Heya, I read this thread and can only suggest it. I myself levelled to 90 ages ago but I am really into pet battles. Before I discovered pet levelling via the trainers, I used the method described in this topic. I levelled around ~100 pets up to level 25 and even if levelling your character doesn't work like this anymore at some point, levelling your low level pets with this method is still amazing. I will give my tips below although most of them will come probably as obvious. Also, I wasn't sure if my information would be enough to create another "guide-topic" so I posted it here as a reply.
Basics
First of all, levelling like this is really good, since you get XP even if your pet is level 24. But if you choose your opponents carefully, you can easily level up pets from the very beginning (level 1) aswell. If you are planning on levelling up like this, I would HIGHLY suggest installing some pet-related addons to make your life easier:
In general, it's a nice addon for everyone who likes petbattles. It does the following:
- Displays the locations of all pets, stables and tamers on the world map.
- Tracks your progress of catching pets in your current zone.
- Shows the rarity of pets in battle and warns you of upgrades.
- Exposes pet breeds in combat, the journal and tooltips.
- Displays all your enemies and allies abilities as you fight.
- Provides a journal of all tamers and their teams.
I highlighted the most important ability when it comes to levelling. In general - with that tool you can see if your opponent has an ability which puts poison on your pet and it is important since poison ticks for 5 rounds and kill any lower level pets. If your enemy has a poisoning ability, switch in your level 25 pet and kill your opponent with that, if the poison ability isn't there, you can use your low level pet to hit the opponent (yes, even level 1, and from my experience your level 1 pet will survive one hit 75% of the time).
Poison ability to look out from:
Note how the addon shows that some of the abilities have green arrows on their icons - it means that it is strong against the current opponent. In the case which is shown on the picture, it means that opponents can attack with two abilities which are strong against my active pet. And this leads to the following point - which pets to use?! Check for more below.
The name is pretty much self-explaining - this addon will give you the option to sort your pets in your petjournal by levels, breeds, types, quality, quantity and so on. Very handy tool, especially if you want to sort out stronger pets to level.
Which pets?
There are three type of pets we are going to talk about - carry pets which carry the team; levelling pets which are being levelled and opponent pets which we will fight against.
Carry pets - the ones you want to carry your team
Many people above me have suggested using different pets for carrying your team and most of them are actually really good. Since levelling should be quick, I prefer using pets which are strong against critters and have self-heal abilities which means that they usually end the fight with full HP. Those pets are beasts. I have personally used Sand Kitten, which you can capture as a wild pet in Tanaris. But many other beasts have healing abilities and are strong against critters.
I will list the beasts which have Ravage/Devour/Bloodfang below:
Available through pet-battles (the number in the brackets shows what will be the approximate pet level):
- Cat - [1-2] Elwynn Forest; [1-2] Eversong Woods; [1-3] Silvermoon City; [7-8] Arathi Highlands; [20-21] Netherstorm
- Cheetah Cub - [3-4] Northern Barrens; [9-10] Southern Barrens
- Ravager Hatchling - [3-6] Bloodmyst Isle
- Sand Kitten - [13-14] Tanaris
- Silthid Hathcling - [13-14] Tanaris (requires Sandstorm and doesn't have that good abilities otherwise, so don't bother unless you already have it)
- Snow Cub - [1-2] Dun Morogh; [3-6] Loch Modan
- Ash Lizard - [15-16] Un'Goro Crater; [22-23] Mount Hyjal
- Diemetradon Hatchling - [15-16] Un'Goro Crater
- Horned Lizard - [15-16] Un'Goro Crater
- Lizard Hatchling - [7-9] Northern Stranglethorn; [9-10] The Cape of Stranglethorn
- Plains Monitor - [23-25] Kun-Lai Summit
- Spiky Lizard - [13-14] Badlands; [16-17] Silithus
- Spiny Lizard - [1] Orgrimmar; [1-2] Durotar
- Twilight Iguana - Pet Battle: [13-14] Thousand Needles
- Warpstalker Hatchling - [18-19] Terokkar Forest
Not obtainable through pet-battles:
- Black Tabby Cat - World Drop
- Bombay Cat - Sold by Donny Anthania in Elwynn Forest, costs 40 silver
- Calico Cat - Sold by Breanni in Dalaran, costs 50 gold
- Cornish Rex Cat- Sold by Donni Anthania in Elwynn Forest, costs 40 silver
- Darkmoon Cub - Sold by Lhara on Darkmoon Island for 90 Darkmoon Tickets
- Darting Hatchling - Drops from Dart's Nest in Dustwallow March
- Deviate Hatchling - Drops from Deviate Guardian and Deviate Ravager in Wailing Caverns
