wow-pet-battles
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Breakfast Topic: Will you take your battle pets to the Celestial Tournament?
It's no secret: we love collecting battle pets. They're fun companions while you're running around exploring while battling and capturing pets can be a nice change of pace from the grind of leveling, dungeoning, or anything else we might be doing in game. And we have to admit we're intrigued by the idea of the Celestial Tournament, patch 5.4's new battle pet tournament. And the reward for winning this pet tournament? More pets, of course! Celestial Tournament victors walk away with Celestial Coins which can be used to purchase miniature August Celestial pets among other things. On the downside is that participation in the tournament requires 30 pets at level 25 -- which may not be a problem for pet addicts, but anyone who's been toying with battle pets on a more casual basis probably doesn't have those levels. What about you? Do you have enough high-level pets to get into the Celestial Tournament whenever patch 5.4 shows up? Or are you going to need to gear up your pet leveling to get there? Tell us whether you're going to be hitting up the Celestial Tournament -- and how close you are to getting there -- in the comments!
Patch 5.3: Accuracy and damage changes to pet battles
One of the big things in turn based strategy games is the chance to hit/miss and crit. These are random, yet controlled, elements that directly lead to an interesting gaming experience; no matter what battle you go into there is a chance (however small you might make it) that you won't come out alive. It's a founding principle of RPGs -- from D&D to Pokemon. Pet battles, as they stand, have a relatively high amount of randomness. I think there are two ways to see it now. First, pay attention to your fight logs and average the number of hits/miss vs crits. You'll find this can fluctuate wildly between battles of the same pets using the same abilities. The other way to tell that there is a significant random element is to pay attention to how much health your pet lost after each battle -- sometimes it's a lot, othertimes it's not that much -- and this amount can vary wildly. In an extreme example, your pet might go from 100% to 10% health one battle, and then go from 100% to 90% the next (against the same pet and level). That's a lot of difference, and this tends to be less than fun. To fix things, Blizzard is reducing the randomness in pet battles through changes to the accuracy and damage output. Specifically they are removing the base 5% to dodge. This will serve to make things hit more often across the board. Since the 5% base to dodge has been removed, without additional changes many abilities had a 100% chance to hit. To correct this, some abilities now have a base chance to miss, but in return their damage has been increased. Also notable is that each pet will still have at least one ability that will have a 100% chance to hit. Some of the other highlights of the change coming up in patch 5.3: Hit chance will now be listed on abilities Crit chance has not been messed wth Higher level opponents will be easier to hit (miss chance per level down from 5% to 2%) Check out the full post over on Blizzard's site, along with a list of abilities that have had their hit chance reduced while their damage increased. Crithto also does a good job of explaining randomness in turn based games, it's worth a read.
Pet battlers, it isn't too late to get your hands on Peddlefeet
In the world of pet battles, there are two humanoid pets that reign supreme: the Pandaren Monk and the Flayer Youngling. There are competitors to the throne, but the monk and the flayer are your go-to dragonkin slayers in PvE pet battles. One of the two requires a purchase from the Blizzard Store, and while the other is a perfectly valid option, there's beauty in diversity. Why not be different? Why not break social norms and embrace the diversity inherent to the universe? Why not Peddlefeet? Peddlefeet can be added to your pet journal by using a Truesilver Shafted Arrow, purchased for 40 Love Tokens at Lovely Merchants in capital cities across Azeroth. This item is only sold during Love is in the Air celebrations, which end February 23. You still have most of this week to pick up those 40 tokens, and it's just about the easiest thing in the world. You can either do Love is in the Air daily quests or murder hapless mobs (which award experience) for Lovely Charms, which can then be exchanged for Love Tokens. You have plenty of time. Do it! Peddlefeet's dragonslaying abilities are as follows:
How to get started building your own battle pet arsenal
No, we aren't talking about hunters today: the battle pet system allows all of us to have and fight with pets through a special battle pet interface. And though you're not likely find mention of pet battles before you hit Pandaria, you can start participating in pet battles as early as level 5. And even if you aren't a fan of the "gotta catch 'em all!" game on which the system is modeled, we think pet battles are a fun break from leveling -- and since you're walking right by battle pets to collect and fight as you wander through each zone, why not have your battle pets advancing at the same time you are? The concept behind battle pets is simple; your battle pets fight other battle pets throughout the game in a turn-based format, gaining levels (up to 25) and skills (each pet has 6). Whenever you see another battle pet -- or battle pet trainer -- you can fight to gain experience and, of course, the glory of victory. If that sounds interesting, let's get started on the road to becoming the fiercest pet tamer in Azeroth!
The Terrible Turnip is a pet collector's best friend
If you're on a quest to catch all of the wild pets Azeroth has to offer, there's one pet you'll want to add to your arsenal as soon as possible: the Terrible Turnip. Why? Two words, my friends: Weakening Blow. Weakening Blow is an Elemental ability unique to the Terrible Turnip. It is, perhaps, the most powerful tool in a pet collector's arsenal. Weakening Blow cannot reduce an enemy's health below 1. That means, if you're using your Terrible Turnip, you'll never again accidentally kill that rare-quality Nether Faerie Dragon you've been spending hours attempting to find. It also means you don't need to continuously level mid-range pets to prevent your level 25s from insta-gibbing critters in old world zones, should you need to go back and find something you missed. The Terrible Turnip, even at level 25, will never kill those low level critters. In the world of pet collecting, nothing is more essential to your toolkit than Weakening Blow.
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.
BlizzCon 2011: Pet battles introduced in Pandaria
Mists of Pandaria will be introducing Pet Battles. You will be able to use your companion pets to battle against each other. There will be leveling, items, teams and better ways to acquire your pets. Here are some highlights: The companion pets can attack wild pets and capture them to add to your collection. The battles will be turn-based. You will be able to customize your pets with names, items and builds. There will be Masters that you can fight and gain a Master Ability for your pet. As you collect pets, you can form them into teams to take into battle. Pets will be account-wide, including levels and customizations. Pets will be tradeable. You will be able to put them on the AH or give as gifts. So you can build up to high-level pets and sell them for high prices. All players will be able to access pet battles. You will be able to use almost all pets. Looks like we will no longer be able to call our companions "non-combat" pets. Of course, all of these things are subject to change without notice. But this looks like a fun sub-game that many people will want to spend most of their time playing. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
