PTR Pet Corral

When the PTR came out I hopped in there lickety split because I wanted to check out the process for trading in family stones for marked stones. I couldn't find anything. Pet updates seem to come last to the PTR. However, before I exited I noticed that Pierre was back; he was gone in the 5.3 PTR, you see. When Pierre didn't come out in 5.2, I was disappointed, so I decided to come back later and see if he's changed. What I found has me brimming with excitement...


I noticed 7 new pets. Along with Pierre, Rascal-Bot is an addition to the engineering profession and both are mechanical. Moon Moon is a beast that favours magic damage and can be looted in Darkmoon Faire to give those flyers quite a surprise. And four pets modelled after the celestial fellers in pandaland, of which I have my eye on Chi-Chi in particular. Mind you, I'm still waiting for a flying pet that deals mechanical damage. I'm looking at you, pet devs.

Before I get into the details of those 7 pets, I'd like to say that the creativity going into new abilities is awesome and I hope to see much more of it in the future. Rot, for example, changes the family type of the target. Imagine the petsibilities. Sorry, that pun was horrible, but Rot rocks!

Pierre and Rascal-Bot are mechanicals crafted with engineering. I had an engineering book (two actually, but only the first one did anything) drop on my first kill, which was in Kun-Lai, and it taught me 5 new schematics. 2 were the aforementioned pets, 1 was a mount, 1 was a cooking bag, and 1 was a part needed in all of the above.

Pierre has 2 familiar abilities (Stench(2) like skunks do and Food Coma(20) like turkeys) and 4 that I believe are, at the moment, unique to him.
Chop(1) deals mechanical damage and causes 5 rounds of bleeding.
High Fiber(4) removes all buffs and debuffs, the mechanic of which is nothing new.
Frying Pan(10) deals mechanical damage and has a 25% chance to stun the target.
Heat Up(15) buffs Pierre for 3 rounds to deal elemental damage each time he's struck.

Rascal-Bot has 6 abilities that I don't recognise, but I'm tired so please forgive any oversights.
Phaser(1) deals magic damage.
Lens Flare(2) deals magic damage and blinds for 2 rounds.
Armageddon(4) deals mechanical damage to the enemy's entire team and prevents failsafes from activating. Unfortunately, it is also kills the bot.
Plot Twist(10) is amazingly hilarious and deals beast damage. What's that? You want to know in what manner it is hilarious? All I have to say to that is "Hello, Sweetie."
Amber Prison(15) appears to be the same as the stun that earth elementals like to use. I'm thinking it's called Crystal Prism, but it could be prison. It's 5:31 AM. Slack, please.
Reboot(20) appears to function identical to Repair.
I want it. I want it now.

Moon Moon might be the next Darkmoon Rabbit in terms of how it's acquired, but it's a beast rather than a critter. It has 3 familiar abilities - Howl(2), Bite(10), and Crouch(15) - and 3 that appear to be new.
Moon Fang(1) deals magic damage.
Moon Tears(4) deals magic damage to all enemies, heals all allies, and turns the weather to moonlight.
Moon Dance(20) gives your team +25% speed for 9 rounds.

What you really want to know about is the celestial pets, right? Well, they are acquired through the Tournament of Celestials, which I'll write more about after I get to try it out. I think there's an achievement for collecting all four. There's also an achievement for collecting all the cats. My train of thought just went for a swim, eh? Let's fix that.

Chi-Chi, Hatchling of Chi-Ji is a flying pet and has 4 familiar abilities - Wild Winds(4), Alpha Strike(10), Tranquility(15), and Feign Death(20). I love Feign Death. It's fun. Also...
Fire Quills(1) is like the quills that most flyers use except it deals elemental damage.
Ethereal(2) dodges any attacks made during the round it's used. By the way, it goes first.

Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen is a beast with 3 familiar abilities - Bite(10), Moonfire(15), and Prowl(20). For the bottom 3, that leaves...
Spirit Claws(1) deals beast damage with a decent hit rate, and the hit rate becomes 100% if the weather is moonlight.
Feed(2) is like Absorb, but deals beast damage instead of undead and has a big cooldown period of 4 rounds. Maybe it makes up for it in the amount of damage and/or healing it does.
Vengeance(4) deals damage equal to the last damage received by the user as beast damage. I'm not sure what if any change that makes to the amount of damage in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Yu'la, Broodling of Yu'lon is a dragonkin with the familiar abilities of Breath(1), Emerald Presence(2), Lift-Off(4), and Life Exchange(20). That leaves room for 2 unfamiliar abilities...
Jadefire Lightning(10) deals magic damage across the enemy team.
Celestial Blessing(15) has a 5-round limit and makes it so the next pet to swap in gets 50% reduced damage for 3 rounds. I can see this being a favourite for some pvp people that I'd already like to strangle.

Zao, Calfliing of Niuzao is a beast with Trample(1), Headbutt(2), Horn Attack(10), Wish(15), and 2 new abilities.
Niuzao's Charge(4) requires 2 rounds to hit once and deals beast damage.
Dominance(20) doubles the damage of the next attack the user makes within 3 rounds.

And now I'm too tired to see, so...zz...zzzzz....zzzz....zzzzzzz