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So you're ready to get serious about small pet collecting? Well, you've come to the right place! This guide covers the joys of minipet collecting and discusses many strategies and tips for attaining an impressive collection of these adorable little companions.
Contents
Why Collect Small Pets?
1. Why collect anything?
Why collect epic armor sets? Why collect tabards? Why collect mounts? Why collect anything in World of Warcraft? Because it's fun, challenging, and it gives you a way to set yourself apart from other players.
Minipets especially are one of the most fascinating things to collect. Unlike epic gear or reputation rewards, they never become obsolete. For this reason more than any other, small pet collecting is something you can enjoy for as long as you play World of Warcraft.
2. What kind of collector are you?
Siamese
No doubt, you've collected many things over the years. Sports memorabilia, toys, dolls, comic books, coins, trading cards... the list of potential collectables is endless. So what kind of collector are you?
Are you the obsessive type that simply must have one of everything to complete your collection? Or are you more patient and persistent, allowing your collection to grow in its own good time. Or perhaps your approach is far more selective, choosing only to collect those items which interest you.
Luckily, collecting small pets has appeal for hardcore collectors, casual collectors, and everyone in between. Today you may consider yourself a casual collector. But in three months you could decide to go for broke. There is no right or wrong way to establish your collection. However, as you read this guide, it will be helpful to have some idea of your short term pet collecting goals. Are you looking to collect a few of the "cooler" pets? Maybe you're a cat person and simply want to collect all of the kitty cats. Or perhaps you're up to the challenge of collecting every single pet you can get your hands on.
3. Challenges every pet collector must face
Pet collecting would be much less appealing if every pet was easy to get. Where's the challenge in that? Lucky for us, there are many obstacles to overcome.
- Tedious grinds - The odds of some pets dropping are less than 1 in 1,000. And killing over a thousand mobs doesn't even guarantee you'll get the pet.
- Difficult quests - A few pets require facing off against challenging elite mobs. To complete these quests, you'll need lots of patience, the help of a good group, or both.
- High prices - While most pets sold by vendors are relatively inexpensive, a handful will cost you a nice chunk of change. And some player-based auction prices can be outright offensive.
- Limited availability - A few vendors sell only one of a specific pet, so if another player beats you to it, you'll have missed your opportunity. Moreover, some pets are only available during certain events, a few of which only occur once per year.
- Exclusivity - Many pets are exclusive to a character's faction, professions, or reputation. Additionally, there are several promotional pets that may take some effort in the real world to obtain.
Sounds like fun, right? Remember, anything worthwhile in World of Warcraft takes some work. Pet collecting is no different. But the rewards are worth it (trust me!) There's simply no feeling like the one you get when your pet finally drops after killing over a thousand mobs. It's priceless.
This guide offers strategies to help you deal with the challenges that lie ahead. Plus, WarcraftPets.com provides you with all sorts of tools and information that will be invaluable as you build your collection.
Using this Site
4. Discover various pets
Disgusting Oozeling
This site includes every small pet available (at least on American and European servers). If you're new to small pets, there's a huge variety for you to discover and WarcraftPets.com has all the tools you need.
The Bestiary provides a comprehensive visual guide to every World of Warcraft small pet, listed in hierarchical categories, such as mammals and birds. Use the small pet index for a simple alphabetical listing of every pet. You may also search by color or keyword to quickly locate a specific pet. All pets are listed with the pet's picture accompanied by the item name, source, and rarity. Clicking on the picture will load the pet's profile which contains a wealth of additional information about the pet.
Pet profiles include basic stats, a larger snapshot of the pet (which can be clicked for an even larger view), and links to Wowhead for maps and other data pertaining to pet-related quests, mobs, and items. Furthermore, all profiles include additional notes to assist your collecting efforts.
5. Track your collection online
Another excellent tool is the ability to track your collection online.
You can fully customize a checklist of every pet you hope to collect, excluding any that you're unable to collect or prefer not to collect. You can also print a hardcopy of this checklist. In addition to the pet and item name, your printed checklist will include the source of every pet on the list. Think of it as your own personal minipet collecting cheat sheet while you play.
As an added bonus, a link is available beneath your collection so that you may share your progress with friends and family. Additionally, your collection will be available for others to browse through the User Profile Index.
6. Filter pets in oh-so-many ways!
As a collector, you're going to love this next feature! At WarcraftPets.com, you can filter pets by binding, faction, source, and rarity:
As an added bonus, when you set the filter to show "dropped" pets, the listings include the drop rate of every dropped pet, enabling you to compare all of them side by side. Additionally, if you select "vendored" pets, it will show the faction with each pet, letting you know at a glance which will be purchasable by your character.
