So - with the other discussion in mind that Rosqo brought up on the declining number of [pvp] pet battlers (no hard evidence for this - just observation) lets have a discussion on how to invigorate the queue.
Im making an assumption. That assumption is that there are too many high powered teams out there, choking off entryism from beginners who barely even get up to intermediate before calling it quits on the whole thing apart from easy PvE dailies.
Random “just for fun” battles award little. 1 more tick towards your 5k, and [anecdotal] perhaps a 1/6 chance of a pet consumable like a charm or species stone (I am always low on flying and beast stones…)
We have in the past discussed nerfing teams with a random replacment in one of the 3 slots. That has been rejected as it spoils team synergy.
We have also discussed locking out a team for reuse for X number of battles. Also dismissed as many of us could cycle through many dozen elite teams before the need for reuse, doubtless passing by the recycle #.
So what about level then? If we opt-in to the Elite mode the game randomizes our pets between level 20-24. One pet? Two? All three? Im not sure whats best.
But all the pet abilities are available in levels 20-24 so team synergy is maintained. All pets would be slower and less powerful than they were before. The elite team would be at a serious disadvantage. (Dazzling Dance/Nimbus might be a popular semi-counter)
Anyway - it might relieve some of the grief for lesser equipped accounts to take us on.
Rewards for opting into Elite mode? Who knows. An increase in the chance of pet consumables maybe? A new achievement with a pet reward for completing 1000 such battles? A title (Savage Houndmaster!) perhaps? It’s open for debate.
Id most likely participate - even if nothing more than the achievement and elitism of it.
If the elite teams are all beating the crap out of each other - whilst still [forcably] giving the less able accounts a running shout at us (and on paper they should win… but many of these players dont understand mechanics, traps, racials or weather conditions - but we do and would have to use our cunning and knowledge to overcome the disadvantage), this might have a chance at succeeding?
Like or trash this idea as you please. It’s just something Iv been musing over for the past hour or so, perhaps it has pitfalls. And the severity of the Elite mode also needs to be thought out. Nerfing all 3 pets to level 20 would for example be an almost certain loss - that would need fleshing out and a max penalty limit properly established.