Blizzard has painted themselves into a corner a bit with pet battles. What more can they come up with besides more pets and wacky achievements? I thought about some of these this morning on the drive to work.
Titanforged Captured & Looted Pets
Since the devs seems locked into the idea for other loot, why not expand it to pets as well? Say you’ve been searching for a rare crab in a zone with no success; you decide to just capture the next uncommon one you encounter. The battle ends, but eureka! The capture dialog shows the pet has been upgraded to rare. Or, that Level 12 crab upgrades to Level 18, or maybe even all the way to 25! Players might be less likely to skip battles without rares, because you never know!
Epic Pet Quest Quest Line
Introduction of a long and involved quest line to allow, say, 5 to 10 pets to be upgraded to epic. After unlocking this ability you can, for a fee (or time-based cooldown) change which pets are epic. This would give us tangible pet upgrades without the daunting task of leveling 1,000+ pets from rare to epic.
Legendary Pet Quest Line
Another long and involved quest line, at the end of which you can choose one legendary pet from any family. Built-in replayability on alts in order to collect them all.
"Socketed" Pets
Expensive new charm item that grants a pet a “socket”, into which you can place one of a new small series of items (a la mount equipment in Patch 8.2). Items could include: a) a small (say, 5%) XP increase in battles, which affects all pets on your team; b) resistance to a spell school the pet normally might be vulnerable to (again, something in the 5-10% range).
Pet Battle Raids
You and two other friends venture deep into some of the most notorious raid zones in World of Warcraft in order to defeat powerful solo boss pets. Bring your best pets to survive the raid!
That sounds great, I love pet battles so much, but it looks like we are just a small player base, they were expecting to be huge after the huge content they gave us in MOP, sadly it didn’t take off. Other than adding more pets, raiding with leashes and a dungeon here and there, that is it for us.
not a bad idea and not a big deal yes good idea here.
THIS is how epics should be done. there should be a time-based CD and or fee to change them as needed and perhaps when you change them they get bumped back to level 1 and have to be releveled up and leveling an epic pet up should be much more difficult XP wise. IF we don’t get the ability to swap which pets are epic then epic pets should not be introduced. If we do it might really add something. In addition, perhaps we can only bring 1 of our 3 pets as epic to the fight.
same comments as above; as long as we can swap out which pet is legendary or instead of legendary perhaps call it favorite pet. the limit for pvp battles might be 1 blue pet and 2 purples OR 2 blues and 1 orange as a max level for each battle.
Another interesting idea. One of the items might have a (up to) 50% chance the battle begins with a certain (or random) weather condition. Buffing the pets should be quite limited, but maybe they begin with a shield that reduces aoe damage by 30 or 50% as long as they begin on the backline and this lasts until they are brought up to front line. Or a buff that allows one of their attacks to act at reduced damage (85% of normal) but also changes the type of that attack to a different type.
OOOOO multi-player PvE pet battles THIS IS AN IDEA that would bring new life into pet battles!
My idea i’ve had for a long time that others may not agree with is a more significant PvP battle:
(1) each player brings 7 pets to the battle.
(2) after seeing what pets are on both sides; each player gets to choose one of the opponents pets to not be used/eliminated.
(3) each player chooses 1 of their own pets from the remaining 6 that they will not use.
(4) repeat step 2.
(5) repeat step 3.
(6) now players have 3 pets each; but there is some choice about which pets are going to be used based upon what pets the other player brought.
(7) each player gets some time to swap up to 2 abilities of the 3 pets of their final team if desired. (like swapping a pet level 1 ability with a pet level 15 ability a normal ability swap; Either 2 abilities on a single pet or 1 ability each on 2 different pets. But players can choose not to swap abilities or to only swap 1)
(8) pet battle process as normal 3v3 pet battle.
