Honestly, if anyone wants to level up by using Battle Pets, I have to ask: Are you being hard on yourself?
When I previously discussed leveling methods for WoW Classic Mists of Pandaria on IGGM, I didn’t delve into this topic. Firstly, the mechanics are quite complex, with all the levels and multipliers being a headache to calculate, and secondly, we didn’t have sufficient testing resources at the time to get accurate data.
But later, with the resources in place, and after repeated testing and data analysis, we have reached these solid conclusions.
How To Farm XP Efficiently?
Heirlooms Gear
First, let’s talk about XP bonuses. If you wear Heirlooms, don’t assume that wearing them will automatically give you XP bonuses. The XP bonus only takes effect when your character reaches the required level to wear Heirloom. It can speed up your leveling speed and indirectly increase your experience points, forming a chain reaction.
With one exception, Banner of Cooperation seems to be useless; it doesn’t affect XP whether you have it or not.
Also, there’s Elixir of Ancient Knowledge. While it’s allowed, I recommend against it; it’s a complete waste of your WoW Classic MoP gold.
Three-Player Combat
To farm XP with Battle Pets, the best approach is to defeat three enemies at once. This also depends on the level bracket; this becomes a problem after reaching a certain upper limit.
Specifically, after a single-player battle reaches level 6, it becomes a two-player battle; once the pet reaches level 12, it becomes a stable three-player battle.
This discussion focuses on levels 85 to 90, as the gains at other levels have fluctuated significantly over time. The values for levels 85-90 reflect the actual gains at the time of the patch and are therefore more valuable as a reference.
However, there are some differences between levels 80 and 90. In a 1v1 battle of the same level, you’ll gain about 70% of the experience of a normal monster. In a 3v3 battle of the same level, the experience is significantly higher, nearly nine times the normal monster, equivalent to defeat nine enemies in one battle.
IGGM would like to remind you that there’s a scaling mechanism here. Defeating three enemies will multiply the benefit by nine times, doubling the original multiplier and dropping more MoP gold.
Pet Level
The comparison between enemy level and your pet level is also crucial. For every level higher the enemy pet is (up to five levels), the multiplier increases by 0.45.
For example, if you’re level 85 and use a level 20 pet against a level 25 pet team, the 9x multiplier becomes 11.15x, equivalent to defeating 11 monsters.
However, there’s a cap. If the enemy is 6, 7, or 8 levels higher than your pet, the benefit will be the same as if it were 5 levels higher.
Conversely, the same applies if the enemy is five levels lower than your pet. However, if it’s six levels lower, you won’t gain any experience, as Battle Pets, like gray quests, have a 6.6x penalty multiplier before the experience is reduced to zero.
The calculation is simple: just look at the action data of your best-performing pet in battle. If you use a level 20 pet against a level 25 one and then switch to a level 25 one, you won’t benefit from the bonus for fighting enemies five levels higher.
To get a level 25 pet, you’ll need to either complete Battle Pets quest chain or invest a significant amount of gold at Auction House. If your gold reserves run low, check out IGGM, where there’s always plenty of WoW MoP gold for sale to satisfy your needs!
In short, the average isn’t important, and neither is the lowest level. What matters is the highest level pet you’re using at any given time. Each level difference will slightly increase or decrease the multiplier, but not significantly.
What Are The Drawbacks?
With this math, you might think, “Wow, that’s like killing nine or even eleven monsters.” Sounds pretty good.
But this assumes you can manipulate the battles, for example, instantly killing enemies with a single attack, preventing them from getting a chance to attack again.
But anyone who’s played Battle Pets knows that each battle is a seesaw battle, requiring at least three to five moves to take down three enemies in a row.
In the battle animation, each attack switch takes about 10 seconds, and even without switching, it’s still quite a bit longer.
Assuming you can manage to finish each battle in under a minute, this leveling method is acceptable, though not the best. It’s not as good as questing, and perhaps even worse than farming dungeons.
The reality is, however, it’s difficult to find a pet close enough, with the right configuration, to finish a battle in under a minute.
Furthermore, the gap between the end of one battle and the start of the next can easily be three to five minutes. If that’s the average, this is definitely the worst way to level up.
If you’re leveling pets or farming anyway, then there’s no real downside. Just don’t rely on it as your primary leveling method. I mean, if you just enjoy this grinding experience, that’s fine too – everyone has their own preferences.
In general, leveling with Battle Pets is not ineffective, but it’s far less efficient than traditional methods like quests and dungeons. IGGM recommends that while it’s fine for occasional play, relying solely on it for leveling is simply asking for trouble.