Your favorite battle pet and why.

[Doobjanka]

The Clockwork Gnome was the first pet I got to 25. He was great against beasts and paired with a snake I could easily bring a low level to the fight just for the xp. Looks like the Ravager Hatchling will be my first humanoid because of his spell mimic ability.

What pets do you recommend for the fun or powerful aspect?

[Quintessence]

I really enjoy the Darkmoon Zeppelin's ability, Bombing Run. It's so amusing to call an airstrike and then watch a bomb literally fall from the sky onto the opponent. XD

The ability that I've found most useful and effective against stronger pets (especially the Tamer teams) is the Brilliant Kaliri's Predatory Strike. The Kaliri has a decent amount of speed, so I can usually go first and use the attack to instantly defeat the other pet as soon as it reaches 25% hp. I've seen Predatory Strike crit for 13,000 on the instant kill.

[Perbrethil]

My best team at the moment is my combination of Celestial Dragon, Lurky and [pet]Lil' XT[/pet] has proven itself to be a pretty strong team, especially XT's XE-321 Boombot attack is a pain in my enemies butt

Besides that i like my Pandaria-Themed team of Pandaren Monk, Fishy and Spirit of Competition, just for the fun of it

[Myrikenes]

I like my team with Spectral Tiger Cub, Tiny Harvester and Sinister Squashling.
I tried out other mechanicals like lilxt but the harvester had better stats.
They work together quite well but I am still leveling them.

[Mathew013]

While not the prettiest or have moves with a grand flourish, one of my top battlers is, too - Clockwork Gnome!
He has a fantastic move in that Build Turret (hits things that Burrows, flies and even that cocoon move by moths)
Also the passive ability, and a Repair (heal) are amazing (a good mechanical is hard to keep down)
When the battle is on the line, this little ‘mech is my go-to guy!

>> Mathew

[Llanwellyn]

Picked up the Aqua Strider from the rarespawn in Panderia, This pet has performed phenominally as it has a base speed of 15 (blue quality pets tend to gain equal to base each level) so at level 12 this guy is already faster than most lvl 20 pets. His abilities are quite strong and have a good variety of dmg. Weakness to flyers is easily countered due to his very high speed stat making him faster.
My other personal fav atm is the Disgusting Oozeling. With so many people using flyers and Mechs this guy packs a serious punch that devastates enemy teams. Plus, it's just cool to beat somebody down by gooing them.

[Oom]

Mini Tyrael because he's just awesome and its hilarious when he's pit against Mini Diablo C: (that and he hits like a truck and heals)

[Savo72]

My current set up is Azure Whelpling, Crawling Claw and Stripe-Tailed Scorpid (rare). I mix in LilXT and Flame Fel.

[Thralla]

My favorite from the beginning has been Onyxian Whelpling, Lil Nyxi. She's the first to make it to a new level and will be my first 25. I like her abilities, even if they aren't as flashy as other pets. She's unflappable and, with her self-heal, hangs in there while I'm capturing a new pet.

He didn't start out that way, but several levels in, Cogsworth, my Clockwork Gnome, became my second. He and Lil Nyxi make quite a team. He's a little challenging to fight with because, forgetting about the turrets, I've accidentally killed a rare I was trying to tame.

The last member of my Three Petateers was very difficult to find. I tried A LOT of the pets that I already had and some that I captured. There remains a chance he might be replaced, but Pincushion, a rare Horny Toad from Desolace has proven to be a fantastic third. We're only around lvl 11 at the moment so this team could still change, but right now, we're rockin' through the Pet Battle quests!

[Taleranor]

My Winterspring Frostsaber. He's a good all-around team player with a decent skillset, a situational heal, and consistently reliable. First to hit 25.

Moonkin Hatchling. My "child." Second to hit 25. While he's not the best of fighters, his roots/solar beam combo is too much fun to pass up when I can get away with fielding him. Something about the one-two punch of LASER BEAM FROM SPACE and roots... kills dragons, ruins the day for some mechanicals, and is fun to watch. So what if he goes down like a boxer paid to take the dive...

Amethyst Shale Hatchling. Third to hit 25. Another hard hitter, often to its own detriment, but such a cute little elemental.

Water Strider. Probably next to hit 25. Solid attack, decent heal, he's the sort of pet who can last a while against a wide variety of opponents, useful for taming in the wild.

Still working on other favorites and deciding who to level up next. Currently aiming for the "level a pet from every family to 25, so..."

[Qoohie]

I've yet to formulate an ultimate all-rounder team for myself, but I've played numerous PvP pet battles so far with Lv.25 pets, and come across many pets and teams.