This would be much more skill based that current pet battles and might be worthy of a ranking/ladder system (something that is not tooo competitive maybe 4-5 ranks and once a rank is attained its not lost) or a regular/seasonal competition/championship matchup.
everyone starts at rank 1 with a ranking score of 0
every pvp win with max level pets on both teams gives you +10 to your ranking score.**
every pvp loss your ranking score is reduced to 90% of its current value (rounded down so that you always lose at least 1 point unless your ranking score was 0).
when your ranking score reaches 100 you achieve rank 2
you never loose rank 2 even if your ranking score goes down later
when your ranking score reaches 200 you achieve rank 3
(again you never lose the rank even if your ranking score changes)
when your ranking score reaches 350 you achieve rank 4
when your ranking score reaches 500 you achieve rank 5 (the maximum)
. * * instead of +10 this could be scaled so:
+10 for a win vs a rank 1 opponent
+12 for a win vs a rank 2 opponent
+16 for a win vs a rank 3 opponent
+22 for a win vs a rank 4 opponent
+30 for a win vs a rank 5 opponent
the ranking score could be used as an ongoing ladder of who’s the best with no achievements tied to it directly and there could be an achievement for each rank level (with some better names for the ranks than just numbers)
TLDR: the net result of this ranking system is that if you win about 2 battles for every loss you will achieve rank 5 but it might take quite a few battles to get there OR a lucky win streak of several wins in a row.
also in order to avoid abuse: the matchmaking system should not let you fight the same opponent in a single day (or 4 to 8 hour period) AND it should not let you fight an opponent that you won against within your last 20 wins as well. (perhaps with an option to play an unrated game if the matchmaking cannot find an opponent for you when the Queue pops) ALSO let us see our opponent in the glory of all their xmog whatever they are wearing.
What exactly does “epic” do for your pet. If it means stronger battle abilities means kinda screwing with all the balance that Blizzard tries to maintain. And if that applied to PvP as well, only way to make it fair would be to only match you with other players who also had epic pets.
Personally, I’d rather not see epic and legendary pets be obtainable by players. Same with increasing the pet level cap. Yes, there’s the whole ‘collectors with OCD will suffer the most because they’ll have to level/upgrade them all’ reason, but also the ‘power creep’ reason. It would mean either rendering all previous Pet Battle content irrelevant/not viable as “current content”, or requiring all previous Pet Battle content be “upgraded” too.
Spitballing some other possible ideas: Pet Battle Expeditions - Think Island Expeditions, but for Pet Battles. Solo content. We’d be kind of like animal control and get sent off to an area “infested” with too many wild pets. Our goal would be to defeat as many as we can within the time limit (plus a few “boss” pets should we choose to?) and we’re paid in PPC and/or battlestones at the end based on how many we defeated (“boss” pets could give more). Earn standard wild pet experience, or even more during Pet Bonus event week (on top of the already boosted experience). Add a vendor with new PBE (pet battle expedition) pets to buy, plus other pet-related goodies. Wild pet types could rotate/randomize each week.
Outdoor Battle Pet World Boss - Large health pool, everyone can battle at once. Everyone has a limited amount of time to do as much damage as you can to it, and at the end of the day/week/whatever, if enough people participate and enough damage is done, the Pet World Boss is defeated. You’re mailed a reward. You only get a reward if you do a specified minimum amount of damage within a time period (constitutes as “tagging” the boss, I guess).
Holiday Wild Pets - Wild pets that only spawn during specific in-game events. Can be themed to match whichever holiday they spawn.
And I don’t PVP, but I’ve heard of some interesting ideas to spice up the Pet PVP scene.
Would much rather Blizzard actually put that time into making classes fun to play again. Pets are something most mess around at when bored with the game
We must be in silly season when threads like this start cropping up.
No problem with the Titanforged pets as long as they don’t go above 25.
Epic/Legendary pets - If you mean something like Orange or Purple level pets (as opposed to Blue Rare), then no. I have no desire to meet an Epic Murkalot in the PvP queue.
I already feel like we have Legendary pets in the offspring of the Celestials. If that is what you are going for, I think there is an avenue. To me, a Legendary pet should be something unique that looks distinctly different and has some kind of backstory. I’d even throw Ban-Fu in this category.
Socketed pets - Before the patch is even released, there would be a consensus on what the strongest charm is and everyone would run them. Pretty soon, players would complain they had to farm charms just to compete in PvP. No
Raids - I have no idea how multiplayer pet battles would work. Everyone takes a turn in sequence? Players rage quitting because you didn’t cast Rain Dance so you could buff their attack? Sounds sketchy.
