When "Mists of Pandaria" or MoP hits the shelves later this year we will be able to see firsthand what the new Pet Battle System is all about. However, in the meantime, wouldn't it be good to know what will be up against? We do know that are adorable little noncombat vanity pets, also known as pets or companions as they are normally labeled. What kind of skills do these pets have? What we know so far we have learned from the beta release.
As far as we've seen so far there seem to be ten different categories or types of companion pets. Some we are familiar with, such as Flying, Elemental, Mechanical, Humanoid, Critter, Beast, Animal and some were not very familiar with such as Undead, Water, Dragon and Mythical. Now let's break these down and what skills we currently know of:
Flying: Anything that flies that range from balloons to the Rustburg Gull, flying companions are particularly efficient against MMM companions and weaker against water and dragon pets. Known skills consist of Dust Devil (that most likely denies LOS for spells), destructive attacks such as Aerial Ram (this harms your pet also), Gust of Wind, Glancing Blow, and Dive-bomb. Talon Strike and Eagle Eye relate to critical hits.
Elemental: These pets remained elusive during beta.
Mechanical: These hard-core pets are meant to do extra harm to humanoid pets. They also appeared to have a nasty arsenal of powers which include Ion Cannon, Bolt Shock and Beam Cannon. Other skills include a self-buff known as Demolish which appears to be a short-term damage buff and a double attack called the Drill Punch. Another attack which appears to be an AoE stun is called Sonic Boom.
Humanoid: No data on these, but wonder, what happened to the Argent Squire?
Critters: Critters are very closely related to Beasts but appear to be a more "polite" equivalents of them. They also deal more harm to although we have Humanoid pets. Critters use a mixture of defensive with stealthy power. It mimics a Rogue's Stealth and Ambush abilities and combine it into Prowl. They have rushing attacks called Stampede and Tackle, Another unique skill is called Deceit which is capable of damaging its opponents buffs - not their debuffs.
Beasts: These companions are stronger than their Critter counterparts and they use melee. This also means they are slightly outclassed by ranged opponents. As you might have guessed, their skills are fighting powers, but they also have a tad bit of Rogue as well. Slash and Chomp are just basic attacks. To stun an opponent from a distance they use Rushing Charge and Leap. They can even poison with Poison Fang and uses Roar for an AoE debuff.
Animal: Three basic attacks which appear to do much of the same thing are Thrash, Claw and Peck. This category seems to be very weakly designed and will most likely be collapsed unto another category (probably Beast) by the time Mists arrives.
Undead: Although we would have like to have seen one of these companions, we however, did not. What would have been perfect is the tiny Macabre Marionette that you get on the Day of the Dead festival that Blizzard refuses to let us keep.
Water: Water pets will have the added skill of being a combination of melee and healer. Their healing powers include Purify and heal that is an AoE (are we going to group our companions down the line?) called Rejuvenating Rain. Their melee skills include things such as Surge, Snap and Pinch, and they even have a spell called Acid Rain that is an AoE.
Dragon: Well, we all know that dragons are supposed to breathe fire, so it's a sure bet that these companions do, and they do. They can do many in fact, such as Flamethrower, Flamespurt, Dragon's Breath, Pyroclasm and Scorched Earth. They even have a cool physical hit that is called the Tail Sweep that can deal twice as much damage depending on circumstances.
Mythical: This encompasses mystical and magical. What we got was very little information but they do at least have what seems to be a DoT called Mystic Powder, but little else is known about them. Quite possibly a sorcerer (warlock) type companion?
When the combat begins between two companions, the screen zooms in on the little fella's and you get a Combat UI much like you see with all of your mechanicals in World of Warcraft. When pets are not in battle, you can pull up the information screen what tells you what skills your current pet has, and a listing of all available pets. It is greyed out if you do not have the pet yet making this a valuable list for collectors. If a companion is available, it's on that list and is greyed out. That is too cool.
This new Pet Battle System will brings hundreds upon hundreds of hours of entertainment to players and even more to the avid collectors out there. There are about 100 wild companions that need to be hunted for, and then you need to pull out one of your trained pets and go into combat with it. If you are successful and win, you might gain a new companion. You will get that companion at that level with its abilities intact, ready for you to love, nurture and help grow to be a successful little arena master.
The author has been playing World of Warcraft since April 2006 and strives to help other players be their best. Want to up your game even further? There is an add-on (not a book or PDF) available to guide you to every pet in the game, which includes all the available mounts. Visit http://tinyurl.com/petandmountmania for more information. Happy gaming!
