very well even if you miss a few attacks. Also, I find that tossing out Decoy as your first attack (or defense, in this case) is best.


03 December 2014

Stitches Jr Garrison Pet Daily Guide


Fighting Stitches Jr. is pretty interesting because he has a buff called "Iron Thread" which says:

Stitches ignores attacks that do less than 500 damage.

So, this becomes a game of finding enough nukes to down him... and some cheese. This fight responds amazingly well to cheese...

The cheesiest way to beat Stitches is to bring out your Nether Faerie Dragon and use Life Exchange to blast into Stitches Jr.'s health around the 5th round.

My team included a Nether Faerie Dragon, Chrominius (because what nuke fest is complete without good ol' Chrominius?), and a Lost of Lordaeron (for Doom).


Now, what really helps this fight is being able to cast big attacks while he has Enrage up, because he takes 50% extra damage, and it's easier to hit him for more than 500 without him blocking it.

However, he seems to use Enrage completely randomly, and this means you'll need to respond accordingly with the right attacks at the right time. Don't worry, it's not too difficult as long as you know what to look for.

Now, I did this fight a few times, and it was always so random that I couldn't pin down an exact sequence of attacks and pets you should use.

However, the best results were from using the Nether Faerie Dragon first.

The only constant is that you'll use Arcane Blast first (which Stitches will block). Then, you'll keep using Arcane Blast until one of two things happens:


  • Stitches casts Enrage - then you'll use Moonfire.
  • Your Dragon's HP gets dangerously low (say below 300) - you'll use Life Exchange.


If you get to use Moonfire (for about 600 damage) and then Life Exchange (for thousands more damage), Stitches's health should be below half - and you should be able to use Arcane Blast and actually have it land because of the Dragon passive:

Dragons deal 50% additional damage on the next round after bringing a target's health below 50%.

Essentially, try to use Moonfire each time that Enrage is up. And use Life Exchange when your Dragon's HP gets low.


From what I can tell - if you use Moonfire early (say he enrages in the second round), you should be able to get two Moonfires and one Life Exchange off before your Dragon dies.

When your Dragon dies, if Stitches' HP is under 1600, you'll want to bring out Chrominius and do a Howl > Surge of Power. This should finish Stitches off even if he's not enraged and should deal approximately 1600 damage to Stitches to kill him the first time. My Chrominius hit Stitches for 1629 with his Howl > Surge.

Then, you should be able to live through the last round where Stitches resurrects and just wait out that last round until Stitches keels over for good.

Or, if Stitches doesn't cast Enrage often enough and your Dragon dies before Stitches' HP is below 1600, you'll bring out your Lost of Lordaeron first to cast Doom and then bring out Chrominius for a Howl > Surge.


Important: The BEST series of events for this fight is to get in two Moonfires (against an Enraged Stitches) and one Life Exchange, as well as one Arcane Blast that will land because of the Dragon passive.

It doesn't happen that way every time... so you'll need to make a decision on either bringing out your undead pet for a Curse of Doom (if Stitches is over 1600 when your Dragon dies) or bringing out Chrominius for the final kill (if Stitches is below 1600).

If you end up getting Stitches below 1600 before your Dragon dies, it might be best to just bring out Chrominius and hurl out a Howl > Surge immediately to get that first kill on Stitches.

I did this fight at least a half-dozen times, and I think my comp is pretty reliable.

Now, I'm pretty certain you could slot in a Val'kyr (as usual with so many of these fights) and have an easier time of it with Unholy Ascension, but my method should work, too.

Here's a video so you can see how strong the Nether Faerie Dragon is against Stitches Jr:



02 December 2014

Protectron 022481, Protectron 011803, and Blingtron 4999b Garrison Pet Daily Guide


A fight that's easy to beat but features some interestingly-named opponents would definitely be the garrison pet battle against Protectron 022481, Protectron 011803, and Blingtron 4999b.

Not frustrating in the least - you'll conquer this battle easily.

At first glance, you might assume the best pets to use against this team would be Elementals, but you'd only be partially right. These little Mechanicals sometimes act as though they're Critters, so this means Elemental damage isn't always the best attack against them.

As such, using pets that employ Beast Damage will probably get you a little further.

Now, the difficulty here is that you can't actually use Beasts, because these Mechanical pets will put quite a dent in your day if you try. I dare you. Just try to use your Diemetradon Hatchling or your Feline Familiar.

I used a Tiny Bog Beast, Crimson Shale Hatchling, and an Emerald Shale Hatchling (and I didn't really even need to use the second Hatchling that much).


Because of Roboflauge (that's the ability that means they take damage as if they were Critters), the savvy solution would be to find some Elementals that deal Beast damage. Elementals take reduced damage from Mechanical pets, and Beast damage would do some great damage to this team.

