Zao in the Tournament

[Katfu]

OMG I am hating Zao! I can get through the whole tournament and always get stuck not being able to kill him. Suggestions on team and strategy... please!!! Thanks

[Kpb321]

Personally I uses a P/B Zandalari raptor. Either a Anklerender or a Kneebitter followed by any pet with a multi hit ability should finish Zao easily. My followup pet is a s/s raptor but almost anything with a good multi hit ability should work. The P/B is perfect because it is just barely faster than Zao and has the highest power and hps possible while being faster. You start with Blood Claw then hit hunting party. You'll get two rounds of hunting party in and deal a good chunk of damage before you die and when you do die you'll leave Zao with Shattered defenses and blood claw up meaning any multi-hit ability is really going to hurt. He's also going to be using wish and is pretty slow so it's not hard to get two rounds of attacks in before he attacks you again and before wish goes off.

Other breeds or a footslasher should work but might need a little stronger follow up pet. With a blingtron or something with batter it should be fine.

If you don't have any raptors

From my guide at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WRFc0_8-8YJy_umslj45Xv7gqOFoNl0tpQeMgxlcRqs/edit?usp=sharing

Zao
Team 1
Any Fox/foxling (2/2/2)
Any Spider (1/2/2) P/P breeds best
Any backup pet

Open with the Foxling and Dazzling Dance, Flurry and then Howl. You should die after the Howl. Then bring in the Spider and Brittle Webbing followed by Spiderling Swarm. That should kill him, if not hit strike.

Team 2
Any pet with Call Lightning like Wild Golden/Jade Hatchling or Skywisp Moth
Flying pet with Flock or Swarm and a base speed of 277+
Cogblade Raptor or Robo-Chick with Batter

Open the with Call Lightning Pet. If you are using the Skywisp Moth and therefore faster than Xu-Fu another attack the first round and Call Lightning the second. With any of the other pets Call Lightning on the first round. Once you’ve done Call Lightning swap to your second pet and just hit swarm. You’ll probably die before swarm finishes but if you don’t for some reason just cast it again.
Once your flyer dies swap in the Cogblade Raptor or Robo-Chick and Batter. The combination of Shattered Defenses and Call Lightning with Batter hitting 2-3 times should destroy him quickly. You should have a lot more options for the Flying pet for Zao as he’s slower and your Call Lightning pet and Raptor/Robo-Chick should still be alive from Xu-Fu if you did him first so you can simply swap in a new flying pet and take down Zao without even bothering to heal.

[Sellys]

1) Any flyer with flock or swarm that's faster than zao even when the flyer is under 50% health. I happen to use a chicken b/c I had one that was S/S breed.

2) After 5 rounds of flock (or swarm) your flyer will be dead. Bring in a mech type with two hard hitting abilities (I prefer the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti since both Call Lightning and Ion cannon are 100% hit chance). Use your two hard hitting moves while Zao has the double damage debuff from flock/swarm and he'll be dead before the Wish goes off at the end of the second round.

[Kalium]

A combo that has never failed me...

Wild (Color) Hatchling > Call Lightning
swap
Clockwork Gnome > Build Turret
swap
Zandalari Raptor > Black Claw > Hunting Party

Sometimes Gnome will die and rez before swap... sometimes he won't... regardless this works if you just need to see a win.

[Genome]

Zao - Alpine Foxling / Crystal Spider / Chrominius. Like the Elfuego vids, start with Fox, and go with Dazzling Dance, Bite, then Howl. Fox dies and spider is up. Brittle Webbing, Spiderling Swarm, Crystal Prison. Switch to Chrominius. Howl, then Surge of Power. Zao dies. I used to run a dual spider setup like in the videos, but too often for my liking, the second Spiderling Swarm would leave Zao with 100-200ish health, which means game over. Chrominius makes sure he dies due to the predicatable nature of Surge of Power. Another issue to be aware of is Zao critting your fox before he can get Howl off. While not common, this has happened to me more than once. Luckily, I had a few other Fox's (lvl 22 and 23). With the lower level ones, I learned the hard way that you cannot use bite as he is going to die, so simply use Dazzling Dance followed directly by Howl and go through the fight as before and pray Zao doesn't alter his rotation. Chrominius makes up the difference of the lost Bite, and then some. Ion Cannon may also work in place of SoP.

I have since gotten another fox to 25 so this is no longer an issue.

