The "How to 'Get Lucky' with Rare Pets" Guide (no camping)

[Wes1234]

Rare pet spawns. How to tilt the odds in your favor...

Introduction
If you've read any of my fairly recent threads, you already know about how insanely lucky I've been with rare pets during the past month (and counting). If you haven't, let me get you up to speed on my new aquirees from said time period:

ALL PETS WERE RANDOMLY ENCOUNTERED! NO CAMPING WAS INVOLVED!

Rare Pets tamed:
- 4x Ban'thalos
- 1x Ankha
- 1x Magria
- 1x Skarr
- 2x Karkin (one aquired today, so both my dual-boxing toons have one)
- 1x Solix
- 1x Deth'tilac
- 1x Loque'nahak
- 1x Anthriss (aquired just today, and yes, I know that it has an identical skin to the common spiders in the Molten Front)
- 1x Sambas (Aquired just today!)


Rare Pets not tamed:
- 1x Ban'thalos (helped another Hunter tame)
- 2x Skarr (one was tamed by another Hunter before I could get there, the other killed by a Horde Warrior)
- 1x Solix (killed after 1 attempt to tame)
- 1x Skitterflame (failed because I didn't know the mechanics of the tame)
- 3x Kirix (failed/passed because I lacked a Core Hound)
- 2x Deth'tilac (one was accidentally killed, the other was successfully tamed by another Hunter just today)

Total pets seen (tamed and not tamed):
- 5x Ban'thalos
- 1x Ankha
- 1x Magria
- 3x Skarr
- 2x Karkin
- 2x Solix
- 3x Kirix
- 1x Skitterflame
- 3x Deth'tilac
- 1x Anthriss
- 1x Loque'nahak
- 1x Sambas

24 Rare Pets total


Impressive numbers, right? What if I told you that I only play 3 hours day on top of that? Also let me remind you that this has all been within the past month (4 weeks). Now it seems ridiculous and impossible... So how do we get to this insane number, you ask? That's the purpose of this guide. I realize that some Hunters might've already caught on to what I'm about to outline, but since I haven't seen a physical guide like this, I figured that I would share with the Hunter community my secret to how to "get lucky." It's so secretive, not even I knew about it until just recently when I looked at all the data of my encounters. Hopefully, by the time you've finished reading this guide, you'll develop a new painless routine which you can incorporate into your daily WoW life. Should Elune be with you, you may find yourself taming/encountering several rare pets in a given week or two without having to put up with the hassles and boredom of insanely long camping hours.

So without further ado, lets begin...


Step 1: Knowing the Basics
At first glance, the above list looks downright insane for a month's time. 24 sightings of rare hunter pets in less than a month is quite a lot for no camping. I was surprised myself with how lucky I've been...

Then something occurred to me... Is this really nothing but luck at play here? Or is this perhaps nothing more than a numbers game?

Upon closer inspection at the list of pets above, I've realized that it's been more about numbers than luck. If you look closely, you'll see that there are indeed 24 total pets... BUT... there are 12 unique pets among that list. Each pet has a 6+ hour spawn timer, and none share a spawn timer (aside from the Magria/Ankha and Skarr/Karkin pairs). Looking even closer, 10 of those unique pets are found in areas you may find yourself visiting often if you do the Hyjal and Firelands dailies.

So how is this relevant, you ask? Actually, it's very relevant. The odds are against you that one particular pet will be up as you pass by its location. Odds are STILL against you if you pass ANOTHER different pet's location as it's up, but the chance is slightly better, and it gets better with each different rare spawn you pass by. I know it sounds strange, but let me explain it like this...

It's like flipping a coin. Lets say we're trying to get just one Heads. Flipping one coin gives you a 50% chance that it'll land on Heads. Flip two coins, and there's a 75% chance that at least ONE of them will be heads. Three coin flips yields an 87.5% chance that one will be heads. The odds keep increasing the more coin flips you do. There's ALWAYS a chance that you'll still get all tails, but getting a single Heads by the time you execute ten coin flips is pretty darn high.

