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Addon Spotlight: Get prepped for Pet Battles

Mathew McCurley
Updated ·7 min read

Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

At this very moment, I am taking a break from running dungeons, farming for transmogrification equipment, because the instance counter has ticked to five in an hour and I just can't go back in. I am no stranger to farming and farming and farming for something that I want. As an MMO veteran, this is pretty commonplace and something we expect and understand as a fact of our MMO lives. With Pet Battles coming in Mists of Pandaria, those rare pets out in the world are becoming even bigger status symbols, when we gain the ability to finally show off, train, and battle those companions.

Like most of my articles, it all started with an email from reader Josh:

My question is there an addon that tracks and counts the number of mobs or certain mobs you kill? I'm starting to farm mobs for mini pets and just counting in my head gets boring (doesn't help my mind tends to wander).

Thank you very much :)

When I asked on Twitter for recommendations for an addon to feature this week, two addons stood out from the pack because of my current obsession with finding every rare pet left for me to catch and bosses just not dropping my transmog items. @Skolnik (of the immensely interesting podcast Warcraft Less Traveled) recommended Bunny Hunter, an addon that tracks statistics based on your farming sessions for rare pets and mounts that have low drop rates. Another addon I've been meaning to recommend, Rarity, lives in the same category, so why not package it all together?



Bunny Hunter

Farming for rare pets is totally boring! Bunny Hunter will tell you exactly how boring it is with numbers and percentages that prove how long you've been spending endlessly beating your face into a wall for that Green Wing Macaw. Speaking of that infamous parrot, Bunny Hunter will track all of those Bloodsail Pirates you've ruthlessly murdered for a chance at holding their parrot friend on your own shoulder. Bunny Hunter also supports such pets as the Tiny Emerald Whelping, the Dark Whelping, the Deviate and Gundrak Hatchlings, that impossible-to-find Sprite Darter Egg, and more.

If you are so inclined to branch out and farm for some mounts instead, Bunny Hunter has got you covered. Mounts such as the Blue Proto-drake, Raven Lord, Red Qiraji Battle Tank, Fiery Warhorse (sorry, Shade), and others will be tracked just the same as with pets.

Bunny Hunter is easy to use. Just type /bh or /bunnyhunter after installing the addon, and you're good to go. Minimal customization options are available but that's not really an issue, especially when you're farming pets and the last thing you care about is making it look pretty. The addon works out of the box and does the job while still looking nice and compact. Just don't forget to loot those mobs, people.

Download Bunny Hunter at [Curse].

Rarity

For those of you who want to take the concept of Bunny Hunter and reach for even greater heights, let me introduce you to Rarity. Inspired by the work that Bunny Hunter forged, Rarity tracks everything. Did I say everything? Because I meant everything. Zone-wide drops, archaeology pet projects, fishing pets, item usage pets like Mojo from Zul'Aman, container and two-level loots like the White Polar Bear and the Disgusting Oozeling ... It's all here. Totally customizable and thorough, Rarity is a collector's dream.

If you've been using Bunny Hunter for awhile and have lots of kill data already saved in the addon, Rarity can import that data so you don't have to start fresh. You can even update the addon with the number of kills you've already racked up before installing the addon to give you you're accurate percentage of kills to pet finds. The addon looks at your pets and mounts already collected and figures out what you don't have yet.

The utter completeness of Rarity is astounding to me. If you're going to use Rarity with any seriousness, I would suggest getting an LDB addon or bar to use with it, because Rarity has one of the best LDB feeds out there in addon world. If you need some recommendations for LibDataBroker bars, check out my Addon Spotlight on getting started with LDB addons.

You seriously can't go wrong with Rarity for the complete pet and mount grinding/farming experience.

Download Rarity at [WoWAce].

Take the boring out of grinding

Pet and mount grinding and farming can be a total drag! How can you spend time killing mob after mob, running dungeon after dungeon, without checking yourself in to voluntary rehab? Well, I have some totally real suggestions for you and recommendations on stuff you could be doing while grinding and farming for pets.

  • Listen to Dune on audiobook. 21 hours of the most awesome sci-fi book ever written. I used to listen to audiobooks all the time on long legal projects. Seriously, you won't be disappointed. You can even get it for free from Audible if you do some searching around for a free Audible sign-up code.

  • Listen to the WoW Insider Show podcast. What better time to catch up on your favorite WoW Insider personalities talking about everything Azeroth for an hour a week?

  • Try the Nitpixels podcast. What better time to catch up on your favorite WoW Insider personalities talking about everything not-Azeroth for an hour a week? A little more mature.

  • Actually, just hit the podcast roundup. Anne puts together this awesome list ... I think you may have heard about it.

  • Watch TV on a second monitor. Seriously, this is the best thing that has ever happened to farming for stuff in MMOs. Seasons 1 through 3 of Breaking Bad are on Instant Watch. You have no excuse.

How about one quick Addon Mailbag before I book it for the weekend?

Hi Mat

Avid reader of the column, and have gotten many great addon tips from you. Love the column, and love the ideas that you give both here and in Reader UI.

I'm trying to clean up my UI and get rid of some of the older addons that I've been reluctant to let go of because I can't find anything that works better for me. I've done a good job with most of it, but was hoping that you could help me clean up my last piece. I use FuBar. Yes, FuBar. I know it's old and antiquated, but I really like the ability to put many of my non-essential buttons and information in a nice small easy to use spot. It keeps my mini map uncluttered and puts a lot of my information (Wintergrasp/Tol Barad Timer, incoming whispers, online friends/guildies, etc) into a spot where I can quickly glance up to see what I need to know.

However it's been a long time since FuBar itself was updated, and many of the Fu addins for it haven't been either. What can you suggest that would give me the same functionality as FuBar, but is a little more up to date?

Thanks,

Tatharnio

As I stated above, your best bet to replace FuBar is to go with a LibDataBroker bar and its compatible addons. LDB does a whole bunch more and (in my opinion) makes it easier to use than FuBar did. That is not to discredit FuBar -- without it, the world of LDB would not exist. Here's my Addon Spotlight on LDB bars and another one on more Broker addons.

Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wowinsider.com.