- Companion Pets
- Tabards
- Mounts
- Titles
- Reputations
- Feats of Strength
- Miscellaneous and Obsolete Items (ie. bank clutter)
- and Soloing Old World Content
Collectibles: Companion Pets
Update: I have since increased my pet collection from 70 to 85! I bought a whole lot off the AH for a little over 2k, including the Horde-only Dragonhawks and the mats for my Magic Lamp. XD
I'd like to kick it off by talking about companion pets (aka vanity pets or simply just pets). I had already decided to write about this before reading the recent JMTC blog entry about Mechanical Yetis or the Wowhead News post about pets. The Wowhead News one is incredibly useful and I would like to point your attention there if you are even mildly interested in vanity pets. I know I am going to draw on it quite a bit to write this blog entry. Big thanks to perculia for writing that up!
Of course, a post about companion pets is not complete without mention of the number one website: Warcraft Pets. Go, have a browse if you haven't already — or even if you have many times in the past. I would highly recommend tracking your collection so you can see your progress outside of the game. For in-game collection progress, Collectinator is a good addon. Personally, I use Critter Caller in-game as well to randomly summon my vanity pets.
It's not that I have suddenly become interested in vanity pets; or that I am jumping on the achievement bandwagon. I have always had an interest in companions, but that interest has waxed and waned over the years. Of course, with the introduction of achievements to the game and many, many more pets added with each expansion and even some patches, I have built up my collection on and off. With piqued interest, I'm both writing this blog entry and attempting to build my collection even more: past the 70 pets I have thus far collected. Maybe even over 100 one day!
So what is the point of this blog post? At first, I wanted to talk about which pets are easily obtainable and which take a bit of effort but should still be obtainable by any player, given enough effort. And I wanted to compare those reasonably easily obtainable ones with ones that I would consider to be quite a challenge to find and collect. After reading the Warcraft News post, I figured I would tabulate what they have so elegantly submitted and just divide things into two categories: the pets that I have and how I got them; and the pets that I still hope to collect and how I will go about getting them.
See, the biggest difference between items in-game is whether they are BoP or BoE. If BoP you have to consider where it comes from: vendor, boss-drop, etc. If BoE, you have to consider where it comes from originally and how much you are willing to pay to buy it from someone who is selling the item.
Vanity pets are no different. When people farm for them, they are ecstatic when they finally get the pet to drop. With a little research, you can discover which ones you can buy straight out and which ones you will have to go out of your way to get: albeit farming, if that is your cup of tea; or, if you are a gold-making dabbler like me, the intent to buy rare pets, one pocketful of gold at a time.
My biggest recommendation if wanting to buy pets is to either get in quick now or wait until well after 4.2. Because with the new achievements, gold-makers and pet-sellers are going to be charging rather exorbitant prices for their rare pets for a while — rather than the usual extreme prices that those pets go for.
Ok, let's get started.
Vendor-bought pets that I have purchased
In this section, I cover all vendor-bought pets. That's pure cash (and in rare cases, some rep) and a little travel time to kickstart your vanity pet collection. One other thing to remember is that I am Alliance and I don't have a Horde toon, so Horde vendors are out for me. That doesn't prevent me from browsing the AH (neutral or Alliance) for Horde-only vendor pets, but it does mean they don't get listed here.
Albino Snake — Breanni, Dalaran
Ancona Chicken — "Plucky" Johnson, Thousand Needles
Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot — Jepetto Joybuzz, Dalaran
Blue Dragonhawk Hatchling — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Blue Moth — Sixx, Exodar
Bombay Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Brown Rabbit — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Calico Cat — Breanni, Dalaran
Cockatiel — Narkk, Stranglethorn Vale
Cockroach — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Cornish Rex Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Crimson Snake — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Ghostly Skull — Dalahir, Dalaran
Great Horned Owl — Shylenai, Darnassus
Guild Page — requires honoured reputation with your guild
Hawk Owl — Shylenai, Darnassus
Mana Wyrmling — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Nether Ray Fry — Grella, Terokkar Forest
Obsidian Hatchling — Breanni, Dalaran
Orange Tabby Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Pengu — Sairuk, Dragonblight or Tanaika, Howling Fjord
Red Moth — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Senegal — Narkk, Stranglethorn Vale or Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Siamese Cat — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm — I got this from Cookie in vanilla!
