After much consideration, I think I've finally decided to not actively seek out battle pets that have multiple skins that are not wild.
This decision doesn't come easily; the collector and semi-completionist in me is cringing and not happy. I do enjoy the different appearances, but I don't think I can stomach the difficulties of trying to obtain non-wild pets of different colors anymore.
I've already written a lengthy
feedback post on the official Bnet Pet Battle forums, detailing why it feels horrible as a collector faced with collecting non-wild pets with multiple skins. On top of the RNG involved and lack of (good) in-game preview tools of caged battle pets for sale, there's also a notable lack of player agency involved.
Let's compare examples of a pet that has player agency vs. one that has little to none. OOX-35/MG is an 8.2 pet that can only drop on days that a daily is active on Mechagon. Meanwhile, Glittering Diamondshell is an 8.2 pet that drops from a rarespawn on Nazjatar. The former can come in 4 different colors, and the latter has 5 skins.
I already have all versions of OOX-35/MG - why? Player agency. The only RNG I had to contend with was the randomness associated with which skin I received after adding the pet to my Pet Journal. I was largely in control of the whole process of collecting this pet. (It could be argued that there's also RNG regarding when the daily will pop up, but I see that as an 'eventuality' rather than completely random.) I did not mind collecting this pet and its multiple colors. It took time, but it didn't feel bad.
The Glittering Diamondshell, on the other hand, drops off a rarespawn that can appear in multiple locations. That's RNG #1; just finding the mob. It's respawn timer, if it's like any of the other 8.2 rares, is between 1 and 1.5 hours. RNG #2; period of time that's somewhat, but not entirely predictable. The battle pet that drops is not guaranteed. RNG #3; purely chance to receive the pet. And last but not least, the skin that you learn is random. RNG #4; no control over whether or not you receive a duplicate color or one that you need/want. All four factors combined makes for a very, very frustrating and discouraging experience. If you take into consideration breed (many dropped pets come in a variety of breeds as well), it's even more demoralizing.
To spare myself the heartache and disappointment, I've decided not to concern myself with dropped pet colors anymore. I could buy them from the AH, but as I explained in my long Bnet post, it's difficult to preview caged pets since the in-game tool currently only shows the default color.
It's tough for me to let go of something that I've been so consistent with throughout my WoW career - collecting all battle pet skins. But without player agency or the tools necessary to collect efficiently, I just can't swallow all of the layered RNG. I'm throwing in the towel. Giving up. The RNG and lack of player agency killed my drive to continue. So I'm done with that goal/challenge. Collect one of whatever pet it is, and then move on.
In my post that I linked above, I offer up some suggestions. Non-wild pets as color-changers, better in-game preview tool, or implementing different skins as separate pets altogether. I don't know how reasonable or practical any of my ideas are, but they're better than the current state of things (IMO).
On the bright side, I will continue to hunt for
wild pets that have multiple colors. The RNG is still there, yes, but unlike dropped pets, I have more control over what, when, how, where I battle and search for wild pets. Randomness isn't overwhelming and I can actually feel like I'm making progress.
As I've mentioned before, the carrot at the end of the stick can only be enticing if you can actually see it.
