How rare is rare??

[Saasan]

As the title states, I am curious just how rare a wild rare is. 1 in 50? 1 in 100? Does anyone know? I've started the dreaded wilds-to-rare farm, and some of these are feeling a bit ridiculous (here's looking at you, Anodized Bear Cub!).

[Worgenbait]

I think it's a bit more like 1 in 20. Sometimes you get that rare the first time when you go hunting for it, sometimes that rare won't appear no matter how long you look (and as an aside, I HATE looking for rares in Ghostlands and Exodar). I found a rare mouse the first time I looked for one yesterday, but couldn't find a rare grey moth after 3 hours of searching and at least 50 battles.

[Beesknees]

Note to self:
Don't kill the rare.
Don't kill the rare.
Don't kill the rare.

I had to change from using my Dusk Spiderling with his Brittle Webbing. They just kill themselves on it. Over and over. I love that spider and he's my "go to" guy but sometimes he kills things I don't want him to kill. Aaaauugh!

[Mystik_sok]

Note to self:
Don't kill the rare.
Don't kill the rare.
Don't kill the rare.

I had to change from using my Dusk Spiderling with his Brittle Webbing. They just kill themselves on it. Over and over. I love that spider and he's my "go to" guy but sometimes he kills things I don't want him to kill. Aaaauugh!

Terrible turnip for the win

[Kpb321]

Note to self:
Don't kill the rare.
Don't kill the rare.
Don't kill the rare.

I had to change from using my Dusk Spiderling with his Brittle Webbing. They just kill themselves on it. Over and over. I love that spider and he's my "go to" guy but sometimes he kills things I don't want him to kill. Aaaauugh!

The ones that drove me crazy was the elementals in deepholm. Depending on the skill they ended up with they could have two abilities that damaged themselves and I lost a couple of rares due to them killing themselves with those abilities. Thankfully, I ended up with enough stones to just upgrade them all instead of trying to actually capture them all as rares.

[Alfonzzo]

i would guess it can vary by pet. It's possible that it's just rng, but pets like minfernal, scourged whelpling, & Scorpling felt like their rarity ratio might be turned up a bit.

[Azrile]

As the title states, I am curious just how rare a wild rare is. 1 in 50? 1 in 100? Does anyone know? I've started the dreaded wilds-to-rare farm, and some of these are feeling a bit ridiculous (here's looking at you, Anodized Bear Cub!).

My guess it is 5% ( 1 in 20) or possible like 7% ( 1 in 15)

I train my pets using the crickets around the legendary cricket in Valley4winds and was keeping track just for a couple hours and it was just slightly above 5%.

One of the problems with using that data for more rare pets is it is likely someone else is cherry-picking the rares. I know with the monkey in STV, there were always people there starting fights, and then cancelling them right away if there was no rare. A person coming right behind them might go a long time before seeing a rare.

[FuxieDK]

I think the % of rares wary..

Examples:
Coral Adder.. I've seen (and captured) a single uncommon.. Never seen a rare, but plenty of grey/white.
Spawn of Onyxia.. I've never seen anything but grey/white..
For these 2, I'd say, rare is less than 1%.

However, Mirror Strider, Dancing Waterskimmer and Dung Beetle, all seem to be 50+% rares..

[Peanutty]

I think the % of rares wary..

Examples:
Coral Adder.. I've seen (and captured) a single uncommon.. Never seen a rare, but plenty of grey/white.
Spawn of Onyxia.. I've never seen anything but grey/white..
For these 2, I'd say, rare is less than 1%.

However, Mirror Strider, Dancing Waterskimmer and Dung Beetle, all seem to be 50+% rares..

Feels that way to me too (that's not scientific of course). I swear 30% of plain old squirrels and bandicoons are rare, but 1% of Coral Adders are rare (I did catch a rare wild Coral Adder but it took about a week's worth of camping to do it). Other annoying "where is the rare??" wild pets for me were Little Black Ram (4 trips around Loch Modan) and Gilded Moth (I babysat trios of moths for hours).

[Yamum]

In my experience I'd say about 5%.

[Sanzul]

5% seems about right. Some could be more rare, but I doubt it. At a 5% rare rate, there's a 0.5% chance that a certain pet will take you more than one hundred battles to find. More if you accidentally kill one or dislike the breed you got, obviously. Considering the number of wild pets out there, it's hardly surprising if at least one of them proves elusive (even ridiculously so).

Spawn of Onyxia.. I've never seen anything but grey/white..
For these 2, I'd say, rare is less than 1%.

Anecdotal, but I got a rare Spawn of Onyxia with just a half dozen tries. Same with all three of the wild order hatchlings; got rare versions of all three within half an hour of reaching exalted.

Other pets have proven endlessly elusive. I've spent hours trying to find a rare Flayer Youngling with no luck, and it took me a day each to get a rare Stunted Yeti and Nether Faerie Dragon. Rare Minfernals don't seem to exist at all (I gave up and used a flawless stone) and a rare Scourged Whelpling took me three trips to find.

[Ril]

my general impression is that the more commonly a pet spawns, the smaller the % rare is. i don't have any numbers to back this claim up of course but several times, when farming common pets, i've spent really long time to see a rare, let alone the right breed. a few examples: rapana whelk, ellwynn sheep and fawn, maraudon cave (it's full of shale spiders)

however i might be wrong because of course, in other situations i got the right rare almost right away and i tend to not spend too much time trying to get a rare quality of a rare spawn.

