Patch 5.3 PTR: Updates

The 5.3 PTR has been updated with new and interesting notes! At the time of this writing, only the EU patch notes were updated, but I'm sure the US ones will be changed to include the following as well. I'm most interested in sections that are italicized!

General

- Pet Battle Duels are now available in all dungeons and raids. Enjoy!

- Pet Battles in the wild and duels are now viewable by other players in the world.

- Hit Chance is now displayed for all abilities.

- Abilities no longer have a base chance to miss or be dodged by opposing pets of the same level.

- Reduced the chance to miss when fighting higher-level opponents from 5% per level to 2% per level.

- Blistering Cold had now deals 100% more damage.

- A series of new achievements and rewards have been added for max-level matchmaking PvP pet battles

- Wins for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles can now be tracked in statistics.

- Battle pets' recent ability loadouts will now be saved when pets are swapped in and out of battle slots.

- Species specific Flawless Battle-Stones are now Bind to Battle.net account.

Battle Pets

- A number of new battle pets have been added to the Throne of Thunder and Isle of Thunder. Happy hunting!

- Whispers from pet tamers in the north have spread word of an elusive new battle pet that can be found in the frozen tundras of Northrend. The Unborn Val'kyr awaits.

- Battle Pet drops have been added to Burning Crusade raids. These new pets can be obtained from raid bosses in Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpenshrine Cavern. Obtaining all of these new pets will reward players with a new battle pet, Tito!

- Ethereal Soul-Trader has been returned to his original, larger size.

Battle Pet Quests

- Beasts of Fable daily quest has been broken into three separate chapters. Players can now choose to do any or all of the chapters each day. Rewards have been modified to include a new consumable that will boost battle pet XP for a limited time.

- All Beasts of Fable and Spirit Tamer quests will now reward experience and lesser charms.

- Increased the difficulty of elite pets on the Beasts of Fable quest.

- A new weekly quest for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles has been added.

General
For all those out there who were looking for a way to include Pet Battles as a guild competition or fun-day event, you will be able to in 5.3! I'm going to want to test this out on the PTR, as I'd like to know if it will be seen in real-time and if all the animations for attacks are the same. Or will it be a less graphical battle for those spectating, and will it lag behind the actual round?

I'm thrilled to hear that they're working on "fixing" the miss/dodge issue, or at least are acknowledging that it's a frustrating mechanic for battlers. The thing is, it's a two-way street right? If going up against a pet opponent that's the same level as you, and there's no longer a base chance to miss them or have them dodge your attacks (there's still a chance to miss or dodge), does that mean your opponent will no longer have a base chance to miss you too? You could look at this as an increase (base) chance to hit, but that also means they will have an increased (base) chance to hit you as well. Take the good with the bad, I suppose. :)

Mumper mentioned on Twitter not too long ago that abilities would be saved when swapping pet in and out of your team in patch 5.3. :D This has been a long awaited feature of Pet Battles, IMO! No longer will we have to worry as much about having the wrong moves prior to entering a battle. Yaaay!

Last but not least for this section, and this one was highly requested by many too, all the family-specific flawless stones are going to be BoA. I'm ecstatic about this because now I can clear up some bag space. I hope they won't be buggy and refuse to go into certain inventory/bank slots. It's not the same as stacked items or things with a duration on it, so I think there's less chance for that to happen. I can finally let my bank mule hold all my stones for me and I won't have to switch between character after character to see which one holds the stone I need. :)

Battle Pet Quests
As discussed previously, the Beasts of Fable daily really is being split up into three optional parts in 5.3. And even better? You can choose to do one, or two, or all of them in a single day. And even better than that?! All three reward a daily bag, which means two extra BoF bags per day (should you decide to do them).

I think this change is what the quest sorely needed. 10 NPCs to battle for the reward of one bag (which may not contain anything of use at all) was really discouraging. The time spent traveling and battling was not worth what was awarded at the end. There were many who felt this way and ended up not doing the daily at all. Now maybe they will give it another go next patch. :)

I wonder just how "difficult" the BoF NPCs will be, though? To the point where many will still it's not worth the time/effort? We'll have to test it out on the PTR to see just how much of an increase in difficulty each battle is. I know some people already struggled with a select few now on live servers.

Aaaand that's it for now! I don't know when each new addition will be released on the PTR for testing, so we'll just have to keep an eye out. Hopefully soon as I'd love to experience some of these changes firsthand. :D