But we're not talking 50/50 shots here, so I'll bring it down to a more comparable "unlikely" scenario. Lets say that now we want to flip TWO coins this time, and we want Heads on BOTH coins (which I'll refer to as H/H for Heads/Heads). That means that after flipping the first pair of coins, we have a 25% chance they'll BOTH hit Heads, while it's a 75% chance that it'll land on a combination of anything else (H/T, T/H, and T/T). Now we flip a second pair of coins. There is now a 43.75% chance that ONE the two pairs of coins we've flipped has landed on the H/H combination we need. A third pair of coin flips yields a 57.8125% chance that one of any pair landed as H/H. Like the single coin flips, the odds keep increasing you go. It will NEVER be guaranteed that you get the H/H combination. You will NEVER have a 100% chance. You chances are simply more likely as you keep going that one pair of coins hits your wanted combo.

Now then, lets skip back to how this relates to rare pet spawns in WoW, the whole reason why we're actually here, after all. Passing by a rare pet spawn is like flipping a coin(s). There's a chance that it'll be there, but there's also a chance it'll not. Then you check another rare spawn location (for a different unique pet). That's like flipping a second coin (or pair of coins). Two completely separate spawn timers means a new un-tampered chance that the pet is there. The more unique rare pets whose locations you check, the more "coins" you are flipping, meaning it becomes more likely that one of them was up as you flew by. This is the basic concept to "getting lucky."

Although my coin flip examples were quite mathematical, the basic point remains the same. The more unique pets you check, the more likely that one of them was up as you pass by. No one needs a sharp mind in math and percents to know that. You just have to know how to tilt the odds in your favor.

Okay, so you know the basic idea behind all of this. Does that mean you're ready to go find some rare pets? Not really. While you COULD go out and start searching every rare spawn in the game, you must realize that it's not the most realistic option. It's time consuming to go cover all the main-land rare spawns, go to the Molten Front, to Northrend, to the Outlands, and back, only to repeat the cycle all over again for fear that one pet might be up by now... which would be more like camping in the end, and lets face it, camping is boring and sorta defeats the whole idea of "getting lucky." That brings me to my next point...


Step 2: When to Check the Spawns
So knowing that you shouldn't just take off and go circle the whole world and its thousands of rare spawns, what do you do? How do you apply what you learned in Step 1 of this guide to in-game content?

The answer lies in what you do during your daily WoW life when you are not camping for that one pet that you so desperately want.
Here's a couple examples:
1. The Hyjal and Molten Front dailies.
2. Waiting for a dungeon queue.
DPS wait times for dungeon queues typically stretch from 8 to 25+ minutes. Even world event bosses like the Headless Horseman have around a 5-minute waiting time.

Bottom line is this... The ideal times to check rare spawns are when they're nearby or when you're waiting for something.

Okay, so now you know to only look for them at your own convenience. What more do you need? Well actually, that's it. That said, however, there are a few extra "tools" you can use to expand the number of unique rare spawns you can search for... That brings up the optional next step...


Step 3: Tricks of the Trade
The first and by far the most important thing you need of all is this: PATIENCE! Despite how many rare spawns you check, there will be days where you come up empty on every one. No matter how much you increase your odds, there's still a chance to fail, and that chance is still fairly likely. Even during the past month, I've gone nearly a week without spotting a rare, and at that point, I thought my luck was over. Then it picked up like crazy when I started spotting 2 rares on some days at a time. Today was actually a very lucky day, as I saw 4 rares today, 3 of which I tamed.

Another thing that will help is to not be so picky over what pets you want. You will be encountering quite a decent number of pets that you may not even want that much, much less tame. If you pass on the tame, be courteous and let another Hunter know. One man's junk is another's treasure, and their treasure can turn into gold for you from tips, so it's really a win-win for both sides.