[Bloodyfields]

Interesting the different wild pets some of us have had difficulty in finding rares. Coral Adder was not so much finding the rare as in having them spawn at all. After 9 spawns I found my rare. I found it much harder to find a rare Bucktooth Flapper. The longest farm for me was the Frog in Ashenvale. I spent hours upon hours, killing lvl 1 critters and battling any lvl 5's, these always had secondaries which could possibly include a frog. Finally after 6 nights of 3-4 hours I found my rare frog. Minfernal, Scourged Whelpling and Unborn Valkyr as soon as I had the breed I wanted I stoned them. I had a guildie that spent hours farming a rare Zooey Snake in Kun Lai. I offered to help farm with her. The very first one I battled was a rare. I continued helping her farm in Dread Wastes and Townlong for other rares that had eluded her and I was like a rare magnet. In a matter of less than an hour I found 4 rares for her including the Zooey Snake.

I look at RNG as a slot machine with hundreds of spools. Farming rare wild pets and the possible combinations of primary and secondaries, add in the 4 rarities and each spawn has a multitude of combinations. Each spawn has the same possibilities and has no relationship to the previous spawn you just battled. IMHO there is no percentage, every pull on the lever is a fresh chance at finding a rare or not.

[Peanutty]

Other pets have proven endlessly elusive. I've spent hours trying to find a rare Flayer Youngling with no luck, and it took me a day each to get a rare Stunted Yeti and Nether Faerie Dragon. Rare Minfernals don't seem to exist at all (I gave up and used a flawless stone) and a rare Scourged Whelpling took me three trips to find.

I look at RNG as a slot machine with hundreds of spools. Farming rare wild pets and the possible combinations of primary and secondaries, add in the 4 rarities and each spawn has a multitude of combinations. Each spawn has the same possibilities and has no relationship to the previous spawn you just battled. IMHO there is no percentage, every pull on the lever is a fresh chance at finding a rare or not.

It really is RNG, isn't it? The second Flayer Youngling I tried was a rare, and when I was flying over the area at a future date I found another rare in about 4 tries (had a guildmate come out and tame it).

If you want to really drive yourself crazy, try finding rares in a specific color. Scarab Hatchling, for example, gave me fits, trying to get the two unique skins, because they can only be primaries in battle.

[Worgenbait]

There is one particular pet that haunts me, because no matter how many I battle, I have not found a rare. The snake! Yes, the very common, found on every continent snake. I have fought probably 400 so far, and not one rare yet. I even battled an all-snake team once with a poor, common, and uncommon at once, but have yet to see a rare. THAT is frustrating.

[Mayhemia]

Having been through the experience of upgrading my wild pets to rares, I would change strategy if I was to do it again. Rather than going for the quick wins of leveling the easy pets first, I would chase after the difficult rares like tanaris 'sand kitten' first. In the pursuit of those elusive rares all the other rares in a region will pop-up along the way to finding that more difficult rare.

Also folks have a tendency to leave the other rares standing when hunting in a region for a difficult rare. For example, swamp of sorrows had many rares available as folks hunted for the elusive rare swamp moth and killed any wild pets with no rares but left wild pets with a rare in the group. Hence increasing the chance a pet group would contain a rare of some kind.

But as to the original question 1 in 20 seems to be about the correct rate for a rare. That's a 5% chance each time you start a fight, may the RNG gods be with you.

[Eighjan]

Someone mentioned the Scorpling above... should I not say that the first one I saw & caught (today) was a Rare?

[Cyntaria]

There are a couple of pets that I didn't even bother trying to find a rare on - Minifernal, Wanderer's Festival Hatchling, Qiraji Guardling (I got it when people were camping and I was more worried about bread than rarity). These pets I automatically used stones on.

My banes at capturing wild rares have been the Rat Snake in Duskwood (spent hours over the course of 3 days before I got a rare) since it only spawns as a secondary, the Larva in Ghostlands, and the Jade Oozeling in Hinterlands. I finally gave up and used a stone on the Larva and Oozeling.

I have probably 10 or so more wilds to upgrade to rares but the whole experience has taken about 4 weeks in between raiding and all the other stuff I do.

[Azrile]

There are a couple of pets that I didn't even bother trying to find a rare on - Minifernal, Wanderer's Festival Hatchling, Qiraji Guardling (I got it when people were camping and I was more worried about bread than rarity). These pets I automatically used stones on.

My banes at capturing wild rares have been the Rat Snake in Duskwood (spent hours over the course of 3 days before I got a rare) since it only spawns as a secondary, the Larva in Ghostlands, and the Jade Oozeling in Hinterlands. I finally gave up and used a stone on the Larva and Oozeling.

I have probably 10 or so more wilds to upgrade to rares but the whole experience has taken about 4 weeks in between raiding and all the other stuff I do.

Yeah, part of it is just patience and understanding that battle-stones come pretty fast if you are doing your dailies. A big part for me was what type of pet it was. I was much more likely to hunt down a rare beast or flying wild pet because those stones are more valuable. But even then, as soon as they announced the 3-1 trade-in that is coming with 5.4, I stopped hunting down the larve and crow ( my personal nemesis).

Ironically, I still hit ´all rare´ a week before 5.4