As has been discussed in other threads here, 8.1 brought an undocumented nerf to BFA pet trainer experience. There’s another thread discussing the merits of the undocumented nerf, though, but I have a specific response to something a Blue said there:
I would submit that either Kaivax was misinformed on that change or that the increase to the chances of leveling stones spawning was woefully insignificant.
Since last Sunday night (Dec 16th), I’ve been tracking the rewards given the BFA WQ trainers. These are the totals, as of last night (Sunday the 23rd):
10 regular Battle stones (across 2 trainers)
1 Fel Battle stone
4 Beast Battle stones
4 Critter Battle stones
4 Elemental battle stones
5 Dragon battle stones
1 Rare upgrade stone
199 Pet charms
185 War resources
408 Azerite
47 Bandages
This means that, in the last week, the best you could have done by relying on the leveling stones was get a Dragon pet from 1 to 21. But why is this an issue? Prior to this undocumented nerf, we could level pets from 1 to 25 at least every two days. In fact, if you hit all 6 of the WQs, and you didn’t have to deal with single critters like Spineleaf, you should have been able to get a pet to 25 in that time (this is based off of calculations found at www.warcraftpets .com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8829). If you only did 2-3 of the pet battle WQs everyday, you could have easily leveled at least two pets a week. If Blizzard really does want to use battle stones to make up for the undocumented nerf to trainer experience, then they need to significantly increase the chances of battle stones spawning (over what they’ve done so already).
You could have also used the charms to purchase leveling stones. With 199 pet charms, you could have purchased three stones that would level three pets to 25, plus buy six more leveling stones.
The reason I bring this up is because I suspect that’s what they’re doing. Last expansion, they had to create an entirely new currency, rendering the old currency all but obsolete, because we were sitting on stacks of them. They’re trying to prevent this by forcing us to use the currency to level our pets.
Considering I’ve gotten 2 Fel-Battle Stones and I’ve barely been on the game in the past 2 weeks, your count is off by at least one on that.
Also, the amount of people who were actively leveling pets through BFA trainers is very small. They gave little EXP compared to other trainers, even before 8.1.
You were, and still are, better off going through Pandaria daily doing those trainers for EXP. Not only do you get EXP doing those, you get other things like possible pets.
Or you can do like I do, and wait until Pet Week comes, and level all your pets at that time. You know, when Pet EXP is +300%? You can level pets pretty dang fast in places like Frostfire Ridge in Wild Battles during that time.
Or days like tomorrow (Christmas) when the times line up and Squirt and pet week are on the same day, and you have a Safari Hat, you can use Squirt and get pets from 1-25 in 2 battles. I literally leveled ~600 pets to 25 in one day like 2 years ago.
I considered that, but I can’t be the only one who hasn’t bought all the pets yet, much less the Rare upgrade stones for them (since they’re nearly Green and not Blue - thanks, Blizz). Now you’re suggesting that I should be forced to choose between leveling my pets in current content and purchasing one of the many new pets? Besides, Kaivax specifically said that they were increasing the number of leveling stones, and I don’t think they have.
I don’t know what you were doing with your pet charms last expansion, but I was using my to buy leveling stones - in particular, the Ultimate stones. Did you not know that those were available, or is that another thing that you’re wrong about with Legion and pet battles?
“What the Buzz” popped Monday night with a Fel battle stone - the day AFTER I specifically said my numbers covered. Interesting that they both popped on Monday nights, though…
This isn’t actually true. Their experience was on par with most other trainers of their level (Ashleii being a notable exception). Edit: Turns out I’m wrong on this particular point. Apologies.
It would be one thing if BFA had launched with trainer experience at the current level, but it didn’t. It’s like they were giving us good chocolate for doing our chores, and then suddenly switched it for baker’s chocolate. I’m annoyed that I’m getting baker’s chocolate, and you’re telling me that I can go to the store (Pandaria) for different chocolate. You can bend over and take it, I’m going to speak up, thanks.
All of this is besides the point, though. Kaivax said that they were going to be increasing the number of leveling stones we received, and I don’t believe they have - or that it needs to be increased more.
No, I simply enjoyed leveling my pets the old-fashioned way. Of course I knew they were available. In fact, I used my Shiny Pet Charms to buy five stacks of them before the currency change. And lots of blue stones, too. I just very seldom use them; I still have almost all of them. I prefer the challenge of getting all I can out of current content while sparing my surplus.
And I’m not the only one who was sitting on a several stacks of them, either.
I guess you just weren’t very good at making the most out of pet battling experience, and collecting the stones you needed. Perhaps you never got the memo about the Shoulder Enchantment, Boon of the Zookeeper.
Word of advice: If you want people to support your position, try not to act like a jerk. I was trying to be sympathetic, since I have all the pets I need and sufficient charms to easily purchase all the pets available to the Horde faction.
