New raid pets, wild pets, and hit chance system coming to pet battles in patch 5.3

Earlier this afternoon, Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed a new wild battle pet coming in patch 5.3: the Unborn Val'kyr. If we can all ignore the creepy implications of its name, this will likely turn out to be an awesome addition to everyone's pet collections. Even if it turns out its battle abilities aren't very impressive (and we don't know yet either way), who doesn't want a tiny little val'kyr following them everywhere?

In addition to the Unborn Val'kyr, patch 5.3 datamining has revealed the achievement Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition which will add pets to Burning Crusade-era raids, much like those added to classic WoW raids.

The pets being added to Burning Crusade raids are:

• Lil' Bad Wolf

• Netherspace Abyssal

• Tideskipper

• Coilfang Stalker

• Lesser Voidcaller

• Menagerie Custodian

• Fiendish Imp

• Tainted Waveling

• Pocket Reaver

• Phoenix Hawk Hatchling

Stockton has also mentioned on Twitter that a new hit system is coming to pet battles. While we don't yet have the details of that system, it will surely be a welcome change from what we have now. The hit/miss chance of individual abilities isn't spelled out anywhere in game. Abilities such as Dive and Lift-Off have an abnormally high chance to miss, but you wouldn't know that until you experience countless crushing losses due to streaks of misses. Even after experiencing it yourself, you might attribute it to bad luck than any mechanical difference. Hopefully whatever new system comes our way offers more transparency, allowing us to make clearer choices in battle.