MGTTDPB 5.2: My guide to tamer daily pet battles for 5.2

[Stencil]

Like Badpathing said, you get to buy one gilnean raven from a trainer pr worgen. If you are unlucky with the breed, you have to level another worgen through the starting zone (big snore). The alternative is to buy one from the ah, or, like you said, get someone to gift you with one .

I read a forum comment somewhere (wowhead maybe) which suggested creating a new Worgen Death Knight as a faster way of getting a raven than leveling through the Worgen starting zone.

[Lilhottie]

I'm a little late but here's what typically happens for me:

You want Grizzle, so Sweep if it's not. Wind-Up, and then usually Batter til dead. If too many Batters miss, you might have to finish Grizzle with Wind-Up before he can get his last tick of Hibernate, but try to save the Wind-Up. You're going to take 3 hits of Rampage, so generally the broom kills Grizzle with 150-300 health.

Beakmaster typically does some combination of Batter/Wind-Up/Shock and Awe over his first 3 turns. I try to batter until I think the broom is on its last round, and then Wind-Up, but I don't think this min/maxing is too important. For example yesterday it went like: Broom batters, Beak batters (Broom at ~50 health); Broom Wind-Ups for damage, Beak Wind-Ups for the buff; Broom batters, Beak Shock and Awes to kill the Broom. When Broom dies, I swap in the lowbie, then immediately swap it for Phoenix before it can take damage. The important thing is that Beak doesn't have both of his burst abilities ready, so when he Wind-Ups the Phoenix, you just Cauterize and then take light damage til Beak dies. If the broom ate a couple crits then it might die before it can soak either Wind-Up or Shock and Awe, in which case Phoenix might eat Shock and Awe + stun. If that happens I flip off the monitor and restart, but it's pretty rare.

I put up Immolation sometime during Beak, so then you're doing ~350 damage per turn to Bloom while he does 150-300 damage back with Lash. As long as you can survive Roots and then Cauterize afterward, you should stay ahead comfortably. This part is more about outlasting and less about bursting Bloom down.

Thanks Poofah, I managed to pull this off tonight. Lots of RNG still though...

[Moksu]

Like Badpathing said, you get to buy one gilnean raven from a trainer pr worgen. If you are unlucky with the breed, you have to level another worgen through the starting zone (big snore). The alternative is to buy one from the ah, or, like you said, get someone to gift you with one .

I read a forum comment somewhere (wowhead maybe) which suggested creating a new Worgen Death Knight as a faster way of getting a raven than leveling through the Worgen starting zone.

seems like it does not matter anymore

5.2 patch notes
Brilliant Kaliri, Jade Tentacle, Tirisfal Batling, Firefly, Jade Crane Chick, Gilnean Raven, and Shore Crawler are no longer available in multiple breeds.

edit:

any new plans on how to defeat obalis in next patch since they changed anubis again.
"Anubisath Idol: Sandstorm and Deflection have swapped ability positions."

[Tahsfenz]

On Aki I've been using Anub idol on her. With sandstorm you don't take any damage from chirp, defect the damage from lightning storm and crush to death storm lash. Have a jade owl for backup just in case idol dies on the last one, but usually have to swap my pet in to get my XP.

[Cabadath]

Like Badpathing said, you get to buy one gilnean raven from a trainer pr worgen. If you are unlucky with the breed, you have to level another worgen through the starting zone (big snore). The alternative is to buy one from the ah, or, like you said, get someone to gift you with one .

I read a forum comment somewhere (wowhead maybe) which suggested creating a new Worgen Death Knight as a faster way of getting a raven than leveling through the Worgen starting zone.

seems like it does not matter anymore

5.2 patch notes
Brilliant Kaliri, Jade Tentacle, Tirisfal Batling, Firefly, Jade Crane Chick, Gilnean Raven, and Shore Crawler are no longer available in multiple breeds.

edit:

any new plans on how to defeat obalis in next patch since they changed anubis again.
"Anubisath Idol: Sandstorm and Deflection have swapped ability positions."

I don't think Anubisath Idol should have any problems even without being able to use Stoneskin and Sandstorm at the same time. Having both up at the same time negates all damage from Clatter, and most damage from Spring. Having only one of them up will reduce the damage sufficiently for you to win the battle I think (bear in mind that the Anubisath heals about 60 hp or so every round it successfully damages the enemy pet).