[Skavenged]

I use the traditional Howl/Bomb

Pandaren water spirit drops whirlpool and gyser. Swap out for Chrominius. Howl, bite, cannon. You MUST use bite before cannon, or he'll survive it

[Voskres]

I have a team that never fails (I have more probs on Xu-Fu).

[pet]Sunreaver Micro-Sentry[/pet]
[pet]Zandalari Anklerender[/pet]
[pet]Zandalari Kneebiter[/pet]

Fel Immolate, Call Lightning, Swap, Black Claw, Hunting Party

For me, he normally dies from the end of turn lightning and fel dot after the first Hunting Party gives him the double damage debuff. 5 round battle. If not the 2nd Hunting Party goes off by itself and he is gone for sure.

[Peanutty]

Zandalari Raptors are my favorite way to go as well. I stack 2 of them (really any 2 will do, as long as they have both Hunting Party and Black Claw/Exposed Wounds.) So the typical fight goes:

- Start with P/P Anklerender, open with Black Claw, then Hunting Party until Anklerender is dead.
- Switch to P/B Footslasher, Hunting Party. Zao dies.

The 3rd pet on the team doesn't really matter since you shouldn't have to use it, but since RNG sometimes can mess with you, I usually have S/S Kneebiter in that slot. If he's needed then it's just using Hunting Party again.

[Awq]

I like the Corefire Imp (Immolation+Wild Magic) + Flyer with Stampede/Flock combo. Because I can reuse the Corefire Imp + Rabbit for Chi-Chi (i reuse Rabbit for Yu'La) and I can reuse the Flyer for Xu-Fu.

[Kpb321]

Zandalari Raptors are my favorite way to go as well. I stack 2 of them (really any 2 will do, as long as they have both Hunting Party and Black Claw/Exposed Wounds.) So the typical fight goes:

- Start with P/P Anklerender, open with Black Claw, then Hunting Party until Anklerender is dead.
- Switch to P/B Footslasher, Hunting Party. Zao dies.

The 3rd pet on the team doesn't really matter since you shouldn't have to use it, but since RNG sometimes can mess with you, I usually have S/S Kneebiter in that slot. If he's needed then it's just using Hunting Party again.

The randomness comes from the anklerender being p/p. That breed is the same speed as Zao which means the game randomly picks who goes first every round and if you loose that coin flip on the third turn you dies before your hunting party goes off which costs you damage and means you don't have shattered defenses up on your next turn. If you had any other breed you'd always go first and never have that problem and the randomness is almost completely gone. A p/b anklerender or kneebitter is perfect. It would be more reliable opening with the s/s kneebitter and then following up with either of the other two.

[Peanutty]

Zandalari Raptors are my favorite way to go as well. I stack 2 of them (really any 2 will do, as long as they have both Hunting Party and Black Claw/Exposed Wounds.) So the typical fight goes:

- Start with P/P Anklerender, open with Black Claw, then Hunting Party until Anklerender is dead.
- Switch to P/B Footslasher, Hunting Party. Zao dies.

The 3rd pet on the team doesn't really matter since you shouldn't have to use it, but since RNG sometimes can mess with you, I usually have S/S Kneebiter in that slot. If he's needed then it's just using Hunting Party again.

The randomness comes from the anklerender being p/p. That breed is the same speed as Zao which means the game randomly picks who goes first every round and if you loose that coin flip on the third turn you dies before your hunting party goes off which costs you damage and means you don't have shattered defenses up on your next turn. If you had any other breed you'd always go first and never have that problem and the randomness is almost completely gone. A p/b anklerender or kneebitter is perfect. It would be more reliable opening with the s/s kneebitter and then following up with either of the other two.

Hmm well that would explain it. I've only done CT once the past several months, and had switched out almost all my Zandalari raptors for different breeds in the interim, so when I went back to do it for kicks with the "same" lineup as before, the P/P Anklerender indeed didn't go first and went splat instead (but the Kneebiter finished the fight anyhow) and I'd thought it was just some weird RNG thing. Didn't notice that the speeds were the same!

[Klaital]

Here is how I kill Zao, never fails.

Darkmoon Zeppelin
Netherspace Abyssal
Darkmoon Tonk

Start with zeppelin, decoy, then do enough missiles that you hit him twice, then explode, bring in abyssal, explode, bring in the tonk, ion cannon, Zao is dead. Note that pretty much any pets with explode/ion cannon work in place of the abyssal and tonk, I just use them because abyssal is my highest health pet with explode and tonk my highest power pet with ion cannon, but it ends up massively overkilling him so less optimally statted pets with the right abilities work too.

