Leveling a character through wild pet battles

[Susanmun]

Hello! I have a couple level 1 characters that I want to level and I have numerous pets that need to be level 25 so I figured why not combine the two.

Where are some good spots with neutral mobs and wild pets? (It doesn't matter to me if it is in WoD, Pandaria or an older zone as long as the pet levels for the zone are the highest.)

[Jerebear]

If you can find someone to port you and either corpse run or have them also shuttle via 2 seater mount: The big farm area outside of Halfhill VotFW has a wide expanse of enemy free zone and a decent amount of Aquatic/critter spawns. It's not so great if you have competition, but a decent place. Once you get into the 80's, I prefer the area around Gorespine. Much faster respawns and tightly packed (Also no level 23 battles, so it makes it a hair bit faster). I've never tried it, but the area around Nitun might be worth trying at lower levels (I don't know the aggro radius of the kitties there though).

[Kendrah]

The vale of eternal blossoms has a nice place for leveling your pets up. It's where the fabled beastie is. Just load your toons with tons of bandages, get a port to the vale, and do the awesome death run to victory! Or someone else can carry you there.

[Ranok]

If you can get a lowbie toon there in the first place, there's couple of areas in PandaLand that are perfect for totally safe hours of pet leveling, no wild pets lower than 23.

Heartland (the farming area north of Halfhill) in Valley of Four Winds has lots of critters and turtles. Only caution is to stay well away from the Virmen that run around in the northern part. A level 1 can safely run there from Halfhill FP if they head out to the northeast. There's also a pet trainer there.

Temple of the Jade Serpent in Jade Forest is snakes and frogs, no danger of toon being attacked long as they stay inside the walls. FP there too and a pet trainer outside that's safe to run to.

If lowbie is getting a carry to Temple, make sure to tag FP in Dawn's Blossom (Jade Forest) on the way, need this to have connection between Temple and Shrine.

You have good idea, leveling pets and toons at same time. For me that's always been lot faster for the toons than questing.

[Karls1s]

I found that speed leveling magic based pets outside the garrison is great. You can start the pet at level 1 and have it to 25 relatively fast.

[Abbotta]

Maybe this is me but I love Outland. Of course this was back when I didn't have a buttload of pet bandaids in my inventory (I between DMF and Plush Tamer battles over in Pandaria I am overstocked). But before they nerfed the Garrisons, I didn't do much power leveling nor regular Pet Tamer runs in Pandaria.

Here's why I love Outland for powerleveling really low level pets. Speed. I go in there with a level 1 and a Level 25 Nexus Whelpling and maybe my Tranquil Yeti just because I need something in that 3rd slot - it's just quick and easy to level pets and very rarely did I need to heal my Whelping (I used either my P/P or my P/S). Once my lowbie pet got it's one hit, I would then swap to the Whelping and hit with first with arcane storm then mana surge. Very rarely do I get hit by the opposing pets and if I do it's for very little. So this method meant I rarely had to heal my Whelpling and I could go from pet to pet to pet without stop. So it was a speed thing.

Just when doing low-level pet leveling - avoid spiders (they web so you sometimes can't swap out your first pet).

[Imry]

I'd recommend the critters around Gorespine if you can get a friend to shuttle you over there - I levelled my DK from 85-90 just on those pet battles. It took a long time, but it helped me level a bunch of pets, so win-win, right? I'd be careful trying to boost level 1 pets here, unless they're mechanical or magic - these wild pets start with attacks far more often than they start with the self buff most of them seem to have.

I've also used the area around Nitun and No-no, though you have to be a little bit more careful, I'd imagine, if you're really low level.

And if you happen to need a shuttle and are on US servers with your alt, I'd be happy to shuttle you to your desired location - miserytwists#1593 is my BTag.

[FuxieDK]

Hello! I have a couple level 1 characters that I want to level and I have numerous pets that need to be level 25 so I figured why not combine the two.

Where are some good spots with neutral mobs and wild pets? (It doesn't matter to me if it is in WoD, Pandaria or an older zone as long as the pet levels for the zone are the highest.)

