pet-battle-system
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Revolutionary new minigame datamined in patch 5.3
We've asked for other minigames in WoW, but so far there's been no official word of anything on the horizon. The Plants vs. Zombies minigame is loads of fun, and the battle pet system is by far the most expansive minigame that's ever come to the game. Not everyone has the interest or time to invest in pet battling, so it was very exciting to stumble across the newest WoW minigame, just datamined in patch 5.3. It's a game any player can have fun with. A game many of us have enjoyed ... Say hello to Rock, Paper, Scissors! That's right! Forget about the Singing Sunflower. Whether you're bored or want a new and improved way to decide who get's that Thunderforged weapon, this is it. OK, so this may not really be a new minigame -- datamining is a fickle thing -- but the spells are there for one purpose or another. We can dream, right?
Patch 5.2 PTR: Updated abilities and quality of life changes for pet battles
I find myself logged onto a different character every time I'm doing a round of pet battle dailies. It shouldn't be an issue, because pets are account bound, but there's just one little thing: Battle Pet Bandages. I never earn any on my main character -- maybe it's bad luck. It's very frustrating to end up with a defeated team, Revive Battle Pets on cooldown, and no stable master nearby. Oh, and no bandages! Well, it feels like the devs really have been listening to the battle pet community, because they released a few quality of life updates on the PTR that (mostly) will make pet battlers happy campers. Battle Pet Bandages now stack and are Bind to Account. Level-capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm. Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player's highest-level pet will now award player experience. I'm so happy to see that pet bandages will be Bind to Account. Being able to funnel every precious bandage to one character will make things much easier -- especially for the altoholics out there. And three huge huzzahs to earning stuff while battling pets! It takes quite a bit of time to grind every pet battle achievement, even with power leveling newbie pets. So, earning rewards normally reserved for playing through PvE content turns pet battling into time well spent. I'm tempted to level a character solely through pet battles, now that winning one will grant player experience! You can check out the full list of updated pet battle patch notes at the official site, but to make things easier we've compiled the complete list of notes after the break.
Patch 5.2 PTR: Triple turkey stack gobbled by pet battle crowd control nerf
Now that MoP has been out for a few months, I find myself enjoying pet battles far more than I thought I would. That being said, it was only a matter of time before griefing made its way into this part of the game as well -- even if it is by turkeys. Yes, turkeys. It all started with the rather harmless sounding "Triple Turkey." Unfortunately, it's not a sandwich I can nom on, but is instead something much more sinister in the world of pet battles. The Triple Turkey comp quickly became the flavor of the month for trolls in PvP pet battles, using abusing the irritating Food Coma ability to the max. If you've never encountered it before, Food Coma puts the opponent to sleep for two rounds, on a five round cooldown. But that cooldown only applies to the turkey who casts it. So, we were left with creative individuals who would use Food Coma, swap to a second turkey, use Food Coma, swap, and so on.
Speed through Pet Battle achievements with Disciplinary Action
Blogger and WoW artist Disciplinary Action has taken on the task of writing an idiot's guide to certain aspects of pet battles. Her guide sets out to provide a quick and dirty route to getting your hands on some of the achievements associated with pet battles, and does a great job. She started with three level one pets, and spent some gold at the Auction House to get herself some level 20 ringers, then managed in the space of two days to get four pets from level 1 to level 25 -- not including the two level 20 pets -- as well as getting Continental Tamer, Taming Azeroth, which awards the title Tamer, and to make considerable progress towards the completion of World Safari, which awards the title Zookeeper. She already had two L25 pets, from a previous bout of battling. Of course, with the seasonal elements of World Safari, she wasn't able to complete it within the space of two days. But by making wise choices she was able to progress on it while also dealing with the other taming-related achievements. How did she do it? Do have a look at the blog post for all the details, especially the section on leveling three pets to 15 in an hour. There are several other hints and tips, but some key elements are laid out below. Bear in mind that you can't learn a caged pet of a level higher than your highest pet. Don't get carried away on the Auction House! Pick up two level 20 battle pets from the auction house (as long as you have a L20+ pet already), and use their strength to carry low-level pets through levels up to 15, then commence hunting for taming achievements. Use resources such as PetBattleArena or Wowhead's Battle Pet Map to maximize your pet gathering efficiency. Collect as many zone-specific pets as possible while moving through the world for Continental Tamer to contribute to World Safari. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Blizzard's official Pet Battle Page now live
At last, it's begun. Young heroes, your pet battle page is here, piping hot from Blizzard's oven. My tortured metaphor aside, if you're a pet battle aficionado or a newly interested player wanting to get started then this is the page for you. With tips on how to begin, an explanation of the pet battle system, tutorial videos and more, it's your one stop shop for the pet battle system. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Where is my mahjong minigame in Mists of Pandaria?
During Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard gave us the Peggle and Bejeweled addons. In Cataclysm, we got an amazing in-game version of Plants vs. Zombies (which rewarded a Singing Sunflower pet that actually sang). Now in Mists of Pandaria, the latest addition to the growing collection of games within the game is the new pet battle system which is reminiscent of the beloved Pokémon series. Well, beloved to everyone else anyway. See, Pokémon and I have a bitter past. It started when I was 12, and I told my mother the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a Gameboy and a copy of Pokémon Blue. It was an expensive gift to ask for from a single parent working two jobs, but I was desperate. In the months prior, all my friends at school had ceased socializing about comics and fantasy novels in favor of playing Pokémon. Every day at lunch they'd scarf down their meals then whip out their link cables and start dueling. Not having a Gameboy myself though, I was completely left out. Sadly, when Christmas came there was no Gameboy. Instead I received a Pocket Pikachu, which was a weird toy pedometer crossed with a Tamagotchi. The idea was that you'd keep it in your pocket and as you took steps you'd earn currency to buy presents for Pikachu, who would then be your friend. The problem was the pedometer wasn't very sensitive to normal steps, so you were better off shaking it over and over. So for the next few months, while my friends continued to ignore me to play Pokémon, I shook a stupid, yellow pedometer up and down. Anyway, long story short, I'm not too crazy about a pet battle system. And while I appreciate that Blizzard has made great efforts to integrate such an indepth feature into the game, I feel like they've missed out on the perfect opportunity to add a minigame to the game that would fit perfectly into Mists of Pandaria: mahjong.
Creature Feature: The Tiny Twister, ruiner of the bench
Not all wild battle pets spawn by the same rules. Finding the pet you want may be more involved than making a cursory flyover of a zone while watching your minimap. Some wild pets only spawn during certain weather conditions. Some wild pets share spawns with full-fledged mobs. Today's pet, the Tiny Twister, is the latter sort ... maybe. The Tiny Twister is an Elemental-type pet that can be found in the Arathi Highlands. The curious thing about this pet is that players aren't completely sure how its spawn works. There are three different common beliefs about its spawning: It shares its spawn with the Thundering Exiles in the area, so you must kill them for a chance at a Tiny Twister spawn It shares its spawn with any other type of wild pet in the area, so you must eliminate those for a chance at a Tiny Twister spawn Only X number of Tiny Twisters can spawn in a given length of time, so all you can do is wait There is more evidence for that second option than any other, but without the ability to see the coding behind its spawns, we can't be too sure in any direction. In any case, killing the Thundering Exiles and eliminating other wild pets in the area would be a good way to pass the time while waiting for a Tiny Twister to spawn, so it doesn't matter which theory is correct, in any case. Engaging in all of the above applies in one way or another. All of that being said, if you rush out to Arathi Highlands immediately after a server reset, you'll find the place absolutely littered with these little guys and will have no problem catching one whatsoever.
