Going only on my confused understanding of pets, I'm Death/Life I'd be aiming to get a Forlorn Sabertooth as a death focused pet, several reasons.
#1 Its a death hybrid. #2 It's cute. #3 It's really cute.
Now, I only just started playing recently with the family so, does first gen pet mean anything, I see the species you need to breed for this are level 98 quests (presumably a ways off)... Should I just go with something else in the meantime or is there something I should be doing to focus on this with pre-planning?
Ok first off hybrid pets are a mixture of two different school pets. There is a chance you wont get the hybrid but your original school pet back so there is that.
You can also just ask or search the pet hatchery for people that already have obtained the hybrid and just asked them for a hatch. Which means you wouldn't have to wait to get your school pet to try and make the hybrid.
Also the hybrid should have some good talents open already instead of you trying to hatch them into the pet from the start if you started from scratch.
I would post in the pet forum for a request and see if anyone wants to do a hatch with you.
