I was already a big fan of my Blizzard authenticator. It gives my WoW account another layer of security, which is very important to me. And now Blizzard have given us a little thank you for using this additional security on our account, in the form of a special pet, the Core Hound Pup (pictured above). It’s a little baby version of the Corehounds that I still remember from my Molten Core days. He’s still young, and very playful, and in the short time I was watching him last night he was rearing up, rolling over, and digging a hole – so cute!

With the introduction of two new pets available from Breanni’s pet store in Dalaran – the Albino Snake and the Calico Cat – I’m now up to 101 pets! Still no achievement for 100 though – come on Blizzard!

Although not yet confirmed, it’s highly likely that one of the prizes you can get from this is an in-game pet. It looks like the 3.1.2 patch will introduce two new pets – a little robot available in both red and blue. It looks suspiciously like you’ll be able to get yourself one of these pets by participating in the Mountain Dew promotion…

… as long as you live in the US. I just tried to register for the Gamer Fuel website to see what it was all about, and as part of the registration you have to enter your address. When I tried to log on to the website I was told I was not able to participate, as the promotion is only available to “legal US residents”.

*sigh*

This disappoints me. It seems unfair, when World of Warcraft is a global game, for this kind of thing to only be available in the US.

Where’s the love for all the other WoW players?

Things have been quiet on this blog recently, which is due to the amount of fun I am having with Patch 3.1, and in particular the Argent Tournament. As soon as I saw the list of non-combat pets available I wanted them, and of course the first one I wanted was my own little pet tree.

Isn’t he cute? He dances and sleeps, just like me!

As I’m not a great farmer of rep, I’d never bothered with Sporeggar reputation. A guildie advised me that at 80 I ought to be able to stealth through the Underbog and collect Sanguine Hibiscus, and I was pleased to discover he was right! I could stealth through the ground floor of the Underbog, picking up any Hibiscus I saw, and usually got 5 or 6 each time. Stealth back out, reset the instance and start again. Five times per hour.

My guildies were a little surprised when this happened:

(I did say I’m not good at farming reputations, didn’t I? The 10 Exalted achievement was an unexpected bonus!)

Then, after hastily gathering the 30 glowcaps (why didn’t I pick these up whilst I was camping the firefly?!), this happened:

And my guildies understood why I had suddently felt the urge to work on an obscure reputation from the last expansion

(Don’t know why the achievement is so faded in that screenshot, by the way, sometimes my UI mod just doesn’t capture the moment accurately. Must be lag or something /shrug)

And here’s my cute little fawn. I really love the way she bounds around after me

I understand there are loads of new pets coming in with the 3.1 update and the Argent Tournament. I wonder if there’ll be a new achievement for 100 pets!

My thoughts on this world event:

I managed to do all of it solo, apart from the Bouquet of Ebon Roses, which I managed to duo with my husband’s level 80 Warlock. I liked that there was nothing required that needed a full group, or more. I enjoy logging on and just noodling around on my own for a bit

The PVP element was entirely achieveable, although I doubt people liked me joining an Arathi Basin fight, running for the Blacksmith, pitying my Fool and then AFK-ing out. I still don’t like that there is a mandatory PVP element to all these meta-achievements, and I think it breeds bad PVP behaviour, like mine.

Everything was very random – I spent the whole weekend logging in once every hour to see if I could get the items I needed. Thankfully I did (well, apart from the pet), but I’m sure there are frustrated people out there that didn’t.

It needed a lot of bag space, and I ended up with a whole load of leftover stuff. I did think about leaving it in the bank for next year, but last night I came to my senses and just deleted it all!

On the whole I enjoyed the event. Children’t Week next, and having had a peek ahead at the achievements for that I am not looking forward to it. It’ll be the PVP requirements that I don’t do, I’m sure.

Following the “Merrymaker” disappointment, I’m trying not to get too obsessed with completing all the World Event achievements, but I do feel that the Lunar festival is a very druid-oriented festival, and I think it’s appropriate that I, as a druid, bear the Elder title. I also think it plays to our strengths, with a lot of the achievements being made a lot easier by our ability to sneak. I hate PvP, but will quite happily sneak in and out of the Horde capital cities when the need arises

By the time I’d finished, it was almost bedtime, so I thought I’d head down into the Dalaran sewers and waste one lure trying to fish for the rat pet down there. I’ve been levelling my fishing in the sewers – I find it helps to have another goal, as well as trying to the pet. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve spent down there, but I’ve managed to get my fishing up to 440 so far, so it’s been quite a while. Anyway, with only 48s left on my lure I was amazed to see the thing I’ve been chasing for so long – yes, my very own giant rat pet.

I went to bed a happy druid last night