World Of Warcraft's New Brightpaw Pet Will Raise Money For Make-A-Wish Foundation

Blizzard just added a new World of Warcraft pet to the game called Brightpaw. In addition to providing players with companionship, this pet will also help raise money for charity.

Brightpaw can be purchased for $10 through the Battle.net Shop starting today. Blizzard will donate 100% of the "adoption fee" for this pet to the Make-A-Wish Foundation from now until December 31st.

This pet is a purple cat that crackles with arcane energy. As the trailer shows, Brightpaw seems to get bored easily and will often just run off to do her own thing:

Brightpaw is also usable in the game's Pokemon-like pet battles. She has a mixture of Beast and Magic attacks which should make her a very versatile addition to your collection. Here's her full list of abilities, with their max-level damage values:

• Arcane Blast (level 1) - Blasts the enemy with a surge of arcane power, dealing 234 Magic damage. Damage increases by 78 each time it is used. Max391 Magic damage.
• Arcane Storm (level 2) - Deals 394 Magic damage split between all enemies and warps the weather into Arcane Winds for 9 rounds. Does additional damage if Arcane Winds is already active. During Arcane Winds, pets cannot be stunned or rooted.
• Prowl (level 4) - Reduces your speed by 30% and increases the damage of your next attack made within 2 rounds by 150%.
• Bite (level 10) - Bites at the enemy, dealing 248 Beast damage.
• Arcane Dash (level 15) - Deals 592 Magic damage and has a 25% chance to stun the target.
• Cute Face (level 20) - Increases your chance to dodge an attack by 25%.

I'm not a huge pet battler but Brightpaw looks useful on that front. Cute Face, Arcane Blast and Arcane Storm are all pretty hard-to-find pet abilities. Arcane Dash seems to be unique to Brightpaw. Prowl and Arcane Dash sounds like a really potent combination.

Once you've purchased Brightpaw, she'll be instantly available for all current and future World of Warcraft characters on a given account. You'll find her waiting for you in the Pet Journal.

In the above trailer, you might've caught a glimpse of a matching mount. That giant purple cat is the Mystic Runesaber, released this May through the Battle.net Shop. I'd imagine the $25 mount will see a spike in sales now that there's a corresponding pet on the market. Charitable or not, Blizzard knows how to make a buck.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation, if you're not aware, is a charity that organizes special events for children with life-threatening conditions. They're the group behind that allowed a kid to become Batman for a day in San Francisco a couple years back. You can find out more about the organization at wish.org.