Emperor Crab

Without question, the Emperor Crab is my favorite pet to use for the capture of wild pets. The damage mitigation and healing makes it nearly indestructible, and when combined with Surge, the high speed, low damage attack, you have the perfect combo for capturing even the most powerful or sensitive wild pets. You will have no more accidental kills of those rare wild pets you've been farming for hours with the Emperor Crab!! 

One of the first truly great battle pets I ever caught. A P/P Emperor Crab will be a mainstay on your pet battle teams forever. It's that good!

@Phelgrahm:"...Spirebound Crab is also available in a P/P breed and has the same ability set..."

That's true, yet Spirebound Crab has 1481 hp, 325 power and 244 speed while Emperor Crab has 1481, 357 and 211 respectively. That MAKES a difference ;).

Strongest Crab in the Game (P/P).

94 Shield (Stronger than Anubisath)

+

150+ Heal per Turn Renewing Mist.

Would get this crab over all the other crabs.

Spirebound Crab is also available in a P/P breed and has the same ability set. 

Honestly, this guy (in P/P breed) is my favorite pet for wild pet fights and pvp. You can stay at full health using Shell Shield and Renewing Mists. Shell Shield completely blocks most flock abilities and dots. Some fights can be a little slow since your Surge only does 282 dmg. 

If you are leveling pets just throw on Renewing Mists before swapping them in, helps keep them topped off.

@Khorghast

Short answer: Because of breeds. Emperor Crab is the only variation that can be P/P.

At 357 Power, it can dish out solid damage. Not great, since it doesn't have any inherently strong attacks outside of Whirlpool (which you shouldn't use as I'll explain later) but it's good.

Its true strength lies in the combination of Shell Shield and its healing ability. It just survives for ages, since both the damage reduce and the heal scale with its massive Power.

Why is this crab rated so highly when Strand Crawler and Shore Crab have identical abilities and are rated relatively low?  I'm pretty new to pet stuff.

I just picked one up.  They are often secondary pets to the horrible snails in the region. 

The P/P version guy is basically immune to DoTs with the combination of Shell Shield, his racial, and his powerful heal.

An extremely tanky pet, and one of my personal favorites. 

Went to hunt this pet today in preperation for the Pandaren Spirit Battles. First encounter was a rare, now he's part of my collection.

They call this pet the 'Emperor Crab' because the Mantid Empress got really, REALLY drunk one night and.. well....

I had two pets left to get in Pandaria - this and a crunchy scorpion. I went to the Dread Wastes to get my scorpion first and guess who popped up in my secondaries! Sadly he's only poor quality but I at least have the credit for the achievement... now to find another scorpion :-)

Really good pet. Very dependable with that shield. 

This is a must-have battle pet.

Not only can he solo most wild pet encounters and more than one trainer, I almost always run with him in my pvp team. Of course he is great against ele's and undead (spectral kid/unborn val'kyr can't touch him,) but he is shockingly good against flyers. His shell shield mitigates most of the dmg of abilities like slicing wind and his surge takes a lot of the punch out of alpha strike. The pets you do have to watch out for are ones with darkness/nocturnal strike.

Probably one of the best pets in my opinion. Fast, hits hard and has excellent heals. Great addition to any collection. 

I just found one next to the Lake of the Stars, right next to the wall.  He was secondary to a Clouded Hedgehog. 

I've been using this lil' buddy to help level the rest of my collection. He can take down all three opponents and stay at over 80% health. Because of this, I've been able to use lower level pets in higher battles and really speed up the leveling process. Love him! 

Found one spawned, and found several of different qualities as addons to the Rapana Whelks in the area surrounding Kaz'tik the Manipulator at 42.72.

This guy devastates Farmer Nishi.  Against first sunflower pet use almost any combo starting with Whirpool, Heal and Surge.  Against his second turnip pet; he will submerge for two rounds, so on your first move use Surge, then Whirpool and Heal yourself up.  Once he pops back up, that untasty turnip is basically just a nice soup for your Emp Crab. Hit his last beast pet with Whirlpool to keep things safe, then swap in low level pet to finish up, getting tons of exp.