Saturday, June 6, 2015

Guild Guidebook: Introduction to Pet Battles


Welcome to the fourth edition of Guild Guidebook! In this edition, we are going to cover some pet battle basics to get you started on your journey to be a tamer.

Upon reaching character level 5 (which hopefully most readers have done), seek out the Battle Pet Trainer in Stormwind. She will teach you Battle Pet Training for 5 gold, which teaches you how to battle and track pets. In addition, this trainer can teach you a race specific pet if you don't already have it in your collection:
And if you have Horde toons:
After learning Battle Pet Training, your first battle slot will unlock. Simply choose a pet from the list on the left, and drag it to the slot. You can unlock the second and third slots by completing the Newbie and Just a Pup achievements. 

Now the trainer will give you a quest chain that teaches you the Revive Battle Pets ability, and asks you to do various tasks such as leveling a pet, catching a pet, and healing your pets.
The ability to track pets will allow you to see which critters are capturable and which aren't. When tracking pets is active, you will see a green paw above pets and on the mini-map. 

When you've chosen the wild pet you'd like to battle, right click on the critter and it will take you into a unique pet battle UI. This UI shows you your active pet's abilities, your opponent's health, stats, quality, and abilities, and there will be options for you to pass a turn, switch pets, forfeit the match, or capture a pet. 


Abilities
Your pet has 6 total abilities to choose from, but only three can be used at a time. You automatically start with one ability, and gain new ones as your pet levels to 2, 4, 10, 15, and 20, with the level cap being 25. 

Combat
Combat is turn based and there is no time limit on each round in a PvE battle. You can take your time deciding which ability to use next. Some pet abilities have multiple round cooldowns, and some do extra damage under certain circumstances. 

Experience and Leveling
Each pet will earn experience after a battle if they remained alive and fought for at least one round. Pets will earn more experience from fighting higher level pets, but be ready for a challenge. 

Pet Families
There are 10 pet families: Aquatic, Beast, Critter, Dragonkin, Elemental, Flying, Humanoid, Magic, Mechanical and Undead. Every pet has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as a passive bonus. Here is a chart to detail just that.

Capturing Pets
Most of the PvE battle pets you face in the wild can be captured. To capture a wild pet, you need to bring its health down to less than 35%, then use the Trap ability once it lights up. Note that using this will take up your turn. In addition, you may only capture one companion on a team of wild pets, so choose carefully. There is always the chance your trap may fail. The good news is the chance of success increases with each attempt. 

You may also notice that certain level pets will weaken after being caught. Level 16-20 will lose 1 level when caught, and level 21-25 will lose 2 levels when caught. Also note that if you wish to capture a pet, you must win the battle. 

Battle Pet Quality
There are 6 different types of quality for battle pets:
  • Poor 
  • Common
  • Uncommon
  • Rare
  • Epic
  • Legendary
Note that Epic and Legendary pets are not yet accessible to players, but Blizzard has stated they fully intend to implement them in the future.

These qualities affect a pet's stats. The higher the quality, the better its health, speed, and attack values. These values will also scale as you level. Wowhead and Warcraftpets both have nifty tools to allow you to see what stats your pet will have at each level, based on its breed.

And that's all for this edition of Guild Guidebook! If you have an idea for a future Guild Guidebook, let me know in the comments below.
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