Is Mercury in Retrograde, or . . .?

Gameplay Pet Battles
1

I know it’s Pet Bonus week, and as far as I know, the sole benefit is to have double XP on pet battles (which I have been taking advantage of, doing Draenor and Pandaria, and it only feels like I’ve made a slight dent in all the pets I have to level), but I’ve been pretty lucky this week as far as pet drops go.

Yesterday, in Nazjatar, I used a scrying stone and found Sandcastle. And as I was killing him, a Hordie Druid dropped from above, finished killing it and looted it. But I got a Sandkeep pet.

According to Wowhead, he only has a roughly 4.5% chance of dropping.

I was annoyed by the Druid, but at least I got the pet. (Get your own scrying stone, leech!)

Then I happened to have find a germinating seed in my inventory. So, I looked it up and saw I was supposed to plant it, feed it bugs, kill it and loot it. So, I did, and I got a Coral Lashling pet, which had an 8% chance to drop, according to Wowhead.

These two incidents occurred within ten minutes of each other.

Then this morning, I was doing the Tanaan Jungle pet bosses, and I can do this daily and never see a pet. But today, I got a Periwinkle Calf and two Zangar Spores.

That’s five new random drop pets within 24 hours. And the day before yesterday, I got Pandaren Air and Water Spirits.

I don’t wish to sound like I’m gloating, but these incidents make me wonder, are the mobs’ chances to drop pets improved during Pet Experience Bonus Week?

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2

Nope.

But RNG does tend to clump.

Repeatable Legion Tamers are where it’s at when it comes to Powerlevelling.

I see Chopped is up now, but you might not have opened that one. I know you used to have to have completed Suramar up to a certain point to see it, but not sure if that’s still true.

Anyhow, keep your eues peeled for the Legion Family Tamers. They’re listed in the box top left of Xu-Fu’s home page when available.

3

I think you may have gotten lucky on the drops, but I have gotten some dropping as well that are supposed to be harder to get: Brul from Zaralek Caverns and a few from Torghast.

I second what Gráinne said about Legion tamers, 2 fights from 1 to 25 is nothing to skip over.

4

Apparently, it’s still true. I am looking at Suramar right now and see only Mana Tap and Flummoxed.

So, it’s Draenor and Pandaria for me.

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Well, check for Legion opportunities again tomorrow, or later tonight. I’m not sure where the reset times are at for Legion pet WQ.

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I see Fight Night: Bodhi Sunwayver is up just for you in Dala today!

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In looking at the strats, I don’t have both pets necessary in the top rated strats, and the ones I do have don’t recommend a level one carry pet. But I did find one that can be accomplished with a level one carry pet, and two pets I happen to have. I’ve been levelling hard all week, but it looks like I have the essential ones necessary.

Looks like it’s time to go out and farm the important ones I’m still lacking.

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I’m intrigued. Clearly I’m missing out. I thought the only way to lvl a pet from 1 to 25 in two fights was during a Super Squirt Day. How can I better educate myself??

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9

These forums are a good place, I leveled around 70 pets this week with just my safari hat on, each was two fights 1-25 going to a couple different trainers over the week so I did not burn out.

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Sweet!! The weeks not over, so where do I start??

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Training with the Nightwatchers is up in Azuna and Fight Night is up in Dalaran, both high XP fights all depends on which you have the pets for.

‘https://www.wow-petguide.com/Strategy/15065/Training_with_the_Nightwatchers’
'https://www.wow-petguide.com/Strategy/17057/Fight_Night:_Bodhi_Sunwayver’

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12

During a regular week, you can get a pet from 1 to 25 in four battles with the Hat using any of the max-level High XP Tamers. Those are

  • Pandaria Tamers
  • Draenor Tamers
  • Squirt in the Garrison
  • Legion Family Tamers

During Pet Week, that drops to 2 battles from 1 to 25 because of the double XP.

Each Pandaria and Draenor Tamer can be done only once each day.

Squirt is predictable, but available only one day each two weeks, but can be battled any number of times on that day.

Legion Family Tamers, the Tamers used in the achievement Family Familiar, are unpredictable, but can be battled any number of times when their world quest is up. Are there are usually 3 or 4 of them up during a week. And they also give character XP, so they are great for levelling alts. Unlike Squirt, they do need bandages, but you don’t have to wait two weeks to find one!

I mostly use the Legion Family Tamers for levelling. Once you have a team for each of them, it’s very handy. The Dalaran-based Tamers and Odrogg (Snail Fight!) are probably the most convenient.

Here is a more detailed guide to Powerlevelling

https://www.wow-petguide.com/Guide/44/Powerleveling_Guide

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13

Fantastic information!! Thank you sooo much!! I’ve got enough pets that I can usually put together a viable team. I’ll share this with all the pet people I know!!

