DeGei’s Battle Center: Pictures are worth a Thousand Words
Every week, DeGei brings a fresh analysis on the upcoming Pet Battle System. In depth looks at possible features, pet interactions, and how you can prepare now. Welcome, this, is Battle Center.
Going with a purple theme in today’s header, Saint’s Row The Third comes out Tomorrow. If you get one game this year, bet on the Saints. I could go on and on about that game, but that’s not what this site is for. We have precious few pictures so far showing what they want to do with the Battle System, so we will take a look at them. These shots are taken from both the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Website and Blizzcon screen caps.
First we have a little grab from the top of the Pet Battle System info page. This depicts the Curious Oracle Whelp fighting with Lil’ Deathwing. While that in and of itself is not all that informative, it does however show they are planning on using both Collector’s Edition pets and some of the semi-humanoid pets. Just a little bit of enticement to draw people in.
Next we have the mockup of the team building screen. Starting in the top left, we see two tabs separating Companions from Wild Pets. Wild Pets have been announced as things like critters you can find and grab while wandering the world. They are obvious planning to keep some difference between them. Below that we can see a list of currently owned pets, which displays levels and an obvious classification symbol. Going down we can see gears, a beast symbol, fire, a skull with horns, and a wing. We can also see a greyed out Curious Wolvar Pup, which may stand for seen or previously owned, but at this point we can’t be sure. As for the team build itself, we can see an experience bar on both pets, an item slot, another symbol below that, which may or may not match the earlier symbol, and the three abilities, each with their own classification symbol, including: a rodent, a purple star, the beast again, and water. It is also interesting to not that the third slot is locked behind an achievement. Last thing to note is the tabs on the far right for multiple teams, a known planned feature.
Here we have a look at the pet information screen. The left side is the same as the above, so we will just dive in. We have the classification symbol, experience bar, level, and portrait at the top. An avatar of the pet fills the middle, much like the current preview of the pets, with the stats to left of it, showing what appears to be attack, defense, speed, and health. On the right are location and lore buttons, which may mean companions can be found in the wild, though again, this is a mockup. Below we see the six abilities the pet can learn while leveling, most likely not final names, each with it’s own class symbol. Finally, at the bottom is the summon button.
This is the Masters screen. It shows who to find, where, and what ability they grant. It was stated that these abilities will be able to be used by all pets if the owner has earned them. We can see again water, beast, and the purple symbol, which may be arcane as it is linked to an ability with the name Magic Sparkles. As humorous as the Masters’ names are, I don’t believe most are final.
The last image we have so far is the battle screen mockup. We can see the Lashtail Hatchling & Teldrassil Sproutling’s companion names, health bars, class symbols at the top with their levels. Below we can see positive and negative status effects and teammates (which appear to be the Azure Whelpling, Rustberg Gull, a rabbit, and a Batling). The main area is taken by the trainers and pets with battle text accompanying the action. At the bottom are the actively picked abilities, what I would guess is the held item, a net (probably for capturing wild pets), an arrow (probably for active pet switch), and the leave arrow.
The sum of the information we can gather from this is great. We know pets will have a class of sorts, as will the abilities. Abilities will probably do more than different flavors of damage as shown by the status effects. Held items will most likely include consumables as well as equipment (see the battle shot and the team load out shot). Master taught abilities may overlap with naturally learned abilities. We can see a lot of variety of pet classes, but the one plant we can see appears to be a water class.
Nothing here is final obviously, but we can see what the designers have planned and are working toward. Keep your eyes open for any screenshot you can dissect for information. Every little detail can lead to better information. Come back next week as we go over some of the planned changes to the companion system as a whole.
If you need me, I’ll be in Steelport, with a mascot costume, a rocket launcher, and a really fast car causing mayhem. If you are planning on being in the area on your PC, look me up on Steam.
DeGei can be followed on Twitter @DeGeiDragon . His main is Zeluminati, a Draenei Prot Warrior with more experience at retro content than current. Also, she is getting pretty good at pet hunting. Feel free to email [email protected] with any questions or topics you would like to see covered.
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Nice read as always
Keep it up =D
Very nice article!