With the expansion roughly 4 months away, give or take a handful of days, I figured it's about time I put together a "to collect" list for anyone looking to focus their attention on certain battle pets before BFA is released.
To be clear: No pets are being removed that I'm aware of. All existing Legion battle pets should still be available in BFA.
However, the difficulty level and how tedious it is to collect could change. Some pets will get tougher to obtain, but not impossible. Other pets will be easier to collect, but only after our player power level has increased significantly. This post will hopefully give some direction on collecting pets that could potentially cause hair loss post-Legion. ;)
Here are the battle pets that I recommend collecting *now* rather than later, in no particular order. (I won't be going into detail on how to collect every single pet on this list. The information's out there!)
★ PVP Prestige Pets
UPDATE #2: New blog post detailing what Prestige Rank(s) we'll need to reach roughly Honor Rank 5 in BFA.
UPDATE: As of May 15's Beta patch, we now know how the existing PVP Prestige companions will be obtained in the expansion. You'll need to reach Honor level 5 for the Dutiful companions, and Honor level 20 for the Wyrmtongue companions (full list of BFA Honor achievements/rewards here). This switch (Dutiful being obtained first and the Wyrmtongue pets second) is excellent news for those that have earned Prestige 1, but are still far away from Prestige 7. In BFA, they should be able to earn the companions that they were unable to reach during Legion.
- Alliance Enthusiast - Prestige Rank 1
- Dutiful Gruntling - Prestige Rank 7
- Dutiful Squire - Prestige Rank 7
- Horde Fanatic - Prestige Rank 1
Absolutely my highest recommended companions to focus on in Legion right now. Actually, it should have been everyone's highest priority months ago. Blizzard has stated that these PVP rewards will still be available in BFA, however with the prestige systemgoing awaybeing revamped, it's still unclear how we'll obtain these pets in the expansion. Same way as now? Or...?
There was recently a developer Q&A in which PVP gear was mentioned as being a random drop from a cache, and I can't help but wonder if these pets will be going the same way -- random drops. Who knows?! So if you prefer a guarantee over RNG, absolutely work on leveling up those prestige ranks NOW. You have static milestones to hit; no RNG to mess up your day. Make the most of the current situation (even if you despise PVP like I do)!
★ Achievement Pets
This is the one achievement pet from Legion (outside of dungeon and raid achievements) that will take time simply due to the fact that WQs are random. You never know if today's Pet Battle WQs have any trainers that are necessary for this achievement.
You'll still be able to make progress on this in BFA, but it'll be a bit tedious since you'll have to travel back and forth from BFA content to Legion content (unless you have 110 alts you're willing to leave behind.)
★ Brawler's Guild Pets
- Clock'em - Brawler's Guild, Rank 3
- Tylarr Gronnden - Brawler's Guild, Rank 3
Similar to the PVP Prestige Pets, there's no indication that these pets will be removed and we can expect to see them in BFA.
However, the Brawler's Guild has the potential to go on hiatus once developers decide the current "season" needs to come to a close. They've put the Brawler's Guild on hold to implement changes and new encounters before, so it's likely they'll do it again in the future. When? Hiatus for how long? We don't know yet. So it's best to collect these two pets while they're available.
★ Dungeon/Raid Pets
- Lagan - Poor Unfortunate Souls
- Micronax - Glory of the Tomb Raider
- Dream Whelpling - after last boss (Xavius) in The Emerald Nightmare raid
Obviously these pets will become MUCH easier to obtain once we've vastly out-leveled and out-geared the content, but if you don't think you can wait that long, be sure to go after these pets while the content is still relatively current.
Once player power level reaches a certain point, solo'ing shouldn't be an issue. Except for probably Micronax - those achievements require *group* coordination to complete the meta.
★ Fishing Pets
- Ghost Shark - Ilyssia of the Waters (Good Friend)
- Sting Ray Pup - Conjurer Margoss (Good Friend)
- Trashy - Conjurer Margoss (Best Friend)
These pets can be obtained solo, however the reputation grind goes MUCH quicker when grouped with other people fishing as well. If slow and steady reputation grinding doesn't excite or interest you, collect these pets while there are still handfuls of people going after them too. The custom dungeon finder will sometimes have "fishing groups" that you can join; fishing buddies helping each other fish more fish!
★ Certain Class Pets
- Bloodbrood Whelpling, Frostbrood Whelpling, Vilebrood Whelpling - Death Knight
- Ban-Fu, Cub of Ban-Lu - Monk
- Crackers - Rogue
The majority of class-exclusive pets in Legion can be collected solo, but IIRC the 3 listed above involve some grouped content. Similar to the Dungeon/Raid pets, it'll get easier to solo once player power level has increased, but until then you're better off going after these pets while there's still participation in this content.
And that's about it, I think? These categories are my top, most recommended battle pets to focus on before BFA.
Are there any pets that I missed? Let me know in the comments. Good luck and happy collecting!
