The "Bear" essentials on low level leveling

[Abashera]

If you win just one battle against a high level pet (approx. lvl 20) your level one pet will jump up 4 levels each win for the 1st two wins.

But how to win a battle without your level 1 pet getting one-shotted?

Simple, bring a bear. Any bear will do, and it doesn't need to be high level, it only needs to have enough health to be able to take one hit itself, and high enough to have "Bash". (I use the Infested Bear Cub because it gets "Bash" at level 2, which means you get to level two pets together if you're still leveling an Infested Bear Cub. The Darkshore Cub doesn't get Bash until level 15. And the Anodized Robo Cub doesn't have "Bash". Baby Blizzard Bear also has Bash at level 2, if you have one.)

(Warning: This doesn't work against critters because critters break free from stuns. Also if the enemy evades your bash, or bash misses, you will have to forfeit and reengage.)

Make up your team: A bear; Your level one pet; and your level 25 pet (I prefer the Emerald Proto-Whelp because his two healing abilities, combined with "Breath", can take down a whole team of lvl 25s in the wild).



Technique:

1) The bear goes first. Hit the enemy pet with "Bash".

2) Immediately bring out your level one pet, then immediately switch to your level 25 pet. Provided the pet you "bashed" is anything other than a critter, it will sleep through the pet-swap, and your level one pet will suffer zero damage.

3) Mop up the rest of the team with your level 25 pet.

In two wins your pet will be level 6 (maybe level 5). Do this with all your level one pets, swapping them for new level one pets every time one reaches level 6. Then put together teams of two level 6 pets, hitting, then swapping, and cleaning up with your level 25, doing this until all pets are level 10 to 15. When all pets have reached level 10 or 15, head to Pandaria and finishing leveling there.

The Emerald Proto Whelp will heal and kill through a full team of level 25 wild pets.

I hope someone finds this little guide useful.

[Quintessence]

Interesting strategy for leveling lowbies on high level wild pets.

Moving this to the Pet Battles section, though, since the discussion would be more appropriate for that section.

[Peanutty]

Any turkey will also work in a similar way. You use Food Coma first to put the target to sleep, swap in your level 1, and then swap back and continue the fight. Also because turkeys count as flying they will almost always go first against a random wild pet.

[Domie]

If you have a pet that will for sure win against the wild pets you are going to meet on its own, you can also just bring 2 level 1 pets, your first level 1 gets attack, if it dies, you just put in your other level 1, and change it straight away, it doesnt need to do a move to get exp. and if the first pet doesnt get killed, great, you just go ahead and change in the pet to bring them down :)

What ive done the most tho is just get the first levels on lower level pets, around 13-15 or something like that, level 1 pets will mostly survive this, and after the fight they will be level 4-5, and that is usualy enough to survive an attack from a wild level 25 pet. So you just level a bunch of your level 1 by fighting one time each, and then you move to a place with 25 pets to level them up further :)

Sorry for the messy post, its late here :<

[Sanzul]

In case you don't have any bears, [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/abilities/filter/?filter=causes_stun_effect]here's a list of abilities that cause stuns[/url]. Click any ability to get a list of pets that have it. A lot of them are procs or delayed, but you're bound to have at least one pet that has a reliable stun.

[Likebigbuttz]

I will need someone to confirm this, but I am pretty sure the total xp gained is shared between all eligible pets (alive and not max level) so it's the same total whether it is one lowbie pet or two lowbie pets. Therefore it takes the same number of fights to get 2 pets to max level if you do them individually or together?

I have assumed that is correct so I always use 1 lowbie and 2 max level pets with different strengths so the fights can go asap (big hits and limited turns used for healing). I always run with a [pet]Son of Animus[/pet] (2,2,2) which takes down Beasts really fast and can heal while doing damage with [ability]Touch of the Animus[/ability].

For the second high level something like a [pet]Zandalari Kneebiter[/pet] using [ability]Bloodfang[/ability] for Critters is useful or something nice and reliable like a [pet]Emerald Proto-Whelp[/pet].

Edit - I use this make up for my leveling pets between 10-15 (about 4-5 fights each) against level 23+ wilds (while farming family specific Flawless Stones). Levels 15-23 I use Panda Tamers and 23-24 I use the Valley of the Four Wind Aquatic ones.

For 1-10 I use the strat someone posted of farming the Scalded Basilisk Hatchling in Outland which have a lot of abilities which do no damage, so the survival rate of a level 1 for one round is really high. The strat posted uses P/P Spiders with [ability]Brittle Webbing[/ability] and [ability]Leech Life[/ability] which burn through those mobs amazingly fast. So funny watching mobs do more damage to themselves than my spiders with the Brittle Webbing debuff.

[Peanutty]

I will need someone to confirm this, but I am pretty sure the total xp gained is shared between all eligible pets (alive and not max level) so it's the same total whether it is one lowbie pet or two lowbie pets.

That seems to be the case, or so it was the last time I checked. Don't know if it's exactly a 50% split though, it might just be a reduced amount for each. I level pets to 25 immediately so I have no leveling fodder to test that on at the moment.

Personally I prefer the lower risk, level one pet at a time approach.

