Xu-Fu's Pet Battle Strategies

wrote on 01/12/2019

Ehm, here I am again, complaining … ;-)

It would be nice if we wouldn’t have the limit of 990 chars in the Info box of a strat.
I’ve only posted 3 strats so far, but already run into that space problem. See my EnvBert strat with Squashling (https://www.wow-petguide.com/index.php?Strategy=4315).

In that Info box I only could squeeze-in the content by shortening many things, down to the gramatical limits, and by omitting some info. I know, I could continue in a comment in the comment section, but this doesn’t feel right. The essential infos should be in one place.

I’m also aware that 990 chars should be more than sufficient in most cases. But there are cases where more info is useful (like the above example), and unless there is a technical 990-characters-hard-limit, please give us more room. If someone really is misusing that box (what for?) you could always edit the post or/and contact the author.

Thanks for considering.

Lazey

wrote on 01/12/2019

I think we had a much stricter limit 2 weeks ago and I personally don't think this infobox needs more characters because it's there for SHORT creator comments to strategy basics or pet choices and IMHO not to explain every single RNG situation players can experience.

If you can reduce RNG with breed restrictions... then maybe it's better to add them to the pets and not explain what can go wrong with other breeds. Also, I don't see the need to comment on the level pets because that is something that belongs to your pet team (or Rematch strings if you like to add your specific ones).

Most people come here not to read walls of text, they look for the better-rated strategies that match their pet collections, copy&paste stuff they need to import into their addons and only come back if something goes horribly wrong and then mostly to find help in other peoples' comments who also struggled or to find a different team/strategy: I don't think many people wanna read about stuff that already happened to them, they mostly want to see solutions and it's the best way to have them in a well-optimized strategy&team already.

Be honest, does it help when I struggle with this specific strategy and then come back and find something like "if this is happening you are screwed" or "if this is happening and you want pet XP restart, otherwise you win without rewards for your level pet" in your creator comments? I don't think so.

This is not a basic forum so maybe it's better to continue with keeping things short ;-)

Remte

wrote on 01/14/2019

To me, certain character limits tend to be problematic not because of the length of actual content, but because of formatting tags and embedding taking up a lot of characters. This is something I experience on most of websites, not just this one, but the most aggravating issue over here is linking to user profiiles and other sources of strategies, which could be alleviated with internalisation of link paths and @mentions.

About the tooltips themselves… I don't have any clear conclusions one way or the other. Put an effort into it? It's ignored. Leave it alone to keep it tidy? You come out as oblivious and heartless.
Same goes for strategies, a new one? Ignored on behalf of ones that took the spotlight first. And when it's actually noticed? It seems to outweigh another with 300+ flawless executions which somehow stays in the shadow. Therefore, I'm not sure one can account for every visitor upon creating the environment. :-)
The cycle of (tamer) strife can be cruel, and I believe something needs to be done with it nevertheless – but sadly, enough of the philosophy, for at the moment the engineering of more basic aspects has to come first!

wrote on 01/17/2019

@Lazey, Part I (Sorry, the page freaks out when I’m trying to post my reply as one. So, I’ll try it in two steps ;)
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First and foremost, thanks for your reply and for your opinion. But I don’t agree with all of your points…‌

> I personally don't think this infobox needs more characters because it's there for SHORT creator comments to strategy basics or pet choices and IMHO not to explain every single RNG situation players can experience.
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IMO the part that really should be kept short and precise is the description (the steps). The Info box, I agree with you, should also be short, but if there is a need for more information, it should be dumped into the Info box. (Not into the description, not into the comments section, for two different reasons, but I think both are obvious.)
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Another possibilty would be to squeeze any meta info into the description before “Turn 1”. But this would be a cheap second Info box, and I don’t like the idea to abuse the form that way.
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> If you can reduce RNG with breed restrictions... then maybe it's better to add them to the pets and not explain what can go wrong with other breeds.
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I think you are referring to the Env Bert strat I have linked. Basically I agree. But you might have noticed that I already had added min power to pet #2, in order to exclude some of the substitutes. Though, I didn’t wan’t to do the same with the Blazehaound (pet #1), because I think the strat is doable also with a suboptimal breed. But maybe you are right and I should just exclude any non-P/P breeds.