The BEST pet on your team will definitely be the Tiny Bog Beast.

When I tried him the first time, he ate through Blingtron 4999b like a hot knife through butter and took care of most of Protectron 011803 before dying. I then brought out my Crimson Shale Hatchling and  Sticky Web > Leech Life'd myself to victory.

Only needed to hurl out a single Sticky Web with my third pet to win the battle. However, depending on when Protectron 022481 fires off Ion Cannon (which will probably do a lot of damage to you), you might not even need that third pet.


Seriously, I was only paying half attention when I first fought this battle. The bag of Cheetos on my desk had much more of my attention than buttons 1, 2, and 3 on my keyboard.... seriously an easy fight!

01 December 2014

Quintessence of Light Garrison Pet Daily Guide


The Quintessence of Light is uber annoying because she heals too fricken much, and the only way to counter it is to hit her with so many attacks and so much damage that she can't help but die.

After some experimentation, I used a Ghostly Skull, Pandaren Water Spirit, and Chrominius. There are definitely a few other combos out there that can nuke her, but with my current pets and options, this was my best combo.

(see updated strat information at the bottom!)


Initially, I tried just the classic nuke combo of the Pandaren Water Spirit and Chrominius (Geyser + Whirlpool + Howl + Surge of Power), but after trying it a few times, she'd always have a little life left, which would allow her to use Cauterize and heal for a megaton. No, more than a megaton, Like a quintessentalton. Yes, I know that's not a word.

Therefore, I needed to find an additional boost to my damage or something to put a dent in her HP before giving her the one-two-Chrominius punch. First, I tried the Nether Faerie Dragon with Life Exchange. Worked decently, but she'd still heal too much in the interim before I could get the Pandaren Water Spirit and Chrominius out to play.

So instead, I decided to use the Ghostly Skull with Unholy Ascension, which increases the damage taken by the target by 25% for 9 rounds. The Unborn Val'kyr also has Unholy Ascension (and Curse of Doom to boot), but my Val'kyr is only a level 19 green (yes, I know, I'm behind the times on this one!), so I needed to use the Ghostly Skull... which worked out just fine.

My series of attacks included:

Ghostly Bite > Unholy Ascension > Geyser > Whirlpool (switch to Chrominius) > Howl > Surge of Power.

Part of the reason why this works is because Geyser stuns the Quintessence and you can get in that final Surge of Power to finish her off without her healing a megaton.

This series of attacks should finish her off neatly each time EXCEPT if your Pandaren Water Spirit gets hit six times (over two rounds) with Fire Quills. It just does too much damage and your Spirit will die before getting that essential Whirlpool off. For this to work, you MUST use the series of attacks I outlined above, or the Quintessence won't take enough damage.

If you notice in the screenshot below, my Water Spirit was hit just twice during the first round it had with the Quintessence. This MUST happen.


Unfortunately, if your Pandaren Water Spirit bites the dust before you can cast Geyser AND Whirlpool, it's impossible to kill her. Which sucks because I really don't like starting battles over because of RNG.

After beating the Quintessence initially on the first try with the Ghostly Skull, Water Spirit, and Chrominius, I had a ton of bad luck on further practice battles (I tested this combo at least a half-dozen times). My Water Spirit just kept dying from Quills, which has a "chance" to hit 2 or 3 times, based upon my team's speed. Unfortunately, my Spirit died over and over again because of this "chance" hit.

If I had to guess, I think using Curse of Doom and Unholy Ascension could fix this problem by ensuring that Curse of Doom would go off with Geyser, which would  mean Whirlpool wasn't necessary, but I can't test that for sure since my Val'kyer isn't leveled up yet. I'll fix that soon, I swear!

December 17, 2014 Update!

Now that I've got my Val'kyr above level 20, I decided to fight the Quintessence again with the following team, and it was much less RNG-filled.



My recommended series of attacks would be:

Curse of Doom > Unholy Ascension > Geyser > Whirlpool > Howl > Surge of Power

Yes, I believe it's best to kill the Val'kyr on round two and bring out the Water Spirit immediately and then switch to Chrominius. I tried using the Val'kyr a few extra rounds until it died, and I just ran into problems. Also, 90% of the reason this sequence works is because of the stun from Geyser. This allows your Chrominius to get that final Surge of Power off at the end where the Quintessence isn't able to heal.

And, FYI, yes, my Unborn Val'kyr was only level 23 when I employed this strat.

30 November 2014

Rockbiter, Stonechewer, & Acidtooth Garrison Pet Daily Guide


Rockbiter, Stonechewer, & Acidtooth are Humanoids, so you'll want to use some Undead pets in this daily garrison pet battle, but you'll also want to think about a pet with Acquatic attacks. This is a very predictable fight, and you shouldn't have any frustrations with it if you stick to a team like mine.

