Struggling in Northrend

[Minoke]

My team is level 23, all rare, and I'm starting Northrend pet trainer battles to get towards the latest and greatest.... I hadn't had many problems until now, but now... I... I don't think my team has much future.

I'm currently using 23 rare Plump Turkey, 23 rare Celestial Dragon, 23 rare Snake. The dragon I'm going to keep - I realize that as fun as the turkey is, playing with a cooking fire... it's not a very good battle pet. The snake has its uses, but... meh. I'm looking for suggestions. My collection is listed:

http://www.warcraftpets.com/collection/minoke/

[Gendou]

The Northrend tamers (particularly Okrut and Maj. Payne) are where you really need to have specialized teams to beat them.

I would recommend a frog or turtle of some kind for Okrut, since two of his dragons are undead. Frogs take less damage from undead abilities and have critter abilities, which deal more damage to undead. Consider possibly doing a bit of wild taming in Pandaria - there are several species of turtle there which could prove invaluable. A rare P/P Emperor Crab can solo the two of the tamers (the ghoul and the headless guy) with a bit of work and luck, and the Celestial Dragon can solo the gnome's flying stable at 25.

Snakes (not necessarily snakes) can be utterly brutal at 25 if you have a good breed - yours is a B/B, however, which may make it less than optimal.
I don't have much experience with turkeys, though I understand they can be very useful under certain circumstances.

I think you probably just need to do some more wild taming. I suggest looking for a nice frog first, then moving from there.

[Cinnamara]

Major Payne is a major pain!!!! Pun intended! Your best bet is to hope for his bear to come out first! You want a good strong mechanical in that position. If you don't have a high mech, you want something with high health and good beast hitting abilities. While everyone loves the Fluxfire Feline, they just don't have the health. I use Lil' XT. He likes to play!

Against his mechanostrider you want an elemental creature that does good mechanical damage. I like using my Spirit of Summer, but a Fel Flame does the same thing. Tiny Snowman is also fun, as he can hit with a one round stun. Always a good thing.

For the flower, use a water creature. Frog or turtle is good. My Huge Toad has the highest health and does some good damage and can heal.

Win a few times, and you'll get the hang of it.

[Khema]

for major payne i usually get by using mainly two pets and getting a third lower lvl one a level or two.

i make sure he starts with the bear and i use the flux kitty .. if done right the kitty should have enough life left to get the mechno to at least half health. then i use my lower lvl pet if it is strong against mechanical to finish it off.. if not i use snarly one of the fishing gators then when the elemental is almost dead i switch to low lvl pet. if your not worried about trying to get in any lvls flux fel flame and snarly will def beat him.

[Tahsfenz]

I had a lot of trouble in dragon blight, and when I hit major Payne, I actually leveled up specific pets for that fight. I ended up going fluxfire feline & dark Phoenix hatchling. Later I added scooter the snail,upgraded.

[Minoke]

... P/P? B/B? huh? What does _that_ mean? I managed to take out the trainer in Howling Fjord, barely, but the other 4 are tougher.

Also, I tried to go back to Shadowmoon to do the Grand Master, with level 24 rare pets, and the Blood Knight's frostwyrm shredded my team every time with all the defense.

[Gendou]

... P/P? B/B? huh? What does _that_ mean? I managed to take out the trainer in Howling Fjord, barely, but the other 4 are tougher.

P/P and B/B are shorthand for various breeds.
P/P is also known as 4/14. It's a breed with more power, but less speed and health.
B/B is also known as 3/13. It's a more balanced breed, but it sacrifices overall points in every category.

Petsear.ch has a sorted list of your pets, with their level and breed ID.
I would suggest using it to determine which pets you might possibly want to find a different breed for leveling.

I would suggest picking up PetJournal Enhanced, PetTracker and Battle Pet BreedID addons.
Each one provides invaluable additional information that you may want to have available while advancing.

Also, I tried to go back to Shadowmoon to do the Grand Master, with level 24 rare pets, and the Blood Knight's frostwyrm shredded my team every time with all the defense.

Enzzo's World of WarPets blog is very useful for finding strategies for beating each tamer - particularly the Master Tamers.

[Knotrandall]

Ah yes. Major Payne was a turning point in my battling career also. Just like you I was able to beat all the earlier guys with my rag tag band of pets based purely on what I thought looked cool. Once you hit Northrend though you need to build up a base of very specific pets for specific fights.

I too thought that this was the end of me. I thought that if I couldn't do this guy, what kind of shot did I have with Cata, Pandaria or Spirit Tamers? The good news is that Major Payne is on par with about every other tamer you'll see in the game, it all just becomes a matter of getting the right pets for the right fights.

