in regards to those upgrade stones...

[Safina]

yeah I love collecting rares. I'm pretty much OCD at this point about it that I can't move onto another zone until I've captured all rares in them and got the skin type that I want from said rares (blast you red scorpling blast you!). I was against using those stones on ANY of the battle pets since there is a chance to get them so why lose the challenge?

Then came the wonderer's festival hatchling. This one is a spawn that ONLY shows up every sunday night at 9pm server time AND 11pm server time right after the fireworks. NOT IN BETWEEN those times. ONLY during those 2 times and ONLY a few spawn. like 5 or so. Once they are gone they are gone.

These times for me are 12am and 2am. I work in the morning. I cannot stay up for this one. I was lucky that I got the chance last night since I am on vacation right now. I managed to grab a common one at the 2am spawn time. There were horde there, I was bloody lucky I think. This was my one and only chance to even get it so I KNOW that unless I want to sacrifice sleep (which would be a VERY bad idea in my line of work), or waited till like may or summer where my next vacation is, I will not be getting this rare.

So this pet and ONLY this pet is going to be stoned and upgraded. Is there one that you will be upgrading for similar reasons?

[Vhale]

I can be online for this one but I keep forgetting to go over there and check them. So, maybe. From the wowhead screenshot I thought the colors were a bit different, having seen it in game I'm not sure. I like the green one better.

At the moment, I've got everything but a Snowshoe hare, Red Tailed Chipmunk, Dancing Water Skimmer, Sand Kitten

And the somewhat harder Minfernal, Giraffe Calf, Onyxian Whelping.

I'm not sure how much effort I'll put into the last three. I've got a DK that luckily is on a low-pop realm that seems to have a low-pop CRZ and I've seen the whelps up fairly frequently, even if just one or two. SO hopefully that one is simply a matter of time. The Giraffe calf just seems ridiculously sparse, but once I've got teh whelp I'll move the alt over there. Once that is accomplished, I'll see about the Minfernal. I have a poor one but I'm not sure what breedID is atm and I'm tempted to be a snob with it. Given my current experience with the DK and the whelpings, once they change how they spawn I may actually have a better shot at finding a rare than I currently do.

[Kagalii]

I think if I don't find a rare minfernal of the right breed by the time I get the stone I'll upgrade that. And if I ever get a festival hatchling that will get upgraded too. For me the festival times are 4 and 6 am so I'd say it is extremely hard to stay up that late with work in the morning. However, one sunday night I managed to stay up till 4 am, got my macros ready and everything. Some guy grabbed it less than a second after it spawned, there were only 3, so by the time I mounted to go to another one they were all gone. This is on an extremely high pop server so I don't know if I'll ever really get my chance. I know a guy who goes to every festival opening/closing and gets a hatchling to try to get a rare.

[Vasala]

The Spawn of Onyxia just takes patience as their spawn is tied to the other critters / battle pets in the wyrmbog area. Go on a crittergeddon spree down there and kill any critter or non spawn battle pet you see down there. The repops will have a chance to be Spawn of Onyxia. If you are lucky you can talk any others down there into helping though a lot of time they just fly around and snag the spawns you force to come up.

[Mystikus]

Why wouldn't you want to use all of the upgrade stones you can get?

Some have been a real pain to get. I still can't get a Minfernal

[GormanGhaste]

The only wild pet that I've made a priority for an upgrade stone is the Qiraji Guardling. I think I'll be using most of the stones on non-wild pets that can't be upgraded any other way.

[Safina]

I would rather use the stone on the pets that I cannot capture like my pug apollo. I got that mininfernal rare the first attempt =D. I know that alone is very rare to happen, but I'd rather WORK for my pets than go the easy route ^^. And I've been good so far =D. But this turtle from the ceremony was the only one I knew that I'd never be able to stay up for so This one is my only exception ^^.

[Opallena]

The first pet for me that will be receiving a stone is the Baby Blizzard Bear. otherwise, for wild pets it'll probably just be those rare pets like giraffe calf, minfernal, stunted shardhorn, etc. that are way over-camped and not practical to try to farm a rare if your on a PvP server.

[Vhale]

I think it's a bit premature to say stones are the easy route. Blizz stated they have a very small chance of dropping. Pet battles and dailies take time. That's the key. It's possible that getting a stone will take the same amount of time as getting the correct rare breedid. They are an alternate route, not necessarily an efficient route. Very unlikely a quick route unless the AH lights up with them and you are loaded.

