Debriefing of 2010 Pets on Test Realm, Day 1

Alrighty, this will be a major change in my format and presentation of my blogs, but with so much to be explored, asked, and answered, I'll just create a quick and dirty post of my contribution of information for the Wizard101 Community.
Keep in mind though, that because these answers and "guides" are based on what's found in the Test Realm, do not expect them to stay true when the updates move to the Live realms.

 Here is a picture of my very first encounter with a KingsIsle Support staff member:  Ian Emerald.  We met through an interesting situation:  one evening, a random player ran up to Kevin Ironblood (my Death toon) and started begging, asking me to gift him/her a mount.  In addition to declining their request, I explained to them that "people aren't going to give out their hard earned money for free," and "begging is a VERY poor icebreaker."  (I wish I had been on Battleblood, my Thaumaturge, when I wrote that...)  Suddenly a whisper comes onto my screen from Ian, saying "NICE!!!!"  He then mentioned something about rewarding me Crowns, but I rolled my eyes and said something to the effect of "Thanks, but I doubt you'd do that..."  He had a Hero of Unicorn Way badge on, so it was very absurd....but after he said, "Done!" and I checked my Character Page, surely enough the balance was 300 Crowns higher.  A very welcoming and friendly guy, he was patient enough to spend some chat time with me as I asked him some questions about mechanics.

So, today was my lucky day....Pet Test Realm comes out...New Arena pets are available, I was overjoyed.  As I entered the Test Realm's Pet Hatchery for the second time, I noticed the familiar toon that entered the door at the same time as me...and a brush of the words "Ian" and "Emerald."  Upon entering, I had to shout out his name, and there was our second meeting!  (you can watch this on the post below, with the Livestream video).

Ian was generous enough to spend about 40-45 minutes answering my questions here and there, and now I present to you with what I have learned:

• Pets are meant to act randomly in battle.  
• When I asked him why this wouldn't be considered a negative trait to have, especially for PVP (in which many players, including me, emphasize the importance of skill over luck), and if this randomness was more of a burden than a gift (a pet popping your Feint or class-biased Trap), his (brilliant) answer was this:  "It's similar to real life, where pets can be a hassle, like dogs barking at anyone, etc.  But we still take care of them."
• Thus, our game and playstyles in Wizard101 will not only change, but will move into a different dimension.
  
  
• You may be happy or unhappy with the changes going on, but it has all been considered as an issue of balance.
• Keep in mind, we haven't seen everything just yet.  There is Celestia to be released; imagine the frustration or joy we'll feel from those...it might offset, increase, or decrease our satisfaction towards these updates.  Also, it's only been one day of the Test Realm...there's that awesome Bug Report function at the top right of the screen, where we can submit our feedback through:

• We know KingsIsle is a great listener as a Company...heck, believe it or not, Ian had to AFK a few times to get some of my questions answered from other developers!
• If there are changes needed to be made based on a universal agreement between players, KI will get to it...but remember to keep in mind about my blog "KingsIsle's Smart Move."  There will be very rational reasons to why the Company will or will not follow our wishes.  We don't know everything they're doing, but we'll find out eventually, as always.
  
  
• UPDATED (4/30/10)
  The longer you have had your pet in your possession, whether it's on a main, an alternate, or in the (Shared) Bank, the stronger potential it will have, when updates arrive to the Live Realm.
• I checked into my two Pixie pets from Smogger, and sure enough, the one I received first has an additional innate ability (can cast a Life damage spell).  Both were actively equipped on two of my alternates.
•  The Blue Cyclops we receive from Penny, for me and David Titanrider, were still Babies.  I speculate that if we raised them to Adult, then compared them to an Adult Blue Cyclops that was obtained tomorrow, David's and mine will outdo the new one (going back to the difference between Pixies above)

Unfortunately, priorities on both our ends cut us off from there....there was a titanic amount of inquiries I had shooting off in my mind.  Inevitably, I'll be sure to investigate more with his help another time!  Thanks Ian Emerald!

Now, here's a simple visual guide I created...I don't know about anyone else, but I was extremely distracted by the debut of this Test Realm so I never really got to absorbing the textual information provided by the numerous new icons about Pet Stats and how they affect our wizards and the Derby.  Hopefully this will ease the overwhelming overload of words:

I didn't include "Power" because the description was very vague... "Some statistics"   But it increases your Morale's limit!

Happy Hunting (for a mate...)!