Make your pet battles look like Pokemon with WoWkemon
Let's be honest, we all saw this one coming! It was just a matter of time before someone wrote an addon that really genuinely converted the pet battles into something remarkably similar to Pokémon. And it's already happened, just a few weeks after the launch of Mists. I am, by the way, sorry for constantly bombarding readers with Pet Battle addons! But, for Pokémon lovers, this is a pretty cool one. Download WoWkémon from WoWInterface. WoWkémon is installed simply by downloading the zip file from the link above, extracting and copying the contents into your Addons folder, which resides within your Interface folder in your WoW directory. When you begin your first Pet Battle with it active, WoWKémon will enter its tutorial, with the eminent Professor Birch. He will guide you through the process of using this heavily adapted pet battle system, which has been cleverly squeezed into something as close to the original Pokémon format as possible. You will need to pay attention during the tutorial, as some of the commands are a little counter-intuitive, and intelligently the tutorial doesn't let you progress until you've actually done what it's telling you to do! Do finish the tutorial on the first battle, though, otherwise it starts from the beginning again on your next battle, and it's not the very fastest process in the world!
Addon Spotlight: Still more pet battle addons!
My colleague Robin posted a brief piece with some of the Pet Battle addons you guys recommended on last week's Addon Spotlight, but you have all commented on her piece with even more addons, which brings us to today's Addon Spotlight! This is why WoW Insider's commenters are awesome. It's impossible for me to know about every fantastic addon out there, and that's where you come in! It's a collaboration, and that's more than fine by me. From the midweek Addon update, I've drawn three fantastic Pet Battle addons, one of which I'm literally blown away by. It's one of those addons that seems so good it's almost cheating! As an aside, do you like my Blizzard Community Manager battle pet team? What have you been naming your battle pets after? Zarhym doesn't get as much battling action as Bashiok and Crithto. Let's get started...
Addon Spotlight: Pet battle addons?
So, from an addon perspective that Mists launch went off pretty darn painlessly, didn't it? I have to say I was impressed, as you may recall from last week's Addon Spotlight, I was not entirely sure how it was all going to go down. Did you have any addon problems? I know I had to switch off addons to actually get myself to Pandaria in the first place, but that is far more a reflection on my abysmal rural internet, and heavy server loading, than on the quality of work of our beloved addon authors. I've been doing a lot of addon mailbags lately, to help people over the hump from Cataclysm to Mists, but this is the last one for a little while. I will, potentially, continue to tack them on to the end of other Addon Spotlight columns, depending on whether I receive questions that I think might be troubling a lot of people or not! If you have questions, or suggestions, do email me on olivia@wowinsider.com. I will try to get back to you! Let's delve into the mailbag once again with a great question about Pet Battle addons!
Pet Battle Q&A with Blizzard Devs
Amongst all the excitement about pandaren and monks, it's easy to forget about the arrival of Pet Battles with Mists of Pandaria in a few hours. Blizzard CM Kaivax is definitely not a forgetful soul, and has posted an in-depth interview with Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton. It's a great interview, in which Cory clarifies some design philosophy behind the Pet Battle system. The 100 gold cost, which makes pet battles pretty out of reach for new players, is intentional, and part of the design of the feature. As Cory says, everyon playing pet battles should be playing World of Warcraft first, and pet battles as an aside. It's an addon, an additional feature to make use of in your spare time, so Blizzard don't support players who only want to do pet battles. Once a new character reaches level five, though, as long as they have a generous benefactor they can get going and battle some pets right away. This also means, of course, that players on trial accounts will find it pretty impossible to play pet battles, as they can't trade, can't auction, and, even if you're thinking "I could vendor enough stuff to get to 100g", they have a cap of 10g. And trainers don't seem to accept instalments. Cory also clarifies some important points with regard to PvP realms, including what happens to your pets if you get killed, and what happens if you die while trying to capture a pet. And, he talks at some length about recent changes in the pet battle philosophy, and more to come in future! Hit the jump for the full post.
