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Patch 5.4 is nearing ever closer, and with it 33 new pets to collect. Here are a few things you can do to prepare prior to the patch so that your pet collecting goes a little smoother.

Level Up Engineering
In 5.4 there will be two BoP, non-tradeable pets that require max level engineering. Additionally, another pet will come indirectly from engineering, so the profession is not absolutely necessary for this pet (but it doesn't hurt).

If you have a character that's an engineer that doesn't have 600 skill yet, now would be a great time to level the profession up. Wowhead has a guide on leveling engineering from 1 to 600 that may help you along.

Once you've maxed out engineering, you can start collecting and saving Ghost Iron and Living Steel. Both of these will be key materials to crafting Pierre and Rascal-Bot.

  For each pet you will need 150 Ghost Iron Bars (for crafting 10 Jard's Peculiar Energy Source) and 15 Living Steel. Depending on how you create the Living Steel, you will want to stock up on extra Ghost Iron Bars.

Should you wish to go one step further, it may also be beneficial to craft Blingtron 4000. A new pet, Lil' Bling, will have a chance to come from Blingtron's daily gift package. However, anyone can access the daily quest from any Blingtron, so creating one of your own is more of a convenience than a requirement.

Celestial Tournament
There isn't much you can do to prepare for the Celestial Tournament, aside from reading player ideas on teams to use against certain tournament trainers. However, one thing that can be done prior to the event is leveling as many pets to 25 as possible.

Only 15 max level pets are needed to enter the tournament, but having a large selection of pets with varying attacks and abilities will be helpful when going up against trainers and the Celestial pets.

Even Jonathan LeCraft, senior game designer at Blizzard, recently commented that it will be "...fairly difficult with 15 though. You would need to plan them carefully."

If you're looking for a good way to level pets, the trainer dailies are currently the most preferred method. With a Safari Hat and some experience food, your pets can earn a large chunk of experience each time.

For recommendations on how to defeat the trainers while using a low level pet, there are some helpful guides on the WarcraftPets forums.

Tracking Rarespawns
Many of the new pets in 5.4 will be drops from rare NPCs on the Timeless Isle. If you use addons such as NPCScan, be ready to update your addon to include the newest rarespawns.

Note: It's unclear if NPCScan will be updated to include the new 5.4 mobs, but players can manually add specific creatures to the alert list at any time. Adding the rarespawns now might save some time and headache later.

Bonus Rolls
If you haven't collected all the Throne of Thunder dropped pets yet, you might want to save up your Mogu Runes of Fate. In 5.4 bonus rolls in Throne of Thunder LFR will have a chance to yield a pet in addition to standard loot.

However, come 5.4 Mogu Runes of Fate will only be available on the Timeless Isle, purchasable for 2500 Timeless Coins. So better stock up now while they're still cheap!

WoW game designer Owen Landgren confirmed that the change to bonus rolls will also apply to Siege Orgrimmar LFR. Keep in mind that the currency used in the new raid will not be Mogu Runes of Fate.

Instead, bonus rolls will require Warforged Seals. You will be able to obtain these in the same fashion as previous currencies — turn in 50 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune each week for 3 Warforged Seals. Make sure you have enough Lesser Charms!

You can earn Lesser Charms a number of ways. For a pet collector, the best way is to simply pet battle! Lesser Charms have a chance to drop from defeating wild pets or a trainer.


Collecting Them All
Although pre-planning for new pets can make the collecting process easier, it's not absolutely necessary. Collect them all in a way that suits you!

Whether or not you prepare for the upcoming patch, acquiring the new pets should be fun and exciting. Take your time and enjoy the adventure. There will be a lot to see and do... and collect!

UPDATE: The Armory has been updated with all the latest pets and pet collections are now importing properly. Happy Collecting!

Patch 5.4 has arrived, and there are plenty of new pets to collect and battles to be won!

Here are the highlights of Patch 5.4 for pet collectors. For a full list of all the changes, check out the official 5.4 patch notes.