Aside from patience, there's also a handy Engineering item you can use that can give you easy access to a good 3 unique rare pet spawns. Yes, I'm talking about the Wormhole Generator that can teleport you to any zone in Northrend once every 4 hours, in this case Sholazar Basin (Loque, Aotona, and Krush). Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, and Howling Fordj (sp?) are also options if you decide to check Gondria, Skoll, or the spirit bear (I forget it's name).

And finally, there's one more feature you can use that can save you lots of travel time, specifically in the Molten Front. That feature, or ability rather, is called Eagle Eye, and I HIGHLY recommend putting that thing on your action bar. Yeah, it's that one ability that half of us Hunters never even bother putting on our bar because we got better stuff to do. I'm gonna tell you right now, Eagle Eye is INVALUABLE for spying on far-away, difficult to reach places like the spawns in the Molten Front. It will save you a LOT of time and frustration. It further helps that most of the early Patch 4.2 rush for the new pets has died off, so if spot a rare via Eagle Eye and you're on the other side of the freaking map, don't freak out. You can still make it, and it's likely no one will have beaten you to it.

Conclusion
Whether you're searching for all the rares you can find like an obsessed Pokemon trainer, or just looking for a way to kill time, using this method can yield you more rare pets than you could ever hope to acquire by camping alone. Yes, it may take longer to get that special pet which you so desperately want, but in exchange, you also have the opportunity to obtain pets which you somewhat like, but would never camp for hours on end to get. And who knows? Maybe one day they'll really click to you.

If you use this method of hunting, I'd love to hear your stories! And if you have any questions about anything in this guide or need something to be clarified, don't hesitate to ask.


FAQ
Q: "But what if I want Karoma? That's the one I want the most!"
A: Change your routine accordingly to adjust to the pet you want most. While waiting for a dungeon queue or logging in early for a guild event, use that spare time to check the spawns. This same idea can be used for Loque'nahak, King Krush, and Aotona if you have the Wormhole Generator and are an Engineer. Alternatively, you can also start doing any dailies that are in the same area. Also keep in mind that if the zone you're in has more than 1 unique rare pet spawn, CHECK THOSE, TOO! In Karoma's case, check Sambas' spawns as well. Even if you can't nab the spirit wolf, you could still come away with another cool pet!

More questions will be added as they are asked by other posters if needed.

[AdamSavage]

I've never camped any of my rares, I just get very aggressive with checking several random times during the day. Eventually, one by one I got the rares I wanted.

[Shirubia]

Personally, im more of a ''semi-camper'' myself: I check the pets in and out when im doing dailys or im just bored, and if it is a pet I want, I ask in general chat for it's last sighting. If I get a specific time (''Just tamed X 5 minutes ago!'' or ''It got tamed at XXX hours'') and it's a day I have nothing to do like a weekend or sick day, I park my hunter, turn my volume to the max and let NPC_scan do it's magic... Meanwhile I grab a book or play another videogame.

Other things I do is check very, VERY early in the morning: That's how I got Loque'nahak, Gondria, Aotona and easily 40% of the rares needed for Bloody rare and 30% of the ones needed for Frostbitten.

[Aquillian]

Just one thing I'd like to point out: Odds don't work that way. Every time you flip a coin, the odds of it being heads are still 50/50... the last flip is irrelevent ^^;

[Wes1234]

Just one thing I'd like to point out: Odds don't work that way. Every time you flip a coin, the odds of it being heads are still 50/50... the last flip is irrelevent ^^;

I'm well aware of that, and that's what I tried to outline. There's still a chance to fail just as much as the last one. The whole point of the coin flipping scenarios was simply to put things in a more understandable way.

In other words, when you flip Tails on the first coin, you're do NOT have a a 75% chance to get a Heads on the next flip. The 75% figure was simply referring to how 75% of ALL possible outcomes when flipping two coins that at LEAST one coin landed on Heads. Here's what I mean...