Comprehensive Battle Pet database from Alt:ernative
The Godmother over at Alt:ernative is a collector of the highest order, and so found herself being constantly asked by friends, guildmates, and even complete strangers like the author of this piece how to go about obtaining various pets for the pet battle system. So, rather than rest on her laurels, she went ahead and created the Minipets Database. What is the minipets database? It's a database of the 500 battle pets, and where to get them from. It also includes information on what type the pet is; so aquatic, flying, critter, beast and the like. And of course, it lets you know the pet's rarity, whether it's tradeable, and whether it can battle! The Godmother is also in the process of adding pictures and co-ordinates for every single pet in the database, but for now she's included enough information for the would-be pet collector to gather as many pets as they see fit. This is always going to be a work in progress as more pets are added and the Godmother fulfils her Pokémon philosophy and updates the database, but for the keen collector this is already a great resource. Join us after the break for the Godmother's Q&A about the database!
Fox Kit added to Tol Barad vendors in next patch
Ever wanted one of those wily Fox Kit pets from Tol Barad? In order to get one, you have to endlessly grind the foxes on the main island -- well, until next patch, that is. Warcraft Pets reports that according to tweets by game designer Jonathan LeCraft, the Fox Kit will be placed on vendors in the upcoming pre-Mists of Pandaria patch. Included with the tweet was an image of our sly little friend on the Tol Barad vendors. Lest you think this will be an easy purchase, however, you may want to think again. Not only does the Fox Kit cost a whopping 200 tokens from either Hellscream's Reach or Baradin's Wardens, it also requires exalted reputation with whichever faction your side happens to be affiliated with. This late in the game, that shouldn't be an issue for most players -- but if you haven't tasted the delights of Tol Barad, you may want to get cracking now. Besides, who doesn't want a Fox Van Allen of their very own?
The OverAchiever: FAQ on pet battles and early achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. With turnips. I was an avid player of Pokemon Crystal and absolutely loved the game. It was hard not to when I had a Thick Club-armed Marowak with both Rock Slide and Bonemerang that hit everything like the fist of an angry god. Since Blizzard announced the new pet battle system for WoW, I have also been a fan of that -- never mind that it wasn't actually in the game until recently. If tear-assing around the world with a small, vicious creature that smites your enemies is wrong, I don't want to be right. The pet battle system went live on a recent beta build for Mists of Pandaria, but I was one of the players afflicted with the crash bug on entrance to the actual battles. Suffice it to say that it is difficult to evaluate something when you are driven offline by doing it. However, that was fixed, and even though a bunch of LUA errors are still driving me out of the game at times, I return with tidings of great joy for prospective owners of dynamite rabbits. You'll also find our early collection of pet battle posts helpful, although some of the information collected there has been overtaken by recent events. Warning for those browsing on mobile devices: This is an image-intensive article.
Lichborne: Passing time until Pandaria on your death knight
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. With a release date finally forthcoming for Mists of Pandaria, we have less than two months until the expansion drops and even less time until we reach patch 5.0.4. With all that in mind, how do you pass the time until then? This week, we'll take a look at a few things death knights can do to look and feel their best when the expansion drops. Solo to swell your stables Soloing is a time-honored death knight tradition, and with the expansion winding down, it's the perfect way to pass the time. When choosing your soloing target, you may factor in nostalgia, transmogrification needs, or just plain ease of access. Another popular reason is grabbing mounts and pets. In the Cataclysm era, both Vortex Pinnacle and The Stonecore normal modes drop a mount. Soloing same-level dungeons can be a bit hairy, but considering these two were in the game at the start of the expansion, you should find that even with Dragon Soul raid finder gear, you'll barely break a sweat in blood spec. As a bonus, both of these mounts will be going account-wide in Mists of Pandaria, so you'll be grabbing some possible stylish mount options for your alts as well.
