Pet Leveling Is So Daunting

[Krystenn]

Alright, so I just reached 372 max level pets, leaving 228 to go. And just typing that out is crazy intimidating. So far to sort of break up the tedium, I've been leveling pets by source, and I'm down to just two groups. Unfortunately, they're the two biggest groups: Pets Battle and Drops. I guess what I am trying to decide is whether I should bother breaking this down further and what other people's strategies are to level quickly and not be overwhelmed by the process of leveling pets.

What are people doing to break up the task of leveling all their pets before WoD?

As per my strategy for speed leveling, I've just been making alts that I think would be handy to have (Currently working on an Alliance Mage, who is at 72 almost exclusively through pet battles.) The problem is this has led to 17 level 90 toons, plus a couple more on the way to 90. I guess that's not a problem, so much as an annoyance to decide what to do with them all. I really do like leveling through pet battles though because I don't have to do the same quests over and over again. I've dealt with the rep issue by farming rep tokens on my main, those dinosaurs are stingy with their mounts though.

I've been putting toons as low as level one in valley of the four winds and making a circuit around the farms, because as long as you avoid the virmin in the middle there is little out there to kill even a level one toon. You do have to arrange to get a port to two moons and hitch a ride on someone's passenger mount. Not a big deal, there are a lot of nice people in this game. I'd be willing to do this for anyone horde side on my mage, just ask.

Right now my leveling team consists of:

<Whatever Pet I am Leveling>
[pet]Terrible Turnip[/pet]: [ability]Weakening Blow[/ability] [ability]Inspiring Song[/ability] [ability]Sunlight[/ability]
[pet]Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen[/pet]: [ability]Bite[/ability] [ability]Feed[/ability] [ability]Prowl[/ability]

The biggest issue I am running into is when [ability]Feed[/ability] misses. It usually doesn't happen often enough to really stop my progress, but it has failed in two battles in a row to the point where I do need to use a pet bandage instead of the eight minute heal. I don't know if I need a second critter killing team for after I get a level 1 pet through the first scary valley of the four winds battle or if that's making this too complex. I would like a pet with beast abilities that can heal. Something besides [ability]Devour[/ability] which can be easily thwarted by [ability]Survival[/ability]

Any suggestions? Alternative strategies? Alternative locations? Stories? General commiserating?

[Kel]

Man, I wish I had some advice for you. But I'm by no means a "power player". Currently I have only 4 lvl90s (one of which got the WoD preorder boost). I did lvl one toon to 61 thru pet battles, but bailed on it at that point because it seemed to bog down so I went to Outlands questing. I have a new lowbie I'm lvling thru pet battles now. My preferred spot is the corner of the Vale down by No-No. There's far more pets than you'll ever run out of due to an insane respawn timer and there's ZERO mobs to worry about killing you. It isn't too hard to find a port to the Shrine, then it's not a bad corpse drag to there. Once you're there, you're golden tho.

I still have tons of pets left to level, and I just don't have the time to level all those alts through pet battles. Stupid job, wife, life.

[Maizing]

When I was leveling my pets, I just worked on the lowest level pets first. The lowest level pets gain levels faster. Eventually, however, you reach a point where doing a pet battle against any of the trainers will get whichever pet you have in the leveling slot to max level.

Towards the end, I was using the add on Rematch ( http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/rematch ) to automate a lot of the process.

I rarely used wild pet battles to level pets (or alts), I mainly get my pet (and alt) xp from the pet battle dailies. I have a different alt parked at each battle and just log in and out to do the circuit. I am a major altoholic and have 25 level 90 characters. I am leveling my alts using the same strategy as I used on my pets... I have my lowest levels parked at the tamers (well, all but the Pandaren Air Spirit... because of the phasing in Jade Forest, I have been unable to get any alt there who cannot fly, so I have a level 90 doing that pet battle daily). I have also found that the alt I park at Zusshi has to be at least level 68 or the basilisk just a little distance away will agro.

I do have the advantage of having two wow licenses, so I can transport my alts wherever I need to place them without needing help from anyone else.

The main advantages of using pet battle dailies rather than wild pet battles for leveling are 1) the pet battle awards the leveling pet more xp than a wild battle and 2) the alt gets xp both from the battle and from the quest itself (as long as the pets are within 5 levels of the opposing team). I actually have teams made up of level 24 pets specifically for Trixxy and Lydia's teams that will be staying at that level specifically for the alt pet battle xp.

