Son of Animus (venting)

[Anasa]

Ever since I saw it, I've been wanting this pet more than any other.

The Halls of Flesh Shaping wing of LFR has been open for six months. I have run it every week I could at least once, often multiple times (if I had bonus coins).

My armory says that my main has killed Dark Animus 24 times. (My alts have a few more) I have used a bonus roll on each kill. I haven't kept perfect track, but that means I have rolled for loot on Dark Animus approximately 40 times and gotten nothing. In all that time, I've seen one person win the pet. I don't even want to do that math right now, 24 kills x 25 players (unknown number of bonus rolls) = 1 pet. Ever.

Most of those bonus rolls were prior to 5.4 when pets weren't even dropping from bonus rolls, but no one knew that until the 5.4 PTR went up (or at least, I didn't). I've spent nearly every Rune of Fate I've ever had on this boss.

My abysmal bad luck on obtaining this pet almost has me wanting to quit the game. I'm so angry about all those wasted bonus rolls, so angry about the amazingly low drop rate on all these LFR pets. Why? Why do these need to be so rare? It's ridiculous.

[Gilneas]

I kept trying and trying till they came down to a reasonable price on the AH. Bought one, and stopped worrying about it. If you have bad luck with raid pets, that's my suggestion.

[Sydnay]

I know it's a lot more fulfilling to see a pet drop for yourself, but there's always the auction house if you have bad luck.
Honestly, I've bought most of the Timeless Isle pets on the AH, as I'm not willing to camp the rares and count on the small dropchance. Especially when there are multiple breeds available. I'd rather buy the right breed and make some gold in the time saved.

[Avalee]

Same here. I probably killed over 50 rares on Timeless Isle and not a single pet dropped. RNG is so unfair sometimes.
Now I just check the AH and as soon as the price of one of these drops below 4k, I buy it.

[Finnelis]

I went the same way as Gilneas, just bought the little thing this morning for 6.5k which I considered to be reasonable if not actually cheap. I know it's frustrating, but I just don't want to be doing these ToT raids anymore.

[Crazypants]

I went the same way as Gilneas, just bought the little thing this morning for 6.5k which I considered to be reasonable if not actually cheap. I know it's frustrating, but I just don't want to be doing these ToT raids anymore.

6.5k was a steal. I paid double that the other day. Im way better at making gold then getting stuff i want to drop.

I learned long ago to save my RNG rage for items that aren't BOE. Ashes of alar anyone? Been 5 years now and have been farming it on multiple toons since cata. Getting that mount to drop is like trying to break down a wall by smashing my face into it.

[Slick]

Ever since I saw it, I've been wanting this pet more than any other.

The Halls of Flesh Shaping wing of LFR has been open for six months. I have run it every week I could at least once, often multiple times (if I had bonus coins).

My armory says that my main has killed Dark Animus 24 times. (My alts have a few more) I have used a bonus roll on each kill. I haven't kept perfect track, but that means I have rolled for loot on Dark Animus approximately 40 times and gotten nothing. In all that time, I've seen one person win the pet. I don't even want to do that math right now, 24 kills x 25 players (unknown number of bonus rolls) = 1 pet. Ever.

Most of those bonus rolls were prior to 5.4 when pets weren't even dropping from bonus rolls, but no one knew that until the 5.4 PTR went up (or at least, I didn't). I've spent nearly every Rune of Fate I've ever had on this boss.

My abysmal bad luck on obtaining this pet almost has me wanting to quit the game. I'm so angry about all those wasted bonus rolls, so angry about the amazingly low drop rate on all these LFR pets. Why? Why do these need to be so rare? It's ridiculous.

The first week Animus was available in LFR I got the pet, wasn't into pet battling at the time and sold it for a pretty penny. I'm kicking myself now. I'll end up buying one I'm sure.

[Sanzul]

Same here. I probably killed over 50 rares on Timeless Isle and not a single pet dropped. RNG is so unfair sometimes.

Considering the drop rates, 50 killer per pet seems about par for the course. Expect each pet to require several days of camping to get. Seriously. It's a filler zone, so you're not supposed to be able to be done with it after a week.