Here are my list of favourites in no particular order. They can all be caught in the wild, but finding a rare with the right stats might take some decent effort. I've also added my recommended strategy with each:

1. Frog:
- Has both a decent heal, and a damaging ability that snowballs and has a chance to stun;
- I prefer Healing Wave over Cleansing Rain, but both are viable;
- Good against Undead pets.
2. Spider:
- Brittle Webbing works wonders, especially against pets that multi-hit (Clockwork Gnome), or DoT;
- Pick Leech Life for sustain, or Spiderling Swarm for high-damage nuke.
3. Flayer Youngling:
- Reflection is an amazing ability, but one that you should use carefully. Its 5 round cooldown is very long, and to make the most of it use it to reflect those high damaging skills that take time to charge up e.g. Conflagrate. If you're up against one of these, you can juke it by using a weak ability or by switching your pet;
- I recommend 300+ Speed at Lv.25, to use both Blitz and Kick effectively;
- Also a perfect counter for Dragonkin, especially Onyxian Whelplings.
4. Scourged Whelpling:
- Plagued Blood can be amazing when used correctly. Pairing it up with a Tail Sweep, or other pets with multi-hit or DoT will keep the HP of your team up;
- Try to get one with low Speed, and high Power or HP to double-hit with Tail Sweep;
- Vulnerable to critter abilities.
5. Aqua Strider:
- Same heal as frogs paired with Water Pump makes it really dangerous;
- Since, Water Pump is not a 2-consecutive-round ability, its situational value is immense. You can always be primed for a high-damage nuke, while also ready to heal with Healing Wave.
6. Crimson Geode:
- Elementium Bolt, augmented with your 50% or 100% extra damage ability has the potential to one-shot opponents, but is also easy to dodge. If facing this pet, save your invulnerability ability, e.g. Burrow, Lift-Off, for when it lands.
- Difficult to use, due to long cooldown abilities, but devastating when used properly.

[Kingdms]

Little Black Ram. I get a kick out of Headbutt every time I see it, and when combined with Chew it can prove particularly devastating. I love the ram models in this game, and they look even better scaled down to companion pet size.

I'm looking forward to leveling a dwarf paladin, Little Black Ram at his side, mounted on a riding ram and wearing recolored Siegebreaker Battlegear as his transmog set.

[Runestones]

Mini Thor - For some reason I got the Starcraft II CE and never installed the game. This guy made it so I have no regrets. He can't heal but his attacks are quite strong and I enjoy putting a bomb on someone to start then switch pets.

Onyxian Whelpling - Like a previous poster indicated, this pet is Ol' Reliable. He can attack hard, he can avoid attacks, and he can heal.

Disgusting Oozeling - There are so few magic pets that seem strong, this pet is great. It has a lot of diversity and can heal a bit.

Pandaren Monk - This guy is the definition of OP. He can one-shot almost any pet in two turns.

[Poofah]

I have a favorite pair that I'm building most of my lineups around, with a specialist or two mixed in depending on what I'm particularly afraid of.

Emerald Whelpling and Magical Crawdad -- very similar in that they're durable, with high health, a shield, a choice of heals, and solid damage output. The shield is extremely overpowered against DoT effects and multi-attack moves like swarm/flock/stampede, because it subtracts from each hit. Unless they're up against a damage type they're vulnerable to, or the absurdly over-statted pet master pets, they can both tank basically forever while getting in hits here and there. They also have a choice of attack types, making the whelpling extra strong against either flyers or magic, and crawdad extra strong against critters or elementals or undead. Their biggest weakness is in burst damage, both for and against: they can't burn down a pet with good healing, and they can get clobbered by particular pet master pets' burst abilities (e.g. the Kun-Lai pet master has a Summit Kid that can Chew for 1600 dmg non-crit--healing and shields don't help here). So the third pet is generally something with an avoidance ability or something overwhelmingly strong against a particular pet type that I need to beat.

A generic crab is almost identical to Magical Crawdad except for the ability Wish, which heals him for 900+ at level 25, and the very generous allotment of health and attack power at the expense of speed.

Other excellent pets:

Any random Moth -- among flyers, I think moths have the best skill set to take advantage of the higher speed: Alpha Strike, Cocoon Strike, and Moth Dust. When going first, Moth Dust's stun prevents the current round's action as well as the following turn's. Similarly, when going first, you can better predict when burst damage is going to hit you, making Cocoon Strike extremely good.

Any random Frog -- extremely overpowered against undead pets, since it's aquatic and has a critter-type attack. It also has innate resistance to DoTs and can choose Cleansing Rain to give even more DoT resistance, making it even better against undead and very solid against elementals.

