Sneak Peek: Guardian Cub Tradable Pet
A new pet is coming to a Blizzard Store near you and ... you can trade it and sell it at the auction house!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Coming soon to a Pet Store near you: the new and titanically cute Guardian Cub companion. You’ve soared across Azeroth on the majestic Winged Guardian. Soon, you'll be able to purchase a pint-sized Guardian of the Titans sidekick to accompany you on your adventures.


Stunning good looks and adorable, supersized eyes aren’t all this new pet has going for it. The Guardian Cub is also the Pet Store's first tradable pet, meaning it can be swapped between characters in-game or given as a gift to guildmates, friends, family, or that special someone -- no adoption papers necessary. Due to his finicky nature, each Guardian Cub will only give its allegiance to one owner, meaning it’s a one-time-use pet that permanently binds to a single character. Be sure to choose a master wisely.

Look for the Guardian Cub to arrive in the Blizzard Store in the weeks ahead -- in the meantime, we've prepped a mini-FAQ to explain how this flying friend will differ from other Pet Store companions.

Q: How does the Guardian Cub pet work? How is it different from other Pet Store pets?

Unlike the other Pet Store companions, the Guardian Cub is a tradable, one-time-use pet that permanently binds to a single character upon use. When you purchase the Guardian Cub from the online store, the character you designate will receive a bind-on-use item to carry in his or her inventory. You can either use the item yourself to permanently add the pet to your character's collection (consuming the item in the process), or -- after a brief initial cooldown period -- you can trade the item to another player so he or she can add it to one of their character's collections. Note that once the pet has been added to a character's Companions list, it can no longer be traded, so make sure you're giving the cub a happy home.


Q: Will I be able to carry more than one Guardian Cub at a time?

While a character can only have one Guardian Cub in his or her Companions list, you can have as many in your inventory as you like. Please note that Guardian Cub items do not stack, so each one will take up a bag or bank slot.


Q: How much will the Guardian Cub cost in the Pet Store?

The Guardian Cub will be priced the same as the other Pet Store pets ($10 USD). All sales of the Guardian Cub are final -- no refunds will be given once a purchase is made.


Q: Why did you decide to make the Guardian Cub tradable?

Since the introduction of the Pet Store, many players have been asking for ways to get the companions we offer there without having to spend real-world cash. By making the Guardian Cub tradable (much like the BoE mounts from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game), players interested in the new pet will have fun, alternative in-game ways to get one. In addition to trading the pet, players can give the Guardian Cub as a gift to another character for a special occasion; guild leaders can use them to reward members for a job well done; and so on. We also hope this change will help reduce the number of incidents of scamming via trading for invalid pet codes.


Q: Could I put the Guardian Cub up on the auction house to try to make some gold if I wanted to?

While our goal is to offer players alternative ways to add a Pet Store pet to their collection, we’re ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services. However, please keep in mind that there's never any guarantee that someone will purchase what you put up for sale in the auction house, or how much they'll pay for it. Also, it’s important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. (You can read more about our stance here.) While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that’s preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling “black market” and account theft.


Q: Are you changing the other available Pet Store pets (e.g. Lil' Ragnaros, the Pandaren Monk) to work this way?

No, the other available Pet Store pets will continue to work as they always have.


Q: What about future Pet Store pets?

It's too early to say how we'll handle future Pet Store pets. We made this change in response to feedback from players looking for alternate ways to get the Pet Store pets, and we're always looking into other opportunities for improvement. We're interested in hearing what players think of the Guardian Cub when it launches, and we hope you'll have fun with this new flying friend.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Sneak Peek: Guardian Cub Tradable Pet started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 729 Comments
  1. KnickKnack's Avatar
    I don't know why people think that "OMG YOU CAN BUY GEAR" nonsense.Think guys. They are only normal level BoEs. You can't buy tier either.These will flood the AH and decrease in price so fast, stop worrying about it.
  1. mmoc1eac56a8df's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shmiles View Post
    I honestly can't stand people like, spouting absolute shit (excuse the language but you really do deserve it). The way this pet is being sold has NO IMPACT ON PVP OR PVE. Stop trying to complain about Blizzard's ability to make money. Will people buy it? Yes. Will they profit from it? Yes. Will you continue to play WoW even while complaining half the time on forums? Yes.
    Shutup and play the game.
    Im curious, just how far have Blizzard got to go before you think their actions are unacceptable?
  1. Kirbylock's Avatar
    why cant they just sell 2 versions of the pet? one that is the tradable version that can only be used on one character and another version that acts the same way as all the other pets - non-tradable and gets sent to all characters.

