Hey, new players ....Insist on rare !

[Tekulve2012]

It may be obvious to many of you and it may have been posted here before ...but as a public service to all newcomers and mid range collectors of battlepets I have a tip:

Hold out and stay in your zones until you get a rare of whatever pet(s) you're hunting for!

This may seem tedious and time consuming and sometimes it is! However I can guarantee you it is even more painstaking when you collect a large # of pets because then your focus may turn to levelling your stable or doing other WoW business. Pet levelling is an extremely long grind which will get you some battle-stones...but (often)not enough to cover your needs if you have over 500 pets and didnt hold out till you got a rare quality pet in every wild zone.

You may read about players who say they have one or two hundred stones tucked away for new xpacs and this may be true ...however that is only accomplished after many thousands of pet battles and levelling an entire collection which can take from 1- 2 years for consistent, avid players.

[Kpb321]

If you are looking for a pet because you want to level it and use it then definitely go for the rare. On the other hand I'd say if you are just looking to get the achievements for capturing all the pets then don't go crazy trying to capture a rare quality of your 15th moth or 10th Roach. You really don't need them all to be rares when they all have the same move set.

If you decide you want to try to go all rare you will eventually need to come back and capture rares of most things as you probably won't be stoning all of the ones you missed but I liked combining some leveling of pets with hunting rare upgrades. It felt like I was getting more for my time. Also by that point I had a better idea of what pets I cared about breeds for and where I didn't and where I wanted to use stones and which ones I had stock piled. I hit all rares on combat pets last week and ended up stoning a number of critters in part because I had close to a dozen critter stones. It just wasn't worth hunting for a rare s/s grasslands cottontail when it comes in 6 different breeds, I knew I wanted the s/s because of it's unique stats and I had so many critter stones available. If I had gone after a rare when I first captured him it would have been complete luck for me to end up with a S/S instead of one of the other 5 breeds and in the end I would have just gone back and probably ended up stoning a S/S to level instead of what ever rare I happened to capture earlier.

[Peanutty]

My advice to new players would be different, but it really depends on what the player is hoping to achieve.

I think if collecting is the main focus, simply catching one of each pet should be the starting goal. That's already a pretty daunting task. If you get rares or a desirable breed, then that's great, but don't torment yourself over it. Along the way you'll level a team or two which should take you partway through the quest chain as well. Once you've gotten everything you reasonably can get, then you can go back through the zones and focus on rares or breed, if desired.

If doing "endgame" (beating all tamers, PVPing) is the goal, then focusing on catching certain pets with focus on both breed and rarity should be the starting goal. So instead of leveling your teams by battling any and everything, you might want to focus on trying to farm up that S/S Nord. Wisp or something like that, and leveling that way.

And if the player is just dabbling and unsure of what they expect from pet battling, well, do whatever is fun for you! Maybe getting all three unique Parrot skins will keep you busy for a while, or maybe you just want to get a few of the achievements for leveling X number of pets. Most people I've talked to fit in this category, I think.

[Ravnhawk]

I did the "Collect any one and move on thing" Big mistake. Took forever to go back and get the rares. By this time I did know what breed rares to get for the different wild pets. But when it came to roaches and mice I looked for the best breed for the strongest type of roach. But to this day have never used a roach for pet battles. I am one of those completest types that want all the pets, all rare and all level 25.

If I had it to do all over again I'd have gone with getting all rares first time out. It would have been a huge time saver had I done it that way. But I was a total noob and didn't know about all the helpful people on this website back then.

Good luck my best advice is HAVE FUN!

[Mavix1988]

I think people should find out what they want. I personally want uncommon or rares and mostly not looking for special breeds, only if some people strongly recommend a type of breed. I just love it to wander around the map and search for that one pet i didnt have. I have so many pets to go and just started with this a couple of weeks ago, i wish i had more time for it. Collecting is so much fun and most of all its relaxing. I hope everybody starts collecting one day and having fun while doing it.

[Dakaf]

As bad as it sounds, I miss the old days. When panda dropped, I spent like 10 hours straight capturing every pet I could! Back then, you couldn't tell rarity before the capture. Ah, the old days. Now it has been several (maybe 10's of) thousands of battles, and my collection is golden. I'd start by getting petjournal enhanced and battlepet breedid. Also, battle pet teams should round out your addons.