Consider your plan VERY carefully..

I levelled my mage from 86 to 90, during MoP, solely by PB and it almost made me puke..

It gets VERY repetative, especially if you use a lowlevel toon in an area too high for you (because you can't move or you get killed)..

Does it work? Yes... Is it fast? Nope.. Questing is faster..

[Jerebear]

It's actually faster than it was in MoP. When they did the experience squish (to go along with the stat squish), they doubled the experience gains from pet battles. I won't claim it is faster than questing (as that depends on class / spec you level with), but at the 86+ range, it takes around 50-60 battles to level. If you have a decent levelling team (or teams to reduce down time), at 2 minutes per battle that is around 2 hours per level. The last time I did questing in that level range (post the 6.0 patch) it took me longer than that to level, but again, it all depends on class / spec (and I wasn't trying to optimize time when questing, so that factors in).

EDIT: also for the OP:
If you are gonna level toons via Pet Battles, it helps to build in some goals. When I did it on my 5 remaining alts, I levelled each low level pet to 10/11 (this is because it is optimal for long term pet levelling since the Tamers give the most EXP starting at level 10 and 11). It only takes up to 4 battles to get a pet to level 10 with just the safari hat. Using an addon like Rematch that lets you setup a levelling pet queue is useful for this.

Either way, it helps you to have goals. If you have say 15 level 1 pets and you can get them all to level 10, that's 60 battles, which is right around a level (assuming you are fighting level 24 and 25 enemies mind you). You also set yourself up with a tangeable reward that you can see progress towards.

[Tekulve2012]

I posted on a different thread about this question

For leveling alt toons once youre in Draenor, you can choose frostfire ridge ..I had 4 level 90s and just did Draenor properly with one...I figured that id eventually want the pet monument..so why not get these extra toons to 100 and earn the monument at the same time.it takes about 100 battles per level.Just know that youll have no followers when hitting 100

It takes only 33 -37 seconds per battle (with no crits) with murkalot/blackfuse bombling-p/p /imperial eagle chick-p/p

I break up the boredom with doing a pet PvP battle once in a while-you get toon xp for wins here too
----
You do need lots of bandages but you can reduce the # by using a sunblade microsentry or getting a second BfBombling

Murkalot and the eagle chick are untouched 90+% of the time

I'm 1200 draenor pet wins in..it is a grind like all the monument ones (though the crafting one seems fairly easy)

[Ranok]

One other advantage of leveling pets and toons at same time, with the right team it's pretty mindless. Boring, of course, but do it same time you're doing something else like cleaning house. Press a key anytime you happen to pass by the PC. You end up with higher level pet, higher level toon, and a cleaner room.

[Kel]

I think this all comes down to expectations and understanding. I've been using pet battles to level some newer toons myself. I always use the area in the Vale down in the corner by [url=http://www.wowhead.com/npc=68559/no-no]No-No[/url].

This method works extremely well up to lvl60. With heirloom gear you can gain roughly 6 to 8%xp per battle. This means a level every 12-16 battles. With the right team comp, I can do these battles often in under 12 rounds total, usually more like 9 rounds. It moves along very quickly, the mobs respawn very fast and I seldom see any competition on my server.

Here's the thing, it changes at lvl60. Once you hit that point you drop down to something like 3 to 4%xp per battle. At that point, for me, it's simply not worth it. That is when I go start questing.

But hey, you start questing at lvl60, when you can fly! So Outlands, Northrend and Cata are a lot easier!

[Dakaf]

I actually leveled several of my toons up to 90 from various levels in the Heartland as mentioned above. It may have taken a long time, but I had ALL of my pets to level 25, and had a ton of critter and flawless battlestones to send to Dak! Good luck! If you're on US and ally, look me up and I'll port and shuttle you to the spots I'm talking about.

Good luck!

[Bellaryl]

One other advantage of leveling pets and toons at same time, with the right team it's pretty mindless. Boring, of course, but do it same time you're doing something else like cleaning house. Press a key anytime you happen to pass by the PC. You end up with higher level pet, higher level toon, and a cleaner room.

