Starting out - 25 lvl stone

[Kiltak]

Just got back in the game and one the quests gave me the above mentioned stone to level one of my pets... my questions are:

1) Which one do I use the stone on?

2) After that do I have any other pet worth leveling up?

3) If not, what should I start looking for? Easy to get since I'll have a weak team to capture with... or some easy to farm pets are also an option.

Thank you for any help you can give.

[Africanleopard]

Welcome - warning, this becomes very addictive

Here is forum post that may help somewhat.
http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/f ... =3&t=15648

Also, I would look around on this site - under the Guides menu, and there are some very helpful pinned posts in the Pet Collecting forum.

On wowhead there are some helpful guides as well http://www.wowhead.com/guide=1782/battle-stones-and-you and http://www.wowhead.com/guides/battle-pe ... ning-stone

If you battling in Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms - usually you will encounter a combo of beast/flyer/critter/aquatic. So a mechanical pet against beasts, a flyer against aquatics, a magic pet against a flyer and a beast against critters.

So...from your list I would level:

either [pet]Mechanical Squirrel[/pet] or [pet]Pocket Reaver[/pet]
[pet]Forest Moth[/pet]
[pet]Black Kingsnake[/pet]

For a magic pet - you can catch a [pet]Lofty Libram[/pet] at level 6 or 7 in Hillsbrad Foothills where Dalaran used to be.

To make capturing easier I would try and farm up a [pet]Terrible Turnip[/pet] on your farm in Valley of the Four Winds.- sometimes they are very cheap on the AH though and you may get lucky there.

You can quickly expand your collection by buying directly from vendors, and if you have an alliance toon, go to the Exodar and buy a yellow moth - the P/P breed is a killer. You may have to buy a few to get the right breed. You can buy dragon hawks at Jilanne in Eversong Woods.

Pets are very expensive on the AH at the moment.

I am sure others will come in with better advice. I still regard myself as a bit of noob and learn as I go along.

[Peanutty]

I'm a big fan of starting off with a Mechanical family pet, as their racial (comes back to life with a percentage of health) buys you extra time while trying to capture something, or trying to beat something. Their mechanical attacks are also strong against beasts, which you'll run into a decent number of as you venture out in the world.

Some cheaper/easier to get Mechanicals that I think would be good picks are:
Darkmoon Zeppelin, Darkmoon Tonk (Darkmoon Faire) or Sky-Bo, Lil Bling (from Blingtron's box)

I agree with Africanleopard that a Flying pet like a moth is a great pet to pick up as well. They're very easy to find (you can buy them for just a few silver, or they're pretty much flying out in the wild everywhere), user friendly and good against aquatics. And for a 3rd pet to finish the team I'd suggest a Beast since they're strong against critters. I think a spider of some sort would be a good choice as they have decent self healing and once again are easy to find in the wild.

[Paladance]

A [pet]Teroclaw Hatchling[/pet] or a [pet]Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling[/pet].

From your current pets, [pet]Ikky[/pet], provided that you have a blue stone aswell. But Teroclaw literally waits on the ground and MPD's price is about 0,5-3k. Getting in touch with a friendly engineer is also possible, at least to the start of Legion (probably this is a last chance to witness people still collecting and trading MoP mats).

Best wishes to you.

[Ranok]

My strategy would be to stone your Panther Cub and then head for the Farmlands in Valley of 4 Winds. Lots of critter teams there to battle and a 25 Rare Panther can usually solo them. Starting the fight with one of your low-level pets then switching to Panther is probably fastest way to level up some of your other pets. As soon as you have 3 or 4 other pets in their 20's, you're pretty much unbeatable in Farmlands and also able to capture new ones when you come across a Rare. A few hours of this and you'll have a collection of high-level pets that can take on most of the wild pets in the game. Oh, and if you have lower-level alts and can get them to the Halfhill FP, let them do the grinding. They level up too while they're leveling their pets and most of Farmlands is totally safe for even a level 1 alt.

