Well at least the initial ability of wild caught pets to be cageable was changed early in the MoP Beta. That was an interesting time on the Beta.
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Well, you are very focused. For example:
You started pets - what? a month ago? At your stage of development, I was still happily splashing around in the early Safari achievements, had no idea about Breeds, had no pets at 25.
Of course, those were different times. There were no lists, just less than reliable comments on Wowhead and WarcraftPets. There was little information about breeds, and if there were pet battle addons, I wasnāt aware of them.
Yes, that is true, but itās not just that. The devs have stacked the deck in perhaps more ways even than they intended.
You will notice that Drop pets tend to have only one Breed. There is a good reason for that. It would be REALLY annoying, for example, if Anubisath Idol had 8 Breeds, and you specifically wanted one of those - at a 10% drop rate. 
When composing a strategy, any halfway-experienced battler will prefer single-breed pets. If you set up a strategy using a pet with multiple breeds, you are GUARANTEED to get complaints from people who used the wrong breed (and donāt even know what a breed is 
)
Wild pets tend to come in many breeds, and strat setters will use a single-breed pet instead if possible to avoid those complaints. 
But also, it seems pretty clear that the devs have salted in just a few very strong pets, and made them tradable and very easy to get. Ikky. Starlette (one of the few drop pets with multiple breeds). MPD. TMD. Chrominius. Idol. Zepp. Tonk. Anomalus.
To be fair, this makes the pet battling game easier. And we should also be happy about that ā¦ well, at least part of us should be happy. It lowers baarriers for people to enter battling.
But there is another aspect to this. These pets on the Most Used List are Most Used, in large part, because of these ease of acquisition issues - and as a result, wild pets could be used in many cases.
I have sometimed thought of making a set of strats for every battle using common wild pets only. But Iām lazy.
I feel that. But I also know that the number of battlers would be much lower if the barriers were that high,
Iāll agree with most of this list, the ones I know of, at least. I have no idea what TMD is, or Anomalous.
Ikky, based on my meagre collection, is probably the MVP of pets. I wonāt say heās good for everything, but heās good for a lot of things. Heās also shown to be a good go-to when Iām stumped and donāt know what else to try. I was in the Tanaan Jungle, farming Draenic Seeds for the Crazy Carrot pet, and I kept running into these boss pets and there are apparently a lot of them.
When I couldnāt think of anything else to try, Ikky saved the day a few times. Even if he didnāt bring something down completely, Anubisath Idolās Sandstorm finished the job.
I donāt know. I feel like thereās too much hand-holding. I mean, players go out and kill the mobs for the drops they want. Is going out to catch a pet really such a horrible thing? I never found it that disagreeable. In fact, I kind of enjoy it.
Itās not a high barrier. At all.
Asking people to go out and play the game for the things they want isnāt a barrier. Itās the expectation.
The best gear in the game is not tradable, so why should pets be? Also, the great thing about pet collecting is that it doesnāt matter what kind of gear you have.
I remain impressed by the pet collection youāve built in just a few months, but think you may be missing some perspective with your campaign against tradeable pets. There are a lot of players that collect pets for various different reasons. If you donāt believe pet collectors should just buy pets from the AH, then donāt ā itās as simple as that. Others of us, for various reasons, have the option to pick up a wanted pet from the AH in exchange for gold. Seems fair.
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I guess weāll have to agree to disagree.
If a person wants to, they can buy passable, even good gear from the AH.
The best gear, however, meaning the raid gear, is available only to people who actually do the raiding.
Pets should be the same way. You should be able to buy passable pets. However, the best pets, the pets that allow you to truly dominate, should be available only to those who are willing to play the game to get them.
We should always be striving to include more things in the game, NOT remove them.
If you do not like something, then by all means do not participate in said activity.
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And I believe that people should play the game if they want the rewards that are in the game. Not just buy everything they need at the Auction House.
I donāt believe that a person who just wants to buy pets and is unwilling to go out and capture them, quest for them, etc, is entitled to the same rewards as someone who is willing to play the game and go out and get the pets in the game.
And the Devs obviously agree with this, because the best raid gear is unpurchaseable. If you want the best gear, you play the game to get the best gear.
And if you want the best pets, you go out and play the game to get the best pets.
I donāt know why some pet battlers seem to believe that they should be exempt from the same rules that governs every other aspect of every other game I know of. You want the best stuff, you play the game to get the best stuff, not buy it.
You have every right to your beliefs. Those same beliefs help construct how YOU play. They should not, however, be construed as valid for constructing how others play.
We will just have to agree to disagree on this point.
Best wishes in your gameplay.
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Yeah I think there should be a good balance, the real question is what is āgood balanceā - is it 10% tradeable? probably not - 50/50? idk! It definitely feels like there are too many tradable pets.
I mean, end game carries in exchange for gold exist. You can easily pay gold to a guild for carries and gear. And while itās frowned upon, people have their reasons for doing it. Plus it benefits the high end guilds too, as that gold will likely fund future end game progression for all of their members.