Pet Rarity
7. Pet rarity explained
Hyacinth Macaw
All vanity pets listed on WarcraftPets.com have been assigned a rarity value. This value is determined by the availability of the pet, as well as how easy it is to obtain. Each of the six ratings are described below:
- Common - Pets with unlimited availability that are easily obtained from vendors and auction houses.
- Uncommon - Pets that are fairly common and somewhat easy to obtain, but not quite as readily available as common pets.
- Rare - Pets that are harder to come by, requiring more time, effort, luck, or gold to obtain.
- Very Rare - Pets that require significantly more time, effort, luck, or gold to obtain.
- Extremely Rare - Pets with very limited availablility, typically requiring vast amounts of time, luck, or special promotions to obtain.
- Ultra-Rare - Pets obtained through exclusive or limited special promotions, many of which are no longer readily available.
8. BoU vs. BoP pets
Pets that "bind on use" (BoU) become soulbound as soon as they are first summoned. In contrast, pets that "bind on pickup" (BoP) become soulbound the moment they are looted. Soulbound pets are forever bound to the character and cannot be traded or sold to other characters. As you can imagine, BoP pets tend to be more difficult to collect than those that are BoU.
You'll find that most BoU pets are sold by vendors or dropped by mobs. Many of the player-made pets are also BoU, enabling non-engineers to use them. All BoU pets can be sold at auction, providing collectors with a second means of obtaining them. These pets tend toward the "common" to "rare" end of the spectrum.
Most BoP pets, however, fall on the "rare" to "extremely rare" side of the fence. These pets tend to be quest rewards or gifts acquired through special Blizzard promotions. A couple of player-made pets are also BoP, requiring your character to be a specialized engineer. Thus, there is only one way to obtain each of these BoP pets, and they'll require significantly more time and effort on your part to collect.
Tricks of the Trade
9. Spread out your collection
Most players have a main character along with a few other characters (alts) that are played on occasion. If this describes you, you're in luck. If you intend to collect a lot of pets, there are many advantages to spreading your collection to more than one character.
Assembling an impressive pet collection takes time, effort, gold, and another key commodity: bag space. With so many pets to collect (and more added every year), your bags and bank can fill up quickly with critters. So sharing that burden with additional characters will make life a lot easier.
Additionally, a handful of pets are chosen as quest rewards from a choice of several, making it difficult (if not impossible) to collect all of them with the same character. Therefore, if two or more of your characters complete the quest, you (as the player) can collect all of the different pets. The same thing holds true for the two BoP engineering pets (see section 17 for details).
One final reason to spread out your collection is to earn some major style-points! A rogue with a snake in tow; a moonkin with an owl close behind; a female warlock accompanied by a black cat; a hunter with his trusty "hunting" worg pup. When coupled with certain races, classes, and genders, many pets provide a "coolness" factor that can't be reproduced by any other means.
10. Pick the right professions
If you're leaning toward collecting as many pets as you can, it's a good idea to pick professions that will support your collecting efforts.
Mechanical Squirrel
Engineering is an obvious first choice, since all of the player-made pets are crafted by engineers. And while you can always rely on other engineers to craft your pets, most collectors will agree that it's far more satisfying to make your own. Plus, two of the engineered pets are BoP and require an engineering specialization to create. Lil' Smoky requires gnomish engineering and Tiny Walking Bomb requires goblin engineering. Choose whichever specialization has the pet you prefer. (Note that relearning an engineering specialization does not permit you to get both of these pets—see section 17 for details.)
So what about your second profession?
Mining is another safe bet. Many of the items necessary for building up your engineering skill can be attained through mining. And you'll never have a problem selling your excess materials at auction.
Skinning is a solid third choice, especially for hunters who don't want to be bogged down tracking minerals when they could be tracking other things. All of the skins can be sold at auction and you can use the profits to fund your engineering. Skinning is especially profitable if you intend to farm for your whelpling pets. You can amass stacks of dragon scales which sell for quite a bit at auction.
11. The art of farming
A few of you are probably thinking, "Farming? But I'm a {insert class}, not a farmer!" Farming in an MMORPG simply means killing hundreds of the same mobs until you "harvest" the items you're looking for. In our case, those items happen to be small pets. You can filter pets by 'dropped' (sorted by item) to discover what items are dropped by which mobs and how often they drop.
If you're new to the art of farming, here are a few tips to get you started:
- Empty your bags - Before you get out in the field, sell all your junk, stow any quest items in the bank, and limit yourself to a single vanity pet. The more bag space you have, the more gold you'll make.
- Set your hearth nearby - Don't forget to set your hearthstone so that it's nearby to wherever you're farming.
- Bring provisions - Make sure you bring enough food, water, bandages, and potions so that you don't have to restock before your bags fill up.
- Create a bank alt - If you haven't done so already, create a level 1 bank alt and run him/her up the nearest city. Park this alt near a mailbox and send him/her some gold to do your auctioning. Then whenever you empty your bags, send any auctionable items to your bank alt, saving yourself countless trips to the AH.
