Pvp Battles + Newbie = Torture

[Nagini]

First of all, I think it's about deciding what you want out of PvP. Do you want a challenging enviroment where you can try out many combinations of pets and abilities? Do you want those weekly 10 wins and just get in over with? Pets are endless, and somethimes, things just aren't for you. It's a game, so the point is to have fun. (I don't do actual arena's specifically for this reason >_>)

As you said, there are many guides and tips and tricks on this site you can use to quickly build a PvP team with a decent chance of winning. While you say you abhor 'cookiecutter strategies', and i can certainly see the the point of that, I think one of the nice things about pets is that while you can run 2 DAH's and a valk, there are many options out there that still give you plenty of fighting chance. The viability of ready-made teams is one of the reasons pet-pvp is pretty friendly to the inexperienced battler who has done a little research. The large number of people that use similar pets/strategies help with building a team yourself, as you can use countering those things as a starting point. Also try varying the day and time you que for PvP battles. Late nights or later in the week the number of opponents tends to dwindle, so you can get a better grasp of what people are running with, while early on in the week i find you see more of those OP-pet teams of people who are looking for their 10 wins.

I started out using a cookiecutter to get a feel for pvp petbattles, and moved on to my own variation (Valk, CW gnome, scourged whelp), learning strenghts and weaknesses as I went. I might not win all my pvpbattles, but I enjoy running with the pet I love (my whelpling Salad). The week is long, and if i face a few opponents i cant beat in a row, i just move on and try again later.

As for a junior league... While something like that may help the true beginners (Trust me, while i love the wins, i feel bad whenever i come across someone running a lvl 23 or poor in their pvp team), that solution would just delay the issue. While it might give an inexperienced battler 30 wins with a sub-par team, they would still get pummeled the moment they join the 'major league'.

[Digem]

I am not going to lie to you it is real tough on "newbies".
Even with a "cookie cutter" team it can be rough.
The best way to deal with it is to take your lumps and learn from them.
Experienced pet pvpers know what is coming and how to adjust to it.
It is just something you will learn over time.
You will begin to see when some one is setting up a big hit and use a pet that can dodge it or know which pet in your team can take the hit or to be sacrificed for the win.
It takes some time and experience to learn thee things.

As for the second poster if you like your scourged whelping try out this team.
Scourged whelping, jade mist dancer and blight hawk.
Jade must dancers rain amplifies the scourge whelpings dreadful breath this is a really powerful aoe team and is fun to play around with.

[Alien]

When I was just starting out with pvp battles, I discovered that at certain times there were a lot more people playing. If you do your pvp battles at a time when a lot of people are doing them, you'll run into a wider variety of skill levels and teams. That really helped me get a wider range of experience.

[Kendrah]

Now, people might say I'm a whiner and should shut up and l2p but here's the thing, would you pitch a beginner tennis player against an ATP champion and then laugh at them because they don't enjoy it?

We're a good community here and we don't mock those who feel like they aren't very good. I don't think I've ever really heard anyone say anything in the forums of that sort so calm down.

OK, I can read about strategies (thank you forum) and then know what to expect if your oponent has a valk, (or a grell or a clockworkgnome, or...), I can copy teams I encounter multiple times and compare battle notes to figure out why I lost, sure. If my focus was completely on winning!

It's less about winning and more about learning the patterns. Unfortunately, in some cases you're screwed from the moment you accept a match and you really have to distance yourself from the notion that losing makes you a terrible PVP pet battler. If you run a full beast team and encounter a full mech team then you're not probably going to win unless the other team has the worst RNG luck in WoW at that moment, even if you have 5k wins under your belt. That doesn't make you a terrible PVP pet battler. That's just terrible luck.

For the record, though, I hate Val teams as well. It gets so old. When I do get wins, though, it does make things sweeter. I do make revenge teams when I see the same team over and over again. Attack of the Revenge Pet Battler -- coming soon to a theater near you.

What are your thoughts and experiences with pvp battling?

I like them well enough. I love when I stump the other person. If I get a Val team several times in a row then I'll whip out my team with sear magic and throw the other person off their game and I like that. I also like using strange match ups. Gulplet Frog with his toxic skin if I encounter too many teams that have pets that attack more than once in a round (flocking or additional damage.) It's fun to see a magic broom die because batters three separate attacks took off 15% of its HP and people don't use him in battles so it's generally unknown. XD

I also like really close games. I honestly don't care about winning when it's really a close call (like the person wins with one pet that has 50 HP.) It feels like I put up a good fight. I'd rather lose in such a manner then run with Val/DAH teams.