Most important thing is to simply just have fun! Do whatever you like, just have fun doing it!

[Tekulve2012]

Hope you folks didn't misunderstand me, I find all aspects of Battlepets fun! I loved getting my collection #'s up and advancing through achievements. I did find it quite long to get my 1st pet to 25 but my character wasn't all that far up in levels either and it was my first toon so in that way it was cool (pets and toon growing together).

Exploring zones is fun and I know WoW seems to have fast forwarded so many things nowadays(xp and rep gains/ boosts to 90) and that 'goes against the grain' for some' for some people's play style and gaming philosophy.

For sure fun is the aim for us all. I just wish someone would have suggested to me that I should hang around a battle a bit more (not to any extreme) so that I wouldnt have to redo the big circuit so many times to upgrade my collection to rare.

I know some uncommons are useful- my A.RoboCub and yellow moth were super helpful through the start of it all for me...rares were not vital to play. But I guess I am a 'completionist' type player after all and admit that my suggested approach is not the only one that works.

[Azrile]

I kinda disagree. The most efficient way to level pets is doing the panda dailies every day over a long period of time with a carry pet or two. If you do that, you will be swimming in stones.

It really depends on the pet and family though. If a pet is everywhere in a zone, then sure, get a rare. Maybe if it is a flying pet, spend a little extra time trying to get a rare. But if you are spending an hour hunting for a rare of one pet... meh... just take what you got and know that in a month or two you will have enough stones to cover those pets.

Which bothered me more? That my coral snake was green on my list for 2 months, or flying around Stonetalon for 5 minutes to even find a single one to fight and hope it was rare?

[Tekulve2012]

I guess I might have started a thread with no definite answer ..but this is the collecting forum so let's see what variables are at play with the topic:

1) Where is the player in the collecting process?- If you have a number of level 25's and are already doing Pandaria dailies for bags then yes you will get stones. In my experience, if you do 19 tamers/beasts of Fable, you may get 1-3 stones on average.

If a player is completely new to WoW and just starting their pet collection simultaneously then you are in the zone for a while anyway ...Personally, I suggest hunting for rares if you intend to eventually convert all your pets to rare. Some here say carry on

2) What are your goals? : I want all the pets in rare quality and levelled to 25. This is a huge time sink as some of you know and I'm only 60% of the way there. Hunting for rares takes time too so maybe if a person just levelled pets through dailies then eventually you'd get all pets upgraded to rare.

3) How patient are you? - Me, not so much ..for battles and levelling I will put in the time and do the work ..I would be very pleased to reach personal collection goals along the way (top 500 on this site would be nice if I can do it / pet score 3000 as well)

4) Have fun - yes ...this is the point ..it is my favorite part of WoW currently ..adds flavor when exploring

anyhow ..just food for thought

[Graven]

I think it's good advice. I would probably do the same if I was starting my wild pet collection now. As it is, I still have some outstanding pets that I just haven't found the time to go back and get in rare.

To those people saying "I've just started collecting and all I care about it achievements, so any quality will do" that is fair enough, but the OP is just pointing out that many of us thought the exact same thing 18 months ago, and that goals can change.

[Ishildur]

Within reason yes. Some pets are too much bother to do this for. I mean moccasines, I could not find a blue one at all. After 8 combined hours of searching for just it I gave up and sacrificed a stone on a common quality one. By the time I got to that step it was one of my last beasts that wasn't rare, it was worth it not to rot away in that dismal zone any longer. I'd say if you can't get a rare in an hour of searching for one just move on for now. You can come back to the ones that are a total pain in the behind and level the ones you did capture while searching for your missing one. I mean if the zone you're in you've got one pet left to catch rare and you've been there for 4 hours so far... is this really something you want to stay in this zone for while you could be grabbing the lowhanging rares in other zones? Especially if what you're missing is a pet that can also be found in other zones you'd be moving on to otherwise.

Also do a bit of research into what will be reasonable to stone and what won't. You want to grab as many beasts in blue as you can, but humanoids, undeads and dragonkin... you'll more than likely end up with more stones for those than you have non-tradable greens to stone. So if you can't find a rare flayer youngling (if you want a specific breed it may take a long time to get that from a capture in blue) it's probably not gonna be a huge deal, you'll end up with humanoid stones to spare to make one rare.

