multiple breeds of pets

[Bentenmaru]

recently i have taken up pet battles (only in PvE, too scared with the PvP aspect) and i noticed that you need certain breeds for various trainers as i seen on the Xu-Fu's pet battle site

so what pets are worth to have multiple breeds of?
and is it worth to keep multiple of a single breed pet?

[Peanutty]

There's no harm in keeping up to the maximum of a certain pet, if that's what you want to do. The only reasons not to do so is: 1) you're OCD and can't stand seeing duplicates clogging up the journal, 2) you find yourself overwhelmed trying to level and manage all the duplicatess, or 3) if you're at the journal maximum limit (1500 for players with the Battle on the Broken Isles achievement). For players with fairly complete collections, it's unnecessary to have multiples for battling purposes, but many choose to have copies of their favorite or most used pets.

The only pets I could see people wanting multiple breeds for are ones that have abilities and/or racials that benefit from having a different breed, i.e. Bronze Whelpling. It has Arcane Slash (and to a lesser extent Lift-Off) which favors speed, and Tail Sweep which favors power. So S/S or P/P could both be valid picks depending on which ability(s) you were planning on using. I went with S/S as Bronze Whelpling is the only dragonkin pet with Arcane Slash, there's better dragonkin for maximizing the damage of Tail Sweep.

[Biscuit]

These are the ones off the top of my head without looking at my Rematch.
In no particular order...

Zandalari Raptors PP/PS/SS
Nexus Whelplings PP/PS
Iron Starlettes PP/PS/HH
Frostfur Rat SS/PP
Slithershock Elver SS/PP

[Gráinne]

Good advice above.

I will add this survey I did of the most popular breeds among my selection of battlers

https://pastebin.com/UE8TSGGs

From that, you can see, for example, that nearly everyone favours the S/S Flayer Youngling, but people have a spread of Sky-Bos. I remember reading it originally and saying that you would not regret picking up the most popular breed in each case. (Careful of the duplicate moveset cases like Rabbits though.)

Have a look down the list, and do please come back with any specific questions.

Also, of all things, DON'T BE AFRAID to PvP. It is the most anonymous thing you can do in the game. Your opponent sees you as a random NPC, just as you see him. Neither of you will ever know who the other is, unless one of you makes distinctive renames of your pets. You may end up not liking it, and you will probably lose a lot of your early matches, but there is no possible reason to be afraid of it. Just pretend the figure before you is a random tamer created by the game.

It's definitely worth doing in Pet Battle Week, when you get a quest for 5 wins, and lots of beginners are in the queue.

[Bentenmaru]

There's no harm in keeping up to the maximum of a certain pet, if that's what you want to do. The only reasons not to do so is: 1) you're OCD and can't stand seeing duplicates clogging up the journal, 2) you find yourself overwhelmed trying to level and manage all the duplicatess, or 3) if you're at the journal maximum limit (1500 for players with the Battle on the Broken Isles achievement). For players with fairly complete collections, it's unnecessary to have multiples for battling purposes, but many choose to have copies of their favorite or most used pets.

The only pets I could see people wanting multiple breeds for are ones that have abilities and/or racials that benefit from having a different breed, i.e. Bronze Whelpling. It has Arcane Slash (and to a lesser extent Lift-Off) which favors speed, and Tail Sweep which favors power. So S/S or P/P could both be valid picks depending on which ability(s) you were planning on using. I went with S/S as Bronze Whelpling is the only dragonkin pet with Arcane Slash, there's better dragonkin for maximizing the damage of Tail Sweep.

well..first i thought i only needed 1 pet, just to catch em all...but as time went, i thought might aswell level some pets to do battles to pass the time..and then through a guildie that has been on news article here twice...i found out about various breeds and such and the Xu-Fu and some fights you need certain breeds as you can have a power based breed if you need to hit em first so. so now that i catch pets i try and see on the pets on this site for what breed/s are worth to get if they have multiple ones...and when Xu-Fu says you need a breed with certain power/speed etc.. as im atm working on my FF achievement list whenever a FF master is active (yay for having 12 chars to do em on when they are up and farming pet charms)

[Peanutty]

If you're specifically wanting to do the Family Familiar/Fighter achievements, it doesn't hurt to pick up the specific breeds listed in a guide - even if only temporarily. I did do all the achievements without picking up any new pets for breeds, but again that works best if you have a large collection and the experience to know what pets can sub in for others, when you don't have the specific pet a guide uses.