Since this is literally your problem, not mine, you can suffer. Buy the leveling stones, go to Draenor and/or Pandaria to level your pets. I never had a problem with this change. And since it annoys you, I’ll consider that an additional benefit. I hope it stays this way.
One minor correction here: In my experience guide for pets that was linked earlier, they were listed in the 7.5x category, which is only on par with Wrath and Cata tamers. A week or so ago, I made the 8.1 update to remove them from that list, once I found out that it was intentional for sure. For comparison sake, the tamers from MoP, WoD, and Legion were in the 12.5x category (aside from Ashlei who is in the 15x category), which is decently higher than the BFA tamers. They were undertuned in my opinion for BFA launch (providing not enough EXP when compared to previously current content). You are right that they were much better than current though. This isn’t meant to be a comment on the rest of your argument. I just wanted to correct something before it was misunderstood was all.
Being relatively new to active pet collection, I found waiting for charms and stones from trainers to be very inefficient with a single character. So now, I have five characters just for collecting pet items. However, I go to Draenor, Pandaria, and Kalimdor regularly for the trainers in those areas. They help a lot with leveling and getting additional stones at times.
They nerfed the bfa tamers exp so that they could be repeatable for the battler achievement. If they hadn’t you’d just be complaining about how you have to wait for the WQ to pop to be able to get the achievement.
Make sure to look up some good teams for her (xufu’s website has a bunch of good ones). There is a pet healer (lio the lioness) right there as well for unlimited healing (have to be logged in for 3 mins for it to unlock).
Pet Battles came with MoP. I’d hardly consider anything with it “old fashioned.”
I literally said that I used my charms to buy leveling stones in Legion. I did it WoD, too. I don’t understand how you could see that and then think that I somehow didn’t get the stones I needed in Legion.
Every post I’ve seen from you has been dripping with condescension. I suspect I’m a little abrupt with you because of that.
You’re a 100% right, it is my problem. So why are you sticking your nose in like this? I get it, the fastest way to level a pet to 25 is through Pandaria or WoD. That doesn’t mean it’s completely superior. Some of us like being able to level pets as we play through current content and don’t need to power level every single pet.
Actually, no. I never complained about the same achievement type in Legion. If anything, I think that making the trainers infinitely repeatable like they are now trivializes the achievement.
All of that said, it still doesn’t change the intention of this thread: To illustrate the fact that, despite being told we were going to get more leveling stones, I don’t believe it’s happening. Either their chances of spawning wasn’t increased, or it wasn’t increased enough.
I want to enjoy NEW content. I spend my time working through quest line, gathering resources, but I should go to old content to level my pets? It makes no sense. Yes, I can use charms to buy stones to level, but maybe I use charms to buy pets to cage and sell? I don’t but what if I do, there is now a choice.
It wasn’t broken why did they have to change the xp for WQ? Repeats shouldn’t give ANY XP if one wants to crank achievement and get in a week. BTW are we all done or almost done with it already? I’m working on achievements on trainers with WQ and I’m already almost done with a few left to go and it’s only been 2 weeks.
I guess in your world, you shouldn’t get involved in situations that don’t concern you, regardless of how unjust they are.
Even if I don’t necessarily need or want the leveling stones, I’m of the mindset that if that Devs have assured us that there would be more quests that reward leveling stones, then they should keep their word to us.
Also, another undocumented nerf, was making the pet battle event quest account wide instead of per character. The last pet battle event before 8.1 was the first I wasn’t able to do it on multiple characters - and it wasn’t showing as account wide then too (based on the forums around that time, I wasn’t the only one in that boat). And now, it actually shows up as account wide in the quest log.
So far as I know, the pet battle weekly has been account wide for a while, I recall people complaining about that a long time ago, as none of the other weekly events are account wide.
Weird. The pet battle event has been the one I’ve almost never missed (missed a couple but not too many), and the last one before 8.1 was the first that didn’t let me do it on multiple characters, AND didn’t display as account wide in my quest log. D:
The point is, we were getting these stones before AND getting experience on a pet. Now we don’t get the experience. So the end result is, I no longer do any Pet WQ’s in BFA EXCEPT those that give pet charms, which isn’t that many. I find that I don’t really do those much anymore either.
And why? Why can’t these pet battles give experience? If i do the battle, spend the time winning the battle, why shouldn’t I get experience for it? What is the difference between doing the same battle over and over and getting experience for it and grinding mobs somewhere? If you spend the time, you should get the reward. I can farm pet battles out in the wild and get experience every time, so why shouldn’t I get it for these WQ’s?
So the end result is that Blizzard has found a way to take away something I used to enjoy in the game. So instead, I now do OLD WQ in Legion and Pandaria, which give much more experience. Makes sense right?
Please put the experience back and in fact it should be increased to Legion levels. If i do the work and win the battle, I should get the experience, plain and simple.