My idea of a raid is more like an extension of the dungeons we have now. For it to be “progression” raiding, something would have to drop that would help you in the next fight. Whether it’s a limited buff in the raid or a pet like Uuna who helps you defeat a raid boss. But it would have tobe like the Celestial Tournament - end game type content.
I can see something like this. Druids send you into the Emerald Nightmare to rescue the cub of Ursoc or daughter of Ashamane. You get to keep them at the end - your legendary pet.
I’ll recommend you for a job in Blizzards pet battle dev team any time.
Good to hear some interesting ideas which would not ruin the game.
As an aside, seems to me Blizzard’s top devs and artists work in the pet battle area; they’ve done a good job of keeping things going without eternally stuffing anything up, but I’m guessing they could do a lot more if not starved for funds.
I love all the ideas presented here but honestly i am a collector type person so I’d like to be able to get all the pets in the game, even if it’d mean having achievements to make to allow more pets to be owned (example: raise 100 pets to level 25 opens 20 pet slots, etc. ), i wouldn’t mind being able to raise pets to an epic/legendary but i don’t think I’d want to pet battle a wild one. I’d also like there to be a pet version of nearly every creature in the games as well but that’s because there’s somethings that hubby and i like that aren’t pets. Like i said I’m a collector therefore kinda weird. I think it’d be interesting to have pet drops but i don’t know how that would work. Perhaps having a 5-25% drop rate on creatures for a pet of the same kind (hill stag drops a hill stag or hill fawn pet, etc.) But i don’t know if they’d want to work that in. Sorry about the examples I’m arguing with the kids and trying to type.
I guess you know you can already have 2000 slots in your pet journal?
Though for me even that is not enough, as I have 1145 unique pets, various breeds of many, extras I level for other people, and dozens more BfA pets I have yet to collect.
What they need to do is focus the entire next expac on pet battles. No raids or dungeons or non pet battle world quests. Gear from pet battles, achieves, pet battle progression like celestial tournament etc.
Pathfinder unlocked via pet battles. Would be best expac ever and bring back tons of subscriptions!
Not so keen on itemisation/power increases for pets ideas…
I have a bunch of suggestions for the pet battle PvP queue.
But I’d like to see more stuff like the Falcosaur questline- I thought that was great fun.
Maybe something involving flying pets and unlocking the ability to battle in the sky, but you can only use airborne pets.
Plus a nice questline for it.
My grain of sand would be that if blizz can implement a leveling system like on the followers…
Something like when the pet reaches 25 it keeps gaining XP, eventually upgrading to the next rarity tier, that way it can even upgrade to epic quality without having to recapture hundreds of pets.
On another note, I love the idea of pet sockets for equipment, maybe adding various items, some consumables, others more perrmanent, cafted by the professions or adding a secondary profession… or even primary?
New Pet Rewards
- New Safari Hat/Pet Experience Treats
- New Stones to change a pet’s breed (where applicable)
- New Trap(s)
- Items to increase the amount of xp your character earns from pet battles
- Items to increase capture chance (1 for each pet family)
Pet Park
New Pet Families
More Tamer Challenges (they’ve done reasonably well with this in BfA)
New/Reworked Abilities
New Pets (no more re-skins please)
Battle Pet Talent Tree
A Pet Arena
Pet Challenges/Adventures
A Pet Wash
How about a way to ‘reforge’ our pets so to speak. You take your pet to the trainer then roll for them. Right now if you see a pet in battle you know what it can do, it is just a matter of what is most likely selected. By doing the reforging, similar pets, say rabbits, can end up getting their 6 abilities from a pool of all rabbit abilities. Imagine the dust bunny being a Darkmoon in disguise. Not knowing exactly what you are fighting would add the need to improvise, and not simply have good strategy and luck.
So you’ve made a list of things. Some of which already exist, but now you’ve just whacked the word ‘new’ in front of it. No explanation on how your ‘new’ thing differs from the old one. No explanation on what the other stuff is nor how it works. Followed by a link to a blog that apparently has this missing stuff… but doesn’t (the page it goes to has 3 lines of text with a bunch of words that don’t actually say anything).
Great, well done, I’m sure Blizz will get right on that.