Being Polygamerous

I'm definitely a polygamerous gamer. 

I usually carry 2-4+ MMO subs at any given time as I like to jump around in different games and play the plethora of characters I make in every game. 

Right now I'm kinda/sorta sub free (I tell myself that at least) as
Rift: paid through 6/2014
TSW: lifetime sub
LoTRO: annual sub through 8/2013
WoW: annual sub through 4/2013
GW2: no sub

So no monthly subs (I generally pay 6-12 months if possible), and no F2P currently active either.

I guess the one difficulty with multi-gaming, is deciding which one to play and which character to play.  Some days, its jumping between games and characters. Other times it can be a steady diet of one game for weeks if something really catches my interest.

It's really hard, apparently for people that max level one toon to understand the "need" to play a variety of characters in a variety of games.  Diametrically different thoughts there!  As I would find it hard to ONLY play one character all the time.  I mean, I do plan to eventually get to max level, but I don't feel a rush.  There are just too many things to do in any given game.

The way I see it, whichever character I'm playing is my "main" at that time.  I guess I kind of RP in my head how they're progressing through the world and what they will/won't do.  Each seems to have distinct likes in gear (dye colors, etc.), mounts and pet companions and reactions to different NPC's, zones and other races.

Add that to the fact, I truly love collecting mounts, pets, and housing (can't wait for Rift dimensions, I miss EQ2 housing), crafting and PvP, well "End Game" will get there when it gets there!

Right now with new games and expansions out, it's been tough trying to juggle games/time, though.  But I'm working on it!

Monday/Tuesday are Rift raid days. I usually do a bit of crafting, instances after or jump to another game

Thursday is devoted to The Secret World.  Love this game, but 2-3 hours the creepiness gets to me, but FunCome did a great job with making a game truly different!

Saturday/Sunday is WoW and TSW. We're working on doing some of the old content with the WoW guild and TSW the team seems to have more people on to get through group content, so juggle juggle those two!
 
The rest of the week, depending on what's going on, LoTRO gets played too. This is the slowest game I play, as years later I've just got to 30 on one character, the rest are scattered in their teens. 

I was playing GW2, but think that game is going to be on hiatus for the next couple of months with all the fun I'm having in the other games.  Thankfully being sub-free I won't be bothered with parking it until 2013.

If I had the time, I'd love to add EQ2, TOR, Warhammer and AoC back in, but haven't won the lottery yet or had some rich long lost relative leave me independently wealthy so, must make do with the games I have.

WoW Pet Battles: The System

World of Warcrafts, pet battle system is truly a fun mini-game.  There are some great sites out there with information on the pets, how-to's, and even addons for pet management.

According to WarcraftPets there are 497 companion pets available from all sources. I'm currently standing at 163 of 497. 

Further down is a discussion on building teams, which is going to be a learning process.  You have to consider the abilities of your individuals and what the opposite team is bringing.

So far though, it's been great fun.

Here's a compilantion of them from WarcraftPets, Wiki, WoWhead, TenTonhammer, etc.

WoW Pet Battles: The System
The new WoW pet battle system will be accessible to all players from a low level. There will be both PvE battles against Wild Pets (see below) and PvP battles against other players and their battle-ready companions:

• The battle system will be simple turn-based combat and is intended to allow battle with almost every existing pet.
• All new pets introduced in MoP will be able to battle.
• Entering into a Pet Battle, you will see your opponent and the three pets you will be fighting against, but you will NOT see your opponent's name or be able to communicate with them.
• While in a Pet Battle, you will be able to switch between the three pets you've chosen to fight, and they will dutifully run up to your opponent's pet to attack it.
• Challenging another player in the open world will switch you into a unique zoomed in view. Once combat is over it will return you to a normal gameplay camera view.
• No one will ever have a significant advantage based simply on the rarity of a pet.
• You can battle with your pets in solo matches or teams of up to three pets that you can create and perfect.
• There will be a queuing system (like PvP battlegrounds) so that you will be able to find a match relatively quickly. You will also be able to duel with nearby players.
• In addition to being able to queue into a queuing system and duel other players in the open world, there will be NPCs and critters that you can enter combat with to help level your mini-pets.
• Unlike PVP, your Pet Battles stats will only show you how many games you've won. Information on losses will not be available.

Pet Leveling and Abilities
Every pet can use up to three abilities in a given battle with a total of six abilities to swap around in between battles. Here are some additional hightlights:

• The pets that you own will have a corresponding "pet card" that will show all the information about said pet. Such information includes mini-pet health, level, attack, defense and movement speed values.
• Winning pet battles will earn experience for your pets and help them level up.
• Each mini-pet will have 6 abilities that players can choose pre-battle. Much like player leveling, as your companion levels up it will unlock more abilities. Also like a player talent tree, you can only choose one ability per row of talents for your pet.
• The intended pet level cap is 25.
• Every time you level your pet, you will also increase its stats.
• There will be Pet Masters throughout the world who will let you earn Master abilities when you defeat them. These abilities can be taught to any pet.
• You'll be able to manage your teams and battle abilities using a new UI widget known as the Pet Journal.

