Long road to 25

[Emrys]

I have begun the process of leveling all my low-level pets. I started with all the rare level 1s, battled them until they were all level 2, then went through the list again until they were all level 3, and am now working on level 4. It's slow, but it also helps me look for upgrades (undercity rat and cockroach are two that continue to elude me).

I've found that listening to epic music, specifically the band Two Steps From Hell, makes every fight seem legendary and less tedious.

anyone else have tips to help along the leveling process?

[Tahsfenz]

I grab 2 level 1s & my turnip. I kill looking to round out my rares and switch them at level 5. It took me 4 hours to find a ruby sappling, so I got quite a few to 5

[Gendou]

* Gendou's To-Do List *
Step One: Get one of every wild pet.
Step Two: Get one of every wild pet as an Uncommon.
Step Three: Get one of every wild pet as a Rare.
Step Four: Level every Rare pet to L4 or better.

I've accomplished each of those.
Leveling is one of the easier ones if you have access to tamer dailies.
Using just the Master Kalimdor dailies Horde-side, you can get 20 pets from L1 to L6 each day.

Right now, I'm working on Step Five: Level every Rare pet to L25.

[Ysabell]

Undercity Rat shares spawn points with the other pets in Undercity, if you fly around killing anything that isn't them you'll find a lot of them fast.

As to leveling pets faster, I find tamers that I can carry level 1 pets on with two 25s because the bonus XP brings a level 1 pet to level 8-11 typically.

[Amithyst]

Ah, leveling pets sucks up until mid teens I think then they take off enough to hold their own more often then not. I only really care about the time it takes when I'm losing fights.

[Knotrandall]

I have begun the process of leveling all my low-level pets. I started with all the rare level 1s, battled them until they were all level 2, then went through the list again until they were all level 3, and am now working on level 4. It's slow, but it also helps me look for upgrades (undercity rat and cockroach are two that continue to elude me).

I don't know, that sounds like a much harder way of doing it to me. I much prefer to take level 1s against tamers all the way up to 25. You take them against the easier ones first, then harder ones once they get up in the 20s. If I end up as level 24 I finish it off on wild pets.

I guess if you still want to level more after finishing all the dailies your method would work, but that's enough for me for one day usually.

[Bonhomous]

don't lvl them up one lvl at a time. It'll take some time, but focus on one pet or a group of three of them. The first trip to 25 is the hardest. (the first cut is the deepest)
While you're lvling up one pet, you'll sometimes find rares of the same lvl you're fighting and you can capture those. Up until lvl 15 they wont lose a lvl (unless you don't have a pet that high yet) and you can add these to your collection.
Once you've gotten a pet to lvl 25, then you take them someplace where they have an advantage (aquatics, to go deepholm) and start the fight with a low lvl, then bring in your 25 to wrap up the other team, you'll find that you'll be lvling up a lvl or 2 at a time.

It's always going to be a grind to lvl. But I would recommend powerleveling your pets once you've gotten a pet or two to lvl 25.

[Breehit]

* Gendou's To-Do List *
Step One: Get one of every wild pet.
Step Two: Get one of every wild pet as an Uncommon.
Step Three: Get one of every wild pet as a Rare.
Step Four: Level every Rare pet to L4 or better.

I think I need to follow your example. I got all my wild pets (except Sumprush Rodent and Qiraji Guardling, of course). But, I keep shifting around my current priority from rare collecting to leveling. Maybe if I stick with one goal I will get it done.

[Emrys]

I don't know, that sounds like a much harder way of doing it to me. I much prefer to take level 1s against tamers all the way up to 25. You take them against the easier ones first, then harder ones once they get up in the 20s. If I end up as level 24 I finish it off on wild pets.

I use this method because it lets me get the pets I'm missing (or upgrades) and I can level at the same time. Once I have all the wild pets I will start using tamers to level.

[Usaia]

My strategy of collecting and leveling is somewhat different.

