All about the Pet Battles

In the lead up to the new Pokémon remakes of Sapphire and Ruby, I have been doing a lot of Warcraft Pet Battles.

Pro Pet Mob - I kept levelling and levelling pets. My first dozen pets were levelled to level 25 the old way of grinding random fights. The next dozen were powered by random world fights in Four Winds with the higher level pets there to do the actual kill.

During the lead up to my [The Longest Day] a month ago, I started levelling up teams of pets to deal with the Tamers in Pandaria. After [The Longest Day] was done, I ended up with a collection of pets that could defeat the tamers around Pandaria and levelling my other pets became much faster.

Even with [Pro Pet Mob] completed, I am still levelling pets.

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[The Celestial Tournament] - This took longer to prepare for than Longest Day. I found it to be a nice strategic challenge. Find the right three pets for each fight and use the right moves at the right times without the ability to heal. My favourite pet the [Phoenix Hatchling] didn't end up on any of the teams, but I ended up having to level up a lot of pets I hadn't levelled up yet.

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Grey/White Elimination - I no longer have any poor quality pets and only have two common quality pets. I've been traveling Azeroth collection Uncommon/Rare versions of all the pets I have and releasing my old Poor/Common pets. Once the last two Common Pets are replaced, there won't be much time before WoD, but I plan to start hunting down Rares to replace Uncommons.

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Breeds of Pets - So far I haven't cared about collecting certain breeds of battle pets. All I have worried about so far is the quality. Then I ended up with a pile of [Iron Starlett] over all my alts and I can only keep three as learned, the only difference between them is their breed. For the quest time I had to consider - which was the best [Iron Starlett]s for me to keep? Health/Health, Power/Power, Health/Power, Health/Speed, Power/Balance? I had levelled a P/P to 25, only to realise Power+ was overkill and perhaps more Health or Speed would be better to level next.

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Friendship - I've had a lot of help with my Pet Battles with Crooked, Luxy and Navi. Beyond strategies, they put me onto the PetBattle Teams addon to help manage all the large number of pets I now have.

The Longest Day!

McTacky Vs Neri of Mama Needs Mana

This week I have been levelling up some pets to make some teams. Teams with a purpose. The purpose of defeating the various high level Pet Fights around Pandaria. This morning I decided it was time. Time to do the [The Longest Day]. With Luxy and Crooked and Navi's advice I  dived in.

After hours of Pet Battling it was over! [The Longest Day]!

OMG, It Does Exist!

 

 At long last, after many (dark) moons had passed McTacky one cloudy afternoon. Once again Jeremy Feasel was beaten in a Pokémon Duel.

 

McTacky opened the [Darkmoon Pet Supplies] and inside was the [Darkmoon Eye]!

 

 

Apologies to Cymre for stealing the post name.

Mini Contest for Mini Monk Winner

There were three Haikus entries in the contest. There were all good, but there can only be one winner!

Write a haiku about how awesome Garrosh Hellscream is!

I am the Warchief!
Hellscream's eyes are upon you -
Show them no mercy
- Navi

Son of Blademaster
Forever In Thrall's shadow
History will judge...
- Xyn

Mag'hari Orc, strong
A warrior, proud, Warchief
Victory or death
- Luxy

The winner is Xyn.

Xyn's haiku may not glorify Garrosh Hellscream, but it doesn't denounce him either. I feel it has the strongest imagery of the three.

Mini Contest for Mini Monk

 

I gained a Pandaren Monk Pet code inside a graphics card box. Since I already have this pet, I thought a quick giveaway of this extra pet is in order.

 

The contest? Write a haiku about how awesome Garrosh Hellscream is!

 

Best Haiku in the comments gets the pet code to do whatever they want with it.

 

Deadline in a week. Have fun.

Edit: I think the code may be restricted to US and Oceanic servers.

Frostwolves World Safari

Navi, Luxy and I all caught our Qiraji Guardlings! Luxy even found me a rare one! Aces!

 

But Zwingli and Cymre were too late to catch one. *sadface*

 

So at long last my epic journey for World Safari is over! So many memories. So much camping. I don't know what to feel after all this time. Something big has just ended.

The Qiraji Guardling Wait

 

At June 21 at 5:04 AM is the Summer Solstice.

 

So hopefully at long last the Qiraji Guardling will appear!

 

Lets see and hope!

Edit: IT WAS!

Team Rocket Transmog!

 

Our evil Team Rocket Transmog! Luxygaga as Jesse. McTacky as James. Navimie as Meowth.

 

Also appearing are Navi's K'iri, Luxypie's Hello Kitty and my Pikachu.

 

Prepare for trouble!

 And make it double!

 To protect the world from cataclysm!

 To unite the Horde under our feudalism!

 To denounce the evils of ninjas & spam!

