Grumpy — Pet of the Month: February 2018

With the in-game Lunar Festival event well underway, it's only fitting this month's pet should honor the Year of the Dog. There are many canine pets to choose from, but we couldn't pass up the chance to feature this heartwarming pup — Grumpy!

Collecting Grumpy
Grumpy is a pet that can be obtained from a very short quest in Bradensbrook, Val'sharah. All pet-lovers will absolutely want to complete this quest to save Grumpy!

The quest of the same name requires character level 98 and can be found in a burning house in Southern Bradensbrook (coordinates are 38,65 or just below the 'E' and 'N' in Bradensbrook on the world map). Grumpy is on the second floor of this house.

There are no prerequisites for the quest, and it can be easy to overlook, as there aren't any direct breadcrumbs that lead you to this pup.

If you skip any parts of the house or bypass any of the fire, it's possible that the quest will not pop up. To fix this, simply run out of the house and make your way back in, making sure to run through the fire. This goes against our classic 'do not stand/walk in fire' training, but it's worth it to find this pet.

A quick interaction with Grumpy and you'll have a new loyal canine companion. His droopy, scowling face may seem 'grumpy', but his heart definitely pulses with love. It's like his description text reads, "You saved him, but maybe he saved you."

Battling with Grumpy
Grumpy has a versatile kit of moves which offers utility or longevity — but not at the same time.

The central move that makes Grumpy a must-have, besides his cute smooshy face, is Superbark. Superbark is a key move to have any time you want to do wild taming. It deals a ton of damage but won't drop your opponent below one health, so there's no guesswork or unlucky crits to worry about when weakening your opponent for a trap. Unfortunately it is on a longer cooldown so if your opponent has any immunity moves like Burrow, you may whiff it and end up guessing anyway.

Sharing the slot with Superbark is Buried Treasure, an adorable healing move. Grumpy has a surprising amount of longevity with this move and Survival. His filler attack move Bark can also help with this, but with that it's kind of a catch 22. Bark decreases the amount of damage your opponent does, but it also does less damage than Bite, meaning your fights will be that much longer. Bite will definitely be the best choice for a taming build as a result.

If you go with Bite, you'll probably want to take a look at Howl. Even though it was nerfed for Legion, Howl still offers a huge damage increase worth exploring in non-taming situations.

There aren't any other breeds for Grumpy, and there isn't any individual pet like him. If you're looking at the Superbark build, various Corgis will offer the same utility, and there's always that trusty old Terrible Turnip from Pandaria with Weakening Blow. If the DPS version is what you're after, there are a ton of Fox and Wolf-type pets to seek out. The Fjord Worg Pup is your best bet here, with a P/P breed, but there are a lot of foxes in Highmountain if you're just looking for Howls.

Grumpy offers a lot to love. How could you not, with that adorable name and those majestic jowls?

Pet of the Month is co-written by Liopleurodon, an experienced pet battler and long-time WoW player. She maintains her own Pet Battle blog and is a Pet Battle and esports columnist on the fansite Blizzard Watch.