Rare Quality - Thoughts and Suggestions

[Quintessence]

Coming with Pet Battles is the new system of quality. Currently only wild pets are randomly assigned with a quality ranging from poor to rare. Blizzard is expanding the list, though, and has a list of existing pets that might be upgraded to the status of rare quality. They are also welcoming suggestions for additions or removals from the current list.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6080522555

For those unable to respond to the beta forums, feel free to utilize this thread to continue the discussion and provide your own input and thoughts on the matter. Please remember to respect everyone's opinion and keep comments constructive and mature.

[Ainyan]

I can respond to the beta forums, but given what a cluster it is in there right now, I feel more comfortable with fellow pet collectors. XD

I like the idea of the 'shiny' system from Pokemon coming into play, where you might just catch that rare shiny that's a little bit more powerful than all the others - but I've been on the beta, and I've gotten several rare pets, and I've found that they are significantly stronger than the 'common' and even 'uncommon' variety. While I do feel that 'rares' should be in game and should be a little stronger than an average pet, the scaling should not be as extreme as it is now. People should feel like getting a rare is an extra little fillip to brighten their day - not a necessity to make it in the world of pet battles.

That said, I was reviewing the list of non-capture pets going rare and was bitterly disappointed to find that all of the 'no longer available' pets such as the Spirit of Competition (by far the prettiest dragonkin in my book) or the Vampire Battling are not considered rare - despite the fact that they are some of the rarest pets in the game (as they are unobtainable), and yet pets you can shell out real-world money for made the cut. Looking at that list of 'upgraded' pets tells me that Blizzard didn't really consider rarity or difficulty of obtaining when they made the list - they considered the advantage to them in money spent, time spent playing, or satisfied AH traders. -_-

[Zoros]

I personally think they should some of their Darkmoon Faire real-estate. They could put in a pet day spa to upgrade your pets. Have a special UI that allows you to put in caged pets in to upgrade them a single level.

The cost would be in Darkmoon faire tickets such as
Poor -> Common : 25 tickets
Common -> Uncommon : 50 tickets
Uncommon -> Rare : 100 tickets

Blizzard could also create some daily Darkmoon faire "monthly" that are pet battles, such as a 5 person rotating competition ladder that for each trainer you beat you get 2 Darkmoon tickets. So some could get a few extra tickets a month. They could also include a few Darkmoon tickets in the pet supply bags as a common drop.

They could then make purchasable pets common, drop and quest pets uncommon, and the few unchangeable pets as rares.

[Amatheiya]

I think they should implement Epic.
If i had designed this, I would have made anything "easily" obtainable common. That would be anything an in game vendor sells, as well as the online store. Uncommon would apply to all quest pets. That would include the Darkmoon pets. Rare would apply to all the drop pets, except for specific ones.
those specific exceptions would be the extremely hard to get drops. Such as the Hyacinth Macaw, or Black Tabby Cat, Azure Whelpling, Tiny Emerald Whelpling. You get the idea. The current "rare" pets would be bumped up to Epic status, along with the no longer available pets, like the Spirit of Competition, Baby Blizzard bear, Vampiric Batling.

Holiday pets would be an issue. I would have called them rare, but the Sinister Squashling has become sadly common. So I would probably mark those as uncommon. They are still once a year things.
Trading Card pets would be common.
Collector's edition pets would be rare, as well as pets obtained through purchase of other blizzard games, and Blizzcon pets.
The corehound would be uncommon.
Achievement pets would be Epic.

and as far as the wild pets go, i kind of like the way it is. My only issue there is the trapping part, which is not the topic of this thread. And certain spiders. They should not be able to kill themselves with their attack. I lost three potential rares that way. Sorry, running off topic there.

did i miss any pets? Oh! Fishing pets! NOT the four crocs from the dailies, those would be considered quest pets, and therefore uncommon. However the Magical Crawdad, Seapony, and anything else you actually have to fish out of the water would be considered epic. yes i know that those pets are not as difficult to obtain as say the Emerald whelpling, but you do need flight and high leveled fishing to obtain the crawdad, and just as much patience as a whelpling farmer to fish them up.

I'm quite sure my ideas are not perfect, and would certainly not be welcomed by certain pet owners. I think this is a fairly effecient way to classify the non wild pets. Though I'm sure any flaws will be pointed out, and in fact welcomed. Fresh perspective is always good.