Color of a pet and Rarity

[Tadedra]

Am I the only person who wants a specific color of a Wild Pet. The Adder Pet comes in a lot of different colors, so not only do I have to get a Red, Green and Purplish one, but they all have to be Rare. Does that make me crazy? Is anyone else doing this like for the Forest Moths or something?

[Moonkin]

I want to get a rare quality warpstalker looking lizards to match my Hunter's black warpstalker. I'm trying not to think of how long that may take me.

[Kingdms]

I do the same for certain pets, though I tend to look for other versions that only appear with a desired skin first. Take the Forest Moth for example. It can appear boasting any of four color variations. That said, some of these colors are duplicated by wild moths that only appear in those colors:

• Red/Green Variant -- Crimson Moth
• Blue/Gold Variant -- Amber Moth and Gilded Moth

All of these moths share the same typing, stats, and abilities, so it wouldn't make sense to specifically seek out a Red/Green Forest moth when I can simply capture any Rare-quality Crimson Moth instead.

It's also worthwhile to note that there appears to be specimens of each pet species that change colors each time they are summoned, in the same way that the Worg Pup does. I have a Cat that functions in this manner: The pet cycles through the available skins when summoned, both during and outside of battle. Not all Cats function this way. Mine appears to be special in this regard.

[Quintessence]

I know the feeling, but I've tried very hard to not give into the urge to collect all the colors of each pet (of rare quality).

There are some pets that I just can't pass up, though. The Scarab Hatchling for example. I find the skins for this one absolutely gorgeous and I had to get my hands on all three (the blue version is already used by the Tol'vir Scarab, so I passed that one up). Now if only I could find all three as rares... XD

It's also worthwhile to note that there appears to be specimens of each pet species that change colors each time they are summoned, in the same way that the Worg Pup does. I have a Cat that functions in this manner: The pet cycles through the available skins when summoned, both during and outside of battle. Not all Cats function this way. Mine appears to be special in this regard.

I LOVE the pets that can be summoned with different color variations. It makes it slightly easier on me since it means I won't have to go out and hunt down the same pet of every skin. One color-changer does the trick and I can have all of the colors in one!

[Kingdms]

I LOVE the pets that can be summoned with different color variations. It makes it slightly easier on me since it means I won't have to go out and hunt down the same pet of every skin. One color-changer does the trick and I can have all of the colors in one!

I've managed to catch three color-changing pets thus far: The Cat I mentioned (which I believe I am going to name Skittles or Crayola), a Parrot (which only shift between three of the colors variations this site describes), and either a Strand Crab or a Swamp Moth. I'd have to check on my third to be sure which it is.

I've been unable to come up with a reason why some change colors and some don't. They're also impossible to identify when initially encountered since they only boast one of their variations throughout the battle. You have to catch the pet and summon it a few times to see if it changes its spot, so to speak.

[Vicereine1337]

My forest moth changes colors for every battle. It's been blue, white and the red/green. I guess I just assumed that all the pets with the various skin colors changed, although I don't use any other pets that come in different skins.

[Kingdms]

My forest moth changes colors for every battle. It's been blue, white and the red/green. I guess I just assumed that all the pets with the various skin colors changed, although I don't use any other pets that come in different skins.

Nope, that is not the case; my Forest Moth is the Red/Green variant and does not change color.

And after checking I can confirm that my Swamp Moth is my third color changer.

[GormanGhaste]

I have heard that whether or not a pet changes color is determined by whether it was the initial pet in the battle or one of the adds.

[Kingdms]

I have heard that whether or not a pet changes color is determined by whether it was the initial pet in the battle or one of the adds.

I don't believe it has anything to do with the phenomena. My Parrot was the initial pet when I caught it, and my Cat was an additional pet that joined the battle. Both are color changers.

[GormanGhaste]

I wonder if it's just random then? Like all pets with multiple colors can be a stable version of any of the colors or a color-changer?

[Mmosimca]

It sounds more like a bug than intentional behavior, so to discover the cause you should think more along those lines.

[Wain]

As Gorm suggested, my experience has been that they're all secondary pet captures. Every time I've captured a secondary battle pet, and it's one that comes in multiple colours, it has shown this effect. Maybe it's not the only cause though.

The reason seems to be simple. NPCs are designed to have an array or table of skins, and to spawn in a random one. But pets have saved skin data, the one they were captured in, which overrules this behaviour. The table of skins is still present in the object, but it's being ignored. It seems that in many cases where the pet is a secondary one this information isn't being saved, so it reverts to the default, random behaviour. In these cases the image in the journal uses the first skin in the table as well, rather than the one you captured.

Unless there's a more complex phenomenon here that is preventing the skin data being saved sometimes.

[Faela]

I've noticed that two of the pets I caught today have been colour changers. One was a rare Shore Crab from Krasarang and the other a rare Stripe-Tailed Scorpid from Terrokar. Both came as secondary pets to the battle. I hope, if it is a bug, that they keep it in the game. It's nice to have all the different skins on one pet instead of clogging up my pet journal with them!

[Adashiel]

What I'd love to see implemented is for the pet interface to have a "skins" section. If a pet has multiple possible skins, it would let you look through them, and if you'd like, pin one of them to be the default. Then that would be the one that always appears when you summon it. It would also have a checkbox or something that would instead randomize which skin you got per summons.

[Kingdms]

I've caught many secondary pets that could boast this functionality (they have multiple possible skins) that ultimately don't change color. I don't believe Primary or Secondary has anything to do with it.

I'm more apt to believe it's an intentional occurrence, an additional skin added to those a pet may boast. Color-changing wild pets were often requested during the beta. As far as I'm aware, they also were not present during testing; functionality of this type would have been apparent, unless it was only added in the final days of testing.

Still, it's worth testing the secondary pet theory. My account's been plagued by rare bugs since Vanilla, and because the behavior I'm witnessing appears counter to the experiences of everyone else it is possible that I am suffering from yet another unique glitch.

[Wain]

What I'd love to see implemented is for the pet interface to have a "skins" section. If a pet has multiple possible skins, it would let you look through them, and if you'd like, pin one of them to be the default. Then that would be the one that always appears when you summon it. It would also have a checkbox or something that would instead randomize which skin you got per summons.

I actually posted a similar suggestion earlier today
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6794321994

[Quintessence]

I'm pretty fond of my color-changers, but I know some people aren't. So I think an option to choose the color of a pet would be the best compromise. It's a great idea that would not only save space in the Pet Journal but would also allow players to further personalize their collections. And so far it's been pretty clear that customization is really popular, from xmogging to the choice of hunter pets to renaming companions.

[Wain]

I can now confirm the colour changing thing is a bug and not expected behaviour. In fact the dev. I spoke to wasn't aware it had been happening. I guess that's not surprising as few people seem to have remarked on it in. People probably either assume it's intended, or just like it. Others have probably been too overwhelmed capturing hundreds of new pets to even notice

They are aware of it now, though. I guess it remains to be seen what they do.

My gut feeling is they'll fix it for all new captures, but older captures will still colour change, much as what just happened with hunter pets. To fix it in the pets already in your spell book they'd have to save appearance data where there wasn't any before, and it's probably easier for them to just leave them be as a quirk of history. As I said, that's just gut instinct, though.