What's Worth Collecting in Shadowlands?

Gameplay Pet Battles
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I went to Shadowlands for the first time today. And had I known what was involved, I would have concluded I was some kind of masochist. I never dreamed that the Devs hated us this much.

The Maw, which I went through to gain access was just so tedious. No mounts allowed, no pets to capture. Must make this as big a time sink as possible. Reminiscent of that alternate zone in Legion, where no flying was allowed and the geography was so implausible, Dr. Seuss would have been disbelieving.

Finally, I get to the Bastion, after a long, tiresome meeting with whatever they are in the main city, who speak very slowly and have long pauses in the dialogue between the lines of the different characters. (How many times do I need to explain that I’m in the Shadowlands, and I’m not dead?)

So, while in Bastion, I cause some pets. I got all three breeds of Wild Etherwyrms. Although I think P/P would be most useful, since it’s a flying pet and has Blinkstrike, making Speed of less importance.

I encountered two boss pets, both turtles, and both easily dispatched with the same very old strategy: Unborn Val’kyr and Ikky. I also encountered one Rare, which ran away screaming for help when I attacked. Uh, I thought that was incredibly poor taste. Attacking someone who runs away screaming for help and didn’t attack me once. There’s a challenge in taking down powerful mobs with reinforcements. Then there’s schoolyard bullying. Guess which one this resembled more?

Ugh. Awful, awful expansion. Trying to find my way around obstacles to get to the pets I see. So, what’s worth having in the way of pets?

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You’ll be able to mount…eventually. I don’t remember what we did to unlock it.

As for pets that are useful in Shadowlands:

  • Archetype of Vigilance is nice; it’s a critter with Spirit Spikes, a Deflection-type ability, & Pump
  • Ashen Chomper / Corpselouse Larva / Decaying Mawrat / Frenzied Mawrat / Scurrying Mawrat (Corpse Explosions, Bursts, big hit ability, Haunt, and so on. They’re just handy in general)
  • Any of the foxes that have Howl & Prowl in separate slots
  • Deathseeker (Alternative to Baa’l)
  • Floofa (It has a nice avoidance & magic set)
  • Gizmo (Alternative to Brightpaw with Prowl + Arcane Dash)
  • The wasps with Great Sting & Puncture Wound in separate slots
  • Most of the etherwyrms are pretty handy (but you saw that when you collected some ^^ )
  • Larion Cub with Prowl + Maul
  • Lost Quill is pretty easy to get and a nice alternative to the Enchanted Pen for different family of abilities
  • I love the speedy Tarachnid Stalker & Tarachnid Ambusher for Webs / Poison & Toxic Fumes / Devour the Weak
  • Timeless Mechanical Dragonling (not specifically SLs, but came out around this time). I have 3.
  • Violent Poultrid is the ONLY pet we have (for now) that has a bleed ability & Maul on the same pet in different slots. The bleed, Whirling Talons, is also a Team DoT. It has Peck and not just Slicing Wind (which I dislike) & its speed is 325 after it loses its racial.

There are a bunch of others that have been useful for family strategies, like the Domestic Aunian (critter), but those can be collected on an as-needed basis if no other strategy is working.

6 Likes
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If you’re like most of us, you must collect them all! I played all of SL’s and I still have 30 or so pets sourced from various rares, torghast, and others that I need to collect. And there are plenty of pets (and mounts) to collect in ZM. I had a chat with my pet collector friend this past week and we concluded how really nice of a break it is to go to Dragonflight, but our souls will be in the Shadowlands for years to come. Mwahahaha :alien:

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I bought three with my Badges. Are they still available? I absolute recommend those pets. They aren’t as fast as Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (and usually end up striking last, but their breath weapon is more powerful with razor talons, he is absolute bane of magical pets.

When I find a Magical Pet boss, I just load up three Timeless Mechanical Dragonlings. Decoy, Razor Talons and Flame Breath. Who needs to look up strategies?

Phooey! All that work that we had to put in to getting Baa’l. And now there’s an alternative?

