I've stopped playing wow ...

And have started playing Pokemon:

Fighting a level 1 Dung Beetle outside of Orgrimmar

One of the buildings you can have in your Garrison is the Pet Menagerie, but this can only be unlocked after completing a quest. The quest is to defeat three level 25 pets in your Garrison. When you first get a pet they are only level 1, so I knew I wouldn't be able to beat any of them. This led me to Orgrimmar, where you can talk to the Pet Battle Trainer and unlock the ability to fight with your pets!

When you first begin, you have access to just one Pet Battle Slot. As you unlock certain achievements pertaining to Pet Battles, you can unlock the second and third. This allows you to use three different pets in the same battle. Each Pet has a different Type and its abilities are more effective / less effective against one Type of Pet. Just like in Pokemon, where certain attacks would be better against certain types of monsters ("it's super effective!"). Additionally, at level 1 your pets have access to only one skill. At level 3 they gain a second and at level 4, a third.

You can see that the Adder's first skill, Bite, is more effective against Critter types and less effective against Flying types. I've unlocked all three battle slots and tried to fill them with a combination of different types (plus my Dark Whelpling, which was always a favorite). And because it wouldn't really be Pokemon if you couldn't capture the creatures you're fighting, once you get a pet below 35% health you can attempt to capture them with a Pokeball! Errr, I mean a box.

Pokeball or Box?

Adding to the similarities, the Pet Battle Trainer gives you a quest to defeat a Trainer located right outside of Orgrimmar. Once you defeat that Trainer, he gives you a quest to defeat another ... and so on it goes. Very reminiscent of traveling to different towns to defeat the different Trainers in Pokemon.

It's honestly been a lot of fun so far. Leveling up pets, collecting new ones ... all of it plays into that "completionism" desire a lot of people have. I think you can battle other people too, at some point, but I haven't tried my hand at that yet. They don't have any impact on the rest of your gameplay, but it's a fun little wrinkle in case you need a break from Raiding or Grinding or whatever else.