Silver Tabby Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Snowshoe Rabbit — Yarlyn Amberstill, Dun Morogh
White Moth — Sixx, Exodar
Winterspring Cub — Michelle De Rum, Winterspring
Yellow Moth — Sixx, Exodar
Total: 29
As you can see, there are a lot of vendor-bought pets. You can kick start or boost your collection quite easily by just zipping around to all of these vendors and grabbing them. The route you take is up to you. And now, onto:
Vendor-bought pets that I haven't purchased (and why)
Black Kingsnake — Horde
Brown Snake — Horde
Brown Prairie Dog — Horde
Rustberg Gull — Haven't been to Tol Barad yet
Tree Frog — Waiting for the Darkmoon Faire
White Kitten — Haven't tried to get it yet, either from Lil' Timmy's limited stock or the AH
Wood Frog — Waiting for the Darkmoon Faire
Total: 10
The Dragonhawks are neat, so I
Ok, so those are vendor pets. Now:
Special pets and rare drops that I have acquired or purchased
Some of the following were limited time only pets, and are no longer obtainable. Others took a bit of time and effort to acquire, and still others are simply rare pets that I either was lucky enough to have drop or bought straight out.
Argent Squire — Did all the Argent Tournament stuff during Wrath
Baby Blizzard Bear — No longer obtainable — WoW's 4th Anniversary
Clockwork Gnome — My second Archaeology pet
Cobra Hatchling — from the egg while going for my Green Proto-Drake
Curious Oracle Hatchling — got this during the latest Children's Week
Curious Wolvar Pup — got this during last year's or the previous one's Children's Week
Elementium Geode — bought this for 300g last night, actually ;)
Fossilized Hatchling — my first Archaeology pet
Frigid Frostling probably last Midsummer, since I got married the previous year :)
Gold Mini Jouster — the one I didn't choose will be available from patch 4.2 for completing the quest 10 times!
Legs — added in this year's Children's Week, so guess when I got it?
Magical Crawdad — got it from my first (and only) Mr. Pinchy! Didn't take too long, considering
Miniwing — Skywing, Terokkar Forest
Mr. Chilly — No longer obtainable — from merging my original WoW account with battle.net
Mr. Wiggles — Think I got him a couple of years ago...
Onyxian Whelpling — No longer obtainable — WoW's 5th Anniversary
Panther Cub — Level 85 Zandalar questline in STV. See this if you intend to do it.
Peanut — One of my oldest pets
Perky Pug — I also have this on my priest; both were obtained during Wrath
Phoenix Hatchling — I just got this guy the other night. Very happy when it dropped — currently my favourite pet!
Pint-sized Pink Pachyderm — Only just got him last Brewfest as I pushed for my Violet Proto-Drake
Razzashi Hatchling — I farmed a couple of these with my priest before ZG was initially removed; sold the other one
Scooter the Snail — This year's Children's Week, since he was also just added
Sinister Squashling — Had this one for a couple of years, at least
Smolderweb Hatchling — Got this from its original quest
Snarly — Good old droprate increase ;)
Speedy — one of my oldest and still one of my favourite pets
Spirit of Summer — Probably last year, since I got married the previous summer
Sprite Darter Hatchling — Got him from the original quest while going for Loremaster pre-Cata!
Stinker — Got him by default at 50 pets, obviously
Strand Crawler — If you do fishing dailies long enough...
Tickbird Hatchling — from the egg while going for my Green Proto-Drake
Tiny Flamefly — Recently did the questline that leads to this little guy. Neat!
Tiny Snowman — What did you get for Christmas?
Tiny Sporebat — This was a no-brainer, since I am also a rep whore ;)
Vampiric Battling — No longer obtainable; actually glad I went and got it when I did!
