Yesterday, I finally got into Korthia. Not a bad place to be. No Jailer debuffs and a whole set of new pets to catch.
Then came Young Garnetgullet. Which is certainly a different creature. Looks like the missing link between raptors and birds.
It seems like every time I was on the verge of catching one, it would suicide itself. Young Garnetgullet is a critter, and it employs Feral Strike, a Beast attack that also does Beast damage to the Garnetgullet itself every time it hits. And because Garnetgullet is a critter, the Beast damage it takes from its own attack is increased by 50%.
After about four losses of this pet due its use of Feral Strike when it’s in capturable stage (thereby killing itself), and getting really frustrated, I finally decided to think about ways to avoid this. I replaced the lead pet in my capture team with Spring Rabbit. Then, when Garnetgullet was in the capturable stage, Dodge. Which bought me the time I needed to land a cage on him.
I can’t remember trying to catch a pet that frustrated me more.
But then I got to thinking, there are other pets that are annoying to capture. Such as Emerald Proto-Whelp, which can heal itself out of capturable stage. To say nothing of the fact that it’s restricted to a very small area.
But my pick for most annoying is Unborn Val’kyr. It only spawns in certain places and you have to watch what abilities it’s using. If it casts Unholy Ascension, then it’s dead and you’ve lost it. Also, its Haunt ability makes it uncapturable.
What’s the most annoying pet you’ve ever had to capture?
Yeah, it can be a real frustration catching pets with self-destruct abilities. The good news is that some pets only have one self-destruct ability and since abilities are randomized it might not be one of their three abilities. Just hovering over the pet in combat shows its move list and whether you’re going to have to deal with it.
If you’re trying to catch a backline pet you can use an attack that damages backline pets to soften it up before it enters battle, then hope it doesn’t self-destruct before you catch it.
Oh, another useful tactic is to use Sunlight. It increases potential max HP of every pet and therefore brings all pets closer to the capturable zone, as well as dealing damage. Sometimes one use of Sunlight is enough to make a pet capturable!
One thing a lot of people don’t know is that if you encounter that pet which will kill itself, if you forfeit and fight it again, it may have its moveset changed (the moves can change with every battle restart). I’d say any pets with Burst ability were the toughest to catch, but then I learned about what I just wrote.
I was frustrated by the Predatory Helicid. And I have to say, I have to chuckle at the idea of a snail being predatory. This thing couldn’t catch a three-toed sloth. What on earth could a Predatory Helicid possibly predate on?
It’s also a rare instance in which the B/B breed is better than the purebreed version, since the only purebreed it has is S/S. A 25-rare S/S would place it at a speed of 200. I’m underwhelmed. A B/B is slower, but it has greater power and health, and health is the reason we use snails.
But I caught three today (and released one, because I was looking for the H/B version, and I had caught two B/B before I finally got the H/B). But every single time I fought these things, they open with Shell Rush, which swaps them out immediately.
So Stemmins gets swapped out, and Anubisath kills the replacement, Predatory Helicid comes back in, so Stemmins comes back in. And Helicid swaps himself out again. And Anubisath comes back in. It played that way all three times.
Momma Vombata was another rough customer I caught today. She got lucky with the stuns and the devastating Wombo Combo, and despite being a poor quality pet, she actually killed Stemmins. With all the stuns, I just could not get a turn to unplant myself and get a heal.
But fortunately, I still caught her. And (thank you, Devs, for small favors) I don’t have to look for the right breed because she only comes in S/S.
I’m top-10’ish on my server for: mounts, toys, xmog, and Achv. But my pet collection had fallen off. Largely because I dislike how you can just buy your way to the top (and I don’t buy anything off the AH).
But I decided to get back on track last week.
I got 67 pets last week!
Which maybe isn’t such a big deal if you only have 100. But in the 1600+ range, capturing 67 was a decent effort.
Impressive! That’s a heck of a lot of pets to get in one week, especially in the 1600 range. Maybe if you missed an expansion and bought them on the AH, but some of the pets are an absolute slog to get!
haha ty, yes. It’s a little misleading in that, for a big chunk of them, I only focused on MOUNTS in Zerith Mortis. I didn’t really get any of the pets. Farming Motes was just… I couldn’t be bothered. Doing it for mounts was all I could stand.
So there’s, what, almost 30 pets, just in ZM!! That was most of it. The others were some low-hanging fruit that, again, I just never set aside the 5-10mins to knock them out.
I think that’s very impressive. One month ago, I was surprised when I purchased a Pet from the Trading Post, and I also got a Crystalline Mini-Monster. I was wondering where it came from, thinking perhaps it was some kind of Christmas gift or something.
But the nice folks here explained to me that Reindeer I purchased from the Trading Post happened by my 1200th unique pet, and the Mini-Monster was my reward for the achievement.
That was one month ago, and now I’m up to 1293. So, 93 unique pets in one month. And I thought that was hard, but it pales in comparison to yours.
I’ve been catching all the pets I can in Zereth Mortis. And I’m trying to get the right breeds. Some of them have so many breeds.
Others, thankfully, like Momma Vombata (S/S), the Venomous Bufonid (P/P), Scarlet Proto Avian (S/S), only come in one breed. With others, it’s kind of hard to decide.
But even thought I’ve caught everything I can in Zereth Mortis, I’m still sorting out which breeds I should have. Do I need to release some of them and resume hunting? I’ve been trying to do it as I go along, but I fell behind.
Now… I rename all my pets, and if I get a P/S, H/S, etc and a Pure breed exists, I’ll name the pet “Get Pure” to remind myself a better option exists. But I can’t think of a single example of where I’ve had to go back and replace.
It’s like I tell people new to the collecting game: there might be almost 1700 pets in the game, but you only need ~50 to do every form of pet battle content currently in the game. There’s no reason to worry so much about having EVERY pet be absolutely perfect.
Everybody plays different, but that’s how I roll.
As I mentioned, I have reservations about the idea that “Purebreed is always, always, always the best.”
For the most part, it’s true.
But I remember my first Unborn Val’kyr happened to be a B/B (and I have since collected the H/H). And some here on the board made a point of telling me that the H/H is the better of the two.
Really?
The B/B strikes harder and faster, and since the Unborn Val’kyr is an Undead, whatever supposed advantage the H/H has is offset by the immortal round.
The Predatory Helicid (why they named on our pets after an antacid is beyond me), comes in S/S, H/B and B/B.
In this case, I think the purebreed is the worst of the lot. S/S Predatory Helicid at level 25 and rare has a speed rating of 200. I’m underwhelmed.
It’s just not what we use snails for. I personally think the H/B is the best option of the three. Greater Health pool and more striking power. I’m not really going to forgo the H/B for an S/S snail which, despite being S/S, has a poor to lackluster speed rating and nothing in the way of extra power or health.
Long as you’ve been introduced to Korthia, you might want to check back there occasionally and see if you can get a Questionable Mawshroom to drop from one of the Invasive Mawshrooms. Eating that Mawshroom will get you high and let you see, and capture, a Mawtouched Geomental pet in Zereth Mortis.
There is a misconception that Haunt uses HP similar to Explode. Almost every strat for Unborn Valk is the Curse of Doom / Haunt combo paired some form of Blackclaw / Flock combo. If you look at the stats the B/B version is better than the H/H version as it hits harder.
I agree completely. B/B is regarded as the very worst possible breed, and in most cases, that’s probably true.
But in rare instances, B/B is superior to pure breeds, like H/H in Unborn Val’kyr. And while I think the H/B is the best of the choices in the case of Predatory Helicid, which is a snail, the B/B version is certainly better than the S/S version, with its underwhelming speed stat of 200.
