[Legion] Immaculate Battle-Training Stones: Epic Pets

[Gendou]

Tweet from Perculia:
"Pets can be epic on the alpha now with Immaculate Battle Training Stones."



Thoughts:
This is a little disheartening, to be honest.
It took forever to get my collection of 700+ unique pets to blue-quality.
Looking at trying to get all (or even some) to epic seems overly formidable.

[Gendou]

Discussion thread on the Official Forums regarding Epic pets.

[Quintessence]

Moving this thread to the Pet Battling section of our forums, as developers are looking for feedback on the possibility of allowing us to upgrade to epic quality pets in Legion.

If you have any constructive criticism or feedback, please see the link Gendou provided above (US forums).

If a feedback thread isn't made on the EU forums in the next few days, feel free to leave your comments here.

Edit: An update from developer Jeremy Feasel -- https://twitter.com/Muffinus/status/700575253982945280

More Pet Battle chat. Cosmetic epics (adds purple, maybe some glowy fx) is prob. do-able. For those at "almost all rare," still feel bad?

[Paladance]

[Will split this into two posts. I hope it wouldn't be a problem!]

I was considering that two months ago in this thread. Link to it as a whole for the context:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/16517792188

And some quotes:

Firstly, some circumstances. Can I find an epic pet in the wild? If so, can I that all the time or under the certain conditions, like a Sign of the Critter week? Do I actually battle it or is there a chance to get an epic one after trapping the rare one?

I was assuming that expanding the system affects it all, including gathering new pets.
Referred also to the Warlords' quality system of items, ships, etc.

Secondly, what was said above – how to take care about circa 800 pets again? I haven't said it before, but I guess that there would be a solution to it, though some would see it as too convenient.
Well, after doing a certain part of content, you'd get an item that moves all your current pets' quality up. Poor ones become common, common ones become uncommon and so on.
This event may be gated by Going to Need More Leashes (250 unique pets) achievement to avoid "wasting" the reward.
However, it still doesn't resolve a question what with pets gathered in the future (...): are they upgraded upon trapping/looting (doesn't apply to the caged pets for obvious reasons) or is there a weekly that gives you a certain amount of single upgrade stones? Or that all, actually?

I still would like to see that solution. Of course it obviously rewards the players with a big roster, giving the other collectors a need to wait until "it's viable enough" (There is never enough, doh!). Hence the other options would appear anyway!

Thirdly, how to keep the previous content relevant? It seems to be quite simple: either there's a mandatory version of Timewalking (All better pets become automatically lvl 25 rares) or all important opponents are buffed. However, the second option is destructive for accounts without the pets upgraded.

The Celestial Tournament in WoD is waaaay easier than in MoP.
I'm fine with it, but lifting it more to have the prestige taken away would be No-No.

[Paladance]

There is also another aspect of these changes.

When there are epics, rares are less desirable than before, what means the economics will be affected too.
And because this is the only feature that gives to the trade cross-realm relationships, it needs to be carefully observed.

I can imagine that with a cascade of training stones, pet-related sections of Auction Houses will be paralysed or unpredictable for several months. Then blue pet prices will drop to the nether and the purple pets will take their place.

If my main suggestion was implemented as the only source of purple pets for a patch or two, people would think twice before putting a purple pet on AH, so the blues' value would drop slower to the day the restriction is lifted.

Including that all, the mentioned WoD-like RNG factor (if it's a thing) would sadly add more grind to the pet farming.
To prevent this, I need to add that a chance to get an epic should be related to your progress as a tamer.

A cosmetic addition to the epic pets? Sure! I guess that a purple mist was just an example? It would not fit to all pets, especially with a Fel Petal applied (would make them gray instead). Maybe a special symbol above them?

EDIT: @Quintessence -- I guess that's all.

[Drudatz]

Discussion thread on the Official Forums regarding Epic pets.

BTW why is there ONLY an US thread for this?