The reason I like the Panther ? It's a Beast, which does serious damage to Critters. A combination of Rake and Claw will quickly bring down the Critter's health to where it can be killed with Devour, and Devour gives the Panther a big heal. Often you'll end the battle with the Panther back to full or almost-full health.

Another advantage to Farmlands, lots of Marsh Fiddlers. Over half the time you can safely start with a level 1 pet as the Fiddler will begin with a buff or a weak attack. Then you switch to the Panther. Starting with a level 3 or higher and it will always survive the first round. A warning, a level 1 usually won't survive a first round with the other critters there.

One of the other replies in this thread may have been confusing, someone else did same thing I did at first. Pulled up my bookmark to the World of Warcraft website (us.battle.net ) and looked you up. Didn't catch on till later that I should've checked eu.battle.net. On the U.S. WoW armory there is a Kiltak, in the Aggramar realm, he has a large pet collection

[Gráinne]

My strategy would be to stone your Panther Cub

That was my answer too, of the OP's existing pets.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/17611961961#2

I suspect we will be seeing more of the "what should I use my first stone on" questions in the opening months of Legion.

I gave a longer and more general answer elsewhere. I'll paste an updated version here for future reference.

For a complete beginner, with no 25s, these are the pets I would make a priority to buy or farm, and level. There are many other great choices, but these

a) can all be traded, so you don't have to find and capture
b) are well known and used in common strats and guides


1. All-rounder: [pet]Anubisath Idol[/pet]

My personal choice, if I was starting again, would be Anubisath Idol. It's not that it's unreasonably overpowered; it's that it's a solid, tanky, all-rounder, and especially because it can protect a lowbie pet you're levelling with its Sandstorm. It's not best at anything, but it is good at everything, and that's invaluable to a beginner with just a few pets.

It can also face any tamer without fear, and it's especially good against the Pandaria tamers. I think it can solo any of Erris's teams. It comes in Blue as standard. Its downsides are that the default moveset isn't great against Beasts, and, let's face it, it's a bit boring to play (but that makes it easy for a beginner battler.)

Mostly, I'd go for this first because it's hard to live without at top level PvE play, so it needs to be one of your first pets anyway.

You can buy a level 1 at the AH for a couple of K, or you can solo AQ40 for about a 10% drop chance each week.


2. Capturing: [pet]Terrible Turnip[/pet]

If you have a[pet] Molten Corgi[/pet], that will serve the same purpose.

Terrible Turnip is cheap and plentiful at the AH, and comes as Blue quality. It is not anything like as good an all-rounder as the Idol, but the Turnip and the Corgi are the two pets that have an attack that cannot kill an opponent, but just drop its health to 1. This means that any taming team for capturing pets in the wild benefits hugely from having one of these two.

If you propose to spend a lot of time in the near future capturing and taming a hundred or two wild pets, the Turnip is worth considering.


3. Farming pet levels: Any Cat, or beast with Devour, like [pet]Zandalari Anklerender[/pet]

The great thing about the [ability]Devour[/ability] ability is that it restores health to your pet when you kill, so it lets you keep on grinding wild battles without stopping to visit the Stable Master. Just make sure never to kill except with Devour, and your beast will keep on tickin'.

Cats pretty much all have it.

You can buy Green-quality cats cheaply from vendors, but you don't want to boost a green until you have enough pet charms or stones to make it a Blue. The most powerful of the cats is the [pet]Cornish Rex Cat[/pet], but if you have the gold, the [pet]Feline Familiar[/pet] is especially versatile, with a strong attack against Flyers as well.

You can buy a Blue Zandalari Anklerender very cheaply (less than 100G?) on the AH, or farm Isle of Giants for some drops yourself. My preference is for a P/B breed, but a P/P is also excellent.

These Beasts with Devour are amazing for farming the Critters just west of Halfhill.


4. Farming pet levels: [pet]Teroclaw Hatchling[/pet]

The Teroclaw can be picked up on the ground in Talador, or from the Auction House very very cheaply. It's one of the most overpowered PvP pets in the current game when used with Alpha Strike / Dodge / Elemental Ward.

