PvP Pet Battles - achieving 10% win rate?

[Teacake]

I named the team "Winter is Coming"

I have a team called Winter Is Coming too. Snowman, Santa's Helper, and Mechanical Yeti. (I didn't want to use the Kun Lai Runt because I just have a personal peeve thing now where I don't want to see them ever. Even on my own teams.)

I rarely play that team, though. But I do use an imp team quite a bit and my imps are named Valar Morghulis and Valar Dohaeris.

My most frequently used team is Fiendish Imp, Skull, and Lost of Lordaeron, and so far it wins much more than it loses (but I haven't gotten to the 250 wins yet). I think a key to pet PVP frustration alleviation is that you have to expect to lose sometimes and not necessarily consider it a failure. There will always be a scissors for your paper. I just use those losses to see what other people are doing with other pets and maybe learn something. Unless it's a crawdad-idol or runt-runt-runt team, in which case, it's okay to say bad words. I play the teams that I enjoy playing and preferably that win more than they lose, but I'm not trying to build a perfect team.

[Khayah]

I just finished 250 wins and got the cute stunted direhorn. but not just this pet as reward or motivation i really had so much fun, pet battling is great!

[Teacake]

I finished the 250 tonight as well, direhorn is very cute plus I'm guessing he'll be a pretty good little battler - same moveset as the other direhorn but P/P, which the other doesn't have.

I hope some of the people feeling frustrated but who are sticking with it for the pet will come to find it more fun. The most enjoyable aspect of it for me has been learning/playing a lot more of my stable than the same standard teams I use every day for tamers. It's a much more interesting challenge in many ways and coming up with teams was a very fun exercise, even when they flopped. (I did a lot of really dumb things along the way.)

A thousand seems a reallllly long way off now.

[Khayah]

actually i think 1000 wins will come rather quick as i lost quite a bit in the beginning due to the circumstance that prior 5.3 i just did 16 pvp battles at all for an overall impression.

My line up is rather special, as germany crawling claw clockwork gnome and Lil'Ragnaros are definitely the pets i encountered most (next to the obvious klr) so i had to find a setup countering them as good as possible. since finding sth suitable i was doing pretty well

[Luciandk]

Getting close to finish myself, been mostly using the same team. Though it gets harder winning with it out late in the night and only few left in queeue with annoying teams. Almost there, 235/250.

But Ive seen some interesting combos and skill uses. Sunreaver Micro Sentry with Fel Immolate, Extra Plating and Call Lightning is extremely annoying. Doubly so when stacked together with a Fiendish Imp S/S breed, having Immolate, Immolation and packing the force swapper Nether Gate.

[Khayah]

I mostly used three teams,

a darkness team raven p/s skull h/s and lantern, easy to play quite but hard to master if you encounter lots of opponents with different weather or dragons

a "no weather - no miss - max dmg team" Toothy, Wolvar pup and electrified razortooth, awesome line up, as you have double bleed, double blood in the water, an extremely useful surge and trap + maul speakes for itself ... i had only one miss off a maul ever. the tricky part is that everyone switches his pet out, if rip+bleed him, so its really like chess to get a blood in the water + maul on a bleeding target, you really have to anticipate what the opponent would do

an immolation line up corefiend imp, clockwork gnome + any dot ... thus you can use lightning to your advantage, turrents are very effective against a target when opponents puts up lightning. best advantage is that you really do not care whatever your opponent is doing, you just setup the dot line. contra would be that you need ramp up time, the first 5-6 turns is really low dmg

a good lightning pet also is a serpent with lightning + cyclone but i think dragonkin are bad pets in the late game so i skip them in favor of an immolation imp.

what else was remarkable?

pandaren water spirit whirlpool+geysir then switch to snail with goo ... so debuffed target is nearly dead and stunned

[Luciandk]

Banged off the last 15 wins and finally got the Stunted Direhorn. Glad to be done with that grind!

[Silverthorn]

Thanks for all your well-considered replies. I spent a week off from Pet PvP. I'm now slowly getting back into it. I am not afraid to "offtank" bosses (think scenarios), but actual PvP scares me. I just freeze up. The best I can do is to randomly spam my action bar keys and hope they go away. Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better now, at least for Pet PvP.

