Rare pets

[Pooksie]

I still haven't seen a single person with a Seagull, which is sad because they look so awesome!

[GormanGhaste]

I still haven't seen a single person with a Seagull, which is sad because they look so awesome!

I love my seagull! I need to start remembering to use Chalk more against melee humanoids.

[Minifig]

I still haven't seen a single person with a Seagull, which is sad because they look so awesome!

Really? I had one for a while.

[Davarra]

Across my hunters I have red and purple squees, a purple nether ray, blue sporebat, orange tiger (a Zulian cub, at that...he was so cute coming up and nomming on my ankles I just had to take him home), purple and red snakes, you name it.

Pets of my less than patient tendencies...easy tames and shiny, flashy pets. Any sort of pretty blue or purple tends to get my attention quicklike.

I DO have a few FotM pets but only ones that I genuinely liked the model, like Thor the Ghostmungar.

[Wark]

Going down the Petopia list, and slightly cheating by counting everything I've seen since I started playing back in early vanilla:

Cunning:

• -I used to see a few pure white (rarespawn-only) and brown (ZG 1.0 attack speed) bats, when they were briefly useful. Haven't seen any lately besides my one friend's hunter alt. Slightly more popular with lowbie characters, totally unloved by max level.
  -owls besides the Teldrassil ones have never been common, ever, although sometimes I see a green gem one. I've seen a fair number of eagles (considering the family's unpopularity) and almost no parrots. There's the odd seagull or undead bird, but people seem to prefer eagles in my haunts.
  -I wouldn't call them common but I've bumped into just about every kind of chimaera at this point, just with some casual BGs. Might not have seen both brownish vanilla skins yet, but other than that-- the pink one is perplexingly common, or was during Wrath.
  -dragonhawk colors besides orange, especially past low levels, are just not around. I think one acquaintance of mine had a pink one back during BC, but that's it.
  -sometimes I see monkeys. I actually have trouble noticing them as they're so small. Don't even ask me what colors I've seen, they're all gray to me.
  -I think I might have possibly seen someone use a nether ray once. Maybe. The only ones I know I've seen since BC are mine....
  -ravagers actually have a decent presence. The "new" skins have been least common, but that could just be from people not knowing they're around. I've definitely seen multiples of the "elite" skins.
  -I've seen pretty much every color of serpent. Not common by any measure, but I know they're out there.
  -haven't seen an ant silithid yet. The ravager skins are less common than the boss skins, but as they were the only option for awhile I've seen them all.
  -spiders are almost widespread, especially now that they're a PvP favorite. The spiky Maexxna-style skin is hand-down least common, although the tarantulas aren't much more loved. Boring-common minespiders are very seldom seen, but the unique or rare skins are reasonably widespread. Bonespiders are everywhere.
  -I've seen 2-3 sporebats since BC, averaging one per expansion. Any skin is fair game.
  -wind serpents are everywhere. You won't see one every day, but including vanilla and BC they've been well-loved, and pretty much evenly. No skin I haven't seen at least twice, although the spiky Outlands ones are admittedly more popular among max-level characters.

Ferocity:

• -newer carrion bird skins are least common. Why? They're high level, generally, and by the time you can reach them most hunters have wised up and picked a different pet. Black vultures were common at low levels in Vanilla, and a lot of baby hunters had 'em, especially Horde. (In Mulgore, Swoop swoops you!)
  -a cat skin associated with no rarespawns, or common across many levels, or so bizarre and out of the way that almost nobody has heard of it: those you don't see a ton of. If it's a rarespawn or a unique skin, everybody and their mother has half a dozen of 'em. Interestingly, the lynx models were/are dirt common at low levels, especially with belves, but are close to unheard of by max level-- excepting the tiny handful of those belves who are loyal and good at leveling. (For instance, I've never seen an orc with a lynx. NEVER.) If it's a lion, everyone has it.
  -All core hounds seem about equally common, with some fads. The Kurken was popular right when it was made available, these days I've seen a few Chromaggus, but the old stand-by fiery demon dogs (of any color) are just as ubiquitous. Actually verging on a common pet, possibly beating out wind serpents.
  -Green devilsaur is least common, but hardly unheard of. I distinctly remember gritting my teeth at the GreenYoshii (WHAT KIND OF A NAME IS THAT?!) running around Dalaran for a year.
  -I've seen hardly any mastiffs or demon dogs-- seems most people go with a much more eye-catching runed demon dog, when they bother with a dog at all. Not a common family though.
  -If it's not Ashtail, nobody has it. Orange and brown are winning for underrepresentation though, at least I've seen a few whites and maybe a black.
  -There was a troll hunter, way back in Vanilla, who had a yellow hyena, and he used it all the time. Besides him, I've seen a dark hyena or two, AKA the skin present and available at high levels for the expansions hyenas were worth using. Maybe the odd orange in the company of someone working through the Barrens.
  -I've seen almost every moth... once. Exactly once. Another family of "as long as you have one, you'll probably never see another person sporting the same skin."
  -I've seen every raptor a couple times over. The vanilla skins are less common, but still well-represented. If I had to pick a rare skin, vanilla green isn't everywhere, as you only see it wild once or twice.
  -everywhere is filthy with spirit beasts of every type. I've only seen the bear a dozen times, so I guess it's least popular... relatively.
  -I've actually experienced about equal tallstrider representation. The more colorful ones are harder to find, which means the dedicated few who want an odd one gun for those, but I've seen people who picked up a common color while it was ubiquitous and hung on to it. Barely more common than hyenas though, despite them having been available forever.
  -I haven't seen a silithid-style wasp yet, probably too new. Fireflies aren't unheard of but still less common than boss-wasps, who are most common as they're huge and eyecatching and impossible to ignore.
  -wolves, wolves, wolves... seen them all. Skin popularity varies by demographic and time, but I've seen at least a dozen of every skin by now. Well, maybe not Deathmaw/Ripp, as they're new. Coyotes are popular with the lowbies, saber worgs are big for max-level folks, and worgs are evenly subpopular at all levels. Any skin being "hard to get" is generally offset by people gunning for it because it's "special."

