A little Rare hating going around...

[Vixenon]

After digging through a few forums on here, I've come across quite a few rare-haters, saying things like "Oh, I don't like ______. Everyone has him. that's why I prefer my _____, since you never see that skin around" etc etc.

And I know that's not everyone here, and isn't "hating," but I want to clear something up here:

I can't speak for the rest of the hunter community, but for me, it isn't about the skins as much as it is the thrill of the hunt. I think of waiting on spawns as achievements, quests, feats of strength, so when you pull out your newest companion you can say to yourself, "I earned this one."

Maybe it's because I'm specced to BM, and therefore have to rely on my pet heavily for DPS. A bond forms between you and your pixels, and you can tell yourself that you were devoted enough to your pet to spend _____ hours camping him/her.

It's funny, because I tamed Gondria recently, just fly flying over a spawn point on the way to camp Skoll. I spent hours upon hours looking for Loque and Skoll and Arcturis, and finally got Skoll and Loque (no luck with Arc yet).

I looove my Loque and Skoll. But guess which pet is the odd one out? That's right - Gondria. The one I didn't have to work for. Sometimes I bring "Kiva" out, but not for long. She's probably the least favorite of all of my pets, and I wish it wasn't so, since she's quite a beauty.

I think it's because I feel like I don't deserve her.

Thoughts on camping and rares?

[Kurenio]

I agree with you totally about the thrill of the hunt aspect.... now that I only need madexx for my collection of pets I found myself going out of my way to look for the rares I've already tamed. If I happen to find one it gets a home no matter what... BM/rare hunter all the way ^.^

[Chimera]

i camped all my spirit beasts except gondria and ghostcrawler who were both fould right away, gondria by complete accident and i gotta say, i dont like either of them... ive never liked how they look but i keep them to cap the spirit beast count. But im not all for rares, now that i have key rares from WotLK and Cata, my other hunters get to be choosy, i dont have the drive to tame a rare i dont want but is sitting infront of me.

One of my chars is running around with a regular blue snake from WC and i dont plan on replacing it ever if i can help it. Another hunters been using Shango cause they both match colors when shes wearing her RP robe (complete coincidence), and my third main hunter is using a lavender saber cause her RP sets her home in winterspring and i want a mount/pet/mini-pet combo xDD

I tame some beasts cause of the tag but others i tame cause i love them. They can be a rarespawn all they want, if the pet and my character get along together then its a done deal whether i found it upon first look or after a month of looking :3

[Vephriel]

I can certainly understand the thrill of the hunt, I'm quite fond of that aspect myself, even though I mostly love finding rares and not necessarily taming them.

I have a few of my own, though the majority of my pets are 'regular' creatures. It's not really about liking or disliking the rare factor itself, I just don't really see a reason to collect every rare solely due to the fact that it's a rare. I don't like many of the rare pets, so I don't have a desire to tame them.

I know everyone plays their characters in their own way, but I'll admit I can't really fathom the mindset behind having a hunter who's stable must have every rare as a trophy cabinet. Not bashing it per se, it's just...not my personal mentality. I don't necessarily view owning a rare as a feat of strength...it's just luck and dedication. I commend people who do so, and I've quite enjoyed myself on some rare hunts as well, but I'd never expect other people to be awed by my pet in that fashion. If I like my pet, I like them. Rare, common, exotic or not...as long as you love your pet there's really nothing else that matters.

[Lisaara]

I love rare hunting myself, although I really wish blizz would fix rare timers(atleast tameable and TLPD/Vyra) so they wouldn't be 6 - 24 hrs. I'd be happy with 6 - 12 hrs.

[Makoes]

For me, my pets are first and foremost based on looks. If I am going to be fighting with a companion at my side, I'd like it to look nice. If some of them happen to be rares, then thats fine. I am not picky about rare vs common. As for pet abiliteis, if my awsome pet has a useful ability, thats just something nice and extra, but not really any sort of focus for me.
I've been running with my red hyena for the past 3years. I just love hyena's.

If half of the hunters out there where running around with red hyena's, it still wouldnt change how I feel about my partner. Rare or common doesnt matter, its all about personal preference.

