Pet Theorycrafting and Numbers

Who would have known that Pet Battles had so much depth to it that pet theorycrafting would become a thing? Well it has! Poofah of WarcraftPets wrote up a pretty comprehensive post on the math behind it all. Trying to pick a certain breed for a pet? Here are some things you should keep in mind:

- A pet gets 24 total stat points spread between health/power/speed, and then between 1.5 and 2 ‘bonus’ stat points

- 1 power = 1 speed = 5 health

- The break-even point for power vs health is 5 turns. If the fight lasts exactly 5 turns, then 1 power = 5 health, which is the same value that the game places on these stats. If the fight lasts 4 turns, then power is only worth 4 health; if it lasts 6 turns, then power is worth 6 health. So, if the fight lasts less than 5 turns, power is worth less than the game values it, and you should choose health over power. If the fight lasts more than 5 turns, power is worth more than the game values it, and you should choose power over health.

- ...unlike power, the value of going first decreases as the number of turns increases—therefore speed scales positively with power, and negatively with health. If neither pet has abilities that particularly benefit from going first, then you can calculate the value of going first as above. This is the break-even point for speed: if this value is higher than the difference between your speed and your opponent’s, then you would benefit by sacrificing other stats in order to go first.

You'll want to read the full post for all the details, but these notes are what stood out for me. Much of the math and theorycrafting goes over my head, yet you can still glean some very informational points from Poofah's thread without having to fully wrap your head around the numbers.

Another great post that breaks down some necessary information for leveling can be found here. The list of number of Tamer battles necessary to level a pet after reaching a certain experience point is especially helpful for deciding which lower level pet(s) to include on a team when doing your daily rounds.

I'm not an expert in pet theorycrafting nor am I consciously seeking to be, but I can definitely appreciate the player time spent into breaking down the puzzle into smaller pieces so that the rest of us can better understand the mechanics of this mini-game. At the very least, it's interesting to see just how much detail and depth developers have put into Pet Battles! :)