Tuesday (5 Feb) - The Crazy Quilt of Tamers

Tuesday (5 Feb) - The Crazy Quilt of Tamers

One would think there would be a definitive source where all pet battle Tamers are located and how to best complete quests and dailies that are associated with them. From my perspective, the process is a complete mess. There are sources that address parts of the issues, but no definitive source. Frankly, I don't understand the process well enough to build that definitive source myself, although I have tried when the frustration spills over.

Part of it must stem from some kind of bug in the process. On Monday I received another set of quests for the Kalimdor and Eastern Continent Tamers. Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought those quests could only be done once, and after that I only had to do the Master Tamer Daily for each of those zones. So, I'm confused, and a little daunted if I'm supposed to do sets of quests every day.

Based on my inexpert knowledge, I should be able to do all of the following quests every day:

Zone Kalimdor - 5 battles plus the Master Tamer
Zone Eastern Continent - ditto
Zone Outlands - Ditto
Zone Northrend - Ditto
Zone Cata - Ditto
Zone Pandaria - Ditto

That adds up to 36 battles. Is it easy to get to all those Tamers? No, they are scattered all over the world. Well, are they at least placed near Flight Paths? Nope. Is there a guide that lays out the best order to minimize travel time? Nope. It takes, literally, hours of traveling around to get to battles that take less than two minutes. I would seriously consider placing a toon at each Tamer location, but I would run out of toons before I could finish three zones. I am tempted to try that in the first two zones, but finding a way to get some of those lower level toons to some of those Tamer spots would be a challenge. I'm open to other ideas to cut down on the time it takes just to get to the darn Tamers.

I have a little bit of a break right now because my pets aren't high enough level to start on the Outlands and later battles. I made two attempts on the Outlands Master Tamer, but his pet team is level 23, and I don't have any pets higher than level 21. We lost.

To make things more confusing, I ran across a set of pet battle quests that started at level 1 that are different than the other sets of five that start at level 7 or so. Should I be doing those, too? Would that add another 36 battles to the list? I don't know.

Winning a set of five battles and beating the Master Tamer gets a goodies package reward. It's mostly junk, but sometimes it has a stone, which can be used to upgrade pets, as well as even rarer enhancements.

Sin and family have been doing their best to educate me, but I wonder if I have this right, or if I'm still doing something wrong.

Update - Ok, so I got it straight from the expert: I'm to do only the Master Tamer Dailies, not the sets. The sets only need to be done once, to open up the Master, and are not required after that. I still don't know why the Tamer quests still pop up in the quest log.

Later - I visited new zones in Tanaris and in Outland, where I captured a number of interesting pets. See below.

Progress Report (Tuesday morning/Afternoon/Evening):
21/23/24 - Strand Crawler
21/22/22 - Spirit of Competition
19/20/20 - Fluxfire Feline
19/19/20 - 'Lil Deathwing
00/00/19 - Cat (captured)
00/00/19 - Clefthoof Runt (captured)
00/00/18 - Rat (captured)
17/18/18 - Strand Crab
17/17 - Rabid Nut Varmint
17/17 - Stripe-Tailed Scorpid, and several other 17s

Lower Levels:
12/14/15 - Core Hound Pup
00/00/14 - Infinite Whelpling (captured)
00/00/13 - Desert Spider (captured)
12/12/12 - Snake
9/11/11 - Moonkin Hatchling
10/10/11 - Strand Crawler
8/10/10 - Frosty
5/10/10 - Ghostly Skull
7/8/8 - Crimson Lasher
7/7/7 - Dark Phoenix Hatchling
5/5/5 - Armadillo Pup
5/5/5 - Stinker

I discovered a new issue in regard to pet types. I have no magic or humanoid pet types. For now, I am leveling my Moonkin Hatchling (humanoid) but will likely wait to capture a higher level pet in those types in order to have at least one of each available. All of the other pet types are represented in my collection.

On Tuesday afternoon I completed the Outlands series of quests and defeated the Master Tamer. I'm almost ready to take on the Northrend Tamers.