"Celestial Tournament" - 5.4

[Gilneas]

The latest PTR build has a couple new achievements related to the previously mentioned Celestial Tournament, which give a little bit more information.

Master of the Masters (New) Defeat all the trainers listed below from the Celestial Tournament. 5 points. (There are about a dozen different tamers, 9 of which seem to be various Pandaria NPCS, and 4 of which are the baby celestials)

Celestial Family (New) Obtain all four of the celestials pets. 5 points.

Also, the Crazy for Cats achievement now awards "the Crazy Cat Lady" or "the Crazy Cat Man" title.

Edit: The list of tamers in the achievement might be informative...

Blingtron 4000
Lorewalker Cho
Wise Mari
Sully "The Pickle" McLeary
Wrathion
Chen Stormstout
Shademaster Kiryn
Taran Zhu
Dr. Ion Goldbloom
Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen
Zao, Calfling of Niuzao
Chi-Chi, Hatchling of Chi-Ji
Yu'la, Broodling of Yu'lon

[Jadax]

Interesting... I'm so excited to try the scenario. I can hardly wait!

And I am so glad that the cat achi got the associated title =D

[Ishildur]

Oh dear, poor Sully, he's just destined to have all the small furry critters he gets attached to get brutally murdered by his supposed 'allies' isn't he?

Nice list, I do get a kick out of Blingtron being in there... I always wondered what that robot was doing the other 4 hours he was on cooldown...

[Gilneas]

Oh dear, poor Sully, he's just destined to have all the small furry critters he gets attached to get brutally murdered by his supposed 'allies' isn't he?

This got me thinking about what sort of pets they might be using. I hadn't thought of Sully's affinity for raccoons. I'd assume he'll be using some variety of bandicoon/tanuki (maybe Socks, the jade racoon! ) in his team.

In thinking about this, it struck me that perhaps they are combining their two forms of PvE pet battles "end-game." All the NPC's (Blingtron to Dr. Ion Goldbloom and his likely dinosaur team), while the 4 baby celestials could be elite pets like the BoF.

[Jadax]

From the sound of it, we'll get a random selection of NPCs to battle per scenario.

Which, I'm guessing, means that we'll get the pet that equates to each of the aspects when we beat them in the scenario? So... more randomness!

[Gilneas]

Here is some more info on the pets themselves:

http://ptr.wowdb.com/npcs/battle-pets?filter-patch=3388

Click on each pet to see the abilities (they are no longer placeholder spectral cub moves, even Xuen).

Also still indicates they are vendor pets.

Edit: Check out the abilities on the Rascal-Bot lol.

[Nivrax]

For Sully: Socks - Magic Jade Raccoon, Gizmo - Undead Raccon... Little Lu - Humanoid?

I see Shademaster and some Doc. there, so maybe we will FINALLY get to fight Undead and Mechanical tamers. For the first time ever, Anub Idol might not be the pet to go.

Rascal bot seems to be extremely powerful opener if it's speedy at all, just stun'n'smash till you get down for first time and explode for effective triple base damage. Though... Fiendish Imp will eat him for breakfast.

Chi-Ji seems quite nice, Feign Death is sweet skill, and a Reflect too, with Flyer speed on top and Alpha Strike. This will be powerful combo breaker. About time we got useful flier, got tired of Ravens and Moths.

Niuzao, got Wish... I don't like it, at all, I can already see him paired with Crawdad. Other than that it seems just... simple, spam Trample and use Niuzao Charge if enemy hit dodge/burrow/undead.

Xuen seems extremely strong. Moonfire is high damage attack, Spirit Claws is high damage attack (not missing with Moonfire), Prowl with Feed seems very potent. Vengeance seems interesting if not rather situational against mechs. And I assume he will be super-extra-mega speedy since he controls time, calling 1150h/280p/420s.

Yulon seems so-so, a copy of Emerald Proto with Life Exchange instead of Dream is what I'm looking at choosing skills. Celestial Blessing seems interesting, 4 rounds of -50% means basically evading 2 hits if hit 4 times. Since you waste one turn setting it and second swapping, it is good mostly for tactical switch or against swap teams. Hopefully will activate before Minefied, it would be nice to see a proper counter to that.

Moon is a beast that is strong against Flyers and that's about it. Might be good if you'd like make a Moonlight based team, and counters Ravens/Crows Darkness team.

[Gilneas]

I see Shademaster and some Doc. there, so maybe we will FINALLY get to fight Undead and Mechanical tamers. For the first time ever, Anub Idol might not be the pet to go.

By "Doc" do you mean "Dr. Ion Goldbloom"? If so, he probably won't be undead pets. Its a reference to Ian Malcolm (and his actor Jeff Goldblum) from Jurassic Park -- the original NPC in the game is found on the Isle of Giants as part of the Jurassic Expedition. Pretty sure he will be dinosaur pets.

The Idol all ready isn't the best pet for most tamers anyway. There's generally something better for almost all of them, based on their specific abilities and AI.

[Luciandk]

Hrm, I notice Pierre isnt in the list.

But some unusual abilities on Rascalbot. Xuen looks extremely strong, and Niuzao is going to be popular!

Also look at the frontpage, no epic pets in 5.4, was canned. Good, would just have upset things this expack.

[Quintessence]

Hrm, I notice Pierre isnt in the list.

Pierre's not in the list because it was added/datamined in patch uhh... I think it was 5.2? So if you filter the search for pets added in a previous PTR, Pierre should show up.

[Gilneas]

Hrm, I notice Pierre isnt in the list.

But some unusual abilities on Rascalbot. Xuen looks extremely strong, and Niuzao is going to be popular!

Also look at the frontpage, no epic pets in 5.4, was canned. Good, would just have upset things this expack.

http://ptr.wowdb.com/npcs/70082-pierre

[Jadax]

Also look at the frontpage, no epic pets in 5.4, was canned. Good, would just have upset things this expack.

That tweet was in response to a question about Epic Battle-Stones... not pets themselves.
It has been misreported on the front page.

[Luciandk]

Hrm. Plus the post on the frontpage could be misread, sounding like both engineering pets and epic pets is postponed. I had to read it twice.

[NathKnave]

Hrm. Plus the post on the frontpage could be misread, sounding like both engineering pets and epic pets is postponed. I had to read it twice.

That was my first reaction as well, "Not again!"

[Quintessence]

Hrm. Plus the post on the frontpage could be misread, sounding like both engineering pets and epic pets is postponed. I had to read it twice.

Fixed! Hopefully it's clearer now