Most Used Pets

"Significant Increase" means that a lot of strats have been added using this species since the last list/last expansion.

There is definitely "fashion" among pets. When people see a pet used cleverly in a strat, they tend to think of it when they are making a strat.

Yes, it is also very close to my Tier list, which I wrote in the German forum. :)

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.

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)

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)

Thank you for this list Gráinne. I've been away from the game (I left just before 9.1) and have recently returned. At the time I left there was still a hard cap on the number of pets we could have, and without the pet portals (I had both of them) I would have exceeded that limit. I limited myself to one of each pet, so that I could stay well under the limit.
Upon my return, I have discovered that the hard cap has been lifted, and I've been wanting to start collecting additional breeds, but didn't know where to start. This list is exactly the kind of list I need.

Welcome back, Aestariel!

Use that link
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/pet-breed-survey-2019/20349
to find breeds for other pets not listed above.

Yes, it is 5 years old, but there have been pretty much no pets important for battling with a choice of breeds added in thelast three expansions, so it should be pretty OK.

you can hover over each pet and at the top of the card it will tell you what bread you have collected.

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.

I added the "Top 5 from SL". I hope it helps. :)

Any chance for one for initial dragonflight pets up to like 10.1 soonish?

Tiny Snowman is underrated, especially since the buff to Lightning.

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

I love this page too.

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).

Thank you! Great points I had not considered.

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.

holy cow...I never thought of using that excel export! this is amazing! life changing.

now if I could just tie that list, sorted by unmaxxed, into Rematch to fill the queue, haha.

That Excel export IS lifechanging!

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!

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)

Hey!

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!

Well I'm a dope haha. Thank you and YES I will send a screenshot right now. Thank you for taking concern. <3

Donated and logged in :facepalm: Sorry for being a fruit loop dingus.

You certainly aren't :-)
Thanks for the donation and glad it's sorted!

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.

Aranesh is already on it! See https://trello.com/c/Rz1d2WW3/32-new-tool-most-used-pets (edited)

Nice :D

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