There are four possible outcomes when flipping two coins. In the table below, the first column indicates the result of the first coin. The second column if for the second coin. The third column lists the total number of Heads flips for that outcome.

H -> H = 2 Heads
H -> T = 1 Heads
T -> H = 1 Heads
T -> T = 0 Heads

As you can see, 3 of the 4 outcomes yielded at least one Heads result. That's 75% of all the possible outcomes.

The whole point of the guide was to show you that rare pet spawns work in a similiar way, but with far lower odds than the 50/50 figure illustrated above. In other words, the more different rare pets you check (the more coins you flip), the more likely that ONE of them had an active spawn. It could be the first one you checked. It could be the last one. It could be the 5th, 8th, 13th, 50th, whatever. It's better than camping because other rares could be up while you're camping for a specific one constantly. The whole idea behind this guide was to bring this fact to light for those that do not yet know it, and way it's so effective.

It's still a chance game. It always will be. WoW, like most games, is all about numbers, and he way to master the game is to master the numbers.

I'm sorry if I confused you when describing it all in the guide. I still don't know if I got the basic idea across, but I can confidently say that you already know it anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

[Aquillian]

Haha okay. It's just that "The odds keep increasing the more coin flips you do" statement that puzzled me... I see a lot of people saying that, in regards to things like farming minipets - there seem to be a lot of folks who think that the number of loots they've had before does actually increase the chances of getting what they want, when in fact it makes no difference. So I wanted to clear that up XD

But I definitely agree with the guide - that's how I get most of my rare pets anymore. It was really just that part that I felt like mentioning ^^ Apologies if you didn't mean it literally, only intended to provide information otherwise.

[Jeauno]

I've tamed a lot of rares in my time, but there's a strong part of me that believes while you might get a better chance at a tame through knowledge (Excluding Challenge tames), sometimes the right answer is to just encounter them randomly.

I've said for a long time now (about spirit beasts especially) you don't find rares, rares find you.


The guide is really well written though. There's a lot of good ideas there, several of which I've used myself. Bravo. :3

[Samskeyti]

This is just the way I do it! And why I created a rarehunters channel on my realm. Because I find so much, everyday... and I have my bunch of hunters on the channel to rehome them to now
Well written up!!

[Wes1234]

This is just the way I do it! And why I created a rarehunters channel on my realm. Because I find so much, everyday... and I have my bunch of hunters on the channel to rehome them to now
Well written up!!

I've been doing the exact same thing on Llane (my realm), except the channel I created is called RarePetDiary. In addition, because I encounter so many rares (I've been encountering 3-4 rares each day now on average), I've been making a daily video diary of my finds and the drama that goes into each one, hence the name of the channel. Most pets get rehomed, which is good because that's a big part of the Rare Pet Diary project's purpose.

The link to my Rare Pet Diary thread which contains all the Youtube video links to each video diary can be found in my signature if you're interested in seeing them.

And thanks!

[Acherontia]

Can you chain Eagle Eye now?

If not, use the macro I do to do so:

#showtooltip Eagle Eye
/cast !Eagle Eye

^ This lets you chain-cast it in jumps rather than having to see your target area from your location.

[Samskeyti]

Can you chain Eagle Eye now?

If not, use the macro I do to do so:

#showtooltip Eagle Eye
/cast !Eagle Eye

^ This lets you chain-cast it in jumps rather than having to see your target area from your location.

I think, this is one of the best findings ever. It's just so incredibly useful. You enter Molten Front, and can scan every single spawn from just the sanctuary. Or you perch on a rock in Deepholm near an Aeonaxx spawn and quickly check up on Jadefang and Terborus. Or you sit in Hyjal near the MF portal and go "hey, let's check if Terrorpene is walking around". Or fly around Uldum for madexx and do a quick check on Armagedillo and Akhma-Hat. Or Sit on FL in Storm peaks and check out Skoll's spawn spots...and and and.... such a great spell...