August 2012   « Archives | Current News »

There were announcements about a few changes and updates to Pet Battles that will be implemented in the near future.

Weakened By Capture
A new mechanic to reduce the level of wild pets in different level ranges upon capture will be ready for testing soon. Also, the experience required to level for pets after level 10 will be reduced. [source]

We have made a few adjustments to the both the weakened by capture pets and the overall XP curve. Details below!

• Catching any pet level 15 or under retains its current level.
• Catching a level 16-20 pet will lose 1 level.
• Catching a level 21-25 pet will lose 2 levels.
• We have dramatically reduced the XP required to level for pets after level 10.

Heal/Revive Cooldown
The spell to heal and revive your pets has been reduced to 10 minutes, down from 15. [source]

We have reduced the cool down to 10m in the next build. Don't forget you can get single use heals in the Sack of Pet Supplies from the Tamer dailies as an alternative to using the Stable Master or your Revive spell.

In addition to this, the heal/revive spell and the stable master heal/revive now has a 3 minute cooldown when first logging onto a character. [source]

Finally, the cool-up's that we added to the heal spells (both the player and stable master) are to deal with exploit cases of players using multiple characters/accounts to avoid cooldowns. We used 3 minutes as a baseline since most players can fly to one in that amount of time from pretty much anywhere on a full speed mount.

Enjoy our monthly web comic created for WoW pet collectors! We feature a new World of Petcraft strip each and every month.



About the Artist
Meaghan McLaughlin is an aspiring artist and the author of "Nerds Illustrated." She's currently available to create custom WoW artwork.

Game designer Jonathan LeCraft Tweeted recently that the Fox Kit would be added to the Tol Barad Peninsula vendors in the near future. [source]

Just added the fox kit to some vendors... #wow http://i.imgur.com/2NPxU.jpg

According to the image that was also provided in his Tweet, this pet will require an exalted reputation with either Hellscream's Reach or Baradin's Wardens. It will cost 200 Tol Barad Commendation and be Bind on Pick Up.

In follow-up Tweets, LeCraft mentions that the plan is that this change will go live in the upcoming pre-MoP patch. [source]

Even though the Fox Kit will be added to the Tol Barad Peninsula vendors, the companion will still be obtainable through farming Baradin Foxes. [source]

As the release of MoP draws closer, Pet Battles is steadily getting refined and updated. Developers are still working on improving mechanics and features of this new mini-game, and here are the latest updates from the beta.

Healing and Reviving Pets
The cooldown on the ability to heal and revive your pets has been reduced by another 2 minutes, making it castable every 8 minutes.

In sticky situations where a Stable Master can't be found and your Revive Battles Pets spell is still on cooldown, Battle Pet Bandages will be available from the Pet Tamer dailies. These bandages have had their droprate and the stack limit increased. [source]

Duplicate Companions
Players will be able to have multiple versions of the same pet, but there are some exceptions. [source]

The only pets that are flagged as unique are in the categories listed below. This can of course change at any time, but this is what we are looking at for MoP release currently.

• Achievement Pets
• Blizzard Pet Store Pets
• Promotional Pets
• Guild Pets

Everything else will be allowed up to 3x of the same pet.

Unless your companion falls under the unique categories listed above, you will be able to keep more than one of the same pet in your Pet Journal.

There is still currently a hard cap of 500 total pets that includes duplicates. However, at the launch of MoP Battlet.net accounts with more than 3 of the same non-unique pet will be allowed to go over this limit. [source]

The limit is 500 but players will be allowed to exceed that during the launch transition. Once you drop back under it, you won't be able to go back over.

To better clarify, here are two examples of duplicate companions. [source]

A B.net account has a total of 6 Wolvar Pups across all of it's characters. On merge the B.net account would have 6 Wolvar Pups. This would be the only time an account is allowed to have more than 3x of a single pet.

A B.net account has a total of 3 Murky's from BlizzCon 2005 and 4 Nuts from the pet collection achievements across all of it's characters. (both unique pets) On merge the B.net account will have 1 Murky and 1 Nuts.

Wild Pet Variations
While Pet Battles will be released as a finalized mini-game ready for play in MoP, developers plan on continually updating this new feature in future patches with more diverse wild pet options. [source]

We will be adding more diversity as we progress through the patches, it's something we know about it. You have to remember that most of the critters in the world were animals. We added as many new pets as we could without disrupting the general feel of the world. There is a unique pet in almost every zone in the game now. We took care to try and make these pets fit in the different family's. (undead, dragonkin, aquatic, elemental etc.)