Pet Collecting Improvements and Customization
Your Pet Journal will display info on all your pets, including stats, skills, drop locations and lore. Through your journal, you'll be able to further customize your pets:

• The pet UI will be updated to show you a list of all the pets you currently have and the pets that you don't have. In the case of the companions that you're missing, it will show you where to find those pets.
• Account wide pets have been confirmed. All your characters will have access to all of your pets. This will cut down on switching between characters to level up a certain pet.
• Developers are considering allowing players to grow their own mini-pets on personal farms within the Valley of the Four Winds.
• Most pets will become tradable (even after being leveled).
• You will be able to customize the name of each of your pets. This name will appear in battle.
• You can obtain vanity items for your pets. Some of these items may offer combat bonuses.

Wild Pets
Wild Pets are discovered throughout the game world, some being more rare than others. To collect one, you'll need to engage it in battle (with one of your current pets) and defeat it.

• There will be about 100 wild pets all over Azeroth you can collect.
• There is likely to be at least one unique wild pet per zone.
• Wild Pets will have random stats.
• Many wild pets will be good at filling a specific role on your battle team, such as tanking or crowd control.
• Some wild pets will only be found under certain conditions. For example, some of them will only spawn in the spring, or while it's raining, or during the nighttime.

http://www.warcraftpets.com/wow-pet-battles/


List of all Companion Pets

WoW-Wiki on Pet Battles

Trainers: *** Cost to Train 95 gold ***

Location	Battle Pet Trainers
Razor Hill, Durotar	Narzak
Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore	Naleen
Brill, Tirisfal Glades	Ansel Fincap
Falconwing Square, Eversong Woods	Jarson Everlong
Goblin Slums, Orgrimmar	Matty
Orgrimmar	Varzok
The Golden Terrace, Vale of Eternal Blossoms	Gentle Sanω

Quests
Once a player visits a Battle Pet Trainer and learns Pet Battle Training, they learn how to battle, level, heal and capture pets with a short questline.

1. [85] Learning the Ropes
2. [85] On The Mend
3. [85] Level Up!
4. [85] Got One!

Notes
Although classified as one of the above types, companions such as humans, orcs, kites, and balloons will not fight. Those that will not fight are:

• Argent Gruntling and Squire
• Guild Page and Herald
• Alliance, Horde, Darkmoon, Green, and Yellow Balloons
• Chi-ji, Dragon, Tuskarr, and Yu'lon Kites

-------------------
***** Extra companion pets can be caged and traded or sold on the Auction House.

 Wowhead now has a map of locations:

Capturing wild battle pets is a new way to obtain companion pets in Mists of Pandaria, and it is one of the primary ways of acquiring pets for your pet battle team.

Wild battle pets can be tracked on your minimap: you can have your team fight them for experience, or capture one at low health to add it to your collection. Pet families have strengths and weaknesses against other types, so choose your opponents wisely. There are different versions of each pet--some with more stats than others--so you could get lucky and end up capturing a really strong version! There's also many achievements for capturing wild battle pets.

We've made tables below of all the wild battle pets, organized by continent and color-coded by type. With this chart, you can see what pets are unique to various zones, and also which pet types are pretty scarce--Dragonkin and Mechanical especially. All the data was taken from our interactive battle pet map and our visual battle pet database, so be sure to check them out for more information!

Pet Battles: Wild Battle Pets by Zone - Wowhead News


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WarcraftPets (best place for all things companion pets!).


Recent article adds info on the dailies available.

Pet Battles Dailies and Strong Traps Investigation

October 09, 2012
Two notable Pet Battles bugs have been stubbornly sticking around for some time now, but developers are currently investigating both.

Players are reporting that the dailies that should be offered (from every Tamer on a continent) after defeating the Grand Master Tamer are either not being offered or are not resetting properly.

In addition to this, the Strong Trap is not being awarded to eligible players. Instead of an updated trap model and trap icon with a new tooltip, many are still seeing the original ones, despite having completed the achievement Going to Need More Traps.

Pet Battles Dailies
If you're not seeing the daily quests for a continent, have you earned the Taming achievement to unlock them for that continent? Did they show up once and then never come back? (not resetting) Are any working at all, and if so, which ones?

Note: Taming Kalimdor is Horde only, and Taming Eastern Kingdoms is Alliance only. This was done via hotfix so the UI in-game will not update until 5.1, which is why you may see completion swap between the two. Not to worry though, the data is all there and will be resolved with the 5.1 patch. [source]

Strong Traps
We applied a hotfix to attempt to resolve issues of not properly receiving the upgraded Strong and Pristine traps. Please let us know if you're still having the issue, what character and realm is seeing the issue, and once you received the achievement, did your trap art, tooltip or icon change to reflect an upgraded trap? [source]

If you have additional information or details regarding Pet Battles dailies not resetting or not being offered, and Strong Traps not being awarded, leave a response on the appropriate threads linked above.

Let's help developers squish these bugs!

