September 2021   « Archives | Current News »

The 9.1.5 PTR is up! Only one new pet has been added so far, however it's possible more Pet Battle content will be added later in the PTR cycle.

The new battle pet, Trouble (pictured right), is a Work In Progress as it's missing its abilities, source, and flavor text.

We look forward to learning more about this pet in the near future. Why is it such an odd color (for a cub)? Why is it named "Trouble"? What will its moveset be? How will this pet be obtained? We hope it won't be too troublesome.

UPDATE: The latest PTR notes (week of September 29) included another major battlestone change! [source]

• Ultimate Battle-Training Stones now cost 35 Polished Pet Charms (was 60).

This past week's PTR update included some interesting changes to Battlestones and pet leveling. [source]

Battle-Training Stone Changes
Currently, Flawless and family-specific Battle-Training Stones award one level each. This will change in 9.1.5 — these battlestones will grant a flat 2k experience. (PTR example pictured right)

Similarly, Fel-Touched Battle-Training Stones will no longer give 5 pet levels per use in the upcoming patch, and will instead provide a flat 10k experience.

• Flawless and family-specific Battle-Training Stones now provide a flat 2,000 experience (was the amount required to gain one level).
• Fel-Touched Battle-Training Stones now provide a flat 10,000 experience (was the amount required to gain five levels).

It's estimated that these changes will mean fewer of these types of battlestones will be necessary to fully level a battle pet to 25. This is great news for players that may not have a large stockpile of stones!

As with all things PTR, the experience granted from the Flawless and Fel-Touched Training Stones could change. Regardless, saving up battlestones for some quick levels in the future couldn't hurt.

Pet Experience From Battles

Pet experience earned during a battle will also be changing somewhat in 9.1.5. More experience? Yes, please!

Pets closer in level to the enemy will receive double experience. The bonus only applies if all pets on your team are within 2 levels above the wild pet team. (Image above unrelated, experience shown doesn't represent this new boost.) It would seem this only affects wild encounters, but more testing on the PTR may be necessary.

Additionally, any pet that dies during battle can still earn experience, albeit a smaller amount than if it had stayed alive, as long as it was active for at least one round during the battle. This might add some leniency to "carry strats" and give more room for error.

And last but not least, pet experience from battles will be increased by 50%! To balance this, the buff from the Pet Battle Bonus Event (currently 200% experience) will be reduced to 100%.

• Battling wild pets with a team of comparable-level pets now provides double experience. Pets on your team are eligible for this bonus if no pet on your team is more than two levels higher than any pet in the wild team.
• The experience penalty for a pet dying has been reduced to 50% (was 100%). Pets still need to be active for at least one round to be eligible to earn experience from a battle.
• All pet experience earned in battles is increased by 50%.
  

  To compensate, the Pet Battle Bonus Event buff Sign of the Critter has been reduced to 100% (was 200%). The net effect of this is that pet experience gained during the Pet Battle Bonus Event will remain unchanged from current values.

• Developers’ note: Pet battling is a fun and exciting mini-game, but the current incentives result in esoteric strategies being the only optimal choices. This results in a barrier to entry that discourages players from engaging with this system. We believe this set of changes will widen the range of optimal behavior without nerfing any existing leveling strategies.

What do you think of these upcoming changes? Will it change how you level your battle pets? With over 1400 battle pets to level, we hope these updates make it a little less daunting to upgrade pet collections!