Top 5 Favorite Companion Pets and a Giveaway CLOSED

This contest is now over. Winner will be announced shortly. 


After a few days of farming and spending a few thousand gold, I finally got the 100 companion pet achievement on my mage, Aurorie. It has been quite the journey I will say, but it was also really fun. When I decided it was time to finally get this achievement I was about 15 pets away from it. That was kind of discouraging, but then I found out there is a super amazing website, WarcraftPets, that can import your companion pets from the Armory. From there you are able to check off which pets you plan on farming and filter out the ones you don't want or can't get any more. Warcraft pets also tells you where to get the pet, what sound it makes and tells a little bit of information on what the companion pet does, like the idle animation and/or interaction. ((Giveaway information is after the pictures below))


There are five tiers of Companion pet achievements that award pets when you reach them:

• Shop Smart, Shop Pet...Smart~50 companion pets
• Awards a Skunk
• Lil' Game Hunter~75 companion pets
• Awards a cute little fawn
• Petting Zoo~100 companion pets
• Awards a squirrel that throws acorns at players and anything else it can reach
• Menagerie~125 companion pets
• Awards a beautiful red and purple bird
• Littlest Pet Shop~150 companion pets
• Awards a Celestial Dragon...so pretty!

All this farming for pets made me stop and think about my absolute favorite companion pets that I have collected. (Sadly I don't have any baby murlocs--someday I hope!!) Picking my top five, wasn't the easiest thing...but I finally narrowed it down. My top 5 favorites are from pets I own across all my characters, not just the ones I have on Aurorie; though I do hope to get them all on her eventually. My number one favorite is the Sprite Darter Hatchling...why? Because he is simply adorable and there isn't any other companion pet that looks quite like him. He also makes the cutest noises if you click on him. <3

#5 Nuts is awarded from getting 100 companion pets

#4 Phoenix Hatchling drops off Kael'Thas Sunstrider in Magisters' Terrace

#3 Tiny Spore Bat --I explain how to get this guy here

#2 Legs is obtainable during Children's Week part of the Shattrath quest chain 

#1 Sprite Darter Hatchling has a very slim chance to drop off anything in Feralas

I also decided that since I hit 100 companion pets that I would do a *gasp* giveaway!! Since a handful of the pets that I own come from the Blizzard Store, I thought it only appropriate to do a giveaway with one of their $10 companion pets. The Guardian Cub is the only pet that will *not* go to all of your characters.

The Giveaway
This giveaway will be conducted through the comment section of this blog. To enter, answer the following question: "Which is your favorite World of Warcraft Companion Pet and why" and include your World of Warcraft Character name and Realm Name OR your email address (This will ONLY be used if you are the winner, as such I will need to contact you to send you the pet.)

The contest will go from 6/29/12 to 7/6/12 with the winner being announced on Saturday July 7th. Only one entry per person, US realms only with an active WoW subscription. I will be using the wow /roll system to find the winner based on the number of entries.

One winner will be able to choose ONE of the following Blizzard Store pets:

Soul of the Aspects
Lil' K.T.
Pandaren Monk
Lil' XT
Lil' Ragnaros
Moonkin Hatchling
Cenarion Hatchling
Guardian Cub

This is my first giveaway, so I'm kind of excited. Good luck to those that enter and to anyone who is on a mission to collect companion pets!! :)

<3

Nichole

A Guide to the Midsummer Fire Festival (June 21st - July 5th)

Flying around Azeroth, honoring and desecrating

Although summer is my least favorite season irl, I love its fiery festival in WoW. As always, get the quest from the commoner to start the quests. In Org, the festivities are right next to the portals for the Cataclysm zones. I actually got the title for this holiday about two years ago, but I really wanted to see what--if anything--changed. I noticed that I never actually did a Midsummer Fire fest guide so I figured it was about time I did one. Since I’m working on getting 125+ companion pets on Aurorie, I started the festivities with honoring and desecrating the fires. With 310% flying, and the awesomeness of being a mage...I did Northrend, Outland and half of Eastern Kingdoms and got 350 burning blossoms (this holiday's currency) to purchase the Spirit of Summer companion pet. It only took about 2.5 hours to get 350 of them. You get 5 blossoms for honoring your fires, and 10 for desecrating the opposing faction's fires. WoWhead has an amazing map that pinpoints all of the fires. I just go up and down the continents, it isn't too bad once you get in a groove. Even if you can't do *all* of them on a lowbie toon, I would suggest maybe flight path hopping to get some of them, because they will give you a decent amount of experience and some pocket change.