Darkmoon Zeppelin -- in the way that shields are overpowered against multi-hit attacks, Decoy is overpowered against burst attacks: it stays up until two instances of damage remove it, meaning that you can't simply wait it out like Dodge or the various Burrow-type abilities. Rather, you have to attack into the Decoy, and if you don't have a multi-hit move like swarm, then it's going to soak two turns' worth of attacks. If you rely on attacks that require charging such as Pump or Deep Breath, then Decoy costs you even more turns, or else you're forced into using weaker attacks just to break the decoy. He also has a solid burst damage ability in either Bombing Run or Explode.


Also, some pets I thought I would love but have been thoroughly umimpressed by:

Crimson Whelpling -- he has the same skillset and Onyxian Whelping, which people seem to adore, so I'm at a bit of a loss here. This was the first pet I chose to level, but as I got into levels 10+, I found this guy to be overly fragile, and I found that I was constantly starting him and then swapping out to Emerald or Crawdad after just a round or two. Since he has no shield or other mitigation, Healing Flame generally just stalled the fight by a turn, rather than actually gaining me any ground. The times when Healing Flame could have been incredible just never seemed to happen: ie, right after the opponent used a burst ability. Instead, I never felt comfortable leaving him out when I thought burst might be coming, because he was liable to just flop over rather than live to get Healing Flame off.

Phoenix Hatchling -- very similar skillset to Crimson Whelpling, and similar weaknesses. He can't take enough hits to use Cauterize strategically after burst damage, he doesn't last long enough for Immolation to do more damage than his basic attack, and, worse than Crimson Whelpling, he sacrifices attack power for speed (without having abilities that benefit from speed). I leveled him to deal with Mechanicals, which he is perfectly capable at, but I never use him otherwise.

[Avalee]

Bat. Simply because of its speed. It can almost always attack first in a round which is a major advantage. I believe that speed is overlooked by many people. The fact that another pet can't go underground or shield itself before you attack is very important.

Darkmoon tonk. 2 of its abillities are very strong but its laser is extremely powerful.

??? For my third, I usually take a random pet which happens to be the highest in level.

[Jetstream]

Mechanical Squirrel! In specific my first Mechanical Squirrel, received as a gift from a guildie when I was like level 8 or something back in 2005.

He's not the best pet I could have in the slot, but he was my first and he's still my favorite. Pasquirrelio (I finally actually got to NAME him!) is filled with Squirrely rage, and loathes all other forms of rodentia. He's never leaving my roster. Ever ever.

I hope Blizz lets me upgrade him to Rare in 5.1, cuz otherwise I'm gonna be running with a team that's 1/3ish weaker than it otherwise could be

[Prontera]

With this team, I win most of the time.

Spectral Tiger Cub Deathy Onyxian Whelpling

Why?

- Most people use dragon pets. Deathy is good oppontment against them.
- Spectral Tiger use Spectral Strike. Always a strike when all pets are blinded. Deathy can change the weather.
- Deathy can stun the oppontment and use Fire Breath.

The Onyxia whelpling is just a tank, to study the oppontment.

Win = win.

[GilroyKilroy]

Mini Thor - For some reason I got the Starcraft II CE and never installed the game. This guy made it so I have no regrets. He can't heal but his attacks are quite strong and I enjoy putting a bomb on someone to start then switch pets.

I like his rocket attack.

Crawling Claw Is my favorite because the effort it took me to get him.

[Bronxthug]

I would say my Curious Wolvar Pup because he looks like such a thug which is why I named it Bronx Thug. I love the punch move. It just makes me laugh when I think about how gangsta it is when he goes to punch a pet. And, I did raise him to 25.

BUT, those crabs are such a problem. I have a shore crab to 25 but even around level 21, it was wiping out entire 3-pet crews solo that were at least 2 levels higher and still had enough left for another battle. Crabs are super OP with the shell shield and healing mists. On more than one occasion, I actually gained more HP when I finished a battle or I ended the battle with full HP.

Nordrassil Wisp is pretty bad ass too. I have that to 25 as well. When you need to drop some birds (master tamer in Howling Fjord), this is the one for you. I like the aoe blast. I use the blind ability, then hit it with the level 10 (forgot the name) which does extra dmg if blinded. Then, I just use the aoe. By the time you get to the 3rd pet, it would have lost 25-50% of its HP. Level that up with in Dragonblight vs dragonbone hatchlings. Easy level 25. I was lucky to get a rare, first attempt.

Some honorable mentions - Onyxian Whelpling (23), Fel Flame, and Water Waveling

I have to have at least one of every family.

[Dinglis]

My main team is Guardian Cub, Lil' Ragnaros and Pandaren Monk .
I simple choose 3 pets of different families and honestly, till now I only lost 1 battle and only cause my opponent had higher lvl pets than mine were.. and I love lil' raggy, he seems really like a boss in most fights where he often 2 shots the opponent.. I'm not long busy with pet battles, but I try to have form each family a max lvl pet so I can switch and make more teams.