Non-Combat Pets for Combat Rogues

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago at 9:19 pm. 4 comments

Now don't get me wrong, you should know by reading this blog, I love damage meters; I love crunching numbers. Mmm.. Numbers. But numbers aren't everything.  It's simply not good enough to beat everyone else on the meters, you need to look good while doing it.  World of Warcraft is a graphical game. It's not a spreadsheet. We don't play with numbers in a vacuum. From the first moment of the game, we were presented with our character's appearance at his or her creation: 4 different races (5 after TBC) for each side, numerous options for skin color, hair color, hair style, face type, etc.  Ten of thousands of combinations. For some, it didn't matter. They hit the random button and then the accept button. For others, we poured over our options — and discovered that we were disconnected when we made our final decisions.

For those of us that are concerned with the appearance of our avatars, we picked whatever gear made our characters more in line with our carefully crafted image, or reluctantly wore whatever helped us reach our goals, resenting it until we found something else.  Now, it's not all about being "pretty".  I know just as many Hordies (and a few dwarves) that revel in looking unattractive and "hardcore".  It's about caring about what your character looks like.

For these players, the allure of non-combat pets is pretty strong.  Especially at level 70 when characters begin to look so similar wearing top-end matched gear, non-combat pets are an element players can use to set their character apart and further distinguish themselves from everyone else.

But let's say you don't care about setting yourself part or how your character might look, I'm going to contend that there's at least one other reason most Rogues might want to consider using non-combat pets: Rogues using non-combat pets stand out more when stealthed.  Just remember not to leave it out in PvP.  While increasing your visibility while stealthed might not matter to you, but in some circumstances it might make it easier for your tank to distinguish you when you are close to your sap.  Or maybe I'm just trying to justify why there's an in-game reason am I never without my pet.

So, if you're a Rogue, what pets should you think of getting?   Breanni, an illustrious member of my home server, has an entire website devoted to non-combat pets.  While I could espouse that certain pets are more suited for Rogues than others, I am simply going to highlight a few of my own favorite pets from my collection.

Valenna's Collection

I've got about 18 pets currently.  I'm not going to go over all of them.  I'm a Rogue, but I'm still not that cruel.  I'm just going to go over three four of my all-time favorites.

• Smoulderweb Hatchling:  My first pet that made me realize that I really, really  enjoyed non-combat pets.  I even gave him a nickname: Orrin.  And we were inseparable for a long time.  Like all of my pets, I enjoyed my Smoulderweb Hatchling because he was quite difficult to obtain.  Gathering the eggs from Lower Blackrock Spire was impossible in a raid and difficult to justify doing in a 5-man before TBC, but easily soloable for a Rogue.  I consider it the quintessential Rogue pet, but I'm obviously biased.
• Magical Crawdad: It took a lot of fishing and catching two [Mr. Pinchy]s for me to get my Magical Crawdad and for that reason alone it's on my list.
• Firefly: If you're not aware, the Firefly pet is obtained from the Bogflare Needlers of Zangarmarsh.  It is also a reference to one of my favorite TV shows.  Some people kill 1 Needler and get their Firefly, some kill thousands upon thousands in a fruitless effort to get one ... and never do.  I'm the latter group.  Luckily, my wife Khatrina is the most awesome person ever and found one on the auction house and purchased it for me for a Happy Thursday gift.  <3
• Spirit of Summer:  I've saved my favorite for last.  Certain pets mean more to  me in some ways (like the Firefly), but the Spirit of Summer is the only pet I've found that you can bring out without breaking stealth.  This alone makes it my favorite pet at the moment.  In addition, Phaelia and I went through the quests to get the Spirit of Summer at the same time and it was an immensely fun endeavour.

There are several pets that I would love to have, but I haven't been able to get. The Panda Cub from the original Collector's Edition is one of them and the Sinister Squashling from the Halloween event is another. It seems like the Panda Cub will forever be out of my reach, but I'll try next Halloween again for the Sinister Squashling.

As for what types of pets I'd like to see I'm still unsure. So, I'll ask my readers which pets they want to see and which do they think would be most fitting for Rogues!

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