wrote on 01/17/2019

@Lazey, Part II
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> Also, I don't see the need to comment on the level pets because that is something that belongs to your pet team (or Rematch strings if you like to add your specific ones).
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You are right here. The Rematch string is part of the Info box, and as such it should be parsed correctly. (The string that contains the correct and breed/damage-specific min health requirements). This should be enough, but, I think there are also folks that aren’t using Rematch. They also should know of the type-specific min health requirements. Unfortunatly the default forms of the page don’t offer any detailed entries for the min health. They only offer one entry (for all damage types), and I always put the worst-case min health there (for pets that are weak against the expected damage type)
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> Most people come here not to read walls of text, […]
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Well, I think, a “wall of of text” is not defined by the amount of characters. To create a wall of text you need two things: lots of characters, and lots of missing line breaks / paragraphs. I’m completely aware of that, and I’m always trying to section and format my texts in a manner that makes it usable for readers ;) I think the limit of 990 chars is not contributing to avoid walls of text. (It’s easy to build a a wall of text with only 500 chars, but I think you got what I mean…)
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> Be honest, does it help when I struggle with this specific strategy and then come back and find something like "if this is happening you are screwed" or "if this is happening and you want pet XP restart, otherwise you win without rewards for your level pet" in your creator comments? I don't think so.
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Good question. Me personally, when I use a new strat from somebody else, I always read thru the strat, and in the case I really need to level some pet, I then (likely) exclude strats that are mentioning things like “RNG”, “risk”, etc. But: I’m always happy (when using a new strat) when I see some detailed infos, so that I can estimate what is going to happen. But YMMV.

daveyman123#1659

wrote on 01/11/2019

I am a simple pet battler looking to up my rotation.
Currently I just do the garrison daily and the gnomeregan daily. As well as the pet battles from the two islands. What is the next step for me in pet battling?

Gráinne

wrote on 01/12/2019

Welcome to battling :)

A lot depends on your roster - what pets you currently have, at what levels, and what breeds. More pets, fully levelled and made Blue, of the right breeds, makes everything easier. Since you haven't linked to a WoW character here, I can't see that, and it's hard to make specific suggestions.

I wrote a forum post here suggesting a development path for a battler. You'll have to decide what stage you're at:
https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17623632232#post-3

The general directions of development people pursue are:

1. Collecting. Some people collect pets with not a lot of regard for their battling capabilities. However, since some pets are achieved only by battling, for example Wicker Wraith and Stunted Direhorn, even collectors need to pay some attantion to battling.

2. Achieving. There are many pet battling achievements in game, and following the natural trail through the Taming [Continent] achievements up to Pandaria, and then on to the Spirit Tamers, Beasts of Fable and the Celestial Tournament was an epic journey for me and for many others. It's well worth doing. The Celestial Tournament is still, IMO, the pinnacle of PvE pet battling. However, WoD and Legion and BfA have added more battling achievements.

3. Roster development. Distinct from collecting, this is finding the right pets for your toolbox in the right breeds and levelling and if necessary making them Rare with stones, so that you have the right specialist pet for any possible challenge.

4. PvP. Only a small minority of pet battlers spend a lot of time in PvP, but those who do really enjoy it.

Apart from Xu-Fu's here, you can read and join resources like the official Blizzard forums for pet battles, WarcraftPets.com website, or the WarcraftPets Discord, where like-minded addic.... er, battlers ... and more than delighted to answer any questions you might have.

Please ask again if you have any more specific questions!

Eekwibble

wrote on 01/12/2019

+1 for the Celestial Tourney comment alone.

