Optimal wild pet collection team(s)?

[Solitha]

Did a bit of scanning but can't really find anything, or I'm missing what's there.

I'm on a drive to gather up wild pets I don't have. I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion of a team, or a couple of teams, that offer wide application with minimal weaknesses.

All I've got down for sure is to have a Terrible Turnip with Weakening Blow, or the Molten Corgi with Superbark, because killing your trap target is the worst.

[Kpb321]

I like a emerald proto-whelp. The combination Emerald Presence and Emerald dream makes them almost unkillable in wild battles. Not as important if you are facing pets that are a much lower level but very nice for trying to capture high level pets. Especially when your trap just seems to keep missing or the wild pet keeps healing back up above trap level.

The Turnip or Corgi is really only necessary if you are facing something bellow level 20ish or so. Above that it usually isn't too hard to avoid killing something. If it's a really rare spawn it might still be a good idea.

At this point upgrade stones are pretty easily available so I'd lean towards just getting the breed you want and then stoning them instead of spending a bunch of time searching for a rare, especially of the desired breed.

Other than that I tend to go with pets that will be strong against most things you are fighting and preferably has some healing ability. A cat or raptor with Devour is great for killing of critters. There aren't too many mechs with heals but there are a few and they are good at killing beasts. The whelp is great against flying.

[Gahtmilch]

A good flier is also helpful for clearing out backline additions if you are hunting anywhere in Pandaria, as aquatics abound.

Emperor/Spire crabs are pretty useful in that they are very durable during the catch phase (shell shield + heals) and can quickly eliminate backline adds with their Snap (strong vs critters). Crabs are also rather easy to acquire at a relatively high level (*tip-make sure to switch to Surge, rather than Snap, if attempting to catch a critter with a crab).

Any capture team is essentially nothing more complicated than the following:

1st pet - Self-healing tank that is not weak to the pet being captured (i.e.- Don't use a humanoid tank to catch undead, etc.)
2nd pet - High DPS to clear out most common backline type (i.e.- Beast if most common backline is critters)
3rd pet - High DPS to clear out second most common type of backline pet.

The only real change is switching in a Turnip or Corgi if there is any danger of accidentally killing the pet you are seeking (highly recommended on anything <L10ish or excessively rare).

Role recommendations:

Tanker- Crabs, Sporeling Sprout, Emerald Whelpling/Protodrake, etc. (any pet with defensive shield +healing)
DPS- Kunlai Runt, Flayer Youngling, Feline Familiar, any Timeless isle moth or WoD wasp, etc. (I prefer strong DPS with a self-heal so I only have to return to a stable master for renewals extremely rarely).
Some pets like the Turkeys or Lil Leftovers (with Food Coma) will actually put a pet to seep for several rounds while you try to capture them (be aware this tactic is ineffective vs critters whose racial grants them immunity).

You can easily find alternative pets to use using the "smart pet search" feature of the main page here. Type in the the family you want to use, then select "healing" as the modifier & it will find pets of that family type that can heal (pretty much everything except the Elekk Plushie has damage options). Alternatively, you could just use a healing pet to top off your capture team after every few battles, whatever you prefer.

Another tip- a select few wild pets like to kill themselves rather than be captured. If this is due to a specific ability (and not backlash damage from an attack like Body Slam), when you start the battle, check the ability lineup of the desired capture. If it has the self-kill ability on it's ability bar, you can flee the battle (as long as you have not killed a pet). You may do this as many times as necessary until the capture target does not spawn with the self-killing ability. This is especially useful on super-rares like the Unborn Valkyr, since you rarely see them and they are heavily contested.

[Durothar]

I'm in a semi-similar mode (captured all wild pets but going for rares while I level other pets plus level 80-90 toons). This has been a great time to level pets/toons. My farm team is:

1st pet - Carry pet at least level 9.
2nd pet - Feline Familiar (Onyx Bite, Stoneskin & Devour)
3rd pet - Turnip

This team has allowed me virtually zero downtime.

