Pets you WANT to like but are terrible battlers?

[Albain]

So what pets do you want to like, because they look cool, or have nostalgia for you, but are just too useless to actually use in most battles?

Not sure if this is the right forum for such a question. I want to run a Harpyling up to 25, but looking at its skillsets and stats I don't think it would be competitive. But they look neat! Likewise my worg pup. I want to like it, but it's ... mediocre. There's other pets that do everything it does but better.

[Vinven]

My main character is Tiberyn, Blood Elf Arcane Mage. So when I learned of the Higher Learning achievement and its reward, I spent a week working on getting it. Since then the Kirin Tor familiar has been my favorite pet, roleplaying that it is my arcane elemental pet like a frost mages water elemental. Unfortunately since the pet battles were introduced the pet was reduced in size which is quite depressing. Furthermore since he is my favorite pet I intended for him to be my main pet in battle, but the pet doesn't have a good skill set. Currently he just serves as a backup source of arcane storm for his team.

[Yalina]

For sentimental reasons, I wanted the Mulgore Hatchling to be awesome. He starts at uncommon and requires a stone to be rare, which is the first big knock against him. The second issue is that he's a critter who does strong anti critter damage. While there are a lot of critters out there he was strong against, there's also a ton of beasts, usually grouped with the critters. I enjoyed his shield, and eventually his feign death, but he's been underwhelming. The first critter stone I got went to him and he's still one of the two most likely pets I'll have out and following me around, but it's rare he sees a battle these days.

The pet I was most disappointed in, however, was the Frigid Frostling. I needed some elementals to take out mechanicals on a tamer team in Southern Barrens, so I leveled my Searing Scorching, Frigid Frostling and Pebble to level 10. Leveling them to 10 was my first clue. The scorchling kicked serious butt, mechanical or not, but the frostling could barely take out anyone, and when he did, it took forever. I left the frostling at level 10 and took my scorchling on to dominate tamers. He's a staple on my Major Payne team, the Darkmoon team, and anytime someone has a mechanical. The frostling, not so much. I don't even use him as a mini pet because the snow showers from his snowball Never Go Away. I was dumbfounded when I saw the tamer in Townlong Steppes was using a frostling.

[Ratshag]

"Luggage", aka Creepy Crate, and his FAILSTORM attack.

[Yashima]

I have to second the Kirin Tor Familiar. It really takes time to get this and I did it back in Wrath when a lot of people were camping those books because I loved the idea of such a big minipet following me around. I don't even know if I leveled him beyond level 10. At the beginning I used to like Arcane explosion ... and then I didn't.

But the pet I like most and battle the least: Moonkin Hatchling

My main is a druid which I played as a Moonkin for a couple of years and so I bought the baby Moonkin from the pet store. I think it was my third pet to 25.Ever since my pet selection at level 25 has become larger I don't use him for battles much. ... he is cute but he either does that suicide combo with that Sunbeam & Roots or he doesn't do much. Seriously underwhelming. I am still hoping to use him in a combo with a pet with Sunlight ... maybe. While leveling he was ok because he has humanoid,elemental, air and magic attacks and defends well against a common pet type in the wild (Critters) ... but he was last to 25 of my first team because he died too often ...

[Gromagrim]

Murkablo, and basically any pet that has no synergistic attacks or no niche.

[Gendou]

Frosty, sadly.

He's my absolute favorite pet, hands down, bar none.
He's also a terrible battler except in a few, isolated cases.
I wanted to make him my mainstay. He was my first to 25.

He's my "on permanent follow" pet, but I just don't use him in battles.

[Talmar]

For me, the pet I wish was better is my Disgusting Oozeling. He's not bad, it's just several other Oozes are so much better.

I wanted the Sunreaver Micro-Sentry to be awesome as he's one of the coolest looking mechs but his ability spread just blows.

[Quintessence]

I wanted the Sunreaver Micro-Sentry to be awesome as he's one of the coolest looking mechs but his ability spread just blows.

Ditto! Was a bit disappointed when I got him to level 25. Oh well, at least he looks cool.

[Morlis]

Just about any cricket type, even the fabled one is often dropped by just my Stunted Shardhorn.

Morlis

*edit...

Though in retrospect I have to honest I never thought of these as cool and have never really intended to use them either.

So cool pets that don't stack up to what I envisioned. Pandaren Monk is one I wanted to use a lot, he is very cool, but unless fighting Dragon types, he doesn't hold up well. He was in my first team to make 25 but honestly I haven't used him much since I got more teams. He is by no means horrible, but there are better humanoid options.

[Rifkin]

Murkimus the Gladiator!!
When we first heard about pet battles, he was the first I thought of I read somewhere that they didn't want pets that are hard to obtain (either TCG or achievements) to be pets people felt they had to get in order to be competitive. But I don't see the need for that, most pets have another that is similarly made up. Plus it feels a bit unfair, those of us who buy or grind our way to getting these pets, do it because we want them, not because of their stats/breeds. But considering they are no longer just a vanity item, it would be nice for them to have stats/breed that are on par with other good capturable pets. I think its the least we deserve for working hard either in game or in real life.

[Tahsfenz]

Kirin tor familiar & Sunreaver micro-sentry get my vote.

[Zythehealer]

My Sea Pony Sapphire Cub is a close second. Why oh why is that pet an elemental??

[Tahsfenz]

My Sea Pony Sapphire Cub is a close second. Why oh why is that pet an elemental??

I didn't even think of the cub, though sea pony doesn't look too bad, but admittedly, I haven't leveled him yet.

[Gilneas]

I'm not sure what's wrong with the sea pony either. Its one of the higher power cleansing rain/pump pets.

[Zythehealer]

I guess I was just so disappointed when I found out he was B/B. Fishy basically has the same moveset, isn't RNG to acquire and has 273 power compared to the Sea Pony's 276 so he doesn't feel as good as he should have been.

[Morlis]

While I don't use sea pony much I do use it against Tamer Nishi. Sea Pony using all 3 second abilities can kill all 3 without ever fighting either the turnip or worm. Against the flower you just use the wave to kill the back 2 and finish the flower with pump. The group heal I use when ever flower casts the group damage spell, this takes away the extra heals from Sunny Day also. Good way to level up lower pets. Just can't be too low level because Flower's group damage is a bit better than Pony's group heal.

Morlis

[Charmed6229]

Sporeling from Zangar.

[Letifa]

My zergling with his pitiful zergling rush and overall weak critter based attacks. Could have made it so much more fun with a turret mechanic added to the zergling rush skill, or perhaps bumping up his attack with adrenal glands rather than his crit chance. Metabolic boost on pretty much the fastest non-flier in game is a bit of overkill aswell . On a similar note i was slightly dissapointed by the baneling pet aswell.

[Exel]

Porcupette for me. It is the coolest looking quillrat/hedgehog but lacks greatly in stats and moves.

Raptor hatchlings are also very mediocre, though I use Lashtail Hatchling in my raptor combo team sometimes. Zandalari hatchlings, on the other hand, are awesome.

Crickets, I believe, win the prize for the most useless pets ever.