Unfortunately, farming can be pretty tedious. But there are some advantages:
Emerald Whelpling
- Make gobs of gold - You can make a small fortune while you're grinding for pets. Almost anything you pick up can be sold, so SAVE EVERYTHING! This is especially true of gray armor and weapons—they may be vendor trash but they sell for a lot. Once your bags are full, hearth to a vendor to sell your junk, repair, and mail any auction-worthy items to your bank alt.
- Level quickly - Assuming you haven't hit the level cap and you're farming mobs close to your level, you can earn loads of experience. Before you know it, you'll have gained a level. Then another. And another, etc.
- Multitask - Because you're killing the same mobs over and over, you'll quickly become accustomed to a routine. After a while, your routine becomes almost robotic, enabling you to multitask with ease. It's not uncommon to farm while watching TV, talking on the phone, or actively chatting with your guild.
After killing 2,364 mobs without your pet dropping, you'll probably feel drained and frustrated. As upset as you might get, try to remember that farming is all about patience and persistence. While you may want to give up, it's entirely possible that mob #2,365 is the one holding your pet.
12. Playing the auction house
All BoU pets (more than half of all pets) can be bought at auction. So if you simply can't tolerate farming for that 1 in 1,000 drop, you can play the auction house (AH) instead.
Watch for your pet - So long as your pet is BoU, there's a good chance you can find it on the AH... eventually. If possible, logon with your bank alt at least once a day and run a search for your pet (use the item name). Common pets tend to appear most often, allowing you to pick and choose what you're willing to pay. Rare pets can also be rare finds on the AH, forcing you to pay whatever the seller is asking (and the prices can be outrageous). Therefore, knowing the average auction price for your pet is a big help.
Know your pet's worth - All of the pet profiles on this site provide an auction price range for BoU pets. This range can vary by faction. In those cases, two ranges are provided. Use the appropriate range to help you determine whether you're getting a good deal or whether you're being taken to the cleaners.
Sell extra BoU pets at a profit - Small pets tend to sell pretty well at auction, but can be hit or miss. If you're the risk-taking type, you might consider buying and selling vendored pets on the AH. If you're visiting the vendor anyway, why not buy three or four extra pets and try to turn a profit. You can get the average auction range of every pet right here at WarcraftPets.com. Even if you list your pets at the lower end of that range, you still stand to make a healthy profit (assuming they sell). But as they say, no risk, no reward.
13. Cross-faction trading
Common pets that are sold by vendors of the opposing faction can be somewhat difficult to collect. You'll have to nab them when they appear on the neutral AH or your own faction's AH. A third and less expensive option is to employ cross-faction trading.
Cross-faction trading occurs when a player puts up an item for auction on the neutral AH at a very low price (usually a silver or two). The player's goal is for a specific character of the opposing faction (typically a real-life friend) to buy the item, thus moving it from the alliance to the horde, or vice-versa. This works fairly well, but there are some limitations.
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CAUTION: Players CANNOT use the neutral auction house to trade items between their own characters on the same World of Warcraft account. A character from a different account is necessary. |
As explained in the cautionary note above, players cannot cross-faction trade items between their own characters (unless they own two different accounts). It will require the help of a friend on the opposing faction and a way to signal that character ("/poke" works well) that the item is up and ready to be purchased. This is usually not difficult to organize on a PvE server. But on a PvP server, where it's impossible to have alts of the opposing faction, it can be a real challenge.
Another major concern is the occasional auction sniper. A sniper is a person who "steals" (snipes) an item that clearly was not intended for him or her. Granted, if an item is put up for auction, it's fair game—anyone who buys it really isn't "stealing" anything. But most people know that an item on the neutral AH that's extremely underpriced is probably the target of a cross-faction trade and it would be ignoble to buy it. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, the rule of the cross-faction trade is to complete the transaction in as few seconds as possible. The longer it takes, the greater the risk of losing the item to another player.
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CAUTION: Cross-faction trading is becoming a very risky game these days. Unscrupulous players have been using certain mods and illegal third-party programs to snipe low-priced auctions instantaneously. It happens so quickly that the item is bought the moment it's put up. I've personally lost hundreds of gold in items myself, so I reccommend that you trade rare items at a reasonable price. Yes, you'll lose 15% on the transaction, but it's better than losing your item. |
Assembling Your Collection
14. Vendored pets
Snowshoe Rabbit
Ready to start collecting? Good! You'll probably want to start off simple. The easiest pets to collect are vendored pets. For all pet listings in the Bestiary, make sure to note which pets are sold by the opposing faction (see "Favored Faction"). Those vendors will be off limits to your character. Those who belong to your own faction and those who are neutral are fair game. Click on the vendor's name to pull up a map and additional info about the vendor from Wowhead.
