Desperately seeking Mr. Bigglesworth

Patch 5.1 is an exciting time, whether you're continuing on your questing for Wrathion in search of a legendary or you're just really jazzed about having more dailies to do. It also introduced the ability to go into old raid instances without actually having to be in a raid, making them much more accessible for solo players. For some of us though, it is an opportunity to continue on with a never ending hunt. The hunt for rare and special battle pets!

Laugh if you will, but patch 5.1 introduces 12 new rare pets that are spread throughout classic raids from the yester-years of World of Warcraft. It gives players incentive to revisit those raid instances, and rewards them with some pretty cool looking pets. It also rewards those with the motivation to farm the content with the achievement Raiding With Leashes. If the achievement wasn't enough, as an added bonus for collecting all 12 new rare pets, you get the pet Mr. Bigglesworth, who may in fact be the most sought after mini pet since he was introduced as the trusted companion of Kel'Thuzad back when Naxxramas made it's first appearance. So, with 12 new rare pet drops from 12 classic raid bosses, how hard can obtaining these magnificent prizes solo be?

Naxxramas

Naxx houses three mini pets from three various bosses for you to obtain, and in my opinion are among some of the cooler looking mini pets you can get out of the new set.

Gluth can drop Gluth's Bone, and will nab you a Stitched Pup. This mini pet looks exactly like Gluth, though it does not summon any masses of undead zombies to chase after you. Soloing Gluth is pretty easy, and really all you have to do is jump out of the pipe and lay into him. He can still Decimate, so dispatch him quickly.

The lovely Maexxna can drop Dusty Clutch of Eggs which will teach you to summon a Giant Bone Spider. Again, this mini pet looks just like the spider monarch, which is pretty cool. Maexxy is a pretty easy kill, and while she will still summon adds all classes should have no problem soloing her down to squish for a chance at the pets.

Blighted Spore will teach you how to summon Fungal Abomination, and all you have to do for it is slay Loatheb. The boss who used to be the bane of healers, and whose name is coincidentally an anagram for Healbot, is pretty easy to kill. You can ignore spores, and he doesn't hit hard enough to really cause any problems even for a cloth wearer. It is an exact replica of Loatheb, and in my opinion one of the more awesome looking boss pets.

Overall, Naxx is one of the easier instances to solo, which is surprising considering that the current incarnation came out so many years after the original debut. You should have no problem tearing through the wings, as even with my substandard DPS capabilities I was able to finish all three pet dropping bosses in under half an hour.

Molten Core

Molten Core is one of those instances that many people remember either very fondly, or with seething hatred. Regardless of which camp you fall in, it also contains 3 rare pets for you to farm up.

Mark of Flame from Sulfuron Harbinger will teach you how to summon a tiny clone of the boss, Harbinger of Flame. Just walk up to the boss and smack it a few dozen times and collect your loot with a chance of awesome mini pet. Nothing really too special about it.

Magmadar also has a chance to let you walk away with one of his little Imp buddies. Blazing Rune will teach you how to summon your very own Corefire Imp, which looks exactly like one of the imps from the trash packs before the boss room. The only real difficult thing about the boss is that he still fears you, so if you have anything to break his Panic, make sure to have it on your action bars, or at least take the time to clear the corehounds immediately near him just in case you get run that way.

Golemagg the Incinerator also has a chance to leave you with a little piece of himself, Core of Hardened Ash. The Ashstone Core doesn't look like any boss, but rather like a white floating rock formation. Just ignore his two little adds, and wail on the boss till he dies. It's quite easy.

MC is about as easy as Naxx with soloing the bosses, and you should have zero problems downing these three. Overall, it took less than 30 minutes to kill all three bosses solo.

Blackwing Lair

Unscathed Egg is one of the harder pets to obtain, as it involves killing Razorgore over in BWL, but it will earn you Untamed Hatchling. The problem with this fight, is that you will still have the stream of adds to contend with while you have Razorgore mind controlled. It's fairly easy for pet classes with aggressive pets, but for most classes you may have to call in the cavalry and bring at least one friend to help you execute the mechanics of the encounter. And yes, he does still explode if he dies before the eggs are cleared.

Broodlord Lashlayer is your next stop on the rare pet train, and lopping off his head you get a chance at a Blackwing Banner. With it you can summon your own Death Talon Whelpguard, a mini version of the Lashlayer for your collection. The boss is easy to solo, you'll honestly spend more time getting through the suppression room than actually fighting him.

Making your way to Chromaggus, you may find yourself the proud owner of a Whistle of Chromatic Bone and your very own Chrominius! Chromaggus is a little tougher than Lashlayer, as he still cycles through all of the aspect colors. Bring your best DPS and kill him before he kills you, otherwise you may be stuck freezing every so often over the next 10 minutes.

BWL is much harder on the difficulty scale when it comes to soloing, and in the case of Razorgore, most classes won't actually be able to solo it. Still the mini pets look awesome as tiny version of their boss overlords. Overall, killing these three bosses took over an hour and a half just because of linear boss fights in between and some mechanics that had to be dealt with.

Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (AQ40)

The last stop on the classic raid boss home tour is AQ40. The house of bug royalty and prophets awaits you with three new mini pets for your collection.

Jewel of Maddening Whispers gives you a perfect replica of The Prophet Skeram in the form of Mini Mindslayer. The boss is actually really easy to solo, as all of his mirror images just converge to wherever you are standing. Just pummel the prophet, nothing special to do.

Our good friend Viscidus also has a present for us, and shattering the gooey pile of bones and mucus can get you your own pile of bones and mucus. Viscidus Globule will teach you to summon a pet by the same name. The hardest part about this boss is that it has to be frozen by frost spells, and can only be killed if it is completely frozen and you do enough damage to shatter it. If you are not capable of any frost spells, you may actually need to call in the cavalry and get a friend to help you out.

Anubisath Idol will let you summon a powerful mini pet of the same name if you happen to get the drop. The only problem being that it drops from Twin Emperors. Specifically Vek'lor seems to carry around a pocket sized version of his guards. There are two ways to do this fight, with friends who can taunt, or just by bringing out the massive damage. When soloing, you have to keep in mind that the bosses will heal each other if they are close, so you have to punch them hard enough to overcome that constant healing. The second way is to bring a friend or two with Taunt and actually execute the boss swapping mechanics. The fight can get annoying very quickly, and the adds still spawn, so even when doing the mechanics burning the bosses down quickly is key.

AQ40 is about as hard as BWL in terms of farming difficulty, but it can be done solo. I would suggest bringing a friend along with you to make it easier. It took me close to two hours to clear through Emps, but that would have been greatly reduced with a friend.

Overall, it is a lot of fun to go into the old instances hoping for new pets, and it doesn't really take up that much time. The only downside is that these are, in fact, rare drops. This means that you may get lucky and get all of them from a zone in one shot, or you may only get one. If you're particularly unlucky you may walk away empty handed. But you can do them every lockout until you get all 12 rare pets, and walk away with your own Mr. Bigglesworth. A nice addition, and an even nicer distraction from all those dailies. Good luck and happy hunting!

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.