Pet Leveling

[Leathercream]

Just wondering everyone's inputs on the fastest way to level pets and a play by play best circuit for dailies and best way to collect battle stones. I hope for maximum participation and perhaps if they're is enough useful information we can get a sticky.

[Aalea]

I tend to use my Xu-fu for levelling pets in Pandaria. I get them to about level 5 in Org and then head out to Pandaria to level them fast with my trusty Safari hat and the pet treats if I feel the need to have them at max level fast. Sometimes if I want to level on Timeless Isle Ill swap Xu-fu out with my Infinite Whelping.

Being a Mage I always start off my dailies by doing Stone Cold Trixie, I then port to Stonard and do Lydia. Then its a portal to Shattrath to take on Blood Knight Antari, once Im finished beating his pets up I port to Dal to take on Major Payne (in the backside). After which I port to the Temple in the Vale and start with Aki, No-No, Wastewalker Shu, Gorespine and working my way through Townlong (including the Pandaren Tamer). Kun Lai Summit, Jade Forest, Kasarang, then to VoTFW and port back to the Vale to hand in. If I don't get distracted by rares and Warbringers I can usually be done in under a couple of hours.

Tamers I use to Level pets are
Aki
No-No (although the Legendaries dont give much xp at all)
Seeker Zusshi
Fire Spirit
Courageous Yon
Thundering Spirit
Whispering Spirit
Nitun
Hyuna
Ka'wi
Mo'rok
Flowing Spirit
Lucky Yi
and finally Farmer Nishi

[Klaital]

Aalea your missing Wastewalker Shu from your list!

[Jhane]

I have multiple accounts, and I have used my rocket mount to escort low level alts to all tamers 19+. If you have only 1 account, you can do the same only spread out over multiple servers. Saves a lot on travel time. You should also give them some pet treats.

Another tip I would like to give is to study the excellent 5.4 tamer guide on this site so you do each battle as fast as possible.

For grinding spot I prefer the critters on the Tavern in the Mist / Black Market Auction House area. There will always be 3 x critters, and I use a P/P Anklerender with Bite, Primal Cry and Devour.

[Terrorpene15]

I love the spot near aki, there are 3 locations with 3 striders that spawn frequently in a small area. I just grab the pet I want to level, and use 2 moths. usually I just like to take a pet from 5-18 there, and then let the trainers/elementals give me 18-25. I like to have 4-5 pets I am leveling at about 18, all who level off a different trainer based on their attacks against the third pet. then I feel like I am actually accomplishing something if I strike out on my quest to get more battle stones.

[Rendigar]

Definitely check the 5.4 guide ([url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7556](here)[/url] for general levelling rotation through Pandaria and some Cataclysm trainers as well. Depending on how you like to do it you can max out a pair of level 1's, or about 4 level 15's in a cycle (I think I always used my hat and the 25% boost for those results). My normal levelling routine went something like this:

Head out to Outlands and stop by the NE corner of Blades Edge Mountains with a crop of level 1's teamed up with an opening pet with a stun (of any kind) and a pet that's good for self-healing (I prefer raptors with Devour, or my Molten Hatchling with Leech Life, Cauterize, and Brittle Webbing). Start with a stun, swap in carry pet, swap in raptor, clean house - repeat. I'll get a group of pets to level 5 this way (takes I think 2 fights per pet, but it's been 8 months so I could be wrong).

Once I have enough to level 5 (which is enough to survive most 1st turn hits by level 24's, except poison sometimes), I head for Valley of the Four Winds just north of my farm with a team made up of the carry pet first and one of my raptors and another self-sufficient pet (though a healing flyer would be good for dealing with the aquatics when they show up). Start with any attack from the carry pet then clean house with the raptor again. As long as you watch for evasion maneuvers (cocoon, survival, etc) you can time devour to kill every pet you face. I get the bevy of pets to level 15 (takes around 4 or 5 fights each, I think), and those are what i use for a couple days of doing the pet tamer circuit.

One thing worth noting - once a pet hits 24 I take him out of the levelling list, a single tamer battle, with or without a treat or safari hat, gives much more than is needed to go from 24-25. I'd rather do a couple of fights with the 24 and save the big XP boost for the lowbies. I want to say if I start with a level 15 it will hit 25, but if I start with a 14 or a 16 it will hit 24.

[Jerebear]

One thing that a lot of people don't realize is that the pet experience curve is not linear. This introduces an interesting dynamic: level 10 and level 11 pets get the absolute most EXP from Pandaria/Northrend/Cataclysm tamers out of any other level pets. Both level 1 and level 24 pets get less experience than a level 10 or 11 pet. It also means that a level 1 pet earns the same EXP as a level 20 pet (2=19, 3=18, 4=17, etc).

Why is this important? Well if you plan on levelling most or all of your pets eventually, and you are limited on the number of 50% food buffs, then you want those 50% buffs to net the most "extra" EXP that they can, which means while you have that buff up, you want to primarily battle level 10 or 11 pets against tamers. If you don't have any more 10-11 pets, then the pets closest to that level are the next best thing (HINT for Rematch users: Median sorting with auto rotate on your queue provides this organization).

The 25% buffs are a dime a dozen (you can get 3x per day), so they can be used on everthing else. When I levelled all my pets, I used two toons: My tamer killer which had max flying and some items to port around and levelling toon to do wild battles. With that team I did the following:

Days where I had 50% and 25% buffs:
Take all my 10/11's against all the tamers I could in the hour (usually 16-19 tamers once I got good). If no 10/11 pets, then the pets closes to 10/11

Days where I only had the 25% buff:
Take all my pets closest to but not over level 23 against the same tamers (again 16-19 tamers per hour buff)

On my offtime with my levelling alt and only a safari hat I hit up wild battles
1. Get any sub level 10 pets to level 10/11. Took 4 battles max from 1-10 fighting level 24-25 wild battles
2. Finish off any level 24 pets to 25 (again normally no more than 4ish battles)

This method worked really well for me since I didn't have the alt army available to park at all the tamers (nor the amount of 50% food buffs to stack at each alt).

In WoD, 50% food buffs might be a bit more easily ootten, so this may be moot...will have to check that out.