Tenacity:

• -don't see a ton of bears these days. The diseased skins are least common, probably because a bunch of them were added just as bear love declined.
  -I /hug every beetle I see, which I think has amounted to about four. Pretty much only good for soloing and crazy groups, and they're in direct competition against turtles-- not a good recipe for wide ownership. They've already managed to beat out sporebats, though.
  -Felboars, what with being new and probably unknown to a lot of hunters (as well as mostly restricted to high levels!) are way less common than normal boars. Don't recall too many yellow/orange/red boars over the years, people favored undead, armored, and black-white boars more. They were popular for vanilla and BC, though, so they're not unheard of.
  -never seen many white or bronze crabs, most people used to run with red or blue. Spiky crabs of all colors are definitely preferred now, although these days I think most people have them to make STI jokes-- not too common.
  -haven't seen a purple spiky croc yet; everything else has shown up at least once. Old-style skins are really unloved these days.
  -red and white gorillas seem most popular at high levels, although all of them get some use. Gray has been the most popular at low levels, in my experience, because it's the first gorilla you can tame.
  -I, uh... hrm. I think I may have seen a rhino once? Maybe? ...might actually be LESS popular than sporebats, wow.
  -Black was the most popular scorpid in BC just because it was the one you didn't have to level. Everything else is ubiquitous at some point and generally gets ignored once you're past its bracket. Small shout-out to white, which had a rarespawn for awhile and thus disproportionate popularity. I don't know if I've seen a single Madexx-style scorpid yet, hmm.
  -Don't see any yellow shale spiders. Seen the rest.
  -gray-purple and white turtles are least common, I've found. The other traditional turtles are varying kinds of uncommon; seen one or two Ghamoo-ras, and I can't turn around without tripping over five Terrorpenes.
  -white warpstalkers are narrowly most common, again thanks to the "it's all you have at one point while leveling." Don't think I've seen a red yet, and maybe no greens; everything else has wandered past by now, but probably only once.
  -basic tunneling worms are way less popular than jormungar, but I can say with certainty that I've seen the yellow one! Once. In a Wrath heroic. Grey, pink? Not so much.

So according to my experience, if you want to be a rebel, go pick up a sporebat, a nether ray, and a rhino-- doesn't even matter what skin, you're almost guaranteed to be unique while hanging out in the city of your choice!

[Davarra]

The old world worms just make me shudder, truth be told. Not my thing. Kinda saying something, considering I think old world scorps are just plain ADORABLE. and seen quite a few spiders that had tremendous personality.

Felboar, check, red and blue warpies, check, beetle, check, purple croc, check!

Now to get my next hunter high enough for the crystalline boar...

[TygerDarkstorm]

No offense Davarra, but this isn't a thread about what kinds of pets we have, it's a thread about what pets that are rare (aka you never see) on your server.

[Davarra]

Point, sorry.

[TygerDarkstorm]

No worries.

And OT: Purple shale spiders, rhinos, even warp stalkers seem to not be all that common on Suramar from what I've seen.

[Holgarr]

the only or I've seen are in my own stable.

Well, post-Cataclysm, anyway, mosly because their original models were removed and those skins are now on harder-to-find mobs. Can't recall if I saw any before the world went Foont, however.

[Cialbi]

I know that the raptor that you linked isn't hard to find; just go to the northern raptor nesting grounds in the Wetlands. The Alliance has quests in that area.

[Opiomorph]

Red warpstalker = best. (Which means I'm the only person I see sporting one.) I rarely see wasps of any kind actually. Scorpids of any kind are rather rare, including Madexx (aside maybe 2~3 I saw in Uldum while stalking my own which triggered, I don't see people with them.) Bears are hit and miss for me, I see a few. Striders are pretty rare, but I'm keeping my one on my tauren. We have a history (aka we ran smack into each other just after I'd been able to tame... SO YEAH.) For taurens, pink is pretty popular since it's their area and all (pre-pinks in Barrens). I never see moths, Nether Rays, or Sporebats. (I've considered a moth myself still. I had one for a short term when they were new, but gave up.)

