Best 5 pets for Beginners?

[Smokes]

A guild friend of mine is just about to get into the pet battling scene. I want to gift him a set of 5 pets that will be helpful for the leveling process, and hopefully also be good in PvP (which I know little about since I still haven't tried it yet) but I can't decide on which 5 pets I should give him!

He only has currently 17 unique pets, of which the best are the Panther Cub and Spirit of Competition as he was never a collector. Currently he doesn't own any Mechanical, Elemental, Humaniod, Undead, or Magic pets, so I feel I should pick a good one from each of those families.

If you had to pick 5 tradeable pets to level with, which 5 would you pick?

[Jumi]

Sewer Rat and Pandaren Monk are both good heavy hitters, and Terrible Turnip is great for capturing pets due to Withering Blow.

[Worgenbait]

Anubisath Idol I think is pretty essential, as it solos a lot of things by itself, especially when leveled. Probably a Direhorn as well, those would help with battles as well. Clockwork Gnome would be good for battling beasts. A flyer would be a good pet to have to battle aquatics. Finally, I'd go with Chuck as a heavy hitter, or the Terrible Turnip to help capture, maybe both of these over a flyer.

[Papazol]

Hard question - most great pets cant be obtained untill highend or cant be traded. Some from tradeble aren't cheap. Many pvp pets are realy weak in pve on low lvls. But still if I do such present, my choice will incud:
1. Something with heal like Ancient blessing, and better dragonkin, like Chrominius, but you say your friend already has Spirit of competition. So you may present him Crawling claw or Prerrordax hatchling or something with another heal like Strand Crawler.
2. Something with good damage. Great choice but not too cheap - Yellow moth in 4/14 breed, what upgraded to rare. It is machine to kill most wild pets including wild dragonkins(!) and usable in pvp. Also you may use something from tradeble mech pets, like Sunreaver Micro-Sentry or another fly like Gilnean raven in 10/20 breed, upgraded to rare.
3. Something with leech heal like Absorb, I preffer oozes such like my favorite Disgusting oozeling. Oozes just 2 dots and absorb all wild pets and most pet masters, including aquatic pets (!). Also you may present Scooter the Snail upgraded to rare or pets with another tipe of lifesteal, for example maggots like Mr. Grubbs.
4. Something with selfheal after kill like Devour, for example, Creepy Crate upgraded to rare. Also all crocolisks like Toothy have dual heal - leech from Consume and heal after kill from Devour. And we dont foget what Chrominius also has dual heal - from Ancient blessing and from Ravage , moreover it is just one pet with Ravage, what can be traded.
5. Last position is a tank. You can present something fat with sandstorm like Anubusath Idol or Grinder. Also like good tanks you may use fat aquatic pets like turtles, for example, Darkmoon turtle or crabs like Magical Crawdad or Strand Crawler.
If you will present Strand Crawler and Chronimus and still have some slots open you may present pet, what help to catch wild pets. In my opinion, the best thing for it is ability Sunlight. It increase wild pet total health and make damage mostly enough to use grate right after it. So you may present any elem what has this ability like Terreble Turnip .

[Luciandk]

My take on best beginner pets:

My most used, core pets
1: Anubisath Idol
Very long lasting pet, able to deal with many difficult tamers.

2:Emerald Proto-Whelp
Incredibly resilient pet, it just keeps going, going and going.

3: Son of Animus
A very resilient and strong mech pet to destroy the hordes of beasts

Very good, but specialized pets for certain abundant mob types
4: Chrominius
Very flexible and powerful dragonkin. Destroys critters and have a heavy nuke that absolutely murders flyers.

5: Shimmershell Snail (breed 6) or Scooter the Snail
Absolutely essential for dealing with elementals.

6: Jade owl
Superb for dealing with aquatics. Hurts aquatics and resistant to aquatic damage.

