The below lists show pets most commonly used in strategies on Xu-Fu.
They are by no means an ultimate guide, but should give you a good indication of their importance and usefulness in PvE pet battles.
Micromancer is a good one I've seen for levelling pets in some strats. He can raise dead pets back to life which can permit otherwise impossible fights for levelling to work.
By any chance would it be possible to get a list like this for different expansions? Like what are the most used pets in Shadowlands strats or DF, ect? Either way love this list.
I think my favorite pet not in this list that I would consider the most underrated MVP out of all my battle pets. Is the Tiny Snowman. Blizzard -> Deep Freeze -> Snowball. I can't count the number of PVE and PVP battles I've had that this pet has single handedly destroyed the opponents. He has high damage thanks to the 25% elemental damage buff off Blizzard, Guaranteed stun, and with an S/X breed he actually out speeds many other pets.
I love this page. Thank you for having it! I am using it, along with the xlsx export, to try and narrow down pets to go hunting for, to enable me to use more top quality strategies posted here on the site (I love this site).
To that end, I notice that my process often is:
1. Know I want to do a fight, say for example a Pet Battle Dungeon
2. Sort the strategies by Likes (usually first) then see what pets are used in the top entries.
3. If those are obtainable, go for them. Otherwise go to the next one.
In particular about Dungeons, I know there's an awesome tool to look through strategies based on my collection, I love that too. But what about a solution, perhaps on this page that addresses both processes in a way?
To the point:
Would it possible/feasible to give us a page like this one that contains "Pets ordered by number of likes in strategies they are in" rather than the current best solution (I think) which is "number of strategies they are in"? For example sometimes a single strategy "wins" in a fight, and gets hundreds of likes, I think that it's logical the pets in that strategy could be easily discoverable in a tool meant to help us identify which pets to hunt for. A pet being used in lots of strategies is obviously also good, but I feel like this would help more, considering it's plausible, there could be a pet that someone puts in a strategy on lots of fights, that may work but isn't necessarily the best (garnering less likes/rating).
Regardless, I really appreciate all of the tools here. You make this underappreciated part of the game a ton better!
I've looked at ways of ordering pets for years, and, honestly, I think this is the best way to order them.
Take for example Ravenous Prideling or Tinytron, two pets that are not used a ton, but are EXTREMELY well adapted to a relatively few strategies. Valuing number of likes above number of battles might push them up the list a bit, but at the expense of other more widely-used pets.
Also, number of likes varies by expansion and battle type. Family strats always get fewer likes than regular Quest strats because they are used less.
I notice you are early in your collecting career. I envy you that! At this stage, I would prioritise getting at least one team for all Legion repeatable tamers, and for Squirt. Those are going to be your bread and butter for a while, for levelling pets. Don't rush the rest of it too much; that will come naturally.
Also, when collecting pets for battle, pay attention to Breeds. When a species is available in more than one breed, one of those breeds is sometimes much more effective than the other(s).
I wish there was some way to have these flag in your collection, or have a column in your collection screen that shows the number of strategies, etc, so I can take a quick look at my collection and see who to use a battle stone on when I get one, etc. That's what I end up needing the most, because those stones come randomly from the callings with the followers where they "find something" and I don't always know where to use them.
There IS a column in the Excel version of your coleaction that shows the number of strategies in which each pet is used. It doesn't show on screen, because the screen isn't wide enough for all the columns in the Excel download version.
The Xu-Fu ownership rate and the number of strats for each species are in the last two columns of the Excel sheet, so if you have a way to get an Excel sheet open, that'll do it.
There used to be a site called "Petsearch" that was the original I downloaded into a spreadsheet, back at the end of Mists when I was heading for 600 pets. It saved my life, allowed me to enter notes about what I wanted to get and to level, allowed me to note breeds.
I am SO happy that Aranesh added that option here!
I love this page. Thank you very much for putting it together.
What I wonder is, what are the most used pets beyond that? I am really interested in adding pets to me collection that have a lot of strategies attributed to them but I am unsure how to figure this out about the pets.
Aranesh does have plans to replace this manual list with an automated one covering all pets, so you will likely get your wish at some point.
However, this list covers the pets used in down to 50 strats, and I have to say that going down past Arcane Eye and Restored Revenant, the ground is likely to get very uneven, and the list is likely to be ... hypothetical. I'm not sure I've ever used either of those, for example.
