Drrum wrote:Save stones for pets you can never farm.
While this is true, I'd add one more important criteria to what to pick when choosing what pet to upgrade:
Upgrade uncageable unfarmable greens before you upgrade cageable ones.
Use your type-specific stones on pets in the order that you plan to level and battle first.
Always use your Flawless Battle-Stones (generic type) on a more plentiful pet type such as a flyer, critter, or beast. As your upgrade list progresses, you'll find you have an uneven ratio of type-specific stones to pet types.
Use your type-specific stones as you receive them.
Pretty much this.
Though it's not that there's an uneven ratio of stones, it's that there's an uneven ratio of pets.
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The stone drop ratio is actually pretty much even, which is the problem.
Why?
Because there's 565 total pets possible in the US. Ignoring how many of them already come as rare quality, there's over 100 Beasts, over 100 critters and around 100 flying pets, that leaves 40% of pets spread over the remaining 7 families.
Which means you're going to get spare stones of some families a
LOT sooner than others. In 5.4 we'll be able to trade 3 for 1 specific for a general use, which will alleviate part of the problem, but it doesn't change the fact that you'll need a lot more beast, critter, and flying than you will other stone types in the first place. Blizzard should have weighted stone drops by family numbers.
While they're account-bound and stack, they're not tradable. You can use them to buy/sell/trade upgrades, but that can be a risk and hassle.
I don't think it's a risk if you do it through the trade forum here.
Or if you do it with someone who's relatively well known. For instance, I was selling Stoning as a Service earlier and no one batted an eye. I got rid of 39 stones for what was probably too reasonable a price, but made my buyers happy.
(and it's not like I needed the stones.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
)
In any case, since you may be able to trade or buy the use of specific type stones from others, and since it only works on tradeable pets, that's why I recommend that you upgrade the cageable pets last.
This is how I was able to finish out my own pets relatively quickly, through trades and purchase.