Absolutely this. Leveling your alts in Draenor using wild pet battles is pretty nifty.

I have leveled more than one alt from 90 to 100 in this fashion - while waiting on dungeons, working, watching TV, reading a book, etc. Mindless as heck, but works great. I don't even use special food - just the Safari Hat. And - your rested XP isn't affected by pet battles...so if you're maxxed out on rest bonus, pet battles won't eat up that bonus and you can use it elsewhere. Your character will get around 14-15k exp for each wild pet battle. That's equivalent xp to doing most quests.

I wouldn't suggest this as a method for leveling up your main character, because you'll miss out on all kinds of good stuff in Draenor. But who wants to do the same quests over and over again with each alt?

Granted, you will not be making gold, progressing on quests, getting apexis crystals, earning faction reputation, etc., but if your goal is to just level up an alt, this is not a bad option. You can kill several birds with one stone, too - 1. You're leveling your alt. 2. You're leveling up pets that you've collected over the past few years. 3. You're earning battles towards the monument achievement. Let's face it...if you're on this site, you're into battle pets and leveling them. We're going to do it anyways - might as well let our alts benefit from the grind as well, right? And if you can do this while binge watching your favorite TV series...more's the benefit!

Horde - there's a great place to camp out the pet battles - Stonefang Outpost. It's in Frostfire Ridge and you don't have to go far into the FFR questlines to get there. Besides, it's just west of your Garrison! There are L23-L25 pets here - mostly rats and wasps - both in the town and directly outside too. Best of all, there's a stable master here, a boy standing on a pile of hay. You won't even need bandages! The pets spawn really fast and there's no downtime.

I understand that there's an Alliance equivalent, by a beach in Shadowmoon Valley, but I haven't explored that yet.

My team consists of:
Slot 1 & 2: any pet over level 5 (else they may get 1 shotted)
Slot 3: Anubisath Idol L25.

[Kenderfox]

Hi, well I use to do pet battle to level pets and char but now its seems not work... My char doesent get exp anymore, is there some issue to fix or ?

[Bellaryl]

Hi, well I use to do pet battle to level pets and char but now its seems not work... My char doesent get exp anymore, is there some issue to fix or ?

I just tested this on my level 94 panda - and I am still getting xp for each wild pet battle. The only thing I can think of that would be keeping you from getting xp is that your alt needs to be in an area appropriate for their level. That is, you can't take a level 90 and do pet battles in Tanaris for xp, even if your pets get the xp. Take your character to a location where it would normally get XP if it was in a fight. Test it in Draenor - if you still don't get XP, then I'd submit a ticket.

My level 94 is horde, and she's in Stonefang Outpost, west of the horde garrison. I have leveled 3 1/2 alts from 90-100 in this location, so I know that xp works all the way to max in this location.

[Gahtmilch]

For Horde, I recommend Stonefang outpost. I have leveled up 2 chars from <L20 here without incident. The inn has a mailbox and there are no nearby hostiles (if you are careful not to wander too far). You gain about 2 character levels for every 1-25 pet leveled, and every battle counts towards the monument achievement.

There are 3 possible pet battles in the area:

Rats = Rat + 2x wasp, roach, and/or rat
Wasps= Wasp + 2x wasp, roach, and/or rat
Icespine Hatchlings = Hatchling + 2x wasp, roach, and/or rat (you will never get a second hatchling in wilderness battles here)

Start with any L5 +/- pet; switch after first round to Feline Familiar (L20+ with abilities 1,1,1 (Onyx Bite, Stoneskin, Devour)) who can solo the remaining entire battle.

If you need to carry a < L5, use any pet with decoy (Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Darkmoon Zeppelin, etc.) or similar 2 round block (like Prismatic Barrier on the Lesser Voidcaller). Upon successful completion, your carry pet will jump to level 5-6 and you can use the method described above for the remaining levels:

Start with blocker- Drop block
Switch in carry pet for a single round (block will prevent any damage)
Switch in Feline Familiar who can solo the remaining entire battle.

