Aki buffed?

[Hellfiredoom]

I just lost to Aki twice in a row. I never lose two battles in a row. Finally got him on the third battle. Stormlash was doing 924 dmg on his Call Lightning cast. And all 3 pets had a higher than usual dodge rate (don't get me going on dodge ). But my question is: anyone else notice a considerable buff to Aki?

[Syrrie]

I haven't. But then, I've been using a strat of reflect - now deflect- on her Call Lightning forever. A while ago I switched from trying to do her with a flayer/whatever to Anubisath Idol/whatever. I rather like the deflect to avoid the big hit from Call Lightning then Sandstorm to remove the extra damage, but then I take a rather defensive strategy against her.

[Hellfiredoom]

I'm with you on the defensive strategy. I use my Anub on the dragon, Flayer on critter, and Pterrordax on aquatic (let's not get into Jade Owl vs. Pterrordax here ).

Usually my Flayer mows down the critter and has a few moves on the dragon. I deflect (I miss reflect too), then rampage until death, then sub in my Anub and immediately cast Sandstorm. Both losses, the dragon's first cast did 924 dmg (critical obviously). It's just the entire fight was tougher, as in not bad RNG, but Aki's pets seemed buffed.

Also, just finished the Pandaren Air Spirit battle. I solo with my Emerald Proto Drake so I can level a lowbie, and between (in my mind increased) dodges and his heals, that fight seemed buffed too. Lost the first fight after 78 rounds, then downed him after 68 rounds the second. Again, the trainer pets, especially the Spirit in this case, seem buffed to me.

Thanks for the response, hoping a few others weigh in here, so I know if it's just in my head or if I am justifiably outraged.

[Formerruling]

I haven't had much of a problem with Aki after the patch. I start with Anub, swapping in a lowbie after sandstorm is up for exp, when the critter is almost dead I swap in Gnome to finish him, so I can setup Turrets. No matter if any of his abilities crit I always am able to Turret->Repair->Turret, and he dies on the second turret setup. Then I'm usually left with enough HP to finish off or almost finish off the aquatic. If gnome dies I just bring Anub back out.

EDIT: I have noticed more dodges across the board though no matter if its my attacks, their attacks, wild pets, or tamers. Maybe it's just observation caused by everyone saying "stuff dodges more now!" though.

[Adashiel]

She's not been buffed, but the 5.2 changes make it slightly harder. I use an Anubisath Idol, a lowbie, and P/P Wildhammer Gryphon, which is the same as 5.1. Previously I would reset until I got the dragon first. That way even if the dragon did a lot of damage, you could regenerate most of it while grinding down the cricket. I almost never had to bring out my third pet. Now that we're locked into doing the cricket first, the idol is damaged enough that the otter usually kills it. I'm always able to kill it with my gryphon, though.

[Hellfiredoom]

Just to clarify, I'm referring to changes since Tuesday's maintenance, I should have been more clear in my original post. Certainly the loss of reflection made the fight more difficult, but I one shot Aki all last week. It has just been since yesterday's changes that I noticed an increase in difficulty. Still, thx much for the feedback.

@Formerruling - it never even occured to me to try the Gnome, but he's one of my fav pets so I will give him a shot. As for dodges, see my notes on the Panda Air Spirit. Between his meager 100 per round heal and massive dodges it took me forever to down him with my Emerald Proto Whelp (breed 4). Let me know if you've tried the Air Spirit since this week's maintenance and what you think.

[Stabya]

I use a Spirit Crab and Moth

Against the Cricket The Spirit Crab only takes Damage the very first round he casts Shell Shield

Shell Shield, Snap, Snap, Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield, Snap

Then you will have a few rounds of the shield as your snap and whirlpool Stormlash.

[Luciandk]

Completely no problem 2manning Aki the Chosen with Anubisath Idol and Gilnean Raven/Crow. Anub eats the first 2 without problems, usually dies to otter. Then the burd finishes them off.

[Maizing]

I use an H/S breed spider against the cricket. After killing that, my spider is just fast enough to hit Stormlash with poison before he calls the lightning. If the spider survives that first big hit (very rare, but has happened) I hit him with brittle webbing.

Then I bring out my S/S breed flayer youngling and just go to town on him. The otter usually kills my flayer with dive though.

I finish up with a P/S breed moth.

My strategy works, but it does take all 3 pets on my team. I basically use Stormlash's lightning against Aki's team. Both my flayer and my moth use multiple attacks... add the lightning hits and I very rarely lose the match.

[Drudatz]

Shes not any harder as before - did you perhaps had the stampede buff on you?
I use my idol on her since ages and with sandstorm & deflect shes as easy as ever...

btw anyone else noticed that sandstorm now also deflects the stampede debuff? anyone knows if that is a bug?

[Tahsfenz]

I find it to be one of the easiest tamers with an idol. The idol will finish the critterv@ full health. Deflect the call lightning and do sandstorm next move and crush to death. 2 down with just the idol. I usually throw in a leveling as low as level 1 and swap out right after the dragon dies. Swap back to idol to sacrifice the dive hit and if he dies, switch to flying pet to finish the fight.

[Syrrie]

You know, yesterday I did actually have really bad RNG on Aki and her dragon actually managed to kill my Anubisath Idol. I've never had the Idol die on the dragon in a month or two of using it on her. That said, the next attempt went as smoothly as ever and I beat her no problem. *shrug* Random smiting from the RNG gods I suppose.

[Gromagrim]

An ooze with at least higher than average power will kill cricket and dragonling whilst dying themselves.

You want him absorb spec (2/1/2) use DoT number 3, then DoT number 2, then attack 1 twice to finish cricket. For Stormlash, use DoT 3 then DoT 2, then you'll die, but so will Stormlash at the end of the turn.

Otter then begins with Dive, so put a pet forward with a block or lift-off. Switch in lowbie for a round (they'll take surge damage + call lightning, so you want at least 400 hp), then switch your other 25 in to finish him.

[Hellfiredoom]

Just finished my tamer dailies for the day, and blew through Aki and the Air Spirit. *shrug* Guess I just had a very bad run of RNG yesterday, but man was it frustrating. Thx to all for the responses!

[Tunack]

If I have th e double damage debuff on, lightning really hurts. I try to swap - and use my gnome to build gun turrets and turn the lightning storm back on them.

I use Mr pinchy w/ claw mist & wish on bug.
mech gnome on dragon
moth on otter

Or go back to crawdad on otter if leveling. Will have to try a flayer.. And will look for dodge & rng issues.

[Equeon]

I use Anubisath Idol with Crush, Sandstorm, and Rupture.
Put Sandstorm up on the first round. Then on the second round swap in your leveling pet. On the third round, switch back to the idol. Kill the cricket with Crush, Rupture, and Sandstorm - but make sure that Sandstorm is off cooldown when the dragon comes in.

No matter if the Call Storm misses or not, (it usually misses with the Sandstorm still up) immediately overwrite the weather with Sandstorm. Crush the dragon until it dies.
Keep killing the otter, ideally until he uses Dive for the second time, and then swap to any flying pet once your idol dies and finish him off.
(I use a Firefly.)

Works every single time.