This could be said about cageable battle pets as well. Some people have zero interest in pets, so what are they going to do with a rare pet that drops? If itās cageable, they can sell it and make a profit. Meanwhile, a collector thatās super unlucky now has the option to buy it because of that seller. This encourages people who donāt care about pets to passively participate, and somewhat boosts the morale of collectors that might be struggling.
And unless you want the game to revolve entirely on RNG (oof), cageable pets give players some agency. Want a very specific breed of a pet for a battling strat? Hopefully itās cageable and you can trade/buy it. Otherwise, good luck, see you never I guess.
Personally, I think thereās a fairly good balance of cageable/non-cageable pets. We have wild pets which come in lots of breeds and appearances, and to find your ideal one you have to put in some effort. And on the other hand, there are those RNG dropped pets that can come in multiple breeds, of which maybe only one is desirable for battling. Thankfully, Blizzard can choose to make those cageable, giving players more options. Try to farm RNG yourself, or buy/trade it.
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If they are being carried by the guild, then I assume that theyāre at least going along with the raid and being an active participant. So, in the respect, theyāre playing the game, assuming the risk and the obligations. Itās not like theyāre going to the Auction House and buying the gear.
I really am trying hard to understand that youāre playing WoW, and going out into Azeroth and throwing a cage is a consummate dealbreaker for you. I mean, do you ever think youāre in the wrong game if youāre that upset over the thought of actually having to go into the game and get what you want? Why play WoW if youāre unwilling to go out into the world for the things you want for your character?
I personally enjoyed it. The other day I went out and farmed Draenic Seeds to buy a Crazy Carrot pet, because I needed something with Blistering Cold for mechanical pets. (This was before I learned that the Blistering Cold is the most tedious of pet battle abilities ever. At least Bonestorm gives you something to look at.)
Are you really saying that if Crazy Carrot werenāt available in Auction House, and you actually had to go out and get the seeds for it, that you just wouldnāt do it?
Put it in their collection and never look at it again. Or perhaps they will become interested in pet battles in the future. Or they might summon it just to have it follow them around. Or if theyāre mount collectors, they might need to do the occasional battle to work their way to a mount (e.g. Direbeak Hatchling).
Bifurcation. Youāre assuming only two solutions exist. Make them cageable or depend entirely upon RNG. Other solutions exist. In this very thread they talked about possible changes to the pet battling community. Why not a change that allows the player to change a petās breed? We have stones that allow us to level a pet or turn it into rare quality. Why not a stone that allows us to change its breed?
Most cageable pets only come in one breed, as GrƔinne pointed out, with Iron Starlette being a notable exception.
Iām not saying itās impossible to be forever screwed over by RNG, but it hasnāt happened to me yet. I have farmed pets looking for specific breeds, and I eventually always found them. And it never took long. Yes, Iād get breeds that I didnāt want or already had. But I eventually got the one I needed.
And for the record, Iām not saying Iām totally against buying pets. If you promise not to tell, my Lil Bling was purchased on the Auction House. Why? Because I saw that the only way to get one is from a Blingtron. I see them most of the time when I go to Dalaran, and of course, I grab the package every time, but I never got one. So, not only is Lil Bling dependent on RNG, but on me just happening to find a Blingtron.
I simply felt that I was entitled to have it, because Iāve done the legwork. (I can click on a Blingtron as easily as anyone else.) And just because, after weeks worth of doing it, and RNG was being unkind to me, I felt I should have it. Moreover, thereās no risk involved in getting it. Nothingās going to attack me in Dalaran.)
And I also bought my Soul of the Forge, because I felt that if I were a Blacksmith instead of an Engineer, Iād have it by now. And if WoW wouldnāt restrict us to just two professions, I would have absolutely no problem at all with having to make my own.
But thereās really no need to continue the discussion, at least not with me.
I wasnāt planning on making big deal of this, but for the sake of relieving you all of this apparent need to silence the newcomer whoās threatening the status quo, I wonāt be here. My first (and only month) is just about over, and now that Iām able to leave my house and resume normal activities, Iāve decided I will not renew.
Yes, I really like WoWās pet battling, but the fact is, the game is the absolute suck.
It was fun when I was at lower levels, then I got to Draenor. I had gotten a treasure map from my mission table (which is another suck aspect of WoW; it reminds me of those lame games that people used to play on Facebook). So, when I was out looking for treasures, I remember having a hard time landing my mount in a position where I could dismount and collect the treasure.
It was then that I learned about Pathfinder, and how you had to acquire most of the treasures in any given zone and step foot into every spot on Draenor. And getting some of these treasures involved walking up cables, using Goblin Gliders, and tricky jumps. And that was part of Pathfinder.
And I had already noticed that professions took a deep hit. I take a great deal of pride in the fact that I made the first MPD that made its way to my collection. (The other two were gifts from you generous folks. I didnāt feel bad about adding the gifts, because I knew I could make them. And I even have the mats to make more.)
