Friday (15 Feb) - Breeding Battle Pets

Friday (15 Feb) - Breeding Battle Pets

Ok, so one does not really breed battle pets. However, pets are defined by their breed. The term "breed" is not the same as the term "type." The type of pet is based on one of the ten types (Dragonkin, Undead, Magic, etc). The breed of pet is defined by a combination of three factors: health, power, and speed. Most wild pets have a range of breeds. If the same wild pet is captured more than once, their breed could be very different. As a general rule, the pet journal can contain up to three of the same pet. In some cases it's obvious which pet is better to use, but many times breeds are selected based on the current situation. For one battle, high health may work best, while in another, speed might be needed.

When conducting pet battles it might seem a no brainer that every time a rare pet appears, it should be captured and compared to others like it. There is a reason why this is not always the best approach. Capturing a pet creates less experience than killing a pet. If the purpose of the battle is to level up a pet, then opponent pets should be killed, not captured. My strategy on this has been to kill opponent pets (since I am still primarily leveling pets) - unless I come across a rare that I do not already have in my pet journal, or is a different breed of a favorite pet that I hope to improve on. In that case I will try to capture it.

One thing I didn't know is that pets have ID numbers. I also didn't know that pets come in male and female. Male breeds have IDs in the range of 3-12. Female breeds have IDs of 13-22. Note the similarity: 3 and 13, 12 and 22; ie, add ten to the male ID and you have the female ID. Gender does not affect a pet in any way. However, a third thing I didn't know is that pets may in fact be able to breed with each other at some future point, and then gender will matter. For the purists out there, getting male and female versions of pets should be considered.

In typical Blizz fashion, no where in the information about a pet does it show what it's ID is. For that, an addon is needed. I chose to use Battle Pet BreedID, which takes the breed ID, converts it into a more meaningful system, and displays it in several places, including the pet journal and in battle. The max number of breed combinations is ten. The more powerful breeds tend to be those which max out one factor, and the least powerful breeds are those that are more balanced (ie, the factors are spread across all three, with none dominating). That seems counter-intuitive to me, thinking that balance would be best, but that is not how it works.

Rating the Level 25 Rare Pets: Simplistically, I rank my pets in three categories (single, dual, and balanced) and four breeds (H=health, S=speed, P=power, B=balanced). Note that "balance" is not really a breed, but it indicates that the numbers have been spread across multiple factors):

Single Factor Breeds
Alpine Foxling (S/S)
Lil' Deathwing (P/P)
Peddlefeet (S/S)
Shimmershell Snail (H/H)
Strand Crawler (H/H)

Dual Factor Breeds
Arcane Eye (P/S)
Core Hound Pup (H/P)
Eternal Strider (P/S)
Fluxfire Feline (P/S)
Spirit of Competition (H/P)

Balanced Breeds
Effervescent Glowfly (H/B)

The most disappointing finding in this so far is that my Moonkin Hatchling has now been maligned because it scored a B/B. This is the absolute worst combination possible. The better news is that both Frosty and Deathly Skull, pets I am leveling for the Undead type, are rated H/H.

Then again, neither Frosty nor Deathly Skull were impressing me, so I got it in my head to find some other Undead type pet to try out. I decided to haunt Tirisfal Glades for a rare Lost of Lordaeron. I call it the white ghost. When I got to Tirisfal Glades, there were many of these ghosts around the Undercity and the nearby small town of Brill. Lost of Lordaeron are level 1-2 pets. I killed dozens of low quality ghosts. When I finally got a rare one, the breed was B/B, which was not as strong as I wanted. I held on to it, but hoped for a better one. Rares were supposed to be very hard to come by, but in a little over an hour I found four rares. Unfortunately, they were all B/B types. I persevered, though, and eventually got the top breed of Lost of Lordaeron, a rare level 2 H/H. And on Friday night, I got him to level 25.

I now have at least one rare level 25 for all ten pet types.

While running Lost of Lordaeron through the leveling process, I fought against a number of wild Softshell Snaplings. They are very tough. I had a level 22 rare, as well as a level 22 Spiny Terrapin, which has exactly the same breed and abilities. My Snapling is now level 24, and should join the list of level 25s pretty soon. Hmm, what should I go after next?