7.1 PTR Preview: Raiding With Leashes IV and Algalon the Cosmic Pet Battler

The 7.1 PTR recently went up and new Pet Battle content is on the way. There's juicy pet news! :D

Much to every collector's delight, it was revealed that Raiding With Leashes IV: Wrath of the Lick King would be featured in the next content patch.

Previous RWL pets had some fun and interesting interactions/idle animations, so I was hoping these new pets would also have quirky attributes.

I'm happy to say that after some testing, it appears that the majority of them do do stuff! Some are only color-changers, but that's still awesome. I hope their color changing ability is intended and they stay that way. :)

Here they are, broken down into each raid (image-heavy warning):


TRIAL OF THE CRUSADER


Dreadscale and Acidmaw had a baby - Dreadmaw! This pet can come in one of two different colors when summoned.
Update: Burrows underground and re-emerges as its idle animation.




Nerubian Swarmer. Unfortunately I've yet to see this one do anything interesting. Looks cool though!




I want to emphasize that Snobold Runt is NOT part of the RWL IV achievement, although it does drop from ToC. He sometimes throws snowballs at you lol.


ICECROWN CITADEL

   
Blightbreath is another color-changer and can come in one of two different colors when summoned. His idle animation is...him getting very sick (ick).




Blood Boil, another pet that I haven't seen do anything.



   
Boneshard should look familiar. His moveset is quite unique, and he's even got an idle animation where he whirls around you yelling "BONESTORM!" haha.




Drudge Ghoul will occasionally leave a Defile-like puddle underneath himself. He was never taught DO NOT stand in the Defile. :P




Soulbroken Whelpling...is-is this Sindragosa's baby's soul? T_T (PS: Doesn't seem to have a unique animation)




It kind of just wanders around. You'd think a Wicked Soul would be a little more...wicked heh.


ULDUAR


The Creeping Tentacle is by far one of my favorites in this batch. When summoned it can come in 3 different sizes: small, medium, or large lol. Also it sometimes whispers to you. So far I've had it say, "Hope is an illusion." and "All that you know will fade." Creepy yet awesome!




G0-R41-0N Ultratonk. I *think* it will fight other mechanical-toy pets (Warbot, Clockwork Rocket Bot, etc.) but I haven't found anyone else online to test it out with.




The proto-whelps are my favorite mounts, so I can't help but adore the Ironbound Proto-Whelp as well. Doesn't really do anything that I've seen.




Magma Rageling will sometimes cast a fire tornado around itself. Its flavor text kind of implies that it has an interaction with the Winter Rageling, but I haven't tested that yet.




Runeforged Servitor occasionally channels a non-damaging lightning.




Sanctum Cub is a color-changer. I've discovered two skins so far, but there might be more...? Auriaya also has striped cats so maybe there's a striped version of this pet too?




Another color-changer. Snaplasher can come in one of two different colors when summoned.




Similar to the Magma Rageling, the Winter Rageling will sometimes cast a chilly tornado around itself. I'd love it if these two actually interacted when near each other. Battle of the elements!

So what happens when you collect all 16 RWL IV pets?

Unlike previous iterations of RWL, instead of directly awarding a pet this new achievement will reward an item that starts a quest (pictured below).


The quest objective: defeat Algalon in a Pet Battle. Yes. You read that right. The cosmic watcher and observer. Is. A. Pet Battle Master. Who would've guessed?! XD

After accepting the quest, you will find Algalon and his celestial pet team near Ulduar, at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the raid entrance.


It would seem that Algalon has been practicing in pet battles for some time now, because he's got 3 legendary pets with the Elite passive.

• Comet (dragonkin - 1647 hp, 394 p, 309 s)
• Cosmos (magic - 1647 hp, 309 p, 394 s)
• Constellatius (magic - 2069 hp, 319 p, 263 s)

Defeat him and Stardust will be your reward!

I still haven't been able to defeat his team. It's hard to tell if they're overtuned or if I'm just terrible haha. I can beat his first pet just fine, but his second and third pets are giving me trouble. The bunny force-swaps and his hippo has Wish. Meep.

Anyway, this is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for Patch 7.1. There are still a few other pets that have been datamined, so I hope there's even more in store for us! :D