1826 pets
Their larger counterparts are known as "fearsome creatures made of pure nightmare", and hunting down this pet might prove to be just as nightmarish. Don't let that thought discourage you, though. This month we're covering everything you need to know about the Unborn Val'kyr!
Collecting the Unborn Val'kyr
The rarity and randomness of spawns also adds to this pet's desirability, making it a prize find for any collector.
On top of all of this, the Unborn Val'kyr is currently the only wild pet with an idle interaction; she will resurrect any nearby dead critters (pictured right). She's an incredibly unique pet that isn't easy to find.
The Unborn Val'kyr has three specific spawn locations in each of the nine Northrend zones. This comes to a total of 27 possible spawn points. Normally only one Unborn Val'kyr will appear as a primary wild pet a single zone, however there have been a few reports on lower population servers where two pets were found in the same zone, at the same time.
The spawn timer for this pet can range anywhere from minutes to hours. It's speculated that a player's successful capture of one will positively influence the spawn rate of the next Val'kyr, possibly triggering a faster respawn in another zone.
There are a few methods to collecting an Unborn Val'kyr. The first is to simply linger in a zone or at a spawn point. Expect to wait a very long time if you take this approach; her spawns can be unpredictable!
Alternatively, instead of waiting around, you can follow a predetermined route to check on each of her possible locations. A /tar macro is helpful, so you can quickly check an area as you fly by. You do run the risk of missing a spawn while traveling though.
Another method is to create alts on different servers, or use the Group Finder tool to temporarily transfer yourself to another server.
The last trick to finding an Unborn Val'kyr is similar to the first method, however instead of using a single character, it requires multiple characters placed all across Northrend. Being able to quickly log over from toon to toon to check a location reduces the chance of missing an Unborn Val'kyr popping up while in transit.
However you decide to hunt for this pet, you'll want to check her abilities before having your pet cast the first attack. Although not as common as before, a wild Unborn Val'kyr using Unholy Ascension can commit (permanent) suicide, making it impossible to capture her. Restarting the battle, without having killed the Val'kyr, to get her to generate a different set of abilities is recommended if you don't want to risk your little angel of death.
Battling with the Unborn Val'kyr
The Unborn Val'kyr is gorgeous little pet that really gets the job done, if the job you need done is wrecking things with Undead carnage.
Her first slot features two no-frills Undead damage abilities: Shadow Shock and Shadow Slash. Oddly, due to some tinkering with numbers over the years, for now Shadow Shock is the clear choice. Both abilities have identical accuracy, cooldown and mechanics but Shadow Shock hits for a base one additional damage. Not a make or break, just something to be aware of.
The second slot features Siphon Life, a short, lackluster DoT with an equally lackluster flat (ie, not modified by damage dealt) heal per tick.
The better choice in most situations is Curse Of Doom, a long-term debuff which explodes for 620 damage after four rounds. This explosive debuff is paired extremely well with the third-slot ability Unholy Ascension (pictured above), which carries on long after the Val'kyr is gone. For a whopping nine rounds, Unholy Ascension debuffs all the pets on the opposing team for an additional 25% damage done per hit. Doing so will kill your Val'kyr permanently though, so use it strategically!
The last ability in the Unborn Val'kyr's moveset is Haunt. Haunt temporarily 'kills' your Val'kyr. It then adds a big DoT over four turns, which deals 150 damage per tick, nearly as much as Curse of Doom overall. Haunt has been a bit buggy since its launch, killing your Val'kyr anyway if it was dodged for a while, eg, but unless you have a specific plan, it has such amazing damage throughput it's worth the gamble.
Check out our forum thread discussion on the Unborn Val'kyr and submit your own thoughts on this pet.
Battling Discussion on the Unborn Val'kyr
Pet of the Month is co-written by Liopleurodon, an experienced pet battler and long-time WoW player. She maintains her own Pet Battle blog, comprised of pet analyses, team strategies and general thoughts on pets.
