Pet Battles in Visions of N'Zoth

[chaud]

Pet Battles in Visions of N'Zoth

Hello pet battlers!

We’ve seen some discussion around pet battle changes coming in Visions of N’Zoth, and we’d like to discuss those, as well as changes we currently have planned for a future content update.

The Weather Outside is Fight-ful
Weather effects have always been intended to slightly change the rules of pet battles. Sandstorm is great against pets that do weaker attacks, Sunlight is great for healing abilities, and Cleansing Rain is great for aquatic abilities. However, Mudslide and Blizzard both fell by the wayside in terms of being impactful or rule-changing outcomes. So in Visions of N’Zoth, both of these weather effects are being updated with new added effects in addition to their existing effects:

• Blizzard
  
  • Now also increases all elemental ability damage by 25%.
• Mudslide
  
  • Now also increases all critical damage dealt by 25%.

To be really clear about the Mudslide change: Critical strikes usually hit for 150% of normal damage. Mudslide will now increase that to 175% of normal damage.

We’ve also been thinking for a while that we should add a new weather type to the game, so Visions of N’Zoth will also introduce a new weather type: Toxic Fumes. This deals Dragonkin damage to the current enemy pet and applies the Toxic Fumes weather effect.

• Toxic Fumes
  
  • Increases the duration of all hostile damage over time effects by 1 round.
  • All pets are considered Poisoned while Toxic Fumes is active.

Max No More
In Visions of N’Zoth, all of the new outdoor pet battle World Quests in Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossoms will scale their level to match the highest level pet currently slotted on your team, instead of always being a level 25 enemy pet. This will also be the case for Nazjatar and Mechagon – all of the pet battle World Quests there are being updated. You can check them all out with a team of three level 1 pets!

Stat Changes
In Visions of N’Zoth, we’re also changing how percent-damage reduction abilities stack with each other. Currently, if you’re fighting a pet like Unit 17 in Mechagon (a Boss pet that passively takes 50% less damage), and Unit 17 uses Crouch, Unit 17 becomes immune to damage because the two 50% damage reduction effects are added to each other. In Visions of N’Zoth, the plan is to cap damage reduction at -75%. Using Unit 17 as an example, while Crouch is active, it will take 75% reduced damage instead of 100% reduced damage. This will smooth out the challenge with some enemy bosses.

Please note that abilities like Dodge or Deflection will continue to avoid all damage. Those will not be impacted by this change.

What the Future Holds
In a future update, we’re targeting a number of balance changes we want to make, which will amount to lowering the effectiveness of some pets and strategies. Again, these changes will not be happening in Visions of N’Zoth, but we wanted to give you ample warning time that changes are coming. While we don’t have specific numbers or details to share right now, here are some examples of abilities that we’re going to take a close look at:

• Black Claw and similar abilities that increase damage taken by a flat amount.
• Hunting Party and similar abilities such as Flock.
• The Shattered Defenses debuff effect from abilities such as Hunting Party or Flock.
• Any large percent-damage-taken or percent-damage-dealt buffs or debuffs.
• Twilight Meteorite and similar long-cooldown damage-splitting abilities.
• The Jar of Smelly Liquid ability.
• Hermit Crab

Of course that last one isn’t an ability, but Hermit Crab incorrectly has a higher stat budget than it should, and it will have its stats reduced to bring it in line with other similar pets.

A goal we have when making many new pet battle World Quests or encounters is to create puzzles that players can counter and “solve”-- ideally with the option to use a variety of pets and tools to do so. When a few pets have such strong synergies that they can deal massive damage in just a few rounds and almost trivially beat these enemies, it becomes problematic. Do we make new challenges only beatable by the highest damage combos, or do we make them generally solveable and therefore immediately smashed by massive damage?

We don’t want to ruin the feel of combination abilities, so we aren’t going to make Black Claw no longer interact with Hunting Party or Flock, but we want to make sure these abilities are dealing appropriate damage. And we want to make sure that secondary effects such as Shattered Defenses are being accounted for with regards to balance.

When we have further specifics, we will be sure to let you know.