I'm undecided if I'd go with Crush+Sandstorm or Crush+Stoneskin. Sandstorm isn't as boring as refreshing Stoneskin, but it also reduces your own damage output. Stoneskin doesn't reduce your damage, but has to be reapplied more often.

I'm also undecided about whether to go Deflection or Rupture.

Rupture can stun, which usually is a good thing as you get a free hit. I don't think it should be a problem though, because 1) your first pet has finished off or almost finished off Pyth, and 2) you should be able to finish the fight before Apocalypse from Clatter hits. Rupture does reduced damage vs Clatter though, so you really only would use it vs Pyth. VS Pyth I'd go Sandstorm, then Rupture which should kill him off. Your Anubisath should have enough hp to survive both Spring and Clatter with Sandstorm up.

Deflection will avoid an attack, but as Pyth mostly uses Vicous Fang, which increases its damage each time it hits, I'd say Deflection isn't as useful in this fight. In my opinion, the only reason to go with Deflection would be to negate the Moth Dust ability from Spring (bear in mind that you can't be sure when he casts Moth Dust the first time; either he starts with Coccoon Strike and then Moth Dust, or he starts with Moth Dust and then Coccoon Strike. The next time he will use it right after it is off CD and can therefore easily be predicted). I think I handle Spring easily enough even without avoiding his Moth Dust.

Guess I just talked myself into going with Rupture.

Bear in mind that Obalis' pets will be nerfed (lower stats) according to what Blizzard has stated. This should mean that their damage output is lowered, which in turn would mean that Anubisath should have no problem surviving even without having both Sandstorm and Stoneskin at the same time.

Conclusion: Anubisath should still be viable vs Obalis. I'd go with Crush + Stoneskin or Sandstorm + Rupture.

Edit: One of the teams I tried out before landing on infinite + anubisath was Infinite Whelp (1,1,1) and Emerald Proto Whelp (2,2,2). You could of course give this setup a try. Emerald can take some heavy damage vs Pyth though, but if you play the battle well then you should get Pyth down with two Emerald Bites before he can damage you too much. Emerald Presence negates half of the damage you take from Clatter.

[Poofah]

I'm undecided if I'd go with Crush+Sandstorm or Crush+Stoneskin.

Crush is 296, Sandstorm 370 (ie 296*1.25), and the shields are both 74 (ie 296*0.25). If you're slower, then you have to reapply Stoneskin every 5 turns. So on average

Sandstorm, Crush, Crush, Crush = 296*3.25/4 = 240.5 damage per turn
Stoneskin, Crush, Crush, Crush, Crush = 296*4/5 = 236.8 damage per turn

This is assuming that the Sandstorm shield is always up, whereas in practice you'll get full damage out of your first Sandstorm, so that pushes the Sandstorm damage cycle up a bit more.

I'm also undecided about whether to go Deflection or Rupture.

The chance for Rupture's stun effect to go off is affected by the -10% hit chance from Sandstorm, so it's down to 10% chance (25 - 5 base miss - 10 Sandstorm miss). On the flip side, Sandstorm also reduces the chance for Moth Dust to CC you, which reduces the benefit of Deflection a bit.

[Poofah]

...regarding Lil' XT ...

I highly recommend him. Five of six of his moves are fun, and with trainers that have some kind of weakness versus Mechanical (either via Call Thunderstorm, or because they are a beast) the Heartbreak/Tympanic Tantrum kills the pet being fought and does huge damage to the back line pets. (I'm surprised Poofah hasn't commented on this move combo...) It also helps that the trainers first attack's are typically weak so they don't hurt him too much with Heartbreak.

I actually really like Heartbreak/Tantrum -- for a while I was farming magic battlestones on the oily slimelings in Borean Tundra, and Landro's XT could kill the whole pack in 6-8 moves. I've never tried it for tamers because I figured Heartbroken would get him killed too fast, but I'll probably give it a go on Aki today.

[Tahsfenz]

Heartbreak/tantrum makes XT a beast when grinding. He's become a stable in my rare searches.

[Bloodyfields]

You are absolutely awesome in that you figured all this out but more so because you shared it with everyone.

