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Patch 5.2 PTR: Updated abilities and quality of life changes for pet battles

Kristin Marshall
Updated ·4 min read
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Patch 52 PTR Updated abilities and quality of life changes for pet battles


I find myself logged onto a different character every time I'm doing a round of pet battle dailies. It shouldn't be an issue, because pets are account bound, but there's just one little thing: Battle Pet Bandages. I never earn any on my main character -- maybe it's bad luck. It's very frustrating to end up with a defeated team, Revive Battle Pets on cooldown, and no stable master nearby. Oh, and no bandages!

Well, it feels like the devs really have been listening to the battle pet community, because they released a few quality of life updates on the PTR that (mostly) will make pet battlers happy campers.

  • Battle Pet Bandages now stack and are Bind to Account.

  • Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.

  • Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.

I'm so happy to see that pet bandages will be Bind to Account. Being able to funnel every precious bandage to one character will make things much easier -- especially for the altoholics out there. And three huge huzzahs to earning stuff while battling pets! It takes quite a bit of time to grind every pet battle achievement, even with power leveling newbie pets. So, earning rewards normally reserved for playing through PvE content turns pet battling into time well spent. I'm tempted to level a character solely through pet battles, now that winning one will grant player experience!

You can check out the full list of updated pet battle patch notes at the official site, but to make things easier we've compiled the complete list of notes after the break.



  • Reflection has been replaced with Deflection, an ability that always attempts to go first and causes the pet to avoid all attacks for that round.

  • Thunderbolt has been redesigned. It is now a powerful team-damage spell.

  • Mr. Bigglesworth's Prowl has been replaced with a new ability, Ice Barrier, which blocks two attacks.

  • Fluxfire Feline's Wind-Up has been replaced with a new ability, Flux, which deals damage to the enemy team.

  • The Tuskarr Kite has a new set of abilities that's more appropriate for a Tuskarr Kite.

  • Pets that had been affected by a crowd-control ability will now be granted Resilience, making them immune to crowd control for a short while.

  • Arcane Explosion's damage to back-line pets has been increased by 20%.

  • Supercharge now provides a 125% damage bonus, down from 150%, and lasts for 1 round (no cooldown change).

  • Frost Shock now properly chills targets for 2 rounds (was 4).

  • Deep Freeze now has a cooldown of 4 rounds (was 3).

  • Blocking abilities that last for 2 turns like Decoy, now have a cooldown of 8 rounds.

  • Feign Death now has a cooldown of 8 rounds (was 5).

  • Prowl now lasts for 2 rounds.

  • Crystal Overload now lasts for 2 rounds.

  • Focus Chi now lasts for 1 round.

  • Sprite Darter Hatchling and Nether Faerie Dragon: Evanescence and Arcane Blast have swapped ability positions.

  • Nether Roach is now a real roach and can now survive the apocalypse.

  • Battle Pet Bandages now stack to 25 and are Bind to Account.

  • Battle-Stones now have a chance to be awarded from PvP Pet Battles.

  • Pets whose color schemes change each time they are summoned have returned. Older pets with this behavior now have it back, as well as some newcomers.

  • Taming the World now lists its reward correctly in the Achievements pane.

  • Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team.

  • Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.

  • Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.

  • Fleeing a pet battle will no longer despawn the pet that was being battled, but doing so will now inflict some damage on the fleeing pet battle team.

  • Disconnecting from a pet battle will once again respawn the pets you were fighting.

  • Any pet that has been killed in a pet battle will now never respawn.

  • A number of new pets can be found on the Isle of Lightning, including rare spawn drops, wild pets, and raid boss drops.

  • Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. The Beasts of Fable taming quest will now become available from Gentle San or Sara Finkleswitch once Aki the Chosen has been defeated. Defeating all of the fabled beasts will award the new Red Panda pet, while completing the associated daily quest has a chance to award the rare brown, white, and orange variants.


What do you think about Deflection and Mr. Bigglesworth's new ability, Ice Barrier? Are you brokenhearted about Fluxfire Feline losing Wind-Up?

Will I attempt to replace dailies with pet battling in an attempt to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune? Probably.