Westfall Chicken — One of the easiest quest pets to get
White Tickbird Hatchling — from the egg while going for my Green Proto-Drake
Wolpertinger — Does yours linger?
Worg Pup — Got it from the original quest
Total: 41
So that's quite a lot of rare pets already. Still, there are many, many more that I hope to get. Some are not quite as intriguing as others. My top picks would have to be the Dark Phoenix Hatchling and the Crawling Claw. So cool!
And here we go:
Special pets and rare drops that I can and want to eventually get
Many rare pets are a 1/1000 zone or specific mob-type drop; some are a 100% drop from rare spawns; and others are limited in some way or acquired through various other means other than buying straight from vendors — or even the AH, in some cases. Whatever the case, I hope to farm or buy a lot of these non-vendor pets over a long period of time. :)
Ammen Vale Lashling — Champion's Seals or AH
Azure Whelpling — farm or AH (expensive)
Black Tabby Cat — farm or AH (expensive)
Blue Mini Jouster — In 4.2, I will do the quest 10x for this
Cenarion Hatchling — Just a matter of convincing my wife that it's for a good cause (100% goes to Japan disaster relief until 31 July 2011)
Chuck — Outland fishing daily + luck
Crawling Claw — Lots and lots of Archaeology ahead...
Dark Phoenix — Still a long way off from exalted with my guild :(
Dark Whelpling — farm or AH (expensive)
Deviate Hatchling — farm or AH (expensive)
De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion — guildie or AH (not a bad price)
Disgusting Oozeling — farm or AH (usually expensive)
Dun Morogh Cub — Champion's Seals or AH
Egbert — future Children's Week
Elwynn Lamb — Champion's Seals or AH
Tiny Emerald Whelpling — farm or AH (expensive)
Father Winter's Helper — Christmas + luck
Firefly — farm or AH (very expensive)
Fox Kit — low on my priority list, since it can only be farmed
Gundrak Hatchling — farm or AH (expensive)
Hyacinth Macaw — definitely one of the more expensive pets, but also one of the most beautiful
Jubling — gotta wait for the Darkmoon Faire to do the quest
Kirin Tor Familiar — very difficult to get, but I'll look for the books now and then
Lashtail Hatchling — I can't wait to go into ZG and get her back! I shall cry tears of joy XD
Lifelike Toad — the recipe is rare so the pet is rare
Mechanopeep — Champion's Seals or AH
Mojo — probably have to do ZG/ZA a few times
Muckbreath — Outland fishing + luck
Pebble — have to do Lost in the Deeps 10x
Peddlefeet — maybe next Valentine's Day
Personal World Destroyer — hope to grab when available
Plump Turkey — better luck getting the achievement this year...
Proto-Drake Whelp — back to the eggs...
Pterrordax Hatchling — more bacon stri- I mean, incentive to dig up fossils ;)
Ravasaur Hatchling — farm or AH (expensive)
Searing Scorchling — unsure where this will come from when (if) it gets added back in
Shimmering Wyrmling — Champion's Seals or AH
Singing Sunflower — have to do questline, starting with Basic Botany
Teldrassil Sproutling — Champion's Seals or AH
Tiny Shale Spider — very rare and hard to farm, but I want it! [Guide]
Toothy — Outland fishing + luck
Toxic Wasteling — Valentine's Day + luck
Tranquil Mechanical Yeti — waiting for a good AH deal
Voodoo Figurine — it will come in time with more Archaeology — a lot more
Whiskers the Rat — a future Children's Week
Willy — really gross but maybe in a future Children's Week
Winter Reindeer — Christmas + luck
Winter's Little Helper — Christmas + luck
Withers — have to do questline, starting with The Last Wave of Survivors (long questline)
Total: 61
** Wowbrief Gold-making Tip: The Magic Lamp could be a gold-maker in 4.2, with increased interest in pet collecting. At current Heavenly Shard prices it is a tad pricey to make, but the profit should still be good. :)
And that about sums it all up. I
I
Good luck to anyone who benefits from my list and summaries. ;)
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
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