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Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 5:05 pm
by Vek
Over on the Pet Collecting forum(and a similar post on blizzards forum) is a post named Catch that pet. The next poster tells the previous poster what pet to level to 25. Seems very popular, but I can't really participate since it's not very "fun" to level up that 15'th moth, 7'th raptor or whatnot.

Instead I have been searching high and low for new pets to try out in PvP instead of just the regular crowd. Last week I have tried quite a few different pets out and make them work. These guys probably won't ever be star players, but it's fun to try and make use of them. For example, Azure Crane Chick(liking this a lot, and it's quite useful), Diemetradon Hatchling(341 power with Quick Attack, got a couple of wins but found this looking cooler than it was useful), Mongoose Pup(quite good in the world of Val'kyrs, vs others not so powerful but need to make best use of dive and survival), Yellow-Bellied Marmot(can really Chomp undead, and can be fun with Leap/Burrow combination, not very powerful outside that).

And just today I levelled up my Ravager Hatchling and it has been quite powerful in it's own way. 341 power while still pretty fast, and with Screech you can slow your opponent so you can make better use of Rend. Then you can surprise your opponent with Rampage, this one hurts a lot. And when the beast racial kicks in, ouch! Problem is no defensive moves and pretty low health, but he is just there to do some damage for 3-4 turns. I did do Celestial Blessing and that helped him survive for much longer, but I don't really fancy the two current pets that do that blessing.(edit: this little guy just soloed a Idol, with crush mind you, but I even got a sandstorm in my face when I switched him in)

So instead of Level/Catch that Pet, perhaps someone would be interested in doing kind of the same but instead of levelling the pet you try and get a(or a couple to really try it out) win with it.(Some months ago Rhonstifor over at blizzard forums was doing this but was really trying to make it work for like 10+ battles and reporting back to the forum, I don't really intend to do try for more than a few wins).

Anyone want to tell me which pet to get some wins with?

***EDIT***
Here is a list of pets reported back in this thread, thanks to Tekulve2012!

Aquatic - Aqua Strider / Darkmoon Turtle / Emerald Turtle / Gulp Froglet / Mr. Chilly / Sea Pony / Spawn of G'nathus / Tideskipper / Tiny Blue Carp / Tundra Penguin / Wanderer's Festival Hatchling

Beast - Adder / Bucktooth Flapper / Cheeta Cub / Cobra Hatchling / Darkshore Cub / Feline Familiar / Kovok / Moon Moon / Red Panda / Scalded Basilisk Hatchling / Scorpid / Silithid Hatchling / Stunted Shardhorn / Summit Kid / Sunfur Panda / Tito / Zao, Calfling of Niuzao

Critter - Alpine Hare / Black Lamb / Brown Marmot / Darkmoon Rabbit / Fire Beetle / Gazelle Fawn / Giraffe Calf / Gu'chi Swarmling / Mr. Wiggles / Perky Pug / Porcupette / Red Cricket / Squirrel / Wolpertinger

Dragonkin - Deathtalon Whelpguard / Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling / Soul of Aspects / Spawn of Onyxia / Spirit of Competition / Untamed Hatchling / Wild Crimoson Hatchling

Elemental - Ashstone Core / Core Hound Pup / Crimson Geode / Crimson Shale Hatchling / Electrified Razortooth / Emerald Shale Hatchling / Gooey Sha-Ling / Lumpy / Jadefire Spirit / Jade Tentacle / Gooey Sha-Ling / Topaz Shale Hatchling / Ominous Flame / Pandaren Fire Spirit / Ruby Sapling / Terrible Turnip / Water Waveling

Flying - Bat / Blue Mini Jouster / Chicken / Darkmoon Glowfly / Dread Hatchling / Fledgling Nether Ray / Hyacinth Macaw / Ji-Kun Hatchling / Tiny Flamefly / Tiny Sporebat / Turkey

Humanoid - Ashleaf Spriteling / Bonkers / Curious Oracle Hatchling / Dandelion Frolicker / Harpy Youngling / Peddlefeet / Sporeling Sprout / Stunted Yeti

Magic - Arcane Eye / Darkmoon Eye / Enchanted Broom(2) / Coilfang Stalker / Gusting Grimoire / Jade Owl / Lesser Voidcaller / Living Fluid / Lofty Libram / Lunar Lantern / Minfernal / Mini Diablo / Mini Mindslayer / Shimmering Wyrmling / Spectral Porcupette / Toxic Wasteling / Twilight Fiendling(2) / Zergling