That’s nice, since Brightpaw is a store-bought pet. I hate the thought of store-bought pets being necessary, but I wouldn’t have finished the pet bosses in Legion if not for my Cinder Kitten.

Have you tried an S/S Rose Taipan? It has Blinding Poison and Puncture Wound, and it has a speed rating of 341. Not quite on a par with most Flying Pets, but still pretty decent against everything else. And Blinding Poison does count as Poison for the use of Puncture Wound. It doesn’t hit very hard, but it does have the Beast Pet advantage.

Oh, good. I’m glad I caught myself two Copperfur Kits. The fox pets are so cute.

Thanks for the information. I’m glad to know my visit to Shadowlands wasn’t just an exercise in frustration. Still seeing Ion’s love of difficult geography in this expansion.

ETA: Well, I’m collecting some interesting pets. I just captured a Glimmerpool Hatchling. That’s a neat ability, Steady Snap. 1-2 bites, and one extra bite if you strike last. I caught an H/H, but I see there’s also an H/P that I’m going to try to get. That thing is going to melt Elemental pets.

I finally caught a Pulsating Maggot. They kept bursting every time I try to catch one! I was so frustrated. It’s worse than the time I was searching Northrend for my Unborn Val’kyr, checking all its spawn locations. I finally found one and she cast Unholy Ascension before I could catch her!

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Shadowlands flying got simplified some later on but still takes a main grinding through the startup campaigns in all four zones so you can join a Covenant. Then there are Covenant campaigns to be done. I think it’s now just the first three of them necessary to open up flying.

If you stick with SL, eventually you’ll get to Zereth Mortis, the so-so final zone that was added to keep us subscribing till DF dropped. There are different and somewhat simpler requirements to fly there.

These two are ZM crafted pets. I highly recommend checking AH for them as pet crafting is best left to ppl killing time till next Xpac.

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Ugh, I second this. I bought all of the Protoform Synthesis pets. I could not put myself through the Genesis Mote grind. Which means I have none of the mounts :hugs:

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Yes, the Maw was awful. They did later on though add wild pets to the Maw, including two rare spawns, which are a pain to find. Guessing they don’t show up in the intro scenario.

There were also several added that are only available during the Covenant assaults that take place in the Maw, as well as some rare drops.

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Lord that was a mess from the started …total of needed motes was up in the 19,000 range to be able to make all the mounts and battle pets…I am still missing a few of each now…like you I just couldn’t do the grind for the motes…the other stuff you need was quite easy to get other then one item needed from Normal or higher raid of raid out there…which I’ll won’t see till I can run the place by myself later in years.

I brought a couple of those ZM made pets but most I made myself…

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The Motes weren’t a problem for me since they are BoA and I have entirely too many alts, but I still ended up 6 short - 4 mounts and 2 pets. The pets because they need a raid drop plan and an impossible jumping puzzle plan, and the mounts because they need a raid drop component.

As you say, one day we’ll be able to solo the raid, although I will probably have to accept defeat and buy an Omnipotential Core from someone without age 50+ reflexes.

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I’ve played through SL but never went to ZM. How is it to solo the mats needed to craft the ZM pets?

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For most of the pets you’ll need 200 - 400 Genesis Motes, the right Glimmer and the right Lattice. The motes are occasional drops, 1 at a time, from kills throughout the zone while you’re working on quests and such. They’re account-bound, reason running alts in ZM too can be so helpful. Glimmers are also account-bound but these have drop rates ranging from very poor to pathetic, depending on which one you’re looking for. Lattices have become by far the easiest to get, still low drop rates but they’re also available on the AH and mostly inexpensive.

First of all you’ll need to open up the Pet Forge to do the crafting. This is the usual grind through campaigns, bunch of questlines that you need to do. I believe that gives you access to all the 13 different Archetype pets. There’s 13 other pets that you need to learn a schematic for and some of those recipes can be really hard to get.

Not to make it sound too pessimistic but made more sense all the months working Zereth Mortis than as a side hobby now.

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Thank you for all the information. I’ll certainly go check it out. I just look at the prices of those pets on the AH and wonder if it’s better to try to make them myself or buy them.