Patch 8.1 PTR: 11 New Pets

This week's PTR build added baby raptors and Darkshore Warfront pets. [source]

Preview of New Pets
11 new pets (plus Feathers was renamed to Proper Parrot) were included in the recent PTR patch. This brings the current 8.1 battle pet count to 23!


Here's a quick summary of what was added:

• 7 pets from Battle for Darkshore Warfront pets (pictured above)
• 4 raptor pets from "Pet Battle" (wild? see below)

Check out all 8.1 battle pets

Smoochums, although not a new pet to 8.1, is receiving an updated appearance (pictured right).

Our graphic artist is currently unavailable, so we hope this quick preview will suffice! Stay tuned for the release of 8.1 and new WarcraftPets pet profiles, complete with better quality images.

Raptor Hatchling Speculation
Where will we find these 4 new adorable bundles of teeth, claws, and feathers? It's unclear at the moment, but one possibility is that they could be from a feature similar to the falcosaur hatchling storyline. Keep in mind that this is unconfirmed and the following is purely speculation!


The raptor pets are currently flagged as "Pet Battle" which usually indicates that they are wild or they must be defeated in a Pet Battle to receive the pet. However, the only known NPC battle pets coming in 8.1 are in the Gnomeregan Pet Battle Dungeon. Are there hidden raptor NPCs out there, similar to the orphaned falcosaur hatchlings, waiting to be found?

These pets are currently cageable, except for the Baby Zandalari Raptor. This is uncharacteristic for wild, captured pets. Could this simply be an oversight, or could it indicate more?

It should be noted that additional ravasaurs will be coming in Patch 8.1, and there are a few that match the same colors as the pets. And last but not least, there's a Baby Zandalari Raptor NPC (same name as one of the new pets), however it is not a battle-able pet.

All of these tidbits paint an interesting picture so far, however it's far from complete. The PTR is a Work In Progress and things could change. It's fun to speculate but we'll have to wait and see how we'll obtain these pets. We can't wait to learn more!