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Pet(s) of the Month - Lunar and Festival Lantern

Posted: February 19th, 2015, 10:30 am
by Quintessence
Many thanks to [profile]Liopleurodon[/profile] for writing the battling portion of our newest feature, [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/news/lunar-festival-lantern-pets-of-the-month-february-2014/]Pet of the Month[/url]. Here are some additional points on the [pet]Lunar Lantern[/pet] and [pet]Festival Lantern[/pet] that she wanted to share!

How Do You Use Your Lanterns?
This set of high-flying lanterns are similar to most of the other pets in the magic family: they pack a big punch. That [ability]Light[/ability] and [ability]Flash[/ability] self-synergy in particular makes for a strong fight ender. Unfortunately, it's also a 1-2 punch which is really easy to dodge, making it not so optimal for PVP. However, unlike much of the magic family, it does get a bit of longevity with [ability]Soul Ward[/ability]. That longevity goes up if you find a pet with group heals or [ability]Renewing Mists[/ability]. Paired with the additional healing of your [ability]Illuminate[/ability]'s weather effect, your Lantern will be nearly unstoppable.

For me, the Soul Ward ability is the most fun ability on this pet (and by fun, I mean evil). Try taking it for a test drive against Hyuna Of The Shrine's Dor The Wall sometime. [ability]Headbutt[/ability], which has a fairly long cooldown, is its only offense. Soul Ward has a shorter cooldown than Headbutt and better yet, it will remain on your Lantern indefinitely until your opponent deals damage. You're not going to see a combo like this frequently, and trying it against Dor is non-optimal and it'll take you a while to win, but when it pops up it's pretty fun.

You can also use it to shield against big-hitting abilities in the context of more normal fights, of course. The effective 50% chance to dodge for two turns from Flash's Blind effect plus that three round cooldown on Soul Ward can roll for some very frustrating matchups for your opponent. That leaves a lot to chance though, and Illuminate has better dps throughput. However, because Sunny Day increases your pets' maximum health by 50%, it also increases the ceiling for the Magic family attack cap, making your pet take more damage overall. I like Flash better for most fights, but Illuminate is a good choice too, as long as you're not using the Flash and Light combo.

There aren't many places where a magic pet with an elemental ability is useful, so I haven't found a lot of places where I want to use [ability]Burn[/ability] over [ability]Beam[/ability]. It would be a great pick if there was a fight with both a Mechanical and an Aquatic but that doesn't apply to any existing fights. Even so, keep it in mind for off-damage fights.

The Lunar and Festival Lanterns are, mercifully, identical to one another. They not only have the same moves, but the same base stats and only one breed, B/B. You don't need both Lanterns for battling purposes, so you don't have to reroll a cross-faction alt if that's all you're after.

The [pet]Enchanted Lantern[/pet], crafted only by Horde enchanters with Cataclysm-era materials, is also identical, same stats, everything. The Alliance version, the [pet]Magic Lamp[/pet], has a couple similarities (Beam, Soul Ward, identical stats), but has a couple tricks the others don't, like [ability]Wish[/ability] and [ability]Sear Magic[/ability].

You can also work out a similar moveset with the [pet]Nordrassil Wisp[/pet] with Flash, Light, Beam & Soul Ward. The Wisp may be a preferable overall choice because of its higher base speed and the ability to choose variant breeds.

So, which teams do you like to play with your Festival or Lunar Lantern? Any new tricks for using Soul Ward? Do these pets just *ahem* light up your life? Let's talk about it.

So, how do you use your Lunar and Festival Lantern?

Written by: [profile]Liopleurodon[/profile]
Check out [url=http://battlepetroundup.com/]battlepetroundup.com[/url] for more of Liopleurodon's Pet Battle strategies and pet analyses!