Thereās no refining ores in Draenor, and apparently no need to build any skillups. At least not to make pets. I can make all the pets in Draenor Engineering at skill level one. Just a matter of farming ores, making a limited number of parts per day and any pet in Draenor takes only gearspring cogs. And one of the takes gearspring cogs and sumptuous fur. I just had to buy the recipes, which were paid for with books in which I was allowed to make one a day.
So, after thanking my lucky stars that I didnāt join WoW while Pathfinder was active, I had to realize that the devs devoted their resources to create what was, by far, the most elaborate achievement in the history of this game, just to keep the players from using their flying mounts, And to do this, they gutted long-standing aspects of the game like professions. And what should have been quests were now just relegated to the mission tables, where you could just pick your followers to go on a quest and check back after a certain amount of time.
I have been trying to fathom why this Pathfinder was so important that aspects of this game ā like questing and professions ā that have existed since the beginning, and made this game into what was once the most popular game in the world, needed to be shafted so badly for the sake of Pathfinder.
When I brought my Blood Elf to create his own garrison (because I wanted to get a second Ikky and Teroclaw Hatchling), who is an herbalist/alchemist to Draenor, he learned about Draenor Herbalism by finding a note attached to the first plant he gathered.
Are you freaking kidding me??? That is not just bad game design. Itās absolutely embarrassing. You pick a plant and find a note attached, which tells you everything you need to know about Herbalism in Draenor. Arenāt the Devs embarrassed?
And the worst part of this is that the Pathfinder you once needed is no longer active. I was able to fly in Draenor the second I got there. But the embarrassing aspects of the design, like professions, that were stunted so badly so that the Devs could create Pathfinder, are still present, and still in their absolutely embarrassing glory.
So, they did a pitiful, slipshod, embarrassing job with professions for nothing. Draenor Pathfinder is no more.
Like I said, Iām still trying to figure out why it was just that important to keep the players from flying. Why not just reach max level and pay the 5000 gold, like in previous expansions?
It really sounds like someone at the top is either intentionally trying to kill this game or they feel some need to punish the players. Because the consensus (from my admittedly small sample group) was that Pathfinder was probably the most hated aspect of the game. And rapidly declining player base seems to bear this out. Yes, you can expect WoW to lose its popularity over time, but not like this.
And yet, despite the fact that the players hated it, itās been redone, again and again.
So, they created Pathfinder and Mission Tables, so then can gut questing and professions like a fish. To say nothing of silly quests that belong at the Darkmoon Faire. Old Nola can set up on the shore of Darkmoon Island and give out prize tickets for helping turtles to the water.
Although I will say one thing for WoW: I thought it was really cool of them to give a voice-acting job to the venerable Maryann Strossner, may she rest in peace. That was really awesome for them to do that.
And itās not just the Tortollans that give these puerile quests, either. The other day, in Nazjatar, I was asked to ārescue this creature.ā I had no idea what I was doing until I looked on Wowhead and apparently, I need to jump on floating jellyfishes to ārescue this creatureā (who looked to be in no danger, as far as I can tell).
I do like pet battling and do like this community. But I hate Mission Tables and shafted professions more than I love pet battling. To say nothing of the eyerolling aspects of the silly quests.
I canāt see myself slogging through Dragonflight Pathfinder, doing yet another round of mission tables and the frivolous quests that canāt be justified as rep building, just so I can fly faster and get to my various dailies more quickly by flying on a dragon.
(Why is my rep being improved upon because Iām helping turtles to the water by shooting albatrosses and crabs?)
So, no need to argue with the annoying newcomer. Heās about to become a newgoer.
Not sure when my month is up, but itās within the next few days. Had a good time. Be well.
I am sorry to hear this, but happy that you are no longer stuck at home.
Fare well! 
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Whew. Thank goodness.
Thank you very much. You were a huge help to me. Moreso than anyone else. I wouldnāt have been able to accomplish as much as I did without you. I know that for certain.
I still donāt believe that a person who buys pets on the Auction House is entitled to the same rewards as someone whoās actually willing to go out, play the game to get what he needs, but obviously, that puts me in the minority.
But even though I donāt like it, Iād rather just leave than mess up the game for pet collectors who have been here longer than I have.
And you guys are really good people. (With one rude exception, who has been blocked. Lifeās too short to waste with people like that.)
But I will say that doing pet battles in WoW was a welcome distraction during my recovery. I had a good time, and I enjoyed my small victories, like things I figured out on my own.
Like I was having a hard time completing my Snowfeather Hatchling quest, which called upon me to complete three World Quests for pets with my Snowfeather Hatchling and two Undead Pets.
At the time, my only max level Undead pets were two Unborn Valākyrs (both breeds) and an infected squirrel. And I was fighting against those two guys in Stormheim, with the beast pets. One of them had a yak with that dratted Wish ability.
But I did it! I probably had some favorable RNG involved, but I did it!
These trivial victories kept my spirits up.
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