So far, we’ve shown nearly everything a character can do. They can attack, heal, move around, and do all sorts of other good stuff. But we still have a few tricks up our sleeves. As even a World of Warcraft novice can tell you, Hunters and Warlocks come with pets, and Shamans come with totems. For those of you outside of the loop (shame on you!), Hunters get to roll around with a tiger, bear, scorpion, or whatever other sort of beast suits their fancy, while Warlocks get to choose from a variety of imps, voidwalkers, and other demons to assist them in their efforts. Meanwhile, totems grant powers to the Shaman and all of his or her buddies, or they harm or distract the opposition. Here at Upper Deck, we’ve gone through a lot of effort to recreate these pets and totems in the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game!

Pets and totems both start off as cards in your Action Bar, just like any other Action Bar card. But after that, most of the similarities end, so it’s best to look at pets and totems as two different card types. For starters, let’s look at the anatomy of a pet card.

1) Pet Name: In the Core Set, Warlock pet cards will have “Summon [strange sequence of letters]” in their name, while Hunter pet cards will have “Call [clever pun based on animal type]” in their name. As you can see, Hukkrit follows this naming convention.

2) Class Icon: Just like any other Action Bar card, pets are restricted to certain classes. In this case, the Warlock icon shows that this pet is restricted to Warlocks.

3) Tick Cost: Summoning or calling a pet requires a tick payment just like any other action.

4) Stats: Pets have armor, resist, and health, just like a normal character.

5) Middle Information Bar: This gives the information about what type of pet it is, and what talent tree the summon belongs to (all pets will be Demonology or Beast Mastery). For the most part, this information is just for flavor, but sometimes we will refer to the information found here.

6) Text Box: This will explain the abilities of the pet. Most will have attacks (although not all) in addition to whatever other abilities it has. For example, just like any loyal voidwalker, Hukkrit is willing and able to take on some tanking responsibilities with its taunt ability.

A pet card can only be played during your character’s turn. When you decide you want to bring out your pet, pay the tick cost found in the upper-left corner of the card. When your pet comes out, place it on any unoccupied, adjacent space to the summoner. You can even place a pet onto terrain if you want to. If you can, use the actual voidwalker figure from booster packs when you drop Hukkrit onto the map. (If you don’t have a pet miniature, use a token and an extra die to track the pet’s clock and health.) Once summoned, a pet gets its own clock, which is set to the same tick as the summoner. For example, if on tick 1 of the game you spawned your Warlock and summoned Hukkrit, your Warlock would tick up to 5, and Hukkrit would get its own personal clock of 5 as well.

Once your pet is up and running, it takes its own turns in tick order just like any other character. Pets follow all character rules except for the following:

1) Pets do not respawn if destroyed, though they can be replayed once their cards are ready.

2) If the summoner of the pet is destroyed, the pet is immediately removed from the board.

3) Pets do not score victory points for being on or adjacent to VP locations.

4) Pets do not block opposing line of sight.

5) Opposing figures can move through pets, although no figure can end its movement for the turn on the same space as a pet (just like any other character).

6) Opponents score no victory points for destroying a pet.

7) A character may control only one pet at a time. If a character summons a second pet, the first pet is removed from the board.  

In every other way, pets are characters, so they can make attacks, be healed, occupy critical pieces of terrain, and everything else. Remember that your Action Bar cards ready at the end of each round (tick 10), so if Hukkrit is destroyed protecting you from harm, feel free to summon it back when its Action Bar card is ready to go.

Totems have a few similarities to pets, but they are largely different. Again, let’s take a gander at one of our totem cards.

Much of this information should look familiar. Totem cards have a tick cost, although Strength of Earth Totem is a 0 cost instant, meaning you can drop this down in addition to taking an action on your turn. Totems have a health value, although most of them are on the very fragile side. Also, just like a pet, the text box explains the abilities of the totem. From there, the similarities largely end.

The rules for totems are:

1) When you play a totem card, drop a token into the same space as the Shaman that summoned it.

2) Totems are not considered characters. They do not have a clock and they do not move on their own.

3) Totems can be attacked and targeted just like a character, but they are immune to area of effect (AOE) attacks.

4) Any number of totems may occupy a single space.

5) Totems are not removed from the game if the Shaman is destroyed.

6) Totems can’t be healed.

7) Totems don’t obstruct line of sight or score victory points for being adjacent to VP locations.

8) Any figure may move through a space occupied by a totem, and any figure can end its movement for the turn on a space occupied by a totem.

9) Your opponent doesn’t score VPs for destroying a totem.

All of this may seem like a lot, but if you are familiar with the online game, the play will be totally intuitive. You drop your Strength of Earth Totem and it chills out for a while, granting a power bonus to everyone in your party that’s near it. Your opponent can probably take it out at a moment’s notice, but that takes time (ticks, in this game). It’s a bonus either way: either your party gets a big buff, or your opponent spends time knocking that thing down. And since it cost your Shaman a grand total of 0 ticks, any benefit you gain is a giant boon.

Pets and totems make a powerful, flavorful addition to any party. If you are careful about protecting your pet and its master, you can turn a close three-on-three fight into a four-on-three romp. Or, for the less-friendly animal (or demon) owner, feel free to throw your pet into harm’s way to suck up an attack or two. Meanwhile, totems put your opponents in the squeeze. They can spend time knocking your totems down, or they can watch them prop up your whole army.

That’s it for totems and pets. Any comments or questions can be directed toward the forums. Otherwise, I hope to touch base with all of you once the convention season wraps up.