33 New Pets!

• The majority of new pets can be obtained on the Timeless Isle, a new zone. These include drops from rares, vendor pets, and three wild pets.
• One of these pets requires an item that makes the user hostile to all players on the Timeless Isle, but allows the user to acquire the currency necessary to purchase the pet. Note that PVP on PVE realms will not change and will continue to function as normal.
• Two new craftable pets that can only be created by max level engineers. These pets are BoP and not tradeable.
• The gift package from Blingtron 4000's account-wide daily quest has a chance to drop a shiny companion of similar name and design.
• There's a new world raid boss lurking on the Darkmoon Island which can drop a lovable wolf pup that's based on an internet meme.
• Four new pets can be found within the new raid, Siege of Orgrimmar. One of these may only be obtained in LFR or Flex.

View All New Pets

New Features and Changes

• Pet Journals can now hold up to 1000 pets! The maximum number of duplicates allowed is still three.
• Have excess Battle-Stones? You can trade the Pet Battle Trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar three family-specific Flawless Battle-Stones in exchange for one BoA non-specific Flawless Battle-Stone.
• Pets can now be won in Throne of Thunder raid using bonus rolls. This change to bonus rolls also applies to the Siege of Orgrimmar, although the new raid uses Warforged Seals as currency instead of Mogu Runes of Fate.
• A penalty is applied for those that spend more than 15 seconds to take an action in queued pet PVP matches, which results in each round getting progressively shorter for said player.
• Significant changes were made to the following pet family passives: Aquatic, Critter, Dragonkin, Elemental, and Magic.
• Several pet abilities have been altered, and a few pets have had the positions of their abilities swapped.
• Pet Battlers seeking a new challenge should head over to the Timeless Isle to test their pet prowess in the Celestial Tournament! Players must have at least 15 level 25 pets in their collection to be eligible for the event.
• Each week there will be 3 trainers to defeat in the tournament as well as the 4 Celestial "boss pets". The first three are part of a larger rotation of trainers (see: Legendary Pet Teams table for possible trainers and their teams).
• In addition to the tournament, Little Tommy Newcomer owns an interesting legendary battle pet that you can challenge daily for a reward.
• There are new achievements, most of which involve the Celestial Tournament. However, there's an achievement for collecting many cats!

There are many pets to collect and challenges to overcome in 5.4. All of the new content is likely to keep us busy for some time, so better get started on collecting them all!

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

Wowhead recently released a new awesome resource for pet battlers! The Battle Pet Team Calculator allows you to preview and create teams, view strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential buffs.

You can take a look at any player's active pet team by simply inputting their region, realm, and character name. For many player obtained pets, the stats and quality can be adjusted.

The Battle Pet Team Calculator doesn't stop just there, though. This tool also has the ability to show you NPC pet teams, including those in the new Celestial Tournament. This will come in handy when preparing for future encounters in the tournament!

Create Your Team
Curious about how one pet will affect the synergy of your team? Create and preview your own customized pet team even if you're not in-game. By loading your character, you can remove or add any pets to your team from your collection. Preview your team's strengths and weaknesses even before battling with it!

For more information on Wowhead's Battle Pet Team Calculator, check out their guide on how to use this amazing tool.

Blizzard recently announced changes to Pierre and Rascal-Bot's binding status, as well fixes for two pet abilities. [source]

• Pierre and Rascal-Bot are no longer Bind on Pickup; they can now be caged and you can collect up to 3 of each.
• Rascal-Bot's Phaser spell is now a one-round ability. The tooltip still erroneously states that it is a two-round ability which we plan to correct at a later date.
• Jadefire Spirit's Fade ability now has an eight-round cooldown.

Unannounced Change
As many may have already discovered, the Neverending Spritewood on the Timeless Isle has been updated to have a much quicker repsawn time. This crystal now appears about once every 15 minutes.

Those attempting the event will also find that Scary Sprites have a higher chance to spawn after defeating an Angry Sprite. Additionally, Scary Sprites have had their health significantly reduced.

Players are still limited to only one attempt (per character) each day, but there are many more Neverending Spritewood crystals to go around now.

So if you haven't tried this unique event yet, head out to the Timeless Isle and have a go! There may be a Dandelion Frolicker waiting for you.

WarcraftPets Updates for 5.4
We've updated our Pet Battles Guide to include any changes made in Patch 5.4.

Guide to WoW Pet Battles

Many of the new pet abilities were not showing up on WarcraftPets due to a bug, however that has been fixed. They are now properly tagged and ready for your browsing pleasure. Happy battling!