- Feline Familiar - Sold by Chub in Trisfal Glades and Dorothy in Stormwind City for 150 Tricky Treat (requires Hallow's End)
- Gundrak Hatchling - Drops from Gundrak Raptor in Zul'Drak
- Lashtail Hatchling - Questreward from "An Old Friend" [lvl 85] in Zul'Gurub
- Leaping Hatchling - Drops from Takk's Nest in Northern Barrens
- Nightsaber Cub - Trading Card Game reward
- Obsidian Hatchling - Sold by Breanni in Dalaran, costs 50 gold
- Panther Cub - Questreward from "Some Good Will Come" [lvl 85] in Northern Stranglethorn
- Ravasaur Hatchling - Drops from Ravasaur Matriarch's Nest in Un'goro Crater
- Razormaw Hatchling - Drops from Razordmaw Matriarch's Nest in Wetlands
- Razzasi Hatchling - World Drop
- Siamese Cat - Sold by Dealer Rashaad in Netherstrorm, costs 60 silver
- Silver Tabby Cat - Sold by Donni Anthania in Elwynn Forest, costs 40 silver
- White Kitten - Sold by Lil Timmy in Stormwind CIty, costs 60 silver
- Winterspring Cub - Sold by Michelle De Run in Winterspring, costs 50 gold
- Zandalari Anklerender - Drops from Zandalari Dinomancer on the Isle of Giants
- Zandalari Footslasher - Drops from Zandalari Dinomancer on the Isle of Giants
- Zandalari Kneebiter - Drops from Zandalari Dinomancer on the Isle of Giants
- Zandalari Toenibbler - Drops from Zandalari Dinomancer on the Isle of Giants
Levelling pets - the ones you want to level
As long as the pet which you are levelling is above level 10, it will pretty much survive every hit, including the poisoning for 5 rounds. But not many people have plenty of level 10+ pets, while most people have many random pets which they have acquired from the vendors, quests, mobs etc and those pets are generally level 1. When it comes to character levelling, it doesn't matter if the levelling pet is un-common (grey) or rare (blue) quality or anything inbetween, although rare pets have higher HP and therefore will survive longer. So, if you want to level all your level 1-10 pets, bear in mind the following:
- Very good pets to level
- Magical - magical pets have a racial which doesnt let them get hit for more than 35% of their HP. So if your level 1 magical pet has 150 HP, it won't go under 100 HP unless it gets a poisoned which shouldn't happen with the tips I have given.
- Flying - many of the abilities which your opponents will use in the Valley of the Four Winds, are weak against flying pets.
- Humanoid - many of the abilities which your opponents will use in the Valley of the Four Winds, are weak against humanoid pets.
- Mechanical - mechanical pets have a racial which means that even if you get oneshot by your opponent, your racial will resurrect you and you can swap your levelling pet out.
- Bad pets to level
- Critter- many of the abilities which your opponents will use in the Valley of the Four Winds, are strong against critter pets.
- Undead- many of the abilities which your opponents will use in the Valley of the Four Winds, are strong against undead pets.
Opponents
This part is a bit tricky because you can't see all 3 of your opponents but you can sort of predict which species they will be. For example, if you see a critter near a river, it's very likely that the 2nd and/or 3rd pet which will join the battle are aquatic.
I highly suggest avoiding battling aquatic pets (heals, absorbs, stuns) and also, if possible, petbattle rather aganst Marsh Fiddlers (who will very often use heal first) than Bandicoons (who will very often use poisons). Oh and it doesn't matter which type of Bandicoons (Bandicoon, Shy Bandicoon, Bandicoon Kit) they are. For more information on how to avoid aquatics and find more critters, I suggest checking below where I have uploaded a map with the best places on it! But in conclusion:
How to pet-battle
- Use your low-level pet in the first pet-slot.
- If the opponent has a poisoning ability, switch in your level 25 pet and try to hit another opponent with your low level pet.
- If the opponent doesn't have a poisoning ability, use your low-level pet's any ability and switch it out after that.
- Use your level 25 beast:
- Use a random strong attack until your opponent is low.
- Use Ravage/Devour/Bloodfang and heal yourself up with killing the opponent.
Where to pet-battle
As I stated above, try avoiding aquatic pets which means - try to avoid areas which have water nearby. I have created a map which has my favourite areas for pet-battles.
XP gains
Your pets will level up very fast. If you start levelling your level 1 pet, it will go up to level 5/6 with one win (depends on if you are using Safari Hat, pet xp boosting food etc). After that, every win will grant you one or two levels up until level ~15 where the XP gain starts slowing down a bit. Levelling a pet from 1 to 25 shouldn't take more than half an hour though.
When it comes to your own character, then I made a test with my level 2 alt and got 188 XP which is ~20% of my XP bar needed for another level.