Mists of Pandaria: Pet battles confer PvP vulnerability
Cory Stockton (Mumper on the Mists of Pandaria beta forums) has posted a clarification to a forum thread about pet battles and PvP that explains exactly what you pet battle collectors on PvP servers can expect. Mumper - Clarification Requested: PvP Vulnerability The fact that players are vulnerable to PvP attacks while in a pet battle is intentional. However, a couple features that go along with this are not implemented yet. First off, the exact pet you were fighting when you were broke out of pet battle will be respawned. Same quality, stats and skin color. Second, you will get a 3s damage shield that absorbs 50% of incoming damage to help negate the fact that you need time to recover after exiting the pet battle interface. Both of these will be in for the next build. We feel its very important to keep the PvP aspect of the game intact and if you choose to play on a PvP server, you will certainly be fighting for those rare spawns. (This rule effects PVE servers as well but only in contested areas.) source So yes, if you're on a PvP server (like I currently am) and you intend to take part in pet battles and collecting wild pets (unlike me), then you'll have to contend with PvP in the world. The fact that you'll at least get to try again after you kill that rogue has to be of some comfort, but I personally didn't even expect that much. The damage shield to give you a fighting chance goes way beyond what I was expecting, quite frankly. On PvP realms, let the battlers beware! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria not required for pet battles
Many readers have been asking in The Queue if an account that is upgraded to Mists of Pandaria will be required for participating in pet battles. Cory Stockton, aka Mumper, answered that question recently: No! Mumper The feature will go live with the box release date of MoP. It will be available to all players, MoP is not required. source It does look like the pet battles system will not be included in pre-expansion patch 5.0, however. We don't know the release date of Mists yet, unfortunately, so it looks like you have plenty of time to stockpile companions before being able to battle them. [via Warcraft Pets] It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Wanna catch 'em all? Themed transmogrification for Pet Battles
Pet Battles was released on the beta servers earlier this week, and it's ridiculously fun. Not only can you train a team from your corral of existing pets, you can also wander out in the world and capture even more pets to level up. Needless to say, I've been having an incredibly good time with the new feature, and I'm looking forward to playing it on live servers when Mists hits. Of course, the obvious statement at BlizzCon when this feature was announced was that it bears a remarkable similarity to Pokemon. The truth is, there are a ton of these critter battle-themed games out there, and this one just happens to have that Warcraft flavor we all know and love. That said, why not use transmogrification to deck your character out in Pokemon style? It's a little tricky to do, but we've got some cloth sets that may fit the bill.
Team Matticus takes on the updated Pet Battle system
With the official green light for Pet Battles on the beta servers for Mists of Pandaria, I dedicated an evening solely to critter cage matches. I want to be the best that no one ever was, so I figured I may as well start training now. How much has Pet Battles changed since the first time it was inadvertently released? The UI has improved tremendously. Mechanics, animations, and the whole works are much smoother. So how does one get started? First things first. Your character needs to gain the ability to engage mini-pets out in the world. In order to that, you'll need to find your local battle pet trainer. In my case, I booked it straight to Stormwind and asked a guard where the nearest trainer was. You'll find Audrey Burnhep just northeast of the Dwarven District next to the Eastern Earthshrine where all the Cataclysm portal zones are. I ended up forking over 80 pieces of my hard-earned gold to earn the right to use my pets. (Note: This was with the faction discount, otherwise it's 100g.)
Blizzard unveils Pet Battles on the official MoP site -- and beta
Pet Battles are one of Mists of Pandaria's most anticipated features, and Blizzard's been taking their time implementing these furry free-for-alls to get the quality just right. Today the devs have unveiled a new Pet Battle system section on the MoP website highlighting the ins and outs of the system, including how you can get new pets in the wild, what Pet Battle stats mean, and more. The devs have stated in the past that pet battling is meant to be a mostly stress-free affair. You won't see the names of the people whose pets you battle, and the game will only keep track of your wins, not your losses. Don't expect to find bleeding-edge Pet Battle progression groups any time soon. That's the right call, though -- the game needs more fun, casual stuff to do, not less. Check out the Pet Battle guide, and if you have an MoP beta account, patch it today -- Pet Battles are playable! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
