What is fastest way to level?

[Zaelo]

I has a sad...

[Chillibilly]

Well then...

NOW, what's the fastest way?

[Poofah]

Probably the same thing: beat tamers with 2 pets plus a lowbie. You just have to fly around doing all the different ones rather than sit and kill Nishi over and over. This is what I've been doing anyway since 5.1, due to the battle stones.

Preferred line-ups:

Zusshi/Aki -- Magical Crawdad, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Dread Wastes guy -- Spawn of Onyxia, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Mo'ruk/Hyuna/Yon -- Emerald Proto-Whelp, Darkmoon Zeppelin

Air spirit -- Emerald Proto-Whelp.
Fire spirit -- Purple Puffer, Emerald Proto-Whelp
Water spirit -- a moth (needs to be 250+ speed) and a snail, however your lowbie will take several Tidal Waves so it has to have decent health.
Earth spirit -- I haven't found a good 2 pet team that reliably wins, so I forego the XP on this one. I'd love to hear if somebody has a good setup for this.

Uldum tamer -- Emerald Proto-Whelp, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Major Payne -- Fluxfire Feline, and a strider/skimmer

Antari -- Purple Puffer, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling


Incidentally, has anyone found a battle-stone in the Pandaren Spirit Tamer bags? Wowhead doesn't list them as possible drops.

[Fourdegrees]

Wall of text for strategy details, tips, and tricks. Don't freak out. The reading is long, the method is fast. TL;DR below.

For this revised strategy, I'm going to assume a high-level character that *just* learned pet battles and has zero acquired pets beyond what companions you accumulated pre-MoP. IMO, this is the fastest way to get max level pets and subsequently a very efficient way to get all of your pets to level 25. I call this method the "fast but hard" way to 25. "Fast" because you spend virtually no time grinding pet levels, but "hard" because your battles along the way can be challenging and you will lose sometimes. Once you have a small team of level 25 pets, it becomes very easy to level new ones quickly.

This strategy should include virtually no level "grinding" with an exception I'll mention below. I'm going to assume you've read a guide on the basics of pet battling and that you will use this website to look up what zones have what level pets. I also highly recommend the addons Pet Journal Enhanced and Battle Pet - Quality Notifier.

The core of the "fast" strategy is "leap-frogging" your captures to get higher and higher level pets. Take your first pet(s) to a zone that has pets 1 or 2 levels higher than those in your team. Challenge those pets and capture them. Once you've got a team of level 10 pets, you should be able to have 3 pets in your team. Get any 3 different pets of the level in the zone you're in then take that new team to the next zone level up and repeat the process. Continue this leap-frogging by constantly swapping out your team for the highest level pets you've captured. You'll notice the "hard" part comes in because you are constantly at a level disadvantage to the wild pets, which will result in some lost battles along the way. Protip 1: I highly recommend capturing or acquiring at least one pet of every family as you go. (Protip 2: If you're in a battle with a pet that you really want to capture, but your team is getting owned, log out from inside the battle. When you log back in, the pet you were after will still be there for the taking, rather than despawning after a failed fight.) After a while zipping around "leap-frogging", you'll end up in Pandaria with a full team of level 22-23 pets. Tada! "But wait," you say, "I wanted level 25 pets. What gives?"

The highest level pet you can ever have after a capture is 23 (but finding level 25 wild pets in Pandaria requires hunting, so most likely you'll have a level 22 team unless you're just stubborn like that). This is the exception to the "no level grinding" I mentioned before. You simply have to suck it up and level a few pets from 22 to 25. Boo. BUT! Here's the second part of the strategy to the rescue!

I highly recommend picking up a rare Amethyst Spiderling (AS) from Krasarang Wilds and a rare Sandy Petrel (SP) from the Windward Isle in Jade Forest (or as a secondary in the Arboretum if you can't fly in Pandaland yet). Also, pick up an extra of either pet, but don't sweat getting two rares. If you just can't find a rare, uncommons should be fine.

