Make It Ten
Black Claw McGraw
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
H/H Ghastly Kid (Hoof, Ethereal, Haunt)
S/S Mechanical Scorpid (Barbed Stinger, Blinding Poison, Black Claw)
Current record: 8-0
This is a team that one would expect to do really well.
Battle 9
vs. Molten Corgi, Amber Moth, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry
I still hate moths. A sleep can turn the battle sour really fast. So if I told you that I got put to sleep twice in one battle you might think that it was game over. It wasn’t. Taking out the moth was seriously difficult with the sleeps, but after it was gone it was really easy to take out the other two pets, especially with help from lightning.
Record: 9-0
Battle 10
vs. Frostwolf Ghostpup, Masked Tanuki Pup, Golden Civet
The tanuki and civet told me that this was a new battler so I wouldn’t have to worry about the Frostwolf Ghostpup juking me. I was able to force swap out the undead pet on two separate occasions. It was an easy win.
Black Claw McGraw: Success
As you’ve probably noticed, both the frequency and the quality of the daily battle has diminished over the past few weeks. The daily has been more of a chore than something fun. It’s not because I’m not into battling anymore, it’s just because I’m feeling some burn out. I need a long break. I’ll still be battling and playing with your POTM teams, I just won’t be doing the daily write up for a few weeks. Don’t worry, I’ll be back. Maybe I’ll have time to finally upgrade the comments section and update my teams page.
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Don’t think anyone would resent you taking some time off if you’re getting burnt out. That’s pretty much what I do when I start to find something less fun after all (and a major reason why I barely play WoW these days heh).
Your blog was superb before the PotM business began. When competition is added to anything, the dynamics change. That being said, the people who submit to your PotMs seem to be excellent pet battlers and true fans of the mini-game. I’m hoping the PotM is what you hoped it would be ..if not, feel free to scrap it, I say.
You are just one person, Disco, and the calibur of your blog content is second to none. I just want to express genuine appreciation for all the immensely entertaining and informative material you’ve published here over time.
Your battle testing is inspiring and your battle breakdown write-ups are informative and insightful. When I first visited your site a long while back, I liked the funny daily team names and numerous rarely used pets in your lineups.
Perhaps a ‘daily’ battle seems constrictive to you. If you called it the battlepet roundup- or battlepets arena..then you wouldnt feel a pressure to post a battle each day. In any case, I fully support any direction you wish to take your blog. I’ll continue to give you props and lead people from WarcraftPets to your site, as I have done in different forum threads there.
Enjoy your well earned break
Tekulve
That’s an interesting observation about the POTM. I know that I’ve taken a more competitive approach in general, but I never thought that there was a connection between that and the POTM competition.
As far as making the “daily battle” an “every other daily battle” (with a better name of course :)) goes, I’ve considered that a number of times, and will probably go that route in the future, perhaps as soon as I return from this break.
I’m with Tekulve on this, take your time.
I’ve experienced something similar myself, mostly because Blizzard ruined the Garrison battlepet experience, so I just do some pet battles when I feel like it, and nothing else currently.
As long as you’re here I do feel the POTM is a wonderful thing leading everyone to build and share many wonderful teams, you can however take more time to process it all. Personally I enjoy seeing everyone’s teams and playing them a lot, the end result is cool, but – for me – there’s no related pressure that it has to be posted.
If you are going to burn out though, it may be nice if you finished up the POTM’s that are out and then just take a break, I don’t know. Will be sad to miss out on the POTM
Either way, we’ll see what happens!
PS. Isn’t it nice to see how many people you’ve gotten participating in the POTM’s already? ^^
PPS. In short: there’s no point in playing if you hate it!
I plan on finishing both of the current POTM competitions
With Vek here more now, important that you don’t burn out further. If needs be, come back to finish the POTM later when you feel like it.
Concerning your “I rarely log in to do anything but battle due to garrison burn out. I need to at least start doing the pet battle garrison dailies so I can get the new pets when they come out. I was actually excited about mythic dungeons, but I’m not sure if I’ll have time to get into that or not.”
