PvP Pet Battles - achieving 10% win rate?

[Silverthorn]

I've been desperately trying to simply do the weekly PvP pet battle quest-- no question about trying for "I ain't got time to bleed". I'm lucky if I win 1 match in 10. It's probably closer to 1 in 20. I think I have a reasonable variety of max level pets and I do fairly well against the Fables and Tamers, but the PvP match opponents have been really, really tough. More than a few of them have the 5.3 pets already at max level only 1 day after the patch (yesterday).

It will take a lot of determination to slog through 90 PvP losses each week to get those 10 wins. Are casual players going to keep trying with that kind of a barrier? What win % are other folks getting? Are you sticking with it (assuming you're < 50%)?

I hate to qualify "fun", but winning is a small but essential part of it. If you only lose, you get nothing. So there isn't much fun to spending a couple hours trying to eek out a single win.

Any suggestions? I guess I haven't seen if Pet Battles can be logged. That might be the next step.

[Deepfriedegg]

I suggest you that every time you lose, you write down on a paper (in an excel sheet or whatever) what pets did you face, what abilities did they used and what combos made you big troubles.
After you have several of these, you will start seeing patterns. You will know that once ability X goes off, it is likely that ability Y will follow so you can adjust to it (switch pets, use defensive abilities, and so on). Also some addon that shows what families is your pets´ abilities strong/weak against (f.e. Pokemon Trainer)
Also helps observe what pets are others using and maybe try to get them. It is easy to level a pet from 1-25 in 30 minutes or even less.

[Exel]

With my best teams I can achieve 9/10 wins, 5/10 with almost any team, so don't worry higher success rate is definitely possible. I've played PvP extensively since day 1, though.

Probably you have decent pets that don't work well as a team, or you haven't done many PvP pet battles so you lack experience, like swapping tactics, what people usually do, etc. Why don't you write your teams so someone would be able to give some advice.

[Stabya]

Definately Post your team so we can see what might be the issue

While some pets are better at pvp than others, 3 good pvp pets can still lose to a team that benefits from each other

[Tekulve2012]

I am brand new to pvp and I run around 50-60% success rate. Since I'm new to it , I'm trying all kinds of mix and matches of my max level pets (I only have 50ish at lvl 25)

Look out for the popular PVP pet families you run up against -
currently it seems wise to have at least 1 undead on your team since I always see a humanoid on the teams I've opposed...

the undead racial advantage is the best (IMO) An upgraded ghostly skull is a cheapie if you want a solid undead. The other plus about undead is that Dragons deal less damage to them and there are tons of dragons out there from what i see

[Heilige]

I too am having a TERRIBLE time with the level 25 PvP battles. I won my first one because my opponent left the battle. Then I lost 7 in a row. No, I didn't just lose, I got my butt stomped. I had to quit for the night before I broke my keyboard out of pure frustration. Is there a good guide or something for someone that's done a lot of PvE but is new to the PvP pet battles? Some guidance would sure be appreciated.

[Mrbeankc]

We're also now seeing an incredible level of cheating going on. I've been involved with battles where I can never hit the other team. Miss miss miss miss. All my pets miss every attack including attacks that "always hit". I just now fought a battle where the other person did 1,000 damage exactly on every attack against me. You can't tell me 6 attacks in a row all did 1,000 damage exactly by chance.

Between the blizzard store pets being overpowered and the amount of cheating we're seeing it's to the point in pvp pet battle the honest player who doesn't want to spend extra money has an upward climb in doing the pvp pet battle achievements.

[Demoiselle]

I think that's just the learning curve. It's really tough and discouraging, but it's the nature of the beast. You start out & you'll end up facing people who do the pvp battles all the time, and they'll be better than you, and they'll win.

I almost wrote a whine post myself after my first dozen battles. All losses. And I still suck. Super super suck. But after I won once, I won again...and again...I think I've won four or five battles, out of the last ten or fifteen. Small numbers, but a huge improvement over zero.

[Trystan]

We're also now seeing an incredible level of cheating going on. I've been involved with battles where I can never hit the other team. Miss miss miss miss. All my pets miss every attack including attacks that "always hit". I just now fought a battle where the other person did 1,000 damage exactly on every attack against me. You can't tell me 6 attacks in a row all did 1,000 damage exactly by chance.

Between the blizzard store pets being overpowered and the amount of cheating we're seeing it's to the point in pvp pet battle the honest player who doesn't want to spend extra money has an upward climb in doing the pvp pet battle achievements.

I am using no Blizzard Store Pets, and I am winning 90% of my matches. I must confess though, that I have been playing PvP a lot. I think practice makes the master!

