Cataclysm Companion Pets Preview
I finally have enough data from the beta to post a decent preview of companion pets introduced in the expansion! This might not be the final list but it's much more impressive than the first one I posted a few weeks ago, I think we had 3 pets back then. And well, you could always visit Warcraftpets, Breanni is nice.
Achievements Rewards
A couple of achievements will reward you with new pets, most of them are Guild Achievements unlocking the ability to purchase these pets for gold in the guild reward panel, assuming you have enough reputation with your guild.
Professions
Professions get a fair amount of pets in this expansion, if your plan is to get absolutely all the pet you will probably have to learn and drop a couple of professions.
Quest Rewards
A couple of pets are rewarded through quests, including the super awesome Sunflower.
Others
If a pet cannot fit in one of the category above, it's most likely here!
Real Life Events
Two pets are tied to real life events, you probably already know about them.
Unknown
The drop locations of these pets is still unknown.
Hardboiled Egg
Fox Kit
Landro's Lil XT
Rumbling Rockling
Swirling Stormling
Whirling Waveling
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Tanking
Swipe Nerf / Thunderclap and Tank Threat boost
We had already nerfed Swipe before I saw this conversation, because it was pretty far out in front of other tank AE dps. Thunder Clap's coefficient is something like 0.10 and that could probably be 0.20, which would bring it more in line.
We are also talking a lot about just buffing tank threat across the board, because we've heard a lot recently that it's still too twitchy. (Source)
Tanking classes cannot AE Tank anymore
That actually isn't an intended change. We don't want AE healing to be trivial. I'll use some examples:
A) Pile of 20 whelps. Go ahead and AE tank this and ask your dps to AE too. You probably don't even need Shield Slam.
B) One giant. I wouldn't use Thunder Clap at all on this, except as needed to keep the debuff up. We want Thunder Clap to be terrible for holding single targets. (I don't think many tanks would argue this point.)
C) A pack of 4 targets that you plan to burn down one at a time. Here is the biggest point of contention. Thunder Clap should be fine for establishing initial aggro (though Shockwave will be better), and it should be fine for keeping add #3 off of the healer. But you should feel like you have to go to town with single target abilities on add #1 that the dps are all focused on. Then you should switch attention to add #2. In Lich King, it was too easy to just hold this whole group with Thunder Clap spam, and to be fair, the dps would just AE as well.
D) The same pack as in C, but this time you decide to CC add #3 and #4. In this case, you should be able to live fine without Thunder Clap at all (unless you really need the debuff). (Source)
[...] Right. If you are trying to AE tank and a bad dps is attacking the wrong target and dies, we call that justice. If you are trying to AE tank and a healer pulls aggo, then threat generation is just too low and we need to buff it. (Source)
Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Cannot macro Lifebloom while in Tree of Life on Beta
This is a (dumb) limitation of our macro system, where it gets confused if you have two spells with the same name. In this case, the Tree of Life Lifebloom is actually a different spell than normal Lifebloom. The macro tries to cast (normal) Lifebloom, sees that you can't because it isn't allowed in Tree of Life, and just bails. Lifebloom is not the only spell in this category.
We understand why this is bad and are working on a fix. (Source)
Official Wallpaper
The official website has been updated with a very nice wallpaper.
More...
I finally have enough data from the beta to post a decent preview of companion pets introduced in the expansion! This might not be the final list but it's much more impressive than the first one I posted a few weeks ago, I think we had 3 pets back then. And well, you could always visit Warcraftpets, Breanni is nice.
Achievements Rewards
A couple of achievements will reward you with new pets, most of them are Guild Achievements unlocking the ability to purchase these pets for gold in the guild reward panel, assuming you have enough reputation with your guild.
- Armadillo Pup is the reward of Critter Kill Squad (Guild)
- Dark Phoenix Hatchling is the reward of United Nations (Guild)
- Guild Herald is the reward of Saving For A Rainy Day (Guild)
- Guild Page is the reward of Horde Slayer / Alliance Slayer (Guild)
- Pebble is the reward of Rock Lover (Player)
Professions
Professions get a fair amount of pets in this expansion, if your plan is to get absolutely all the pet you will probably have to learn and drop a couple of professions.
