Mok'ra, Tribe!
Two weeks ago I tried pet battling for the first time. I'd never touched this side of the game before, as I'd always had other, more pressing things to do, like dailies, crops, and so forth. But two weeks ago, I gave pet battling a shot, and within minutes I was hooked! It is a compelling mini-game that appeals to the collector in me (get them ALL!) and to the puzzle-solver (to defeat a pet with XYZ abilities, which one of mine should I use?).
So I thought I'd start a thread here for comments, advice, and reflections about pet battling!
Here are some of the things I've learned: Pet battling is like a big rock-scissors-paper game, with 10 pet types, each one strong or weak against different types. A beast and a mechanical-type pet make two good first pets, as beasts are strong against critters, while mechanicals are strong against beasts, and most of the wild pets out there are... critters or beasts.
Pets come in four different flavors: rare, uncommon, common, and poor. I keep my eyes open for the rare ones and capture those to add to my collection. I generally capture the *first* pet of a new type, no matter what its quality is, then I upgrade it to a higher quality pet when I can -- always with the hope of finding a rare one.
Pets also come in different breeds: different breeds have different weights for health, attack power, and speed. Some breeds are better than others. I've barely scratched the surface of this aspect of the game.
The game culminates in set-piece battles against tamers with a set team of extra-strong pets. My original regular team defeated these easily enough until I got to the Northrend tamers, who squashed my team into the ground. At that point I realized that I needed to level up new pets to defeat particular tamers -- the Crystalsong Forest and Dragonblight tamers in particular (I leveled three turtles and a bandicoon to beat them).
I found that getting that FIRST pet to 25 is the hardest. I hit a slump around level 11 when it started to take many more battles to gain a new level. I found, though, that once I had one level 25 pet, it was much much easier to level more up. To do this I run a low-level pet with some high-level ones, swapping the low-level pet in for just one turn, and finishing the battle off with the big, bruiser 25. My lowbie pet gains levels fast this way (fighting against wild 25's I've found that the first battle will take a pet from level 1 to 5, the second from 5 to 7. Then it will gain one level per battle until about level 18, when it starts to take more than one battle to gain a level, but it's still not that bad. I've found that the final haul, from level 24 to 25, takes 5-6 battles.)
My favorite leveling-up spot is the lake right next to the Shrine of Two Moons, which is full of Eternal Striders. I have a level 25 Pterrodax Hatchling, which is very strong against aquatics and has a nice self-heal -- he can solo three of them with no problem. The stablemaster, who heals and revives pets, is really close -- right up on the balcony where the flight master is. So it's easy to do a couple battles, fly up for a heal, and come back for more battles.
So far, my favorite pets are...
* Darkmoon Cub. My first beast pet and my first to reach 25. He slaughters Critters with a few swipes of his paw, and his Devour ability heals him so he can just keep on ticking from battle to battle.
* Clockwork Gnome. My first mechanical pet. He's slower than the Darkmoon Cub, but once he gets going with his turrets and his self-heal he's inexorable. Excellent against beasts. The Gnome and the Cub were the core of my original team.
* Celestial Dragon. Great all-around pet with particular strengths against Flying and Magic type pets, with a huge nuke and a nice self-heal.
* Pterrodax Hatchling. Excellent against aquatics, with a good basic attack, a big nuke, and a self-heal. My go-to pet for power-leveling lowbie pets at the lake next to Two Moons. He can one-shot or two-shot grey aquatics, which makes power-leveling with him really fast.
* Fel Flame. An excellent Elemental-type pet that melts mechanicals into slag. He's pretty showy, with blazing fiery attacks, and is very satisfying to use.
* Terrible Turnip. This one ROCKS at capturing wild pets, because it has an attack that won't bring the wild pet below 1 HP, so the turnip can't kill it. One of the most frustrating things about pet collecting is accidentally killing the pet I'm trying to capture -- I have to bring it to low health to capture it, but not so low that it dies! The turnip is perfect for this job.
... and many more!
Okay, your turn!
What are your favorite pets? How/where do you level your pets up? Have you upgraded any pets to blue with flawless battlestones? Which pets are you trying to capture now? Which tamers are you working on? What neat things have you learned?
