Pet Battle Project

"We got fun and games" is not what Stranglethorn Vale had for me, that's for sure.

I arrived promptly by port in Booty Bay, #1 pirate town in all of Azeroth. I was greeted with a bunch of weird looks, but no one said a word. It didn't matter to me, I went about my business, and jogged about looking for some pets to battle.

The pickings were slim, and this is when I realized that not all realms are created equal when it comes to pet battles being available. The realm I was on with my high level character to scope the place out had shown me at least 4-5 battles on the map when I flew over. However, on Ghiddee's realm there was maybe 2, and one of them was down a hallway that prevented pet battling. Bah!

I wasted some time here, getting some pet levels and a level for myself, until I finally decided I was going to make the trip to Grom'gol in hopes of more pet battles.

Oh.. unforgiving jungle. This wasn't the first I'd ran a lowbie through dangerous places. I used to run lowbies to Tanaris for the Neutral AH back in the day before Booty Bay had a Neutral AH. I knew I'd die a bunch, but it's still annoying dying 3 seconds after you respawn again and again.

After some time, I'm not sure, maybe 10 minutes, I made it to the shore of Grom'gol and was greeted by a crab ready for defeat!

I was right in my guess that there would be more pets to battle here and so I kept running around the little hub, fighting parrots, lizards, spiders and crabs.

Eventually the pet battles stopped spawning quickly, and I had the bright idea to ask a friend to invite me to their group whose home was on another realm. They agreed, of course, and I learned for the first time it's smart to make sure that said friend is not on a PvP server. After phasing I was greeted with an arrow in my back from some level 90 Night Elf who had nothing better to do than continue to attack Grom'gol. With a swift sigh, I dropped group and went back to my home realm where I would be safe and sound.

At least that's what I thought. I forgot that it would keep me PvP flagged for 5 minutes of non-PvP activity, and while I was running around there was an Alliance Panda who noticed me pet battling, seemed a bit confused by it, and decided they needed to put me out of my misery. Thankfully they went about their way afterward, and I was able to get back on track of leveling.

Barrens. Unforgiving and brutal. Maybe the chatter has died down on some realms, or matured slightly, but it's still the same constant conflict and danger as always. New players always remember their first time in the Barrens, be it the trolls in general chat or the hostile mobs biting your ankles as you desperately try to make your way to the Crossroads.

This time was no different for me, even though I am not new to the game. Being level a few bars in to level 2 and daring the Barrens is risky, and a bit stupid if you really think about it. However, I was determined to level my pets and myself, and getting 10 EXP a kill wasn't cutting it for me.

I had no real plans going into this, did I mention that already? I'm learning.. I'm like a baby in WoW, making her first steps all over again. I at least know about aggro and when the +Combat comes up in my hover text that I need to 180 it and run the other way. Barrens starts off nice enough when coming from Durotar. There's lots of open land and non-hostiles to greet you. It doesn't seem so bad, and hey, there's even a few prairie dogs and adders on the side of the road to fight - sweet!

I soon find out that pets in this area are few and far between. They aren't clumped enough to make leveling here worth-while, and so I continue my way West. 

I don't get very far over the hill before I'm suddenly being alerted that I'm in Combat and I don't even see the mob in question. Thankfully I have my trusty AggroBait raptor to take a hit or two for me, and I manage to break away from whatever unseen bringer of death that was chasing after me. I'm still not seeing any pets to battle, so I venture south along the road toward the Crossroads.

Savannah-like trees speckle the old road, and napping under them are cheetah. I heard a snarl, my raptor screech, and the sound of my lvl 2 pixel-flesh being ripped to shreds, the entrance to the Crossroads just a 100 feet away or so. I was taken down swiftly, two hits at best, and was swiftly greeted by the Spirit Healer at the graveyard. It was at this point I started questioning my idea of battling in the barrens, but I was too stubborn to give up quite yet.