You were right, I did not have a tightly-themed team, but after some switching around, I settled on a "Chill Team" with KLR, Water Waveling, and Frosty. I started to see some wins. I think I'm up to 10 or 11 now. More often, even when I lose, it's a much closer call than before.

Part of my problem seems to have been that first week-- the PvP majority were folks with 5.3 pets already maxed and brutally efficient. Now, not every match is against a seasoned pro. The exception seems to be late at night. Past maybe 10 or 11 pm Central, all I saw were those brutally efficient teams with Mini-Thor's, Son of Animus, etc. and rock-solid play again. Last night I played Pet PvP and my moderately successful team did maybe 50% - 60% wins up until maybe 11 pm. Then it was 0% until I gave up, close onto midnight. The winning move was clearly not to play so late at night.

I agree with the folks who are unhappy with Blizzard for sprinkling pets across all areas of the game. We want to collect them all, but we can't. Blizzard did not intend for us to do so. If you do, that's great, but they won't make it easy. As far as they are concerned, the moment you have everything you want, you stop playing (and paying your subscription). They want you to stay hungry for more.

I'm not even close to collecting them all. I've been able to collect most of the wild ones and buy the ones I could not farm myself on the Auction House. I even decided to buy some of the promo cards from eBay-- only the ones for $10 or less. I busted my chops to get to rank 4 in the Brawler's Guild for Clock'em. I even blew some huge amounts on the BMAH for some long-sought pets. Now I'm reluctantly dipping into the PvP that I don't care for, in hopes of getting that prize as well. Doubtless, when I finally get there, I will go back to the other parts of the game that I find more enjoyable. In the mean time, I value all your suggestions and I intend to make the most of them. Thanks again!

[Powersurger]

Never going to get this got 3 wins and like 10 losses i hate pvp, and now pet pvp stupid pet from achievement arg, going to start ripping my hair out...

[Khayah]

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[Mitzavolchenko]

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.

My best "rated" team is Creepy Crate (holiday quest), Giant Bone Spide (Naxx off Maexna), and Clockwork Gnome (Archy). They eat the Pandaren Monk and Lil Rag for lunch.

The Kun Lai Runt is a wild and is still perhaps the strongest single pet in the game.

Cinder Kitten, who I happily threw money on for a good cause, is fairly mediocre to terrible in PVP.

My best advice for new to lvl 25 pvp battles is to think about each of your pets and how its moves work with the other members of a team. For instance, my death grip team spends a lot of time swapping in and out as I spread Agony and prevent a hard counter from a critter. I use the Gnome as kill the critter and counter dragons/mechs.

Don't get discouraged. Experiment. You will see a TON of humanoid pets and with the new Valk a fair number of undead. Elementals and dragonkin are also quite popular.

[Crimsonshade]

Seeing a lot of wins fast after swapping between the winter is coming build mentioned in here and a darkness build of ghostly skull, broom and crow. What I like about these teams is they are quite fast to win or loose so there is no stalling/waiting around. I would say I battle and win 60% now, and 5% of the time experienced people leave right away if they know their team is weak against frost/dark. I'm currently leveling up a few more suggested builds in this thread and others since I like to play my teams in rotations so I don't get bored and so I'm not just annoying to people online at the time. PetBattleTeams from curse is great for managing team also, thanks for that tip.

[Catalytic]

If you don't want to go after that pet, don't go after the pet.

Not to be snarky here, but this is one of the kind of statements that sets me off.

Think of where you're posting. There are no pets that peeps don't want to go after.

When peeps speak of being forced to do something in the game, that doesn't mean Blizzard is putting a gun to their head and saying "do this unpleasant thing!" It means that if they want this thing in the game, they have no option but to do this thing that they dislike. Ignoring this thing that they want because it's tied to their enjoyment of the game doesn't make it go away, or remove the want. It lowers their enjoyment of the game.

For example, (I'm probably an extreme case) I spent most of Cata not playing WoW.
Why? Because archeology just sucked that much.

The mechanics were exactly as bad as I predicted a couple weeks after release, and none of their fixes ever addressed the core problems. I collect pets. It's what I do. My first priority is always pets. I simply could not do more archeology, but I also couldn't focus on alts, raids or anything else because the crawling claw was there eating away at my enjoyment. For me, there was no lie back and think of England, grin and bear it, grit my teeth and get it over with. Faced with the concept of doing archeology, I would rather not play WoW at all.