Aurorie in Midsummer garb with the Spirit of Summer

Aside from the long and annoying task of flying around Azeroth, there are a few daily quests that you can do to get your blossoms--Torch Tossing and Torch Juggling. Tossing is super easy, but juggling can be a bit of a different story. For the torch juggling-- try to go to a less populated area as it can get a little hard to tell which torch shadow is yours if there are five other people completing the same quest. I'm guessing that might be Silvermoon City for the horde and the Exodar for the Alliance. Finally, there are the chain quests. Like always, they are very very easy to complete, you just need to do a bit of running around. To start off, you'll get Incense for the Festival Scorchlings and Unusual Activity. Just follow what the quests say and you'll be done in no time. The quests are super quick and if you've got time on your hands, you can easily complete the achievements for this holiday in a day or two.

My favorite thing about the Midsummer Fire Fest is the holiday boss, who is much like the bosses we get to fight for Brewfest and Hallows End. This boss, The Frost Lord Ahune, is located in the Slave Pens--but you can get to him by queuing with the dungeon finder. Just like the other holiday bosses, you are able to queue at 84, so you really don't need to be very geared...it will just take a bit longer to kill the mobs/boss if you are in a lesser geared group. The battle is pretty straight forward--you fight an elite elemental and then a bunch of non-elite trash. Ahune is attackable for a little bit, where if you are in a well geared group you will kill him on the first try. If not, you might have to rinse and repeat two or three times. For those of you that have Timewarp and the like--do it right when Ahune becomes attackable the first time, it really helps with killing him on that first attempt. The first time you do Ahune a day, you will get a bag that will have a chance of containing a sweet looking scythe or an Ice Chip---which is the Frigid Frostling companion pet. You usually get some burning blossoms in there as well. I've already gotten the scythe, of course on the toon that wont use it. Damn the luck. I'm really crossing my fingers for the pet on Aurorie. Oh! Don't forget to loot the chest he drops as well. Your first time there you will get a quest, once you accept it you can turn it in to the people at the start of the mini dungeon and pick either the Blue or Red summer tabard. The chest will also drop one of five cloaks (ilevel 353). If you are 84 or newly 85, you could farm for yours, since they drop each time. Just a note, the Thrall quest chain that you can do at 85 awards a cloak that is better than the ones Ahune drops--however, it might be nice for off spec. Ahune also has a chance to drop an enchanting recipe.
Saturday Edit: Got the scythe today on my hunter!! Updated picture at the end of this blog.

He's not so scary.

Midsummer Fire Festival~Flame Keeper/Flame Warden

 The Fires of Azeroth

·         Complete the "Flame Keeper" achievements "honor" the flames.

o   Cataclysm

o   Eastern Kingdoms

o   Kalimdor

o   Northrend

o   Outland

Burning Hot Pole Dance

·         Dance at the ribbon pole for 60 seconds while wearing the completed Midsummer set. You will need 400 burning blossoms for this achievement. The set is three pieces: mantle, robe and sandals. There is also an optional helm piece. 

King of the Fire Festival

·         Complete the quest "A Thief's Reward" by stealing the flames from your enemy's capital cities. You can't pick this quest up before hand. Just go to the opposing capital cities and grab all four flames. Once you have all four you will be able to complete the quest.

Desecration of the Alliance

·         Complete all the Extinguishing achievements "desecrating" the flames

o   Cataclysm

o   Eastern Kingdoms

o   Kalimdor

o   Northrend

o   Outland

Ice the Frost Lord

·         Slay Ahune in the Slave Pens

Torch Juggler

·         Juggle 40 torches in 15 seconds in Dalaran. You will need to purchase the torches from a Midsummer vendor--they are 5 blossoms for a stack of five torches. To make this easy, put the torches on your bar. Hit whatever button you put them on and then click the ground right on top of your toon to juggle it. Just keep pressing and clicking until you get it :) I mean like...spam it 15 seconds isn't very long and it goes quickly!

Isele with her new scythe and the Summer Skies tabard

I hope this guide is helpful! Next week I'll be posting on my Top 5 companion pets and there will be a *gasp* contest! Have a wonderful weekend!