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14

I’m doing Bodhi Sunwayver right now. And there are several good strats for him, I had to go through a few of them to find a strat that I 1) had the pets for, and 2) allowed for a 1st level carry pet. Fortunately, I found such a strat with Anomalus/Dibbler. And it’s a reasonably fast strat and completely reliable. Works great.

https://www.wow-petguide.com/Strategy/13761/Fight_Night:_Bodhi_Sunwayver

It should be noted that the Pandaren and Draenor tamers offer just as much experience and more rewards (except for Ashlei, of course). But the repeatable Legion tasks have the advantage of greater convenience.

The only drawback compared to a Squirt day is that you don’t have the convenient heals and must rely on bandages and your own pet heal ability. But who doesn’t have enough bandages for a few dozen pet battles when it comes to leveling pets? And even if you don’t, it’s not like they cost an arm and a leg.

Squirt and the Draenor and Pandarian tamers aren’t “wrong.” Just not your only options. And like Squirt, the Legion dailies have the advantage of unlimited use. You can keep right on going until you run out of bandages.

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YES!! I just used the Xu Fu strategy 3 for that Bodhi fight (had to run to Deepholm to get a Crimson Geode first), and it’s amazing!! Only 8 turns and you don’t need to swap your carry pet (which someone needs to explain that to me too…lol).

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You mean strats that don’t involve you swapping to a carry pet? That’s quite simple. If both your other pets die while taking out the enemy pets, the carry pet, since it is the only pet that’s still standing, will get all the experience, even if it was never swapped in. It’s very efficient, but highly dependent on proper execution. Both of your other pets must die (and, of course, all of the enemy pets must also die) in order for the carry pet to get all experience if it was never swapped in.

There are other strats I use sometimes that employ this technique. For instance, the Thundering Pandaren Spirit (the Earth Elemental pet boss in Pandaria). I use a snail, which makes short work of the elemental. Snails are usually good pets to use against elementals. I use my Mudshell Conch, because it’s one of two snails that come in the H/P breed. So, all my Mudshell Conches are H/P. (There are plenty of other snails with the same moveset if I ever need to use a different breed.) Then I use a Darkmoon Zeppelin to finish off the rest and the battle concludes when I use Explode to finish off Darnak the Tunneler (after I’ve brought his health down low enough for Explode to kill it). The carry pet, which takes no damage and never even gets swapped in, then gets all the experience, just as it would if I swapped it in, and levels accordingly.

ETA: Here’s the url for Thundering Pandaren Spirit strategies on Xu-Fu. The strat I use is the second one. As you can see, both of your active pets will die in the process of taking out all three of the enemy pets, leaving your one carry pet the only pet left standing; therefore, it will get all the experience, despite never being swapped in.

https://www.wow-petguide.com/Strategy/4044/Thundering_Pandaren_Spirit

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17

Basically your carry pet must be alive at the end of one round to get credit. Doesn’t have to do anything, just be alive.

If you start a pet battle with a carry pet, it can’t immediately swap to another and still be considered to have met the requirement. Whoever it swapped to is the alive-at-end-of-round pet.

When another pet dies and the carry pet replaces them, the carry is the survivor of that round. If next round they were to immediately swap to the other remaining pet, they’ve met the alive-at-end-of-round.

So if both other pets die wiping out the opposing team, the carry pet was the alive one after that final round.

There are lot of useful strategies that take advantage of a carry pet never really having to do anything but be there. Make it the second pet on your team. First pet dies and is replaced by the carry, who is now alive-at-end-of-round. They do nothing but switch to third pet who finishes the fight.

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18

There’s a stable master as well a Lio the Lioness from the Garrison (also the Horde equivalent) in the Dalaran pet shop if you need to quickly heal your pets without bandages. And one other advantage to the Legion family trainers is that if you do them on a leveling alt, they’ll also get some xp with every fight.

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This is true, however, it’s not exactly convenient, like it is with Squirt. The Pet Shop is essentially on the other side of Dalaran. Still, I suppose it’s quicker than flying from boss to boss in Draenor and Pandaria.

Sure is nice to finally have more 25 level pets than 1 level and 23-level pets.

Don’t you just hate all those 23-level pets that get dropped down to 23 when you catch them at 25?

20

Snail Fight is where it’s at kids.

Just as good if not better than Squirt using the Gom Harrier+Kunchong Hatchling strat
on Xu-Fu
https://www.wow-petguide.com/Strategy/14572/Snail_Fight!

Super fast, and you can do 4 fights without having to use a bandage or Heal Pets ability. And if you did any questing in Highmountain back in Legion, the Stonedark Emissary will TP you right to it.

Great way to level both pets and Alts at the same time.

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