Take your team out to Halfhill in Valley of the Four Winds and get comfy. Why? The Stable Master there is surrounded by battle pets that often come in groups and they are very easy to get to and back from. Also, in that area there are only two types of wild pets, Critter and Aquatic. This means every fight is stacked with either all Critter, all Aquatic, or a mix of the two. Notice I recommended a Beast type and a Flying type? I chose those two pets because you can set them up so every one of their abilities deals their specific family damage type, which is very strong against what you'll be fighting. For the Spiderling, use Strike, Brittle Webbing, and Spiderling Swarm. For the Petrel, use Slicing Wind, Cyclone, and Lift-Off. This combination will chew through wild pets in a hurry. In fact, plenty of times I've opened with Brittle Webbing followed by Spiderling Swarm and the Critter is dead in two turns. I've seen critical Lift-Offs one-shot Aquatics. It's a very strong composition for the area.

So now you have a small team of level 25 pets about as fast as it can be done. Success! What about amassing that army? And "Hey, what about the battle pet trainers? I haven't fought a single one and I heard they grant bonus xp." You're right, and for amassing an army, you'll absolutely want the Safari Hat from the Taming the World achievement so taking down trainers is important, but I don't recommend using trainers to level pets because you can only get that bonus xp once a day and that's a lot of travel time you could be using to fight more wild pets. I do recommend getting one of each pet family (preferably with three abilities specific to its family type) before taking on the trainers because a level 25 team dealing strong damage will plow through trainers so fast the slowest part of the process will be getting to them. To max out one of each family, just stay right there in Halfhill and use the following method.

Put the pet you want to level in your first slot, followed by the AS and SP. Start a wild battle. Use your lowbie pet to cast any ability. It may miss and your pet will probably take a hit, but not die. Rotate the pet out to either the AS or SP based on whether the wild team is predominantly Critter or Aquatic and finish them off. Your lowbie pet gets a huge xp bonus. Ding! Rinse and repeat.

Something to keep in mind is that the xp from a fight is "divided up" among all the surviving pets that actively participated in the battle, even if the pet is maxed. XP divided to a max level pet just goes to waste so every battle, use the least number of pets you can. Don't be afraid to let one of your maxed pets die and finish the fight with the other one. This way the xp is still only divided among two pets. Even better, as your lowbie pet gets closer in level to what you're fighting, get the wild team down to just a small hit or two on its final pet and let it kill your maxed pet. Bring in your lowbie and have it finish the fight. Booyah, even bigger bonus xp! Huge, in fact. Keep in mind you don't have to waste time bringing in your third pet just to let it die. The xp bonus works even like this: Pet 1 starts fight and rotates out, Pet 2 kills all pets except last one, Pet 2 dies, Pet 1 finishes fight, Pet 3 lives but was never brought out. Pet 1 still gets 100% of the xp as if Pet 3 wasn't even there. Awesome!

This gets you one of each family to 25 pretty fast. Go plow through the trainers for that Safari Hat and once you've got it, throw that baby on and head back to Halfhill. Repeat the earlier leveling method and you'll blow through Pro Pet Mob in no time! Keep on going and you'll find yourself ranked among the top trainers on your server.

Have fun! Once you've got lots of pet types up to 25, you may get sick of Halfhill and want to venture off and find another spot to set up camp. Just look for a spot near a Stable Master that has lots of wild pets around whose types are limited to two (so you will always be doing strong damage). I like Halfhill because of what I said before, but also because it's easy to get to from the Alliance capital in Vale of Eternal Blossoms, it's right by Silken Fields so I can take my daily crack at an Imperial Moth and I can hit up several trainer dailies without going too much out of the way. Plus, Halfhill is pretty.

TL;DR - Fastest way to tons of level 25 pets from nothing: leap-frog pet levels by capturing, "grind" up an Amethyst Spiderling and Sandy Petrel from 22 to 25 near Halfhill, use them to level one of each family to 25, beat all the trainers for the Safari Hat, go back to Halfhill with your AS and SP and power level pets up to 25 to your heart's content. Collect Singing Cricket.