With Alpha Strike / Dodge / Ravage it is a great farmer of Aquatics.
With Claw / Dodge / Ravage it is a great farmer of Critters.

The idea is to use [ability]Ravage[/ability] as you would use Devour - never kill with anything else, and Ravage will keep your health topped up endlessly. Use Dodge to avoid any two-round nukes your opponent throws at you.

[Kiltak]

Thank you all for your advice, from that I completed some quests and farmed a little to add some options to my list:

• Teroclaw Hatchling B/P
  Iron Starlette P/S
  Bronze Whelpling P/P
  Left Shark B/B
  Everbloom Peachick S/S

Other then the Teroclaw all others I got from one mission or another. Also after checking the AH and seeing what looks like very high prices I asked a guild mate to make me a Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling after farming the materials.

So from the comments above and the guides it will be between: Teroclaw, MPD, Panther (or better cat, if I find one cheap at AH).

Since my pricing of AH might be off can someone tell me if any of these is a good buy? Because some seem outright insane (I'll start with those):

• 9000 » Terrible Turnip
  3000 » Clockwork Gnome
  13000 » Gilnean Raven (can't I just make an alliance DK and get it for 0.4G ??)
  6000 » Darkmoon Tonk
  600 » Chrominius
  1800 » Anubisath Idol

[Gráinne]

You can check prices, current and average, for your realm and Europe-wide, on The Undermine Journal.

1800 » Anubisath Idol

Wow, the Idol is cheap these days. I used to make 6K a pop for those. It's not just your realm either; though I see the price is below the European average of 2500, 2500 is half of what it was.
https://theunderminejournal.com/#eu/aggra-portugues/battlepet/1155

9000 » Terrible Turnip

That, on the other hand, truly is Terrible. I remember when there were pages of those on the AH below 100 gold. Still, rip-off price on your realm, as you can see by looking at EU averages.
https://theunderminejournal.com/#eu/aggra-portugues/battlepet/650

600 » Chrominius

3000 » Clockwork Gnome

Ahh, prices like I remember.

13000 » Gilnean Raven (can't I just make an alliance DK and get it for 0.4G ??)

13K is shameless. I admire the purity of it. Any Worgen should be able to buy one from the vendor, yes. The one you buy from the vendor will be Green quality, though, so you would need to factor in getting it stoned to Blue.
https://theunderminejournal.com/#eu/aggra-portugues/battlepet/630
I see that there are two GREEN Ravens on your AH, one for 7.5K and one for 13K. Shameless.

These are ALL pets that you will need to have sooner or later, and most of them sooner.

The MPD that your guildie will make will also be Green quality. You will need to get it stoned to Blue.

My advice: either buy the Idol (make sure you're buying a level 1, since you can't learn a higher level) or stone the Teroclaw.

Personally, I'd pop over to AQ40 and blast through to the Twin Emperors first. Takes 20 minutes, and - who knows - an Idol might drop! If the Idol didn't drop, I'd buy the Idol while it's at a low price. If I didn't want to buy the Idol, I'd stone the Teroclaw, and put AQ40 on my calendar to run for the next couple of months, since you will need an Idol.

[Ranok]

So from the comments above and the guides it will be between: Teroclaw, MPD, Panther (or better cat, if I find one cheap at AH).

The best cat I've found for leveling other pets through pet battles is the Feline Familiar. It has a strong attack, good defense armor, and that great Devour that let's it heal everytime it kills an opponent. It's my favorite because it's the only cat with Stoneskin (well, outside of Korean servers) and this extra damage reduction can help enormously. Trouble is that you can only get it during the Hallow's End seasonal event in October or on the AH, and this time of year they're usually quite expensive.

9000 » Terrible Turnip

Having just bought one on a US realm for 94g, yeah, 9000 is a bit much. It's admittedly nice to have a pet that's guaranteed not to kill something you want to capture but seems to only be critical when you start going after the scarce and hard-to-find pets. Meantime it's annoying but not too painful to accidentally kill a Rare occasionally.