I rezzed and made it to safe-haven, and was happy to see the guards. I would use them to help level, what a great idea! Just outside the gates was a tree, with two Cheetah Cub and two momma Cheetah. I ran out there, waving my juicy lvl 2 limbs around and kiting them back to town for their slaughter! I felt pretty smart. It was pretty easy to waltz right up and pwn the Cheetah Cubs after this.. but I was only getting about 25 EXP a battle.

I ran around the hub and didn't find any more easy pickings. I groaned, realizing I had already wasted almost 30 minutes and only getting about 4 battles done. This was definitely not effective! I convinced myself to leave the Crossroads and venture south, hoping I'd run into more pet battles along the road.

I ran and ran. Nothing was showing up on my map. I spotted a blood elf and troll killing things off to the side and so I strayed from the path, figuring I'd follow them and try to pick any pet battles along the way.

I likely followed the pair for 5-10 minutes before giving up. Not a single pet battle along the way or nearby. Barrens sucks, I thought. I'd been there almost an hour now, and nothing to show for it. At least this trip brought me to a pet trainer I hadn't battled.. and I whooped her quite easily. Take that, Orc.

In frustration I made my way back to the Crossroads and then east to Durotar again, and finally in the safe-haven of Orgrimmar (I have to run as I have 0 money currently from doing only pet battles). My pets were still all level 5, and so I ran around killing level 1 pets until all three were level 6, while pondering what to do next. While doing so, I ran into a robot named Blingtron, and took his daily reward (no exp rewarded). I was lucky and he gave me Bling Bons which vendor for 75g.. now I can finally use FPs and get a mount at lvl 20!

I took advantage of having higher level characters, and logged on one to scout out some areas on my map that might be safe to level. My pets were only level 6, but I needed to move somewhere that I could farm for a couple hours that had no hostile mobs around. I found two really sweet spots: Grom'gol and Booty Bay.

Pets around Grom'gol are 7-10, with the majority at level 8. Pets in Booty Bay are 9-10 pretty much. I asked in general for someone to taxi me to Ratchet, and I jumped a boat ride to Booty Bay for a new adventure!

So here I am, a brand newb Troll on Darkspear Isle. All these other Trolls are hustling and bustling about, and I'm just standing here, with my Panther Cub.

I already had some pets that were past level 1, but I figured I would pick some that were still fresh to start this experience. Since I'm a Troll (for now), I went with three Troll-themed pets:

Panther Cub Lvl 1 Obsidian Hatchling Lvl 1 VooDoo Figurine Lvl 1

Two Beast-Types and an Undead-Type. I really am not going with any strategy here, other than theme.. so it is quite likely I will swap them later on for better pets.

I haven't mentioned, but I'm pretty new to this Pet Battle thing. I took a break from WoW back in Cata around April of 2012 and came back at the end of November 2013. Lots has changed, and this is a good thing!

Finally I began my adventure, running up to every Creepy Crawler, Hare, Adder, etc. I could find in Durotar. Durotar's pet levels are only around 1-2.. so it was quick to out-level them and no longer get bonus EXP for my pets. Experience for myself was very little.. maybe 10 EXP per fight. I was gaining the bulk of my EXP from exploration, but hey - that's okay. It took about an hour to gain a level.. yeesh.

Hello! Welcome to my first blog!!

As the title suggests, this blog is going to cover World of Warcraft's Battle Pet area of game play.. but even more-so, it is going to cover my experiences leveling from 1-90 via Pet Battles!

My rules are simple: Start at level 1 and do nothing but pet battles and pet trainer battles to level to 90. What will I do when I get to 90? Hard to say.. but I think this should be a pretty interesting experience!

This is Ghiddee. Friends may know I use this name quite often for my goblins. I would have simpley LOVED for Ghiddee to be a gobbo instead of a troll, however the gobbos are stuck with no pet battles and have to do quests to leave the island. That breaks the rules of this challenge, and thus.. Ghiddee the Darkspear Troll. Hopefully by level 20 I will be able to race change her into a goblin!