Battle Pet Guide

There are many different reasons people decide to pet battle: Enjoyment, collections sake, mount collecting with the introduction of the falcosaurs, and just plain old nostalgia with its roots coming from Pokemon. In general, you level several pets and compete in battles across Azeroth and the other known worlds. Leveling is the most difficult blockade to overcome as several max level pets are required to even participate in current tournaments and dungeons. There are, however, a handful of quests out there that award Ultimate Battle-Training Stones, items that will instantly train any battle pet to level 25 and provide a leg up to the beginning Tamer. Whatever your reason for seriously picking up pet battles, there are certain pets that are simply musts to capture and train, these pets will benefit you in many battles throughout your taming journey and should be some of the first pets you level up.

Anubisath Idol

• Wowhead: Anubisath Idol
• Source: Drops off Emperor Vek’lor in Ahn’Qiraj (10%)

This animated Anubisath statue has a steady damage output and can reduce and avoid most damage as well. He is a Humanoid type whose passive allows him to heal 4% of his total health every round he deals damage. Since Anubisath has such a large health pool, he can heal a lot of the damage he takes with no other pet support. This pet can solo several of the daily Pandaren Tamers or be used with a second pet, which will allow you to carry and level a third pet. Completing the Pandarian Tamer circuit is a great way to level more pets. This pet can be found in Ahn’Qiraj dropping off Emperor Vek’lor or purchased from the Auction House.

Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling

• Wowhead: Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
• Source: Engineering 575

The Dragonling is a staple in many pet battles from Pandaria on into Legion, making this is a must-have pet for any serious pet tamer. A Mechanical pet, the Dragonling’s passive allows him to come back to life once per battle at 20% health, giving him a second chance to bring down his opponent. The Dragonling takes decreased damage from magical attacks and has Breath, a dragonkin attack, which is super effective against magic types. This makes him a double counter to magic type pets and compounded with his high speed, there are few alternatives. The only pet with both Decoy and Thunderbolt on separate tiers, respectively these moves allow him to block any two attacks and use a split-team damage attack across the whole opponents team. Crafted by engineers, he’s pretty cheap to build at 4 Ghost Iron, 6 Trillium, and 2 Spirits of Harmony; he can also be purchased on the Auction House.

Emerald Proto-Whelp

• Wowhead: Emerald Proto-Whelp
• Source: The Savage Thicket in Sholazar Basin, Northrend

The Proto-Whelp has an ability that allows it to mitigate all incoming damage as well as a hibernation ability to allows it to regain over half its total hit points over three rounds. These two attacks are coupled with the choice of two strong attacks of two different typings, letting the Emerald Proto-Whelp shine in many of the Pandaren tamer dailies. Found in Sholazar Basin, you can also opt to look for a Dream Whelpling at the end of the Emerald Nightmare raid. The Dream Whelpling has the same moveset you would normally be using with your Proto-Whelp and isn’t too hard to acquire these pets spawn after killing Xavius. It can also be found in the LFR version of the raid as well. Both of these are wild pets and cannot be caged or sold on the Auction House.

Any Rabbit or Hare

• Source: Just about everywhere!

Rabbits and Hares are critter type pets, this makes them immune to stun, roots, and sleep effects. Critters are also super effective against Undead pets. Rabbits have two moves on separate tiers that allow them to avoid taking damage while still dealing damage to their opponents. The critter Flurry attack is also one of the best multi-attack moves there are as it’s treated differently than any other multi-attack move. Each chance to hit with flurry is rolled separately for all three attacks which allowing them to each count as separate attacks. This lets you break Decoys in a single turn and still deal damage to the opponent in the same round. Most of these are wild pets and cannot be caged or sold on the Auction House, though there are some that are sold as holiday pets such as the Spring Rabbit and the vendor sold rabbit from Dun Morogh.

Stormborn Whelpling

• Wowhead: Stormborne Whelpling
• Source: Drops off Stormwing Matriarch in Stormheim (100%)

Though a Dragonkin type, this pet has strong magic attacks, the Nexus whelpling has a similar move set and can be caught with a higher attack power. The Stormborne, however, is easier to obtain and his strength doesn’t suffer much. Able to use a split team damaging ability that changes the weather, this pet’s Mana Surge benefits and does enough damage to kill most opponents in two or three attacks. Super effective against Flying types the only resistance these movesets will meet are Mechanical type pets. Stormborn offers some alternative moves that can be used to your advantage situationally. This pet is a 100% drop off the Stormwing Matriarch located just northwest of Dreadwake’s Landing in Stormheim.

Grumpy

• Wowhead: Grumpy
• Source: Eligible for Grumpy quest in Bradensbrook, Val’sharah

This pet is appearing on this list because he is a master pet catcher. Combining Howl with Superbark is a tried and true method of weakening and capturing wild pets. The ability Superbark, like the Terrible Turnip’s Weakening Blow, cannot reduce the opponent below 1 HP. So no more accidental deaths. You can find him in the burning house at Bradensbrook in Val’sharah. He’s on the second floor balcony and will offer you a quest, rescue him and he’s all yours. This pet can be caged, so you can find him on the Auction House as well.

Zandalari Anklerender/Kneebiter

• Wowhead: Zandalari Anklerender / Zandalari Kneebiter
• Source: Drops off Zandalari Dinomancers on Pandaria’s Isle of Giants (2%)

These two pets have an ability combo that deals a massive amount of damage. By using the ability Black Caw, which adds extra damage to every hit for three rounds, and following it up with Hunting Party, a multi-round multi-hit attack that causes the opponent to take double damage for the following two rounds, you can take out many strong single boss-type opponents such as Zao, Calfling of Niuzao. The Zandalari raptor pets can be found as drops off the Zandalari Dinomancers on Pandaria’s Isle of Giants at a 2% chance; they can also be found on the Auction House.

Unborn Val’kyr

• Wowhead: Unborn Val’kyr
• Source: Rare spawn points in Northrend

An undead pet with the strongest DoT’s in the game, haunt. Only two other pets in game have this ability, Wicked Soul and Ghastly Kid. This is an ability that allows your pet to haunt an opponent and gives you a free switch out. Though the Val’kyr will be considered dead for the duration of the DoT this strong hitting ability shouldn’t leave many opponents up for long. Couple that ability with the pet’s strong time-bomb attack, curse of doom, and it’s a death sentence for many long term opponents. Undead pets, once killed, will return from the grave and finish the current round as well as attack one more round during which they are immortal and cannot be killed. With this you can take advantage of the Val’kyr’s other third tier ability, Unholy Ascension. Unholy Ascension sacrifices the Val’kry’s remaining life to place a 9 round debuff on the opponent causing them to take extra damage. This is a rare wild pet and cannot be caged or sold on the Auction House. It can be found in various locations around Northrend. This is the toughest pet on this list to find as finding a rare quality one in the wild will be difficult, but once captured this pet can greatly add to the strategy of teams.

Other great pets to round out your max level battle slots:

• Nether Faerie Dragon
• Chrominius
• Emperor Crab
• Any Moth
• Darkmoon Tonk
• Darkmoon Zeppelin
• Any Snail
• Feline Familiar
• Pandaren Water Spirit
• Kun-Lai Runt
• Clockwork Gnome
• Crow/Raven
• Hyjal Wisp

These pets offer a solid base to get you started in both PvE pet tamer battles as well as strong pairs to assist in leveling future pets. Good luck, battlers!