Leveling stones

[Doobjanka]

I haven't thought much about pet battling lately since all my pets are leveled and no new ones are on the horizon, but how do you feel about stones that grant a level to a pet? Now that I think about it, those last 5 levels are the worst, so perhaps they'll come in handy. I'd like other points of view though!

[Razenallhell]

Love the stones. Its very nice to upgrade a poor level pet, rather than hunt for the rare when your limited on time. And by the way, I just saw your from SA. Go Spurs! I'm in Newbraunfels myself. . Have a great day!

[Peanutty]

Love the stones. Its very nice to upgrade a poor level pet, rather than hunt for the rare

He means the possible new leveling stones, not the stones for rarity.

I think it's a good idea no matter how the stones end up working (1 level, 5 levels, etc). I think for newer players or players that don't have the time to devote to leveling, the thought of leveling so many pets is daunting and off putting. So if leveling stones makes pet battles a little more appealing, then I'm all for it.

And for those of us who frankly don't need 'em, then I hope the stones are BoE so we can just sell them for pet funds.

[Malenrhen]

I'd love to see them become available! I'm going to be looking at having several characters to level and new pets to tame, if I can skip the grind of leveling the pets too, that would be fabulous!

[Kel]

I'm torn. On the one hand, I really don't mind if they add them since I can understand the monumental task of getting up to speed at this point. New players are now faced with leveling a toon to level 100 and pets as well. On the other hand, I'm really sick of all the insta-90, insta-leveled pets stuff. Why not play the game instead of just jumping straight to the end-game stuff?

Like I said, I'm torn. It's tough living in my head.

[Guest]

If they're as rare as the current Flawless stones, then they honestly won't make a blot of difference.
I have about 450 pets still to level, avg level 16 which means I'd need 4050 pet levels to finish leveling my collection.

[Badpathing]

If they're as rare as the current Flawless stones, then they honestly won't make a blot of difference.
I have about 450 pets still to level, avg level 16 which means I'd need 4050 pet levels to finish leveling my collection.

This is how I feel, and at the same time if they are NOT rare, I will be a tad upset I think. I am not capped at avg lvl 25, but I am getting close....an easy shortcut kind of invalidates the effort.

But even so, that is just how WoW has always been, so no big deal.

[Malenrhen]

Not trying to go off on a tangent or anything, but I get why Blizz has shortcuts now. I started playing right after BC came out....no riding until 40 no flying until 60. Just getting from Point A to Point B to quest took FOREVER. No nerfed exp levels, no nothing. I know if I picked up a game where the max level was 100 but it took me 10 minutes to get from one place to another just for a few hundred exp, I'd lose it and quit. They want new people to come to the game and are trying to make it as easy as possible for those people to enjoy the game.

Battle pets have become a huge thing for them now, and if they have over 1000 potential pets, leveling those to 25 would be very daunting to a new player. I think Blizz does a good job trying to balance keeping the content challenging enough to keep long time players engaged, while not making it too off-putting for newbies.

[Badpathing]

Not trying to go off on a tangent or anything, but I get why Blizz has shortcuts now. I started playing right after BC came out....no riding until 40 no flying until 60. Just getting from Point A to Point B to quest took FOREVER. No nerfed exp levels, no nothing. I know if I picked up a game where the max level was 100 but it took me 10 minutes to get from one place to another just for a few hundred exp, I'd lose it and quit. They want new people to come to the game and are trying to make it as easy as possible for those people to enjoy the game.

Battle pets have become a huge thing for them now, and if they have over 1000 potential pets, leveling those to 25 would be very daunting to a new player. I think Blizz does a good job trying to balance keeping the content challenging enough to keep long time players engaged, while not making it too off-putting for newbies.

Yes, but aside from the community here, there is no reason to level them all to 25. No achieves, no in game rewards; just warcraftpets.com status.

So, I get what you mean about the 'catching up', and I agree with it. I just think this is a bit different.

[Peanutty]

IMO the stones aren't really oriented towards those who are already on their way to leveling up their entire collection, because they can still do it without the stones.

What the stones would be fantastic for would be those folks who are dabbling or still working on their collection. Think of how the Celestial Tournament is right now. For players with a huge, leveled stable of pets, it's no sweat. But a lot of casual pet battlers are discouraged from doing it because they just don't have a big enough stable, or the right pets, to get through it. So if stones can gradually make it easier for them, I think that's a good idea. It'll hopefully keep them interested in pet battling (which means Blizz will be more likely to continue working on pet battle content), and of course more collectors means a more active and healthy trading community as well.

[Poofah]

1 level is roughly equivalent to half a tamer fight, or 3-4 wild pet fights. So these stones won't save very much time -- it's nothing compared to the time you save by using a battlestone instead of hunting for a rare version of something. I suspect that these are just a nifty little reward to spice up the tamer bags, and are not supposed to be a major source of pet levels.

[Peanutty]

1 level is roughly equivalent to half a tamer fight, or 3-4 wild pet fights. So these stones won't save very much time -- it's nothing compared to the time you save by using a battlestone instead of hunting for a rare version of something. I suspect that these are just a nifty little reward to spice up the tamer bags, and are not supposed to be a major source of pet levels.

Since it's still in alpha it wouldn't surprise me if they changed how many levels a stone would grant, or perhaps have different types of leveling stones (like +1, +5, +10 levels?) Because yes, if it's just 1 level it won't really make a huge difference for anyone (+1 level reminds me of the polished battle-stones... not so useful!)

[Poofah]

So maybe green +1 level, blue +5 level, purple +10 level? That would start to become pretty useful. They would also be a much better PvP reward than the green battlestones, since we mostly PvP at 25 now, and it would be nice to be able to level via PvP.

[Peanutty]

So maybe green +1 level, blue +5 level, purple +10 level? That would start to become pretty useful. They would also be a much better PvP reward than the green battlestones, since we mostly PvP at 25 now, and it would be nice to be able to level via PvP.

Something like that would be my guess (of course Blizz is going to do whatever they want, so if they really want +1 stones, well...)

The funny thing is I had forgotten about all the green stones I threw away, but really... they didn't make much sense.

[Opallena]

These seem to be the WoW equivalent to Rare Candies in pokemon (if anyone remembers those). I see them being at least the same rarity as the family-specific stones from tamer bags. If they only grant one level, It would be a good way to get those last few levels on a pet.

I'm looking forward to being able to use them on draenor pets because even if you get your entire collection up now, there'll still be atleast 30ish new pets to level up in WoD. Lets face it, if you've already leveled 500+ pets to 25 do you really want to do 30 more in WoD when you'll also have garrisons to play with?