<3
Nichole

Transmog: Isele

A few weeks ago I randomly decided that I "needed" to have an 85 hunter. Not such a problem since the one I have, Isele, was level 80. The leveling, of course, comes along with finding an awesome transmog set. At first I started out with the Burning Crusade Skettis set. Though it was pinkish/purple and cutesey, I grew tired of it quickly. While searching the auction house for cute mail though, I came across the Ornate Mail set, which I fell in love with instantly. Of course, only two of the pieces were on the AH at the time, but after a few days of watching the AH I ended up with the whole set (minus a few pieces that I felt matched better.) I really adore this set and love how the blue/silver goes so well with the gold accents in this set.

Shoulder-Jade Green Spaulders
These spaulders are a level 44 quest reward from the Felwood quest Dousing the Flames of Protection. An annoying quest in the Shadow Hold, but fairly easy. I had actually worn and kept these when I got them at level 40-something thinking I may need them one day for transmog. I'm quite the pack rat when it comes to what-if transmog stuff. Once I decided to work on the ornate set, I was thrilled to find these spaulders still in my bank after 40 levels. Oddly enough, this set doesn't have matching shoulders. You can find an alternate to the ones I use at any of my favorite transmog websites in the "Sites of Note" tab above.

Chest-Ornate Breastplate
This breastplate has the best chance of dropping in the Blasted Lands off one of the rare spawns there. Though, at a 4% drop rate, I'd probably just check the AH every so often. (as with the rest of the ornate set)

Gloves-Ornate Gauntlets
These gloves drop off random mobs in Silithus and the Blasted Lands, however, they have the "best" drop rate of 5% from the rare spawns in Silithus.

Belt-Glimmering Mail Girdle
The only reason I'm using this belt is because I can't seem to get ahold of the Ornate Girdle off the auction house and the 4% drop rate just isn't doing it for me. So I found the Glimmering Mail Girdle. It happens to match quite perfectly because it is gold...and since it is the belt you hardly notice the hints of red in it. I do keep a watch on the AH though, because the Ornate girdle is super adorable--it's just a little gold string across the tummy of your character.

Legs-Ornate Legguards
Also farmed in the Blasted Lands, these legguards have a 4% drop rate off the rare spawns in the zone. 

Feet- Ornate Greaves
These greaves are also obtainable from farming the rare spawns in the Blasted Lands at a 4% drop rate. All the ornate gear has a chance to drop off pretty much all of the trash in the Blasted Lands or Silithus. I just don't have the patience to farm at those low rates so I just watch the AH and pay whatever the going rate is--I mean it's so cute. Totally worth it.

Bow- Moonbow
This bow is quest reward for completing The Inner Circle; a quest in Felwood. This bow was just a piece I grabbed out of my bank today inbetween random dungeons. I think I will be looking for a different one, but it fits for now.

Please excuse the XP gain, this was a random shot while in the night version of The Vortex Pinnacle

Staff-Kindleprotector Staff 

You'll see the above staff, a random axe and the Mardenholde Spear of the Galeburst pictured above, but they aren't for the set. I'm still leveling so I haven't bothered to find something that goes with the set yet. I'm hoping I can find a cute gold polearm to make the gold in the set stick out more, but I haven't even looked anything up yet since I've been so busy running dungeons.

The Ornate Mail set also has a matching helm, one of the cute little pieces of mail that looks like a headband. I have one, but I haven't transmoged it because I have the heirloom and it costs like 300 gold to mog. This circlet isn't really one of my favorite models anyway.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week, sorry this one is a little late. Next week I'll be posting another transmog feature, I just haven't decided who yet. In the weeks to come, I will be posting a guide on how to get the Volcanic Stone drake. Before that though, will be the Midsummer Fire Festival How-To.

<3
Nichole

I'm a dragon

You read that correctly. I recently got my priest the Vial of the Sands so she could turn into the beautiful Sandstone Drake. The other day I had mentioned how I was saving up for one, the buy out on my server is about 40k gold (I was at 20k), well my friend remembered that a guildie of ours had it. To make a long story short, the two of us farmed, spent a ton of gold and Scroll Rez'd our guildie to make the vial. Honestly, farming the mats is the easier part of it. The hardest part, is all the gold you need. If you haven't been saving, it isn't really something you just go out and buy. But since I had my eye on it for a while I was already in the process of saving when he suggested that we go for it.