The Celestial Tournament in WoD is waaaay easier than in MoP.

Hu? We have NO tournament in WOD????

Tbh I dont like it at all when its going the way it is now.... upgrading 700+ pets - and cmon who where is NOT gonna do it - is gonna be VERY painfull and tiresome...

[Jerebear]

BTW why is there ONLY an US thread for this?

Well, the US thread was started by a US player. You can always start a EU thread as well.

Hu? We have NO tournament in WOD????.

It's just slang for the Tanaan jungle elite pets. Certainly there was no formalized tournament, but the "end game" they added for MoP was the first type of "end game", so some refer to WoD's "end game" (the tanaan elite pets) as the WoD's tournament. I know it sounds weird to some (I don't refer to it this way myself either), but it is just how some people label things. Perhaps a culture thing?

[Ziboo]

I'm willing to go with the flow if they add Epic or raise the levels. There has to be something 'new' beside go collect another group of pets.

No one's collection should be complete/done in a game that is ongoing in its life cyle.

[Drudatz]

I'm willing to go with the flow if they add Epic or raise the levels. There has to be something 'new' beside go collect another group of pets.No one's collection should be complete/done in a game that is ongoing in its life cyle.

Easy to say for someone who has only 290 pets at max level. Lets talk again when you have 700+ there....

[Dalandius]

I'm willing to go with the flow if they add Epic or raise the levels. There has to be something 'new' beside go collect another group of pets.No one's collection should be complete/done in a game that is ongoing in its life cyle.

Easy to say for someone who has only 290 pets at max level. Lets talk again when you have 700+ there....

I have 731 Rare Unique Pets and think it is good they are adding some better than just a few more pets. If all the added was a few more pets a short while after Legion launches people would have collected them and be complaining they have nothing to do.
People are complaining and they do not even know how they will be acquired.

[Merana]

Not a fan of carrot on a stick power level increase content. If I'd want any of that I'd raid. I guess if push comes to shove I'll grind it out again anyway, and here I thought 5k pet charms would be a good amount of starting currency for Legion, time to go back to farming I'll still be salty over all my flawless battle-stones that will suddenly become worthless.
I'd much rather see content in the form of a large pool of tamers visiting the pet tournament outside Dalaran, or several different bonus events per zone. And more raiding with leashes please.

[Taleranor]

My first thought:
How in the name of Thrall am I going to get my hands on 735+ of these things? (Not including pets I don't have yet, like all the ones to be released in Legion...)

Because for those of us who are completionists about this sort of thing, this is opening up a whole big can of obsession and madness.

[Zonnetje]

I'm willing to go with the flow if they add Epic or raise the levels. There has to be something 'new' beside go collect another group of pets.No one's collection should be complete/done in a game that is ongoing in its life cyle.

Easy to say for someone who has only 290 pets at max level. Lets talk again when you have 700+ there....

Ok, still easy to say at 700 pets. I agree with their statement completely, regardless of how many pets.

[Shingetsu]

Not a big fan of this idea - at all. Even if this is only cosmetic.
Let's be realistic. Hardcore collectors will farm this for all their pets.

[Paladance]

It's just slang for the Tanaan jungle elite pets. Certainly there was no formalized tournament, but the "end game" they added for MoP was the first type of "end game", so some refer to WoD's "end game" (the tanaan elite pets) as the WoD's tournament. I know it sounds weird to some (I don't refer to it this way myself either), but it is just how some people label things. Perhaps a culture thing?

You should've been read my original statement (Remte is my EU character):

Thirdly, how to keep the previous content relevant? It seems to be quite simple: either there's a mandatory version of Timewalking (All better pets become automatically lvl 25 rares) or all important opponents are buffed. However, the second option is destructive for accounts without the pets upgraded.

The Celestial Tournament in WoD is waaaay easier than in MoP.
I'm fine with it, but lifting it more to have the prestige taken away would be No-No.

