: Players are noticing that many older Pet Battle quests and dailies have become unavailable post-patch. According to Blizzard, this is not intended and they are currently investigating. [source]
Additionally, certain BFA trainer battles now reward significantly less pet experience upon completion. This is likely working as intended due to some encounters being available at all times and repeatable for the Family Battler achievement.
Tides of Vengeance is live this week! Patch 8.1 includes many new pets, a few new achievements, the Gnomeregan Pet Battle dungeon, and lots more! [source]
New Pets
That latest content patch adds 42 new pets! Most of these pets are Bind On Pick Up but can be caged. Note that a few pets will not be available day one of the patch, but should be obtainable in the near future.
- 29 dropped pets
- 10 new Island Expedition dropped pets
- 8 dropped from Darkshore Warfront rare elites
- 4 from new world rare mobs
- 4 from paragon reputation caches (Proudmoore Admiralty [A], Order of Embers [A], and Storm's Wake [A], Talanji's Expedition [H])
- 3 raid drops (unavailable until Battle of Dazar'alor raid, January 2019) - 7 vendor pets, including two from a new Island Expedition Dubloon vendor
- 2 achievement pets
- 2 crafted pets (one unavailable until Battle of Dazar'alor raid, January 2019)
- 1 wild pet (pictured right)
- 1 quest reward
Check out all 42 new pets!
A notable change was made to the existing Island Expedition pets — they can now all be caged! What perfect timing to spread some holiday cheer and gift a fellow collector an extra Island Expedition pet or two.
Gnomeregan Pet Battle Dungeon
The next Pet Battle Dungeon is now available in Patch 8.1! Travel to Gnomeregan to check out the unusual activity inside, and confront the 'Shadowy Figure' yet again...what are these mysterious NPCs up to? [source]
Unlike the Wailing Caverns and Deadmines Pet Battle Dungeons, the only prerequisite for Normal Gnomeregan Pet Battle Dungeon is All Growns Up! After you've earned this achievement you can speak with Radek Fuselock (inside Happy Haloaua's residence in Dazar’alor) or Tizzy Gearjolt (outside of Dana Pull's store in Boralus) to pick up the breadcrumb quest to start your adventure.
Speaking of Wailing Caverns and Deadmines...both have been updated and only require the All Growns Up! achievement, and all three Normal Pet Dungeons can now be completed in any order. The Challenge version of these dungeons still requires at least 15 max level battle pets, and the completion of the Normal version first.
The Gnomeregan Pet Battle Dungeon includes 9 stages, with a total of 12 different Pet Battle encounters. Enemy pets include max level Mechanical, Elemental, Critter, and Undead pet types, ranging from rare quality to epic.
Completing the Pet Dungeon will award an Ultimate Battle-Training Stone, plus the ability to teleport directly to Micro Zoox by speaking to Manapoof in Boralus or Dazar'alor. It also unlocks the weekly quest, Pet Battle Challenge: Gnomeregan, which is necessary to earn the achievement of the same name. Complete this achievement and earn yourself a nifty new Mini Spider Tank pet (pictured right)!
Micro Zoox, the vendor located outside of the Gnomeregan portal, has new items for sale that may interest pet collectors. A new currency, Pristine Gizmos, is earned by completing the account-wide weekly challenge version of the Pet Dungeon, and can be traded to Micro Zoox for new pets, an engineering schematic to craft a new pet, or an Unopened Gnomeregan Supply Box.
Gather up your best pets to match up against some malfunctioning miscreants in this newest Pet Battle Dungeon — Gnomeregan won't clean itself up!
New Challenges and Toys
The "Family..." series is back for another round! This time Family Battler challenges players to defeat Battle For Azeroth master trainers with teams composed of max level pets of all one family.
Best 15 out of possible 19 trainers in this way, and for each pet family, to earn yourself the Wicker Wraith pet. NPC trainers that are part of this achievement can be battled at any time, even if their associated World Quest is not active.
What better way to show off your new spooky pet than atop the Cranky Crab? This is a fun toy from the new Island Expedition Dubloon vendor that allows a battle pet to ride on top of it. The toy costs 200 Dubloons. But if you can't wait for the Wicker Wraith, why not try a crab...on top of a crab!
With all of these new pets, your Pet Journal might be starting to feel a little full. A new addition to the BFA pet vendors that might help is the Interdimensional Pet Portal. Using this item will increase the maximum number of pets allowed in your Pet Journal to 2000. It costs 1000 Polished Pet Charms and requires having already learned the Pocket Pet Portal.
Pet Battle Matchmaking Improvements
Pet Battle PVP can be a daunting experience, especially for newer battlers. However, an update to the matchmaking system now makes it more likely for newer battlers to be matched against other newer battlers.
If you’d like to compete head-to-head with other players, the PvP pet battle matchmaker has been improved. Now, players who are new to the PvP battle pet system are more likely to be matched up against other new PvP pet battlers.
It's unclear what factors determine whether or not a player is 'new' to Pet Battle PVP gameplay, but we hope this will help make this aspect of Pet Battles less intimidating and more accessible for all battlers.
Unlock Opposing Faction Vendors?
Last but not least, there's an intriguing note in the official 8.1 Patch Notes, under the 'War Campaign' section.
Several new Missions are now available at both your War Table, as well as from new drops from various activities, such as Island Expeditions. Look for new Missions to upgrade your faction’s outposts, level up followers so that they gain access to a new equipment slot, send your followers on lucrative new weekly treasure hunts, and unlock a vendor who offers the opposing faction’s pets.
We aren't entirely sure what will be required to unlock vendors of the opposite faction, or how long it will take. But we look forward to discovering more of BFA's story and experiencing the perks that come along with it.
Which pet are you looking forward to collect first in Patch 8.1? Collector or battler, we hope you're as excited as we are to dig into Tides of Vengeance Pet Battle content!
A Thank You
Please join us in welcoming our new graphic art volunteers, Woweonarpets and Zanzuderidu! These talented artists provided significant assistance during our preparation for Patch 8.1, and our database update would be sorely lacking without their expertise and hard work. Thank you, again!
Posted by Quintessence