[Senna-Umbreon]

To be perfectly honest, I find there's more hate for common pets than rare ones. Maybe I'm biased towards the common ones.. But it's just how I feel.

Really, I couldn't care less whether my pet is rare or not.. If I'm attached to it, then that's all that matters. Sure, I love that feeling of finally finding a rare spawn.. But it's not why I go after a rare, it's because I like the pet in general, and if it was a common pet.. I'd get it too! There's a few exceptions, such as my Brown Madexx.. If he somehow disappeared, I'd hunt down Brown Madexx again instead of taming the common one, but only because that's what Nick is.. Brown Madexx. If he was the common one in the first place then I'd definitely go after the common one to get him back, but he's Madexx, so I'd be going after it, but only because that's what he is, not because Madexx is a rare. I wasn't even aiming to get Madexx, but I found him one night (Ironically a few hours after a friend who was looking for Madexx (Though he wanted anything BUT Brown XD) had logged off for the night) and I tamed him. I didn't even expect to like him.. But I love 'im (It miiight have something to do with the fact that I named him after someone I happen to really really like.. But..). It honestly has nothing to do with the mob that he is.. It's just the pet. The individual pet.

Of course there's always gonna be pets that I won't feel attached to.. But it has nothing to do with what they look like, how often they spawn, how many people have that mob, or anything. Again, it's the individual pet. Example.. I have Ghostcrawler on my main. I adore the mob itself. It was an absolutely brilliant move on Blizzard's part, making the mob. I love how the little guy looks.. And I love the name I gave him (Nerfbat! <3) but.. I just don't find myself attached to the pet itself. Same with a few other pets I have.. Love the skin, love the mob, love everything about it except for the specific, individual pet that I have. There's been many times I've had the exact same pet, mob, skin, everything except the pet's name and personality, twice, but have only gotten attached to one of them. I have Gondria on two different Hunters currently.. The ones my main has had? I've never been attached to. But the one my Alliance alt has? I like him a lot, and he's one of the main pets I use on that character. As mentioned a billion times before in this post.. It's the individual pet that I get attached to, not anything else. I may love everything about them, but not the exact pet I have, or heck.. The other way around. I know there's been a few pets that I haven't liked the look of, but have loved anyway.

I find that a lot of Hunters love their pets only for the "trophy" of having it, and sometimes they even despise the even idea of a common mob sharing the same look as their ego-boosting trophy. I just don't get it. I can't see how people can act that way, especially in a community like this. I've always found it ironic how some people here can despise certain pets like that solely based on whether they spawn often or not. I also can't see how they can think a common one makes their "speshul" pet worthless. If you know you tamed that certain pet.. Then why freak out over common ones? Non-Hunters won't care whatsoever if you have, let's say.. King Mosh, and other Hunters will understand the appeal of Mosh and will on occasion assume it's what you have, so why whine about Tyrant Devilsaurs? Now, I'm not saying all Hunters who enjoy hunting rares are like this.. But I do find a lot of Hunters can be like this, even in this community.


.... I really started rambling on there. This.. Was not meant to be this long, I swear XD And I really don't mean to offend anyone in any way with this, and I hope my rambling makes at least a little bit of sense to anyone reading it XD

[Kurenio]

True every one of my pets I do have a bond with and I use them all... well atleast try to but the pet I'm bonded to most was my first actual tame (used the cat from the old taming quest up until I tamed her) shy-rotam... tamed 6+ years ago and quickly named oriheme aka woven princess ^.^

EDIT: horrible typo I is tired

[TygerDarkstorm]

I can certainly understand the thrill of the hunt, I'm quite fond of that aspect myself, even though I mostly love finding rares and not necessarily taming them.

I have a few of my own, though the majority of my pets are 'regular' creatures. It's not really about liking or disliking the rare factor itself, I just don't really see a reason to collect every rare solely due to the fact that it's a rare. I don't like many of the rare pets, so I don't have a desire to tame them.

