Overview
The Pet Battle System lets you take the small companion pets you collect and use them in turn-based fights. You can catch wild pets for your collection, challenge NPC pet tamers and test your team against other players. Winning gives your pets experience, so they level up, get stronger and unlock new abilities.
To take part you learn Battle Pet Training from a Battle Pet Trainer, available from character level 5. The skill counts for every character on your Battle.net account. The system was built to be fun and casual: it counts your wins but not your losses. It arrived in patch 5.0.4 with Mists of Pandaria.
Pet families
Every battle pet belongs to one of ten families (types). Each family has a passive bonus, takes only about two thirds of the damage from one kind of attack and 150% from another. What counts is the family of the attacking ability and the family of the pet being hit, not the family of the attacker, and many pets have abilities of other families.
| Family | Passive |
|---|---|
| Aquatic | Harmful damage-over-time effects are halved. |
| Beast | Deals 25% more damage while below half health. |
| Critter | Immune to stun, root and sleep. |
| Dragonkin | 50% more damage the round after it drops a target below 50% health. |
| Elemental | Ignores harmful weather effects. |
| Flying | 50% extra speed while above 50% health. |
| Humanoid | Heals 5% of maximum health with every attack. |
| Magic | No single hit can take more than 35% of its maximum health. |
| Mechanical | Revives once per battle with 25% health. |
| Undead | Comes back for one round, unable to die, when killed. |
Stats, quality, breed and abilities
- Stats: every pet has Health, Power (how hard its abilities hit) and Speed (the faster pet acts first each round; ties are random).
- Quality: pets you can own are poor, common, uncommon or rare, shown by the color of the name. Quality multiplies the stats, and Battle-Stones can raise a pet to uncommon or rare. Epic and legendary pets exist only on NPC tamers.
- Breed: decides how a pet's stats grow each level. There are 10 breeds, each species has only a few, and the breed can never be changed, so it matters most for max-level play.
- Abilities: each pet has six, unlocked at levels 1, 2, 4, 10, 15 and 20, in fixed pairs (1/10, 2/15, 4/20). You pick one from each pair, so three abilities go into battle. Choices are changed in the Pet Journal, not during a fight.
Ways to battle
Battles are turn-based, with teams of up to three pets, and you can forfeit at any time. You cannot start one while in combat, flying or falling. There are four ways to fight:
| Type | How it works |
|---|---|
| Wild pets | Right-click a wild pet. No turn timer. Once it is under 35% health you can throw a trap; each failed try raises the next chance by 25%. Only one pet per battle, and you keep it only if you win. |
| Pet tamers | NPCs challenged through quests. They always bring three pets, open with the same one and use the same abilities, so you can plan a counter team. Their pets cannot be caught. |
| Queued PvP | Press Find Battle in the Pet Journal. A round timer applies, and your pets return to their earlier state afterwards, so no healing is needed. |
| Duels | Right-click a player's portrait and pick Pet-battle Duel. Duels give no experience and do not count for achievements. |
- You cannot try to catch a pet if you already own three of it, and the collection is capped (650 pets as of patch 5.1.0).
- Catching a level 16-20 pet costs it 1 level, and a level 21-25 pet loses 2 levels; pets of level 15 or lower keep their level.
- Since patch 12.0.0, wild pets in the new zones are caught just by throwing a trap, without a pet battle.
Experience and healing
Pets earn experience only when the whole battle is won, and more for beating higher-level opponents. Opponents 5 or more levels below your pet give nothing, and max-level pets pass their share to the lower-level pets that took part. The Safari Hat, pet treats and the Pet Experience Bonus Event each add 10%.
Only fights against wild pets and tamers leave your pets hurt. Revive Battle Pets in the Pet Journal heals and revives all of them for free every 8 minutes; a stable master does the same for a small fee with no cooldown, and a Battle Pet Bandage works anywhere.
Tamers, quests and rewards
A short questline teaches the basics once you learn the skill, and when one of your pets reaches level 3 you are sent to the local tamer. Beating tamers opens harder ones, then repeatable daily quests for each region. There are also solo pet battle scenarios, such as the Celestial Tournament on the Timeless Isle and pet versions of Wailing Caverns, Deadmines, Gnomeregan, Stratholme and Blackrock Depths.
Winners can get Battle-Stones and other supplies, and beating a team within 5 levels of your best pet also gives your character experience. Many Achievements cover collecting, battling and leveling, with rewards such as new pets, better traps and titles. Battle pets sit in the same Collections window as Mounts, Riding and Skyriding.
Sources
Game pictures: © Blizzard Entertainment · worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