[Graven]

Also been farming ToT since it's been available on LFR. Not only have I never had any of the 5 pets drop for me, I don't think I've even seen someone else in the raid get it.

Since pet collecting is still kinda "niche" (compared to, say, the number of people who do LFR raids) the odds that we as collectors will be able to farm our own drops is pretty low. I actually take comfort from that, as it means there are plenty of people getting the pets who have no interest in collecting, and will just list them on the AH for me to buy.

For me, it's not a question of "is it common enough for me to farm it myself" but rather "is it common enough for all serious pet collectors to have a reasonable shot at attaining". Since I regularly see all 5 ToT LFR pets on the AH, I don't consider their rarity to be too low. Viscous Horror on the other hand... what on earth were they thinking with this one?


*edit* Just to add, if you had been complaining about the token rolls pre-5.4, I'd say you have a very valid complaint. How on earth were people supposed to know that they were wasting their time running these raids and using their tokens, when there was 0% chance of their item dropping from the bonus roll. Blizzard being mostly to blame, of course, but I also blame those people who posted here at warcraftpets saying how they "definitely 100% got a pet from a bonus roll, honest" when they did nothing of the sort.

[Anasa]

I kept trying and trying till they came down to a reasonable price on the AH. Bought one, and stopped worrying about it. If you have bad luck with raid pets, that's my suggestion.

My realm's AH is dead. The only SoA that ever showed up there was 20k. I can't afford that.

I now have a Horde alt on Illidan, but trying to sell enough spare pets to make 8-10k there is slow going.

[Anasa]

if you had been complaining about the token rolls pre-5.4, I'd say you have a very valid complaint. How on earth were people supposed to know that they were wasting their time running these raids and using their tokens, when there was 0% chance of their item dropping from the bonus roll.

That's actually the aspect that makes me the most angry.

I actually opened a ticket with Blizz to have them absolutely confirm that bonus rolls will now have a chance at the pet, and a plea to get at least some of my wasted tokens refunded.

[Poofah]

I now have a Horde alt on Illidan, but trying to sell enough spare pets to make 8-10k there is slow going.

This is true, but at least you can work toward your goal instead of suffering through lfr for yet another roll of the dice. Also, you can use your knowledge to your advantage when selling/reselling pets. I started an alt on a high-pop server early in 5.3, and it was daunting at first, but you learn the market as you go and I actually found it fun as I got better at making gold there.

Ever since pets became cageable, I feel that making gold is the most important avenue to pet collecting. I'm not sure if I like that necessarily, but it does give you access to a lot of pets that would be tough or near-impossible otherwise.

[Quintessence]

Ever since pets became cageable, I feel that making gold is the most important avenue to pet collecting. I'm not sure if I like that necessarily, but it does give you access to a lot of pets that would be tough or near-impossible otherwise.

This 100%. Even though it's probably the most effective way of collecting pets now, farming or making gold feels so lackluster to me. Maybe I'm just too stubborn of an old-school collector.

I definitely do recognize it as a good way to collect, though, and if I weren't so Auction House challenged/lazy, I'd probably sell/buy as many pets as I could too.

[Stoutspectre]

I'd also like to mimic the advice given that the AH is the avenue to take regarding this pet. There was one on another server that a friend found for 6k, I paid her to snatch it up for me and have yet to see it go below 20k on my server. And every day, I'm glad I pursued it. It is one of the best pets I own! Waiting on drops for something you want desperately can be agonizing, I had to buy a Spineclaw Crab recently, as well. Just couldn't take the wait.

So, if you have the means, widen your search! (which it sounds like you're doing, so good on ya) Server economies vary wildly, in some cases.

[Gilneas]

Ever since pets became cageable, I feel that making gold is the most important avenue to pet collecting. I'm not sure if I like that necessarily, but it does give you access to a lot of pets that would be tough or near-impossible otherwise.

