Celestial Tournament 101 [Full tourney + 4 beasts tips]

[Bretonas]

I can only recommend a [pet]Crimson Lasher[/pet] for Shademaster Kiryn.

You start with Stun Seed, Soothing Mists and then Lash. Doesn't seem the optimal to fight humanoid, but wait til Stun Seed kicks in and he is forced to swap pets. He'll swap the mech in and because of that he'll lose 1 turn right there. Now you "lash" the crap out of it. Cast another Soothing Mists when CD is up. This will also help your next pet.

I'd defeated him now 3 times and twice I managed to just use 2 pet of my pets (Crimson Lasher and my all time favorite Clockwork Gnome).

[Tekulve2012]

edited original post to add a lil bling / unborn valkyr approach to the legendary beasts XuFu and Zao

[Moksu]

Where are the older posts to see all pets what to use? from top post

[Darklynx]

My strats for week 3: Wise Mari, Blingtron 4000 and Shademaster Kiryn

Blingtron 4000
- Snarly (1/1/2)
- Electrified Razortooth (2/1/1)
- Core Hound Pup (2/1/2)

Au --> Start with Snarly > Rip > Blood in the Water > Surge [it'll kill Au]
Banks --> Snarly still alive > Rip > Surge > Surge > Swap to Core Hound Pup
Howl > Trash > Trash (It'll hit for 500+ each hit, so one may be enough)
Lil'B --> Burrow > Howl > Trash until you die (refresh Howl if you have the chance)
Swap to Razortooth > Paralyzing Jolt > Jolt

Shademaster Kiryn

- Giant Bone Spider (1/1/1)
- Pandaren Fire Spirit (2/1/2)
- Lil' Bling (1/1/1) [Stoned]

Nairn --> Sticky Web > Leech Life > Bone Bite until you kill it.
Stormoen --> (If spider is alive, Bone Bite) > Pandaren Fire Spirit > Immolate > Conflagrate > Magma Wave (it'll clear the turrets). He should be dead by now, if not, keep Magma Waving.
Summer --> (If Spirit is alive, Immolate) > Lil' Bling > Make it Rain > Blingtron Gift Package (it'll miss because of dodge, that should make you almost full) > Make it Rain > SMACKTHAT.EXE until you kill it.

Wise Mari
- Yellow Moth (1/1/1)
- Dark Whelpling (2/1/1)
- White Carp (2/2/1)

Carpe Diem --> Moth Balls > Cocoon Strike > Moth Balls > Slicing Wind
Spirus --> Moth Balls > Cocoon Strike > Moth Balls > Slicing Wind until you die > Swap to Dark Whelpling > Tail Sweep > Tail Sweep (if he's still alive, kill it with Roar)
River --> Tail Sweep > Lift Off > Tail Sweep until you die > White Carp > Surge until you kill it, Heal if you're under 700.

[Ebil]

I tested and re-tested different pet teams until I found one that was very reliable and not subject to much RNG. This Tournament is a BIG step-up in difficulty from any of the single trainers. Simply because you have to fight seven in a row. It's a much bigger time investment and it rewards that.

If I find a pet in my list that would work well against a particular trainer, I just level it! You can easily level 2-3 pets a day against the Pandaria trainers. Since you have all week to beat each Tournament set, you can catch and level an entire team from scratch, assuming you've got the four Celestials already figured out.

It is definitely NOT designed for any random pet group to run in and one-shot it every week. I have found it a LOT of fun. There are obviously many different strats out there, but I know mine are very reliable. Problem with mine is there might be a few hard to get pets in there... Anyway, if anyone has trouble with my strats, I'd be happy to help you refine them or find a substitute pet.

If anyone needs help, feel free to hit me up at Skarn#1884. Good luck all!

I only have a little over 100 pets leveled up but what I have does work well with the tournament, but it is the rng factor that really gets me sometimes. Sure I may not be using the best pets for trainers like my team of Summit Kid, Amber Moth, and Wild Hammer Gryphon for Sully but it is a team that works shockingly well for that trainer with very low rng for me. I know it sounds like a random team but I made it after much trial and error.

But on teams like the one for Chi-Chi I still have problems (which I know is on the user end ) or times where rng just really is not in my favor, how can a pet dodge for two round *cries* .

