Which one to stone?

[Gráinne]

You seem to have a good start already - 24 or 25 level 25s.

You have the means to level your own pets with the various powerlevelling methods here:
https://wow-petguide.com/index.php?m=Powerleveling
or to earn more stones by doing BfA World Quests for Charms, and then just buying them.

So this decision is not very critical.

You want to promote a pet that will help you complete more battles - a useful pet, used in a lot of common strategies.
https://wow-petguide.com/index.php?m=MostUsedPets

So your criteria are
1. (Obviously) Don't stone a pet that is already high level
2. Don't stone a bad breed.
3. Pick a species that will be useful.

I see you have a level 1 and a level 5 P/P breed Iron Starlette. That level 1 would be a great addition to your battling capabilities. Wind-Up->Supercharge->Wind-Up solves a lot of problems.

You already have a level 25 Valk. That, partnered with Ikky, also solves a lot of problems. Curse->Haunt.->Black Claw->Flock eradicates almost every single pet. You would also want to stone your Ikky to Blue quality, but it will be usable for a while as Green, and you can buy Blue stones with a few Charms from BfA World Quests.

The devs have said that they think Ikky and Starlette's mechanics are too good, and may nerf them next expansion, but I'm not sure that's a problem for you, since you want to use them for the next year to level more pets and earn more charms.

I'd go with one of those.

Your P/P Zandalari Anklerender might be another prospect, but I'd be happy with either of the original two.

[Digem]

Thank you for your reply! I'll look into using Starlette for a few levels, and from there I'll see if I want to take the chance stoning it or maybe wait until the new expansion comes out. I really hate when Blizz nerf good things.

the starlette has been the same for a few expansions it wont get nerfed but to beat the new elite pet battles ikky is needed for almost all of them as its black claw and flock used with doom and haunt from the unborn valk kills everyone

[Gráinne]

the starlette has been the same for a few expansions it wont get nerfed

I'm afraid it will.

The Zandalari Raptors have been the same since before the Starlette was even created, and the devs seem now, 7 years later, to believe they have been wrong all this time, but never noticed it, or something.

From https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t ... oth/364680

What the Future Holds

In a future update, we’re targeting a number of balance changes we want to make, which will amount to lowering the effectiveness of some pets and strategies. Again, these changes will not be happening in Visions of N’Zoth, but we wanted to give you ample warning time that changes are coming. While we don’t have specific numbers or details to share right now, here are some examples of abilities that we’re going to take a close look at:

- Black Claw and similar abilities that increase damage taken by a flat amount.
- Hunting Party and similar abilities such as Flock.
- The Shattered Defenses debuff effect from abilities such as Hunting Party or Flock.
- Any large percent-damage-taken or percent-damage-dealt buffs or debuffs.
- Twilight Meteorite and similar long-cooldown damage-splitting abilities.
- The Jar of Smelly Liquid ability.
- Hermit Crab

Of course that last one isn’t an ability, but Hermit Crab incorrectly has a higher stat budget than it should, and it will have its stats reduced to bring it in line with other similar pets.

A goal we have when making many new pet battle World Quests or encounters is to create puzzles that players can counter and “solve”-- ideally with the option to use a variety of pets and tools to do so. When a few pets have such strong synergies that they can deal massive damage in just a few rounds and almost trivially beat these enemies, it becomes problematic. Do we make new challenges only beatable by the highest damage combos, or do we make them generally solveable and therefore immediately smashed by massive damage?

We don’t want to ruin the feel of combination abilities, so we aren’t going to make Black Claw no longer interact with Hunting Party or Flock, but we want to make sure these abilities are dealing appropriate damage. And we want to make sure that secondary effects such as Shattered Defenses are being accounted for with regards to balance.

Note "Any large percent-damage-taken or percent-damage-dealt buffs or debuffs," which is the definition of Supercharge, and "When a few pets have such strong synergies that they can deal massive damage in just a few rounds and almost trivially beat these enemies".

No, I reckon the Starlette is being rolled away to the scrapyard.

[N0083rp00f]

Oh ain't that grand.
I wonder how many battles will become literally impossible without a specif, no longer available battle pet if any at all?
Some of the battle achievements are already in that realm of "you need this specific flavour of pets" or else you fail.

This latest iteration of Devs seem hell bent on breaking things because they think some players of a specific aspect of the game have it "too easy" and "are having fun in a way we don't like" and averse to actually fixing even the most basic of screw ups on their end - like the bridge on timeless, inescapable holes in the terrain, spelling, grammar or the lack thereof.

[Uduwudu]

Hi,

Not a bad question, but one that is not an issue for higher levels in the pet thing ... but in essence, the choice, FOR ME, would be about the usefulness of the pet ... for example, if you have a Teroclaw Hatchling, you probably should use it to level the pet, but only do the Purple Stones on Level 1 pets ... the Blue stone is a bit different, in that sometimes I get a new pet and it is green, white or gray, and you can use the stone to make them rare ... however, AGAIN, usefulness in your pet battles is the issue. No sense wasting a Purple stone on a pet that you aren't going to use.

NOTE: At 1094 pets at Level 25, and I can only get about 1 pet per week now (impossible to buy them at current prices!), I just use the stones as I get them, since all of the new pets are 1. Boom ... done ... and since my main carrier of all Pet Battle stuff (make sure that you do that btw ... to prevent confusion!, maintains around 100 Charms easily enough now (6 level 120's that can do the dailies ... thus you can see one battle at 15 charms, and that's an easy 80 charms, and then in those 6 characters at least one of them likely had a Pet Charm daily on the boat.

NOTE 2: You don't know how far you are going to take this about the Pets and the Battles ... so to make it easier on yourself, make sure you KNOW the type that best suits you (usually speed or power ... but speed better to counter many pet battles so you go first!!!!! Important consideration!) ... but if you end up doing any Pet Battle dungeons, you will find quickly that a lot of pets you did not know were useful, are actually very good ...

NOTE 3: Look at Xu-Fu's listing of the dungeon and the fights, and then the pets ... you can easily make that list for yourself, so you know what you might get next, or wish to get so you can pet battle better. AND, make sure that you note that Aquatic's do better against Fire ... and that ____ against ____ and so on ... as this is the best clue to knowing how to get on and forward in the pet battles.

NOTE 4: The Pet Battle Week and keep track of SQUIRTS days on the calendar. Why? Once you get the hang of it, it's a freebie and in one day you can level 25 to 30 pets from 1 to 12 or 13 ... or you can be crazy like I was and in one day, I was able to bring pets up a total of something like 500 levels in my listing (over 400 to 500 pets at that time I think -- post elsewhere here somewhere!). On the Pet Battle Week, if Squirt is up the pets go from 1 to 17 or 18 ... and that saves having to buy the single level stones for your pets. The pets needed for SQUIRT are easily attainable, although (for example) you need to go get a Fjord Worg Pup, and you really have to get the right one (PP) as the others take too much damage, or do not do enough damage, and die, or use a different strategy as there are a couple out there!