I want to start pet battling and leveling up my pets, but I really have no clue where to start with level one pets. I’ve checked on YT and Google and there is so much conflicting info I thought I’d reach out to the pros.
Welcome to pet battling!
I’m not sure the info is conflicting, so much as speawling.
As with everything in WoW, anything can be out of date, but pet battles much less than any other area, since we don’t have changes in systems every expansion, and relatively small balance changes in pets.
Further, people pursue different aspects in different ways.
Broadly, you have collecting, PvE battles/achievements, and PvP. PvP is quite sickly these days, and needs a solid preparation first, so I will ignore it for now.
Collecting is something you can do for yourself at any time.
So I’ll focus on PvE battles and achievements.
Firstly, you NEED the addons
- Rematch to organise your teams,
- Battle Pet Breed ID to show pet breeds, and
- Pet Tracker to find Wild pets on the map.
You will probably choose more later, but you want these three now!
You want to get your pets to 25 so you can use them in the toughest battles (or PvE). A great part of your earl;y months will be spent levelling pets to 25.
This is the core game cycle for you: Get pets to 25 so that you can complete more battles.
I have a guide here for several ways to get your first pet to 25.
You can choose the traditional way, or faster ways.
The reason you want to get at least one pet to 25 quickly is so that you can buy and uncage other pets at 25 from the Auction House.
Once you have at least one pet at 25, youwill choose between various ways to progress. My list is here:
Then you want to collect more pets, and especially the ones that will either help level more or help you achieve the challenge battles. Of special note is this list from Xu-Fu’s of the pets most used in the main strategies
Xu-Fu’s will be, in general, the way you find tested teams to defeat Tamers at level 25.
https://www.wow-petguide.com/
Warcraft Pets is also a great resource to look up pets and commens on them
There are also two Pet Discords associated with these sites, if you are Discord-inclined.
My guide to your first stage is here
And of course you will be taming lots and lots of Wild pets. This was always the part of the game i loved most.
Hazel has an amazing starter video which is slightly out of date but still very valuable for what it does cover. It is cheerful and bright and breeze but has the approximate density of neutronium, so don’t be surprised if you have to watch some bits twice, or go back to watch.
There’s nothing more we pet battlers love more than dispensing our well-earned wisdom, so PLEASE feel free to ask about any point great or small. 
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Holy crap you just gave me a one-stop-shop for everything I was loooking for! Thank you so much! I am excited to get into it!
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Gee, not much I can add to Gráinee’s excellent recap.
I’d recommend doing the original startup quests, talk to Audrey Burnhep in Stormwind, she’ll send you to battle Julia who’ll then send you to Old MacDonald and so on. This is designed to give you a feel for pet battles and also level a pet or two up and let you field a full team of three.
Soon as you can do that 3-pet team, for some fun drop by Donna Anthania’s cottage in Elwynn Forest and buy a half-dozen of her cats, 50 silver each. They’re uncommon level 1’s. With these you can handle two of today’s Dragon Isles pet WQs, get some Pet Charms and some leveling stones for Magic pets. Three level 1 beasts will easily take Lyver, and with a little more risk, Arcantus. Note that this only works reliably with a level 1 team, a single level 2 on your team and odds change radically.
Also, do you have a Draenor Garrison? Soon as it hits level 3 and you can open up the Menagerie, you get an easy quest that will give you a level 25 pet. This makes pet collecting and battling so much easier, quickly.
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Thank you!
Followup to my post from yesterday. Today can make 34 Polished Pet Charms in DF with level 1 teams.
The cats I mentioned from Elwynn Forest vendor will easily handle Enok. BTW, the Cornish Rex that Anthania sells is probably strongest of her cats so I use that kind.
3 Cornish Rexes did beat Bakhushek for me but it was just barely. Make your 3rd pet a cheap Yellow Moth from Sixx in the north wing of the Exodar and win becomes guaranteed.
Take advantage of the short windows for certain pets. There will be a bunch available at Winter Veil. You will also have the opportunity to catch the Snowy Owl after the first day of winter
There are also a bunch of pets available at the Darkmoon Faire. I would also take advantage of the Wanderers Festival Micro Holiday to capture the wild turtle on the beach. It take place every week late on Sundays, but that’s often a bad time for people.
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