Disappointed with Beasts of Fable

[NathKnave]

I was initially disappointed with the ease that I defeated all of the beasts of fable. I went with all offense, using teams that all had strong attacks against each of them. I found that I rarely had to use the third member of my team, and sometimes was able to defeat them with just my first pet.

Then I figured out that they are probably tuned to be beaten by someone who doesn't have almost 100 pets already at max level. If you don't have a lot of options already at level 25 I could see these guys being a little more difficult to bring down.

Now I'm seeing this quest as an excuse to use some of my pets that might not be strong enough to use against the rest of the Pandaria tamers. I have so many pets that would almost never see the light of day otherwise.

[Stabya]

Pros and Cons

Pro - I got a snowy panda from my first bag

Con - He hasnt sold yet for 20k

[Tahsfenz]

I was initially disappointed with the ease that I defeated all of the beasts of fable. I went with all offense, using teams that all had strong attacks against each of them. I found that I rarely had to use the third member of my team, and sometimes was able to defeat them with just my first pet.

Then I figured out that they are probably tuned to be beaten by someone who doesn't have almost 100 pets already at max level. If you don't have a lot of options already at level 25 I could see these guys being a little more difficult to bring down.

Now I'm seeing this quest as an excuse to use some of my pets that might not be strong enough to use against the rest of the Pandaria tamers. I have so many pets that would almost never see the light of day otherwise.

I gotta agree here. While I breezed through, my wife struggled pretty good. We had to play around with a few different combos before some went down.

[Cyberjus]

Thank you Ryazan for building a map. I was looking for one of all the new tamers (and one with the old tamers works even better).

[Restofarian]

That's a lot of flying to get Pandas

Not really if combine them to your tamer daily tour (assuming you do them of course).

I currently go this route which isn't probably even the most optimal one but it works good enough for me:
http://cryados.net/wow/5_2_tamer_map.jpg

Great route. Any addon wizardy around? Id love to have a route path or overlay or whatever on my map.

On topic: Im also pissed with the fact to have to fight all them everyday. They could have mage the daily quest as a rotation of all those pets, maybe 3, 4 each day. I was already stoping to do the spirits dailies cuz I was bored and once I get my 4 pandas im done with this one too.

[Quintessence]

Then I figured out that they are probably tuned to be beaten by someone who doesn't have almost 100 pets already at max level. If you don't have a lot of options already at level 25 I could see these guys being a little more difficult to bring down.

Agreed.

As for my overall opinion of the new Elite Battle Pet encounters, I'm pretty satisfied. Because so much time is necessary to go to each one, defeat them, plus going to and doing all of the other Tamer dailies, I can't complain if each battle is short and quick. It means less time overall spent completing the quest.

If they increase the experience gained from defeating them, great! If not, I'm ok with that too.

It's just a shame that once I collect all the panda pets, I probably won't be revisiting the Elite Battle Pets for anything. Perhaps they should add a (much) higher droprate of Flawless or family-specific Battle-Stone from each fight. That would definitely get more players' interest in these fights imo. Although the charms from each battle is pretty sweet, already.

[Lowbrowdeluxe]

It's just a shame that once I collect all the panda pets, I probably won't be revisiting the Elite Battle Pets for anything. Perhaps they should add a (much) higher droprate of Flawless or family-specific Battle-Stone from each fight. That would definitely get more players' interest in these fights imo. Although the charms from each battle is pretty sweet, already.

Huh. I was assuming they did, I got a mechanical stone and mountain panda from my first bag. Suddenly I feel better about dying horribly 6 times trying to solo-kite G'nathus.

[Stabya]

I haven't had trouble with any of them except Gorspine. That one is breezing through my pets. I have used Mechanical, and all the others (25 rares). He seems to run at them twice in a row and double hitting. Maybe it is just me.

If Gorespine is a Beast (I forget)

The Darkmoon Tonk and Zepplin are a great "one - two punch" for the fabled Beasts. Still have a couple of days to get them if you dont already.

I open with the Tonk, Shock and Awe is nice, and then right before it is about to die the first time, hit them with the ion cannon.