1. Collect only battle pet rares. If they elude you for a long time only then take uncommon or even poor.
2. Collect from low levels area to high. This way you can level up all those lvl 1-5 pets quick and later level them even more.
3. Collect, if possible, the right breed. Lvl 2 'right' breed has higher priority leveling than lvl 10 'wrong' breed of another pet. Only Lvl 20+ wrong breeds are worth leveling for use until you get the right breed.
4. Level pets to some useful levels. Depending on the breed, lvl 9-10 is somewhere close where you can take a big hit from lvl 25 opponent or have some use of it's abilities in high level fights that hit (debuffs etc).
5. See that your mix of high levels is versatile. If you have only 3 undeads but 15 aquatics etc at lvl 25 choose undead for leveling. Don't go for the looks. Also, try to look at the movesets of what you already have. Having 5 rabbits at full speed out of 25 high level pets is not much use. Only at tamers if the strategy needs some certain type/resistance for the leveling pet, go for it - you get the exp that otherwise would be lost.

[Knotrandall]

2. Collect from low levels area to high. This way you can level up all those lvl 1-5 pets quick and later level them even more.

I do the opposite. There's no sense looking for a rare Twilight Beetle in Azshara and get a level 4 when you can look in Mount Hyjal and catch one that is level 24, since the end goal is ultimately to get it to level 25.

I wish I knew about it sooner, but I use the addon PetTracker http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/pettracker since it shows all the pets on the map that you either haven't caught or don't have a rare of. Using this I have just been starting at the high level places (Pandaria, Cata zones) until I have a rare of all pets in that zone, then I'm planning on moving down the line until I have the highest natural level rare of each pet.

Leveling I haven't concentrated on as much since I have max level of pretty much every popular/useful pet, but I still do all the trainer dailies which lets me max out a couple pets per day.

[Mykro9]

If getting all your pets up in levels is a key for you, get a Curious Wolvar Pup, stone it, get it to level 25.
Take it to Feralas, around Dire Maul.
Find the Nether Faerie Dragons.
Pick any 2 level 1 pets.

Round 1: Insert first level 1 pet, use random move.
Round 2: Switch to second level 1 pet, take a hit.
Round 3: Switch to CWP.
Round 4: Use punch vs the dragon to oneshot it.
Round 5: Use maul on the second pet, usually a critter to oneshot it.
Fight over.
Rinse and repeat.

Occasionally, your CWP gets dodged or misses, the NFD uses its dodge move Evanescence, or you get a rare that has enough HP to not be oneshot. The longest fights I ever had were with bad RNG and lasted maybe 8 rounds.
You will instalevel 1 to 3, then like one level each fight for the 2 pets until 7. It took me I think 15 fights to go from 1 to 10, and with battles that fast, it takes no time at all. Once you learn the spawn points around Dire Maul, you fly point to point really fast, and they all stay the same, no animals share the same points, and after each lap everything has respawned.
You may aggro an ogre or a hyena, but any toon over 60 should oneshot them too. Once you have whatever pets you want leveled to 10, move on to subbing them on trainers, or go to Dragonblight and use the Dragonbone Hatchlings around the Wyrmrest Temple, and throughout Dragonblight.

If you want to hunt rares while leveling your lowbies, use a Terrible Turnip with weakening blow, same rotation as above, and use the weakening blow on any rare low level wild pet to one HP, then capture it. If the second pet is what you are after, use TT and weakening blow to take the first pet to 1 HP then use another one of his moves to kill it. Then weakening blow the capture pet to 1 HP, you get the idea.

I understand the desire to capture all your pets as rares and use your lowbie pets to level with as you do this, but you will take an enormous amount of time doing so. Using a level 25 TT as a third pet for capture purposes, along with whatever pet or pets you want to level will make this process SOOOO much faster.

Also, I think breeds of pets are as important if not more important than rarity, since you can stone a grey poor quality breed 4, 5 or 6 to rare pretty easy.

While pet hunting, I do this:
1. Capture the first one I fight, almost every time, to say I got one.
2. I start looking for rares/breeds I want. (I come to Warcraftpets often to see what breeds a certain pet has, and decide which one or two breeds of that pet I want.)
3. I pay attention to the breed as I engage, to decide if I want to capture it.
4. If it is a breed I want, regardless of rarity, I capture it.
5. Hunt for a rare.
6. Keep hunting for the breed I want in a rare.

Happy hunting!

