So lately I have been collecting battle pets, a lot of battle pets.
I have a serious question about the capture mechanic.
I have the PRISTINE TRAP which I understand to be the best trap at the moment.
What is the base chance to catch a pet?
I used to think the base chance was whatever the type of cage you were using % increase was, which made sense, better trap better chance of catching pet.
However after significant practice I assume the base chance is about 5%ish because just about every single time I try to catch a pet it takes 3 or 4 attempts. 5% + 30% + 30% +30% = 95% so 4th attempt would be 125%.
Why would the base trap chance be 5%? that’s ridiculous. I could see a base chance of like 25% or even 30% based on the type of trap you are using but a base chance of 5% is just mocking the player. I’ve had fights where i get the pet down to capture range then toss 3 traps and then my pet dies and I have to toss another trap and that pet dies and then try a 5th time and you guessed it pet died loose match.
When they say a 30% higher chance after each miss, they don’t mean it adds a raw 30% like you list. It adds 30% of the current chance (we think, they have never confirmed as far as I know).
So if you start at say 40% raw chance, then after your first miss it will be 40% + (30% of 40%) = 40% + 12% = 52%. And after two misses 52% + (30% of 52%) = 52% + 15% = 67% etc.
You could use a pet with superbark or weakening blow to get the target pet down to one first to have a better capture chance.
Of course I use Terrible turnip whenever I can, i recently got grumpy and will be using him when appropriate. My main thought is why so many attempts? I could see for example blue quality pet being harder to catch than a green or white or grey, or max level being a bit harder than level 1, but it doesn’t seem to have any affect at all. I just throw 3 or 4 attempts. Then hope I can finish the other pets off with what health I have remaining. But back when I had the basic cage it was 2 or 3 attempts, now with the best cage its 3 or 4. Seems a bit off and excessive.
@Minidecay I appreciate your input, I hadn’t considered that calculation. I think it would be appropriate for a BLUE to actually chime in and at least confirm which formula is used, even better would be to answer what the base chance is and how each catch attempt is calculated. I’ve looked and it is very quiet on the subject.
Hi. I used to think base chance was 50%, increasing by 25% for every trap thrown. It sorta seems that the more rare the pet, the higher number of traps . Also, if a creature is wildly out-classed, like a lvl3 playing a team of lvl25s, one trap is all it takes… Draenor had some tweaks for pet battling. One of them may have been a higher base trapping percentage. Anyway, it doesn’t have to matter. Build a capture team! Select pets with strong defensive and healing abilities.
Basically, play like a tank, don’t out-gun them, outlast them. And that sorry trap.