Two weeks ago I tried pet battling for the first time. I'd never touched this side of the game before, as I'd always had other, more pressing things to do, like dailies, crops, and so forth. But two weeks ago, I gave pet battling a shot, and within minutes I was hooked! It is a compelling mini-game that appeals to the collector in me (get them ALL!) and to the puzzle-solver (to defeat a pet with XYZ abilities, which one of mine should I use?).
So I thought I'd start a thread here for comments, advice, and reflections about pet battling!
Here are some of the things I've learned: Pet battling is like a big rock-scissors-paper game, with 10 pet types, each one strong or weak against different types. A beast and a mechanical-type pet make two good first pets, as beasts are strong against critters, while mechanicals are strong against beasts, and most of the wild pets out there are... critters or beasts.
Pets come in four different flavors: rare, uncommon, common, and poor. I keep my eyes open for the rare ones and capture those to add to my collection. I generally capture the *first* pet of a new type, no matter what its quality is, then I upgrade it to a higher quality pet when I can -- always with the hope of finding a rare one.
Pets also come in different breeds: different breeds have different weights for health, attack power, and speed. Some breeds are better than others. I've barely scratched the surface of this aspect of the game.
The game culminates in set-piece battles against tamers with a set team of extra-strong pets. My original regular team defeated these easily enough until I got to the Northrend tamers, who squashed my team into the ground. At that point I realized that I needed to level up new pets to defeat particular tamers -- the Crystalsong Forest and Dragonblight tamers in particular (I leveled three turtles and a bandicoon to beat them).
I found that getting that FIRST pet to 25 is the hardest. I hit a slump around level 11 when it started to take many more battles to gain a new level. I found, though, that once I had one level 25 pet, it was much much easier to level more up. To do this I run a low-level pet with some high-level ones, swapping the low-level pet in for just one turn, and finishing the battle off with the big, bruiser 25. My lowbie pet gains levels fast this way (fighting against wild 25's I've found that the first battle will take a pet from level 1 to 5, the second from 5 to 7. Then it will gain one level per battle until about level 18, when it starts to take more than one battle to gain a level, but it's still not that bad. I've found that the final haul, from level 24 to 25, takes 5-6 battles.)
My favorite leveling-up spot is the lake right next to the Shrine of Two Moons, which is full of Eternal Striders. I have a level 25 Pterrodax Hatchling, which is very strong against aquatics and has a nice self-heal -- he can solo three of them with no problem. The stablemaster, who heals and revives pets, is really close -- right up on the balcony where the flight master is. So it's easy to do a couple battles, fly up for a heal, and come back for more battles.
So far, my favorite pets are...
* Darkmoon Cub. My first beast pet and my first to reach 25. He slaughters Critters with a few swipes of his paw, and his Devour ability heals him so he can just keep on ticking from battle to battle.
* Clockwork Gnome. My first mechanical pet. He's slower than the Darkmoon Cub, but once he gets going with his turrets and his self-heal he's inexorable. Excellent against beasts. The Gnome and the Cub were the core of my original team.
* Celestial Dragon. Great all-around pet with particular strengths against Flying and Magic type pets, with a huge nuke and a nice self-heal.
* Pterrodax Hatchling. Excellent against aquatics, with a good basic attack, a big nuke, and a self-heal. My go-to pet for power-leveling lowbie pets at the lake next to Two Moons. He can one-shot or two-shot grey aquatics, which makes power-leveling with him really fast.
* Fel Flame. An excellent Elemental-type pet that melts mechanicals into slag. He's pretty showy, with blazing fiery attacks, and is very satisfying to use.
* Terrible Turnip. This one ROCKS at capturing wild pets, because it has an attack that won't bring the wild pet below 1 HP, so the turnip can't kill it. One of the most frustrating things about pet collecting is accidentally killing the pet I'm trying to capture -- I have to bring it to low health to capture it, but not so low that it dies! The turnip is perfect for this job.
... and many more!
Okay, your turn!
What are your favorite pets? How/where do you level your pets up? Have you upgraded any pets to blue with flawless battlestones? Which pets are you trying to capture now? Which tamers are you working on? What neat things have you learned?