The Zep is nice at number two because in addition to dropping a decoy, the Explode right before first death will set them up perfect for your CLOSER Mech in the third slot (I use Clockwork, but any anti beast mech can mop up a fabled beast who has taken an ion cannon and Explode in addition to missles)

[Quintessence]

It's just a shame that once I collect all the panda pets, I probably won't be revisiting the Elite Battle Pets for anything. Perhaps they should add a (much) higher droprate of Flawless or family-specific Battle-Stone from each fight. That would definitely get more players' interest in these fights imo. Although the charms from each battle is pretty sweet, already.

Huh. I was assuming they did, I got a mechanical stone and mountain panda from my first bag. Suddenly I feel better about dying horribly 6 times trying to solo-kite G'nathus.

I have no doubt that there's a small chance for stones to come from defeating an Elite Battle Pet, but if that chance was increased to a much higher droprate, I think many would continue to battle them even after having collected all the new pets.

Of course, then would come the problem of players using the elites as the main way of getting stones, since you can battle them repeatedly. Would probably need to make it so you can battle them only once per day for the daily. If that's the case, though, might as well just reward more pet experience per encounter. >_<

[Badpathing]

In general, I am fairly disappointed with the direction of the pet dailies. Doing the tamers and the epic pets now constitute a hefty chunk of time, even if your teams are optimal. For such an investment, I would prefer more reward. I can go days in a row without getting anything in the tamer bags aside from vendor trash. The epic pet battles, in my opinion, should be a guaranteed pet stone.

I mean, there are 100s of pets. The stones should not be that rare.

I dunno, the epic battles really soured my perspective on the pet system. In my opinion, each epic battle should drop a bag; period. They should also have an xp multiplier. Why not? With so many pets to level and stone, why make it so difficult for those who desire, to max them all out?

Also, just as a side note, the notion of epic battle pets is a joke. I just made three teams consisting of all mech, all beast and all flyers without any particular forethought into WHICH pets; mowed through the new 'epic' pets without batting an eye...

[Shmoooey]

They are epic pet battles for the casual pet collector.

[Badpathing]

They are epic pet battles for the casual pet collector.

lol..now we have "casual", and through implication, "hardcore" pet collectors?

[Whiplash]

I think that for those of us who have been striving toward the 75-level-25 achievement (I'm currently at 32), the legendary Beasts of Fable are not going to be difficult. The enemies are of three types - Aquatic, Critter, and Beast - and appropriate teams will one-shot them.
My teams (all level 25 and rare):
Vs. Aquatic:
Effervescent Glowfly
Fledgling Nether Ray
Sandy Petrel

Vs. Critter:
Kun-Lai Runt
Temple Snake
Water Snake

Vs. Beast:
Clockwork Gnome
Darkmoon Zeppelin
Mechanical Chicken

The strategy is pretty obvious:
- Set the most powerful attack(s) versus the type you are facing
- Avoidance is good (such as Burrow, Cocoon Strike or Decoy)
- Some legendaries use shields that block multiple small attacks; set up to hit with single hard-hitting attacks against them
- In the interest of "getting it done", I decided not to try leveling pets against legendaries

[Quatrain]

I was really disappointed in these. I think giving them a pet type (aquatic, beast, etc) was a mistake. Instead of it being a fight based on tactics and timing, it only revolves around how deep of a pet stable you have (for me almost 100 25s).

I do hit all pandaria tamers daily, so maybe I can work up a good tamer/boss route that makes it less tedious. I am less than thrilled about hitting 10 a day buy I or super lucky and only need 1 more panda pet now!

What I would like to see from the bags is a random item that lets us swap said item + stone for an any-breed stone. That would defiantly make this long daily worth the time.

[Quintessence]

So after a brief interaction with Mumper on Twitter about the new Elite daily, this is what I took away from it:

"It's all about options. If you want great XP, hit the Pandaria tamers, if you want rare battle-stones, hit the Elites."

I'm not sure if that's an indication that the experience gain as it is, is intended, but it does make things interesting in terms of options.