[Greendot]

Fourdegrees: Thank you for a very useful and great post! I have lots of 25's already but still found a few tricks that will come in handy, very nice!!

[Fourdegrees]

Fourdegrees: Thank you for a very useful and great post! I have lots of 25's already but still found a few tricks that will come in handy, very nice!!

Glad I could help!

[Misstic]

Probably the same thing: beat tamers with 2 pets plus a lowbie. You just have to fly around doing all the different ones rather than sit and kill Nishi over and over. This is what I've been doing anyway since 5.1, due to the battle stones.

Preferred line-ups:

Zusshi/Aki -- Magical Crawdad, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Dread Wastes guy -- Spawn of Onyxia, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Mo'ruk/Hyuna/Yon -- Emerald Proto-Whelp, Darkmoon Zeppelin

Air spirit -- Emerald Proto-Whelp.
Fire spirit -- Purple Puffer, Emerald Proto-Whelp
Water spirit -- a moth (needs to be 250+ speed) and a snail, however your lowbie will take several Tidal Waves so it has to have decent health.
Earth spirit -- I haven't found a good 2 pet team that reliably wins, so I forego the XP on this one. I'd love to hear if somebody has a good setup for this.

Uldum tamer -- Emerald Proto-Whelp, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Major Payne -- Fluxfire Feline, and a strider/skimmer

Antari -- Purple Puffer, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling


Incidentally, has anyone found a battle-stone in the Pandaren Spirit Tamer bags? Wowhead doesn't list them as possible drops.

Thanks Poofah! Is there anyway you could please describe what abilities you use for each pet battle with the pets you listed? Thanks!!

[Poofah]

sure:

Crawdad: claw/shell shield/wish
Zeppelin: missile/decoy/explode
Emerald Proto: Emerald Bite/Emerald Presence/Emerald Dream
Spawn of Onyxia: Tail Whip/Healing Flame/Lift-Off
Purple Puffer: Surge/Healing Wave/Pump
Moth: Alpha Strike/Cocoon Strike/Moth Dust
Snail: Absorb/Acidic Goo/Dive

Crawdad is slow but safe: shield first, and make sure to use wish the turn before you drop below 50% health. So for example vs Aki you want to get the dragon first: shield first turn, Wish 2nd turn, or else you'll get low on hp and the dragon will trigger its racial and kill you. Then just claw til dead while renewing shield and wish on cd: cricket can't damage crawdad while shield is up, and then you get a few hits on the otter. Similar for Zusshi, if you get the elemental first: shield then wish, then claw and renew shield/wish on cd; then on the snail, claw first turn, shield 2nd (because he'll dive), wish 3rd, and then claw til dead.

Vs Mo'ruk/Hyuna/Orbis, start with Zeppelin, get the snake/worm first, missile first turn, decoy 2nd turn (the worm/snake will burrow this turn, if it has burrow), then missile til dead. Swap to Emerald Proto, kill the flyer, hit the last pet til nearly dead, swap to lowbie, take one hit (or just kill it if the lowbie is high enough), swap to Zep and explode.

For the Dread Wastes guy, get the crab first, tail whip until Whirlpool has 1 turn left, and lift-off on that turn. Hopefully that kills the crab: if it misses, you'll have to healing flame. Then the elemental will do sandstorm/rupture/aoe/aoe/aoe/rupture; try to lift-off or healing flame the ruptures, everything else does little damage. Zeppelin kills the porcupine easily.

Yon: Emerald Proto-Whelp uses basic attack first turn, shield 2nd turn, basic attack 3rd turn, then if you get hit with the burrow/lift-off, start Emerald Dream. Then just repeat; the turn your shield wears off is the turn that the chicken/rabbit will burrow or lift-off, so wait until the shield is fully gone before refreshing. You'll get a couple whacks on the goat, and Zeppelin wins.

