A heartfelt message from Xu-Fu’s Pet Guides on the upcoming Midnight changes

Gameplay Pet Battles
203

As a long time pet battler (other than my 12 year break) I have always found no matter how bad the Weekly Raid went or some other Guild drama that drags you down I can always really on pet battling to cheer me up.

Now that I am back out retirement I have taken a more pleasurable approach to the game. No hardcore raiding, hang with friends and family, complete various achievements and secrets and collect wild pets!

IF Midnight follows the path of a simplistic approach to capturing wild pets without combat and not being able to level such pets then they become just mere vanity items, no more no less. Which for some maybe fine however, I on the other hand find it fulfilling to capture that wild pet by battling and then raising it to lvl 25 through the battle system. So this would take away a good percentage of why I enjoy and play WoW.

I realize that a portion of the community could care less about this until lets say Blizzard drops the arena system or no more transmog. Now they would know how the Pet community is feeling now. Sites like Xu-Fu’s Pet Guides and Breanni in Dalaran (i.e. warcraftpets) who have provided awesome resources and support for all things pet orientated are now left to do…?

I know that previous expansions pet battle systems will not change. But seriously I doubt I will want continue playing anymore.

That’s my 2 cents…

9 Likes
204

I avoided pet battles for a long time, mainly because of my dislike of Pokemon. But then I collected a couple and did some battles for achievements, found pet-guide, and I was hooked. It’s one of my primary loves of the game now, and I can’t believe that a game that is raking in money needs to eliminate beloved features. If the need for money is due to games that are underperforming, then eliminate those games. Leave WoW alone.

8 Likes
205

I have been playing since it started and love the system. For the most part I play the game solo cause I use to have disabilities with my hands and my range of motion just wasn’t as good as others so dungeons, raids etc was not for me. Pet battles was something I could go and do by my self and be happy and excited about my progress and to this day I still am. When Karash came out and there was so many new cute babies running around and not being able to capture them was heart breaking. Please don’t take away the love that so many people have for this system and these little guys!

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206

If you want to iterate on capturing wild pets, make the trap 100%.

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207

Adding my voice to the chorus. Please don’t neuter pet battling in future xpacs. Keep it going!

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208

I too would be massively disappointed if the alpha changes went to live. I love collecting the pets, doing my wq dailies. When there was new battle pet content like the dungeons and celestial tournament I participated until I had obtained all the rewards. It’s really hard to hear engagement is down when there hasn’t been any significant content added in years. If you aren’t going to add, please at least don’t take away.

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209

Thank you for both starting this thread and for such a wonderful guide on pet battles. I’ve used it more times than I can count!

I’ve spent most of my WoW tenure as a solo player preferring open world content. I’ve only started doing instance content with my guild as of SL. I do delves and subject myself to the raids on Saturday night to spend time with my guild. Otherwise, I love more relaxed content. I am one of those players who loved the MoP farm and wish we could have done more with it. I’m looking forward to player housing. I actually liked archaeology.

Now I read that Blizzard wants to keep the collecting of battle pets but remove the battle component, essentially casting it off like they did archaeology. I’m afraid Blizzard isn’t seeing the forest for the trees. Yes, many of us love collecting our pets. However, outside of pet battling, we don’t have ways of engaging with those pets.

I personally would be okay with the removal of battling if we had some other meaningful way to engage with our pets. Meaningful is the operative phrase here. It just seems like we keep losing everything that isn’t some kind of instance content, and if that’s the case, why should many of us keep paying Blizzard a subscription fee?

6 Likes
210

Please rethink this, Blizz. We love pet battles!

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211

I love the collection aspects of pets and solving the WQs. I have found a group here that is welcoming, supporting, and fun. I would love to see this system continue.

8 Likes
212

WAIT wait wait, wat? Maybe I’m old and have only played this game for literally 7,641 days but pet battles are the one thing that makes me log in when I’m tired with the world, tired with my day, tired with the grind, tired with absolutely everything, and I know this is the one tiny corner of this game where I can pwn something reliably and with satisfaction. And when there’s a new pet somewhere to collect? Screw the campaign and flavor quests! Screw end game gear! I must have the little cuties! I work in animal rescue so I can’t emphasize enough the desire to bring all the wayward creatures to my wardship and pwn all teh things with the beings that comprise my basic purpose of continuing my subscription. I can’t even believe this is a thing – surely Blizz is just threatening a thing to get confirmation that it’s actually popular? of course it is come on

8 Likes
213

Not to come across as too hyperbolic but in all honesty, this might be the final thing that finally gets me to quit the game. Since Mists pet battle content has been primarily what I do. I don’t raid or do M+, outside of old content that has pets to collect.