 To extend our reach to even the outland!
 Luxy!

Tacky!

 Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!

 Surrender now, or be ready to fight!

 Navi! That's right!

  

 

Tacky's Transmog Pieces:

 [White Tuxedo Shirt] [Frostwoven Belt] [Imperial Plate Leggings] [Netherweave Boots] [Netherweave Gloves]

 

Original Pic without Photoshopped Navi:

Sunreaver Micro-Sentry!

Goodbye Darkmoon Zeppelin, hello Sunreaver Micro-Sentry! Found on the Isle of Thunder as a drop off Haywire Sunreaver Construct.

 

Very fitting for my Blood Elf Blood Knight.

 

"Big Bro, don't worry! I will protect McTacky!"

The Elusive Minfernal

It was 3am server time. It had just stopped raining. McTacky was alone and wet in the Felwood.  The smell of brimstone was everywhere in Shatter Scar Vale.

Then it appeared. The elusive Minfernal.

Animation provided so you too can simulate the experiance of catching the elusive Minfernal.

 

 

The elusive Minfernal spawned alone. No others could be seen in the zone. I was alone in Felwood at the time, so it wasn't able to elude me.

Day 10 - Design a Pet!

Day 10 of Navi's (The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition) 10 days of pet battles Topic.

Design a pet! What model would your pet have, where would it come from and what abilities would it have?

Pikachu

Row 1: Thunderbolt, Light Screen, Double Team
Row 2: Quick Attack, Agility, Volt Tackle

 

Location: 5% chance to appear in Long Grass in Viridian Forest.

Location: Daily Spawn around Thunderfall, The Storm Peaks

 

Thunderbolt: Deals 15 Elemental damage; 10% chance of stunning the target.
Light Screen: Reduces up to 5 damage from each attack against you. Last 5 turns
Double Team: Increases your team's speed by 25% for 9 rounds.
Quick Attack: Deals 15 Critter damage. This ability always goes first.
Agility: Increases your chance to dodge an attack by 100%. 4 Turn Cooldown. Lasts 1 rounds.
Volt Tackle: Deals 30 Elemental damage against the target; Deals 45% of that Elemental damage back against itself. 10% chance of stunning the target. 1 Turn Cooldown.

Source: http://kaiseredo.deviantart.com/ (http://fav.me/d21niv1)

Note:

* Each of these moves are moves that Pikachu can learn while leveling up in Pokémon except Volt Tackle which is is a sigature move you need to breed to learn.

* Quick Attack already exists in the game.

* Light Screen will make Volt Tackle hurt yourself less, not just enemy caused damage.

* Volt Tackle in Pokémon is 33% Damage hitting yourself. This version was made to be 45% to be like Stone Rush.

* I swapped what Agility and Double Team do for Warcraft version of Pikachu. Also made Double Team help your team.

* Considered making Pikachu a Critter Type like the other Mouse in the game. But I decided that it would be Elemental. Same rational to how a Phoenix is Elemental not Flying like other birds. Pikachu is a living battery.

Day 9 - Favourite Pet Abilities

Day 9 of Navi's (The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition) 10 days of pet battles Topic.

What is your favourite pet ability? If you could have a pet with your favourite abilities, what would they be?

What is your favourite pet ability? Any pet ability that is different to it's Type.

For example my Feline Familiar. The move Onyx Bite are strong against the Flying Family since it is a Magic Type move. Feline Familiar is in the Beast Family, and Beast moves are Weak against the Flying Family. Having Onyx Bite gives Feline Familiar an edge over the Flying Family that a member of the Beast Family usually wouldn't have.

But Feline Familiar is clearly a magic cat, so there is a reason for it's Magic Type move while being a member of the Beast Family like other cats.

 

Source: http://nestly.deviantart.com/ (http://fav.me/d2tqcb8)

It is similar to my prized Plankerchu. A Pikachu with Surf Move. Pikachu is Electric Type Pokémon. It's Electric Attacks cannot damage Ground Type. But I obtained with Pokéwalker a Pikachu with Surf, a Water Type Move. Water does double damage to Ground Type. But Pokémon has STAB (same-type-attack-bonus) gives a type a 50% boost to attacks of the same type, so it isn't quite the same thing.

With World of Warcraft Pet Battles without STAB, there is no incentive to stick with moves from that class. If you go just adding moves that are from another class it robs that battle pet of its identity. There has to be a reason for Pet X to have Move Y.



If you could have a pet with your favourite abilities, what would they be?

Feline Familiar is clearly has a magic broom, you could also justify adding a flying type move as well. So I would replace Pounce with Alpha Strike. The two moves work fairly similar already, it is only a Type Change mostly. (Side Note: you can also get a Pikachu that knows the Fly Move, I would call it Pikachute).