[Usaia]

2. Collect from low levels area to high. This way you can level up all those lvl 1-5 pets quick and later level them even more.

I do the opposite. There's no sense looking for a rare Twilight Beetle in Azshara and get a level 4 when you can look in Mount Hyjal and catch one that is level 24, since the end goal is ultimately to get it to level 25.

Let me rephrase. Collect 'unique zone' pets from low levels area to high levels area which are 157 (or so) of total 260 capturable battle pets. These you cannot get with significant level difference and they are in one zone only. The rest that can be found in several zones you take only as rares as it goes and if higher level or better breed shows up later, replace.

[Mykro9]

Terrible Turnip Terrible Turnip Terrible Turnip Terrible Turnip..... I cannot say this enough. This guy at 25 can NEVER kill even a level 1, unless you DoT it , or if its one of the self damage pets with a stonerush like move. Weakening blow cannot take a pet below 1hp EVER, no matter how many times you hit it. So TT is the perfect, and ONLY pet to use for lowbie farming. Try him, I promise once you get the hang of him, you will love him.

[Waveryn]

I made sure while capturing pets to fight the highest possible level only and looked for rares at the same time. This may take time and I knew which pets were hard to get any quality of and have stoned a few of those to save time. This allowed me to have a huge list of Level 23 pets by only fighting LvL 25 when possible and capturing only rares. And getting these to level 25 is very quick once you have mastered 2 teaming the 11 Pandaria Tamers. You can get 5.5 level 23 pets to 25 just doing these dailys alone add some other tamers/dailys and regular battles and even more are possible each day.

[Breehit]

Terrible Turnip Terrible Turnip Terrible Turnip Terrible Turnip..... Try him, I promise once you get the hang of him, you will love him.

I second this!!! TT is my "go to" pet...he even works ok for normal killing battles, by following up weakening blow with sunny day. I keep him in my #2 spot most of the time, just in case i find a rare pet that I need to capture.

[Tinuthien]

* Gendou's To-Do List *
Step One: Get one of every wild pet.
Step Two: Get one of every wild pet as an Uncommon.
Step Three: Get one of every wild pet as a Rare.
Step Four: Level every Rare pet to L4 or better.

I think I need to follow your example. I got all my wild pets (except Sumprush Rodent and Qiraji Guardling, of course). But, I keep shifting around my current priority from rare collecting to leveling. Maybe if I stick with one goal I will get it done.

I second that! I'll go out on leveling excursions (SQUIRREL!!!) so I can have at least one rare pet (SQUIRREL!!!) from every family up to 25 (SQUIRREL!!!) and... awh shoot! What was I doing again? (SQUIRREL!!!)

[Formerruling]

Ive been getting ~2 pets a day to 25 by doing tamers. I do 3 northrend (gnome, gutrenth, jacob) 3 panderia (yon, nishi, aki) and this is usually enough to get two. I only expand to slower or harder tamers if i got nothing else to do

[Gendou]

I think I need to follow your example. I got all my wild pets (except Sumprush Rodent and Qiraji Guardling, of course). But, I keep shifting around my current priority from rare collecting to leveling. Maybe if I stick with one goal I will get it done.

I found that doing tamer battles were nice for leveling up pets, so that I didn't really need to use wild battles for leveling.

For rare finding, I just moved from zone to zone, starting in the Vale and moving backwards.
That way, I would have the highest possible level for each rare I captured.

Now I'm just cycling through the bag dailies (mostly) every day.

[Taru]

My way to leveling my pets is to go to the Valley of the Four Winds, most of the pets there are critters and so my Razormaw Hatchling is very effectiv.

I put a level 1 pet in my first team place and search for a Marsh Fiddler. The first attack of them is almost everytime a healing spell or Swarm which doesn't do much damage so your level 1 pet won't die. Then I simply swith to my raptor and he defeats the pets. (with his abitility Devour he can heal himself a lot and I very rarly have to heal him)
The first time your pet will become level 6 and withhin four fights your pet is almost level 11.
It does take some time but you don't have to fly around much or have to heal your pets. It is boring but you can simply watch a film

For the last levels I also fight agains the pet trainers of pandaria ^^