Only really to expand on Gráinne's comment as regards the 'collecting' and 'roster development' sections - which are, as said 'distinct' although they are intrinsically linked - I would like to point you in the direction of the in-game Achievements > Battle Pets > Collect tab. There are a series of achievements called Raiding With Leashes, pretty much all of which can be completed via the auction house - if you have the gold/inclination - or by completing old raids.
In this content-starved expansion (and it is, it's making people want to do pet battling, isn't it? XD), it's been some small relief to run (short) old content knowing there's a possibility of a worthwhile reward beyond the vague chance of some 75kG pants dropping.

daveyman123#1659

wrote on 01/12/2019

Thanks so much for the replies. I think I am somewhat of a collector/roster builder. I go around doing the dailies but I also like buying pets just for their looks. I watched hazelnutty on youtube last night. I think I will focus on doing the expeditions when I have time to get all the pets that come from that. Then I will go back and do old raids like Eekwibble suggested.

MouseD#1748

wrote on 01/11/2019

Getting this error message this morning trying to use the site.."Creating a database connection failed. This is a known issue and is happening due to increased load at the time. Please reload the page to try again. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Could not connect: 1203"

Gráinne

wrote on 01/12/2019

Yes. As the message says, this is a known issue and due to increased load. It is being looked at, and has been explained in the Discord, but won't go away in the very short term.

wrote on 01/04/2019

Please allow us to post code (or literal strings) as it should be. Would have been useful in my last example. Just to say it.

BTW: I tried to add the line above to my last post, and it was refused. As a new comment, obviously, it works. Something on this site is very fishy. Don’t get me wrong, your site is performing better than 85% of the whole internet, but there are still errors. And some of them are … a bit annoying.

wrote on 01/05/2019

Hey Mot!

That's because the page is a hobby project by one person who is not a professional web developer or programmer at all. Many of the quirks won't be worked on as long as there are bigger topics open. You can read through the list of tasks and bugs in the devnotes:
https://www.wow-petguide.com/index.php?m=DevLog

Regarding the versions, I don't really want to do that right now. There's already a mention of the last update time (use the downwards arrow on a strategy below the pets to open additional details)

Also, if you'd like to chat with us directly, feel free to join our Discord: https://discord.gg/z4dxYUq

Thanks for your feedback!
Aranesh

wrote on 01/08/2019

> That's because the page is a hobby project by one person who is not a professional web developer or programmer at all.

OK, sorry for my complaints then. Regarding the really good overall design of the site, I indeed thought that there were professional web developers envolved, and the little glitches were oversights.

Sorry again. I’ll shut up now ;-)
And thanks for the site!

wrote on 01/08/2019

Hey no worries :-) Hope I didn't come across as unappreciative. Feedback is good! And that you had this impression is actually a compliment, thank you very much! No need to keep silent about issues when there are issues, I just tried to explain how they came to be and why it takes so long to get stuff fixed.
Very recently an actual, professional developer has joined me and is helping out a ton, so things might become a lot better soon!

wrote on 01/04/2019

There seems to be a parsing error in the site’s script:

Input via posting form:

`[spell=Immolate] / [ spell=Flame Jet] until won or your pet dies. In the latter case clean up with your starting pets, which should be at pretty good health.`

Output (as displayed):

Immolate / [ spell=Flame Jet] until won or your pet dies. In the latter case clean up with your starting pets, which should be at pretty good health.

As you see the second spell is not interpreted (displayed) properly. It is displayed in its tag form (source form) instead.

https://www.wow-petguide.com/index.php?Strategy=4368

wrote on 01/05/2019

Sorry, rosolved this. There was a spurious space after the opening bracket.

wrote on 01/04/2019

The new Gnomeregan dungeon

Right now I’m in the middle of that dungeon (and I have done already several runs since 8.1) and I find that this dungeon is underwhelming.

It seems the way to go with at least two thirds of the battles is using an absorbent pet (Emperor and the like). There are only some battles that require some creativity (the Rat and the final one, for example).

