Pet Battle System Previewed at BlizzCon 2011 , the Pet Battle System allows most formerly non - combat pets , also known as companion s , to become battle pet s and battle each other for bragging rights , leveling , and addition of abilities . While this feature was not released until the Mists of Pandaria expansion was released , the expansion will not be required to use the pet battle system and will be available to all players . Background . From the official World of Warcraft : Mists of Pandaria website : Information . This system acts much like a secondary profession and is available to all players . Companions are now able to battle each other in a new turn - based combat system to level up and unlock new abilities . Pets are also able to encounter and battle pets in the wild to capture them for the player . Players are able to fight with teams of pets up to 3 for each player at a time . Customization , progress status , abilities and info are tracked in a new Pet Journal . You are also able to seek out Master Pet Tamer NPCs ( were called master pet trainer ) to learn new pet abilities from them if your pet is worthy and can defeat the trainer ' s pet . Engaging your pet in pet battles will award it experience . Players may disable invites to pet battles . To get the highest percentage possible of participants , Blizzard has decided that players do not know the identity of players they are fighting against . This is to avoid trash - talking . Another way they are hoping to diminish the negativity involved in some aspects of PvP , they are also only recording wins . In patch 5 . 3 . Battle pet hit accuracy was changed in Patch 5 . 3 so that the chance of pets dodging attacks and pets missing is reduced . Details . Some more details were released during the March 2012 press event : Limitations . General limitations : Known limitations on pets that can be used for battle : Pet Journal . You track all your battle pets via the Pet Journal and build teams to battle other player ' s pet teams . This will be the main UI for the system when not in battle . Details from the Beta FAQ : Battle pet abilities . Battle pets have abilities , just like player characters , but they are more simplified , generally increase in effect based on battle pet level , and have specific strengths and weaknesses against other battle pet families . Pet Battle Statistics at a Glance . A quick reference to pet damages Aquatic Takes more from Flying Does more to Elemental Takes less from Undead Does less to Magic Beast Takes more from Mechanical Does more to Critter Takes less from Humanoid Does less to Flying Critter Takes more from Beast Does more to Undead Takes less from Elemental Does less to Humanoid Dragonkin Takes more from Humanoid Does more to Magic Takes less from Flying Does less to Undead Elemental Takes more from Aquatic Does more to Mechanical Takes less from Mechanical Does less to Critter Flying Takes more from Magic Does more to Aquatic Takes less from Beast Does less to Dragonkin Humanoid Takes more from Undead Does more to Dragonkin Takes less from Critter Does less to Beast Magic Takes more from Dragonkin Does more to Flying Takes less from Aquatic Does less to Mechanical Mechanical Takes more from Elemental Does more to Beast Takes less from Magic Does less to Elemental Undead Takes more from Critter Does more to Humanoid Takes less from Dragonkin Does less to Aquatic Battles . Basics from Beta FAQ : Leveling . How catching affects level : Calculating experience . If your pet team prevails in combat , experience is awarded to all surviving pets that participated in combat . Pets that do not enter combat have no effect on the experience awarded . Similarly , pets that die in combat also have no affect on the experience awarded . The experience that dead pets would have received is not " lost " . Instead , the system considers dead pets the same way as non - participating pets . When you defeat an opposing pet , the experience awarded is calculated using this formula : [ opponent level + 9 ] X [ level difference + 5 ] The level difference is capped at + 2 , so there is no benefit to defeating an opponent more than 2 levels higher than your pet . If your pet is 5 or more levels higher than the opponent , it will receive zero experience . When your opponent is level 5 or higher , there will be two of them , and you receive experience for each of them ( 200 % normal experience ) . When your opponent is level 15 or higher , there will be three of them , and you receive full experience for the first two , and half experience for the third ( 250 % normal experience ) . The quality of the defeated pet does not affect experience gain , and you get full experience if you capture or defeat your opponent . The experience awarded to each surviving pet is calculated by dividing the experience in the table below by the number of surviving pets : Experience table . Example 1 : If one of your level 3 pets defeats a level 2 opponent , it will receive 48 experience . Example 2 : If you have three active pets of level 4 , 5 , and 9 that all survive a battle against a level 6 opponent , the experience awards would be as follows : Your level 4 pet would receive ( 1 / 3 ) ( 91 x 2 ) = 61 experience . Your level 5 pet would receive ( 1 / 3 ) ( 84 x 2 ) = 56 experience . Your level 9 pet would receive ( 1 / 3 ) ( 36 x 2 ) = 24 experience . Example 3 : If two of your high level pets die in combat against a level 16 opponent , and your level 12 pet survives , the surviving pet would receive 147x2 . 5 = 367 experience . There are two cases where this table is not accurate : 1 ) If your pets are different levels , the higher level pet will " steal " a few experience points from the lower level pet . You can ignore this becauswe usually only one or two eperience points are transferred , which is irrelevant . 2 ) If your pets are different level , at some point the entire team will be penalized . The penalty will be the equivalent of the opponent being one level lower , which is very significant ( about 30 % reduction in experience ) . Beyond about level 10 , try to keep all of your pets the same level , unless you are power levelling a baby pet , in which case the experience penalty is worth paying . Leveling tips . Use the trainers and quests : At higher levels the experience grind is very slow . The fastest way to gain experience is to follow the quest line and defeat the trainers . Trainers award much more experience than opponents in the field . This means that you should maximize your experience from trainers , and avoid a situation where you waste the experience boost from lower level trainers by defeating them with a too high level team . Do not waste time farming for many rare pets at low level : You will often capture the same pet at much higher level , and you will have to abandon the low level rare to make room for the higher level rare . Plan your high level grind , not your low level grind : The first few levels are easy , it does not matter where you do them . At higher level , find a place with a nearby stable master to grind opponents that are equal or slightly weaker . The stable master is very important because higher level opponents will leave your team very weak , and you do not want to have to wait 8 minutes between each combat . For example , Winterspring is a good place to grind level 17 to 21 because there are many high level opponents available near to the Everlook stable master . Another good strategy is to grind using a herbalist and / or a miner , because you can make gold while you wait for the 8 minute cooldown . Also while in the healing cooldown , don ' t be afraid to trade out the hurt pets for another one you intend to level later , then when you can heal , it heals all of your pets whether active or not . This way there isn ' t as much down time . Old Beta info . From the Mists of Pandaria . Beta FAQ . As of build 15851 : Known issues : Upcoming in Beta . Post build 15882 : US External links . EU