[Jerebear]

I use any call lightning pet + P/S Zandalari Kneebiter/Anklerender with black claw and hunting party (similar to Voskres)

Call Lightning
other ability (just to soak the big charge)
swap
Black Claw
Hunting party (pet dies here)
Some ability from the call lightning pet.

Lately I've been using the Tiny Twister with Wild Winds, Flyby, Call Lightning but other pets work too

[Chibimage]

Zandalari Kneebiter S/S (but likely any breed will do)
Lil' Bling

(any third pet you want, you don't use it)

Zao is so redonkulously debuffed that when you bring LIl' Bling out, he facesmashes with Make it Rain. It's fun!

[Kravex]

i have 2 teams for this
team 1
ghostly skull
pandaren water spirit
fjord worg pup p/p

ghostly skull : use ghostly bite 1st (if this misses use shadowslash on turn 2) on turn 3 use unholy ascension
pandaren water spirit : use geyser then whirlpool then switch to fjord worg pup
fjord worg pup: use howl then leap if needed

team 2
zandalari kneebiter p/b
zandalari anklerender p/p
and any third pet as i find those 2 enough

kneebiter: black claw and hunting party
anklerender: hunting party alone should kill it

[Helbrecht]

I start with H/H Unborn Val'kyr. Curse of Doom while Zao powers up, and then Haunt after eating the huge-damage charge.

Bring in a P/P Zandalari Kneebiter. Black Claw, Hunting Party and Zao is down on the second round of HP. 5-round, 2-pet fight, every time.

[Kendrah]

OMG I am hating Zao! I can get through the whole tournament and always get stuck not being able to kill him. Suggestions on team and strategy... please!!! Thanks

I use a fox, crystal spider (it needs to be a crystal spider), and a pet with Ion Cannon. Start with fox, do dazzle dance, bite, then howl. It'll die then. With the crystal do brittle webbing, the swarm attack, and crystal prison (the prison gives you the free swap which is important.) Switch to third pet and do Ion cannon. It'll die before it has a chance to even start casting wish.

[Wolfson]

I have a team that never fails (I have more probs on Xu-Fu).

[pet]Sunreaver Micro-Sentry[/pet]
[pet]Zandalari Anklerender[/pet]
[pet]Zandalari Kneebiter[/pet]

Fel Immolate, Call Lightning, Swap, Black Claw, Hunting Party

For me, he normally dies from the end of turn lightning and fel dot after the first Hunting Party gives him the double damage debuff. 5 round battle. If not the 2nd Hunting Party goes off by itself and he is gone for sure.

This is my exact team for Zao, and the battle goes exactly as described every time. With this team, Zao is actually the easiest and fastest of the 4 celestials (Yu-la is also easy with a Mr. Bigglesworth, but it takes a while).

This trio also serves as my backup team for Xu-fu, and works just about as well there.

[Klaital]

I have a team that never fails (I have more probs on Xu-Fu).

[pet]Sunreaver Micro-Sentry[/pet]
[pet]Zandalari Anklerender[/pet]
[pet]Zandalari Kneebiter[/pet]

Fel Immolate, Call Lightning, Swap, Black Claw, Hunting Party

For me, he normally dies from the end of turn lightning and fel dot after the first Hunting Party gives him the double damage debuff. 5 round battle. If not the 2nd Hunting Party goes off by itself and he is gone for sure.

This is my exact team for Zao, and the battle goes exactly as described every time. With this team, Zao is actually the easiest and fastest of the 4 celestials (Yu-la is also easy with a Mr. Bigglesworth, but it takes a while).

This trio also serves as my backup team for Xu-fu, and works just about as well there.

You should use Clock'em for Yu'la, so much faster than bigglesworth. And really simple, just use dodge to avoid the lift-offs, rest of the time spam jab and you win every time.

[Alkaia]

Zandalari Kneebiter S/S (but likely any breed will do)
Lil' Bling

(any third pet you want, you don't use it)

Zao is so redonkulously debuffed that when you bring LIl' Bling out, he facesmashes with Make it Rain. It's fun!

This is the team I use although my Kneebiter is a P/S.
It's ridiculously simple and extremely funny to watch Zao get completely massacred by Make It Rain.

Black Claw / Hunting Party / Make It Rain