[Smokes]

Thanks so much for the responses! I think I've decided on:

1. Anubisath Idol - humaniond - very tanky, helped me out a lot when I got one
2. Darkmoon Tonk/Clockwork Gnome - mechanical - I currently have a spare of each and I use the Tonk all the time
3. Disgusting Oozeling - magic - standard ooze, I already have a spare
4. Fossilized Hatchling - undead - not a personal favorite, but an undead with a heal.
I'll probably throw him a few others like the Turnip, Strand Crawler, Snarly, Direhorn Runt.

I want to keep from overwhelming him with pets, but I'd like to give him a variety to start with. He can capture plenty of Critters + Beasts, as well as Flyers and Aquatics from battling, and this gives him a few pets in the families he doesn't have yet.

[Tekulve2012]

This depends on your budget (gold and cash) but here are some I like for pvp and pve:

Note that in 5.4 some of these swapping pets get nerfed (spider,broom)
Cheapies (relatively) -
Ghostly skull (h/p)-50g in undercity sewer
yellow moth (p/p) under 50g often
these are both good in pvp

mid range cost-
Giant bone spider (300-1500g depending on server)
enchanted broom (1200-3k again depending on server)
fiendish imp (s/s) 1k gold
darkmoon tonk -get at the faire or 1-2k gold

Blizz store 10 $
Lil rags (hits a ton -has a trap attack and DOT - lots of fun -doubles as a cooking fire)

If you can nab an Anub Idol just do it
the Terrible turnip is needed for pve to catch pets and can be obtained for 300g range on AH

[Smokes]

Oh, I have a spare stoned Ghostly Skull, I forgot about that one!

The yellow moth I haven't seen a p/p come up in my AH lately and I don't have any flying stones at the moment, so I was skipping that for now and I'll see if I can pick one up later for him. Is there a relatively comparable wild caught Flyer that could fill this role, found before or around pet lvl 10 that I could send him for?

I haven't used the bone spider at all for myself, but I can pick one up.

For the Fiendish Imp, I think the one I have is a P/S - is it still useful in a non S/S breed? I again, haven't used mine. I hear the S/S is prevalent in PvP.

I'd love to get him an enchanted broom, but again I'm missing a stone for it if I did pick up one. Would this be worth pursuing over giving him an Oozeling I already have? I use the broom for tamers, and the Jade Oozeling as well, but don't tend to pull out either for anything else- I don't think I had either while leveling my first 10 pets to 25.

As for the store pets, I currently am not going to be buying anything until after I've paid for my books for this school semester.

I have a spare Anubisath, and I can pick up a Turnip for around 30g in my AH.

[Corah]

1. Clockwork gnome is my go to pet on many trainer battles (Paine and Antari for example). He's great against beasts.
2. Legs is good against flying and elemental, and pump is just awesome!
3. Jade Owl for aquatic
4. Spirit of Competition He should absolutely level this one, the tail sweep is great.
5. Tiny Snowman for mechanicals

I picked up a Strand Crab (breed 6) (the Strand Crawler works too) very early on and it was a mainstay while leveling. It's good against critters and elementals and has a shield and heal. I also suggest a Water Waveling from Zul'drak.

[Luciandk]

Regarding Yellow moth, its bought in Exodar, may need a couple buys before a P/P turns up.

Dont use a Disgusting Oozeling, underwhelming breed as magic pets dont want to have high hp. Capture a Jade Oozeling instead. Its the only slime that can be P/P breed.

[Smokes]

Regarding Yellow moth, its bought in Exodar, may need a couple buys before a P/P turns up.

Dont use a Disgusting Oozeling, underwhelming breed as magic pets dont want to have high hp. Capture a Jade Oozeling instead. Its the only slime that can be P/P breed.

My problem with the Yellow Moth is more that I don't have a stone for it, though it's something I will definitely suggest for him to look into.

I'll direct him towards the Jade Oozeling for sure, I like mine a lot. (The problem I had with the Jade Ooze is that it was a PAIN to try and fine a rare, any P/P I found was always grey. I had to stone mine.) The Disgusting Oozeling will allow him try out the move set and see if he likes that style and finds it fun.