Mechanical - Anodized Robo Cub / Blackfuse Bombling / Clock'Em / Clockwork Gnome / Cogblade Raptor / De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion / Fluxfire Feline / Landros Lil'XT / Lil'Smoky / Rabid Nut Varmint 5000 / Rascal-Bot

Undead - Lost of Lordaeron / Restless Shadeling / Sen'jin Fetish / Spirit Crab(2)

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 5:40 pm
by Liopleurodon
This sounds like a fun challenge! Do you want it to be a chain thing (ie, the person below me assigns me something, then the person below them assigns them something, etc) or just you?

In any case, because the Lunar Festival is just about over, I think it makes sense to put together a team featuring a lantern, no? They're kind of difficult to match up, and definitely difficult to use, but it might be fun anyway, right? (I hope?).

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 5:46 pm
by Vek
Yea that was the idea, chain. I'll try the lantern and get back. If no one else gives you a pet until then i'll give one.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 5:54 pm
by Mwebly
Lio you were fast on the draw here, so go get your fastest pet, the alpine hare, and win a fight or two. I think the person should report back on how they teamed the assigned pet and how the battle went. Just my $0.02

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 6:25 pm
by Vek
I should perhaps have mixed it up a bit more but I went Festival Lantern, Lunar Lantern and Enchanted Lantern. First opponent had a dragon, but still was pretty close. Next opponent was down to the last hit, but he had a 1 round speed bonus left so went first and got the win. Exchanged the Enchanted Lantern with Magic Lamp so I could Wish and Sear Magic instead. Finally got a couple of wins, but no landslide victories, very close down to the last pet they were. Almost wished I would have come up against 3xCrows or something fun like that :) Anyway if your opponent doesn't know how the blind -> light work you can hit for a lot. But if they do know, and you know that they know, then it becomes a quite fun mind game.(edit: Did a few more battles. The lamps just seem slightly too weak. 2-3 fights ended with opponent on about 11-55 health left. Also in general I prefer a true dodge to the 2 turn 50%(which can even be 3 turns if you are faster, perhaps boost speed can help), 50% can really screw you when you need it). Hard to find good synergy with other pets, can be annoying in endgame and of course pretty decent vs flyers.

Mwebly since you have Yet to get a pet in this thread bring out your Stunted Yeti for a stroll.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 9:30 pm
by Liopleurodon
Funnily enough, I retired my bunny team a while back. My cluster tends to be really heavy on turtle teams, so when I get down to the bunny, it can't hit hard enough to get through the shields and heals. First I tried a combo with a Cogblade Raptor to buff the rabbit's damage and surprise surprise, the first two opponents I ran up against were turtle teams, and that did not go over well, lol.

After a match using a kinda jerky crawdad/sunflower combo with the bunny to boost my flagging ego, I decided to go cutesy. What do rabbits like to eat? Root veg. So I put in my Turnip, with sons of the root. And I brought along my water waveling to water the turnip. It was really hit or miss. If I came up against a Death Adder or another FotM team I was toast, but I had a decent shot against most others. Probably the worst one was a tri-crow, because even my little bunny wasn't faster.

It's probably not a team I'll play a ton, but it was pretty fun to go through & cook up something new. Good idea for a thread!

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 30th, 2014, 10:04 pm
by Tuatha
I absolutely love this idea and I'm on board for a post limit thread. But my sister and fiance are in town for the weekend, so whoever assigns me a pet, I'll report back Tuesday or Wednesday.

Lio, since you posted last (and because I saw you disparage Nature's Ward recently), win a couple with a Gazelle Fawn (Nature's Ward not required) and let us know how it went!

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 31st, 2014, 2:46 am
by Vek
Tuatha let your Untamed Hatchling get some exercise. Glad to have you aboard.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 31st, 2014, 10:22 am
by Skavenged
I'm on board. Vek, give good ol' Clock'em a run

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 31st, 2014, 11:44 am
by Denarian
Skavenged, go ahead and "Weaponize" that [pet]De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion[/pet].

And take it to 'em!

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 31st, 2014, 1:50 pm
by Tuatha
I had some time this morning while people were getting ready.