The Magic Attack (Onyx Bite), Beast Attack (Devour) & Boost Attack (Prowl) would remain unchanged.

Now for the other two skills: Stoneskin & Call Darkness. Not replacing any of these with a heal because Feline Familiar is clearly Arcane not Holy Caster. You can get some health back with Devour and you can boost defence with Stoneskin. Keeping Call Darkness for synergy reasons and nerfing the enemy's ability to heal.

A normal Feline Familiar move set looks like:

Row 1: Onyx Bite, Stoneskin, Devour

Row 2: Pounce, Call Darkness, Prowl

So the modified Feline Familiar move set would look like:

Row 1: Onyx Bite, Stoneskin, Devour

Row 2: Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Prowl

In the end after considering all the balance and placement issues, I ended up only changed one move. Pounce to Alpha Strike. I decided to design it so you couldn't have both the Flying & Magic Attack on your set list at the same time. It would be not balanced otherwise.

Also went with Alpha Strike not Nocturnal Strike. Having both Nocturnal Strike & Call Darkness would be unbalanced for this Feline Familiar with this much Type diversity. The Gilnean Raven and Crow ONLY have Flying Moves + Call Darkness &Nocturnal Strike so they have a clear weakness and can be dealt with.

Everything else, by coincidence, remained in their same spots. It has become clear to me during this article that some real thought into move composition has already been done by the Blizzard Development Team.

Day 8 - Stupidest things during pet battles

Day 8 of Navi's (The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition) 10 days of pet battles Topic.

What is the stupidest thing(s) you have ever done in a pet battle?

I could mention all the things I did wrong. Start a fight with too low or too high a battle pet. Starting a fight with no health. I do those all the time. But the most stupid, the one that is the crowning glory is something I didn't do, twice.

Not catching a Minfernal when I had the chance. TWICE.

I ignored them the twice while flying across Felwood. Each time I was on a different task and decided to ignore the Minfernals and just make a mental note to go back for them later...

Yeah. Wrong call. Twice.

Well back to camping.

/facepalm

Day 7 - Pet Mods

Day 7 of Navi's (The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition) 10 days of pet battles Topic.

Do you use mods? If you could only have one pet mod, what would it be and why?

Do you use mods? There are four mods I use at the moment:

Pokemon Trainer - Shows Weakness & Strengths of the Moves Vs Pets. Also one of the first mods to show Rarity Colours on pets before they were captured. Downside is that the UI still appears after you hit Alt-Z in pet combat.

PetTracker - Puts the spots on the map & gives a tracker. In this example the map is showing all the pets that aren't rare and the tracker is listing the two pets I don't have.

 

PetJournal Enhanced - Adds rarity colours, specialisation icons & sorting options to the Pet Journal as demonstrated in this Before and After images. (also it shows I have 8 more Unique Pets since my post Nine Days ago)

  

 Auto Safari Hat - Automatically equips Safari Hat during pet battles. McTacky in this screenshot is wearing his Safari Hat.

I used to have:

Pet Battle Pokemon Mod - Adds Pokemon Music during Pet Battles. I didn't end up getting it again after coming back to WoW.

 

If you could only have one pet mod, what would it be and why?

PetJournal Enhanced hands down. It just makes sorting though my pets much faster.

Day 6 - Team Pets

Day 6 of Navi's (The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition) 10 days of pet battles Topic.

What pets have you got in your favourite team(s)?

Honestly I don't have preset teams. At the moment I am trying to get one of each class to 25, and mix/match them depending of the foe.

So my overall pool I make my teams from:

 

Aquatic - Dancing Water Skimmer

 

Beast - Feline Familiar

 

Critter - Dung Beetle

 

 Dragonkin - Celestial Dragon

 

 Elemental - Phoenix Hatchling

 

Flying - Cenarion Hatchling

 

Humanoid - Pandaren Monk

 

 

Mechanical - Darkmoon Zeppelin

 

Magic - Shimmering Wyrmling

 

Undead - Fetish Shaman

Day 5 - Most Wanted Pet

Day 5 of Navi's (The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition) 10 days of pet battles Topic.

What pet do you want more than any other pet? What would you do to get it?

I suppose the Ethereal Soul-Trader, but I wouldn't spend the $200 for it on that . So how much WOULD I spend on it? $60 at most. I understand it is too rare to cost only $60.

Ingame, the answer would be Minfernal for Kalimdor Safari. So far I've created a Death Knight on a low population realm and camped it in Felwood. I've also camped my Mage on my home realm of Dath'Remar there.

BUT would I steal a Minfernal from someone else? Would I run ahead of someone and cut them off? No. I wouldn't be able to do that.

But camping it? Yeah, I can see myself doing that.

 

Edit: 27th May 2015 - Ethereal Soul-Trader obtained via AH! Also I have tents now.