There is NOTHING about Tanaan. The poster above you has quoted me ignoring the core and replaced it with his own ramblings.
I guess that it's meant to deceive people. He's done the same with another poster in the recent exp thread.

---

To be honest, I've been expecting that this thread will provide something more that a simple "yay or nay". It's of course a good thing to know, but I'd hardly name this a discussion. Problems need a solution, so let's show our vision! I don't think that someone could ban us for that.

[Ranok]

If the Epic pets are anything more than cosmetic, NO.

From battling the Blizz-supplied Epics, with their enhanced powers and their RNG obviously lots better than ours, not fond of them.

Letting players get hold of epics with epic attributes, even worse than what Blizz did with adding Graves into the mix.

[Nelaphim]

If the Epic pets are anything more than cosmetic, NO.

From battling the Blizz-supplied Epics, with their enhanced powers and their RNG obviously lots better than ours, not fond of them.

Letting players get hold of epics with epic attributes, even worse than what Blizz did with adding Graves into the mix.

I highly doubt that the 'epic' player pets would get all of the perks that the NPC pets have.

I would love for them to add this. As it is, I will collect all of the pets in Legion when I hit 110, spend a few weeks trying to get the rare spawn/drop ones, then be done with them in the course of a day as I have enough stones saved to build a cairn for Deathwing.

[Vakeetah]

Not a fan of Epic pets overall... However, I could see it working IF there are more ways of upgrading than an expensive RNG-based bag, such as over-cap experience (like with Garrison followers), with the stone being a bonus/shortcut.

[Dalandius]

Not a fan of Epic pets overall... However, I could see it working IF there are more ways of upgrading than an expensive RNG-based bag, such as over-cap experience (like with Garrison followers), with the stone being a bonus/shortcut.

Indeed until we get some feedback from the developers on how "Epic" would effect pets and how we would go about doing it, it is hard to give constructive feedback. Mostly people are just going to say no based on the perceived idea that the only way to get the upgrade stone is from a /rng 200 pet charm bag, which for collectors is a whole lot of stones.

As for the keeping the Time gated celestial Tournament relevant how many people went back to do it once they had the 3 pets from it?. Two things made the CT a not as fun as it could have been Time gated, no healing rule. The no healing rule just made the bar to entry that much higher than it should have been, with needing back up pets in case of either a slip up or bad /rng no one did it with just 25 level 25 pets.
As the the WoD "Tournament" that is Tanaan Jungle that went the other way and could be done with 5 pets . Did like I got to usemy Wolpertinger.

The biggest issue I see is like the rest of the game balancing it for PvP, but you could do the same as they are talking about for legionaries items and only allow one (or none) in the team to start with and over time allow more.

[Merana]

Thinking more on that topic: It'll make older content pretty faceroll probably? And I guess a lot of updated or new guides etc. would eventually expect people to have epic pets. The level you'd want to reach for new collectors will get quite a jump as well, at least you can tame rare pets out in the world right now, but will there be epic wild pets in Legion?
Gearing up for raiding every new expac is one thing because it's already planned into how the game progression works, but suddenly adding a power level increase system for pet battles (and maybe another one for legendary in 2 or 3 expacs?) is just, well, all too sudden?

Of course they wouldn't want the stones to be too easy to acquire but with soon 800 odd unique pets getting an epic upgrade now is going to take ages even if the bag were cheaper than on alpha right now (100 charms instead of 200 for example, if you can farm 100 per day (with WoD tamers, garrison and Legion tamers and maybe Tanaan) it would still take a few years to get enough stones for your whole stable, and then some because RNG.

Ah but I digress and probably only repeat what has already been said, the US thread has mentioned artifact pets last time I read it as an alternative, while I'm not sure if I'm a fan of artifact everything, maybe an artifact safari hat or artifact bug catcher's net (hey, it could look cute? ) could be a thing? But how would that work being BoA without getting real tedious.