Gnome Hunters! Mech Pets!

It’s official! You will be able to create a Gnome Hunter in Legion. This was hinted at last week, and Blizzard made a full blown announcement about it yesterday. As if Gnome Hunters weren’t exciting enough, the big surprise was that Hunters are getting a new pet family called Mechanical.

Goblins and Gnomes will be able to tame Mechanicals because they’re Goblins and Gnomes and that’s just what they do. In fact, Gnomes will get a mechanical rabbit as their starting pet.

Before you run off and race change, other Hunters will be able to learn this capability from a device that Engineers will make.

Now, just because you know how to tame a Mechanical, doesn’t mean you know how to tame a Mechanical. That’s right, they’re going to be taming challenges and will require you to make use of your awesome Hunter abilities. One such Mechanical is a mechanostrider. Hunters will have to make their way deep into Gnomregan and figure out how to overload the mechanical beast’s circuits. Figure out this little puzzle and the metal beast is yours.

This is awesome! On more than one occasion, we’ve talked about engineered pets on the Hunting Party Podcast and it’s something that is long overdue. The mechanostrider is a good start, but few things would make me happier than going to Hellfire Peninsula and unleashing a stampede of Fel Reavers onto a Fel Reaver.

Once curious thing that was mentioned in the announcement was the need to feed these pets.

What do you feed a high-tech pet that’s not technically alive? Mechanical Bits, of course! Hunters will be able to keep their shiny metal friends “happy” and “healthy” through the creative use of Engineering supplies such as a Handful of Copper Bolts.

Hopefully this all about lore and fantasy and not the return of pet happiness. That’s one beast that needs to remain dead forever.