The goal is to find versatile and solid pets for leveling, hopefully fun ones so that he will be hooked onto the pet thing and I will have corrupted another guildie into being one of those 'pet people'.

[Luciandk]

Hrm, yes, if it doesnt involve stoned or high level wild captures. Then it does narrow down the list of possibilities.

[Cluey]

My take on best beginner pets:

My most used, core pets
1: Anubisath Idol
Very long lasting pet, able to deal with many difficult tamers.

2:Emerald Proto-Whelp
Incredibly resilient pet, it just keeps going, going and going.

3: Son of Animus
A very resilient and strong mech pet to destroy the hordes of beasts

Very good, but specialized pets for certain abundant mob types
4: Chrominius
Very flexible and powerful dragonkin. Destroys critters and have a heavy nuke that absolutely murders flyers.

5: Shimmershell Snail (breed 6) or Scooter the Snail
Absolutely essential for dealing with elementals.

6: Jade owl
Superb for dealing with aquatics. Hurts aquatics and resistant to aquatic damage.

I agree with most of your choices and the only one I don't use often, well at all, is Chrominius.

As for the snail I prefer the H/P Shimmershell Snail as it hits harder and still has heaps of HP. I use the snail for three tamer dailies. This is the highest power snail you can get, there are multiple options for mas HP snails including the second one you linked.

It is nice to see that someone else has found the awesomeness which is the Jade owl, I've got the P/B breed and use it on a lot of daily tamers. I'm trying to remember which ones to count but it's all just become automatic now and I can't remember.

As for the original question and purpose of this thread.
Given most, if not all, of us wouldn't have read anything about what pets to use and we've all leveled them I'd say it doesn't really matter what your friend uses.
If he wants to only level the minimum possible for the OCD's and to be able to beat all the tamers and BoF that would be different and also easier and harder, all at the same time, to answer.

[Breehit]

I get the most use out of Darkmoon Zeppelin. This pet solo's trainers, even taking out pets that are not its specialty.

[Sanzul]

Son of Animus is fantastic when leveling, though getting it relies on luck. Mechanicals are great while leveling (lots of beasts around, and very few elementals), and it comes with both a defensive buff and a heal. Siphon Anima will heal you for 50% more when fighting beasts, which combined with taking 50% less damage lets you wade through hordes of enemies without losing any health.

Strand Crawler is also quite lovely. Beast damage means critter killing, and the combination of Shell Shield and Renewing Mists makes the pet very hard to kill. It doesn't dish out all that much damage, but it can outlast most things you'll encounter before level 25.

[Ravnhawk]

Smokes you can buy the yellow month for a few silver I believe from a vendor. Keep buying until you get a p/p one.

[Beesknees]

Low level catchables:
I love the spiders. Go to Duskwood. East of Raven Hill(lvl6-7) you can find a Dusk Spiderling or a Widow Spiderling (get both). When you get to level 15 stick with Brittle Webbing. Anything you fight takes damage when it hits your pet. The spider uses Leech Life and keeps healing itself.

Rabbits are fast, have dodge, burrow and seem to get missed frequently. They're annoying to kill and fun to use.

Find a Black Lamb or a Fawn in Elywnn. They heal themselves and the entire party.

My spiders are how I got my first pet to lvl 25. Critters are eveywhere. Cute, fuzzy little squeekers.

Good luck!

[Sanzul]

I love the spiders. Go to Duskwood. East of Raven Hill(lvl6-7) you can find a Dusk Spiderling or a Widow Spiderling (get both). When you get to level 15 stick with Brittle Webbing. Anything you fight takes damage when it hits your pet. The spider uses Leech Life and keeps healing itself.

Spiders are fantastic at level 15+, but I found them to be fairly useless early on. Sticky Web only lasts two rounds, so you can't do Web LL PS LL and have both Leech Life benefit from it. You're also going to be doing fairly lousy damage if you don't have Poison Spit and Brittle Webbing, as Leech Life alone is pretty weak. Once you get to level 15 I'd highly recommend getting a spider (or several), but before that you'll probably be disappointed by them.