That Untamed Hatchling posed some problems for me. I started with Tail Sweep, but amazingly his 260 speed was too fast to consistently get the second hit. I used Spiked Skin and Healing Flame, which occasionally allowed me to get the dragon buff and hit my opponent for +50%, heal, and get the dragon buff again because spiked skin caused damage that round, so that was neat.

I thought Plagued Blood might proc off of Spiked Skin and give him some more durability, but Spiked Skin doesn't get the heal :( I rightly assumed I would run into a fair number of humanoids and didn't want the first slot on a Scourged Whelpling because I would have too many dragonkin attacks, so I went with a Restless Shadeling. I also wanted some sort of avoidance, so I put an Imperial Eagle Chick with Lift Off in there. I have never used any of these three pets in pvp, so I was excited to try them out.

Unfortunately, this team failed hard. I think running into Lil' Rags, Darkmoon Tonk, and Murkalot repeatedly didn't help. I put an Emperor Crab in for the Shadeling because he wasn't doing much against Murkalot and Plagued Blood didn't have the synergy I had hoped for, and the Crab owns Rags. Then I switched the Eagle Chick for a little more avoidance with a Flayer Youngling.

This team won a couple times by pitting the Hatchling against the Tonk, Crab vs Rags, and Flayer vs Murkalot. It was mostly carried by the Flayer, and the Hatchling was clearly the weak link, but he ended up being good enough to take down the Tonk, which is no small feat, imo.

Denarian, I used to use the Shimmering Wyrmling a bit when Deflect was Reflect, but not since the change. Take him out for old time's sake.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: January 31st, 2014, 6:28 pm
by Vek
Welcome aboard Skavenged and Denarian.

Tuatha, you make some good points about the Untamed Hatchling, especially 260 speed is too fast for Tail Sweep, understand what you mean about another pet carrying the team. I just had to try this pet out myself after your post, and I’m quite liking Claw boosted by Roar, almost hits for 500 for 90% hit attack and with dragon racial ouch! Plus Healing Flame is probably the best option in third slot. I’m quite surprised how solid it is, looks not so good on paper.

Clock’em, mr big hands himself. If I wanted to try the Haymaker power hit either I could go with hit/crit boost like Jademist Dancer/Mr. Wiggles or I could go the other route and use Arcane Storm. Problem with Clock’em is if you chose Haymaker then you will more likely be cooldown locked. I instead went with Jab, Overtune and Dodge. Overtune works nicely with Dodge, but Jab does not benefit from the speed and it also hits quite weakly.

Actually won my first fight against Valk, some Serpent(cyclone,lightning) and Jademist Dancer. I was using Leopard Tree Frog(for Valk defense), Untamed Hatchling and Clock’em. I did some mistakes, for example not immediately switching in Clock’em to use strong attacks vs the dragon, but on the other hand my opponent didn’t switch out the dragon when Clock’em finally got in.

Won my second one as well, Clock’em did mediocre, Untamed Hatchling better. Frog carried them through one and a half opponents at the end. Lost third battle, but Clock’em soloed a Sunreaver.
In the fourth game I got a pleasant surprise. Clock’em pretty much soloed a S/S Death Adder Hatchling, just using Overtune and Dodge!
Also in another game he kicked Kun-Lai Runt ass, Overtune keeping me faster so I could Dodge the Deep Freeze. Was fun.

Can say though that I’d rather try out the Untamed Hatchling again than Clock’em, he just isn’t my cup of tea. By the way people if you don't want to report a whole wall of text, by all means don't! Just don't feel pressured into doing it, only do it if you like it.

So Tuatha your next mission is to bring glory to your Red Panda.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 12:55 am
by Skavenged
I gave the De-weaponized Mechanical Companion (Metal Fist, Extra Plating, Demolish) a run, and I'll be honest, I really enjoyed it. I teamed him up with S/S Qiraji Gruardling (Crush, Sandstorm, Blackout kick) and the Pygmy Direhorn (Trihorn Charge, horn Attack, Trihorn Shield). My thinking being that the damage reduction from sandstorm would go very well with the added damage reduction from Extra Plating and Trihorn Shield. This team did surprisingly well, and I added it to my PVP stable just for a change of pace.
When facing Valks, I rolled out the Mech first to use demolish. If the Valk used CoD, then I demolished again on round two. If he Haunted, I used Extra Plating on round two. Round three, I brought the guardling in for a Sandstorm, and then Blackout Kick for a free swap to either the Direhorn or the Companion depending on what my opponent had out at the time. Ran into quite a few Snakes and the Companion really shined here. When the snake comes in, I simply swap to the guardling and let him take the Blind and then bring the Companion right back to demolish. I actually managed to win 7 of the 11 fights I did. One of the losses came down to a chess game with an Anubis/Crow/Scourged Whelp, and my opponent just outplayed me. The other three were all against the same team running Rags/Gnome/Raptor. Turns out that team was just too much for my comp to handle. Honestly, I never would have run this team on my own, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will start experimenting more often.

