updated 7/20/20, always a WIP
This list is designed for those new to the PvP pet battle scene. Keep in mind that this should be used a starting point only. After you get the hang of pet battling you can explore your own ideas and synergies. The next top team is out there waiting to be discovered!
Here are my definitions of the tiers:
1st tier – You can build a team around these pets and expect to win often with the right support. I like to think of these pets as being able to carry lesser pets to great win rates.
2nd tier – These pets are not quite as good as the 1st-tier pets. You can still build a successful team around them, but due to certain constraints they will be not be able to single-handedly carry a team to success like the 1st-tier pets.
3rd tier – This is a general catch-all for the good PvP pets. Some will do better than others in certain situations. In the early days it wasn’t hard to fill out a 3rd tier list, but with so many pets now the list is far from comprehensive.
* – denotes a pet that might not be great on its own, but can be very good with certain synergies.
Powerful Moves
Before I talk about pets I want to explain a few overpowered moves: Righteous Inspiration, traps and Meteorite Shower. Righteous Inspiration is a move only available on Murkalot. It swaps out to your highest health pet, then provides a 100% speed and 100% power buff. It is one of the most overpowered moves in the game. Second are traps. When a trap goes off it interrupts, stuns the next round and does damage. That’s a lot of bang for one move. Some say it is balanced by rng since you don’t know which round it will activate, but in my opinion it still does too much. Finally, Twilight Meteorite is an over-budgeted evenly split AoE that is only available on the Twilight Clutch-Sister. Combined with the dragonkin racial this move can do insane damage.
The reason that I bring these moves up (specifically RI and Twilight Meteorite) is that I’m not entirely comfortable keeping Murkalot and the TCS on the first tier. For the most part RI has to be used with a few specific AoE pets to function properly (I will discuss some of these pets below). For the most part Murkalot can’t carry lesser pets, he can make a few pets really great. The Fiendish Imp, Hermit Crab and even Wyrmy Tunkins can carry non-tier pets to wins. Murkalot can’t.
For now I will keep Murkalot and the TCS on the 1st tier, but keep in mind that the jury is still out.
1st tier
Murkalot – has one of the most OP moves in the game, Righteous Inspiration.
Fiendish Imp – 333 speed with a forced swap and backline healing from the humanoid racial.
Twilight Clutch Sister – Twilight Meteor is grossly over budgeted for a 5 round CD AoE.
Wyrmy Tunkins – Jar of Smelly Liquid along with the humanoid racial makes this pet quite effective.
Hermit Crab – an over budgeted base stat line and a move set that takes advantage of its 349 speed.
Anomalus – does a massive amount of AoE, is reasonable fast and utilizes the magic racial well due its low health.
Twilight – Has a strong move set and decent speed to be used along with the always powerful darkness weather.
2nd tier
S/S Flayer Youngling
Snobold Runt
Waterfly/Aquafly
Parasitic Boarfly
Infernal Pyreclaw
Jademist Dancer* (clonedance)
S/S Alpine Fox
S/S Bronze Whelpling
Curious Wolvar Pup
P/P Emperor Crab
Frostwolf Ghostpup
Ore Eater/Crusher
S/S Rabbits
H/S Scalded Basilisk Hatchling
Vengeful Porcupette
Blossoming Ancient* (sunny day)
Iron Starlette
Death Adder Hatchling
Direhorns
Enchanted Broom
Muck Slug (great imp counter)
Zur’aj The Depleted
Blazehound
Fel-Afflicted Skyfin
Tonguelasher
Whomper
3rd tier
Ghastly Kid* (Consume Corpse, Haunt n’ stall)
S/S Nightshade Sproutling* (darkness)
S/S Wicked Soul
Guardian Cobra Hatchling
S/S Energized Manafiend
P/P Blackfuse Bombling* (Righteous Inspiration/Armageddon)
S/S Darkmoon Rabbit
Dread Hatchling
Frostfur Rat
darkness/Nocurnal Strike flyers (darkness)
Junglebeak* (clonedance/darkness)
Kun-Lai Runt
Lil’ Bling
Lil’ Ragnaros
Macabre Marionette
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Magical Crawdad
Moths
Mr. Bigglesworth
Nether Fairie Dragon
Netherspace Abyssal
Nexus Whelpling
Singing Sunflower* (sunny day)
Snarly, Toothy, Muckbreath, Chuck* (bleeding)
Son Of Animus
Spirit Crab
Trunks
Warbot
Xu-Fu
Unborn Val’kyr
Ghastly Kid
Relevant synergies and combos
Clonedance – apply Cyclone the buff its hit and critical rate with Rain Dance.
Consume Corpse – use Haunt, when pet is Haunting it is considered dead, use Consume Corpse to heal. Can be done repeatedly.
Darkness – use Call Darkness to increase hit chance of Nocturnal Strike.
Haunt n’ stall – use Haunt, then Dodge, Feign Death, Burrow, etc. so that your opponent can’t hit you while taking damage from Haunt.
Minefield swap – use Minefield, then use a swap move like Nether gate or Sweep to force your opponent into the mines.
Righteous Inspiration/Armageddon – use Righteous Inspiration on a P/P Blackfuse Bombling. Armageddon will now go first and do over 2100 damage if not avoided.
Sunny day – use Sunlight to turn the weather into Sunny Day. Photosynthesis will now heal for two ticks per turn instead of one.
Best Teams
These teams are some of the best around.
OP Murk For The Jerks
Murkalot (Blessed Hammer, Falling Murkalot, Righteous Inspiration)
P/S Twilight Clutch-Sister (Twilight Fire/Tail Sweep, Phase Shift, Twilight Meteorite)
P/P Blackfuse Bombling (Burn, Flamejet, Armageddon)
Start with Murk and use RI into the BFB. Armageddon will do aver 2100 damage to the enemy team. Most of the time I bring the TCS in next, it’s easy to proc the dragonkin racial then use Twilight Meteorite.
Other Synergies
Bleeding – use Rip or Woodchipper to apply the bleeding effect. Maul then does an extra attack and Blood In The Water has a 100% hit chance.
Conflagrate – Conflagrate does extra damage is the target is burning. This can be achieved by Scorched Earth, Flamethrower, Immolate, etc.
Mana Surge – Mana Surge hits an extra attack with the weather is arcane winds. Nexus Whelplings are the most commonly used pets for this synergy.
Here are links to older expansion’s tier lists:
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