Must Haves for Newbies

[Aalea]

So I have got all the pets I can get for myself on my account and thought I would start showing a friend who is interested about pet battles.

But because I have been collecting so long I have forgotten what the newbie must have pets are. I suggested he get the PWS/Chrom/Emerald Whelping combo for Tanaan Jungle but if anyone wants to put some pets forward that a new collector should have to beat some of the other tamers it would be much appreciated.

[Gráinne]

As a quick list, I've always pointed people to the Top 20 list here on WarcraftPets:
[url]http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pets/top-twenty/[/url]

For more depth, I would look at a site or list of pets used in guides to tamer battles.

The most comprehensive guide site at the moment is [url]http://www.wow-petguide.com/[/url]. Looking around the various battles there, you will quickly see what pets are most commonly used.

For what it's worth, I just exported all my standard PvE teams covering Pandaria, Draenor, the Celestial Tournament, the Garrison, and general farming, from Rematch, and looked the pets up against my pets spreadsheet, and came up with the following lists of pets, and how many PvE teams I use each in. No doubt other people will have other distributions of pets, but I think I can recommend the top 40 or so to everyone. Some have preferred breeds, of course: P/P EPW and Crab and Nexus Whelpling, H/P Blighted Squirrel, P/B Anklerender for Tanaan and so on, but many have only one possible breed, so no confusion.

[pet]Nexus Whelpling[/pet] 12
[pet]Emerald Proto-Whelp[/pet] 12
[pet]Anubisath Idol[/pet] 11
[pet]Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling[/pet] 10
[pet]Chrominius[/pet] 8
[pet]Zandalari Anklerender[/pet] 8
[pet]Iron Starlette[/pet] 7
[pet]Pandaren Water Spirit[/pet] 7
[pet]Emperor Crab[/pet] 7
[pet]Darkmoon Tonk[/pet] 6
[pet]Sunreaver Micro-Sentry[/pet] 5
[pet]Blighted Squirrel[/pet] 5
[pet]Syd the Squid[/pet] 5
[pet]Clockwork Gnome[/pet] 5
[pet]Ghostly Skull[/pet] 5
[pet]Gilnean Raven[/pet] 5
[pet]Gilded Moth[/pet] 4
[pet]Dancing Water Skimmer[/pet] 4
[pet]Pterrordax Hatchling[/pet] 4
[pet]Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen[/pet] 4
[pet]Unborn Val'kyr[/pet] 4
[pet]Molten Corgi[/pet] 4
[pet]Darkmoon Zeppelin[/pet] 4
[pet]Cornish Rex Cat[/pet] 3
[pet]Teroclaw Hatchling[/pet] 3
[pet]Infested Bear Cub[/pet] 3
[pet]Yellow Moth[/pet] 3
[pet]Core Hound Pup[/pet] 3
[pet]Rapana Whelk[/pet] 3
[pet]Feline Familiar[/pet] 3
[pet]Lil' Bling[/pet] 3
[pet]Bone Serpent[/pet] 2
[pet]Blackfuse Bombling[/pet] 2
[pet]Shimmershell Snail[/pet] 2
[pet]Highlands Turkey[/pet] 2
[pet]Warbot[/pet] 2
[pet]Ikky[/pet] 2
[pet]Eternal Strider[/pet] 2
[pet]Infinite Whelpling[/pet] 2
[pet]Spawn of Onyxia[/pet] 2
[pet]Amethyst Shale Hatchling[/pet] 2
[pet]Fossilized Hatchling[/pet] 2
[pet]Pebble[/pet] 1
[pet]Snarly[/pet] 1
[pet]Scourged Whelpling[/pet] 1
[pet]Yu'la, Broodling of Yu'lon[/pet] 1
[pet]Fjord Worg Pup[/pet] 1
[pet]Luyu Moth[/pet] 1
[pet]Crow[/pet] 1
[pet]Macabre Marionette[/pet] 1
[pet]Azure Whelpling[/pet] 1
[pet]Mechanical Axebeak[/pet] 1
[pet]Spring Rabbit[/pet] 1
[pet]Disgusting Oozeling[/pet] 1
[pet]Flayer Youngling[/pet] 1
[pet]Menagerie Custodian[/pet] 1
[pet]Leopard Tree Frog[/pet] 1
[pet]Mini Mindslayer[/pet] 1
[pet]Rotten Little Helper[/pet] 1
[pet]Mojo[/pet] 1
[pet]Sea Gull[/pet] 1
[pet]Terrible Turnip[/pet] 1
[pet]Slithershock Elver[/pet] 1
[pet]Viscidus Globule[/pet] 1
[pet]Hatespark the Tiny[/pet] 1
[pet]Bonkers[/pet] 1
[pet]Stitched Pup[/pet] 1
[pet]Wretched Servant[/pet] 1
[pet]Flamering Moth[/pet] 1
[pet]Elekk Plushie[/pet] 1
[pet]Ashwing Moth[/pet] 1
[pet]Enchanted Lantern[/pet] 1
[pet]Cerulean Moth[/pet] 1
[pet]Voodoo Figurine[/pet] 1
[pet]Mr. Bigglesworth[/pet] 1
[pet]Weebomination[/pet] 1
[pet]Netherspace Abyssal[/pet] 1
[pet]Arctic Fox Kit[/pet] 1
[pet]Enchanted Broom[/pet] 1
[pet]Pandaren Fire Spirit[/pet] 1
[pet]Blighthawk[/pet] 1
[pet]Lofty Libram[/pet] 1
[pet]Lesser Voidcaller[/pet] 1
[pet]Lifelike Mechanical Frostboar[/pet] 1