Loved your strat against Aki. Didn't have my Spirit Crab lvl'd up but see the advantage with having Snap and Surge with SS. Still managed it with Shore Crab and Gilded Moth. Spirit Crab is my first lowbie I'm lvlin with your strats though.

Mo'ruk

I don't have a Gilnean Raven, yet, but have done extremely well against him with the same Emerald Proto Whelp and Highlands Turkey. (2,1,1) Food Coma to start and when off CD, follow with Squawk to reduce damage and put a minor hit on, spam Slicing Winds. All the turkeys have the same skill set so should work just as well. Of course a lowbie in the middle. I learned how bad turkeys were in Northrend Tamer battles when going up against Gobble in Howling Fjord. Whoda thunk Thanksgiving dinner could be such a killer battle pet. Mo'ruk always gave me fits until I came up with this combo with EPW and HT. I had been using Emerald bite with Ancient Blessing and Proto Strike. Ancient blessing works well but Proto Strike has a strong chance to miss which ends up with 2 wasted rounds. Tried your strat and liked it much better.

[Formerruling]

I've been using Broom and Pheonix vs. Payne for about two weeks now and here is my feedback:
It's better than my old 2v3 strategies for the fight (especially due to being able to start vs either pet and win regardless of the attack Grizzle opens with), but far from reliable. That fight just has too many factors.

Grizzle dies no problem except in cases where Batter misses or doesn't get the extra hit often enough which is rare thankfully. Beakmaster seems to open with Shock and Awe 50% of the time so Broom only gets the Windup hit on him before dying. Otherwise he gets 1-2 Batters as well. It is best set up when your Immolate DoT kills Beak, and your Burn can perma-kill him next turn, which happens about 20% of the time. Bloom seems to either spam Roots or not use it at all, but even if he doesn't use Roots his Lash almost never misses the second hit so Pheonix only downs him about 50% of the time, and I always use a lvl24 pet here so it can finish Bloom in case. Several times over the two weeks I had to forfeit and reset though.

[Tahsfenz]

I tend to batter the mech, so so I know I am getting damage on him. Most of this can be a moot point come 5.2 with whatever nerfs they have in store for him though.

[Cabadath]

You are absolutely awesome in that you figured all this out but more so because you shared it with everyone.

Loved your strat against Aki. Didn't have my Spirit Crab lvl'd up but see the advantage with having Snap and Surge with SS. Still managed it with Shore Crab and Gilded Moth. Spirit Crab is my first lowbie I'm lvlin with your strats though.

Mo'ruk

I don't have a Gilnean Raven, yet, but have done extremely well against him with the same Emerald Proto Whelp and Highlands Turkey. (2,1,1) Food Coma to start and when off CD, follow with Squawk to reduce damage and put a minor hit on, spam Slicing Winds. All the turkeys have the same skill set so should work just as well. Of course a lowbie in the middle. I learned how bad turkeys were in Northrend Tamer battles when going up against Gobble in Howling Fjord. Whoda thunk Thanksgiving dinner could be such a killer battle pet. Mo'ruk always gave me fits until I came up with this combo with EPW and HT. I had been using Emerald bite with Ancient Blessing and Proto Strike. Ancient blessing works well but Proto Strike has a strong chance to miss which ends up with 2 wasted rounds. Tried your strat and liked it much better.

Thanks!

I'd like to emphasize that my teams aren't 100 % made up by me. It is the result of a lot of trial and error, but also from suggestions from different sources such as warcraftpets.com. The spirit crab vs Aki was actually a tip I picked up from warcraftpets.info . I used to use Jade Oozeling instead, but even though Jade Oozeling is an excellent pet and the fight went very well, I found the Spirit Crab to be more reliable.

I would however recommend trying Jade Oozeling to start with. It is very fun to see that damn dragon with his sodding thunderstorm going down. The only thing you need to do is to land one Acidic Goo and one Corrosion on him. That will amplify the damage he takes by insane amounts, and the two dot-ticks will both get a bonus hit from thunderstorm. Good fun! (although not as fun vs chirrup if thunderstorm is up).