I think it's safe to say that if you have all the pets listed here, as Blue 25s in the best breed, you are pretty thoroughly covered.
If you go to an indidisual pet's page, like https://www.wow-petguide.com/Pet/62130/Giraffe_Calf you will see, on the lower left margin, the number of strategies in which it is used. So if you have a pet in mind, you can get a sense of how often people use it. Which is not quite the same as how useful it can be.
Do not confuse strat popularity with usefulness. I've relied on the Blighted Squirrel and the Sen'jin Fetish since Mists, and still find them valuable, but neither is popular here.
I suspect the presence of Rotten Little Helper and Winter's Little Helper on the current list is entirely due to one exceptional strat-setter, DragonsAfterDark, who uses them cleverly and often.
Strat setters prefer to use pets that people have. (And avoid multi-breed species when possible, because of all the people who don't understand breeds.) People get the pets used by strat setters. It's a feedback loop. (edited)
I love your site and use it often. There is now an ad that constantly pops up in the top left corner. Not ideal spot since it covers most of the links/content =( Can we donate to remove ads or contribute to keep from ads ruining the user experience? I've been in web development for 15 years, I know it's not cheap to run a high demand website but please ad a premium service then! I'd GLADLY pay to remove ads and provide you compensation for the amazing work you all do!
Can you send me a screenshot of the ads if possible? Happy to move them / change them. [email protected] :-)
There is a donation option on the front page but even without that, there is a very simple "premium" version that removes almost all ads: just register an account ^^ It's free and you don't need to add any personal information. Hope that helps!
We update the list regularly (the last time only a few days ago, is also displayed under "Quick Info").
Aranesh is working on an interactive and automatic overview that would always be up to date and where you can also use various filter and sorting options.
But I don't know when to expect it. But it's in the works.
A filter for certain types is a good idea. Thank you.
Nice guide. Thank you very much for your work. After using it for awhile, I found it to be very useful and may I make a suggestion to link these pets with the pet collection imported. This way, I can immediately see which pet I dont have?
Right now the tooltips are from wowhead and I can't edit them, it's just a plugin they offer. It's planned for the (sadly bit far away future) to include this information:D
This is spookily close to my T1 and T2 lists. Just a couple of differences, and the commonality I find most interesting is the number in each tier. There does seem to be a natural break after about 15 pets.
My suggestion is that this list badly needs suggested and preferred breeds, for any newcomer who might use it for guidance.
That's a great point! I hadn't thought of that. While the site does allow for breed requirements, there are also other constraints like minimum speed or power that are hard or misleading to capture in a list derived from the data.
And indeed breed is not always so simple, and we do keep different breeds for different cases.
I'll drop in the survey answers for the species mentioned in these lists, as a comment, at least. I think it's safe to say that a newcomer will not regret choosing the most popular breed of a species.
(Updated 2023 for changes and pets not available in the original)
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsPoetic
wrote on 2023-06-19 06:48:23
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsSmithbob
wrote on 2023-09-03 14:23:07
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsTheresa wrote on 2021-02-21 15:54:56
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsBelazriel#1965
wrote on 2021-03-01 22:51:13
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wrote on 2021-03-20 03:25:56
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wrote on 2023-06-02 18:23:20
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsKatsuku wrote on 2023-05-21 19:46:03
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsKillcannon wrote on 2023-04-19 22:27:49
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2023-04-20 21:39:14
But I love him because of his animations in a battle. Watch closely as he throws a snowball, and watch his hat when he takes a hit. <3
3
You must be logged in to vote on commentsokuraku
wrote on 2023-04-06 04:42:04
To that end, I notice that my process often is:
1. Know I want to do a fight, say for example a Pet Battle Dungeon
2. Sort the strategies by Likes (usually first) then see what pets are used in the top entries.
3. If those are obtainable, go for them. Otherwise go to the next one.
In particular about Dungeons, I know there's an awesome tool to look through strategies based on my collection, I love that too. But what about a solution, perhaps on this page that addresses both processes in a way?