I know everyone plays their characters in their own way, but I'll admit I can't really fathom the mindset behind having a hunter who's stable must have every rare as a trophy cabinet. Not bashing it per se, it's just...not my personal mentality. I don't necessarily view owning a rare as a feat of strength...it's just luck and dedication. I commend people who do so, and I've quite enjoyed myself on some rare hunts as well, but I'd never expect other people to be awed by my pet in that fashion. If I like my pet, I like them. Rare, common, exotic or not...as long as you love your pet there's really nothing else that matters.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Umbriel of Halaa]

Heck with that. I've got some rare pets (Shadowclaw, Ashtail, Evalcharr), and I'm not ashamed of it. I even grumbled about the bitter irony of running across Arcturis at level 73.

But which of my pets are more likely to be out? My runehound, my Pride Watcher, or one or the other of my warp stalkers. I don't care if someone else has "my" rare; I tamed it because I liked how it looked next to my dark draenei or my pale troll, not so that I could be a special snowflake.

[Chimera]

Heck with that. I've got some rare pets (Shadowclaw, Ashtail, Evalcharr), and I'm not ashamed of it. I even grumbled about the bitter irony of running across Arcturis at level 73.

But which of my pets are more likely to be out? My runehound, my Pride Watcher, or one or the other of my warp stalkers. I don't care if someone else has "my" rare; I tamed it because I liked how it looked next to my dark draenei or my pale troll, not so that I could be a special snowflake.

*nod nod* i carry around Death Howl (got him cause i was questing in Felwood and he was up, otherwise i woulda lvled to 50+ for an AV wolf) cause he looks eeeeepic to me alongside my ice troll even though he doesnt match color-wise Same for Jadefang, she is the only color I actually like against my troll... i used purple for a while but was like bleh... not clicking. Terrorpene is equally as epic cause im an ice troll and hes.. a lava turtle xD

[Xella]

Fair warning from the bottom: this post got pretty rambletastic pretty fast. Though I think I stay (mostly) on-topic, there is a bit of wandering and I apologize :s

The pets I enjoy most are generally the ones I worked hardest for; with the exception of Skoll, absolutely none of that "working" was sitting on my thumbs waiting for it to spawn. Even Sporey (my blue sporebat) took a bit of effort because I had to—gasp!—level my mostly-abandoned hunter a couple levels in an incredibly hostile (and active, at the time) PvP environment to get her to a high enough level where she could even attempt the tame. Later that same expansion, I desperately leveled her to 67 and coerced and cajoled my guildmates to run me through Steam Vaults so I could get a helm with a meta socket (and then conned a shaman guildmate to come out to Dustwallow with me) so I could tame Kanassa (my Grimtotem Spirit Guide).

That being said, I'm not sure the "difficulty level" plays a huge part in the enjoyment of my pets. Case in point: I ran my hunter (still on a then-highly active Horde-dominated PvP server, as alliance when Ashenvale was a hotspot for gankers) from Darnassus to Durotar at level 10 in order to tame a Durotar Tiger. Doesn't sound like that hard a thing, but it took me nearly a full day (keeping in mind that I'd end up logging off her dead for a few hours if I was just being chain-killed by someone, since they likely wouldn't still be there when I logged back on). Rajah stayed with me all the way through level 60, was my only perma-pet until I picked up Sporey and Kanassa. Recently I've been unhappy with him, and I'm not entirely sure why—getting him was still incredibly difficult, and it's still something I'm very proud of, but he just seems... I dunno. Too small, slightly misshapen. I've never been a big fan of the giant shouldered cats (the mount model), but I went and tamed Shango and that seems to fit him much better nowadays. I'll still cherish my accomplishment from back in 2005 (ha!), but I guess a seven-year old model (that I've been staring at for six) just starts to get boring after a while.

The thing is, I prefer my pets to be aesthetically pleasing. Pogeyan and the other hunched shiny cats aren't to me, because the sheen is just weird (also my guild leader inadvertently named the shiny hunched tiger I picked up and I'm too ashamed to walk around with that name in public because "me not that kind of orc," but anyway). I don't find Loque aesthetically pleasing; Sambas is too small when tamed as a hunter pet and his colours don't catch my eye and make me smile. Madexx is... well, Madexx is pretty but Madexx is a scorpion and I've never been a huge fan, there. I busted my tail to get my Grimtotem wolf before they removed them (even though they said they wouldn't, I didn't believe that for a second and hooray for me for not! ) not for the thrill of the hunt, but because that was a pet I could see by my hunter's side. It's the skin I'd always wanted for shaman's Ghost Wolf (and they got it for Spirit Wolves but we're still weird coyotes which I think is bizarre, but anyway). There was the very real possibility that—like the Sandfury Guardian—not only would they take away the ability to tame them, but they'd also take away the ability to USE them, making all my effort ostensibly worthless. It didn't matter; the skin was shiny and I had to have it.