[Skavenged]

Easy fix... Don't use Xufu. I have all of my pets at 25, but when I was still leveling, I used cats. Darkmoon cub was my primary and I carried another fast cat as backup. I used to run circles around the valley with my two cats and a carry pet. Never even needed to visit the stable master, since both cats self-heal and Devour is far more reliable than Feed. Survival can sometimes get you, but its rare, and if it happens you just finish him next round and switch to your other cat for the next fight. Honestly, I don't think I've ever used the stable master after I got both cats to 25

[Furkel]

Maybe not entirely on topic, but [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6067]THIS THREAD[/url] has made lvling a lot more fun as far as I'm concerned. I feel like I'm done with everything interesting and there's just a ton of snakes, moths and rats left, so not having to actually decide for myself what to lvl next is a surprisingly big help.

[Quintessence]

Maybe not entirely on topic, but [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6067]THIS THREAD[/url] has made lvling a lot more fun as far as I'm concerned. I feel like I'm done with everything interesting and there's just a ton of snakes, moths and rats left, so not having to actually decide for myself what to lvl next is a surprisingly big help.

I second this! It's sort of like a pet leveling support group.

For me, I found that focusing on one pet family at a time made it seem less intimidating. There are only so many Flying pets, or Mechs, or Undead, and so on.

Reaching certain pet levels was pivotal in my progression, as I wanted to utilize the trainer daily experience to the fullest. Setting those level milestones also gave me something smaller to focus on rather than being overwhelmed with the task and desire of leveling everything at once. Get all Beasts to level X, use trainer dailies to complete the last leg to 25, and then move onto the next pet family.

[Peanutty]

I did a two pronged approach. Once I had a few 25s to carry me through the dailies, I'd use those to level mostly wild, higher level pets to strengthen my overall stable quickly. I also bought some cheaper tradeable pets that were max level or close to it to bolster my stable even more.

At the same time I also would take my lowest level pets and drag them through wild battles (at the time I was still catching wild pets) and the easiest of the dailies, until they had all gained a few levels.

Somewhere in the middle of all this the two groups met: I finished with my higher level pets and my lower level pets were all mid level. Then I simply did tamers and tried to max level 2 or 3 per day until I was finished.

[Vek]

After leveling all unique move sets. http://www.warcraftpets.com/abilities/unique/
And leveling some personal favourites.

I used the same as Quintessence. Each family starting with the ones with the least amount of pets. Was a long stretch in the end with flying, critters, beasts.

[Kpb321]

The thread is a good motivator and source of variety and inspiration. I did break things down into smaller groups using pet types (undead, mechanical, etc) or groups like moths or birds of prey or cats or snakes or any other things that make sense.

On the bright side, the wild pets from pet battles tend to go quicker as they are partially leveled from being higher than level 1 when being captured.

[Krystenn]

On the bright side, the wild pets from pet battles tend to go quicker as they are partially leveled from being higher than level 1 when being captured.

Yeah, I think that's kind of why I'm saving it for last. The drop category is all level ones though. Terrifying.

[JEC]

I did little name filter games, like leveled everything with the word "pup" or "whelp". Or all the squirrels or all the rabbits. I also did it in steps, like everything to 15, then everything to 20, etc. Doing it in small groups made it less daunting.

I used both trainers and wild battles. For example, it I wanted a different breed or skin of a particular wild pet, I'd level while looking for it. But trainers are definitely the fastest route.

I did most of my wild leveling with two level 25 crows/ravens and a leveling pet. Crows and ravens kill most wild pets pretty quickly without needing to stop and heal or use bandages, and after I captured everything I wanted to, the aquatics in the Vale go down really fast to them.

[Hermy]

Another thumbs up here for the Catch That Pet thread. I'm up to 112 pets levelled through there (out of 317 total). I totally agree that sometimes it's just nice to have someone else choose for you!

I would level lower pets while doing wild pet battles, but now that I have no more rares to capture, I stick mostly to the trainers. Not just Pandaria, I usually knock over Outland & Kalimdor as well (for some reason I just don't like Northrend, but I do visit Major Payne!) - I have a nice little routine now, and every little bit helps!

I actually have all of my pets to level in a spreadsheet. Each column is a pet family (alphabetically, not this haphazard way Blizzard lists them! ), and then the pets in each family are listed by level (and then alphabetically ... I have a need for alphabetical order LOL). I found the pet journal too clunky, and this way I can see at a glance my whole to-be-levelled collection and get a feel for where I'm at. My breakdown then is, on top of whatever challenge I've been given in the forum thread, that I have a side project to get X family to X level. I recently took on the mammoth task of getting all Beast pets to (at least) Level 10. Currently, it's all Dragonkin pets to Level 25.

But it's just so monotonous, that I'm also starting to level all of the pets that start with A to 25. Because I loves me some alphabet!

[Trece]

I'm working on getting all my pets leveled too. What I do is take 2 level ones and level them to 10 then do the Pandaran pet dailies, that gets 2 done. Then I take my nightsaber and flamering moth and level my others in the area around halfhill.