I suspect it will mean the various dragon serpent hatchlings will be camped to death though, if you have to fight the same family to get one and people want dragon stones.

[Poofah]

I definitely agree about stones not being the easy route. Stones seem intended to finish off those few rares you just couldn't get, and definitely not intended to replace rare farming. If it takes 20 pet battles to find a rare (this seems roughly accurate for most pets, but I have no source), then I'd expect stones to be a 1-2% drop from pet battles, and in the 1-5% range from dailies. Stones have to be harder to get than farming a rare rat or squirrel (or else what's the point of fighting wild pets?), but easier to get than farming a rare Minfernal or Giraffe Calf (or else what's the point of the stones?). But I guess we'll see in a few hours...

I'm slightly worried for those poor serpent hatchlings, but I'm not sure that dragon stones will be the most popular, since many of the pre-MoP dragons start out rare. I only need a stone for the proto-whelp, and possibly the new dragons. I'm more worried about finding mechanicals and humanoids, just because demand will be higher from all the pre-MoP engineering and holiday pets. I'm really hoping that the dailies will provide enough stones, given enough time (ie til 5.2).

[Pendabear]

I plan on first using mine on the Red Cricket, because when Sho gave me my gift it ended up being a grey one

After that, it would just be a few of my favorite pets that start as green quality, such as Wolvar Pup, Peddlefeet, or other similar "quest" pets that you can't get any higher.

I honestly wouldn't use them on any wild pet until the ones you can *not* get as a blue are upgraded, and once they are done start on the rares - Minfernal, Scourge Whelping, Silithid Hatchling, etc etc

[Kagalii]

So do the stones have a chance to drop only from those pet tamer battles that give the baggie now or all of them? I'm not clear on this point, would like some info if anyone is aware. Also, WHERE do you start/do the spirit dailies? I finished off all of the pet tamer battles specifically in time for 5.1 so I could do them but haven't seen info of where to go to do this. Any actual information would be greatly appreciated.

[Rokareot]

I do think those stones will not be just handed out in some easy mode.. something tells me we will have to earn them.

Which is fine... I still think they should unlock the summer pet to be avl now. Bah on that wait.

[Talmar]

Family specific Flawless Battle-stones can be found in the Sack of Pet Supplies obtained from performing Pet Trainer quests, and are Bind on Pickup.

This means I'll be doing a lot more of the dailies again. I haven't done them since getting my Porcupet. I typically just use Farmer Nishi for leveling now a days.

General purpose Polished Battle-stone

I don't really see these being a very sought after item. I especially won't be spending any JP on them.

Players will have a very small chance to obtain a general purpose and family specific Flawless Battle-stone after winning a match against wild pets; defeating higher level opponents increases the chances of obtaining a stone. Family specific Flawless-Battlestones will be of the same family as the pets that were defeated. These valuable items are not soulbound, and can be sold on the Auction House.

This is where I'll be doing most of me leveling from here on though. Taking low level pets against higher level wild pets. I just wonder what the "very small chance" actually means as well as what the increase is for defeating higher level pets. Some low level pets can totally own pets even 5 levels higher than them.

[Siegaplays]

I got a critter specific flawless in my first quest bag after the patch and my perky pug is now a perky blue.

[Wynn]

I use my dragonkin stone on my new Infinite Whelpling it was a gray one since CoH is so freaking camp. It was that or a dragonhawk and not going to use them for battle for sometime.

My guts telling me that Infinite Whelpling might end up being good in pvp.

But all my other stones I've used on non wld pets.

[Delinda]

Could someone please clarify one thing? I level a low level pet on pets in the Valley of Four Winds. It starts the battle and then I swap it for my leveling team of lizards. It gets the xp, will I receive a stone in such battle? Or does it have to finish off the opponent?

[Zaelo]

Am I the only one that lost a battle stone?

I got my first one last night, Flawless Battle-Stone (no family requirement, was so happy!)
And then I was hesitating between using it on my Personnal World Destroyer or Magic Lamp.. and poof it disapeared from my bags

[Doobjanka]

I got really lucky so far and only received an Undead stone. It was easy to pick which of my three uncommon Undeads to boost up first. Ghostly Skull!

Not sure what ill do if I get a beast or critter stone. Probably go insane.

[Kelldorn]

Question with the battle stones and wild pet battles.

Do you have to capture a pet for a chance of a stone, or can you just defeat them?