I've said before that I'll pick up Karoma if I see it, but probably wouldn't use it. It's the same skin as Kanassa, so why not? Is it just because Kanassa was hard and Karoma wouldn't be? It's not that I like Skoll better (though Skoll is pretty awesome, I could do without the lightning and the glowing claws personally), but hunter pets and their customizability is one of the things I love best about my hunter. I'm already using one family with that model, it just seems silly for me to use an identical-looking pet when I could so simply and easily pick out another I like almost as much and give myself some variety. If I were ever to make a different hunter, I'd probably pick up Karoma as my go-to spirit beast in a heartbeat, though. I've got a Krush and I love her, but she hardly ever gets any time because I love Kanassa too much. Rajah hasn't seen the light of day since I got him to 85 because I've got Skoll providing that buff and I've been kind of bored with Rajah's appearance (much as he holds a place in my heart). Sporey doesn't get nearly enough time because other hunters in BH groups never have a ravager/worm with them and nobody ever provides 4% physical so I'm always using Kanan (wtb a different species with that buff. Like Sporebats! I could go for sporebats having it, yup ). Vonkarma's never seen so much as an inch of instance because I always seem to have a mage or shaman in my groups and if I'm just providing the slow debuff why not just use my bestest friend ever?

Getting kind of back on topic here, it's not that there's "rare hate," at least not on my end. I don't hate rares. I hate sitting on my ass when I could be doing something productive in order to camp a rare (be it for a pet or a mount or an achievement or whatever), and I absolutely believe that pretty/"unique" skins shouldn't be the exclusive property of rares. Similarly, I don't feel that just because a mob is rare, it's also entitled to be gorgeous. Saying that, I also know that there are many people on these forums who will disagree with me on one or both of those points; everyone's got their own opinions and their own reasons for it.

Now, all that rambling aside, is there a little bit of the "kneejerk trendsetter hatred" thing going on? I'm sure, to varying degrees. I played a resto druid back in classic and I very much enjoyed being "the underdog." When resto got super powerful towards the end of classic and throughout TBC, I was kind of annoyed about it. People weren't looking at the good job I was doing and reconsidering their preconceived notions; they were seeing me as a flavour of the month. When I switched to my shaman in the middle of TBC, I chose her because that was a utility that we didn't have in our raids that I could provide. Nowadays in raids, the only unique utility I provide is pretending to be Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest over Vent, and that's more than a little aggravating (especially because my DPS is painfully low for my gear level, and nobody's ever been able to figure out why).

I could get a sword-in-head Lone Hunter if I wanted, and that's "rare" (but not rare in the same way as a mob you have to camp for, and so I like him on that point alone), but I have no real interest in it. I did get the Corpse Scarab when he was little, and when he grew up he lost his appeal for me, and you could call that "rare" too. If there's a skin I really want I'll camp it—I spent a few days afk in Storm Peaks for Tadassana, and a bunch of time out in Sholazar for Fallyn—but that time doesn't improve my appreciation of the pet, it just cements my distaste for spawn camping

So I guess to wrap this up and actually answer your question: I don't hate rares just because they're rare. I dislike the system, but if I hate a particular pet, model, or skin it's not because it's rare versus common, it's because it's pretty versus not-pretty. I bond with many of my pets, but I don't pick pets that I don't like the look of (unless I stumble across a rare that I MIGHT want later, which is silly because I know in my heart that there's no time I'd ever use Arcturius or Ghostcrawler over Skoll and taming them is just a waste of both my stable space and their respawn timers. Gondria might be a different story but only because I have a Thing™ about cats, heh). The pet being rare, unique, or not often seen as a hunter pet simply doesn't enter into it.