[Tekulve2012]

Moksu:
Not sure what post you were looking for but in my original post I made suggestions for each week the celestial tourney has popped up... this info is offered in assisting players to get through the tourney on the US and EU servers.

There are 2 or 3 other posts found within the pet battles forum posts here on WCP that offer suggestions on which pets to level and other approaches to the 4 legendary beasts

I added strategies (to my OP) that others have used with proven success (always accounting for RNG %'s of good or bad luck)

Hope you find what you need somewhere on this thread or another post ..if not you can post a question here or add me and whisper me in game- Btag is on the left ...happy battles

[Rendigar]

But on teams like the one for Chi-Chi I still have problems (which I know is on the user end ) or times where rng just really is not in my favor, how can a pet dodge for two round *cries* .

When [ability]Dodge[/ability] is cast by a faster pet (in this case Chi-Chi) it allows the pet to dodge on the round it is cast and for the next round as well because it goes off before your attack. When a slower pet casts dodge it does not block the attack on the turn it is cast, it only blocks the move on the next turn. Some evasive moves, like [ability]Deflection[/ability], always go first and last only for the round they are cast in, but Dodge is not like that - it is extra useful for a fast pet.

[Silverthorn]

Xu-Fu was a major pain tonight. I wasn't sure I was going to win... I had 55 pets dead going into my final battle.

I was left with very few key pets left-- no more flying flockers or lightning generators. I assembled an unassuming team of

Sifang Otter S/S 2-2-2
Sandy Petrel S/S 2-1-2
Robo-Chick S/S 2-1-1

They each had the speed advantage extra strike and were even faster than Xu-Fu. Xu-Fu's Feed only struck for 400 points on the first pet and luckily never showed up again. I used the Petrel's Cyclone and Robo-Chick's Batter to good effect, but it was luck that carried the win-- a couple of misses by Xu-Fu helped a lot.

Silverthorn

[Dweller]

I'm going to make a confession. I enjoy pet battles, but I'm pretty frustrated with the Tournament. It's far too RNG for my tastes. I guess pet battles generally are in the tougher fights, but what makes this worse is that having 6 fights and no ressing/healing means that the RNG is magnified. A crucial miss or crit taken in ANY of the fights might mean needing to redo the whole thing, and 6 fights like this aren't a small time investment. I'm finding myself, even with strong teams that usually win, sometimes needing to spend hours to get the just the right luck streak to not lose one of the battles. And what's the recourse? Spend more time leveling back up teams to help hedge your bet in case of a bad luck in one of the fights? I don't see that as a solution as you'd really need back up teams for all 6 fights, which would amount to many hours of additional pet leveling (and even then, a bad luck streak can still mean losing the same fight twice).

Also, let's talk about something else: There's no way to save teams of pets, and the long list of pets (even with sorting options or the ability to search them by name) takes even more time to go through. It's making the whole process feel more tedious than enjoyable.

Here's what I'd recommend: Give the tournament a modification to the rules. You get one in tournament heal/pet res. This still keeps the tournament difficult and encourages you to play extremely wisely, but takes the edge off one fight of bad luck ruining your efforts. it makes it much less likely that you'll lose even though you played as flawlessly as possible.

[Grifter]

Also, let's talk about something else: There's no way to save teams of pets, and the long list of pets (even with sorting options or the ability to search them by name) takes even more time to go through. It's making the whole process feel more tedious than enjoyable.

You do know there is an addon that lets you do exactly this. Save premade teams for every occasion. I can't tell you the name right now because I'm at work, but it should be easy to find.

[Rendigar]

Blizzard really should do what they've done in the past and build the add-on PetBattle Teams into the game. It allows you to save your teams, lock them so you cannot accidently change them, and currently I am using it to track more than 50 different teams I use for different fights throughout Pandaria and the tourney (I have multiple teams for testing the 5.4 guide I posted recently, for example). You can get the add-on from Curse.com here: http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/pet-battle-teams

[GilroyKilroy]

PBT is a must for the serious pet battler (IMHO.)

What it does lack is the ability to sort your teams and/or rearrange the order. However if you are capable of editing the saved prefs lua file, and know what you are doing, you can accomplish this.

[Kissmyaxe]

You can rearrange the order of teams in PBT if you hold Ctrl and then drag the team.
Very useful indeed.

