Advice needed

[jcpet]

So I was thinking of getting a Ghostkerbomb or upgrading to a KBT recently, and then I thought, maybe I should use those neopoints to train my pet instead. But I have a lab rat, and I would need to train up my level by quite a lot before I can even train the other stats (mainly looking at training strength).

 

My pet's stats are:

 

Level: 56

HP: 472

Str: 202

Def: 39

 

My question is, should I even bother trying? If I do, I would probably have to stop zapping for an extended period of time because every time I train up my level, the lab ray just ends up taking them away :( And I also don't want my HP to keep going up.

 

My other alternative is item training, which is very costly in my opinion. But maybe worth it in my case? If I get 25 Neovian Strength Potions at 250k each, that will cost me 6.25 mil for 100 strength points. Saves me time and I would still be able to zap my pet for a net gain of strength points. Plus I would be able to sell the codestones I've been hoarding from battledome dailies to help me fund towards item training.

 

Any thoughts to what I should do?

[Xepha]

I would keep zapping and upgrade to KTB.

Lab rat are good battle pets, especially when stats like the one you have now. Soon to hit the 500 HP mark!

[jcpet]

Hmm, maybe I should've mentioned my current weapons. I have DSPBB and Wand of Reality right now, so that's 27 icons in total. If I upgrade to KBT, I will be replacing the Wand of Reality, giving me 32 icons (on average).

 

Upgrading to KBT:

32 icons * 4.5 strength boost = 144 damage

 

Item training to 300 strength:

27 icons * 6.5 strength boost = 175.5 damage

 

That's why I wanted to train instead of upgrading my weapons, but I just wasn't sure which approach would be better. But since your advice is for me to keep zapping, then item training would be the way to go...

[siniri]

I like to stop zapping and balance things out, then combine zapping and training to keep them in check. Usually this means not training HP much at all, but this time around (thanks to FQ cookies, DD stat boosts, and the lab deciding to give a gazillion strength and no HP), my strength is edging me towards the next red codestone level, so I've had to stop and catch my HP up (I plan to overtrain my HP a bit before moving to the next codestone level). It's always been cheaper for me to train regularly and halt the lab, but that was before red training was cheaper than regular training, so I don't know how that plays into it.

[jcpet]

We're talking about going from level 56 to 250 in my case though. I'll probably have to stop zapping for more than 6 months to even things out, and that's if I am diligent with my training. You really think it's worth it?

[siniri]

It depends on if you want a balanced pet. I think regular training is cheaper than item training, but you do have the opportunity costs of not labbing. (And then you'll be in the red codestones and can train every two hours, so it'll be easy to zap and train and keep things balanced -- so there's the opportunity cost of not being able to train every two hours, and having to pay more for training to recover levels lost to the lab, for the extra time you spend in regular training, depending on how long it takes you to item-train to that level.) I lost the spreadsheet with my lab results to a hard drive failure, but if I recall correctly, I averaged about 1 stat/day from the lab (1.2 or 1.3, maybe?).

 

It also depends on if NP or time is more important to you. While I would normally say we probably won't have any event battling for a while since we just had the Obelisk war (except the skirmishes, which you should be able to handle), since the BD is in beta, I suspect TNT will have more event battling as the BD nears completion (though there are no signs of anything happening on that front right now), because event = load testing and lots of testers to get the kinks out (remember when they released the abilities in the middle of the war? that was intentional, I'm pretty sure, and they got lots of data on the glitches very quickly).

 

So if you have the NP to item-train, and you already have a decent set, and you're not happy with how your pet did in the Obelisk War... then you probably want to item-train, keep zapping, (and do regular training too, if you'd like to eventually spend less on training by getting your pet trainable). If you'd rather spend the NP on other things (like upgrading the set), and you did okay in the Obelisk War, you could stop zapping while you mostly do regular training (perhaps supplementing with level-related item-training, such as scratchcards and Count Von Roo, to expedite the process), until your pet is trainable again.

 

I'm a cheapskate, and when I stopped zapping to even things out, it was right after a battle plot, when plots were 2-3 years apart (my pet was also not as badly imbalanced). It's really up to you, but if you want a balanced pet, it's easier to get there if you stop zapping while you're balancing. Once it's balanced, it's usually pretty easy to maintain the balance if you're training at the same time. (My pet's strength has run away on me, so I've had to stop zapping again myself. I adopted a pounded pet to zap so that I'm still using the lab. I'll probably adopt it out once I'm ready to use the lab on my battlepet again.)