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Blizzard announced a couple of months ago that some existing battle pet abilities would be updated in Shadowlands. [source]



Updated Abilities Coming In Pre-Patch
These changes for existing battle pets will go into effect in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch (Patch 9.0). It's still unclear when the Pre-Patch will be released, but some speculate it will be within the next few weeks.

In the meantime, it might be a good idea to review pet teams and strategies to make sure they aren't heavily impacted by the upcoming adjustments.

Here's a breakdown of changed abilities.

Flock-like Abilities

• Dead Man's Party (Pre-Patch)
• Family Reunion (Pre-Patch)
• Flock (Pre-Patch)
• Inflation (Pre-Patch)
• Junk Mail (Pre-Patch)
• Murder (Pre-Patch)
• Puppy Parade (Pre-Patch)
• Stampede (Pre-Patch)
• Swarm (Pre-Patch)
• Zergling Rush (Pre-Patch)

LIVE
— Flat damage each round + Opponents struck take double damage

PRE-PATCH
— Increasing damage each round + Opponents struck take 50% increased damage

• Call the Pack (Pre-Patch)

LIVE
— Opponents struck take 100% increased damage

PRE-PATCH
— Opponents struck take 50% increased damage

• Falcosaur Swarm! (Pre-Patch)
• Hunting Party (Pre-Patch)

LIVE
— Opponents struck take double damage

PRE-PATCH
— Increased damage + Opponents struck take 50% increased damage

Adjusted Damage (reduced)

• Corrupted Touch (Pre-Patch)
• Money Meteor (Pre-Patch)
• Twilight Meteorite (Pre-Patch)

Adjusted Damage (DoT component increased)

• Buuurp! (Pre-Patch)

Aquatic Pet Family Passive
LIVE
— Harmful DoT effects reduced by 50% on Aquatic pets

PRE-PATCH
— Harmful DoT effects reduced by 50% on Aquatic pets + Damage of DoT effects dealt by Aquatic pets increased by 25%

Other Changes

• Righteous Inspiration (Pre-Patch) - Ability starts on cooldown
• Jar of Smelly Liquid (Pre-Patch) - Increased cooldown from 1 round to 2 rounds
• Magma Trap (Pre-Patch) - Chance to trigger trap upon each ability use, instead of each attack

Although Black Claw and other similar flat damage-taken abilities aren't receiving a direct change, how they are applied in combat. Per Blizzard's blog post:

"Flat damage-taken modifiers such as Black Claw now happen **after multipliers such as Shattered Defenses, or pet species strengths/weaknesses. This is a significant change to the value of flat damage abilities. Prior to this change, the value of Black Claw was increased 100% by Shattered Defenses, and if your pet was strong vs the other pet type, it would be increased even further. Flat damage modifiers now happen after all other combat calculations, which wound up being a significant damage output nerf to abilities that hit multiple times, upwards of 25-30% total damage reduction."

UPDATE: @Marlamin on Twitter has datamined a new Outland dragon whelp icon. (pictured right) [source]

It would seem there's mounting evidence of this baby dragon being a battle pet. When or where and if players will be able to collect it is still unclear though. We'll have to keep our eyes open!

Wowhead recently discovered some interesting data in the PTR files — a new Outland dragon whelp! [source]

Welp, It's A Whelp
Datamined by Wowhead, the new dragon whelp bears a striking resemblance to the Netherwhelp (pictured right).

The Netherwhelp was the Burning Crusade Collector's Edition companion pet reward (battle pets did not exist at the time). It's currently unavailable unless you're lucky enough to find an edition of that expansion with an unclaimed code. Even then, be prepared to spend a large sum of money on the highly coveted pet.

There's currently no indication what the discovery of this new whelp will mean for players. Will it be collectible? Is this pet intended for Classic or Retail or both?

Some speculate that it might be an upcoming companion pet reward for Classic transitioning to the next expansion. Burning Crusade (Classic) hasn't been officially confirmed yet.

Another hypothesis is that this could be a reward in Retail to celebrate WoW's upcoming anniversary this year, in addition to the announcement of Burning Crusade (Classic).

Although it's not the original Netherwhelp, some collectors may appreciate the chance of collecting a dragon whelp using the same/similar model. (Onyxian Whelpling and Spawn of Onyxia say 'hello'!)

We'll have to wait and see when and where this little Outland dragon will turn up. Since the files were datamined from the PTR, we have to wonder if we'll be seeing this whelpling Soon™?

In the meantime, check out the different colors Wowhead has datamined!