[Tekulve2012]

Some solid power pets are non store pets even for pvp ... A few are
harder to get as rares: scourged whelpling , emporer crab , yellow moth, stunted shardhorn,
Ghostly skull, even call blizzard pets are cheap and useful

It is too bad the monk and rags are such op hitters but the system overall seems balanced to me

Good luck hunting for rares and btw I've never heard of cheating being possible in pvp

[Khayah]

Silverthorn, i'll try to give you some support. as i am not a native english speaker please be tolerant

At first you have to compare patch 5.3 with the beginning of a new pvp season but without the differentiation of mmr.
so you battle against experienced pet battle pvp player. without practise, you have to be patient.

so here are some points where you eventually could improve your win/loss ratio. DON'T choose pets because of their style or "because it is so cute". make sure that in the beginning of the fight you recognize the basic strategy of your opponent. like in "real" pvp, you enter the arena and by sight of the opposing team you think what might be best and what will the opponent do. key to that is knowing the enemy. you see his 3 pets and by that you should know how he wants to defeat you ... what is his plan. you REALLY have to know strong/weak attack/defence to counter his pets.

in the beginning you have to consider your comp, 1) dot line up 2) heal dominated 3) burst 4) cc/debuff dominated, there might be more or rather subclasses like weather dependent but these are some important categories. so you have to choose your pets accordingly.

to start i would concentrate on either burst or rng cc as i'm successfull in it and i prefer shorter fights. heal dominated teams are frustrating as long fights are annoying. rng cc is mostly miss chance or ability with an percentage to stun due to sandstorm, darkness or debuffs like stench. lets say you start with sandstorm, apply stench and your opponent wants to use an ability with 80% hitchance. so he has 50% hit chance left, here dot teams with chains like goo-corrosion-absorb or pets with ramp up are screwed.

so you have to generate synergy effects between your pets. don't choose "stand-alone" pets, they might be good in itself but against a team with a functioning synergy you will be defeated.
eg a pet with call lightning and a second fast one with a multiple attack, like a serpent for lightning and a rabbit
or minefield + grip of crawling claw or magic broom
or bleed + a pet with an ability that benefits from bleeding (a bleed has the advantage that you are not dependent on weather effects) eg electrified razortooth + curious wolvar pub (the trap is REALLY a pain)
or very fashioned is snowman + kun lai runt due to obvious reasons

obviously there are many ways, these are just examples

beside that you have to choose a "third" pet, a good pet that comes last in most of your fights, like blighthawk or stitched pup or any mechanical (strong heal + ud racial) even if you have to react to your opponent, you should have some kind of order. in my team all three pets benefit form each other and if i have to adjust it is no big deal.

nowadays in most teams there is at least one kun lai runt, anub idol or monk, so you should have an undead or a maggot/snail/ooze with absorb or a strategy to counter klr and you should consider a pet with weather effect to counter sandstorm. in your armory/pet collection there are some really good combinations possible without further farming/investing in the auction house. Think around the corner

So if you need further help or direct support post your team. Good luck!

[Mrbeankc]

We're also now seeing an incredible level of cheating going on. I've been involved with battles where I can never hit the other team. Miss miss miss miss. All my pets miss every attack including attacks that "always hit". I just now fought a battle where the other person did 1,000 damage exactly on every attack against me. You can't tell me 6 attacks in a row all did 1,000 damage exactly by chance.

Between the blizzard store pets being overpowered and the amount of cheating we're seeing it's to the point in pvp pet battle the honest player who doesn't want to spend extra money has an upward climb in doing the pvp pet battle achievements.

I am using no Blizzard Store Pets, and I am winning 90% of my matches. I must confess though, that I have been playing PvP a lot. I think practice makes the master!

Practice always helps but no question you're using the store pets because they're more powerful. Blizzard has made them that way so that people will buy them. It's unfortunate but the PVP pet battles are like the old Magic the Gathering game. As much as skill helps in the end the person willing to spend money will have an advantage over the person who doesn't. It's Blizzard squeezing the last dime out of a dying game.

[Ril]

since this is somewhat relevant to this thread, i'll just post it here... i've been toying around with a S/S nordrassil whisp. true they are easily countered by some pets, but somehow even if the blind does land, the opponent gets 5 or 6 hits in a row which is normally enough to kill it, and never misses at all. is dis normal? the odds for this are below 3%. However this happened several times. i forgot to track it but i'm pretty sure that the number of opponent misses were very low.
did i overlook something? one example i can give was a lil ragnaros. he just hit my wisp as if he didn't have the debuff at all.

[Cendir]

I think it's a combination of practice and luck. I'm new to pvp, never did a single match until this patch, and I'm running an 85% win rate. On the other hand, I've done a ton of pet battling to level pets, as well as lots of daily fights for bags/pets. One of my pets comes from the Darkmoon Faire, the other two are very common wild pets. So, ANYONE could put this team together. No cash needed, no luck needed, and no camping needed. On the other hand, I use these pets in a lot of different PvE battles, so I know them backwards and forwards - that's where the practice comes in.

