Oh wow, I have a blog! I should use it more often. :)
I haven't had much to talk about lately, just enjoying the game, but after chatting with my friend Mysscia, I remembered that I had been meaning to post a guide to the tamers that you want to battle every day. First of all, you need the addon DailyTamerCheck, as it will simplify your life by telling you what tamers you have defeated each day, and which you still need to do. If you don't want to run a spreadsheet for your alts, this is a big time-saver.
Next, you definitely want the PetBattleTeams addon. This one is so useful, after the last patch when it was the only addon that didn't work, I was so annoyed that I didn't even want to play that day. You're able to setup as many teams as you can dream up, with the skills that you specify, and when you click on that team, you automatically switch your 3 pets in your active team in the pet journal to those pets specified. It also allows you to name your teams, so you don't have to remember what team goes with what tamer.
Alrighty, without further ado, here's a partial list of my recommendations for the Grand Master pet tamers that you can battle each day for those highly desired Rare battlestones, to upgrade your lack-luster common or uncommon pets to elite killing machines.
I try to do these pet battles each day for a few reasons.
1st) Battlestones, of course.
2nd) It also rewards a chunk of xp, equivalent to doing a daily quest. So if you have alts that you aren't doing anything with, you might as well stick them out at the tamers location, so you don't have to fly out there each day.
3rd) This is a good way to get some additional guild xp for your guild, if you're still leveling to 25. It counts as a daily quest, so that's an additional 60k guild xp for each tamer you beat. As a matter of fact, if people want to have easy access to the tamers without tying up their mains, you could actually start level 1 characters on a different realm, have a friend mage-port them to close by where they need to go, then fly them there while grouped using a flying mount that allows a rider. Just be careful while crossing zones, my friend from Daggerspine that is helping me on Darrowmere kept getting disconnected whenever we crossed a zone boundary. Winterspring was especially annoying, as the high mountains meant that the zone changed while I was flying up a 1,0000 foot cliff. Splat!
4th) this is a decent way to get some good xp for your pets to level up, which is why I recommend lower level pets rather than just steam-rolling them with 3 level 25's, as tamers reward more xp for battles than regular pets at that level (though not the fastest way, as I'll explain later).
Starting off in Kalimdor, the Grand Master Trixxy is located in the middle of Winterspring (65,64), and has a load-out of a Dragon, Beast, and Flying pet, all level 19. I'd recommend at least a level 16-17 Humanoid, 16-17 Mechanical, but probably a level 18-19 Dragonkin that does magic damage to fight Blizzy, since he can hit pretty hard. Here's a handy link to explain why.
Flying pets DO 150% more damage to Aquatic pets, and only damage Dragonkin pets by 66% (2/3rd of their normal damage listed).
Flying pets TAKE more damage from Magic attacks, and only take 66% damage from Beast attacks.
In Eastern Kingdoms, Grand Master Lydia Accoste is located directly south-west of Karazhan. This is actually one of the easiest masters to beat, btw. She has a level 19 Elemental, and 2 Undeads, but they're a cake-walk. A level 16 Aquatic, a 16 Critter, and a 17-18 Critter should be sufficient to beat them easily. I've even started to use lower level Aquatics against the Elemental, since he doesn't attack very often.
Ramping up the difficulty, lets head out to Shadowmoon Valley and take on Bloodknight Antari. With level 24 Magic, Elemental, and Dragonkin pets, he's a bit tougher to beat with lower level pets. I'd recommend a level 22-24 team of Dragonkin, Aquatic, and Humanoid pets. Make sure the Dragonkin actually deals Dragonkin damage, as quite a few of them actually do mainly Magic damage. Hmmm, looking over the pet damage chart, I just now came up with using the engineering created Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling against the Magic pet, since he'd be resistant to magic damage, plus have access to the Dragonkin damage spell of Breath. After you kill the magic pet, swap out for your aquatic quickly, as the elemental would destroy your mechanical dragonling quickly. Maybe you could toss up Decoy as you're switching out. Put out that elementals fire with your aquatic pet, then get ready for Netherbite. Since he Soul Wards and Phase Shifts, you're going to want a really fast Humanoid to take him out asap.