[Abashera]

Any turkey will also work in a similar way. You use Food Coma first to put the target to sleep, swap in your level 1, and then swap back and continue the fight. Also because turkeys count as flying they will almost always go first against a random wild pet.

Thank you Peanutty. Yeah I considered turkey's Food Coma, which may work better than Bash because bash only lasts one turn... But it didn't go with my neat title.

[Peanutty]

The "Food Coma" essentials on low leveling just doesn't have the same ring...

I also like having a turkey on capture teams against pets with suicide abilities, like Crimson Geode, as it gives you 2 rounds to try and catch it before it blows itself up.

[Abashera]

Oh yes, a pet that can put another to sleep is a must with suicidal pets. I used an eternal strider for the Crimson Geode, and was able to catch a rare with it; though an Aqua may be better due to his speed assuring you the first hit.

Although this didn't work with me on the rare P/P Geode I tried to capture. Someone suggested that if a geode has "Stone Rush", just forfeit and reengage, and chances are that it will have another ability chosen. Well, I've concluded that Blizz read that too, and changed it so that stone rush will always be in it's abilities, because I quit and reengaged like 10 times, and it ALWAYS has stone rush. And every other geode I fought that day also had stone rush in it's abilities.

Yep after a couple months of very casual hunting, I finally found my Rare P/P Crimson Geode. And let's just say... a Stone Rush on an all power Crimson Geode hits AWFULLY HARD!!! Of course I lost it as it killed itself in one blow. So I just caught a poor quality one and used a stone.

Perhaps a turkey would have done a better job. At least it would have gone to sleep instantly, and given me two chances to cage it. /shrug

[Geegeez]

Another trick I've used is to use a Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling and cast Decoy. Since it goes for 2 turns you have time to swap in your leveling pet and swap it out to your level 25 since the Decoy will protect it from being hit. The only trouble you'll have is with pets that can damage the back row pets, but it works pretty well if you don't have a bear.

[Kpb321]

Another option is pets with absorb attacks abilities like decoy. Personally I just use the low level trainers that give coins to level my puts up. For Deadwind pass I use a strider as it has strong attacks against the first pet and the other two pets are weak against it. Against winterspring I just swap the low level pet in while the first pet is recharging.

[Arwyn3]

Decoy is great, as is beaver dam or ice barrier. There's a number of pets with these abilities out there that I find are ideal for wild pet battle leveling. Stuns work too tho. Interesting strat

[Rendigar]

I have to agree - I liked bringing my level 1's out to Blades Edge Mountains and fighting the basilisks there, who have several opening moves that don't kill level ones. But it's a bloody long flight. I definitely like the idea of using any pet with a 2 turn shield or an opening stun (the pet list is pretty long with these, too) and fighting somewhere close by. Just need to not fight pets that have multi-hit attacks if using the walls. The stun is a much safer way to go as it will allow you to fight any opponents who don't have AoE-style attacks. Those can still kill your carry pet if they decide to chain cast them - but that's a very rare occurance in my experience (except when fighting the Flowing Pandaren Spirit *mutters imprecations of DOOM at Tiptoe*).

[Sanzul]

The only trouble you'll have is with pets that can damage the back row pets, but it works pretty well if you don't have a bear.

You're going to have trouble with back row damage either way, unless it's minor enough that a sandstorm can negate it. There's not really any good way around it other than using higher level carry pets against fights with heavy back row damage (most notably Wastewalker Shu, Lil' Oondasta, and the water and fire spirit tamers).

[Beesknees]

In the Hinterlands, the northeast corner is Seradane. I was curious once, years ago and went across the bridge to see what was there. I was squashed flat in 0.8 seconds.

The Dragons are gone and nothing remains but cute little furry woodland creatures. Lots of them. Teams of 2 at this level, level 10-11.
If you're a new player, that can't survive in a high level zone, this is the area for you. There's a flight path nearyby, an inn, a stable master who will heal your pets. This spot is also near the one place to find a Jade Oozeling. They're the prettiest shade of green and they move like a pidgeon (the head bob thing).

[Boozehound]

After reading this post this morning I later found myself using the Darkmoon Zeppelin's ability DECOY to swap in a lower level pet while the enemy's attacks are being blocked. Did this while using a level 25 to do some MoP wild battles. Worth a mention. Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling also has the DECOY ability.

Thanks for the "Bear" essentials bash/stun idea.

[Sanzul]

There are quite a few similar "blocking" effects: [ability]Ice Barrier[/ability], [ability]Beaver Dam[/ability], [ability]Illusionary Barrier[/ability], and [ability]Prismatic Barrier[/ability]. Just be careful against enemies that hit multiple times per round.

Also worth noting is the [pet]Death Adder Hatchling[/pet]'s [ability]Blinding Poison[/ability]. It's not going to protect you from everything, though, so use carefully.

[Trystan]

Thanks for all the helpful tips!

Appreciate them!

[Ziboo]

Thanks for the bear idea.

I've been using the turkey's food coma for leveling (Vale behind Mistfall Village). Quick respawn, stable master right there, etc. and mostly all aquatics. Depending on if I want to go quickly or level two at a time (usually a 1 and a 17+) if I have a second 25 or not.

I didn't know about Saredane for some of the pre-MoP toons, definitely checking that out.