[Tsiya]

Wow, only 9 of my 24 pets are rare/unique skins. I camped the ones I wanted, but stopped at 4 spirit beasts, and those really are my only rares outside of my red Madexx. Loque took me about 2 weeks to get, and Arcturis about 5 days, and I admit they're my favorite SB's, but I love the panther skin, and the bear is representative of my hubby, who no longer plays. I camped them because I really wanted them, not because they were rare. I'm just as likely to be running around with Boreas the frostsaber stalker or TypeTwo the sporebat. I just released a couple rares because I found common skins that looked and felt better with my character.

But, I'm not gonna drag anyone down because they use any particular pet. That feels like a type of one-upmanship that is just as elitist as "I got this pet by walking 2 miles uphill through a blizzard every day for a month." The unique snowflake syndrome.

I don't think I'm making sense anymore, so I'm just gonna hit submit and get back to work.

[Kurasu]

I admit: I have a lot of rares. As people have mentioned, the thrill of the hunt is there. However, a lot of the time I'll find that I don't bond as well to a rare as I like, too. Karoma, for instance, is a stable-warmer at the moment until I find something else to fit in there; Arcturis is my beloved spirit beast. Terrorpene was epic for a while, but I've found my interest cooling (no pun intended; really) and have been thinking of getting my lovely pink turtle back. I don't regret having hunted them, but I just am not bonding.

On the other hand, the pets that have an actual *story* behind them, rare or otherwise, are the ones that are sticking the longest. Doden, I tamed at level 72. She means a lot to me for that reason: the memory of her 'special taming' as well as the stunning color. Codebreaker, because of breaking the Dire Maul arena with him. King Krush: the Death Knight who went out of his way to help me tame him, and turned down a 1k reward. Sambas: my first rare 'giveaway', and how I just kept finding him and finding him and finding him. Those are the pets that I really find a bond with.

I admit: when a rare becomes so common that it's everywhere, I may find myself getting tired of it. I don't like FOTM stuff. I keep stuff because they have a meaning to me. Sometimes, a rare's meaning is in the fact that it was 'a rare I hunted'. And sometimes ,when the rare becomes too common, that meaning fades. I don't scream and hate and whatever. I just take a moment to quietly mourn that the bond didn't work and release. It's a game. What good does raging do me when I can just turn around and enjoy the hunt again?

[Vephriel]

I think one of the shining points of this community is how, as a whole, we understand the love we all have for our pets. Before I found Petopia I had no idea there were so many other people who felt the same way about pets that I did. How the pets develop their own personalities and charms that make them more than just a superfluous detail of the hunter class. Someone can come here and talk about, for example, their little brown boar they've had since level 10 and how much that pet means to them and what a bond they have. And we will understand. Out of the entirety of the WoW player base, I'm sure very few of them could comprehend that kind of connection to a digital companion, or understand why we get attached the way we do.

Pet lovers in particular are a facet of the hunter community that think about this aspect in a different way than other players. Not every hunter is a pet lover. Not every hunter even cares about their pets. Not really a big deal, as everyone plays this game in their own way.

I'm not sure if this will all piece together the way I wanted it to (it's late and I'm rather sleepy at the moment), but basically what I'm trying to say is that I believe hunters who don't care for their pets, the type of hunters who do not form bonds and do not see their pets as personable characters, might choose to fill their stable with rares because that's the only way they have to express some sort of pet-fulfillment. Their pets do not have personality, meaning, or history. To them the pet is either just a weapon slot or a way to 'show off', hence the Rare Trophy Cabinet syndrome. PLEASE do not read that as Rare Pets = Uncaring Hunter. I'm not implying that in the least. I just think that for a player who does not fit into the pet-bonding category of hunters, they are more likely to collect rares as their own achievement.

People who are more inclined to form a bond with their pet will probably have more reason to do so rather than just a rare tag alone. That's this community, and that's why rare pets aren't necessarily the de facto standard. We are more likely to find the diamonds in the rough, the quirky common beasts, alongside the rares and exotics so that our stories have a broad range.

Not sure if that made any sense whatsoever except in my own head. Please disregard if it's just rambly.