Edit: if you start with jade oozeling vs chirrup first, then you do the usual acidic goo, corrosion, absorb, absorb-routine, which should leave you with 100 % (or almost 100 %) hp when he dies. You may finish the fight vs chirrup with the +100 % dmg taken debuff from his swarm, which usually means that stormlash's thunderstorm would hit for a hell of a lot of damage (about 1000+ I guess). But with the magic passive family ability, the Jade Oozeling cannot take more than 592 dmg in one hit. And the only thing you need to do is to dot stormlash up with your to dots; you will be killed by him, but he will die as well even if you don't get to attack with absorb.

The problem is if stormlash starts first; jade oozeling will kill stormlash and might survive to face chirrup (after what I can remember, most often jade oozeling and stormlash will kill eachother). Chirrup will then do too much damage with 3 hits from swarm each round + thunderstorm bonus damage pr attack, + 100 % dmg taken the two next rounds because of the debuff swarm afflicts you with. You could deal with this by using a pet with shield (shell shield, emerald presence, stoneskin) or use a pet with sandstorm, but such pets takes longer to kill an enemy because of generally lower damage output vs the last two pets.

Therefore, although jade oozeling being fast and furious, I went with Spirit Crab like warpets.info uses. Instead of a firefly though, I use a Yellow Moth. This is because firefly uses slicing winds (which I don't like because of RNG 1-3 hits) and glowing toxin (too low dmg to be compeating with other alternatives). Yellow moth has a lot more attack power than a firefly, and has the excellent and reliable high dmg output abilities alpha strike and moth dust (could use moth balls, but I don't like RNG abilities like that). The last pet will usually die in 2 or 3 rounds vs Yellow moth.

Right, now I have to stop tying down all that pops into my mind. I have wall-of-text-syndrome :p

@Poofah: thanks for the math breakdown of anubisath idol post 5.2

[Cabadath]

Added my two teams vs Jeremy Feasel to the guide.

Note that last Darkmoon Faire, I didn't get enough time to fine-tune my team and find out which one I prefer.
Both teams seem solid though.

Because of the supposed nerf to Conflagrate in 5.2, it may be that the Infinite Whelpling + Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling team would be better than the Fel Flame + Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling team.

[Formerruling]

I tend to batter the mech, so so I know I am getting damage on him. Most of this can be a moot point come 5.2 with whatever nerfs they have in store for him though.

I should have been more specific - I wind up for the buff then just batter grizzle so i have the windup dmg ready for beak.

[Stencil]

Added my two teams vs Jeremy Feasel to the guide.

Thanks! The Infinite Whelpling worked a treat. I don't have a Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling yet, so for the second pet I went with the Enchanted Broom that I had leveled and stoned for trying out Poofah's Major Payne strat. Its fast so Clobber will only cost it one round, it has Sandstorm for reducing Banana barrage damage and it has Wind-Up for killing Fezwick.

EDIT - On my second time using this combo the whelpling died the round after using early advantage and Honky Tonk had enough life left to build up and then use Lock-on after I did the swap for my lowbie. Being Magic, the damage the Broom took got capped and reduced; just another point in favor of using the Broom. Used Batter to push Honky Tonk into failsafe but finished him off with Sandstorm so that I would have the protection up while stunned from Clobber. After that was just four rounds of wind-up and dead Fez.

[Stencil]

Crush is 296, Sandstorm 370 (ie 296*1.25), and the shields are both 74 (ie 296*0.25). If you're slower, then you have to reapply Stoneskin every 5 turns. So on average

Sandstorm, Crush, Crush, Crush = 296*3.25/4 = 240.5 damage per turn
Stoneskin, Crush, Crush, Crush, Crush = 296*4/5 = 236.8 damage per turn

This is assuming that the Sandstorm shield is always up, whereas in practice you'll get full damage out of your first Sandstorm, so that pushes the Sandstorm damage cycle up a bit more.

If Sandstorm has a value of 1.25 Crushes, then a Sandstorm + 3 Crushes should equal 4.25 Crushes not 3.25, right? That would change the numbers to:

Sandstorm, 3x Crush = 296*4.25/4 = 314.5 damage per turn
Stoneskin, 4x Crush = 296*4/5 = 236.8 damage per turn

At first, I thought the 3.25 number was factoring for misses caused by Sandstorm, but if the Stoneskin case is using 4 then you aren't adjusting it for any kind of base chance. Therefore the only miss chance that should be factored into the Sandstorm case would be the 10% miss chance from Sandstorm itself and 4.25*.9 is not 3.25. If we factor in the sandstorm and base (using 5% as base miss chance as per your section on Rupture) miss chances then we would get.