For my taste this is pretty poor design. Going thru the most part of the dungeon with an absorbent pet (Emperor Crab, e.g.) is time-consuming and just plain annoying.

They had chances to script some interesting battles, requiring creativity (like in the final battle). No clue why they failed. (As they did with the designs of many WQs, dungeons and other stuff in 8.0/8.1) Negligence? Incapacity?

This was critics, not a rant. (Maybe except the very last part ;)

If I’m missing something, please enlighten me.

Remte

wrote on 01/04/2019

They seem to have expected some things, though, see adding pets with aquatic damage (gun and ooze) aswell as a resistant cockroach to stop us from cheesing everything with elementals. Yet, a fact their damage output is low combined with shields not checking for racial damage means this mechanic prevents a lot as you mentioned. The last boss has got an ability to remove basic shields so perhaps that was not in oblivion either… unlike the reactive damage. Also, an ability that forces swap altogether with an ability which prevents from being swapped, including critters? I can't say I like it.
/shrug

wrote on 01/04/2019

It seems Blizz made the AI scripts a bit more intelligent with 8.1 (more variations of moves, and checks for some non-sensical moves, e.g. heals right at the start).

In consequence many of the posted strats are outdated.

Of course I will not downvote a strat, if I see that the AI script is no longer the same.
But this is no solution. Many people will come here, without knowledge of the old AI scripts, and I guess they will just downvote strats that don’t work (non-regarding the date).

You could make available a tag (e.g. "8.1"), that the owner of a posted strat can add to his strat, once he has tested it with the new conditions. This way it would be clear to the user if the strat is up-to-date.

Or, maybe even better, just apply a tag “pre-8.1” to any strat that hasn’t been updated. Give the creator of the strat the right ro remove that tag.

Just a raw draft. Think of it.

wrote on 12/28/2018

How can I post labeled links in the comments?
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The usual BBCode syntax
[url=http://mypage.com]link label[/url]
doesn’t seem to work correctly.

schlumpf#2707

wrote on 12/28/2018

The different text fields use different BB code implementations currently. The one for comments doesn’t support links. It should auto-link though. Another quirk is sometimes it being skill, sometimes spell for the abilities.

Unifying all these variations is on some todo list, I’m sure.

wrote on 12/28/2018

Thanks for the info.

wrote on 12/28/2018

I’m unable to post responses to other responses. My post is just ignored (no error message, just not displayed; tried it with differently delayed/timed page reloads and reposts). Going a level up (posting it as general response) works. I experienced this on at least two pages.
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Would be nice if you could fix it, because it breaks the communication as it is now.
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Thanks

PS: This issue seems to be new. IIRC I never had those problems in the past.

wrote on 12/28/2018

I'll look into it, thanks!

wrote on 12/28/2018

Should be working again :-)

wrote on 12/28/2018

Thanks for fixing. My respond attempts from the last days now have magically appeared. Some of them twice or three times, since I had tried to post several times ;-)

Scandalouz wrote on 12/27/2018

What is the fastest way to lvl pets now in BFA i cant find it anywhere tbh

Nyari

wrote on 12/27/2018

Squirt and repeatable Legion Tamers, if they are up (my order of the best options: Squirt > Odrogg > Galveston > Bodhi > Tiffany > Robert > Andurs > Xorvasc > Grixis > Jarrun > Amalia > Aulier > Varenne > Merayl > Bredda) and the daily round through MoP and WoD tamer quests.

Woody#1978

wrote on 12/14/2018

Has anyone else noticed pets only receiving 160xp when levelling a pet with BfA world quests? Is this a bug or was it intentional?

Gráinne

wrote on 12/14/2018

They nerfed the XP in BfA because they made the battles repeatable for the achievement, and didn't want people grinding them for XP excessively.

Nyari

wrote on 12/14/2018

Exactly. It is intended.
Bluepost: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/bfa-experience-changed/45847/3