How to determine Poor, Common, Uncommon, Rare?

[Sarastew]

I'm trying to figure out how you determine the pet quaility (i.e. Poor, Common, Uncommon, Rare), before I actually capture the pet. Any tips?

Thanks!

[Zaelo]

There's an add-on that allows you to see the pet's quality as soon as you start the fight. I don't remember the name but it's something like BattlePet or something very obvious like that..

Otherwise, you can also know by checking at the health of the pet when you first engage the fight, a rare one would have a lot more HP than a poor quality one, but it's hard to actually determine which quality it is if you don't have data to compare it to.. anywho the add-on makes it 100% easier

And I believe as of 5.1 the pet's quality level will be displayed in battles as if you had the add-on

[Breanni]

Try this macro written by Simca (Malfurion). It allows you to learn the quality of the pet you’re battling right off the bat.

/run hooksecurefunc("PlaySoundKitID", function(Q) if Q==31584 then for i=1,C_PetBattles.GetNumPets(2) do SELECTED_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(C_PetBattles.GetName(2,i).." - ".._G["BATTLE_PET_BREED_QUALITY"..C_PetBattles.GetBreedQuality(2,i)]) end end end)

Use this macro once each time you login to WoW. It should automatically print out a line in your chat window with the rarity as soon as a battle begins. If you use the macro more than once per play session, you'll receive multiple messages in your chat window (which could get annoying). So remember, one click is all you need.

[Zaelo]

The add-on I was talking about is actually named BattlePetCount

Not only it'll show you the quality of the pets you're fighting, but it will also let you know, just by hovering over the pet's icon, if you have this pet already and show you what quality of this pet you have and what level (will give that information about every copy of that pet you own). That information will also be shown to you outside of battles if you hover over a wild pet.

Also, if a pet in the enemy's team would be an upgrade for you, either because you don't have that pet or because you have a lower quality one, it'll add an asterisk next to the pet's icon.

Really handy for any Battle Pet master

[Greenstar]

I use three add-ons for pets:

PetBattle Info is the one that shows the quality by colouring the text of the pet's name and it's portrait. This saves so much time when you're farming rares since if I don't see blue I hit cancel. It also shows what abilities the current opponent is using.
http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/petbattle-info

BattlePetCount will add a section to the tooltip when you cursor over a pet (on the minimap or the icon in a pet battle) and show you how many you have as well as the quality and level of each. It's handy to cursor over an icon on the minimap and see that you only have a level 1 green quality.
http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/battlepetcount

PetJournal Enhanced is handy for being able to sort your current pets in more useful ways. I sort mine by Favorites/Quality/Level so that my favorites are at the top, then my rares in descending order.
http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/pet-journal-enhanced

Many of the features of these are being added to the default UI in 5.1 (from what I'm reading) which indicates that these add-on authors had good ideas.

Edit: Just a mention about PetBattle Info, it even shows epic/legendary quality for the appropriate battle master pets.

[Zaelo]

Oooh I need the third one! Thanks Greenstar

I do believe BattlePetCount does what you say PetBattle Info do though, because I know I have just one battle pet related add-on installed and I get the features of both first add-ons you mentioned .. anywho

[Eviscerator]

i use PetTracker http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/pettracker


■Displays the locations of all pets on the world map.
■Tracks all pets you have still to catch in a given zone.
■Shows the rarity of pets in battle and warns you of upgrades. NEW
■Displays all your enemies and allies abilities as you fight.
■Suggests which is the most appropriate pet for your current enemy.

[Hellomynameis]

I would like an addon that takes it one step further, namely determines the breed ID of said pet you are about to fight.

As it is now, I find myself checking with websites to find the breed ID, even though I know what breed I want, I also want to know what breed I do have, and how much of an upgrade it would be from one rare of one breed, to another rare of a different breed.

Edit:
The closest I came to such an addon is http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/battle_pet_breedid .

It doesn't output breed ID number, but it uses a different format:

• 3/13 - B/B - .5/.5/.5
• 4/14 - P/P - 0/2/0
• 5/15 - S/S - 0/0/2
• 6/16 - H/H - 2/0/0
• 7/17 - H/P - .9/.9/0
• 8/18 - P/S - 0/.9/.9
• 9/19 - H/S - .9/0/.9
• 10/20 - P/B - .4/.9/.4
• 11/21 - S/B - .4/.4/.9
• 12/22 - H/B - .9/.4/.4

..which I found confusing at first, but when I look closer, its not really that complicated. P = power, so all the breeds giving more power are #4 > #7=#8=#10 > #3 > #11=#12, indicated by a P(or B = balanced) with this addon. #4 or P/P like this addon formats it, is the best if you want pure power.

Likewise, if you are looking for a speedy pet, all with S = speed(or B = balanced) will give you the wanted result. Best speed breed ID: #5 > #8=#9=#11 > #3 > #10=#12

Best hp breed ID: #6 > #7=#9=#12 > #3 > #10=#11

If the above pseudocode gets too confusing, here's the summary:
Power breed IDs: #4 is the best, while #7, #8 and #10 share second place.
Speed breed IDs: #5 is the best, while #8, #9 and #11 share second place.
Health breed IDs: #6 is the best, while #7,#9 and #12 share second place.

Edit: I just noticed that the list I copy/pasted of ID vs Letter/Letter is wrong, #5 and #6 are swapped. #6 = hp, and #5 = speed, but I fixed it now.

[Ryazan]

Nice! That looks simple enough, gonna give it a try.
Only if it would show somewhere all the available breed IDs to the pet in question while battling it would rock even more.