I don't think its the most important aspect, but its certainly very important to remember. I find it to be a nice "safety net" so to speak for bad luck. It feels reward to hunt them down and find them as drops, and its somewhat unrealistic to buy every pet (that can get expensive quickly). But if you get frustrated, its eventually going to be in one's price range.

and a plea to get at least some of my wasted tokens refunded.

Its not as if your token rolls didn't do anything. They gave you a shot at gear drops like they were supposed to. I did the same thing. Oh, well.

[Poofah]

Even though it's probably the most effective way of collecting pets now, farming or making gold feels so lackluster to me. Maybe I'm just too stubborn of an old-school collector.

Definitely true, but at least we have the option. We can collect certain pets ourselves, and use gold for the ones that come from activities we don't like or if RNG hates us. Ultimately I think this allows bliz to reward pets from more diverse activities while still keeping them accessible for the people who don't do those activities, which is good.

I have to admit that it kills the thrill of the hunt when you just buy a pet off the AH instead of getting it the old-school way. There's nothing intrinsically pet-collector-ish about spending or hoarding gold. I'm probably jaded, but I consider that an acceptable compromise, considering all the pets I wouldn't have acquired otherwise.

For what it's worth, I find making gold by selling pets much more fun that making gold in other ways. So pet collecting and AHing don't have to be completely separate. The only issue I have is that small/medium servers simply don't have enough AH traffic to support a decent pet market, so we're basically forced to migrate to a high-pop server to do pet business. This can definitely be overcome, but it's a big impediment in the beginning.

[Anasa]

Its not as if your token rolls didn't do anything. They gave you a shot at gear drops like they were supposed to. I did the same thing. Oh, well.

When that boss has a grand total of 3 items for my class, and I got them all from "normal" drops, they become just another "you won gold! Isn't that great?" outcome.

For what it's worth, I find making gold by selling pets much more fun that making gold in other ways. So pet collecting and AHing don't have to be completely separate. The only issue I have is that small/medium servers simply don't have enough AH traffic to support a decent pet market, so we're basically forced to migrate to a high-pop server to do pet business. This can definitely be overcome, but it's a big impediment in the beginning.

I do appreciate that pet brokering is a viable way to move wealth between realms. That's the only reason I have any money on Illidan at all. I borrowed 1g from a friendly person in Org to pay some AH fees, and I'm off and running.

I guess what I should really do is get back on farming raid pets to sell. It might be a better use of my time than running Halls of Flesh Shaping over and over. I do have about 5 more Runes of Fate to clear out though.

[Peanutty]

Like everyone else I'd encourage you to slowly but surely save up money on a bigger realm, and simply buy the pet. My guild was clearing ToT regularly up until 5.4 hit, and we saw one pet drop, total. That's pretty horrible in terms of drop rates. I gave in pretty quickly and began buying the raid pets off the AH and did well reselling and trading to fund buying more. I think I've now gone through 5 or 6 Son of Animuses since they were really popular as trades for a while. The last one I sold was days ago because I needed some fast cash!

The other option, if you just don't like playing around on the AH, is to consider trading on the forums here. Maybe try farming up some of the newer pets from the isle and you could trade for a Son of Animus pretty readily.

[Sanzul]

When that boss has a grand total of 3 items for my class, and I got them all from "normal" drops, they become just another "you won gold! Isn't that great?" outcome.

Think of the gold as a "Mote of Pet". Gather enough gold and you can buy some pet you're missing off the AH.

[Finnelis]

For what it's worth, I find making gold by selling pets much more fun that making gold in other ways. So pet collecting and AHing don't have to be completely separate. The only issue I have is that small/medium servers simply don't have enough AH traffic to support a decent pet market, so we're basically forced to migrate to a high-pop server to do pet business. This can definitely be overcome, but it's a big impediment in the beginning.

I fully agree, I usually have quite a dislike for the AH and basically for playing an economy game inside a MMO.

That being said, like Poofah, I've found pet trading through the AH to actually be rather okay. I never speculate on price but despite this, just trading pets, I've been able to sell quite a number of pets that allowed me to buy a few new pets that I would never have been able to aquire otherwise.