On the other hand, I hate the formulaic teams. Such as Val teams or Val/DAH teams or triple crows (or teams that contain two or more of Val and DAH.) It gets so old after a while.

[Jazeel]

It sure is torture when you first start, when i first tried it i was lucky to win 2 games out of 20 attempts, annoyingly all i seemed to face where the cookie cutter OP builds of earlier this year. So in true quitter fashion i stopped for months and just kept on working on my pet collection. But as 250 wins gets me that cute little dino, about 2 months ago i started doing the pvp weekly again. At first i was able with my team to win maybe 40% of the time, but after a time i got better at reading my opponents moves and better at predicting incoming and outgoing damage, though i am only at 92 wins towards pet now my win rate has climbed to closer to 80%, i don't use a cookie cutter team, mine is based on an emporer crab, mech dragonling and whatever third pet i feel might give me an edge, though generally i use an aoe pet as third pet. I have tried to use the more oddball pets from collection in the third spot some worked well, some awfully.
My team certainly isnt uber, but has great survivablity, some healing, some aoe and some ok single target damage, enough to make me competitive against any team i have faced for some time. So just keep doing it and eventually you will improve, find a team you enjoy and be giving advice to the next generation of newbie pet battlers

[Tekulve2012]

Pet pvp is tough. Especially if your 'meta' is filled with good players. I have played 2500-3000 pet pvp matchups and really enjoyed it for the aspect of learning my battlepets' abliity sets and creating/using new teams

Its fun when you can win with pets people havent seen much. This forum and blogs like Discodoggy's promote looking into move set choices and how breed choice can tip the scales in a battle.

Some 'lesser used' Cool, useful and fun pets to use lately:

Walpstalker Hatchling (a speedier breed helps)
Vengeful Porc. (with spikes oc)
Tiny Bog beast
Spirit Crab
Fjord Worg pup
MrWiggles {Vek's favorite Anubisath (aka-Smelly Dog Face) counter}
Senjin Fetish
Lifelike toad
Imperial Eagle chick
Fledgling Buzzard (h/h-very tanky)

Many of these pets counter the popular pet pvp usage of undead ..or can take out a decoy or blind

Keep at it ..it is just another interesting facet of battlepets that can become fun
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Ps- today i tried out a Tuskarr kite in pvp for the 1st time as an adder counter... frost shock (25% speed debuff)then cyclone ..

[Kel]

Just hang in there, you'll start getting better at it. Honestly, it took me probably two months to finish my first 10 wins. Partly because I didn't battle very often. I'd jump in for a game or two here and there when I was really bored or something. But I never actually stayed for more than 3 or 4 games in a row. My win percentage is probably crap because I think I lost my first 5 games. Then I got to where I could win about 45% of them. I went on a tear to finish it off this week, winning 4 in a row.

I started out with a team I found on here - [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pets/elemental/plant-life/singing-sunflower/]Singing Sunflower[/url] / [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pets/elemental/plant-life/blossoming-ancient/]Blossoming Ancient[/url] / [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pets/elemental/elementals/ruby-droplet/]Ruby Droplet[/url].
Sure, it wasn't "my original idea", but I liked the pets because the tree and flower looked cool. The Droplet just worked well with them. I liked this team because it wasn't the typical "Valk / DAH" combo, plus it gave me a way to easily control the weather. And I was able to grind some wins out of this team, so it wasn't all bad. It is however, a very long game plan, and annoys the crap out of a lot of players.

I have since moved on to some teams I made after seeing them being used against me. So none of my teams are original, but they work. Some of them are less successful than others. But for the most part, I enjoy playing them because they do interesting stuff. And none of my teams are super hard to get pets, like the [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pets/humanoid/miscellaneous/treasure-goblin/]Treasure Goblin[/url], or [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pets/humanoid/murlocs/murkalot/]Murkalot[/url]. I simply don't have the money to spend on those types of pets.

My point is, hang in there, it can be done with some rather easy to get pets. And don't get discouraged, it'll come in time. And like others have said, find the times when more people are on because it will bring a wider variety of opponents/skill level. You'll know those times because the queue will be SUPER fast! If you find the queue to be very long, that's a low pop time, try another time. And if you go on a losing streak, just come back another day. You'll be surprised how things chance from day to day. Also, keep in mind, a 50% win percentage is actually pretty good. So don't shoot to win them all, it'll help you keep some sanity.