Major Payne: fluxfire supercharges, wind-up, wind-up: bear is dead; then wind-up again, if the peep kills you, you rez and pounce until you die for good; if you survive the first turn, supercharge so you can kill the peep after your rez. Just remember that if the peep kills you with its wind-up, it'll bug out and prevent the rez. If by some miracle the fluxfire is still alive, pounce the flower until it kills you, then lowbie, then strider kills the flower.

Air Spirit: Emerald Proto, just keep up shield, heal as needed, he'll kill all three this way.
Fire Spirit: start with Puffer, insist on getting the fire spirit; pump, pump, surge, this kills the spirit unless he crits you or you miss. Then surge the dragon until you die; Emerald Proto kills the other two by keeping up shield and healing as needed.
Water Spirit: this is annoying because of tidal wave. Start with a moth, insist on getting the fish first. Moth Dust, Alpha Strike, Cocoon Strike to eat the Dive (but you'll take damage from whirlpool). Then alpha strike, and the fish should be dead. Moth Dust the skimmer -- if you miss, it's going to be a long fight and it'll get a lot of tidal waves in, which will wreck your lowbie. Let the moth die while fighting the skimmer, then get Acidic Goo up and Dive with the snail -- you need to dps the skimmer down asap. The spirit is the easiest, just make sure you Dive with 1 turn left on the 2 debuffs: after you come back up is a good time to swap to the lowbie, and then swap back and finish him off.

[Misstic]

sure:

Crawdad: claw/shell shield/wish
Zeppelin: missile/decoy/explode
Emerald Proto: Emerald Bite/Emerald Presence/Emerald Dream
Spawn of Onyxia: Tail Whip/Healing Flame/Lift-Off
Purple Puffer: Surge/Healing Wave/Pump
Moth: Alpha Strike/Cocoon Strike/Moth Dust
Snail: Absorb/Acidic Goo/Dive

Crawdad is slow but safe: shield first, and make sure to use wish the turn before you drop below 50% health. So for example vs Aki you want to get the dragon first: shield first turn, Wish 2nd turn, or else you'll get low on hp and the dragon will trigger its racial and kill you. Then just claw til dead while renewing shield and wish on cd: cricket can't damage crawdad while shield is up, and then you get a few hits on the otter. Similar for Zusshi, if you get the elemental first: shield then wish, then claw and renew shield/wish on cd; then on the snail, claw first turn, shield 2nd (because he'll dive), wish 3rd, and then claw til dead.

Vs Mo'ruk/Hyuna/Orbis, start with Zeppelin, get the snake/worm first, missile first turn, decoy 2nd turn (the worm/snake will burrow this turn, if it has burrow), then missile til dead. Swap to Emerald Proto, kill the flyer, hit the last pet til nearly dead, swap to lowbie, take one hit (or just kill it if the lowbie is high enough), swap to Zep and explode.

For the Dread Wastes guy, get the crab first, tail whip until Whirlpool has 1 turn left, and lift-off on that turn. Hopefully that kills the crab: if it misses, you'll have to healing flame. Then the elemental will do sandstorm/rupture/aoe/aoe/aoe/rupture; try to lift-off or healing flame the ruptures, everything else does little damage. Zeppelin kills the porcupine easily.

Yon: Emerald Proto-Whelp uses basic attack first turn, shield 2nd turn, basic attack 3rd turn, then if you get hit with the burrow/lift-off, start Emerald Dream. Then just repeat; the turn your shield wears off is the turn that the chicken/rabbit will burrow or lift-off, so wait until the shield is fully gone before refreshing. You'll get a couple whacks on the goat, and Zeppelin wins.

Major Payne: fluxfire supercharges, wind-up, wind-up: bear is dead; then wind-up again, if the peep kills you, you rez and pounce until you die for good; if you survive the first turn, supercharge so you can kill the peep after your rez. Just remember that if the peep kills you with its wind-up, it'll bug out and prevent the rez. If by some miracle the fluxfire is still alive, pounce the flower until it kills you, then lowbie, then strider kills the flower.

