EDITED: Appearance Buff Pets now RETIRED. Facts/Explanations

[Rarehunter1]

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As of recently, it seems Blizz has snuffed out every method of obtaining any of these beauties now.

Significant/Popular Pets No Longer Obtainable as of 4/12/12

Armored Battleboar: Completely covered in flames.
The Lone Hunter: Had a knife through his head.
Oil Stained Fledgling: Pitch Black with black fog emitting from it.
Consumed Thistle Bear: Retained it's Pinkish/Purple glow.
Oil Stained Wolf: Pitch Black with black fog emitting from it.
Angered Arakkao Protector: Blue Mist Aura
Kung Din: Chain around neck
Coldbite Matriarch: Sha effect
Corrupted Crane: Sha effect
Ik'Thik Terrorclaw: Sha effect
Amberscale Basilisk: Sha effect
Furious Goat: Sha effect

The list above covers only the pets that kept their buffs after death, since they were the more popular ones. All temporary appearance buff pets (sparklestrider, ghost wolf, etc.) are no longer obtainable through any means.

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NO LONGER WORKS

Ok. So I once again experimented today... and I have sort of good news...
So those Angered Arakkao Protectors with the blue mist? Still tameable with the mist. Having someone kill it for you to make it despawn is a no go though. Blizz seems to have fixed that method for good. Now you have to let the game despawn it on it's own. Timing is precise. It actually didn't take me that long after I figured out this was the only way. Then this theory hit me. Any pet that has a forceable despawn timer can still be manipulated and tamed in a way to keep their buff. This is because people aren't killing them.... WoW is. Blizz nerfed it so PLAYERS can't despawn a pet to keep a buff, but they never nerfed it so the game can't. This theory may mean that there is a slight chance the oil stained wolf is still obtainable...but only through the means of the quest that forceably despawns it.....and of course precise timing with the tame. I personally have had no success with the wolf, but if you would like to attempt/test it more, please do. And please post your results. Feedback is much appreciated.

The bad news is that as far as I know, these two pets are the only tameable pets with a buff ingame that actually have a despawn timer. With the inability for players to kill/despawn pets anymore using themselves or others, it still looks like the flaming boar, lone hunter, consumed thistle bear, and oil stained hawk are unobtainable for good now. The Oil-stained wolf is still unconfirmed, but there is a super small chance it could still work with pinpoint timing, and only using the quest to cause the game to forceably despawn it. But since it hasn't been confirmed since the patch, it will be remain on the retired list until proven otherwise.

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Hello. For those who don't know me, I'm a dedicated fan and longtime veteran of the appearance buff pets, and taming methods. I obtained my first round of glitch pets when Cataclysm first came out, and have been filling my stables with nothing but them since. Lately there has been talk that the latest hotfix (4.3.3) got rid of every method to obtain these interesting pets, and I have been dedicated to figuring out the facts about it.

Ok. I have experimented/tested literally ALL day today with this. I have used EVERY tame method known to mankind in order to attempt to snag the buff pets once again.

Here are my results and conclusions:

2 Person Kill Method: I start taming a buff pet. The millisecond my tame is done, the other person with me insta-kills it, while I spam the nonchanneling revive pet macro. If the pet simply disappeared but did not have to be revived, it would retain it's temp/perma buff. *This was the newest way to get sparklys such as the deviate plainstrider/ghostpaw runner* Result? Fail. I tried this particular method on every known buff pet at least 100 times each since it was the last known method to work. No success.
1 Person Kill Method: Serpent sting/immolation trap a buff pet, and start tame. Pet dies exactly when tame ends. Result? Fail.
I also tried the Petabandon() Macro method just for kicks. Result? Fail.
Quest items/timers used to despawn buff pet: This method includes timing angered arrakao protectors to despawn when tame ends, and oil wolf when quest item despawns it. !!!!THIS METHOD WORKED!!!! With precise timing and patience. But so far I have only been able to nab the mist covered arrakao protector with this.

I even tamed one of the same npc's before attempting to tame another using the methods above, just in case it had any affect like in the past. No good.

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OH and if anyone would like to know the reason for Blizz finally putting their foot down on this method of taming... the answer lies in the Vekniss Soldier of AQ 40...
A few weeks after rediscovering damage dealing buff pets could once again be obtained, a few guilds were clever (or stupid) enough to try something. Vekniss Soldiers emit a Frenzy Aura which increaseS haste and attack power by 20% to all friendly members in the area. When tamed with the exploit, Vekniss Soldiers would give the Frenzy Aura to every person in your raid, causing an ENORMOUS dps boost to the group. If this sounds bad enough, it turned out the buff actually stacked. What this means is that guilds could go and do heroic deathwing, with 5 BM hunters in their group who each had the exploit version of this pet. The buffs all stacked, which would create a MONSTROUS/INSANE 100% haste and attack power increase for EVERYONE in the raid. This started showing up alot in World Logs, and people were obviously getting upset about it. Blizz noticed it, and in seeing past methods of trying to fix this exploit failed, they reprogrammed how tame beast works, ultimately fixing the problem and our pets.

