Leveling Lowbies and Battle-Stones

[NathKnave]

Using just pet battles, I recently leveled my alt warlock from about halfway through level 85 to 90 over the last few weeks. I didn't keep perfect track, but it was between 130 and 150 battles for each level. I leveled in the Jade Forest at the Jade Temple Grounds. I chose this spot because it has a fair number of Temple Snakes (level 23 to 25) that respawn pretty reliably and I had more beasts to be upgraded than anything else, and I figured I could get a fair number of battle-stones.

After dinging 86, 87, and then 88 without a single battle-stone dropping I thought I was just incredibly unlucky, that's close to 400 battles by my calculations. When I got four battle-stones in the time it took to get halfway through level 88, I thought maybe my luck had turned around. Yet I didn't see another battle-stone at all from then to level 90, probably another 200 battles or so.

This got me thinking about the battle-stones I did see. When I first started leveling through pet battles, I figured it would be a good way to level up a bunch of my lowbie pets. I started at the bottom, my lowest-level pets would get leveled, switching out for another after each battle. I made pretty good progress through my lowbies, and by the time I had reached level 88 on my warlock, my lowest-level rare pets (I wasn't going to level anything but rares) were levels 5 and 6.

It was at this point that I had decided to change my daily trainer habit. I was going to make a team of two level 25 pets to carry a lowbie through on each of the tamer battles. This meant I had to level about a dozen pets to level 25. Over the next few days I leveled these pets to 25 while leveling my warlock at the same time. This is the only time during the whole grind to 90 that I got any battle-stones at all. Each of the pets I leveled to 25 started out at around level 16, and I leveled each pet to 25 before switching to the next.

After I had leveled those pets to 25, I switched back to my previous method of leveling my lowest-level pets, and didn't see a single battle-stone for a level and a half.

Perhaps I'm just paranoid or trying to see a pattern that isn't there, but I haven't seen a single battle-stone when leveling a pet that is far lower than the team I'm battling. Has anyone else leveled a lot of their lower-level pets in this way? Have you had the same experience? Or is it that I'm incredibly unlucky and it's a coincidence?

[Quintessence]

I haven't had any battle-stone drop from a low lvl vs. high lvl pet battle (that I can remember). Any stone that's dropped for me usually comes from a match between a Pandaria-level pet and a pet that's within about 8 levels of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if stones had some sort of requirement where your opponent had to be within a certain level range of your highest level pet on your team (like player experience gained and Lesser Charms of Good Fortune). No idea if that's actually the case though.

[Pocketimp]

Oddly enough, the 3 BOE stones I have gotten have been from capturing pets in the 14-18 lvl and using them to lvl my lvl 1-5 at the same time. I make 3 teams I call Swap In 1, 2 and 3. I fill them with all lvl 1-5. I'll go to a mid lvl area and raise them all to about lvl 10-12. The next day I take all those and lvl them to about 20-21. After that I use the tamers to top them off since they will all have their 3rd tier attacks.

[Graven]

I seem to remember reading that you can only get a stone in a wild pet battle if the pet you're battling is within 5 levels of the highest pet on your team. Not sure exactly where I read that, but I think it was somewhere official, maybe even patch notes.

[Mantrhax]

Blizzard knows better than anyone how to frustrate people who plays his game.
When people is having too much fun they nerf something, like 5.1 to 5.2 they nerfed battle stones in the bags and buffed miss/dodge rates.

now noone is having fun, thats blizzard happiness !

[Quintessence]

I seem to remember reading that you can only get a stone in a wild pet battle if the pet you're battling is within 5 levels of the highest pet on your team. Not sure exactly where I read that, but I think it was somewhere official, maybe even patch notes.

Not 100% sure, but I think the within 5 lvls requirement is only for player experience and Lesser Charms of Good Fortune in this current patch. I don't think there was ever a detailed requirement such as that for family-specific stones, but it's entirely possible that they added it in recently.

[Waflob]

I seem to remember reading that you can only get a stone in a wild pet battle if the pet you're battling is within 5 levels of the highest pet on your team. Not sure exactly where I read that, but I think it was somewhere official, maybe even patch notes.