Vek, how about giving the Ashleaf Spriteling a run? :)

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 2:14 am
by Denarian
My first experience with the Shimmering Wyrmling did surprisingly well. I came up against Murkalot, Valk and Son of Animus.

I had Shimmering Wyrmling, Nexus Whelping and Celestial Dragon. I led with my dragon, and he lead with Murk. I used Moonfire, hoping to get a small bonsus to Arcane Winds when I switched. Took a big hit from Murk.

Switched to Nexus, and Murk used Shield Storm, rendering the extra damage from Arcane Storm useless. Blew Mana Surge, and nearly killed Murk. When he killed my Nexus, he switched in Valk. I switched to Wyrmling, and charged up with Amplify Magic. The Valk CoD first round, then Shadow Slash second. I nearly killed it, only had about 180 health when it Haunted. I managed to get off 1 Mana Surge before Animus killed me. Celestial Draogon was last, all things being even, I think I could've killed him, seeing as he is strong Vs. Mechs. But that early shot from Murk was all he needed to beat me by a Mech rez.

2nd go round was Ghostly Skull, Zandalari Anklerender and Scourged Whelping.

Led with Celestial again, Moonfire and he Shadow Slashed. Switched to Nexus. Arcane Storm then Mana Surged. FIrst MS missed, but the next two connected. Arcane Storm again. and he used Unholy Ascension. He used Ghostly Bite to finish me off.

Last, Celestial came up. His Scourged whelping went first, and cast Darkness. Wrong move. I used Moonfire and changed the weather, then Ancient Blessing to heal. Came down to it, but eked out a win!

Overall, I don't see myself using this guy much. While I have been wanting to use an Arcane Winds team for a while, this guys limited B/B breed isn't enough to pry me away from harder hitting magic dealers.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 2:21 am
by Denarian
Skavenged, Sholozar needs some love.

Give [pet]Curious Oracle Hatchling[/pet] a spin.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 4:00 am
by Vek
Im not having much luck(or skill) with Ashleaf Spriteling.Perhaps it is my breed(P/P one) that is the trouble for me, I usually like faster pets. But mainly he has no defensive moves at all and that is not so good when you are slow.

Started out trying with Poisoned Branch with Wild Magic. Going DoT then I needed something against possible Sandstorm, and what better than Call Lightning, so picked up a Sunreaver. Took a frog too for Valk/Elemental defense, it is also fast and can do triple hit with Tongue Lash which should go well in lightning weather. It didn’t work as expected at all, also the back row healing from Poisoned Branch was not very useful. It seemed the Spriteling hit really weak even with 333 power. Lost three or four games hands down, then finally squeezed out one victory.

Well I’m not above changing my ways so switched out the abilities for Punch and Solar Beam. Also changed partners to Arctic Fox kit with Howl/DazzlingDance, and a P/P Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog, to take more advantage of the Dance.

Lost the first battle again, but then won two in a row. Still not satisfied with the Spriteling, but he did get off a nice finishing move on a Moth with Entangling Roots(moth was cocooned when I used Roots and Roots didnt get blocked, nice) and Solar Beam going off in the same turn.

I just don’t very much enjoy the moves of the Ashleaf Spriteling, and perhaps his P/P breed is not for me, would be glad if someone had some better insight. Perhaps I would think differently if I had come up against some mechs since he seems quite strong against those.

Denarian now that we got our eyes on you, see if you can make use of your Arcane Eye.(sorry if it's almost in the same vicinity as the Wyrmling)

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 1:53 pm
by Tuatha
I decided to go with a red theme for the red panda (1,2,1) and paired him with a red cricket (1,1,1) and a red moth (1,1,2). I won 2 out of 4 matches, mostly because the cricket with 341 power was a monster vs the valk, and it's self healing was sufficient to get past the cod. I didn't particularly care for Cute Face, though, because it is extremely unpredictable. In both wins, I won because of a lucky dodge, and in both losses, I could have won if I had gotten a dodge. So I changed it to the much more predictable Crouch. I was still around 50%, but I felt more in control. I just wish he was a tad faster to be able to reactively use Crouch and to get heals off first more often, but despite the cricket's 341 power, the panda was my main damage dealer to non-valks/flyers/aquatic.