They let us keep our fun taming method as long as possible, but in the end, this bug is what pushed them over the edge.

SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY LONG POST!
Thanks!

[Lisaara]

How do you know about the abuse thing? I've never heard of this, nor saw a blue post about it. I'm genuinely curious about this. Would help to have links and stuff rather than mere word of mouth.

[Zuilu]

Hm. I might have to try taming an oily wolf tomorrow to double check and see if it truly is finished. I can understand why Blizzard would do this, though, the raiding guilds abusing the buffed silithids was a big problem.

[Lisaara]

Indeed. I mean I've seen several reports(including my own tests) proving this true but usually hotfixes are announced.

[Tilo]

[Miacoda]

Dammit Blizzard... WTB warning. Why did I keep putting off getting lone hunter with sword on my worgen? Ugh, dammit.
I was also really hoping to tame Kung Din with his chain.

[Chimera]

Im still awaiting a blue post to surface before i deem this true

[Unggoy]

2 Person Kill Method: I start taming a buff pet. The millisecond my tame is done, the other person with me insta-kills it, while I spam the nonchanneling revive pet macro. If the pet simply disappeared but did not have to be revived, it would retain it's temp/perma buff. *This was the newest way to get sparklys such as the deviate plainstrider/ghostpaw runner* Result? Fail. I tried this particular method on every known buff pet at least 100 times each since it was the last known method to work. No success.

This is how i got my last Oil Wolf a few months ago, and it took quite a while. 100 times with no success doesn't necessarily mean it's no longer possible. I'll head out and try and get another as I've been putting it off anyway, but if this is true, I'm going to be pretty furious at myself for not doing it sooner.

EDIT: Bout half an hour of atempts, and although i felt as though it was timed right about 3 times, it yielded zero retained buffs. I don't wanna say it's fixed still until Blizz says so, but I'm fairly mad now that i put off regaining my Oily Wolf after accidentally arena'ing with it a month or so ago. >_<

[Rarehunter1]

Attempted alot of the day using the methods again. Nothing.

Also, if you are waiting for a blue post from Blizz to confirm the hotfix, it ain't gonna happen. Blizz already made public a year ago that this issue was hotfixed, so I doubt they will announce it again. If Blizz is aware of a problem and states it once, you can bet it will be taken care of one way or another eventually. They had some major difficulties obviously, but in the end it was always going to be fixed.

Here's the original blue post:
http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=176861/ ... s-now-live

I mean if everyone wants to go test them again, more power to you....maybe even try creative new methods of taming them.... as for me...I'm sticking with my conclusion that they are all fixed.

Another reason I am almost certain this is fixed is that this is the first time I have not successfully been able to tame those funny dead rhinos in the storm peaks. The ones that remain "dead but alive." If while you were taming one, a dragon came down and targeted it, it would shoot fire at it and automatically kill it. After the tame was complete the rhino would be killed and carried off. Once resummoned, it would look dead, but still be alive. This was an easy way for me to tell that all other appearance buffs were still obtainable, because the dragon's breath was programmed to change that npc's appearance, whether it was already tamed and had full health or not. There was no precise timing needed for this pet. It was just programmed to do this. As long as this method worked, I knew the taming process could still be glitched. Now...when I tame them using this method, the dragon's breath does absolutely no damage to them. It doesnt carry them off either, or change the npc's appearance. I just have a normal healthy rhino sitting next to me each time.

[Rawr]

You all forgot to test one method; the 2 copy on death revive half way log out log in method (I know it's long but I wasn't sure what else to call it) also you can use 2 ppl if you want for this and unless they stop disappearing altogether when revived this still might work. I'll test this on a Lone Hunter on WrA if anyone wants to help


This may take longer than expected, apparently everyone on this sever decided today was a good day to do his quest
I'm tiered of this, I'm going to test it on oiled wolves/fledglings

[Chimera]

D: Well at least i got the oily wolf on my engineer hunter ._. the only buff pet i have to my name right now (unless my undead hunter has her's but i think i got rid of it.. cant remember..)

[Rhyela]

D'aw, and I let go of my flaming piggy because I never used it. Oh well, the fire kinda got on my nerves after a while, anyway.

[Acherontia]

I just have a normal healthy rhino sitting next to me each time.