Snakes aren't too popular (probably because people want the more "DPSy" raptor over them). I hardly see Dragonhawks of any kind, same with wind serpents. o_o;

[Nubhorns]

The funny thing about Madexx is that people want him because he's rare, but never use him because, ultimately, scorpids aren't very popular. It's a sweeping generalization for sure and I expect to see at least three people tell me they love their Madexxes(all fifteen of them!) but the number of people who actually used a scorpid prior to the Cataclysm could probably be counted on one hand.

[Jin]

Back when scorpids had stacking poison they were very common for arena, especially the black with red dots, probably because it was found at high level so they didn't have to spend so much time level them, but yeah I see your point. There seem to be many many Madexx-thread but not many Madexxes as pets. I use mine tho, I like the disarm for PvP

[Nubhorns]

I didn't even think about their use in PvP, really. But even so, I hung out around quite a few PvP hunters back then and I rarely saw a scorpid. Lots of hyenas and devilsaurs(I used my wolf most of the time. I had a brief stint with a spider, though!). Then again, that was the BG scene rather than Arena.

I use my scorpid to tank sometimes, but I can't say I really use him often. My boar is my tank, and he'll probably always stay my tank...I don't really PvP anymore.

[Ironale]

I would say, on my server (The most populated EU server with over 30,000 Alliance), I have never seen a Hunter with Gondria or Arcturis. I think its becuase when people think "Spirit Beast" they immediately go for Loque, Ghostcrawler, Karoma or even Skoll.

Arcturis and Gondria tend to get forgotten. I have no idea why, as i think Arcturis is the only spirit beast that looks like a real spirit. The others either look like monsters (Loque, Skoll) or just ghosts (Gondria, Karoma). Arcturis is the only one thats an actual Spirit in my opinion.


TL:DR

Arcturis or Gondria are the rarest on my server.

[Wark]

I didn't even think about their use in PvP, really. But even so, I hung out around quite a few PvP hunters back then and I rarely saw a scorpid. Lots of hyenas and devilsaurs(I used my wolf most of the time. I had a brief stint with a spider, though!). Then again, that was the BG scene rather than Arena.

Specifically, I believe Jin is referring to the part of The Burning Crusade where scorpids were actually the ruling family for PvP as well as PvE: their poison stacked (making cleansing difficult) and scaled OUTRAGEOUSLY well with our attack power. I distinctly remember rading Bagtheridon Magtheridon with all the hunters packing a scorpid: you popped all your cooldowns at the start to get the first tick as strong as possible, and then subsequent applications used the same strength. As long as it refreshed it for the entire fight, it was ridiculously strong. It got nerfed within a few weeks/months, of course, because it was wildly imbalanced-- I think after that they fell out of favor a bit, although as long as their poison was a stacking DoT they were reasonably popular in PvP, as it still made removing a USEFUL poison effect that much more difficult.

By the time we reached the end of BC and headed into Wrath, scorpids had been completely dethroned, although not as badly as they were by Cataclysm. (Yeah, somebody had to get Disarm... why did it have to be my favorite arachnids? ;-;)

/rerail:
Ironale, I am completely having trouble believing that a single spirit beast would be as rare as, say, sporebats. I am willing to accept that they'd be the least common of the spirit beasts, though.

[Nubhorns]

I didn't even think about their use in PvP, really. But even so, I hung out around quite a few PvP hunters back then and I rarely saw a scorpid. Lots of hyenas and devilsaurs(I used my wolf most of the time. I had a brief stint with a spider, though!). Then again, that was the BG scene rather than Arena.

Specifically, I believe Jin is referring to the part of The Burning Crusade where scorpids were actually the ruling family for PvP as well as PvE: their poison stacked (making cleansing difficult) and scaled OUTRAGEOUSLY well with our attack power. I distinctly remember rading Bagtheridon Magtheridon with all the hunters packing a scorpid: you popped all your cooldowns at the start to get the first tick as strong as possible, and then subsequent applications used the same strength. As long as it refreshed it for the entire fight, it was ridiculously strong. It got nerfed within a few weeks/months, of course, because it was wildly imbalanced-- I think after that they fell out of favor a bit, although as long as their poison was a stacking DoT they were reasonably popular in PvP, as it still made removing a USEFUL poison effect that much more difficult.

By the time we reached the end of BC and headed into Wrath, scorpids had been completely dethroned, although not as badly as they were by Cataclysm. (Yeah, somebody had to get Disarm... why did it have to be my favorite arachnids? ;-;)

/rerail:
Ironale, I am completely having trouble believing that a single spirit beast would be as rare as, say, sporebats. I am willing to accept that they'd be the least common of the spirit beasts, though.

Ah see, that explains it. I joined at the tail end of BC/the very beginning of Wrath.

[Minifig]

I've never ever seen another hunter with the Eagle I keep around with me at all times.. (which is in my signature).

[Cialbi]

Ironale, I am completely having trouble believing that a single spirit beast would be as rare as, say, sporebats. I am willing to accept that they'd be the least common of the spirit beasts, though.

Well, this is all very much subjective, and not really scientific. When it comes to your personal experience, you can't get much rarer than 'never seen another hunter with x pet'.