MoP and tradeable pets changed that, since I was able to get the claw without having to resort to archeology again.

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.

The game is supposed to be fun, and you're supposed to have choice in how you spend your time playing. The problem is that you can't please everyone all the time.

Some people like Pet PvP, and want rewards for doing what they like. Blizzard says "we like happy customers" so they put rewards in for the peeps that like that aspect of the game. Then other peeps show up and say "do not like!" If the internet has taught us one thing, it's that people can (and will) complain about everything. You can't please everyone all the time.

People enjoy different things, and there's some things that they simply do not enjoy, and will never enjoy no matter whether they are good at it or not.

I'm part of the group that detests PvP in any form. I did PvP to get the olympic pet, that was unpleasant. I did PvP to complete the holiday metas. I've currently got a pet team that's not roflstomped, so I can win sometimes, but it'll be a long long slow slog to the required wins for the pet (and the title).

That doesn't mean I won't improve at it and have a better win ratio, and it also doesn't mean that I'll ever like doing it.

All it means is that this particular pain is not above my threshold of unpleasantness where I'll stop playing the game again, that threshold may be different for others. At least the raid pets are tradeable.

I can't speak for others, but the point of complaining (about things that aren't broken) is less to have things made easier, or even necessarily have Blizzard implement a "solution". It's a way to communicate with others that have similar likes and dislikes. It's to get some of the frustration at having to do this unpleasant thing out, so the burden is not so heavy because others hear you, understand you, and commiserate with you.

Tig, I <3 you!

[Rakrath]

Hi @ll,

finally got the 250 PVP Pet. I am now at ~750 PVP Pet Battle Wins, ~500 pre 5.3 and i would say 80% of them 25lvl only.

Wanted to share some tipps and tricks from my side, plz note that those are not math proven ore so, just my experience and my opinion

- as already mentioned knowledge and practise is king therefore, keybind your pet journal to a key and use it infight(if needed or pet is unknown etc)
(- if u already have a team, check out for another breeds, mostly faster or stronger to optimize your setup)

- know all wheather effects, do not forget Elementals ignore weather effacts
- know pet types
- install all the pet battle addons out there


- mostly the teams which are build around a specific strategy are stronger then any rnd 3 pets. That means i bet: "any strategy team will beat the lil raggi, lil deathwing and pmonk team"(even if those 3 pets were epic quality)
- Speed ist very important in pvp pet battle, consider this when building your team AND check the oponnent speeds when selecting your opener pet infight
- HOT TIP: Precision: Try to use only 100% Attacks, believe it or not. But i recognized how well it is. You dont neccesary win a PVP battle because u always hit, but u mostly loose because u missed once.(m talking about 90/95% and maybe 80/85). It does 2 things: it increases your win rate AND lowers your WTF MISS I HATE PVP PET BATTLES moments Did u ever saw the lil raggy rage leave fight because his Conflagrate missed? ^^
- a good mixture of support and utility is also nice but this is very very situational, i personally like the new aoe slow+damage, can give u big advantage when played in the rght situation.
- if u want to gain wins: play in the meantime, if u want to train ur skill or test ur team: play in the night, often u face the same person again and again: when u loose again and again he will keep his team, when u will win again and again he will switch his team to try to counter yours:
-> if u loose: first let your setup like it is, and change only your in game strategy (other opener pet, another pet, delay weather or just dont do weather if u have one, etc
-> if u win: try keep winning and see your opponent to come with a team that counters your more and more (only possible if hte opponent has the amount of pets at max level and are willing to do so
)
- The Dying Strategy: How ur pets schould die? Sometimes u will maybe face a team where one single pet is good agains ur team/strategy. Lets say it will kill your first pet an make like 50% to the second pet. you have 150% pets and the oponnent 200% and might win. Sometimes it can be(based on strategy) wise to swich pets, so tha u have 3 pets with low health <50% instead of one full and one half pet. another Story: Sometimes it might be wise to swap out a pet with very low health for a later use(especially when it is a faster one then the remainig opponents), often it is a opener pet and also a pet with a support ability (Weather/Debuff/Buff etc).
- somtimes it is possible to change bad for good: the 100% stun KLR can make u free from: Ion Cannon, Solar Beam etc


thats from my side
Rakrath

[Zalamander]

My plan was to just find pets with a good mix of different kinds of attacks. So that would always have something that works allround against anything. Since you never know what you are up against in PvP anyway.