Air Spirit: Emerald Proto, just keep up shield, heal as needed, he'll kill all three this way.
Fire Spirit: start with Puffer, insist on getting the fire spirit; pump, pump, surge, this kills the spirit unless he crits you or you miss. Then surge the dragon until you die; Emerald Proto kills the other two by keeping up shield and healing as needed.
Water Spirit: this is annoying because of tidal wave. Start with a moth, insist on getting the fish first. Moth Dust, Alpha Strike, Cocoon Strike to eat the Dive (but you'll take damage from whirlpool). Then alpha strike, and the fish should be dead. Moth Dust the skimmer -- if you miss, it's going to be a long fight and it'll get a lot of tidal waves in, which will wreck your lowbie. Let the moth die while fighting the skimmer, then get Acidic Goo up and Dive with the snail -- you need to dps the skimmer down asap. The spirit is the easiest, just make sure you Dive with 1 turn left on the 2 debuffs: after you come back up is a good time to swap to the lowbie, and then swap back and finish him off.

WOW thanks this is wonderful information!! I really appreciate you taking the time to write up this very wonderful and informative guide! I will be trying it tomorrow. I am sure it is easier than what I have been doing. I was using renewing mists with the crawdad all this time. Instead of Spawn of Ony, can I use Ony Whelp? Also I never leveled any Moth, is there one in particular you recommend (you said get a fast one?)

[Eviver]

Not sure if this if this is actually possible but when I was doing the Spirit tamer quest before finishing it I thought I remember seeing the Thundering spirit give me the option of fighting him again after I already beat him. If this is true it might be possible for someone still on the initial spirit tamer quest to repeat fighting the spirits over and over again. if thats the case the fastest way to level might be to not finish the quest and fight the whispering spirit in the Jade Forest with a dragonkin and an suicide explode mechanical and running back to the nearest stable master.

I finished the quest so I can't verify and i have some doubt over if it really did offer me the choice to fight again wasnt really paying attention to it but did remember making a mental note that it seem odd.

[Syrrie]

Not sure if this if this is actually possible but when I was doing the Spirit tamer quest before finishing it I thought I remember seeing the Thundering spirit give me the option of fighting him again after I already beat him. If this is true it might be possible for someone still on the initial spirit tamer quest to repeat fighting the spirits over and over again. if thats the case the fastest way to level might be to not finish the quest and fight the whispering spirit in the Jade Forest with a dragonkin and an suicide explode mechanical and running back to the nearest stable master.

I finished the quest so I can't verify and i have some doubt over if it really did offer me the choice to fight again wasnt really paying attention to it but did remember making a mental note that it seem odd.

You might be thinking of how you were able to go and do dailies from them as soon as you finished the quest line with them?

[Puluz]

Snail: Absorb/Acidic Goo/Dive

Haven't used any snails so far whatsoever so asking that do you have any suggestions which snail (does it matter?) and moreover, which breed, fast or strong or what? Thanks in advance, your post was very helpful

*off to level most of the aforementioned pets that i've been neglecting... *

[Eviver]

You might be thinking of how you were able to go and do dailies from them as soon as you finished the quest line with them?

You don't unlock the dailies till you finish the quest so nope

[Suspiro]

Earth spirit -- I haven't found a good 2 pet team that reliably wins, so I forego the XP on this one. I'd love to hear if somebody has a good setup for this.

I use a P/S (haven't searched for a S/S yet) Bandicoon and Darkmoon Tonk for this one, though, the pet-to-be-leveled needs to be able to get at least one hit off on Darnak at the end to successfully do this.

Ability lineup:
Bandicoon: Tongue Lash, Survival, Powerball
Darkmoon Tonk: Missile, Shock and Awe, Ion Cannon

Start with Bandicoon on Earth Spirit. Eat the Crystal Prison. Powerball and hope for no Rupture stun. Spam Toungue Lash until Rupture comes back off CD and use Survival. Eat Expunge from Sludgy and do one last Tongue Last. Finish Sludgy with DM Tonk. Shock and Awe Darnak. Eat the Burrow. If you have to use the Mechanical Passive to survive the first Burrow, you may have to start over depending on how weak your leveler is. Finish with Ion Cannon and then finish Darnak with the leveler.