Northrend bound, we encounter Major Payne at the Argent Tournament grounds. I gotta say, he really lives up to his name, as his pets are a major pain in the arse. He has a level 25 Beast, Mechanical, and Elemental, and each one can be deadly even to a full 3 level 25's of your own, if not picked carefully. While I haven't been specific on pets on the earlier tamers, here's where I break down what I use, and why. Against Grizzle, I use my level 25 Darkmoon Tonk. If I get Bashed straight off, I quit, then challenge him again until he Rampages on the first round. I immediately use Minefield, then charge up and use Lock-on twice while he's Hibernating, with a final Missile if needed. Grizzle dies, then Beakmaster runs in and immediately takes damage from my Minefield. I use my first turn to toss down another Minefield for Bloom, then try to damage Beakmaster with Missiles as much as I can until my Tonk dies. Once that happens, I use my Shale Hatchling, since 1 Stone Rush and a few Burn's are sufficient to take down Beakmaster. Bloom will then switch in, and take a few hundred damage from the Minefield you had already setup. Use a combo of Stone Rush's and Burns to get him as low as you can, then switch in your last pet, preferably either an Aquatic or Critter pet. I usually use a 20-23 Critter (they don't take much elemental damage), since you'll get a full level of xp from the battle, and it's a good way of getting pets really close to level 25.
Out on the Dam in Uldum, south of Ramhaken, we come to the Cataclysm tamer Obalis. If you're flying a friend out here, port them to Dalaran first, and then take the portal in the Violet Citadel to the Caverns of Time in Tanaris. With a level 25 Beast, Flying, and Critter team, he's not that hard to defeat with the proper line-up. Beast = Mechanical, right? Actually, you don't want to start out with one. Pyth hits hard, and Poison Fang's dot does Elemental damage, which will mess your mechanical up pretty quickly. Instead, use a pet that has Sandstorm, such as Anubisath Idol, Tiny Twister, or Enchanted Broom. Once that's going, it negates much of the potential damage from Poison Fang, so switch in your mechanical pet such as Darkmoon Tonk. Finish off Pyth, then take on Spring. With Sandstorm taking away much of his damage, you can easily finish him off with Lock-on's or Missiles. Clatter runs up after that, and he can be easily killed with a level 20-23 Beast, especially a spider pet with Brittle Webbing, since it damages them when you cast it, and also when Clatter attacks you.
Part 2 coming next, with my strategies on Pandarian Battles.
I'll leave you with my way of leveling up pets lickety-split. In the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, there's 2 areas where teams comprised of mainly Aquatic pets congregate. The lake in front of Mogushan Palace has several pets waiting to battle, right by Master Aki. Also, the pond south of the Golden Pagoda has a lot too. My method is to make a team of a level 5 pet, then 2 level 25 Moths. If you don't have any, Gilded Moths are flying around the zone, so no worries. Once you start the battle, have your low level attack once, then immediately switch out for your Moth. The reasons why I advocate using a Moth is because they're really fast, and have hard hitting Flying abilities like Alpha Strike and Moth Dust. With Cocoon Strike to absorb potential large damage attacks like Pump, you can last several battles without switching to your second Moth. Once both of your Moths have been killed or severely damaged, use your free bandage in the pet battle journal to heal them, and go for more battles. You can get a level per battle for your low level pet up to like level 13, and pretty frequently thereafter.
If you're doing this with a low level toon, you'll get some decent XP. If you're doing it with a level 85+ toon, you'll get about 100k xp per battle, almost comparable with questing. I believe at level 90, you have a chance at getting Lesser Charms, which could be a pleasant change from doing dailies.