13000 » Gilnean Raven (can't I just make an alliance DK and get it for 0.4G ??)

That price is ridiculous. And yes, if you make a Worgen alt you can buy one Raven from vendor. Any class other than DK has to go through the Worgen startup zone which is long and frustrating.

600 » Chrominius

Excellent price, grab it now! This is an important pet to have when you start battling trainers.

1800 » Anubisath Idol

Very reasonable price.

[Peanutty]

13000 » Gilnean Raven (can't I just make an alliance DK and get it for 0.4G ??)

One note on the Gilnean Raven, I know you're just starting out but part of the reason you may see a wild variance in price on these due to the fact that 3 of 4 possible breeds are now retired. The only Raven available from the Worgen vendor now is B/B. You don't really need to worry about breeds too much right off the bat, but here's more info if you are wondering what that all means: [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pet-battles/breeds/]WoW Pet Breeds[/url]

If you like the idea of the Raven you could also consider picking up a wild Crow from the Darkmoon Faire zone. They're not identical but the moveset that most players use is available on both pets.

[Kiltak]

...My advice: either buy the Idol (make sure you're buying a level 1, since you can't learn a higher level) or stone the Teroclaw.

Personally, I'd pop over to AQ40 and blast through to the Twin Emperors first. Takes 20 minutes, and - who knows - an Idol might drop! If the Idol didn't drop, I'd buy the Idol while it's at a low price. If I didn't want to buy the Idol, I'd stone the Teroclaw, and put AQ40 on my calendar to run for the next couple of months, since you will need an Idol.

Followed your advice, visited AQ40 and got an Anubisath Idol on my first try

Stone for the idol then, again thanks to everyone that posted here.

[Kiltak]

13000 » Gilnean Raven (can't I just make an alliance DK and get it for 0.4G ??)

One note on the Gilnean Raven, I know you're just starting out but part of the reason you may see a wild variance in price on these due to the fact that 3 of 4 possible breeds are now retired. The only Raven available from the Worgen vendor now is B/B. You don't really need to worry about breeds too much right off the bat, but here's more info if you are wondering what that all means: [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pet-battles/breeds/]WoW Pet Breeds[/url]

They're all B/B at AH, I checked.

[Gráinne]

Followed your advice, visited AQ40 and got an Anubisath Idol on my first try

Well, that's what I'll call a happy ending. Congratulations!

Your Idol should get you through Pets vs Pests and to establishing a Menagerie. I think the Idol alone can beat all of Erris' teams, though you may have to retry a couple of times.

Now, with your level 25 Idol, you go Crush all the tamers you can, starting from the first tamer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.

The Idol alone should get you to Bloodknight Antari, the last tamer in Outland. I don't think it will beat him alone, though.

Now will be the time for you to open up the line of tamers right through Pandaria, and use your Idol to level your next pets.

It's worth doing these tamers, and bring along a low-level pet to get the sweet XP as the Idol boosts them.

And on the Raven thing - yeah, AH prices on a given day can be totally irrational. Region-wide averages are usually pretty stable and sensible, but a lot of people buy and sell pets with no idea what they're doing.

[Africanleopard]

You can buy Crusher from the vendor in your town hall at level 3. Its a humanoid pet - and if you are exalted with any of the WoD factions you can buy their pets as well.

Happy pet collecting

[Mezcaal]

Hm, maybe look up a guide to battling Squirt in the Menagerie, and level up the appropriate pets. She's one of the best ways to level up lowbies right now. I use [pet]Mechanical Pandaren Hatchling[/pet] and [pet]Ghostly Skull[/pet] (tho, both start as uncommon quality I think). A majority of my pets are maxed because I would play against her for most of the day.

My other tactic, is using the [pet]Clockwork Gnome[/pet] against Ashlei in SMV every day (turret, metal fist and repair when her first critter gets KO'd, most pets will hit lvl 9 from 1 if you swap them in during plushie round. Of course, this is easier if you play an Alliance character.