Met some guy with 3 force swap pets last night, thought he must cause hell for teams with strategies but he was no match for my team where all pets could hold theire own, it even put me at an advantage that he swapped around my pets so none ever died.

Then I got somone with a full beast team, that must really be strong against almost anything unless a bunch of robots comes. Got owned pretty bad from theire massive dmg on <50%. Even tho I didnt even have any critter pets.

So my suggestion if you dont want to formulate a strategy with a specifik setup I guess is, get 3 strong allround pets with 3 different skills that are never all weak and play defencively. I play with sand storm weather most of the time.
Or try a full beast team, I can really see that win over 50% of the time with little effort.

[Rakrath]

My plan was to just find pets with a good mix of different kinds of attacks. So that would always have something that works allround against anything. Since you never know what you are up against in PvP anyway.

Met some guy with 3 force swap pets last night, thought he must cause hell for teams with strategies but he was no match for my team where all pets could hold theire own, it even put me at an advantage that he swapped around my pets so none ever died.

Then I got somone with a full beast team, that must really be strong against almost anything unless a bunch of robots comes. Got owned pretty bad from theire massive dmg on <50%. Even tho I didnt even have any critter pets.

So my suggestion if you dont want to formulate a strategy with a specifik setup I guess is, get 3 strong allround pets with 3 different skills that are never all weak and play defencively. I play with sand storm weather most of the time.
Or try a full beast team, I can really see that win over 50% of the time with little effort.

Well "swap force" Team is predictable, for many Teamsetups it can be wellcomed to be forceswapped, it gives u a swap for free(place weather, debuff, buff etc)

Rakrath

[Zalamander]

Well "swap force" Team is predictable, for many Teamsetups it can be wellcomed to be forceswapped, it gives u a swap for free(place weather, debuff, buff etc)

Ye it was what I thought, but basically any setup that has strong advantages also have strong disadvantages like that, Even tho its probably strong vs team relying on pets with skill combos to maximize dmg on one individual pet.

Amazed my self how my team archived close to 90% win ratio yday. I cant see what makes my team strong more than its big spread of different kinds of attacks(always something strong). So I guess I was just lucky. I beat a fgew darkness teams. Also some combo of clockwork gnome turrets and lightning storm weather that seemed interesting, but I prevailed.

[Teacake]

OT, per the discussion of Winter Is Coming teams: I presume we've now all renamed them The North Remembers?

[Dash]

Think of where you're posting. There are no pets that peeps don't want to go after. .

First of, sorry I cut everything from your detailed and interesting post, but I just wanted to point something.
Surprise : I love pets! I really do, ever since Vanilla when you had them in cages that filled up your bank ("omg you have 12 pets?! Are you insane?") Shoutout to Whiskers who stood by my side as I first stepped into Molten Core... but I digress.

This is not a popular opinion, and I probably already ranted about it, but I do not care for store bought pets. I'm as obsess.. I mean passionate about my pet collection as the next person on these boards, but I have no desire to acquire those, even if they were given to me (so that's obsessive and stubborn for you). The fact that I've been stomped on by Lil' Ragnaros and Monks and what have you only fuels my disdain instead of making me want them.
All I'm saying is yes, there are some things that you can not want.

More on topic, PvP in general stresses me out. I suck less than I sucked before, although I'm amazed at how some folks here are able to dissect stuff (I might be a dumbass), and after trials and errors I managed to build 2 or 3 teams that can not only net me wins, but also teams that I enjoy playing (seems obvious but it's really important, pretty much like playing a class you enjoy. Someone said "don't use a pet just because it's cute", I say use a pet that is *also* cute)

I think the biggest mistakes one can make (and that includes me) is losing patience and taking things personnaly. Pet battles are an opportunity to mess around with our beloved pets instead of just having them follow us around, how cool is that?

Well "swap force" Team is predictable, for many Teamsetups it can be wellcomed to be forceswapped, it gives u a swap for free(place weather, debuff, buff etc)

Rakrath

I had someone force swap me each time it was up and each time my lil bad wolf was pulled : he was faster, the guy had his curse of doom dodged twice. Ouch.