Rawr sexeh dragon in Uldum

The recipe itself is only obtained through Archaeology at 525. The alchemist recipe for the vial can be found in a canopic jar which is made from 45 Tol'vir Fragments. For those of you that know nothing about the headaches of archaeology, it can take a very long long (and it might never actually happen) time to actually get that artifact to pop up. Luckily for those of us who don't want to take the time to level archaeology, the Vial of Sands isn't Bind on Pickup!! /dance

It is, however, quite costly and time consuming to make. There are two materials that you have to purchase. The Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial (x1) and the Sands of Time (x8). Together they add up to 29k gold, and can be purchased from Yasmin located in Uldum. It can be cheaper if you are a goblin or if you are in a level 25 guild, in which you would have the Bartering perk that reduces the gold price by 10% at vendors. 

Tiny Geezix riding Midaria-drake

The rest of the materials are pretty easy to farm. If you have an herbalist, an alchemist and a miner, you're pretty much good to go. If not, you may need to spend more gold depending on what sort of professions your friends or guildies have. I have each of the professions listed above, as well as a very good friend who has them as well. Farming for the materials took about six hours or so, if you add up all the time it took to farm, make the materials and sell stuff for gold. I do also want to mention that my guild is level 25 so we have the Bountiful Bags perk that increases the quantity of materials gained while gathering. To make the below materials, you can either farm or purchase them from the auction house. I would always check the AH first, some servers you would be surprised at how cheap things can be at different times. 

You need (x12) Truegold bars. These can be purchased from the auction house, or transmuted by an alchemist. If you are going to farm for this, you will need 36 Pyrium bars (72 ore), 120 Volatile Fire, 120 Volatile Air and 120 Volatile water. I'd just like to note that transmuting to Truegold can only be done once a day. For me, the most annoying part of this was farming for the volatiles...which we ended up just giving up and buying the rest anyway because the volatile air drops are terrible. I found doing a nice loop around the Twilight Highlands got the best amount of pyrite ore, though it was quite rare. I did get a bunch of elementium that I later sold.

The last three things you need are also made by an alchemist. For the Flask of Winds (x8) you will need a total of 64 Volatile Life, 64 Whiptail and 64 Azshara's Veil to make all eight flasks. For the Flasks of Titanic Strength (x8) you will need 64 Volatile Life, 64 Whiptail and 64 Cinderbloom. Finally, I hope you don't mind fishing, because you will need to do it to get the Albino Cavefish to make eight Deepstone Oil (x8). Depending on what specialization the Alchemist is, you could get extra flasks or extra transmutes--personally though I just farmed all the mats and then sold whatever I had extra since I was totally out of gold after all of this. The best place to farm Whiptail  is Uldum, hands down. Azshara's Veil is much more rare than Whiptail, but I went to Tol Barad Peninsula and got a bunch from there. Just make sure to go when your faction owns it. Otherwise, if you did the Vashj'ir quests up to where you get the seahorse that is a better place to farm. You can get all your Cinderbloom in Hyjal, pretty much anytime you turn around it will be there. If you need to farm for the Albino Cavefish, you will need to farm them in Deepholm.

It seems like a lot, and I guess it kind of is, but it is worth it. The below list is exactly what you need to make the Vial of Sands without the above mumbo-jumbo. The italicized text is what you need to make the bolded material. If you are just buying, say, the Flask of Winds off the AH, ignore the italic text. 

Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial (x1) 

Sands of Time (x8)

Truegold (x12)

-36 Pyrium bars (72 ore)

-120 Volatile Fire

-120 Volatile Air

-120 Volatile Water

Flask of Winds (x8)

-64 Volatile life

-64 Whiptail

-64 Azshara's Veil

-8 Crystal Vials

Flak of Titanic Strength (x8)

-64 Volatile Life

-64 Whiptail 

-64 Cinderbloom

-8 Crystal Vials

Deepstone Oil (x8)

-8 Albino Cavefish

I hope this was helpful to those of you who still want to get the Vial of Sands. If you need to start making gold, I would just make a miner/herbalist and sell your gathered materials. That's what I do when I am low on gold. Anyway, there are a ton of ways to make gold in this game--just don't ever buy gold! I'm really super happy that I have this mount now. The best part is that it is a two person mount, you're the dragon and your friend rides on your back--pretty neat. Not to mention it is a really pretty drake. I love how the bits of truegold all over the drake are shiny. Hope you all are having an awesome week! 

*hugs*

Nichole