[Dweller]

Thanks for the add on link. It's a shame that Blizzard didn't foresee this is a needed element.

[Anasa]

I sympathize with Dweller's frustration, but I think of the Tournament like a solo "raid." Even the best raid teams sometimes wipe due to bad luck, and wipes while learning a fight are... Many.

It's no different here. The Celestial Tournament is true end-game content. It takes a lot of time and effort to prepare for, and even that preparation may not end in success each time.

I don't think we need a rez during the tourney. It looks like at each stage (each set of 3 "undercard" tamers), there is a way to heal up pets who haven't actually been knocked out. There's no HP penalty for a forfeit, so it's easy to bail an attempt before "permanent" damage is done.

My only real complaint is that the rewards don't stack up to the time invested. Once we've all gotten each celestial pet, there will be no reason to ever do it again (unless you need Timeless Coins for some reason? I'm rolling in them, and I don't even spend much time there).

My hope is that they'll just keep adding new teams/bosses and rewards to the tourney so there's a reason to keep doing it.

[Azrile]

Every fight so far has had a ´secret´ pet or two that makes them trivial and they aren´t usually what you expect.

Snails on Chi Chi
Foxes on Xu
Raptors on Zao
Greg Grell on Yula

For the first 3, you only need 2 pets, for the last one, with a little luck, Greg Grell solos it, but if he doesn´t you can use anything for the kill shot.

These fights go from impossible to trivial very quickly.

[Anasa]

Every fight so far has had a ´secret´ pet or two that makes them trivial and they aren´t usually what you expect.

Snails on Chi Chi
Foxes on Xu
Raptors on Zao
Greg Grell on Yula

For the first 3, you only need 2 pets, for the last one, with a little luck, Greg Grell solos it, but if he doesn´t you can use anything for the kill shot.

These fights go from impossible to trivial very quickly.

I didn't have much luck with snails on Chi Chi, but then I only have one at max level.

You don't need a Grell on Yu'la. You just need Bonkers (arguably cheaper than a Gregarious Grell). I've also found that a (S/S) Flayer Youngling can almost solo her.

I'll have to check out using Foxes on Xu'fu...

[Dweller]

I guess my frustration comes from multiple angles. There's so many ways RNG can screw up your battle. A badly timed miss, taking a large crit, having a mutli hit ability hit the minimum number of times over and over. Hell, even a "lucky" crit on your part can have a negative affect if it throws the sequence of attacks off. If you have teams with an 80% win rate, it's still not good enough over the course of 6 fights as you'll likely end up losing one. Trying a new team combination can help, but if you want to try putting in a different pet it might mean hours more of leveling the replacement to try out. I've put in more hours the last few weeks on pets than on any other activity in WoW, including raiding.

Maybe it's all a short term problem though. Eventually you know each fight and you've finally leveled each pet that can help. Also, as people have said there are certain "trick" pets that make the encounters a lot easier. I generally try to avoid strat guides, or use them sparingly, but it seems like it makes a huge difference to just read the pets that people have found that makes the fights more trivial. Also, I avoided using the add on that shows the enemies cooldowns, but I eventually relented as it just wasn't fun memorizing it, and there's little room to screw up with RNG swinging things so wildly. The perfect pets and the right add ons make this a lot easier, but I kind of thing that couldn't be what Blizzard intended.

[Likebigbuttz]

I believe the Tournament will become trivial very quickly.

Even from week one, I felt the random tamers were a little bit easy. Pick pets that are strong against their pets and can maybe avoid a hit or too and there was little problem. Apart from some frustrations against Yu'la, it was pretty smooth.

Since then, like most people, I am continuing to increase the amount of max level pets, so my pool to chose from gets bigger and bigger each week.

I am also doing some research on any fights I felt didn't go smoothly or could be improved upon.

I can see by week 5-6, most people will be able to get in and out of the tournament without many problems and without many "wipes".

I am by no means a good pet battler (my PvP win/loss show this) but the Tournament will be on "farm" very quickly which I am grateful for but not if it is the design intentions.

As for how to change that without introducing major RNG frustrations I am not sure.

[Vek]

My Baby Ape just soloed Sully "The Pickle" McLeary. I think I got a lucky miss from Burrow but other than that it was no problem really. The extra turns you get from the stun are worth it.