[Fawkess]

Black Claw and Hunting Party nerf is gonna sting

[Nehem]

Will int increase our MP in shadowlands or nope?

[LostSinclair]

Here's hoping they nerf the crazy difficulty of legendary pet battles along with black claw/hunting party so we don't have to constantly default to those tactics.

[LionSinMaikeru]

I'd rather they leave Hunting Party / Flock alone.

They don't ALWAYS work but they're nice for people without a bazillion special pets to take down hard mobs.

There's no reason to mess with it, other than to give a middle finger to more casual pet battlers.

[Pandragon]

How about just replace this stupid mini game with one thats actually fun? It was ok when the original thought was fighting other pet tamers, but then they gave legendary pets that are so hard you need a specific set of pets.

[Eapoe]

I'd rather they leave Hunting Party / Flock alone.

They don't ALWAYS work but they're nice for people without a bazillion special pets to take down hard mobs.

There's no reason to mess with it, other than to give a middle finger to more casual pet battlers.

While not always, a combination of Unborn Valkyr and Ikky can pretty much 2 pet any legendary battle. Just those 2 pets can carry you thru almost every single new pet battle brought out in Nazjatar and Mechagon, and many others prior to.

[ping-pong]

Is pet battling really that popular? I kind of always thought it's something you MAY do once every few years if you're super bored.

[Stickiler]

Is pet battling really that popular? I kind of always thought it's something you MAY do once every few years if you're super bored.

Incredibly popular, to the point where all my mechagon runs have taken atleast twice as long from people checking for and doing battles.

[ErrandRunner]

It's kind of sad Blizzard puts this much effort into Pet Battles when most players don't play them. Just think of what else you would be getting if they didn't waste resources on such fluff.

[javierdsv]

It's kind of sad Blizzard puts this much effort into Pet Battles when most players don't play them. Just think of what else you would be getting if they didn't waste resources on such fluff.

The Max No More change will definitely change how people that never use Battle Pets react to this content. If you can use lvl 1 pets to get them done more people will try to them out. This is also making world quests a new way to lvl your pets. They are just trying to get more people to like these activities, which is fine, more variety is always welcome.

[CaptRik]

It's kind of sad Blizzard puts this much effort into Pet Battles when most players don't play them. Just think of what else you would be getting if they didn't waste resources on such fluff.

I think you're underestimating just how many people do play the pet battling. Probably more people do that regularly than join organised raiding

[DesoPL]

Black Claw and Hunting Party nerfs, as i expected.

[wargone]

really sucks if they neff black claw + hunting party.
It a good easy way for people who dont have 200 pets at level 25..
and some boss mobs are hard enough as it is

[dragnipur]

It's kind of sad Blizzard puts this much effort into Pet Battles when most players don't play them. Just think of what else you would be getting if they didn't waste resources on such fluff.

How do you know the number of the people who are playing pet battles?Because i can't say is it low or high number.What is the basis of your statement?

[Qnubi]

I think you're underestimating just how many people do play the pet battling. Probably more people do that regularly than join organised raiding

That might be true, but raiding is also a minor activity in WoW as well.

[McNeil]

I never got the appeal in pet battles. It just felt like a worse and more boring Pokémon, which I do actually love to play.

[Super Kami Dende]

It's kind of sad Blizzard puts this much effort into Pet Battles when most players don't play them. Just think of what else you would be getting if they didn't waste resources on such fluff.

-Pet Battles have their own team it doesn't take resources away
-More people Pet Battle than they do Heroic/Mythic Raids
-You not liking something doesn't mean others do not.

[Nnyco]

It's kind of sad Blizzard puts this much effort into Pet Battles when most players don't play them. Just think of what else you would be getting if they didn't waste resources on such fluff.

That can be said about anythin in this game, how sad they put resources into pvp, etc etc.

[Granyala]

Oh noes, we have OP combos is a fluff side activity of the game. Can't have that, swing the nerf bat!

Seriously, doesn't that shit get old? Don't they realize that the player is supposed to feel OP at least some of the time?