Pet Capturing in Midnight
As it is right now, on the most recent Midnight Alpha, there is no battling required to capture wild pets - You can approach them and toss a pet cage, instantly capturing it.
This change comes with a bunch of both positives and negatives. On the positive side, it eliminates the need to have pet teams dedicated to capturing new wild pets, as well as potential RNG issues with the actual capturing portion - Even the upgraded Pristine Trap has a base chance of 40% to capture a Battle Pet, which means that capturing a Battle Pet usually requires multiple turns after lowering a target pet down to 35% health.
However, there are also a series of negatives with this new capturing system:
When capturing the Battle Pet, it doesn't go straight into your Pet Journal - Instead, an item is created for the Battle Pet, similar to a Pet Cage, which is then used to learn the Battle Pet. This can generate further bag clutter, which is already an issue with the Battle Pet system due to the quantity of bag slots that Training Stones and Polished Pet Charms can take.
Another issue with this is that more experienced pet battlers would often check multiple wild pets in search of specific breeds or even pet rarities. With this system right now, we have noticed that at least Pet Quality is impossible to tell until you learn your captured Battle Pet.
And of course, this is also a big immersion issue. Pet Battling may be a more niche activity in WoW, but removing the need to battle for wild pet captures removes some of the immersion within the system.
Pet quality seems impossible to tell from the item generated by capturing a Battle Pet.
Most Midnight Battle Pets Can't Battle
Another concern pet battlers have noticed during the Midnight Alpha is that most of the wild pets captured in Midnight zones are classified as Companion Pets - as in, they have no abilities and are incapable of battling.
Blizzard has stated that some Midnight pets will be capable of battling. We have recently highlighted datamined Battle Pet models in the post below:
New Battle Pet Models in Midnight Alpha - Dachshunds, Baby Sporebats, Voidwalkers & More!-
Pet quality seems impossible to tell from the item generated by capturing a Battle Pet.
New Family Battle Achievements
Although the Midnight continent seems a little barren when it comes to the battling portion of Pet Battles, battling with them has not gone completely forgotten - New Family Battler achievements have been added for Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and Northrend trainers.
Moon Darter
Byrn
Webbers
Pet Battle Current Build Notes in Midnight
A few days ago as of the time this post goes live, Blizzard released a blue post talking about what their plans are with Pet Battles, noting that they're looking to iterate upon a few aspects of Pet Battles - namely, working on what they describe as a crescent lack of interest in the combat portion of Pet Battles.
As it is, it looks like what we've displayed in this post is very much a work in progress, and we should see more iteration on Pet Battles in Midnight (just maybe more focused on the collecting aspect than the actual battling aspect). What are your thoughts on this? Are you looking to interact with the Pet Battle system in Midnight?
The Pet Battle system is being iterated on in Midnight, and changes will continue to come with future Alpha builds.
In the first builds of the Midnight Alpha, we have several goals:
For players who love collecting pets, there should be significant numbers of pets to collect.
For players who love to do pet battle combat, that will be available.
As time has passed, we’ve seen fewer and fewer players enjoying pet battle combat, so this is an area we want to iterate on.
There will be some new pets in Midnight that are capable of battling.
All parts of the pet battle system that were implemented in previous expansions should continue to operate as they have before.
We’re experimenting with some alternate methods to obtain pets in Midnight, and we expect to iterate on that, based on your feedback. Please let us know whether you’re an experienced pet battler or engaging with the system for the first time when you leave feedback.
Look in this thread and in the Midnight Alpha Development Notes for adjustments and bugfixes made throughout the testing period.
Please note that off-topic or inappropriate posts will be strictly removed.
Thank you!