Most vendored pets can be bought for less than a gold. Some of the more exotic pets sold in Outland will require a great deal more to purchase. But by the time you reach Outland, you're expected to have more gold in your coffers anyway.
The best strategy for collecting all of the vendored pets is to work your way around all of Azeroth, systematically hitting every pet vendor as you go. If possible, try your hand at cross-faction trading (as described above) to obtain pets of the opposing faction. Or keep a constant eye on the AH as an alternative. If you opt to work the AH, you might also search for additional BoU pets you intend to collect.
15. Dropped pets
The thrill of the hunt might entice you to farm for some dropped pets. Pet profiles in the Bestiary include the drop rate of every dropped pet, along with Wowhead links to maps for every mob you'll have to grind. The art of farming (above) includes all the tips you'll need to farm for nearly every dropped pet.
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FYI: Some pets are dropped by items rather than mobs. The notes in the pet's profile will help you determine how to obtain these pet-dropping items. |
16. Quested pets
In order to collect quested pets, you'll have to get your hands dirty. First you'll need to work your way up to an appropriate level to complete the quest. Pet profiles in the Bestiary provide the name of the quest(s), the reccommended level(s), links to Wowhead's quest data, and some profiles even include links to walk-through guides (found in the notes section). You might also try looking up the quest on Thottbot and reading the comments of those who've already completed the quest.
Note that many of the quests listed in the Bestiary are the final quest in a series, often called a chain. You can use Wowhead or Thottbot to discover the quest that starts the entire chain and work your way forward from there.
17. Player-made pets
Collecting the player-made pets can be challenging, whether you're an engineer or not. If you're not an engineer, you'll have to hunt down any crafted BoU pets on the AH. It may be months before the pet you're seeking is put up for auction. You could also try rounding up the required materials and locating an engineer to build it for you. However, as an engineer, you have the additional option of obtaining the schematic and building the pet yourself. It's comforting to know that your player-made pet was made by you.
The profiles of player-made pets include the name of the schematic (or NPC) that teaches you how to craft the pet, along with the required skill level. Clicking the schematic will bring you to Wowhead for additional data, such as what mobs drop the schematic and the materials necessary to create the pet.
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CAUTION: There are two BoP engineering-made pets based on specialization: Lil' Smoky (gnomish) and Tiny Walking Bomb (goblin). While it's possible to drop and relearn engineering to change your specialization, it is NOT possible to obtain both pets because you'll never be issued an access card for your new specialization. (Trust me, I've tried. ) |
18. Promotional pets
Unfortunately, you'll be unable to collect most of the promotional pets. In order to obtain these pets, you would've had to have participated in the related special promotions. And since many of these promotions are no longer available, the pets they provided are also, sadly, no longer available.
However there are still a few promotional pets, such as the Netherwhelp and the Hippogryph Hatchling, that you may be able to collect if you're willing to spend some real-world cash. Each pet's profile includes the name of the promotion and other notes that explain how it's obtained. You can find the real-world item required to get the pet using an auction site like ebay.
The Fruits of Your Labor
19. Where'd you get that pet!?
Magical Crawdad
At some point during your collecting career, while you're busy organizing your bags or visiting a vendor, you'll get an unexpected tell from a complete stranger asking you where you got the pet standing idly by your side. And that's when it hits you—you've got something of interest, something that draws the eye, something unique that at least a few people are seeing for the very first time... (not to mention the other five in your bags and the other twenty in your bank!)
In that moment, as your face begins to turn a smile, you can reply to the curious party with the answer of how your adorable little pet came into your possession. If you're feeling particularly talkative, you might even mention WarcraftPets.com as THE place to go to collect Warcraft small pets!
20. Just for Fun
If you want to have a little fun with your small pets, cut and paste the following code into a macro. Choose a macro icon and name the macro "Pet Praise" or something similar. Replace "pet's name" with the name of your summoned pet. Make sure you use the pet's name—not the name of the item.
/target pet's name
/script s,e={"I love you, %t.","You're my best friend, %t.","What a good little %t!"},{"pat","hug","kiss"}; SendChatMessage(s[math.random(getn(s))],"SAY") DoEmote(e[math.random(getn(e))]);
Before you use this macro, you'll want to summon the pet whose name you used in the code. When you click the macro, your character will praise your small pet and show it a little love in a random way. And every small pet deserves a little love every now and again.
21. Author's note
In real life, I love all kinds of animals. I'm thrilled that the developers of World of Warcraft have provided a way for players to enjoy some fantastic and wonderful pets in-game. No, they don't do anything extraordinary, but they do provide ambiance and amusement, both for yourself and for those around you. Collecting these little beauties can be one of the most rewarding aspects of the game.
Regardless of whether you're a diehard collector or a casual collector, the small pets you obtain will be some of your greatest World of Warcraft treasures.
Happy collecting!
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