    if this is Blizzard's future sole way to handle all of their Pet Store pets, i will never buy another pet from them. i expect my $10 to provide a pet for ALL my characters, not just one. i cannot believe people actually where too cheap to spend $10 on a pet, and now caused it to be ruined for everyone else. now its like, spend excessive amounts of real money for a pet for all our characters or spend tons of in-game gold for them.

    i guess this is Blizzards way of making up for their subscription drop. they just keep sinking deeper.
  1. Joycemiester's Avatar
    Its drip drip drip and then you eventually have a flood. It's creeping up on the player base and i am disgusted.
  1. Shmiles's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Attsey View Post
    Im curious, just how far have Blizzard got to go before you think their actions are unacceptable?
    Like many other people in this thread, it's only unacceptable when you can buy PVP or PVE gear. Now I'm not talking BoEs, which can technically be bought for RL money (gold sites > spend gold on AH), but tier/heroic tier.
    Also, like others have said, TCG has been "legal" in-game for a long time. I have personally sold a TCG item from ebay for more than what it was worth for gold ingame.
  1. mmoc550b94ca52's Avatar
    Actually how I think (more like - hope) it will work. You buy the pet. You get the pet for 1 of your characters. You "use" the pet, so it becomes bound to you (your account). But the minipet won't disappear but stays in your inventory (like with Collectors edition pets used to) so you can send the item to your other characters and "use" the pet for them aswell. And therefore you can have the same minipet on all your characters. Just once you bind it - you wont be able to sell it or trade it to anyone but you.Hope this will be something like that.
  1. mmoc44e5154f48's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Marcis View Post
    How can you create a gold out from nowhere? Can you please enlighten me because i would love to do so
    Way to miss the point... You can't create gold yourself, which is why this is NOT gold selling. To sell gold, Blizzard would create it out of nowhere. You would pay them and they would mail you 10k gold. This is not the case.

    Quote Originally Posted by Marcis View Post
    To sell gold you have to get it from somewhere - farm, sell loot etc etc. You can't just magically hack wow and create 100k gold in your account out of thin air. This pet is precisely what it is - legalized gold selling.
    And there you make a weird jump, because the fact that you CAN'T create 100k out of nowhere is exactly why it is NOT GOLD SELLING. Again, if it was gold selling, Blizzard would create gold out of nowhere to give to you, thus ruining the economy. This just redistributes gold from ingame rich people to people who sell those pets on the AH. There is no new gold. You could have gotten the same result by selling Greater Celestial Essences. It doesn't change the economy, as there is not magically more gold created. It's also no guaranteed gold maker, as the prices of those pets will drop soon and demand will be little.

    I'm not sure if I like this or not (going from a pet for every char to just one sucks big time), but it's not gold selling.
  1. Idoru's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Attsey View Post
    Im curious, just how far have Blizzard got to go before you think their actions are unacceptable?
    Optional vanity items are a long way from what I would find unacceptable.
  1. NilModern's Avatar
    Edited for posterity.
  1. mmoc44e5154f48's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nian View Post
    Actually how I think (more like - hope) it will work. You buy the pet. You get the pet for 1 of your characters. You "use" the pet, so it becomes bound to you (your account). But the minipet won't disappear but stays in your inventory (like with Collectors edition pets used to) so you can send the item to your other characters and "use" the pet for them aswell. And therefore you can have the same minipet on all your characters. Just once you bind it - you wont be able to sell it or trade it to anyone but you.Hope this will be something like that.
    No, bind on use really means bind on use... You use it, it enters your spellbook, the item is gone. This is a one time use pet for 10 bucks Good thing is I have plenty of gold to buy them on the AH for all my chars
  1. Idoru's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NilModern View Post
    Whew! This game is as unbalanced as it could get, bugs still running rampant, etc... but we're getting a NEW pet! That looks just like the stupid mount! Love this game, thank you Blizzard for taking care of us
    Love how you seem to think that the people who design pets and mounts are the same people responsible for game balance or fixing bugs or designing new encounters.
  1. chrisisvacant's Avatar
    Never seen so many people complain about something they do not have to buy and would have absolutely no impact on them in any way whatsoever.
  1. Callypso's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Idoru View Post
    Love how you seem to think that the people who design pets and mounts are the same people responsible for game balance or fixing bugs or designing new encounters.
    Or that this game isn't in one of the most balanced states it has ever been in. Sure, both in PVE and PVP there's still some underdogs, but in a game with 10 classes spreading a combined 30 specs, it's pretty damn near impossible to achieve perfect balance unless you make all the classes identical. Oh, but then people would start complaining about homogenizing everything ofc.
  1. Shmiles's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chrisisvacant View Post
    Never seen so many people complain about something they do not have to buy and would have absolutely no impact on them in any way whatsoever.
    People with nothing going on in their lives love to complain about something that means nothing to them.
    Whiners gonna whine.
  1. Keosen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chrisisvacant View Post
    Never seen so many people complain about something they do not have to buy and would have absolutely no impact on them in any way whatsoever.
    Every new patch brings a lot of new things especially BoE crafts or mats that costs thousand of gold since there aren't many of them in the AH.
    If you don't have time or don't want to farm they you either have to wait your guild to help or the prices to drop.
    Now you can just buy a cub AH it for an X amount of gold and buy every new expensive things a brand new patch has to offer.

