The Pet Menagerie

I mentioned how fun the Pet Battle stuff was a while ago, and while it certainly was enjoyable to collect other pets, it kind of took a backseat to everything else I was doing. That probably would have remained the case for a long while had there not been a quest introduced in one of the recent patches that automatically leveled a pet up to level 25 for you. The important part to note about this quest is that you can do it once per character, not once per account. So when my Mage finally hit 100, I was able to level a second pet to 25.

With two level 25 pets, you can trap some of the pets in Draenor (even if you only challenge a single one, extra pets always come to the rescue). A third 20+ pet is enough to begin to do the daily quests in your garrison. There are two different daily quests:

1) One quest, which every character can do, requires you to defeat your garrison's Battle Pet Master. It provides 8 tokens that can be turned in for a variety of pet paraphernalia, including level-up tokens, something that changes your pet's quality to rare, and even dress up costumes.

2) The second quest can only be completed once per account. You must defeat Kura Thunderhoof in a pet battle, which is usually easier than the first quest I mentioned since her pets are only level 23. You are rewarded with 3 level-up tokens and a bag that might contain a rare pet, but usually just has some gold and pocket lint.

Having only 3 level 25 pets, the first quest is sometimes difficult because I can't select pets that have an attack advantage. I am working my way toward other level 25 pets though; the most efficient way to do this (long-term, at least ... certainly slower in the short term) is to spend 2 pet tokens on a bag that contains a level-up token (sometimes two!) for a random pet family rather than 3 tokens on a level-up token that works on any pet. This is slower because it spreads out your levels among a variety of different pets, but in the long run better because you're using your tokens more efficiently. It also saves the rewards from the second quest I mentioned in case you come across a level 1 pet you want to level up quickly (say, a drop from an old dungeon that can be sold for a good amount of money).

Interestingly enough, there are a multitude of Battle Pet Masters all over Draenor that you can fight every day. I stumbled across one while doing the Harrison Jones quests with my mage:

I have no idea how many there are, but if you did all of them every day you could very quickly level up a variety of different pets! And of course, one of the fun things about the menagerie in your garrison is that your own pets hang out there!

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.