Pretty tedious, but a very safe way to level pets and low level chars.

To get to Stonefang Outpost, you will need to contact a high level warlock (or mage) to get to the zone, and then have them (or another friendly high level) transport you on a passenger mount to the actual inn. Since the area is phased to characters <L90, the "garrison" area is lethal to low level characters (filled with gronnlings and reavers) and the aggro range is enormous. The closest area to the garrison to safely get summoned/picked up is past the always-has-a-fire-ammonite-fishing-ring lava pool (where people traditionally drop Blingbots) just to the NE of the garrison exit.

**note- I am sure there are other pets suited to the role, but using the commonly available (and cheap in the AH, should you not have one) Feline Familiar allows you to never rest and negates the need for visits to a stable master to heal pets: It is strong vs every pet possible in the listed battles (flyers/critters) and weak to none, and Devour insures you will never have to heal your pet(s).

Hope that helps!

-Gaht

[Gahtmilch]

***Additional info:

While not the "best way" to level a character and/or pets, this is so effective for my particular style of play that I decided to use it to level my unused-since-vanilla Alliance characters.

So, assuming anything Horde had, Alliance had easier, I got my <L30 night elf summoned to WoD Shadowmoon Valley and death-crawled out to find a nearby levelling place. Imagine my surprise when, after many hours of searching and death-crawling, I found the Alliance starting area is bereft of a safe spot for this particular levelling process. Not one alliance town/village/city has battlepets within its protective walls. All the pets are random/infrequent spawns around or near hostile mobs.

I figured I would try nearby zones, but Blizzard has made it virtually impossible to leave SMV on a super low level character (the aggro range is insane and you have a 2 minute resurrection wait every death; the cemetaries are VERY far apart, so spirit-heal hops are difficult; the zone transitions are heavily populated ravines or chasms; aggro fish lurk on the coasts, so you are not safe there; and even the decorative moths and birds, which ignore appropriate level passers by, will come out of the sky to end your existence). I eventually made it into Talador (no obvious suitable loactions) and Southern Terrokar (even more lethal that the previously mentioned zones).

After much frustration, I hopped on my water strider and ran the entire lap around the island until I reached my Horde stomping grounds of Frostfire Ridge. I could not go to my usual spot due to it's proximity to Horde city NPCs who will, due to the aforementioned insane aggro range, come out and meet me at the foot of the hill AND mark me PvP for their enjoyment.

Further frustrated, I went to my other nearby low-level spot at the "always has a fishing ring" magma pool outside the Horde garrison. It is still safeISH, but if you step across the phase line, a horde (no pun intended) of vicious frostboars or a sneaky flying rynoc WILL one-shot you. God help you if you are on a PvP server.

Which brings me to my point... I noticed, oddly, that no reavers or gronnlings came streaking out to meet me near the Horde garrison phase line as they did on my Hordelings. I was curious and ran up the hill a bit to take a peek. I noticed a lone frostfur rat battlepet at the first tree. I moved up to check it out and my minimap radar suddenly filled with battlepet markers. Believe it or not, the entire area where the Horde garrison should be is 100% devoid of hostiles for an Alliance character and filled with battlepets to level on. You do not have the convenience of a mailbox or a nearby (for that matter ANY...) pet trainer for heals, but if you are using self-healing pets, it doesn't really matter anyway. At worst, you are only 8 minutes from a pet res for your sweepers if you happen to lose one to bad luck or a distracted/bad button press.

So, for those people wanting to use this process on an Alliance character, be prepared for a lot more travel to get where it's safe, but there is a place to do this. It is, however, still very tedious and there are probably better options out there.

If anyone should want my (largely useless) advice on travel to this location, I'd be happy to relate my experience, but your best bet is to have 3 friends (one of whom is a warlock) summon you to this location or pay for the trip via trade chat. All things considered, if you are not deliberately working on the WoD-specific pet achievements, I personally think there are safer/better alternative places to perform this process in Pandaria.

Hope this helps,

-Gaht