Of course RNG is still RNG, and I have yet to receive a stone from the elite daily bag, so I don't know if a "good chance" at stones from the elites is equal to a guaranteed experience chunk from the normal dailies.

Considering the amount of time it takes to complete the elite daily (traveling there, battling, traveling back, etc.), and for just one chance per day at one stone from the one bag... I'm leaning more in favor of the experience chunk.

[Poofah]

Because so much time is necessary to go to each one, defeat them, plus going to and doing all of the other Tamer dailies, I can't complain if each battle is short and quick.

You just described Archeology: fly a long way; do something trivial; fly a long way; do something trivial. Repeat 10x. Maybe receive reward, maybe not.

I'm sure opinions of Archeology vary, but I hate hate hate it.

Also, just as a side note, the notion of epic battle pets is a joke. I just made three teams consisting of all mech, all beast and all flyers without any particular forethought into WHICH pets; mowed through the new 'epic' pets without batting an eye...

lol..now we have "casual", and through implication, "hardcore" pet collectors?

This is inevitable--everything has a spectrum, and the high end of the spectrum is hardcore. Maybe pet collecting isn't hardcore compared to heroic raiding, but within pet collecting there's people with a handful of 25s, and people with 100s. The latter person will have a lot easier time fielding 3x mechanicals (or whatever).

But even considering that, I think you're right that the epic pets are a joke. They aren't strategically interesting, if stacking 3 random mechs is the best strategy. I have to give them credit for the initial set of tamers, and also the Pandaren spirit tamers. Most of those were genuinely difficult and interesting, at least the first time around, and even in 5.2 Major Payne/Obalis/Mo'ruk require more strategy than the epic pets. I think the Pandaren spirit tamers showed that they could create legitimately difficult pet battle content, even in an environment where many players already had 100+ level 25s. The 5.2 epic pets are a huge letdown from that perspective.

[Poofah]

I was really disappointed in these. I think giving them a pet type (aquatic, beast, etc) was a mistake. Instead of it being a fight based on tactics and timing, it only revolves around how deep of a pet stable you have (for me almost 100 25s).

This is a great point. The bonus damage vs pet type is a lazy rock/paper/scissors-type method of making sure that every pet has a counter. Within that system, it's inevitable that a single Rock (no matter how big) will get countered by 3x paper. Removing that type advantage would make countering the epic pet's abilities a lot more relevant (as opposed to simply countering its type).

[Whiplash]

As I've reflected on Beasts of Fable, I have to agree from a design perspective that the idea is appallingly weak.
The basic Pet Battle formula is to give one pet 3x life (and increase the size like you fed it with a pet snack). No new pet families, no new abilities, no new fight mechanics, no new strategies needed. And I would guess that for most who have made it this far, no real challenge - just follow the pet family strength-and-weakness chart found on this web site using your current stable of battle pets.
The reward? One new pet type, with four skins. Other than that, the bag gives more of the same stuff we've already seen. Travel to ten pets and get one bag (one higher-chance shot at a stone), or travel to ten tamers and get ten bags (ten lower-chance shots at stones) – I’m not sure I’m seeing much real “choice” there...
The questline is unusually weak as well: Fly around Pandaria following your quest helper and engage each pet. No searching, no spawning, no backstory or lore.
By comparison, almost everything else about collecting and battling is more challenging and engaging than Beasts of Fable. Frankly, I'm really surprised that Beasts of Fable made it to live.
(It felt like I had completed the 5.2 pet battle content on patch day...)

[Gilneas]

I'm not disappointed at all. As others pointed out, its supposed to be difficult if you have few 25s. And it is. With 77 pets at 25 I expected it to be easy for me personally. The spirit tamers are very easy once you have a wide selection too. If they made them hard for those with a lot of pets, it would be very discouraging for others.

I still found it to be something different that I had fun with even if it was easy. My only annoyance is that the daily is all 10 instead of a random subset. But I will get over it.

(It felt like I had completed the 5.2 pet battle content on patch day...)

I completed the spirit tamers within an hour of 5.1 going live too. These quests aren't really ever going to take long to finish, particularly for the dedicated.