This is just the beginning, we will be supporting the system with new updates every single patch.

UPDATE: Blizzard has an official Patch 5.0.4 post concerning account-wide collections that provides details on the new feature. [source]

Fine-tuning Pet Battles
Last week developers released a consolidated list of the changes made to Pet Battles. [source]

Some of the items on the list have already been mentioned, but there are some new updates. These include the following (however, this is not the complete list):

• Catching any pet level 15 or under retains its current level.
• Catching a level 16-20 pet will lose 1 level.
• Catching a level 21-25 pet will lose 2 levels.
• We have removed the pet swap on pets dying in everything except PVP.
• The matchmaking system has been adjusted to favor battles with opponents of similar levels over queuing speed.
• You can have up to x3 of any pet except for uniques. The pets in the following categories are unique: Achievements, Pet Store, Guild and Promotional. Note that TCG pets are not unique and will be tradeable.
• Release now works on any pet as long as you have more than one of that pet.

For the full list of updates to Pet Battles, check out this link!

Patch 5.0.4 Reminders
Patch 5.0.4 will be released on August 28, 2012. Many things will change, so here's a small list of what pet collectors should expect on patch day.

• New pet and mount UI. The old spellbook companion tab will be replaced with the Pet Journal interface.
• Account-wide collections. This means a merging of all collections into one that will be accessible by all characters on a WoW account.
• Duplicate pets will not be mailed to players. Instead, they will automatically be added into the Pet Journal. Some duplicates, such as achievement and special promotion companions, will be merged into one single pet.
• The transition from the old spellbook interface to the Pet Journal will be the only time players are allowed to have more than 500 total pets and 3 of the same pet. Once under these caps, players will not be allowed to exceed them again.

Pet Battles, the ability to cage companions (and therefore trade them), the ability to capture pets, and the new datamined pets that were discovered on the MoP beta will not be available until the expansion release date (September 25, 2012).

UPDATE: A few last minute updates pertaining to pets in 5.0.4:

First, players that purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition of MoP will receive the Lucky Quilen Cub (now live) and mount upon logging in after patching.

In addition, toy vendors in Stormwind, Orgrimmar and Dalaran now sell the Warbot and both red and blue fuel! The pet costs 400 gold while the fuel costs 20 silver.

Lastly, the Fox Kit is not only a rare drop from the foxes on Tol Barad Peninsula, now it can also be purchased from the Tol Barad Peninsula quartermasters for 200 commendations. You must be exalted with either faction to purchase this pet.

The pre-MoP expansion patch is live! Although there may not be any new pets to collect just yet, Patch 5.0.4 involves some major changes for pet collectors. These modifications include account-wide collections and the new Pet Journal UI.

New Pet Journal
The spellbook companion tab was replaced by the Pet Journal. This new UI provides greater utility with pet stats, sources, previews, and even unique descriptions for each pet. You can even use the Pet Journal to rename your companions!



The Pet Journal has additional functions that will not be available until Mists of Pandaria. These include caging companions and creating a Pet Battle team.

Account-Wide Collection
Pets from all characters on a Battle.net account are now stored together in the Pet Journal. Now players can access nearly all of their collected pets from any character.

To ensure that all desired pets are added to the journal, it's recommended that players log into each character at least once after the patch.

Note that you cannot summon companions that are of the opposite faction (balloons and Moonkin Hatchlings). Also, the Guild Page, Guild Herald, Argent Squire, and Argent Gruntling are not considered account-wide.

Players that have collected more than one of the same pet but on different characters will find that some of these pets were automatically added to their Pet Journal. However, some companions have been classified as unique (such as achievement-rewarded pets), and these pets have been merged into a single pet in the journal.

The cap for total number of pets is 500 and players may only have 3 of the same pet. During the re-organization of collections, players are allowed to exceed these numbers. Once a collection total falls below, though, it cannot go above the caps again.

What's Missing From Patch 5.0.4?
Pet Battles and all the new companions (more than 200!) will have to wait until MoP. The ability to cage and therefore trade pets won't be available until the expansion as well. But on the bright side, this gives pet collectors some time to sort out their collections in preparation for all the new pets in MoP!

Behind the scenes, the entire WarcraftPets team is busy preparing this site for the flood of new pets. Our changes won't go into effect until shortly before MoP is released. When they do, you'll enjoy a new more user-friendly design that showcases all of the new pet battle abilities and stats.

As always, we thank you for your continued support!