This doesn't apply to stones - I've received stones while levelling lowbies with a lvl 25 pet against lvl 15s.

[Greenstar]

This doesn't apply to stones - I've received stones while levelling lowbies with a lvl 25 pet against lvl 15s.

Same. I was leveling pets in Hinterlands the other day while searching for rares and got a stone. I was using 2 level 25's and a low pet.

[Ravnhawk]

The within 5 levels isn't accurate for player xp. I've been leveling my level 1 pets in Northrend on the Worp pups. My toons are level 86 atm - I use 1 lvl 25 infinite whelping and 2 lvl 1 pets. I only use 1 lvl 1 pet. The other is there as a back in case the 1st pet dies. My toon is getting 93k per bet battle there.

In panda land if I use any level pet my lvl 88 toon is getting 161k xp fight level 25 pet. I level my higher level pets here.

[Quintessence]

The within 5 levels isn't accurate for player xp. I've been leveling my level 1 pets in Northrend on the Worp pups. My toons are level 86 atm - I use 1 lvl 25 infinite whelping and 2 lvl 1 pets.

The highest level pet in Northrend is 20, which is 5 levels below your highest level pet on your team. So the "within 5 levels" rule is still in effect.

[Corah]

I've been traveling between the three low level eastern kingdom dailies (Westfall, Redridge and Elwynn) on my low level priest. They give exp for the quest (14k at 62) and level 3 pets to 4 and 5. I know there are faster ways to level pets, but this gives me a double whammy of leveling pets past the one shot phase as well as leveling a character I don't play much. I've managed to gain about 7 levels from just doing this every day. ~10 more days and I won't have any more level one pets

[Happs]

I've noticed a similar trend. Until recently, I was using 2 level 25s to "Power level" level 1 pets, mostly in Vale because the aquatic pets spend a lot of time healing themselves rather than attacking. After I get them to 15-18, I would quit doing wild pet battles and use them later in tamer daily battles to get to 25. I leveled around 130 pets this way and never saw a single battle stone.

Shortly after seeing this post, I decided to try using higher level pets in wild pet battles. And after a few battles, while leveling a pet that was 21 when I started, I got my first ever battle stone.

Since then I've been leveling only pets that are 20 or higher against Pandaria pets, and have got a stone almost every day from a couple hours worth of battles each day.

I suppose it could be coincidence, but there definitely seems to be a better chance to get a stone when battling with a pet closer to the opposing pet's level.

[Catalytic]

Until I stoned all my aquatic pets, I leveled lowbies in the Vale. I used 2 25s and a lowbie...sometimes level 1, and all I did was get them to level 10 (which is when you start getting the max xp off the tamers). I got "tons" of aquatic stones. When I finished getting all my aquatic pets to rare, plus had an extra stone to save for when I got a Shore Crawler, I quit leveling pets in the Vale.

I moved to the Incursion (if anyone knows a similar area for Horde, please let me know!) vs beasts (Jungle Grubs), Valley vs critters, and near Nitun in Jade Forest vs critters (I like this spot best because there is an elite that pats by that gives fantastic character xp, and spawns every 8 minutes...which is right about the time I've battled all the critters around Nitun and need to give them time to respawn). I leveled a lock, hunter, and DK on pet battles and killing that rare...from 86 to 90 each...and got MAYBE 4 stones (actually they were all 90 before I ever saw a beast stone at the Incursion) All of the toons I leveled in these places were at least level 15, 90% or more were 20+.

Most of the BoE stones I've had drop (5 since they came out, I believe) came from battling the aquatics in Vale.

[Luciandk]

Come 5.3, you will have a much higher chance for getting battlestones. Each win that doesnt give one, gives a stacking bonus to the next.

[Catalytic]

Come 5.3, you will have a much higher chance for getting battlestones. Each win that doesnt give one, gives a stacking bonus to the next.

I'm guessing 5.3 isn't going to come out until mid-late June...because that's when I'll be moving and AFK for 2-3 months