As far as team makeup, I think it's important to not just throw any old 3 pets together and pray for the best. Because, I've seen a few teams that for the life of me I can't figure out why they are together. I think too many people just try and have a pet for every occasion - make sure to have 1 undead, 1 dragonkin, 1 humanoid! - instead of making a more coherent team and recognizing that sometimes you are going to come up against a team ideal to bash yours, and that's ok.

[Stabya]

First off, how is it possible to cheat in Pet PVP?

I'm not a pet PVP junkie, but I do want to get 10 wins every week for the Quest.

I will post the two teams I used this week, that got me a 10-4 record

Team 1 (Darkness team, with an elemental guarded by a Flyer)
Electrified Razortooth
Gilnean Raven
Scourged Whelpling

Team 2 (Abilities that are buffed by Chilled)
Snowman
Tundara Penguin
Winters Helper

It's all about synergy, as mentioned previously. You want pets that interact with each other.

As for the guy who thinks people are cheating, realize that attacks that "Always Hit" are not 100% true. If you are Trying to Nuke off Darkness against an elemental, remember that elementals are not affected by weather. Another factor is there are abilities (like my Penguin) that can reduce hit chance. So miss miss miss, can sometimes happen.

Also, if you are getting Nuked yourself, remember there are many situations where you can get nuked off a debuff, or stun. If your pet just got Bleed, or Stunned, you might want to swap him out because a Nuke off that is likely coming next round.

[Index]

I despise PVP in all it's forms, so for blizz to lock a pet away behind it (along with heroic raids and massive grinds, but that's another issue) is a poke in the eye.

At least drop the required wins to 25 or 50, not something insane and frustrating

[Ril]

I despise PVP in all it's forms, so for blizz to lock a pet away behind it (along with heroic raids and massive grinds, but that's another issue) is a poke in the eye.

At least drop the required wins to 25 or 50, not something insane and frustrating

pets make great rewards for many different fields of the game, and i don't think that you should feel like you have to farm them up asap. i share your dislike for pvp battles (it takes too much time and effort for me) but it makes sense to reward dedicated pvp pet battlers with a pet. i'm pretty disappointed that the carps aren't bop anymore because they made great rewards for dedicated anglers. i don't get what heroic pets you meant tough. if any, there are very few and they are rather easy to get just a few tiers later if you're not a dedicated raider.

bad rng is the only thing i'm really disappointed about in many cases. i've been waiting for that frigid frostling 3 years in a row for instance. i have yet to see one ToT pet, i've been doing every lfr and almost every boss on nhc or hc every week. as opposed to this, the pvp pet is a pretty rng-less and forseeable reward. if you don't like pvp battles, just do the 10 win quest every week for the extra satchrel and eventually it will be added to your collection.

[Stabya]

I think Blizz did the right thing by rewarding PVP more, thus encouraging more to try PVP

For those of you who hate it, it's alot easier to get better at than Player PVP, you just have to learn a few basics, and many of these can be learned by observing your butt getting kicked.

Here is an example - If facing a Kung Fu Panda, and he Stuns you. SWAP OUT!

If facing a crock, and he Bleeds you - SWAP OUT

If a Gilnean Raven just called Darkness - SWAP in your ELEMENTAL! (If you have one. And I think you should)

[Darkke]

I despise PVP in all it's forms, so for blizz to lock a pet away behind it (along with heroic raids and massive grinds, but that's another issue) is a poke in the eye.

TLDR: Paraphrasing the Pandaren philosophy - "Slow down, enjoy the journey."

I understand your frustration, I love the collecting aspect of battle pets, mounts, etc. I just don't understand what the point is complaining about pets that you find difficult or near impossible to get. If you don't want to go after that pet, don't go after the pet. There are going to be pets that are exceptionally hard to get.

If one nerfs all of these hard to get pets, they lose a lot of the value that is associated with the effort in getting them. In addition, there will always be people that wish that pets were easier to get. Taken to the extreme, would it be good for pet battles if everybody started with all of the pets prelearned at lvl 25? The point being that the difficulty and RNG is part of the fun.

[Mrbeankc]

First off, how is it possible to cheat in Pet PVP?

Cheating is always possible. It's only a question of the person getting caught. I had a guild member in my old guild brag about how he made his own pvp hacks and he was never caught. My understanding is there are currently 4 pvp pet hacks circulating. It's unfortunate but Blizzard at this point has pretty much slashed the number of people working on Warcraft to the bare bones so they really aren't making much of an effort to stop cheating like they were 3 years ago.