To the point:
Would it possible/feasible to give us a page like this one that contains "Pets ordered by number of likes in strategies they are in" rather than the current best solution (I think) which is "number of strategies they are in"? For example sometimes a single strategy "wins" in a fight, and gets hundreds of likes, I think that it's logical the pets in that strategy could be easily discoverable in a tool meant to help us identify which pets to hunt for. A pet being used in lots of strategies is obviously also good, but I feel like this would help more, considering it's plausible, there could be a pet that someone puts in a strategy on lots of fights, that may work but isn't necessarily the best (garnering less likes/rating).
Regardless, I really appreciate all of the tools here. You make this underappreciated part of the game a ton better!
3
You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2023-04-06 05:45:05
I've looked at ways of ordering pets for years, and, honestly, I think this is the best way to order them.
Take for example Ravenous Prideling or Tinytron, two pets that are not used a ton, but are EXTREMELY well adapted to a relatively few strategies. Valuing number of likes above number of battles might push them up the list a bit, but at the expense of other more widely-used pets.
Also, number of likes varies by expansion and battle type. Family strats always get fewer likes than regular Quest strats because they are used less.
I notice you are early in your collecting career. I envy you that! At this stage, I would prioritise getting at least one team for all Legion repeatable tamers, and for Squirt. Those are going to be your bread and butter for a while, for levelling pets. Don't rush the rest of it too much; that will come naturally.
Also, when collecting pets for battle, pay attention to Breeds. When a species is available in more than one breed, one of those breeds is sometimes much more effective than the other(s).
2
You must be logged in to vote on commentsokuraku
wrote on 2023-04-06 14:08:41
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You must be logged in to vote on commentseboe
wrote on 2022-03-06 17:57:57
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2022-03-06 18:04:08
The Xu-Fu ownership rate and the number of strats for each species are in the last two columns of the Excel sheet, so if you have a way to get an Excel sheet open, that'll do it.
2
You must be logged in to vote on commentsGrapefruit#1167
wrote on 2023-02-19 17:19:45
now if I could just tie that list, sorted by unmaxxed, into Rematch to fill the queue, haha.
1
You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2023-02-19 20:21:38
There used to be a site called "Petsearch" that was the original I downloaded into a spreadsheet, back at the end of Mists when I was heading for 600 pets. It saved my life, allowed me to enter notes about what I wanted to get and to level, allowed me to note breeds.
I am SO happy that Aranesh added that option here!
0
You must be logged in to vote on commentsTilutin wrote on 2023-01-17 12:57:25
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsmAd#1759
wrote on 2021-10-08 07:42:50
What I wonder is, what are the most used pets beyond that? I am really interested in adding pets to me collection that have a lot of strategies attributed to them but I am unsure how to figure this out about the pets.
5
You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2021-10-08 08:09:07
However, this list covers the pets used in down to 50 strats, and I have to say that going down past Arcane Eye and Restored Revenant, the ground is likely to get very uneven, and the list is likely to be ... hypothetical. I'm not sure I've ever used either of those, for example.
I think it's safe to say that if you have all the pets listed here, as Blue 25s in the best breed, you are pretty thoroughly covered.
If you go to an indidisual pet's page, like https://www.wow-petguide.com/Pet/62130/Giraffe_Calf you will see, on the lower left margin, the number of strategies in which it is used. So if you have a pet in mind, you can get a sense of how often people use it. Which is not quite the same as how useful it can be.
Do not confuse strat popularity with usefulness. I've relied on the Blighted Squirrel and the Sen'jin Fetish since Mists, and still find them valuable, but neither is popular here.
I suspect the presence of Rotten Little Helper and Winter's Little Helper on the current list is entirely due to one exceptional strat-setter, DragonsAfterDark, who uses them cleverly and often.
Strat setters prefer to use pets that people have. (And avoid multi-breed species when possible, because of all the people who don't understand breeds.) People get the pets used by strat setters. It's a feedback loop. (edited)
1
You must be logged in to vote on commentsTravis wrote on 2021-03-13 09:10:03
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsAranesh
wrote on 2021-03-13 11:23:42
Can you send me a screenshot of the ads if possible? Happy to move them / change them. [email protected] :-)
There is a donation option on the front page but even without that, there is a very simple "premium" version that removes almost all ads: just register an account ^^ It's free and you don't need to add any personal information. Hope that helps!
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsTravis wrote on 2021-03-15 10:15:02
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wrote on 2021-03-15 11:20:35
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsAranesh
wrote on 2021-03-16 05:29:57
Thanks for the donation and glad it's sorted!
