Pets Pets Everywhere

So the big deal in the new patch appears to be the pets. (I know the higher levels are bonkers over Warnorken Arena, but I'm not there yet.)

Of course, I went right away to "the guy on the donkey", which seems to be the standard description of him, and took my pet training. Pretty simple and I got a little lime ball pet out of it.

Also checked out the quests in Miller's Ranch. There are two there that give you rewards for your pet. I did the chicken one just cuz it was called "An Easy Lay." Sheesh, what a quest title. I think the localization folks are having a bit of fun with us.

And I got another giggle when I was required to cheer on the chicken as it laid an egg. "Come On! Go for it!" Pretty embarassing, especially when Gravity Cat was watching. :)

So 10 eggs equals one Miller's Special Cake which equals training 1, nourishment 5, experience 10 for your pet. I guess if you don't have gold, this is the way to get food. And there has been a lot of chatter in the zones about how expensive food is for the pets. They called it a "gold sink". I think I may agree. Later in the day, I was purposefully not summoning my pet cuz I had no food to feed it!

Anyway, I bought a bunch of traps...ok, 20 traps...and went out and killed mobs. On my tenth one, a Magic Cavy appeared. So cute! (I've got a thing for rodents.) I herded it around and caught it in the trap. Woot! It gave me this level 15 strange looking thing that I named Goober.
Caught the Pokemon fever then and starting catching cavies all over the place. I even threw some eggs out before I realized that they could actually be sold on the AH even though the description says they can't. I ended up with a level 6 Forest Fox and a level 30 Wasp. I renamed the wasp Hunnybee so I wouldn't be so icked-out about having a hornet flying around me. Did freak some people out in Varanas Central though!

One of the strangest things is that the pet talks to you as it buzzes around. Somewhere I read that what you say back has an effect on their stats but I tried talking to it and could see no difference. Besides, half the time the pet said something, it was off the screen and I couldn't read it. And it's awfully embarrassing to say "I love you" out loud on Varanas Bridge! What am I supposed to say when people look at me funny? "Oh, I was just talking to my bee."

Things I learned that might be helpful to others: Those darn Magic Cavies will climb up cliffs and go through walls so don't push them that way thinking it will stop them.
There are Pet Hunter guys in Varanas East and Obsidian Stronghold Trade Square.
Magic Cavies can be ninja'd.
The golden egg that you occasionally get from the chicken quest doesn't actually give you an unbound pet because all pets are currently unbound. This may change.

Got distracted by the onset of double XP/TP for the weekend and stopped gathering eggs and went to level some alts. Pretty soon, everywhere I went there were Magic Cavies running everywhere and people just leaving them. Either folks are already bored with them (bad sign), or they didn't have traps (like my alts).

So I'm off to enjoy the long weekend out in the sunshine. Hoping to get some more play time in so I can level some more and get Spiral's rogue side to 58.
Happy Canada Day to the Canadians, and Happy Fourth of July to the Americans!

Side Note: I killed a Forest Fox in Weeping Coast and it dropped a Strange Crystal. Used to be only able to get these from the Spirit of Tempest Heights event in DDC. Collect 20 Strange Crystals and you can exchange them for an Ancient Treasure Key to open locked treasure boxes. Cool. Nice addition.