[Mykro9]

I would point out that 2 important pets to have are the Terrible Turnip and a turkey of some sort for a capture team. The turnip cannot kill a wild pet ever with weakened blow (though a misused DoT will), and a turkey's food coma can prevent a low health pet from suiciding with a self damage ability like stone rush. Just my two cents for someone starting out, thereare plenty of other 'must haves' in general, but those 2 are super useful for low level pet collecting.

[Ishildur]

I try to suggest maybe 8 or so pets initially when friends ask just so I don't overwhelm them (it also takes a lot longer to level pets when you're starting out). I also like to let them know why I suggest those pets. If I know the person is a fellow insane completionist and will stick with this so long as they're missing something the list tends to be something like:
Terrible turnip - for pet capture
Feline familiar - excellent critter grinding pet
Emerald Proto-whelp - great self healing pet, perfect for flying pet grinding
Anubisanth idol - lots of damage reduction and very minor racial healing
Chrominius - bomb team essential, great at taking down toughies
Pandaren Water spirit - bomb team essential same as Chrominius
(I don't recommend for them the unborn valk since it can be so hard to find and in some cases you can use a substitute - by the time they're fighting stuff that requires the valk for a bomb team I expect them to have a lot more pets and not need my help any more)
Enchanted broom - it's useful for forced swapping and for Squirt it's a handy pet to have already leveled
Last pet (or even last 2 pets, sometimes I tell people not to bother bringing the broom first) I like to suggest strong vs pets, y'know like water strider for taking down elementals fast, iron star for beasts, that kind of stuff. I try to suggest things that can be bought, farmed or acquired some way other than having to do long pet related grinds/quests.

[Milotha]

I'd recommend the following:

Terrible Turnip - or another pet with weakening blow - great for capturing pets
Chrominius - great for howl and surge of power for a 'howl bomb' team
Pandaren Water Spirit - great for geyser and whirlpool - another part of howl bomb team
A bear - Darkshore or Hyjal Bear - roar - rampage - hibernate - repeat will solo most wild pet battles
Anubisath Idol - great tanking ability
s/s rabbit - great avoidance

Also try to level one of each pet family.

[Paladance]

For taming the wild and levelling by it, a cat (especially powerful, then fast breeds) and a moth are a good choice, because most of the wild pets are critters (that beasts are strong against), aquatics (that flyers are strong against) and beasts (to them flyers are resistant). Their moves are also diversified what helps you to learn something more than "pew pew".
When your pets have 12-15 level, capture the dragonkin -- Spawn of Onyxia and Infinite Whelpling, P/P ones. That helps to resist flyers and do the Arcane Eye runs around Karazhan.

Note that Teroclaw Hatchling is easy to get and in good hands can be used instead of a cat/moth. You just need to know the details.

To the 25! Other people have already covered what then. I can add an S/S Slithershock Elver for avoidance and Frostwolf Ghostpup for team healing.

(Written from a mobile phone -- may be out of context. Sorry for the lack of hyperlinks!)

[Dulahey]

When I started to get serious, I followed the infamous 5.4 Guide to Master Tamer...guide here on the forums to figure out what the most important pets I needed first were.

After that, I worked on "A Pet Battler's Guide to: Defeating the Celestial Tournament" on WoWhead for my next round of pets needed.

After that, I just began collecting anyting and everything.

Sorry, I'm too casual to be able to post links

[Gráinne]

When I started to get serious, I followed the infamous 5.4 Guide to Master Tamer...guide here on the forums to figure out what the most important pets I needed first were.

After that, I worked on "A Pet Battler's Guide to: Defeating the Celestial Tournament" on WoWhead for my next round of pets needed.

After that, I just began collecting anyting and everything.

Sorry, I'm too casual to be able to post links

I started with those guides too. One for the tamers, and one for the Tournament.

http://www.wowhead.com/guide=2092/a-pet ... et-dailies
http://www.wowhead.com/guide=1827/a-pet ... tournament

Information flows, changes, grows, is collected and repackaged, though. When someone posts and maintains a guide, they also collect new strategies suggested by readers.

I'm very grateful to Mel for those guides, but he took a lot of the information from Rendigar's 5.4 guide, posted here, which in turn built on Phraide's 5.3 guide, also from WarcraftPets' Forums. While the comments in Mel's Wowhead guides are still very active, and a good place to look for beginners who don't have the needed pets to find another strategy that might squeeze by, Mel is no longer actively maintaining his guides and keeping them up to date.

I think that Aranesh is currently the Keeper of the Wisdom of the Ancients, and maintaining new strats, at http://www.wow-petguide.com/, where he has taken the best of the old guides and adds new strategies as people suggest them. If you look at the Pandaria tamers, you will still see many of the Phraide->Rendigar->Mel strategies.

So that's where I would send a newcomer now.