You can get fairly easy tokens by doing some WoD battle masters (Frozen Zone, Taladaar, Spires of Arak, Shadowmoon Valley is what I do sometimes).
The garrison experience was completed hollowed out when they ‘hotfixed’ the garrison pet battles to reward absolutely nothing and also make the battles trivial.
I would not recommend it. I stopped doing the entire garrison mostly, it’s not fun, it’s tedious, and if you do missions also you end up with too many boxes which you also all have to click and sell. Ugh.
Take care of yourself first, it is the most important thing.
WoW offers a lot to players. What we learn is that little of value comes quickly or easily…we farm, grind, level, gear up, raid etc
Since we all have real lives, we are left to prioritize. I went after the pet monument and leveled 3alts to 100 in the process…but I left raiding on my main toon to do it.
Pet PvP entertains me. I enjoy collecting and leveling pets too. If Disco says he runs a risk of burn out… I don’t presume to meddle in the details of it. I do offer support by (a)applauding the massive body of work posted inthis blog..(b) patiently hoping for a cool revival of the blog and (c) reiterating my offer to give a rare pet to one of the PotM winners if that helps
I’ve been hesitant to post anything about this, but since it’s out there now, I’ll add my 2c:
There’s a ton of guides out there to help new pet battlers. Your blog is the only one that I know of that aims at pvp, and where people like myself who are no longer beginners can go for new ideas (and/or indirect advice, if you solve a problem that I’ve been having in a way I wouldn’t have thought of myself).
That’s a lot of pressure right there.
You run it yourself, no additional writers (which I’m not necessarily suggesting), but it means that there is no one to share the load if real life gets busy, or you’re sick, or whatever. That adds to the pressure.
Having to come up with new things to post all the time is also a challenge. In that sense, I think the competition is a great concept. People are definitely interacting more in the comments section, and you get to see different people’s takes on the same pet.
But a competition that has a reward at the end will always be a competitive thing. No reward = less incentive to enter of course. If people enter teams expecting you to win with them, you “have to” play at your best. Bad-luck nights become more psychologically punishing. If you had a fun idea for a combination using some lesser-known pets, but you don’t have time to battle because you have to finish the competition battles on time, then battling becomes more chore than fun.
Add to that that the garrison-thing has been a source of burnout for many others, including myself, and the fact that you (as far as I can tell) haven’t had a “proper” wow-break in ages, I don’t think it’s surprising that you need one to be honest.
TL,DR: I think you are doing a great job on this blog, but if you need a break, don’t be shy to take it. You don’t owe anything to anyone other than yourself.
This blog is cool because of the semi-regular posting of new teams that usually don’t try to be the absolute best (new stuff!), in combination with an active posting community that also leads to new insights and teams.
I view this blog as a place not for pve strategies or guides (although i know the blog has a section on team composition), it’s about pvp pet battling with below-top-tier teams.
What we need is 6.2 😛
PS. I liked garrisons at first, but the grind becomes a grind real fast, especially since you have top open salvage in a certain way. One of my characters has a bank full of salvage boxes, that’s how much I stopped caring >.<
So Disco I think what everyone is really saying is “this is your intervention…youknow we all love and care for you but you just aren’t taking care of yourself…”
Sorry couldn’t resist
But in all seriousness really I think we are saying whatever you need to do we are cool with dude…
Speak for yourself, I’m not cool with Disco reducing posting one bit 😛 I just realize there’s a person on the other side, and it’s not optimal for that person to continue at a rate when the heart ain’t there.
This isn’t mutually exclusive though. Ideally I think he should post a new team every day 😛
But one has to balance one’s wishes
Therefore a break might be a good idea 
😉
Long time reader, first time poster. I just wanted to add to the chorus. Pet battling is the only reason I kept playing WoW in Mists. Your site is far and away my favorite WoW site. All that said, you do an enormous amount of work all by yourself, and I for one certainly don’t begrudge you a break. We’ll all be here when you’re back.
How about you post your home-brewed favorite team?
(That doesn’t include too many top-tier pets)
Thanks for the support.