Battle Pet Teams Widget

Just realized my widget showing the battle pet teams was incorrect. Blizzard changed the name of the id in their XML code from "battlePetId" to "battlePetGuid". I had to fix that, because without it there was no joy in Mudville.

Happy battling!

Power Leveling Battle Pets

As mentioned before, I was a bit lazy with respect to pet battles. I pretty much relied on Beast types -- the combination of the DPS and the bonus against Critters (which I've found to be predominant among wild pets) meant that leveling up beasts was pretty simple.  My Ravager Hatchling used Devour to heal itself and minimize trips to the stable master.  My spiders would web and suck life.  Life was easy.

And then I hit the master tamers. Or rather, then I met the master tamers and they hit back. Hard. Yeah, this team of beasts ain't gonna cut the mustard anymore.

So, now I have to actually use the mechanics of pet battles and have an honest to goodness team of multiple pet families with varying abilities (i.e. my Fledgling Nether Ray which is a Flying pet that has Magic, Beast, Elemental, Flying, Undead and Dragonkin abilities).

Enter attempts to Power Level.

I've tried a few methods flopping about in comments on the web.

1. Use two level 25 pets in Pandaria against level 25 opponents and just ensure the low pet (the power-levelee) does a single attack / buff.
2. Use two level 25 pets and ensure the low pet makes the killing blow (dots are excellent for this).
3. Use one level 25 pet and two low pets.

What I just read (check out the Experience Table on WoWWikki) makes me question this.  Unless I'm not getting something, it will probably be faster to simply level up a team of similar pets.   Essentially, you get bonus experience for leveling (i.e. the Difficulty bonus) if the pet(s) you're battling are two or more levels higher. In other words, if you are battling level 21s with a level 15, you would get the exact same bonus for the low pet if you were fighting against a level 17.

Plus, the experience earned in the fight is shared across each pet that participates. So, if all three of my pets participate, and two of them are level 25, there is absolutely no reason to use the max level because all they are doing is sucking up 2/3 of the available experience.

Hmm.

I think I'm gonna just pack a bunch of same or similar level pets and grind out battles near a stable master.  

I'll post back on how it goes.  Who knows?  I may even finally catch the damn Scourged Whelpling  that has eluded me to date!

The Waterloo of Pet Battles

I've been chugging along lately, popping in here and there to complete some dailies and muck about with pet battles. And, despite what I am going to say next, I am enjoying pet battles as much as I was with the expansion release. I'm so not into iLevels and Raids, but I am into blue pets and pet related achievements.

I'm up to 6 or 7 level 25 pets.  I've completed a few of the safari quests. And then I started working on the taming achievements. Which is when I hit the wall called Okrut Dragonwaste.

Holy hell.

I can cruise through the other tamers I've tried; I pretty much don't need to swap out pets. But this Orc? His damn dirty undead dragons wipe the floor with me. Part of it's laziness on my end -- my 25s include the Celestial Dragon, but then I have pretty much all beasts. Face it, beasts are so easy to level against all the critters out there. And, I gave into the easiness. Now, my Ravager Hatchling barely makes a dent before he's totally overwhelmed by the opponent's DPS.

Of course, I did actually get them down by some freak, and then being an undead, the little bastard respawned and toasted me, so I still lost.  

Now?  Now I'm licking my wounds and grinding up my Pandaren Monk, my Flayer Youngling, my Little Fawn and my Marsh Fiddler.  

Hey Okrut!  I'm gunning for ya!

Pet Battle Teams: Blogger Style

Yep. I wanted to show of my current pet team, so thanks to the data that's available from the Blizzard Community API now I can.  Enter the new gadget residing proudly in my sidebar.

For more details, check the WBPT page.

Blogging and Pet Battles.  They work well together!

Too many rares!

So I'm merrily gallivanting around Stranglethorn Vale leveling up my team to take on the next Pet Tamer when I see this:

One Blue Too Many!

Two rares in a single pet battle! Ugh! I waded through how many crappy gray pets to finally score a rare, and then I have to waste one of 'em?  I really loathe the ability to only trap one pet per battle.

I have to admit: I cried a bit while killing the rare water snake. But, I got over it quickly!

Color coded pets brought to you by Pet Battle Quality Glow.

Pet Battles and Addons

Hi, I'm Chris.  I'm a Pet Battle Junky

The addition on the Pet Battles was something I scoffed at when it was announced. I was one of the seemingly few folks that wanted Pandas. Yet, pet battles?  I was never going to get into that!  I don't get Pokemon, and I assumed pet battles would be lame.

Boy, was I wrong!

I'm going to be hard pressed to get any leveling or questing or achievement hunting done because I'm spending all of my time battling critters.

Addons make this even better.  Three that I'm totally hooked on:

• Pet Battle Quality Glow: Tells you in the battle if the pet is poor, common, uncommon or rare. Oh yes!
• BattlePetCount: Mouse-over tooltip will now tell you how many pets of that kind you already have (or don't)! Oh my!
• Pet Journal Enhanced: Sort and filter your Pet Journal. Yay!

Can you pet battle without these?  Absolutely.  But, why wouldn't you?