Start off with the carry getting in a hit and bring in the Feline Familiar. Use Stoneskin if you're fighting high damage wild pets but most times (especially if fighting critters) I don't even bother. Use Onyx Bite to bring to 400-500 HPs and then Devour to usually bring back up to near full health if killed. I only use the Turnip if I'm trying to capture a flyer (or anything less than level 20) as the magic damage of Onyx Bite can one shot or kill off flyers even when >75% HPs.

Once you get the timing down with Devour (i.e. sometimes I will unnecessarily refresh Stoneskin to waste a round just to let Devour come off cool down if it didn't land the kill) this is a pretty rock solid team. Again, all of the wild pets I've farmed have had zero downtime with this team. What I love about it is that it's giving me a chance to level my mid priority pets and toons while collecting rares.

Worse case, you may have to add a round or two to end the fight with higher health on the Feline Familiar but I don't recall the last time I've needed a stable master or bandage with this team. Only time I need to use my cool down heal is after I captured something that had a couple of trap misses or a really bad string of crits.

[Abbotta]

This is my thoughts. When you're out in the wild 99% of the time most pet battles are going to give you garbage so in reality you're going to setup your team to power level. The only time I go into a pet battle knowing I'll keep whatever quality pet tossed my way is if it's a pet so hard to find that I'll take what I can get like an Unborn Val'kyr or Minfernal.


Knowing that, I usually have one team that is setup for capturing pets, for me I preferred Mechanical since those pets get a few extra rounds after death (My Mechanical Tranquil Yeti has probably caught more pets). But that isn't the team I use for all the regular power leveling. If my power-leveling team finds a pet I want to capture and and my power-level team is kinda battered and bruised (I tend to keep fighting with them until the Nexus Whelpling finally drops dead), I'll just forfeit the fight and then bring in my capture team to grab the pet I want.

Check out the available add-ons and grab one that allows you to have multiple teams setup.

[Jerebear]

I typically use:

Chrominius with Arcane Explosion, Ancient Blessing, Surge of Power
Terrible Turnip with Weakening Blow, Sunlight, Inspiring Song
Some 3rd

The nice thing about this team is I can whittle the whole team down using Arcane explosion without huge risk to crit kills and I can always pop over to the turnip if I get close. Sunlight increases max health making trapping come quicker and Surge of Light is a great finisher if needed.

[Solitha]

I'm really looking for a very general-use team. I have a LOT of wild pets to get (or did, I've gotten a lot). Quality matters exactly zip to me... I'm an altoholic, and am drowning Lio in pet charms each week to rarify and level my pets.

Actually, that's what drove this question. I *ran out* of unique pets to stone. I decided it was time to push for 600.

So I've been working my way across the continents, facing wildly varying levels of wildly varying types of pets. While I nixed the Corgi from my team (I didn't realize Superbark had a cooldown), I was just kind of looking for two other pets that could back up the turnip by most efficiently finishing off the target's backups... a wide range of damage families, with weaknesses that complement instead of tripping up the whole works. Say, one that's strong against B, C, and D, but weak against E, and another that's strong against E, F, and G, but weak against something else.

[Jerebear]

That's one of the reasons I mentioned Chrominius. His attacks are only weak to mechanicals which aren't a common wild pet type. They are strong against flyers, but Arcane explosion hits low and you have the Turnip to go to for flyers anyways if you are worried about doing too much damage.

If you just are looking for damage spread:
Fledgling Nether Ray
Nether Ray Fry
Sky Fry

All have 6 different family abilities to choose from, you can probably configure one of them to have the 3 you need. However, for wild pet capturing, I've almost never needed to be that varied in attack type. What the abilities actually do (healing for longevity, big hits for quick finish, etc.) has been way more important than dragonkin vs undead attacks, etc.

[Ilostmahbucket]

I use Terrible Turnip, Xu-Fu, and Emerald Proto-Whelp.

Proto-Whelp strong vs flying (Xu-fu's only weakness). Neither of those are going to die with their self heals, and they can burn through the side pets well.

[Solitha]

Good stuff here. Thanks guys!