Lets discuss the 5.3 pets and their abilities

[Luciandk]

http://ptr.wowhead.com/news=211710/5-3- ... attle-pets

Make sure you click to the individual pet pages, as the abilities listed on the oversight page is not 100% correct.


One pet in particular that is having a LOT of interest from me is Lil' Bad Wolf
http://ptr.wowhead.com/npc=71014

Ive recently gotten my eyes open for the power of Counterstrike. And LBW packs Howl to go with it, which I could see as a quite strong combo. Not as strong as Chrominius' Howl+Surge of Power combo. But not leaving you in a vulnerable position right after.

Nearly all current pets with Counterstrike have skyhigh speed, indirectly weakening the ability as you WANT the enemy to go first to hit you. And while LBW's stats isnt known yet, I cant imagine that its another 325 speed pet. If it turns out to have low speed and high health and a decent power rating, then it will be REALLY good for this.


The Unborn Valkyr is another promising pet
http://ptr.wowhead.com/npc=71163
I feel the main combo is Curse of Doom+Haunt for massive dotting. From what I hear, haunting an enemy pet temporarilly kills your pet until the haunting have run its course. So start with the Valkyr, dot the target and swap to next pet. Which I think would work well as an enemy shifter. And judging from the newly introduced Nether Gate ability, I believe Blizzard wants to see more actively fouling the enemy pet setup, instead of reserving it for few pets
http://ptr.wowhead.com/petability=466

What else have you folks seen?

[Poofah]

The problem is that Counterstrike has a 2-turn cooldown and occupies the first slot, and lil bad wolf has to choose either Mangle or Dodge in slot 2. So a Counterstrike/X/Howl moveset will either leave you cooldown locked, or spamming Mangle to no effect.

Lesser Voidcaller looks interesting: he can take Curse of Doom + Prismatic Barrier (same as beaver dam and ice barrier). You can open with CoD, then barrier, then use the barrier to cover your swap. If he's fast enough to go first, he could trade 1 CoD for 1 opposing attack while also allowing you to swap basically for free. Or, if they want to swap, you can ramp up Nether Blast by pumping it into the barrier.

Tainted Waveling has 2 ultra-efficient DoTs plus Corrosion. If pets lasted long enough for sustained damage to matter much, he'd be a genuine face-melter. If the beasts of fable get changed so that %-based attacks no longer obliterate them, then the waveling could be an allstar.

Unborn Valkyr is definitely interesting, but it will depend completely on how Haunt works.

[Luciandk]

More like the % attacks is getting obliterated. They are all loosing the instakill ability at 25% life.

And some interesting thoughts about those pets.

[Poofah]

Good point. So Predatory Strike/Impale are nerfed, and assuming the Zandalari Raptors get sufficiently nerfed, and Life Exchange is also nerfed against the beast of fable, then it looks like Tainted Waveling could be the next in line. A Waveling with 325 power can do upwards of 2400 damage by doing Corrosion, Poison Spit, Creeping Ooze, Corrosion (all of which will now have 100% accuracy). The damage is dealt over 5 turns but only takes 4 attacks, and the pet that swaps in after Waveling dies should benefit from a round or two of the Corrosion debuff.

[Luciandk]

Hum, you know. Dots will be a great source for those whom doesnt like abilities that can miss. In 5.3 all dot abilities ive looked at have 100% chance to hit, compared to many main attacks that have between 95% to 80% chance to hit.


And the improved aquatic racial as mentioned in another thread, 50% reduced dot damage will be good counter should a dot heavy metagame develop.

[Ryazan]

Good point. So Predatory Strike/Impale are nerfed, and assuming the Zandalari Raptors get sufficiently nerfed, and Life Exchange is also nerfed against the beast of fable, ...

Hmmm, it seems I have totally missed this but how are they changing LE? I've been wondering when the hammer will fall but so far I haven't seen anything in PTR notes.

[Luciandk]

Not seen anything for Life Exchange yet.

[Poofah]

I took a 2nd look today and noticed that [url=http://ptr.wowdb.com/npcs/71199-living-fluid]Living Fluid[/url] and Viscous Horror have a new unique ability, Evolution: 30 base damage and boosts their damage for 3 rounds. Coupled with the usual ooze moves Absorb and Corrosion, these things could be very nasty.