[Minoke]

Are any of the pets I currently possess worth leveling to take those out? I have only received one battle-stone and used it on my turkey. (Link is further up, I can't post links yet. US-Lothar-Minoke is my character.

[Tahsfenz]

In my opinion, leveling the darkmoon zep & dark Phoenix hatchling will help with major payne

[Gendou]

The Celestial Dragon is definitely worth leveling to 25.
The Turkey is a maybe - I just don't know enough about them.
The Snake, probably not worth it.

You do, however, have a Rare S/S Cogblade Raptor at 18 that might be worth some investment.
You also have a Rare P/S Scorpid at 17 that could also prove useful in the long run.

It might also be worth considering going back and leveling up your Darkmoon Zeppelin, which is always useful.

If you're willing to spend some time hunting and taming the right breed and rarity, there might be a few other suggestions I could make.

[Livingdeath]

I have to agree with Gendou. The Dragon is definitely a worthwhile pet, but the turkey and snake are not that great in comparison to some other pets out there. But I have to agree with some of the other people and say you need to focus on capturing some Cata or MoP pets to buff up your roster and create a core team of 20+ pets of each class.

For this fight you really need a Mech, Elemental and Aquatic. You should really build a team for this fight. You'll find some other fights will require the same, so might as well build out a basic roster now.

Just so you know, that doesn't mean leveling what you got. Remember there are some pretty high level pets out there now that you can tame that are better than what you are using. I highly recommend collecting rare quality only. I know it sounds snobbish, but the extra stats really can make the difference in fights. Greens are okay and I have been known to tame a low quality if it is a rare spawn, but I tend to fight with rares only to give myself the best chance possible.

So, your roster...

Mech - I think it's pretty common knowledge that the Fluxfire Feline is the best Mech and easily worth the leveling time (should take you 30 minutes). You should actually tame 2 (near Dun Murogh). But the Darkmoon Zeppelin is pretty great too and even a Clockwork Robots can be pretty powerful. I used a Clockwork Robot in this fight.

Elemental - I like the Crimson Geodes in Deepholm. The Fel Flame in Shadowmoon Valley is a good elemental. If you can, level a Terrible Turnip for pet capturing purposes. I used a Crimson Geode in this Fight.

Aquatic - Head out to Dread Wastes and tame an Emperor Crab to get access to a powerful high level aquatic now. It's a powerful pet and I've honestly soloed some trainers just with this pet.

Critter - Marsh Fiddlers in Valley of Four Winds gives you a decent critter with heals/defense. I don't use critters much since there aren't many undead pets.

Dragon - Your Celestial Dragon is good for now. An Emerald Proto Whelp from Sholazar's Basin is good too.

Human - Kun Lai Runt in Kun Lai Summit as an easy human capture. My favorite is the Flayer Hatchling found on the border of Hellfire Penninsula/Terrokar Forest.

Beast - Alpine Foxling in Kun Lai are surprisingly powerful.

Flying - Amber Moth in Dread Wastes or Townlong is one of the most powerful flying pets.

Undead - Restless Shadeling in Deadwind Pass are great, plus super easy to get because it spawns with no adds in the fight, your 3 pets versus 1 undead. The only problem is the spawn time is pretty late.

Magic - Nordrassil Wisp in Mount Hyjal, although I really prefer a Nether Faerie Dragon from Feralas (it has poweful attacks against aquatics and flying pets).


Hope this helps!

[Minoke]

I'll get to work capturing good pets of the ones you just mentioned. Having a 25 of each family will make things much better - it can't make things worse.

Is the Turnip good for anything else but capturing other pets, btw?

[Gendou]

Mech - I think it's pretty common knowledge that the Fluxfire Feline is the best Mech and easily worth the leveling time (should take you 30 minutes). You should actually tame 2 (near Dun Murogh). But the Darkmoon Zeppelin is pretty great too and even a Clockwork Robots can be pretty powerful. I used a Clockwork Robot in this fight.

Darkmoon Zep is good because you already have it, Minoke.
But LD is absolutely right about Fluxfire Feline - even post 5.2, when Supercharge gets a slight nerf, the Fluxfire Feline is unstoppable for pure, unadulterated Mechanical Burst. It's fragile - it won't take too many hits. But an S/S Fluxfire is faster than some tamer pets, and you can get some good hits in. I can kill Major Payne's bear and mechanopeep with my L25 Fluxfire.

Elemental - I like the Crimson Geodes in Deepholm. The Fel Flame in Shadowmoon Valley is a good elemental. If you can, level a Terrible Turnip for pet capturing purposes. I used a Crimson Geode in this Fight.