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsScarycurls
wrote on 2021-02-17 10:45:57
Thank You
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsCinderbyte wrote on 2020-12-19 17:43:29
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsNyari
wrote on 2021-01-02 03:28:07
Aranesh is working on an interactive and automatic overview that would always be up to date and where you can also use various filter and sorting options.
But I don't know when to expect it. But it's in the works.
A filter for certain types is a good idea. Thank you.
1
You must be logged in to vote on commentsrousseauxy#2872
wrote on 2020-09-24 17:35:56
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2020-09-24 18:09:24
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wrote on 2020-09-26 10:23:30
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You must be logged in to vote on commentszanomo
wrote on 2019-10-23 09:05:24
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsAranesh
wrote on 2020-03-02 08:13:31
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You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2019-04-09 21:28:31
This is spookily close to my T1 and T2 lists. Just a couple of differences, and the commonality I find most interesting is the number in each tier. There does seem to be a natural break after about 15 pets.
My suggestion is that this list badly needs suggested and preferred breeds, for any newcomer who might use it for guidance.
1
You must be logged in to vote on commentsNyari
wrote on 2019-04-10 10:25:25
Breeds are unfortunately not included in the data. Of course I could copy it from my own Tier list, but then it would not be just the data anymore.
And while I know what is likely to be most beneficial, I do not know if that is actually what is most used.
For example, the Zandalari Raptors are probably the best in P/P and S/S, but I also know strategies where you need a P/B one.
13
You must be logged in to vote on commentsGráinne
wrote on 2019-04-10 13:11:27
And indeed breed is not always so simple, and we do keep different breeds for different cases.
I'll drop in the survey answers for the species mentioned in these lists, as a comment, at least. I think it's safe to say that a newcomer will not regret choosing the most popular breed of a species.
(Updated 2023 for changes and pets not available in the original)
Blightbreath H/P(59%), H/S(26%), B/B(15%)
Blighted Squirrel H/P(47%), P/B(32%), P/S(21%)
Blighthawk P/S(37%), H/P(35%), H/H(21%)
Chitterspine Skitterling S/S(62%), P/S(28%), S/B(10%)
Cogblade Raptor S/S(60%), S/B(20%), B/B(20%)
Dream Whelpling P/P(54%), P/S(27%), P/B(19%)
Emerald Proto-Whelp P/P(63%), P/S(23%), P/B(14%)
Emperor Crab P/P(64%), H/H(36%)
Eternal Strider P/S(75%), S/B(25%)
Fel Flame H/P(37%), H/H(37%), H/S(27%)
Flayer Youngling S/S(43%), P/P(27%), H/H(5%)
Gulp Froglet H/P(43%), H/B(30%), B/B(27%)
Infected Squirrel H/P(68%), P/B(32%)
Iron Starlette P/P(40%), P/S(23%), H/H(19%)
Jade Owl P/S(63%), P/B(33%), B/B(4%)
Kun-Lai Runt P/P(49%), P/S(35%), P/B(16%)
Lesser Voidcaller H/P(59%), H/S(15%), H/H(15%)
Mechanical Axebeak P/P(43%), S/S(24%), H/P(14%)
Menagerie Custodian H/P(41%), H/H(31%), H/S(28%)
Minfernal P/P(28%), H/H(26%), P/S(21%)
Mud Jumper H/B(63%), B/B(37%)
Nether Faerie Dragon S/S(33%), P/P(27%), H/P(17%)
Nexus Whelpling P/P(58%), P/S(25%), P/B(18%)
Scourged Whelpling H/H(67%), P/S(33%)
Shimmershell Snail or Mudshell Conch H/P(63%), H/B(21%), B/B(16%)
Sister of Temptation S/B(38%), P/B(35%), H/B(19%)
Spring Rabbit (or other fast rabbits) S/S (speed 357)
Summit Kid S/S(50%), S/B(50%)
Tiny Twister H/S(44%), H/P(24%), H/H(18%)
Twilight Clutch-Sister P/S(53%), P/B(34%), S/B(13%)
Unborn Val'kyr H/H(56%), B/B(44%)
Zandalari Anklerender S/S(34%), P/P(34%), P/B(18%)
Zandalari Kneebiter S/S(45%), P/P(33%), P/S(18%)
More about the survey and how to interpret it:
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/pet-breed-survey-2019/20349 (edited)
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