I switched the moth for a tiny red carp when I started seeing rags a lot, but don't think I ever broke 50%, mostly due to rags being paired with Lil' Bling, who crushed me.

Vek, at one time the Hyacinth Macaw was the rarest of pets. You should restore its old glory by winning some pet battles with it!

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 9:16 pm
by Skavenged
I ran with the Curious Oracle Hatchling, and in addition to learning a few things about him, I also "think" I learned a few things about PVP queue. I actually ran this combo way more than I would have if I hadn't wanted to get a little more data.

I started off thinking that since Oracle Hatchling isn't that fast, his interrupt was weak, so I ran with the Breath AOE instead and paired him up with Lil' Rags and Turnip to make a full AOE team. First four battles, I was paired against anther AOE team and since the other team had a Fossilized Hatchling, they owned me every time.

Since I was apparently going to face an AOE team every round, I decided to change it up and go with Valk and Imp instead, to minimize my opponent's AOE due to my Valk being officially dead most of the time, plus the Imp's swap and ability to damage/heal from the back row. Next three matches were against a triple Valk team and they owned me due to my 2 humanoids and their Rez round. Naturally, I assumed the AOE team had quit queueing, since I had seen him 4 times in a row with the first team, and then none in 3 queues with the second team. I decided to go back to the original team, and lo and behold... I met the AOE team the next three matches and the triple Valk team once.

I figured that with 11 fights in a row against the same 2 teams, I'd just try to counter those two teams with a Valk/Rabbit/Oracle. Sure enough, My next three matches were against an Adder/Valk/Qiraji, and I got owned again.

That's 14 losses in a row, using teams that I really thought were solid. Keep in mind, that I was close on every single loss. Again, thinking my first two opponents may not be queuing at that point, I went back to the original team again, and once again I was facing the AOE team 3 out of 5 fights. I am really going out on a limb here, but is it possible that the system tries to match us with similar teams? Even if we have to wait longer in queue for that "similar" team to finish a fight?

What I DID learn about the Oracle hatchling is that with the Yolk ability, he is very good against Valks (unique for a humanoid). Elementals that need the "burn" debuff to use a nuke are likewise less effective against him. He is also very effective against the Adders, as long as you can predict when they are going to use their Blind. I'm actually going to play around with this little guy in the next few days and see if I can't find a decent combo to use him with. The possibilities are definitely there.

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 9:18 pm
by Skavenged
Tuatha, maybe you'll have more luck with one of my personal Favs and one that I use quite a bit in PVE... the Jade Owl

Re: Battle with that pet

Posted: February 1st, 2014, 10:02 pm
by Liopleurodon
Tuatha wrote:Lio, since you posted last (and because I saw you disparage Nature's Ward recently), win a couple with a Gazelle Fawn (Nature's Ward not required) and let us know how it went!
You are super mean and we're totes not friends for like 5 minutes. :P

Tantrum aside, the first thing I had to do was rename my gazelle, because it's seriously named FreeWinEnjoy. After I get my 10 in for the week I usually lose a few just to boost my karma and hopefully help out some newbies. I have a soft nougaty center, lol.

I did go with Nature's Ward, because if you're doing a challenge, go big or go home. I also went with Headbutt in the last slot, and Hoof in the first (I'm always really leery of using Stampede in PVP unless it's a part of a solid strategy, and I really don't have one of those). I figured since I was using Headbutt, I might as well go with other pets with RNG CC, and used a frog and a direhorn. I figured too, that Nature's Ward would help out a bit because I would be really weak against mechanicals.

Here's the really weird thing. This team ended up being really pretty viable, BUT I was constantly getting really jacked up, unfortunate misses that cost me bouts. Out of 5, I won 1, came within a hit or two 3 times, and got completely wasted by a full team of mechanicals. The last match I missed the frog's Water Jet twice in a row, so RNG was trying to tell me something, or punish me for daring to speak ill of gazelles or something. IDK.

I'll probably try this one again later. I just wanted to report in so y'all wouldn't think I took my ball and ran home. WOE BETIDE THE NEXT SUCKER TO POST, I'll tell you that though. :P