The design philosophy of the game has honestly been trending in a way that just isn’t for me anymore since DF, and if they gut my favourite content like this, it probably just isn’t worth it for me to buy into the game anymore. This feels to me like what other players would feel like if they announced they are removing raids. It’s already been on life support getting just the family battler achievements every patch, and then almost nothing at all in 11.2. Which has resulted in me not even finishing the 11.2 campaign yet.

Now maybe I am reacting too soon and they are planning new pet battle dungeons, tournaments, or raids; things I have been hopeful for for years now. That would change my tune entirely. It sounds like it is being relegated to a simple cosmetic collectible again though. I honestly don’t understand why short of devs that were passionate about the system probably having left the company. They cite that it is due to low player engagement, but they haven’t really made any new meaningful content for years. They could add questlines or a faction of pet battlers we could gain renown with. So many ways they could revitalize the system. Cutting it just seems like a cop out.

12 Likes
214

Totally agree.

5 Likes
215

This is very upsetting and confusing but will I :

  • be able to continue to get all wild pets and level them to 25 from TWW and before? I am no where near collected everything
  • Will I be able to do the pet acheves for all the family pet battles which I have so far not completed but really want to.
  • Will my garrison menagerie still have their dailies and will Pet battle dungeons still be able to completed?

This whole idea make me sick really - I mean talk about boring - just go out and capture a pet and then what? The main reason there is not enough engagement (their words but I know this is total BS) is because they throw so much content at the player base we just don’t have time. And if the people who are making these decisions and actually playing this game, then they would know we collectors do engage with the system - it part of the collecting experience. Please Blizz stop messing with things that are successful

5 Likes
216

My kid Loves pet battling. They always want me to watch them battle, so I’ll sit and get to share in their fun. It’s a family tradition for us when we play together that we’ve been doing for years. Please Blizzard, keep working on pet battles and adding new battle pets.

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217

Yes, yes, and yes. At least, according to Blizzard’s statement

All parts of the pet battle system that were implemented in previous expansions should continue to operate as they have before.

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218

When did this game start again? 2002-3 pre-beta?

Do you guys notice that whenever Bliz says “we’re going to change / remove / discontinue something” (koff koff Archaeology) it’s often due to a (sorry)… lack of imagination, dare I say laziness, on how to handle or evolve?

I for one returned to my Garrison for ages, simply to level pets due to easily farmable critters from the halloween props. I also continued to farm its arena, just because it was fun. Imagine if there was a “version two” of this in our housing?

I personally really enjoyed the MOP pet tournament, and farming that did not feel like an awful grind to me. Why no tournament since?

Lots of good ideas in this thread. Maybe we need new reasons to return to old pet dungeons, as dungeons keep getting recycled for usual content?

I stayed in Legion for a long time and farmed every Class Hall for every class’ mount, almost on both factions. I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore pet battler (96/247 achieves, 1232 pets). But I have to say: lately in examining pets in new content, for example in Legion remix, a lot of the pets are simply inferior versions of previous pets (reskins with lesser abilities, but expensive).

I get that these are “catchup” for people that didn’t pet battle previously, and/or people like “pet transmog”, but… this isn’t new content for the pet community.

Why not make harder fights with better, more desirable, more unique pets in events like Lemix? The trend is that battle pets themselves are getting …crappier, not better.

Seems to me that ceasing to create content for a subcommunity of wow, and then pointing to that community’s inaction (that has nothing new to do, and so drops off a bit…) as a reason to then stop supporting that content/community at all is… somewhat illogical and circular…

9 Likes
219

How do we add ourselves to the chorus to save pet battles? I love finding unique (to me) pets in the wild. It is fun and I like the collection aspect of it. Where do we appeal to Blizz not to eliminate this part of WOW?

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220

I wonder if these changes have anything to do with that Pokémon/Palworld lawsuit.

221

Pet battles are a great example of content that has stagnated because of mismanagement, not because it’s inherently bad content.

4 Likes
222

I like many others here enjoy pet battles. Just finished the CT in MOP before REMIX and would like to see more content like that in the game.

4 Likes