I agree about Fel Flame. In fact, it's a damned-near perfect anti-Mechanical. Keep Immolate up, spam Burn, then finish with Conflagrate - because Conf hits twice on a Burning (ie: Immolated) target, it kills the Mechanical - then kills it again when it resurrects.
For survivability, however, little can beat a Shale Hatchling, regardless of color. Plus they're easy to farm.

Aquatic - Head out to Dread Wastes and tame an Emperor Crab to get access to a powerful high level aquatic now. It's a powerful pet and I've honestly soloed some trainers just with this pet.

P/P Emperor Crab... the soloing pet of the gods.
If you can get card game pets, I highly recommend the Purple Puffer. It has amazing damage with Pump.
Otherwise, catch any kind of water strider (the P/S Eternal Strider is my personal favorite) - they have a similar ability set, though they can't hit as hard as the Puffer.

Critter - Marsh Fiddlers in Valley of Four Winds gives you a decent critter with heals/defense. I don't use critters much since there aren't many undead pets.

Rapana Whelk or Silkbead Snail will be invaluable when you start going after the Pandaren Tamers - particularly the Spirits.
Also, a well-played high-speed rabbit can solo a lot of stuff with patience and a good eye.

Dragon - Your Celestial Dragon is good for now. An Emerald Proto Whelp from Sholazar's Basin is good too.

So is a Spawn of Onyxia, if you can get a P/P rare.

Human - Kun Lai Runt in Kun Lai Summit as an easy human capture. My favorite is the Flayer Hatchling found on the border of Hellfire Penninsula/Terrokar Forest.

Agreed on both of these. If you can solo AQ40 or can camp the auction house, consider Aniubisath Idol, as it can solo a lot of tamers at 25.

Beast - Alpine Foxling in Kun Lai are surprisingly powerful.

Much as LD doesn't use critters, I don't use many beasts. I'll defer to their opinion on this one.
I do like my Ravager Hatchling, though.

Flying - Amber Moth in Dread Wastes or Townlong is one of the most powerful flying pets.

Agreed, though my personal preference runs to the Effervescent Glowfly for sheer survivability.

Undead - Restless Shadeling in Deadwind Pass are great, plus super easy to get because it spawns with no adds in the fight, your 3 pets versus 1 undead. The only problem is the spawn time is pretty late.

Agreed. Alternately, Lost of Lordaeron is very, very easy to find most of the time.

Magic - Nordrassil Wisp in Mount Hyjal, although I really prefer a Nether Faerie Dragon from Feralas (it has poweful attacks against aquatics and flying pets).

Nether Faerie Dragon was my second pet to 25, right after Frosty.
The usefulness of this pet cannot be overstated. Also, if you have the patience, a P/P Jade Oozeling can be devastating in late game.

=========================================================

Is the Turnip good for anything else but capturing other pets, btw?

Honestly, I haven't found a use for it outside of capturing.
But it's so completely overwhelmingly useful for captures that it's basically indispensable at 25 if you're serious about taming.

[Minoke]

Is S/S or P/S better for Fluxfires? I snagged a common S/S, but continue my search.

[Gendou]

Is S/S or P/S better for Fluxfires? I snagged a common S/S, but continue my search.

Whichever you get rare, really. I like my S/S, but other people swear by P/S.
It hits hard regardless, so whatever rare you get first - go with it.

[Myrrmi]

For FFF I preffer s/s. You practically get the big shot regardless of power anyway, and, especially so in pvp but in pve it also applies, it's good to have higher speed to deploy your OMGWTFBBQ combo before the opponent can interrupt you in any way.

[Khema]

hey sunshine. if you want to add me to your battletag i am on almost always during the day and if ya need any question answered i can sure give it my best. i have beaten all the trainers already and while some might argue that i use wrong pets for various fights it works:-) i beat their butts every day.

tazaer#1825

[Minoke]

Well, I snagged an uncommon S/S Fluxfire, so it's good enough till I get a battle-stone to rarify it.

How does this combo work? You said that Wind-Up breaks through defenses like the mech death-heal? It doesn't multihit - how does it work? Wind-Up, Prowl/Supercharge, Wind-Up? Is that it? Why is it so OP? I know that Wind-Up hits like a truck, but it's not THAT powerful, is it?

And thank you for your offer, Khema. I'll add you when I log on this evening.

[Stabya]

Just one alternte opinion for Major payne - I use the clockwork gnome for the bear

First move - Build Turret, then Punch the bear til the next build turret comes up, Even if you are stunned by the bear, you should be in good shape to hit Repair right after the 2nd turret is built and the bear is hibernating. Once you are done repairing, you should be able to punch/Turret the bear into the twisted nether, and most likely be able to set a turret up for the mechanopeep and even punch him, before you are down for the count