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 Top 5 World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Pet Battle Addons

One of the things I was most looking forward to with the launch of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria was the addition of Pet Battles. I was already fond of my vanity pets and the fact that they would now be more than just showpieces almost made me jump up and down and squeal like a schoolgirl. I fully anticipated that when the expansion launched I would dive headfirst into Pet Battles and become a master in no time at all.Sadly, that is not quite how things worked out. I haven't given much time to Pet Battles and have instead spent most of my days happily leveling up my Pandaren Monk. I have decided that now is the time to change that. However, I refused to dive into the world of Pet Battles totally unprepared. To help me along the way I wanted to seek out some handy dandy addons that would make my Pet Battle experience in Mists of Pandaria just a little bit easier.To do this I searched various sites around the web for suggestions and then loaded them up into my game to try for myself as I embarked on my Pet Battle journey. After much trial and error, I have discovered what I believe to be some of the most useful Pet Battle addons currently available. Below you will find the fruits of my labors with a listing of my top 5 Pet Battle addon finds. Hopefully these addons will prove to be as useful to you as they have been to me.Top 5 World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Pet Battle Addons

BattlePet Count

While Blizzard has a knack for getting things right, sometimes things don't turn out quite as we may have dreamed. The Pet Journal is inevitably one of those things. Somewhat difficult to navigate and rather unwieldy, I can say with certainly that I am not alone in my wishing for a simpler way to find the information I need. The addon BattlePet Count provides us with exactly that.BattlePet Count ignores the Pet Journal totally and instead provides all pertinent information in the form of a simple tooltip. When the player hovers over a pet, it not only lets you know if you already own that particular pet, but also what level it is, and what quality it is. BattlePet Count also works with vendors who sell pets, as well as the Auction House, letting you know if you are currently the owner of any pets available.Pokemon Trainer

When it comes to Pet Battle addons in Mists of Pandaria Pokemon Trainer really takes the cake. This addon single-handedly adds a ton of useful features that will be sure to aid every Pet Battle enthusiast. You won't believe it till you try it yourself!For the first of its tricks, Pokemon Trainer delivers upon you a handy tooltip when you hover over any opponent. This tooltip informs you whether your current team has any pets in it that are stronger than the opponent's. The tooltip appears no matter what type of pet you hover your mouse over.Battling against teams of pets? No problem! Pokemon Trainer provides a similar tooltip whether you are battling NPCs or other players. Pokemon Trainer also accounts for those of us who lose our heads in battle and forget which pets do well against others and provides a handy tooltip when the Switch Pet button is used showing your team and when you mouse over each of them shows their viability against the current opponent(s).For its final trick, the Pokemon Trainer addon also shows the possible abilities of your enemies which means you can easily prepare for and possibly counter attacks even before they happen. This addon is in development stages and while I did not personally encounter any glitches or bugs, don't get discouraged if you stumble across some. With even more useful features planned in the future, when Pokemon Trainer is released in all its glory it will be even more magnificent than we can imagine. This mod is a must have for any Pet Battle lover in Mists of Pandaria.PetJournal Enhanced

Have I mentioned that I feel the Pet Journal could use some improvement? Pet Journal Enhanced is another addon that improves the rather awkward feeling journal. This addon adds several additional filtering options to the journal that make life in Mists of Pandaria run a little bit smoother. Pet Journal Enhanced also shows each individual pet's specialization as an icon that shows that pet's highest stat as well as that pet's rarity (works on non-wild pets only). This addon is also in a beta stage, so once again, some bugs and glitches are to be expected.PetBattle Teams

While I am not quite ready for creating any serious teams, since I've only recently focused on Pet Battles, that doesn't mean that I can't prepare for the future. The addon Pet Battle Teams is for the player who has more than a few teams at their disposal and wishes for an easy way to load them up. With a single click a team can be loaded and ready for your next Pet Battle. My only complaint with this addon is that it seems you can easily overwrite any saved team, however, the benefits of this mod make this slight downfall easy to overlook.BattlePetsList

While actually battling our pets is what most of us focus on, it stands to reason that to battle we actually need to get out there and collect pets. No matter if you are a newbie like me or an old hat, we each need to get out there and expand our pet collection to create the best teams possible. Wild Pets are one of the major sources we have to turn to in our efforts to "collect 'em all"BattlePetsList makes this process just a little bit simpler. 

 

This simple addon allows the player to use a slash command to determine what pets are available in the area your character is in. When used this slash command (/bpl) BattlePetsList brings up a listing of the battle pets in the area, and goes an extra step by coloring the pets you have already collected a delightful red color.This addon can also check other zones for battle pets, however, there is a slight pitfall. BattlePetsLists requires you to be amazingly accurate in your spelling of the zone name and is also case sensitive. 

 

Thankfully this will hopefully not always be the case as this addon is currently in the development process and hopefully this issue will be resolved in the near future.That is it for my selections for top 5 Pet Battle addons. What addons have you found particularly helpful for Pet Battles? Have you discovered any that are duds? Help increase the knowledge of our community by sharing your experiences with various Pet Battle addons in the comment section below!

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/feat...m_medium=email