[Acherontia]

I think that people tend to hunt rares in order to get something special.

Then when those rares they worked for become common, they feel devalued to the player, who feels somewhat cheated, and views the whole incident (& possibly pet) with distaste. I don't think that it's possible to classify a what type of player a hunter is based on that.

That's the TL;DR. To elaborate--I think that liking "rare" and unusual things is hardcoded into our DNA. I mean, instinctively, if there's a resource that's hard-to-get, we go for it and hoard it. It's one of those things I've love to see a study on: do people pick X, or Y, when one is rare in the testing group's options, and both are equally present in the control group's options? People treasure rare things, hold them up as special--especially if they are striking in appearance. The white stag, the albino Doberman*, gold and diamonds, etc. If someone had a special deer park full of the only white deer in the world, and then suddenly all the deer on Earth turned white, the person might well become bitter about it.

I think half of the "rare-hating" may actually come from that--that EVERYONE has "rare" pets, and that they're all common, making it hard to stand out; that means that in order to stand out from everyone who is TRYING to stand out, some other people refuse to do the "rare hunt" thing. Just a theory.

I personally can't categorize myself. I like rare pets, but I also have quite a few commons, and their rarity rarely has bearing on whether I bond with them. Some of my favorite pets are common skins or unexpected tames, or I love them partially because of my history with them or the challenge of the tame, despite rarity.


* Bred for its popular appearance despite linked health problems!

[Moonlost]

I think Veph and Xella have really hit the nail on the head here. I echo their statements.

Everybody looks at their polygonal pets differently. Some, like me, look at them more as companions. Others look at them as tools to get a job done. Some see them as trophies to their patience, luck and/or skills as a hunter. There's nothing wrong with each of these mindsets, inherantly. It's when we refuse to acknowledge that the opinions of another are just as valid as your own that problems rise up.

I love the thrill of tracking down a hard-to-tame pet and adding him to my stables. Especially tames that challenge my skill as a hunter, such as the Grimtotem Spirit Guide or Garwal, where you needed perfect timing and skill to pull it off. I don't mind camping with friends, as it's a great way to just hang out and talk about random crap. I live for the fluttering of my heart as NPCScan goes off, alerting me to a rare below. I love finding a pet, rare or not, that just clicks with my hunter; that feels like it belongs by their side.
I dislike the attitude some people have to rares in how they are naturally superior, especially when said rare shares a skin with a common mob. I am sad and disgusted when I read how some people who are still camping relentlessly for that one pet they must have, only to be spurned by RNG time and time again. I dislike sitting in one spot for days on end doing nothing.
Most of all, I think I dislike picking up a rare because of my "OMG a shiny I must have it!" reflex, realising that it doesn't click, then keeping it anyway because of guilt. Guilt that somebody else could have tamed that pet that only appears once every 12+ hours.

[Harvoc]

When I chose my pets, I wanted to have one pet for every ability that they could provide. Then I looked up which pet had the most unique skin. I also name all my pets the same name that they had before so all of my pets had to have names before taming that I could name them exactly the same after taming. I didn't really care if they were rares or not but since many rares have unique skins and are named mobs, most of my stable consists of rares. Out of my 15 pets that I will actually use, 10 are rares. I also have 4 pets that I had tamed previously that I no longer use anymore but that I didn't want to abandon.

[GormanGhaste]

It's funny how different people find different things entertaining. It would not be fun for me to camp a spawn point. I have five rares, all of which I got by doing a fly-by of their spawn points, specifically because I thought that skin was the most attractive. What IS fun for me is to stumble across a rare when I'm doing dailies or archaeology, and find another hunter to tame it.

[Teigan]

Rares are great fun. But, so are regular pets. Some of the rares I drool over (my troll Grushdeva has all 6 spirit beasts....) some of them I personally am not interested in. It depends on how the pet "feels" with my hunter. Grush has a spirit thing. Hence the SBs, the fire pets and the ghosty pets. Tanzi on the other hand, only will ever have two rares: Mosh and Oozeworm. The rest of hers are deliberately common. Teigan has a complete mishmash of pets that their main qualification is being green.