    Multiply it x10 and you can have a 10man guild get expensive early-patch gear through gold buying (essentially).
    Replace the guild with a guy who just likes to spend euros, he buys 10 cubs he AH them he got an large amount of gold and then manipulates the AH or get expensive BoEs without spending one hour farming. etc etc,

    So the phrase "would have absolutely no impact on them in any way whatsoever." it's plain wrong.
    I'm not saying that will certainly mess up the economy or that will have a guaranteed impact to everyone but denying the fact that it's possible it's wrong.
  1. Idoru's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keosen View Post
    Every new patch brings a lot of new things especially BoE crafts or mats that costs thousand of gold since there aren't many of them in the AH.
    If you don't have time or don't want to farm they you either have to wait your guild to help or the prices to drop.
    Now you can just buy a cub AH it for an X amount of gold and buy every new expensive things a brand new patch has to offer.

    Multiply it x10 and you can have a 10man guild get expensive early-patch gear through gold buying (essentially).
    Replace the guild with a guy who just likes to spend euros, he buys 10 cubs he AH them he got an large amount of gold and then manipulates the AH or get expensive BoEs without spending one hour farming. etc etc,

    So the phrase "would have absolutely no impact on them in any way whatsoever." it's plain wrong.
    I'm not saying that will certainly mess up the economy or that will have a guaranteed impact to everyone but denying the fact that it's possible it's wrong.
    I do think that most people are overestimating the amount of gold this pet will sell for.
  1. Gilian's Avatar
    So they are now actually selling gold for real money. Now they are officially milking WoW.
  1. Gilian's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Andelormon View Post
    Some people can not afford the pets from the Pet Store, but can get them from the AH. The issues will be those that post them up for 15,000g plus on the AH cause they spend $50.00 to get a bunch of them and take advantage of the first few hours.
    In the first few hours? Do you really think people will ask less gold for $10 later on?
  1. Idoru's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gilian View Post
    In the first few hours? Do you really think people will ask less gold for $10 later on?
    I think that people will ask for whatever they want, but I also think that (pretty fast) they won't actually sell for these prices.
  1. ManiaCCC's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keosen View Post
    Every new patch brings a lot of new things especially BoE crafts or mats that costs thousand of gold since there aren't many of them in the AH.
    If you don't have time or don't want to farm they you either have to wait your guild to help or the prices to drop.
    Now you can just buy a cub AH it for an X amount of gold and buy every new expensive things a brand new patch has to offer.

    Multiply it x10 and you can have a 10man guild get expensive early-patch gear through gold buying (essentially).
    Replace the guild with a guy who just likes to spend euros, he buys 10 cubs he AH them he got an large amount of gold and then manipulates the AH or get expensive BoEs without spending one hour farming. etc etc,

    So the phrase "would have absolutely no impact on them in any way whatsoever." it's plain wrong.
    I'm not saying that will certainly mess up the economy or that will have a guaranteed impact to everyone but denying the fact that it's possible it's wrong.
    But what will really change? Gold wont be created from thin air and inflation wont rise because of that. So only difference is that guy who don't have time to farm enough gold can just legally buy it for RL money.. is that really bad? It's happening all the time. Now there is legal way to do it.As long as best pieces are still BoP, I see no reason to rage.

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