My team included an Eternal Strider, a Restless Shadeling, and a Lost of Lordaeron.


Against Rockbiter, you'll start with the Eternal Strider (or a Mirror Strider or Aqua Strider - they all have the same abilities) by using Pump twice. Rockbiter will then submerge. Since you can't hit him anyway, you'll continue to use Pump and hit him on the second Pump when he emerges.

Then, you'll want to heal yourself (at least I did on the fifth round, it seemed to work well for the rest of the match) and then cast Pump twice more, and then finish off Rockbiter with a final Water Jet.

Your Strider should have around 500 to 600 HP left. The reason why the Strider is so good is because Rockbiter uses an ability called "Nature's Ward," which turns him into an Elemental and means your Strider's Aquatic damage is powerful.

When your second adversary, Stonechewer, comes out, I'd recommend using Healing Wave first and then Pump (twice). After that, your HP will be pretty low and you'll want to cast a last Water Jet. As long as your Strider is faster than 319, you'll hit Stonechewer first and get some valuable attacks in before your Strider dies.

Then you'll bring your Restless Shadeling out and cast Plagued Blood and spam Death Coil until Stonechewer is low and you can finish him off with a Shadow Shock or two. I prefer healing with the Death Coil to get Stonechewer low before using Shadow Shock. It seems to let your Restless Shadeling live longer until Acidtooth comes out.

Your Restless Shadeling should have enough life for a few rounds with Acidtooth, and I'd recommend using the same rotation. Plagued Blood, Deathcoil (maybe twice), and then Shadow Shock when the Shadeling is on its second life.

When your Lost of Lordaeron comes out, Acidtooth should be pretty low and around 400 to 500 HP. As long as he's that low, just ignore Curse of Doom and cast Siphon Life and Shadow Slash until Acidtooth dies. He won't live long enough for Doom to go off. You can probably get away with skipping Siphon Life, too, and just cast one or two Shadow Slashes to kill Acidtooth and end the battle.


Overall, a fairly predictable fight. The general movements will be (outside of unexpected crits and stuff):

Pump > Pump > Pump > Pump > Healing Wave > Pump > Pump > Water Jet (Rockbiter should die here) > Healing Wave > Pump > Pump > Water Jet (Strider dies, Restless Shadeling comes out) > Plagued Blood > Death Coil (about 3 times) > Shadow Shock (Stonechewer should die here) > Plagued Blood > Shadow Shock (once or twice until your Shadeling dies and you bring your Lost of Lordaeron out) > Shadow Slash (once or twice to finish off Acidtooth).

Now, I tried using the Lost of Lordaeron second and cast Curse of Doom on him, but Stonechewer actually died before Doom went off and my Restless Shadeling died at the same round as the other team, which meant a draw. Annoying! So my team works when you use Eternal Strider > Restless Shadeling > Lost of Lordaeron.

You could also use a Crawling Claw (which I don't have because Achaeology is a big piece of poo) or an Unborn Valkyr for your Undead teammates. Maybe a Blighthawk would work, too, with Infected Claw and Consume Corpse. I love fights where I get to use Undead pets!

29 November 2014

Path to the Umbrafen Spore Battle Pet in Shadowmoon Valley


The Umbrafen Spore pet in Shadowmoon Valley requires a little creativity to catch since it doesn't just sit on the ground waiting for you to loot it, and it's not a pet you need to beat in battle or catch in the wild in a traditional pet battle.

It looks impossible to get at first since we can't fly in Warlords of Draenor, but I've created a video to show you the path. Now, I used my Alliance warlock (omg I know, Alliance!) and I start in the middle of the Shadowmoon Valley town called Elodor.

(I used the Alliance lock since I figured it'd be a bit faster than trucking my Horde lock all the way over, fighting guards, and trying to snag the spore)

The Umbrafen Spore is a Flyer and has some poisoning and DOT abilities:



You'll want to get on top of the giant mushrooms in northeast Shadowmoon Valley and loot the spore on the top of one of them. It might look like you could jump from the this NPC painter dude who sits on the edge of a short cliff nearby, but that's not where you want to go! You actually want to go to the taller cliffs that sit a little to the west and jump from them.

Don't worry, you don't have to figure this out on your own. I've made a video showing you what path to take. Sorry the quality isn't the best and that it's got a watermark at the top (I downloaded the program for free and just have a trial version!).


PS: I encourage you to click on the "YouTube" link at the bottom right-hand side of my video or enlarge it to full screen. It's easier to see the path when the video is bigger! It shows up pretty tiny by default.