In the library of spells (Library bldg) it does show you what pet level requirement is needed when you click on a spell which tells you if your pet(s) can use that spell in accordance to the spell's pet level requirement; hope this helps.
hehe
that is my point.......
Your 'spells' are limited to pet level, no need for another limitation by ranking.
For example,
Level 1 bite requires an L1 pet, but L2 bite requires a L6 pet
Level 1 block requires an L3 pet, but L2 block requires a L8 pet
etc......
Therefore a 'pro' players L1-2 ped is limited to the same spells as a 'new' players L1-2 pet.
A 'pro' players L3-5 pet is limited to the same spells as a new players L3-5 pet.
etc......
There really isn't any difficulty (beyond what should be an honest challenge) in upgrading your spells as your pets levels increase, therefor I do not understand the point in separating 'pro' players and 'new players beyond what their pet levels already are.
suppose a 'new' player has a L6 pet and does not have all of the third row of spells researched, they will have a slight disadvantage vs a 'pro' players L6 pet with all of them researched, but in all honesty the 2 level difference in pets common in most battles would have a much larger impact on the outcome than rather or not they have every single spell researched, and that gives them something to work towards.
edit: to have it more interesting and 'dynamic' the pve pets could be drawn from the pool of real players pets (renamed of course) for a realistic variety in skills and spell selection.
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Concerning the +- 2levels pet difference in arena battles, I have not seen any battles where the higher level didnt win unless there were connection issues. +- 1 level can be done depending on the individual pet setups with stats and spells, but 2 is insurmountable esp at the lower levels.
Something I would suggest as an idea to consider which could solve 2 major problems:
If there is no match found within 1 level within x number of seconds start a pve battle vs a randomly selected pve pet +- 1 level. This should only be possible in gold battles (not ped battles since you cant have players 'winning' peds from the devs), and there should be no ranking points won, only xp and gold.
This will have the effect of encouraging people to play more as they don't have to wait around for battles which is extremely frustrating right now, and it will provide for fairer battles overall.
With fairer and more frequent battles, there will be more activity and in turn more actual pvp battles taking place.
The goal is to have the game as fun and seamless as possible, this means that while battles vs other humans is the goal, there must be ways to keep players in off time zones, or random slow times of the day busy or they will grow frustrated, bored, and move on to the next 'cool game'.