Sandstorm, 3x Crush = .85*296*4.25/4 = 267.3 damage per turn
Stoneskin, 4x Crush = .95*296*4/5 = 225.0 damage per turn

While both shields block 74 points of damage, I think there are a couple of other factors to consider when comparing their effectiveness. The first is that Sandstorm should add to the miss chance of the opponents attacks causing some to miss that otherwise wouldn't. While the benefit can only be modeled on a pet by pet basis, especially when a secondary attack like Moth Dust has invovled, it is true to always say that the damage reduction offered by Sandstorm is always going to be better than that from Stoneskin.

The other factor is that a Sandstorm hit will trigger the Humanoid passive healing you 69 (IIRC) health that you wouldn't get on a Stoneskin turn. On the other side, the greater miss chance from Sandstorm could cost you some of those heals. I suppose the per turn average is not that really that different, but with the granularity of combat, and the Idols lack of speed, the absence of a heal on a Stoneskin refresh could decide which pet kills the other.

Sandstorm, 3x Crush = .85*69*4/4 = 58.65 healing per turn
Stoneskin, 4x Crush = .95*69*4/5 = 52.44 damage per turn

Its unfortuneate that Sandstorm nerfs our Ruptures chance to stun so much, but I would never make a tamer strat that relied on a 25% proc chance anyway. While the average dps loss to Rupure vs a Mechanical from Sandstorm might close the dps gap some, you might just lead off with Rupture and lose one turn of Sandstorm to mitigate it.

The only reason I can see to ever use Stoneskin is if you didn't want the Weather effect. For example, Aki's Stormlash uses Lightning Storm which adds an extra bit of damage to all attacks; using Stoneskin to block that extra damage instead of changing the weather to Sandstorm lets your attacks keep that extra damage.

Setting the weather to Sandstorm is also be a problem whenever you want to follow the Idol with a pet that uses multiple attacks per round mechanics whose damage gets nerfed. The other side of that, though, is usually another point in Sandstorm's favor; that it can continue offering protection to your team after death or swap.

In general I think Sandstorm is definately better than Stoneskin. For Obalis specifically, I'd go Sandstorm + Rupture. The only things you'd really want to Deflect are Moth Dust and Counterstrike (which isn't always predictable). If the expectation is that the Idol is coming in to finish off a weakened second pet, then I'd rather have the option of Rupture for extra burst damage to try to kill them quickly.

[Stonewallred]

Nishi I use sea pony on by starting with Siren. (not 100% sure, but forfeiting to trainers does not cause pet damage IIRC from patch notes/tweets), and basically change weather to rain every time she changes it to sunny, swapping out my leveling pets during the entire boring fight. Using tidal wave to kill her back line before using pump to kill her.

The air spirit I use an infinite whelping and Onyxian Whelpling, they have no trouble two manning the entire team.

[Poofah]

Crush is 296, Sandstorm 370 (ie 296*1.25), and the shields are both 74 (ie 296*0.25). If you're slower, then you have to reapply Stoneskin every 5 turns. So on average

Sandstorm, Crush, Crush, Crush = 296*3.25/4 = 240.5 damage per turn
Stoneskin, Crush, Crush, Crush, Crush = 296*4/5 = 236.8 damage per turn

This is assuming that the Sandstorm shield is always up, whereas in practice you'll get full damage out of your first Sandstorm, so that pushes the Sandstorm damage cycle up a bit more.

If Sandstorm has a value of 1.25 Crushes, then a Sandstorm + 3 Crushes should equal 4.25 Crushes not 3.25, right?

Yes, 4.25, but then you subtract the Sandstorm shield from each of the 4 hits (4*(0.25*296) or 296, which is 1 Crush).

But your calculations are right if the opponent is an elemental, which means Sandstorm gives you a +30% damage advantage versus elementals (20% after you factor in your higher Sandstorm miss rate).

I didn't calculate in the effect of misses (or dodges or crits), since those are symmetric, at least for abilities that have a base 100% hit chance. However the -10% miss disproportionately affects proc chances on things like Moth Dust and Rupture, as you noted. So Sandstorm is giving you added protection against those abilities (and also nerfing your own Rupture, if you opt for that).

