I think slightly overhauling the "Battle Pets" system could be HUGE!

Community General Discussion
1

The Battle Pet system CAN actually be a lot of fun. However, like the series in which it was clearly inspired by, I think it’s actually slightly undermined by some design choices that were probably DESIGNED to create more of a time-sink, but in effect just water it down a little bit.

I’m suggesting a slight overhaul, but I think we would wind up with a MUCH more exciting – and easy-to-engage-with – result!

Also, in terms of actual terminology, instead of calling them “Battle Pets”, I would literally just call them “Pets” (or possibly “Familiars”). Rename what we call “Hunter pets” to “Beasts”, ensuring those terms don’t get confused moving forward; everyone has “Pets”, Hunters tame “Beasts”, and Warlocks and DK’s summon “Minions”.

  1. Remove “duplicates” of the EXACT same pet, limiting players to 1

&

  1. Remove any “variations” of the exact same pet

These two are particularly important to be paired together. If you’re expecting me to run around catching a bunch of Stormwind Rats, because some are simply going to have higher stats? That’s not only a very shallow example of wasting my time, but it also makes it FAR LESS EXCITING to try and “catch em all”.

By limiting players to 1 of each pet, and making all of a given pet the same, it becomes MUCH more enticing to actually set out to get a complete collection! Similarly, instead of variations like “Stormwind Rats can be black or white”, have “Stormwind Rat” as the black version and “Stormwind Mouse” as the white version. Again; it makes it more enticing, whereas if there are going to be a million different variations of each pet, then why am I even “collecting” them to begin with?

  1. “Squish” max level to 10, upgrading “Quality” for “prestige levels”

Simple enough; having pets’ max level as 25 just feels random and dumb. Raising it to 100 seems overwhelming and the opposite of what we want. Going from lvl 1 to lvl 10 feels much more achievable. Similarly, I would probably make actual “Quality” kind of irrelevant in terms of STATS, but treat them like “prestige levels”, where at lvl 10, you can roll your pet back but at a higher quality.

  1. Establish meaningful “Quality/Rarity” colors

Presumably, most pets will start at Common (white), and “prestige” into Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), Epic (purple), and eventually Legendary (orange). Stat-wise, there should be zero difference, I think.

Maybe the process of upgrading Epic to Legendary requires something special? Kind of like “golden cards” in Hearthstone, it’s just a bit of a flex.

For TRULY special pets (ie. promotional events, Collector’s Editions, or “hidden quests” like Baa’l), I would flag those as “Artifact”. Again, no ACTUAL advantage over Epic pets, but marking them as a little more “special”.

  1. Pets in general should be rarer, with more specific spawn conditions, with an in-game compendium to help discover them

I think collecting pets actually COULD be a super compelling thing to do, much like Transmog-runs are. By making them a little more “exclusive” in truly hunting them down, I think it would really make them a lot more fun?

  1. Consider removing the “Catching” mechanic entirely, make acquiring pets a chance upon winning a battle

I think this suggestion helps round things out a lot more. You’d still be engaging with combat regularly, but it would allow for a lot more variety in strategies, if you weren’t reliant on the same one or two pets that let you “lower their health to 1”. Also, it makes those truly RARE pets even more exciting, as simply FINDING them would be a challenge, but then you still have to defeat them and hope you acquire them!

  1. Add some cool, cosmetic-only rewards, like being able to summon 2 or even 3 pets at a time!

Seriously, I would be SO stoked to be able to summon my whole “team” of pets! I’m an avid pet collector, and while it is ABSOLUTELY a flex, I would love to be able to showcase Mini-Diablo AND Mini-Tyrael at the same time!

1 Like
2

No way, I worked hard for all of mine.

No way, different variations can be used in different fights for different tactics.

No way, they already made it a lot easier to level the battle pets.

Nope, I like extra stats at higher quality levels.

They already have a lot of rare ones in the game. Most should be easy to get.

No, just make the catching process 100%.

This is cool.

5 Likes
3

Patched that up for you.

3 Likes
4

I think they should have a weeklong pet event in which if you win a random pet battle you capture one of the losers pets (decided randomly) if you don’t already have the captured pet, you can use it in future pet battles until event ends. Here’s the catch, when you join a random pet battle you pick 2 pets, the 3rd is decided randomly from your pet inventory.

When event ends all pets are returned and achievements and prizes can be awarded for most captured pets.

1 Like
5

Blizz was told all the way back in MoP or WoD that players “didn’t like how long battles took”, Blizz responding by saying “we’re always looking to tune the encounters, let us know if any animations feel particularly long yada yada”, but what I think people meant is “we don’t want to see the animations at all” :laughing:

1 Like
6

  • Animation skip. Especially for iron man style pet dungeons.

  • Open up an API to let mod makers create player vs. player tournaments with things like being able to stage pets, set up limited decks, rule sets, etc.

  • More open world pet theme park content. The linear challenge dungeons are just so punishing.

  • Multi hour long player buff that doubles or triples the size of your pet. They’re too small to be much of a mog or vanity item.

Overall I think the system is dragged down by the shear number of pets. It turns challenge dungeons into an internet research activity instead of an in game puzzle because between the sheer number of pets to try things out with and waiting over and over for animations to finish the content becomes very tedious.

1 Like
7

They really should make it a mobile game, or allow you to do everything you want with battle pets in a new mobile app.

Tie the progression to gold and reputation. That would get me to care more than 0% about battle pets.

8

Only thing I’d do is forget about the PvP side of it, don’t know anyone who does that. The weekly event should just be for PvE battles, then it would actually get done.

4 Likes
9

Hard no on this one. Good luck getting through the pet battle heroic dungeons without backup pets.

4 Likes
10

This should be moved to the Pet Battles forum.

I’ve been enjoying the pet battle system every day since it was introduced in MoP. I can honestly say that the current pet battle system is perfectly designed and I would hate to see any changes except maybe stop making pets drop in raids - there is NO reason to limit the acquisition of certain pet to only people who raid.

1 Like
11

:+1:

1 Like
12

Eh, I disagree; I think having fun ways to acquire Pets is pretty important for the game. Particularly in instances it’s relevant, like the floating sword (I forget the name) from Denathrius.

As long as they’re available via LFR, that’s pretty accessible to ANYONE.

1 Like
13

There are some that only drop in the Mythic version of the raid.

1 Like
14

Ah. That, I could kind of see being upsetting to some.

I mean, I’m personally still cool with it – provided you can still farm for them in later expansions – but I could honestly go either way, with making them available in LFR.

15

The only thing I’d like to see added to the system is making it possible to get epic and/or legendary pets of our own. We were so close to getting them in WoD, but Blizzard ended up walking it back!

16

I’m just glad to have more room for pets,thank you Blizzard! :heart:

1 Like
17

I used to do a lot of pet battling, but I lost interest when the currency was changed after legion. Now I will collect a few if convenient but no longer do pet battles.

None of these suggestions would increase my interest in pet battling one iota.

18

Thank you for posting this topic! Personally, I appreciate seeing it in the general discussion forum.

I play WOW for one reason - the battle pet system, both collecting & pvp. While there are differing opinions on the pvp battle pet experience, I love it. The wealth of online resources & forums related to both collecting & pvp suggests that there is most certainly a strong following for this aspect of WOW.

That said, there are also many carefully thought out suggestions about ways to improve the battle pet experience. One suggestion, voiced over & over, is for WOW to address way the pvp queue system works. A good start would be sharing the mechanics of the system, which seem to be a universal mystery.

Many speak of long waits, of fighting the same playing over & over. Why is WOW not combining queues? This seems to be one solution to a common frustration.