The above is what I usually do when trying to funnel XP to a pet on Earth Spirit, but it is very RNG-dependent and probably not worth the effort.

[Talmar]

For Wild Pet Battle leveling, the Flayer Youngling can solo any group of 3 critters in The Heartland. Usually can solo the 2 critters 1 aquatic groups as well.

I'm usually leveling with the Flayer Youngling, a medium level pet (15 to 21) and a low level pet (5 to 14).

Now that Breanni finally sent me my hat I'm good to go.

[Poofah]

Instead of Spawn of Ony, can I use Ony Whelp? Also I never leveled any Moth, is there one in particular you recommend (you said get a fast one?)

Probably, but I haven't tried--Onyxian Whelp's power might be too low to burn through the crab's heals and the elemental's sandstorm. For the moth, you just need to beat the fish's speed, so including the flying bonus you just need higher than 250 speed, which is most of them. My usual moth is something like 276 power/273 speed. Honestly though, this fight is still annoying due to all the tidal waves killing your lowbie, so I usually do it with a 22+ lowbie, if at all.

Since Reflection is currently reflecting many end-of-turn effects, I'm going to try a Flayer Youngling on the Water Spirit fight. I suspect it'll be absurdly good but Reflection is not exactly consistent from ability to ability, so we'll see.

Haven't used any snails so far whatsoever so asking that do you have any suggestions which snail (does it matter?) and moreover, which breed, fast or strong or what?

The best best best snail is Shimmershell Snail, breed 4, but any high-power snail will do fine (Rapana Whelk is pretty easy to find in Dread Wastes, very close to the water spirit, and starts at level 22+). The water spirit will stack whirlpool and geyser so they hit on the same turn -- you just need to Dive with 1 turn left on those debuffs and they'll miss you. Snails are generally great against elementals due to being critters with a strong aquatic attack, and in this case Dive also prevents a ton of damage.

[Poofah]

Ability lineup:
Bandicoon: Tongue Lash, Survival, Powerball
Darkmoon Tonk: Missile, Shock and Awe, Ion Cannon

This is interesting -- my biggest problem is killing the earth spirit with a single pet, without stunning him or otherwise causing him to switch out. If a bandicoon can do that, plus eat the expunge, then I suspect a Fluxfire Feline can finish off the rest. He needs 3 turns to kill Sludgy, and since Sludgy is dealing magic damage he should survive long enough. The molerat takes two turns to put up his shield and burrow, so you get 2 free turns to set up against him -- then he'll kill you with burrow, you rez and kill him back. In theory.

[Poofah]

Just to update, a flayer is indeed absurd vs the water spirit: triple snap/reflect/rampage, he'll kill the skimmer and spirit.

Also, a breed 5 rabbit is incredibly good against the Earth Spirit -- this fight is very easy with the rabbit plus something to kill the ooze, because with the nerf to Stone Rush, the rabbit can avoid all of Darnak's attacks while whittling him down.

[Jone]

This is interesting -- my biggest problem is killing the earth spirit with a single pet, without stunning him or otherwise causing him to switch out.

I can pretty reliably kill the Earth Spirit with a breed 5 mongoose pup if the first dive doesn't miss.

[Zaelo]

Just to update, a flayer is indeed absurd vs the water spirit: triple snap/reflect/rampage, he'll kill the skimmer and spirit.

Just wanted to add to this. The Water Spirit usually starts with his two high damage delayed attacks (whirlpool + the one that stuns). They usually are timed to pop in the same round too, on top of his attack of that round (usually the AoE wave). That round is pretty killer, in normal circumstances.

Keep your Reflection for the round that those 2 delayed spells will hit. You'll only actually reflect the AoE wave, but you'll also dodge all 3 of his attacks that round; the AoE wave and the two delayed spells. So you dodge like 1200-1500 damage and a stun, pretty awesome hehehe