Similarly, the shield disproportionately affects damage abilities that are split into smaller chunks. But since Crush and Sandstorm both deal damage in one chunk and have 100% base hit chance, the Sandstorm is almost always going to impact the opponent more than the Idol.

The other factor is that a Sandstorm hit will trigger the Humanoid passive healing you 69 (IIRC) health that you wouldn't get on a Stoneskin turn. On the other side, the greater miss chance from Sandstorm could cost you some of those heals. I suppose the per turn average is not that really that different, but with the granularity of combat, and the Idols lack of speed, the absence of a heal on a Stoneskin refresh could decide which pet kills the other.

I'd say the heal is very significant, and is another big bonus for the Sandstorm rotation. The -10% hit chance is symmetric, so whereas you'll miss out on some heals, they'll miss out on some damage too. You're right that a single pet battle isn't long enough for the misses to even out, so occasionally you'll miss that crucial Crush+heal and curse Sandstorm's name. But in the long run the Sandstorm rotation comes out ahead.

[Rellyne]

Nice guide! I've created my teams for all "bag dailies" (and the other cataclysm/nothrend ones when I had plenty of time for the extra ~2k xp) by trial and error and tips from wowhead tamer's pages.

But since 5.2 will change skills, implement (or not) the forfeit penalty, etc. I decided to look for new strats/comps to speed up things (so many things to do in 5.2 and at the same having to fix some of my teams by myself and not enough time before going to bed to work next day... not good, lol), especially against Thundering Spirit since it was totally based on FFF for a fast/realliable kill, and got here to warcraftpets

Anyway, some of my teams usually need a specific starting pet, wich will be bad for those tamers that prefer the other pet most of the time and the forfeit penalties goes live for dailies. If I get the correct pet, it's fast.

Since I wasn't even aware of the pet breed stuff until now, I can assume all my pets are bad ones hahaha.

Unfortunally since I didn't pay much attention to PTR and, until yesterday, was only aware about FFF nerf... didn't have enough time to test/look for new strats/tips/comps and also only had enough time to do my dailies as fast as possible

But still managed to get a few tests and they were interesting, like using Scourged Whelpling (6/16 as it says in my collection with Tail Sweep, Any skill, Dreadful Breath) against Whispering Spirit team. Usually I use a double dragon (Onyxian Whelpling + another slow dragon + lvling pet). He started with Dusty. Used Tail Sweep against his 1st attack and Dreadful Breath after, repeat, by the time he finally killed my pet, his entire team was basically dead and the Air Spirit came to fight with less than half HP left, wich was easily dealt with the leveling pet (when he cast his HoT) and tail sweep him to death with Onyxian. Still need more testing to see how a stun or starting against Whispertail would impact it.

I use a Chrominius (2,1,2)/Emperor Crab (4/14 1,1,1) combo against Yon (Piqua 1st) and Mo'ruk (Lightstalker 1st) and Chrominius just blows the flying pets with Howl/Surge of Power while also having chance to deal some damage to back row with Arcane Explosion and the crab hold itself against the rest (except against a bad luck stun streak from Needleback).

For Seeker Zusshi (Diamond 1st) I go with one of the Crocs (1,1,2)/Cenarion Hatchling (2,1,2) and it's really fast/realiable.

For Flowing Pandaren Spirit (Marley 1st), used to go with Cenarion Hatchling (2,1,2)/Anubisath Idol (1,1,1), but got a tip saying that a Ooze with Absorb, Acidic goo, Corrosion would just solo all 3 pets. And altough I still used Cenarion agaisnt Marley (0 damage taken if it doesn't miss Lift-Off), the Ooze easily dealt with the other two.

Gonna try Poofah's Enchanted Broom/Phoenix Hatchling for Payne... looks like I will finally have a reliable team for it hehehe (my current setup is Clockwork Gnome/Anubisath Idol, but unlucky crits/miss/dodge/stun destroy it...).

[Stencil]

Yes, 4.25, but then you subtract the Sandstorm shield from each of the 4 hits (4*(0.25*296) or 296, which is 1 Crush).

Doh! I get it now; totally makes sense. My apologies.