Patch 5.3 PTR: Coming Soon!

Yikes! Patch 5.3 PTR is coming soon! New pets and new achievements.

Pet PVP Achievements
There are four new Pet PVP achievements. One rewards a pet and another a title.

- Merciless Pet Brawler: Win 10 PVP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of level 25 pets.

- Vengeful Pet Brawler: Win 50 PvP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of level 25 pets.

- Brutal Pet Brawler: Win 250 PvP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of level 25 pets. Reward: Stunted Direhorn.

- Deadly Pet Brawler: Win 1000 PvP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of level 25 pets. Title: Trainer.

Burning Crusade Raid Pets
If PVP's not your thing, there are also 10 new raid pets that come from Burning Crusade raids (Karazhan, Serpentshrine Cavern, and Tempest Keep).

- Lil' Bad Wolf (Karazhan)
- Menagerie Custodian (Karazhan)
- Netherspace Abyssal (Karazhan)
- Fiendish Imp (Karazhan)
- Tideskipper (Serpentshrine Cavern)
- Tainted Waveling (Serpentshrine Cavern)
- Coilfang Stalker (Serpentshrine Cavern)
- Pocket Reaver (Tempest Keep)
- Lesser Voidcaller (Tempest Keep)
- Phoenix Hawk Hatchling (Tempest Keep)

Much like the original Raiding with Leashes achievement, collecting all 10 rewards an achievement of similar name as well as a new pet (Tito)!

New Wild Pet
Last but not least, Mumper gave us a little teaser of a new wild pet coming in 5.3. It's a baby Val'kyr called Unborn Val'kyr. Adorable, no? XD

"A new battle pet wanders the vast expanse of Northrend in patch 5.3. The elusive Unborn Val'kyr awaits!"

Misc
I'm looking forward to the new raid pets, even if they may be re-used models of existing pets (I'm looking at you waveling, imp, reaver, and phoenix hatchling). It will be interesting to see what "Tito" (the reward for collecting all 10) will be. If it's anything like the existing in-game Tito, it will be a pet with similar look/model as the Worg Pup.

The PVP... I'm somewhat dreading since I really have no interest in it. Much like previous situations, though, I'll do it for a pet. *grumble* 250 PVP battles isn't that many, however WINNING them may be the challenge.

Winning is great (I guess?), but I'm not that competitive, so it doesn't really matter to me. If I'm not working towards a greater goal, winning just doesn't matter. So I'll do it for the pet.

Would I prefer if the achievement entailed simply participating in X number of rounds (in a PVP pet battle)? Sure. But I bet that's too easy to cheese/cheat through. You could simply pass, forfeit, etc. and it would still count towards the achievement. Probably not what the developers had in mind.

So next best thing? I guess making it a requirement that you have to win. Could be an interesting achievement, or it could be a very frustrating one.

I've heard the complaint that PVP battles aren't as interesting/fun these days since it's nearly impossible to pick a random 3 out of your favorite pets and head into a match and have a chance of winning. Some have said that you need to have a specific set of PVP pets if you want to win. Shrug, we'll see I guess?