[Paladance]

Suggestions above are spot-on. I have both Sky-boes aswell.

I'd add H/P | P/P | S/S Nether Faerie Dragon, P/P | S/S Moon Moon, H/H | P/S Bone Serpent (gulp!), both breeds of Scourged Whelpling, Dust Bunny P/S | S/S.

My pet peeve are pets that come in both H/P and H/H, like Ruby Droplet, Living Sandling, Albino Buzzard, Ultratonk, Silithid Hatchling. I seem pretty random at that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Although experience tells me H/H Ultratonk is a bit better than H/P.

I can also imagine someone having both H/H and P/P samples of Rabid Nut Varmint 5000, but with P/P, perhaps your third slot would be identical to Tiny Harvester. Which I've caught both of recently (S/S duplicates De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion!). Both H/H and P/P Blackfuse Bomblings could be incredibly handy (unless they introduce a pet with Explode that dethrones it), but that would be luxury!

Additionally, if base stats are different than plain 8/8/8 (in several cases above there are), the weight you put on breeds is also a bit different. I wish I had a resource to link, but Battle Pet BreedID has an option to turn them on.

[Biscuit]

Almost forgot one of the most debated pets in regards to optimal breed: Sporeling Sprout.

H/H vs P/P vs S/S

[Bentenmaru]

If you're specifically wanting to do the Family Familiar/Fighter achievements, it doesn't hurt to pick up the specific breeds listed in a guide - even if only temporarily. I did do all the achievements without picking up any new pets for breeds, but again that works best if you have a large collection and the experience to know what pets can sub in for others, when you don't have the specific pet a guide uses.

a pain though when you come across pets that share a specific ability with other types...for example gulp froglet has the swarm ability only of the aqua pets so doing AA on Master Tamer Flummox is a pain if you dont have him/her collected..tried other tacts on xu-fu but fails everytime

[Peanutty]

Unfortunately you'll find some of the strategies are extremely reliant on one specific pet, like the Gulp Froglet, and because it has an ability that no other frog has, it can't be subbed out so easily.

So in this particular case the options are:
1) continue with the alternate strategies posted (on Xu-Fu, wowhead, etc) and force them to work (sometimes if you get a timely crit you can luck your way into a win... this is important as some family only pet battles must rely on chance)
2) buy / farm up / trade for a Gulp Froglet or borrow a Gulp Froglet from a friend (if you know anyone into pet battles)
3) OR... skip Flummox. For Family Familiar you do NOT need to do every tamer. I have never done Flummox with Aquatic and I have the achievement.

[Bentenmaru]

Unfortunately you'll find some of the strategies are extremely reliant on one specific pet, like the Gulp Froglet, and because it has an ability that no other frog has, it can't be subbed out so easily.

So in this particular case the options are:
1) continue with the alternate strategies posted (on Xu-Fu, wowhead, etc) and force them to work (sometimes if you get a timely crit you can luck your way into a win... this is important as some family only pet battles must rely on chance)
2) buy / farm up / trade for a Gulp Froglet or borrow a Gulp Froglet from a friend (if you know anyone into pet battles)
3) OR... skip Flummox. For Family Familiar you do NOT need to do every tamer. I have never done Flummox with Aquatic and I have the achievement.

that what i decided to do..skip the trainer for now and when i feel like it..get my revenge on him when i have gulp