- Clockwork Gnome is an Archaeology rare loot - Clockwork Gnome
- Crawling Claw is an Archaeology rare loot - Crawling Claw
- De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion is an Engineering item - De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion
- Elementium Geode is found randomly by miners in Elementium mining nodes, the pet isn't BoP and can be sold.
- Enchanted Lantern seems to be an Enchanting pattern in a NYI state Formula: Enchanted Lantern
- Fossilized Hatchling is an Archaeology rare loot - Fossilized Hatchling
- Magic Lamp also seems to be an Enchanting pattern in a NYI state Formula: Magic Lamp
- Personal World Destroyer is an Engineering item - Personal World Destroyer
Quest Rewards
A couple of pets are rewarded through quests, including the super awesome Sunflower.
- Blue Mini Jouster is one of the reward of Egg Wave (Can only pick one)
- Gold Mini Jouster is one of the reward of Egg Wave (Can only pick one)
- Brazie's Sunflower is the reward of Lawn of the Dead.
- Mr. Grubbs is also part of a questline, kinda, and is going to be a giant pain in your ... to farm
Others
If a pet cannot fit in one of the category above, it's most likely here!
- Tiny Shale Spider is a rare drop from a rare elite named Jadefang in Deepholm.
- Rustberg Seagull is a Tol Barad rep reward: Rustberg Gull / Rustberg Gull
Real Life Events
Two pets are tied to real life events, you probably already know about them.
- Deathy is the Blizzcon 2010 pet, rewarded for attending the Blizzcon or buying the Stream.
- Lil' Deathwing is the Cataclysm Collector's Edition reward.
Unknown
The drop locations of these pets is still unknown.
- Eat the Egg / Hardboiled Egg
- Fox Kit
- Landro's Lil' XT
- Rumbling Rockling
- Whirling Waveling
- Swirling Stormling
Hardboiled Egg
Fox Kit
Landro's Lil XT
Rumbling Rockling
Swirling Stormling
Whirling Waveling
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Tanking
Swipe Nerf / Thunderclap and Tank Threat boost
We had already nerfed Swipe before I saw this conversation, because it was pretty far out in front of other tank AE dps. Thunder Clap's coefficient is something like 0.10 and that could probably be 0.20, which would bring it more in line.
We are also talking a lot about just buffing tank threat across the board, because we've heard a lot recently that it's still too twitchy. (Source)
Tanking classes cannot AE Tank anymore
That actually isn't an intended change. We don't want AE healing to be trivial. I'll use some examples:
A) Pile of 20 whelps. Go ahead and AE tank this and ask your dps to AE too. You probably don't even need Shield Slam.
B) One giant. I wouldn't use Thunder Clap at all on this, except as needed to keep the debuff up. We want Thunder Clap to be terrible for holding single targets. (I don't think many tanks would argue this point.)
C) A pack of 4 targets that you plan to burn down one at a time. Here is the biggest point of contention. Thunder Clap should be fine for establishing initial aggro (though Shockwave will be better), and it should be fine for keeping add #3 off of the healer. But you should feel like you have to go to town with single target abilities on add #1 that the dps are all focused on. Then you should switch attention to add #2. In Lich King, it was too easy to just hold this whole group with Thunder Clap spam, and to be fair, the dps would just AE as well.
D) The same pack as in C, but this time you decide to CC add #3 and #4. In this case, you should be able to live fine without Thunder Clap at all (unless you really need the debuff). (Source)
[...] Right. If you are trying to AE tank and a bad dps is attacking the wrong target and dies, we call that justice. If you are trying to AE tank and a healer pulls aggo, then threat generation is just too low and we need to buff it. (Source)
Cannot macro Lifebloom while in Tree of Life on Beta
This is a (dumb) limitation of our macro system, where it gets confused if you have two spells with the same name. In this case, the Tree of Life Lifebloom is actually a different spell than normal Lifebloom. The macro tries to cast (normal) Lifebloom, sees that you can't because it isn't allowed in Tree of Life, and just bails. Lifebloom is not the only spell in this category.
We understand why this is bad and are working on a fix. (Source)
Official Wallpaper
The official website has been updated with a very nice wallpaper.
More...