Ultimately it's down to what you enjoy. I could not stand spending hours on end getting subpar pet xp searching for a rare once I was down to 30 or so pets I was missing in rare quality. Before that I was saving myself some stones I really needed, but once you get to a certain number the savings become negligible at least in terms of time spent to save yourself 1 stone. It's different for everyone and only you can decide how you want to spend your time in the game. But if you're having zero fun finding something in rare quality to save yourself future tedium... how do you know you won't have a less tedious way to stone your pets in the future?

[Digem]

it comes down to if one is just a collector and maybe some pve pet battling then, yes it is worth looking for a rare.
but, if one is going to do pvp pet battling breed is way more important than if rare or not, can always stone it.
took me forever to find an S/S flayer and it was poor when I did but once stoned got a beast of a pet(pardon my pun).
also, some pets are rare enough to find, looking at you minferal and unborn valk for examples, that waiting for a rare can take forever.

really it comes down do you want to be out there farming for rares forever, or just getting the pets(most of which are basically duplicates how many moths are there?) and eventually stoning them.
if you level ones captured pets thru the pet tamers you will get enough stones to make them rares anyway.

if one has the patience be my guest to wait on rares but you will be at it for a LONG time.

p.s.
if someone else is farming in same area it will take even longer and with CRZ that is a high possibility.
I say get what ya can and move on.

[Kendrah]

Why spend all that time if you're just going to get a ton of stones through the dailies? ;P

[Tekulve2012]

I know the experience can be different for everyone but it would be nice to have a list of the 10-15 wild pets that are toughest to find as rare . I agree with Ishildur here as well that maybe holding out more often for beast/critter (and I'd add flying) since those are highly needed come the end of collection refinement days.

[Kendrah]

I know the experience can be different for everyone but it would be nice to have a list of the 10-15 wild pets that are toughest to find as rare .

Minfernal, Unborn, Baby Ape, Giraffe calf, Kun-lai runt, Sumprush rodent, disease bear cub, tiny twister, artic fox kit, the sandstorm pet, the timeless isle moths (especially the skywisp one), crows, and crystal spider are the ones that come off the top of my head. I'm sure others can add pets.

[Drrum]

I would have agreed with you a year ago. I held out for rares when wild-capturing my pets and it took a long time. I enjoyed the hunt, and it was a fun way to spend time with friends. But if I had to do it all over again, my priority would be to hunt for the best breed in wild-caught pets before rarity. By the time I was done leveling all my pets, I had a glut of stones. While I can still go back and find those better breeds in the wild, it's hard to think about how many I released, killed, or passed over because they weren't rare. You can always upgrade the rarity, but so far, not the breed.

[Peanutty]

IMO the only wild pets worth stoning due to scarcity are Minfernal, UV, Giraffe Calf and Wanderer's Festival Hatchling. Everything else can be gotten through patience and a whole lot of pet battling.

[Rioriel]

As I don't really do a lot else in Azeroth once I've hit level-cap, I rather enjoy the rare hunt. Potter about, engage fight after fight after fight, make sure I've got the collecting meta, then FIND THAT BLUE.

I've got a crap-tonne of stones just from levelling pets through tamer dailies, but I don't want to lazily use them as I work my way through the new zones. I might bank them so I don't get tempted. As ever, expansions have to last a long time, so I'm not one of those who has to do everything within the first day/week/month.

Rares are great, and always worth the hunt, but I fully understand why players stone and move on.

[Jerebear]

IMO the only wild pets worth stoning due to scarcity are Minfernal, UV, Giraffe Calf and Wanderer's Festival Hatchling. Everything else can be gotten through patience and a whole lot of pet battling.

I would add Scourged Whelpling (much more rare than wandering festival hatchling..at least on my server). Also, if going for useful pets, the S/S Flayer Youngling. While any youngling is farmable as rare, the flayer youngling comes in so many breeds, that farming a rare S/S is not an easy matter.

[Peanutty]

Scourged Whelps are a little more common than they used to be, so I think it's more feasible nowadays to try and farm one up (that said they're still on a longer spawn timer, so they're still candidates for stoning - I did stone mine).

As for the flayer, I wanted a P/P specifically so I tamed for breed and stoned it. I think in any case where there's a whole lot of breeds (9 for flayer?) and you want a specific breed, you'll most likely need to stone it rather than rely on luck.