I found this on my second day. It was poor. My pet did ofc crit on it and it die. Later same day did i find one more, poor again and this time i catch it. My friend didnt have one and i told him to i will find one to him... 5 min later in zuldrak did i find poor one.... Another guildie didnt have it. So here do i come 2 weeks later to find one for him an wola, rare unborn in storm peaks :)
I was lucky enough to have just come home from work around server reset time. I logged in, hoping against hope to find one. I flew to K3 (I had been told by several people on my server that she spawned north of there frequently) and low and behold, there she was. I was a Molten Corgi, Cinder Kitten, and Lil' Bling (all 25 rares) to catch her. Being 6am my time, I had to keep myself from jumping up and down with joy when I caught her.
Good hunting everyone! Don't give up!
I was really lucky with this one; managed to find it first time around though it was a poor version. Still, kept hold of it and trained it up, upgraded to rare and bang, she is now one of my strongest pets.
Alas, I did not bookmark it, but one day I was trolling through comments for strategies to kill some pain in the butt boss without one- so many strategies revolve around this super-RNG-ed pet. Finally someone says what I've been thinking all along: "If I see one more strategy using [Unborn Val'kyr], I'm going to reach out and slap the internet."
If anyone has this bookmarked, please post it/the author's name for credit!
RE: capturing it- post-server-restart ftw, in my case.
I was camping this in Icecrown for a friend and since she did not do the quests in the area, she couldnt see it. She was so frustrated! I still had a 3rd slot available for her so I tamed it but a few days later we found another for her in Icecrown as well. My only other big petpeeve are people who see you are clearly battling pets, and then when you leave the battle to change a pet, they jump in and steal it. This is happening with many different pets. STOP At least ask first before jumping in!
I flew from spawn point to spawn point during the early morning hours, and I was fortunate enough to collect all three of my Unborn in just the span of a few days. all three were in the eastern spawn localities.
Ugh. I've been searching for one of these for months on end and have still yet to find one.
Be warned.
For me, the most frustrating and most unpleasant moment I have ever had with WOW was to actually find one of these pets after months of searching and have it kill itself with Unholy Ascession. I am still looking for my second.
I just wanted to say that if you want a Val'kyr they're actually pretty easy to get; you need to fly to each of the spawns though and early morning seems to be the best. Both times I tried I got one, first was an H/H and second was a B/B. That's on a crazy busy server with zones like Storm Peaks full because of the rare mount.
First round flying around Crystalsong Forest and there she was. It was a common one, but captured her fairly easy with my Molten Corgi and used some stones to make her rare and lvl 25.
For anyone still needing an Unborn Val'kyr, they are easier to get now with the ability to Cross-Realm hop quickly.
The plan was to stand in the area where the pet spawns and realm hop. I chose to start in Borean Tundra for this experiment. Once I cycled through all of the realms on my list, I moved to the next spot and repeated the process. I got my Val'kyr in less than 15 minutes and only having to check 2 spots.
Suggested addons: Pet Tracker & Cross-Realm Assist
Almost perfect!
I once ran across one of these in Stormpeaks, a friend of mine was having a bad day so I let her have it without knowing just how rare she was. It took me months to find another one, but I finally did.
One thing I recommend is park an alt at one of the spawn points (or a few of them if you have that many alts) and jump onto that alt a few times a day, and if you can fly, do a quick flight around the zone. I think I found both of the ones I've seen in Stormpeaks.
I camped alts throughout the areas, and just logged them daily. Takes a lot less time than flying an endless loop.
Still took ages, but that's random spawns for you. Just be careful not to get over-excited when it finally appears, and go in with a turnip to avoid killing it!I think when you least expect to find an Unborn Val'kyr, that's when one shows up. That's how I found mine - I wasn't even looking.
I got mine by going to a non-cross realm server. That was a few years ago and I don't know if there are still a few servers like that or not.
I use the b/b Valkyr with Lil Bling to take down Zao and XuFu every week in the Celestial tourney. Those 2 pets take both bosses down with no healing needed ..
You beat Zao first (3rd pet not used) then beat XuFu and use a single Warbot missile to finish when needed vs XuFu
A while back I started looking for this pet using the flying from point to point strategy. I got lucky and found one the first time I went through the path. It was a poor balanced type. I caught it and got a rare stone and now it's one of my favorite pets. I wish i could get a better type but I'm just happy i have it.