5.2 Pet Battles Updates

UPDATE: Player exp earned from Pet Battles was recently hotfixed. Official details and an explanation of how exp is calculated can be found here. Heirlooms and other experience buffs should provide a bonus when battling.

Some Pet Battle updates!

Player Exp From Pet Battles
Day 3 since the patch was released, and there's already a hotfix.

"Yes, pet battles are rewarding more XP than intended right now. We're testing a hotfix to address this asap. :)" - source

I haven't actually tried using battles as a way to level yet, so I can't comment on it. A few others tried it and mentioned how amazing it is, so I would guess that it's indeed overpowered at the moment. Well, hopefully the nerf isn't too big, and it will still be a viable way to level. Who doesn't want a pet to help them progress through the game? ;P

Elite Battle Pet daily
In other news, apparently the Elite daily reward bag is supposed to have a "good chance" to drop a battle-stone. I have yet to see one, however it is still only day 3.

"It's all about options. If you want great XP, hit the Pandaria tamers, if you want rare battle-stones, hit the Elites." - Mumper

Unfortunately, the stone only has a "good chance" from the bag, according to Mumper. So that still means we need to travel to 10 different Elite pet locations, defeat 10 pets, and then return the daily quest for one bag. RNG also still plays a factor in all of this, so even though the droprate for a stone might be higher, it's still random.

When this is compared to say, the guaranteed large experience chunk from the pre-5.2 Pandaria pet battle dailies, I'm not sure they're on par with each other. Nevermind RNG vs guaranteed, just the pure efficiency (or lack thereof) of the Elite daily is questionable. 10 separate battles for one chance each day? It's a little bit of a let down. Poofah from WarcraftPets summed it up pretty nicely by comparing it to Archaeology, and the tediousness of that secondary profession.

I currently don't have a problem with how these Elite battles function or the rewards they provide, but keep in mind that's mainly because I'm still seeking the panda companions from the reward bag. Once I've collected all of those, what will keep me coming back? A chance at a stone (at the cost of a lot of time and energy)? At that point I might just take my chances with the normal Pandaria dailies and wild battling instead. Not only will I be able to level my pets, there's a chance at stones too. The Elite battles just won't hold the same appeal once I've collected all the pets.

But we'll see. In time, I may change my mind or other updates may come. The Elite pets seem to reward quite a few Lesser Charms, and if that pattern keeps up, it might be enough to keep me interested for the duration of this tier.

Side note, the lack of experience multiplier for defeating the elites is intended.

Darkmoon Faire Pets
If you don't have all the vendor pets from the DMF yet, Wowhead reports that a new reward from the regular DMF dailies has a chance to drop the pets. So be sure to do those dailies for not only tickets to purchase the pets, but also a chance at the companions themselves. :)

Note: It's unlikely that the Darkmoon Eye can also drop from the Darkmoon Game Prize. This pet is probably still exclusively from the Darkmoon Pet Supplies.

Breeds
Some changes were made to a few pets that can only be obtained once (such as achievement pets). Originally, they could come in a few different breeds, but since you can only get one per account it was a bit unfair that some managed to RNG a "good" breed while others were stuck with something different. Upon 5.2's release, those that earn the companions post-5.2 will only see the new breed, while players that earned the pet pre-5.2 will retain whichever breed they originally got (for now).

According to Mumper, they're currently looking into ways to change the pets (that fall under this category) into one breed. We'll have to wait and see if and when it's possible.