Only on Petopia would this be considered a bad thing "My wolf doesn't have a sword through his head anymore--NOOOO!" ;D

Joking aside, I agree that we will likely never see another post on this, regardless of whether it's finally been fixed or will be in the future. As mentioned, Blizz DID say they'd fixed it, and I doubt they'd announced that they failed but finally got it right!

Shame on those hunters abusing the bugs (no pun intended ofc) for raid dps, whether they're what got it nerfed or not.

Also, congrats to all of those who got their appearance-buffed pets while the methods still worked. Ingenuity is a great trait ;D

Finally, thank you for the post. The time and effort put into the study & announcement are appreciated!!

[Unggoy]

Thanks for the update in the OP. If i remember i'll try to get a friend to help me with testing the oiled wolf tomorrow, if i can also remember how to do it with the quest. Bad memory is bad. >_<

[Miacoda]

*comes back and facedesks*

Oh my GOSH why the crap do stupid people have to take away awesome shit by exploiting it? Ugh!
Just remembered another pet I wanted on an alt but was going to wait for MoP to try!
So, in PTR the white tigers in Emerald dragonshrine in End time kept a "in moonlight" buff they had when tamed, and I REALLY wanted to tame one with that buff so the pretty moonlight sound would constantly play, and now I cant. dljhgkfzsdgbag So frustrated, come on Blizzard, You're tech savvy, can't you just make this not work for exploitable pets? T-T

*goes to corner to mope*

[SpiritBinder]

*comes back and facedesks*

*goes to corner to mope*

This! ^

You can always depend on the idiocy of others, and their ability to take something fun and ruin it for EVERYONE.. /sigh

When I saw the sha haunted cranes and tigers on MOP I also thought, OooOooo I wonder if there would be a way to tame these guys with the black aura on them, similar to the oil stained wolf ?!? Would be exciting if possible !?!

But No, no point even considering now, like I said, ruined for everyone.

Oh and Ty Rarehunter1 very very much for the update. I too am in the "noob" category of Unggoy, accidentally summoned mine in arena and he lost his buff...and was of course, JUST after they fix fixed it. I have yet to try the quest version (which is how I got him in the 1st place) but was unsuccessful in any other method. If however, anyone manages to work it out, please shout out, it would be Very appreciated.

[Vephriel]

That's really a shame for people who weren't able to tame ones that they wanted.

I never really let myself get attached to any of the buff pets since I feared this would happen one day, and the way so many of them were dependent on things such as no deaths or no arenas...I was just too hesitant to involve myself with one lest something happened and it lost the effect.

Still, perhaps this is for the best, as there were certainly means to abuse it.

Maybe in the future Blizzard can add beasts that intentionally come with a unique appearance that don't require any special taming method, the effect is part of the model.

[SpiritBinder]

That's really a shame for people who weren't able to tame ones that they wanted.

I never really let myself get attached to any of the buff pets since I feared this would happen one day, and the way so many of them were dependent on things such as no deaths or no arenas...I was just too hesitant to involve myself with one lest something happened and it lost the effect.

Still, perhaps this is for the best, as there were certainly means to abuse it.

Maybe in the future Blizzard can add beasts that intentionally come with a unique appearance that don't require any special taming method, the effect is part of the model.

Yeah, it is really quite a shame, but then I do have to agree with you that anything that required you to tame a beast, outside of the realms of what blizzard would classify and "normal" tame, you just have to be willing to let it go if they choose to "fix" it. Even if you do become quite attached to the little buggers.

What I didn't understand was why they didn't just flick the "Tamable" button to "Untamable" for these offending pets, such as the Vekniss Soldiers. Certainly it would have been a lot easier than trying to create/edit new coding over multiple attempts to stop these particular pets being exploited. It's not like the Vekniss Soldiers was the only green ant silithid model in game for taming either...

Anyway, whats done is done I guess, it does mean that now they never will have to think or consider to not add any damage dealing buffs to any future beasts that could be used for exploiting.

RIP Appearance Buffs

[Miacoda]

Well, the sha haunted cranes and tigers lost the buff when they died... so they'd have been "show off" pets... I REALLY wanted to tame Kung Din with his chain though Like, I sooo wanted him with that, and now this ruins that as well...
I agree that they should have just made those silithids untameable... There are plenty of green silithids out there.


Luckily though... recently I asked a GM to restore Mia's sword-faced wolf, and he's exactly the way I left him... sadly though the reason I left him on Mia was to re-do the tame on Espen.. and I just never got around to it... sigh.
Every time I think about this it just really depresses me. My senior year high school English teacher would always tell us "It's the actions of idiots that take away our rights" and this couldn't be more true in something like this...

I can only hope... that maybe Blizzard will find a way to keep us happy... I sort of doubt it.. but I really hope so.

[Lisaara]

I've tried the oil wolf with the quest....got it timed just right....and nothin....so even with the quest, it's unobtainable.