Decent starting team?

[Bostian]

So, I pretty much did nothing with pet battling since it first came out, but I've decided recently that I ought to give it a try just for the sake of it. If nothing else, the world quests.

That being said, I don't have many high levels, so I'm looking for a few pet suggestions as a 'starter team'. I have three of those instant max level stones across my characters, and I know there's no such 'win everything' sort of team, just looking for something to get me started. No PvP intended.

Thanks in advance!

[Digem]

Here are just a few:

Anubisath Idol
Teroclaw Hatchling
Nexus Whelpling
Stormborn Whelpling
Iron Starlette
Unborn Valkyr
Any S/S rabbit
Chrominius
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Zandalari Kneebiter
Kunlai Runt
Ikky

This is pretty much the must have list.
If you start with the top 3 listed idol,hatchling,and nexus whelping one can pretty much beat any trainer team and collect or raise any new pets. Only thing I would add to the list is a moth preferably p/s breed.

[Gráinne]

I'll put this here again:

Another list. made from a different angle.

Xu-Fu, aka Aranesh, who keeps the most comprehensive and up to date strats on [url]http://wow-petguide.com[/url], kindly makes available the list of pets used for the preferred strat in each range of battles, and how many times each pet is used.

I pasted all of these lists except one into a spreadsheet and added them up. I excluded the Family Familiar achievement, since that takes us to some strange places, and adds a lot of one-off pets to the list. Whet we should have here is a general sense of the usefulness of each pet to the beginning battler facing tamers and World Quests. The total number of uses of the pet is on the left.

17 Chrominius
13 Anubisath Idol
13 Teroclaw Hatchling
12 Iron Starlette
10 Ikky
10 Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
8 Clockwork Gnome
8 Nexus Whelpling
8 Unborn Val'kyr
8 Zandalari Anklerender
7 Darkmoon Tonk
7 Emerald Proto-Whelp
6 Darkmoon Zeppelin
6 Emperor Crab
5 Any Moth
5 Any Snail

It goes on, at http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16391&p=131412#p131412 but that's enough for your purpose.

You asked for 3. There is no set of 3 that does everything, but the 16 above would get you a long way!

Remember as well that you can buy pets already levelled from the Auction House. That may save your three precious stones that you might want to use on non-tradable pets. You can buy all of the above list, except Emperor Crab, Nexus Whelpling, Unborn Val'kyr. As a very general guide, you can expect to pay 1K more for a level 25 than a level 1 pet. (Very, very general;' the pet market is irrational and varies a lot.)

For a beginner's first team:

1. I'd go with Anubisath Idol, no question. Complete no-brainer.

2. My second pick would be Chrominius.

These first two pets are tanky all-rounders you can rely on to hammer at any opponent.

3. My third would be a really tough choice between Teroclaw Hatchling, Iron Starlette, and Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling.

That third slot is more interesting. They're all first-rate pets in their different fields. For a more experienced battler, I'd rank the Teroclaw higher; the other two are more straightworward to use.

Now, as a beginner, my advice for what to do is:

1. Follow the Taming Outland, Northrend, etc chains up through Taming Pandaria and then Pandaria Spirit Tamers and Beasts of Fable. These are really well-constructed battle chains that will teach you a lot about the pets you use, which to choose, how to use them.

2. Farm old raids to get the pet drops from them. See the Raiding With Leashes achievements for lists
http://www.wowhead.com/battle-pet-collecting-achievements/name:raid

3. Use the pets you have to do World Quests in Legion, and the Pet Tamers in Draenor, to get Pet Charms. Pet Charms will let you buy stones to upgrade pets.

4. Watch for Squirt Day, when you can level 6 pets an hour from 1-25 if you are properly prepared.
http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16187

[Bostian]

Thanks for all the replies, they're really helpful!

[Dalandius]

If your leveling pets using MoP tamers you can do it with only 2 pets the Emerald Proto-Whelp and Anubisath Idol.

There is a great guide (http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4580) which tells you how to defeat each of the MoP tamers.

[Lordy]

The Nether Faerie Dragon is easy to obtain in Faralas and the SS Breed is really useful with dodge or with life exchange vs certain tamers. One of the best ant flyer pets that can also be super useful in a lot of battles due to its speed, dragonkin racial and evasion. I use this one all the time. Or if you can get one the Sprite Darter hatchling world drop pet is almost the same stats.