5.2 patch notes discussions

[Talmar]

Hadn't seen a post yet discussing the various changes/additions coming in 5.2 so I thought I start one here.

Here's the link to the current patch notes...

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8226552/Patch_52_PTR_Patch_Note_Preview-12_21_2012

Quoted below for pet specifics (also summarized on our own WCP front page)

Pet Battles

> Supercharge now provides a 125% damage bonus (was 150%), and its cooldown is now 4 rounds (was 3).
> Sprite Darter Hatchling – Evanescence and Arcane Blast have swapped ability positions.
> Nether Roach is now a real roach and can now survive the apocalypse.
> Battle Pet Bandages now stack to 25 and are Bind to Account.
> Battle-Stones now have a chance to be awarded from PVP Pet Battles.
> Pets whose color schemes change each time they are summoned have returned. Older pets with this behavior now have it back, as well as some newcomers.
> Pet levels will now only display on the map when pets are tracked.
> Taming the World now lists its reward correctly in the Achievements pane.
> Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.
> Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.
> Fleeing a pet battle will no longer despawn the pet that was being battled, but doing so will now inflict some damage on the fleeing pet battle team.
> Disconnecting from a pet battle will once again respawn the pets you were fighting.
> Any pet that has been killed in a pet battle will now never respawn.
> A number of new pets can be found on the Isle of Lightning, including rare spawn drops, wild pets, and raid boss drops.
> Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. A new quest has been added to track progress as these new pets are hunted down, and completing that quest will award the new Red Panda pet.
> Please note: Many of these changes have not yet come to the PTR, but will be available soon.

[The_guy]

One big thing i thought was weird was the new thunder beaver model, maybe on thunder isle we will have other thunder pets.

[Talmar]

Here's my thoughts...

Supercharge now provides a 125% damage bonus (was 150%), and its cooldown is now 4 rounds (was 3)

This isn't as bad as I thought. I'm not too worried about the cooldown as the FF is weak and usually doesn't live past the 3 rounds to do his combo to begin with. Should still hit like a truck but maybe one going the speed limit and not 100mph.

Sprite Darter Hatchling – Evanescence and Arcane Blast have swapped ability positions.

I think they're just spreading the damage out by giving you avoidance earlier and your bigger damage dealer later on.

Nether Roach is now a real roach and can now survive the apocalypse.
Taming the World now lists its reward correctly in the Achievements pane.

'

Just a bug fix.

Battle Pet Bandages now stack to 25 and are Bind to Account.
Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.

Awesome quality of life change.

Battle-Stones now have a chance to be awarded from PVP Pet Battles.

Not big into PvP but this looks like a nice change. I assume only the winner will have a chance at the battle stone. Also, if the drop rate is better/higher I may have to start doing more pvp batltes.

Pets whose color schemes change each time they are summoned have returned. Older pets with this behavior now have it back, as well as some newcomers.

Not into color changers personally but this is a nice fix. I know some people <cough> Quintessence</cough> will like this change very much.

Pet levels will now only display on the map when pets are tracked.

Meh

Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.

Still hoping to hear that lesser charms will be able to be used to buy things pet related. If the drop rate is similar to stones then I won't be seeing any of these either. Have yet to see a stone from any wild pet battles.

> Fleeing a pet battle will no longer despawn the pet that was being battled, but doing so will now inflict some damage on the fleeing pet battle team.
> Disconnecting from a pet battle will once again respawn the pets you were fighting.
> Any pet that has been killed in a pet battle will now never respawn.

Don't mind the first issue so much as I have tons of bandages at this point. The second is wonderful news. But given that you can simply just forfeit now and not loose the pets the 2nd issue isn't so much an issue anymore.

The last one noted is painful. There have been several times I've accidentally killed the pet I want to capture and saved myself by manually DC'ing to save myself. This is a bit harsh...guess I have to finally max out my Turnip just in case.

A number of new pets can be found on the Isle of Lightning, including rare spawn drops, wild pets, and raid boss drops.

New pets are always awesome. I wonder if the raid boss drops will be more classic raids or BC/wrath/cata. I may need to find a new raiding guild if it's going to be current raids.

Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. A new quest has been added to track progress as these new pets are hunted down, and completing that quest will award the new Red Panda pet.

Looking forward to this very much. This looks to be an awesome addition. Can't wait for this.

[Frozenpets]

wish it were around today as I lost one of the few rare pets I don't have by simply having the wrong battle team setup. 5.2 can't come soon enough.

[Lillanthia]

I'm certainly looking forward to the changes with pet bandages. Having multiple alts doing quests and dailies (and totally ignoring the cries that Mists isn't alt friendly ) - so therefore encountering pet battles all the time while questing! All the bandages are on my main.

It'll be interesting to see if the Lesser Charms have any other use than trading up and then the chance to spend on loot rerolls in raids. I've still got a big stack of them, and I'm not one for running LFR again and again once I've done it a few times. Voluntarily stepped out of my (casual) guild raiding team, so I've not much use for them.

Elite pet battles sounds fun. I enjoyed beating the spirit trainers, and a red panda pet sounds like a good idea!

[Palatank]

Fleeing a pet battle will no longer despawn the pet that was being battled, but doing so will now inflict some damage on the fleeing pet battle team.

I just hope that this damage doesnt also gonna happen on trainers (uselly flee to getter the more easy pet first)

[Mathew013]

> Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.

While will now award player experience. sounds incredibly awesome, within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet has me scratching my head.
Most PvP fights are kinda the same level range, so why the notation of within 5 levels ?

[Suspiro]

> Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience.

While will now award player experience. sounds incredibly awesome, within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet has me scratching my head.
Most PvP fights are kinda the same level range, so why the notation of within 5 levels ?

That line doesn't specify just PVP pet battles. It denotes all pet battles (wild, tamer, PVP).

[Mathew013]

Ah, that makes a bit more sense now. I guess if you have all level 25 pets, you won't get any experience fighting the lower level tamers, or farming low level wild pets, like the Fawn in Elwynn Forest.
Understandable, but not what I was hoping for.

[Qwertgod]

When is 5.2 supposed to be released?

[Syrrie]

When is 5.2 supposed to be released?

They never give release dates for patches.

[NathKnave]

When is 5.2 supposed to be released?

It's supposed to go on the PTR sometime in January. They are usually on the test realm for a couple months, so it's going to be awhile yet.