February 2, 2015

Today’s Team: Lucky Scratchers
P/P Frostwolf Ghostpup (Scratch, Refuge, Ghostly Bite)
H/P Mountain Skunk (Scratch, Rake, Bleat)
H/H Stone Armadillo (Scratch, Roar, Infected Claw)

Rationale:
I’m finding AoE heals more and more useful these days so I decided to branch out and see how Bleat would work. I thought a block might be useful so I went right back to the Frostwolf Ghostpup for Refuge instead of the Haunting Song that I’ve been using with great success. Then I figured I’d go all in and include another critter to benefit from Refuge so I threw in the Stone Armadillo, a pet that I can never seem to get to work well. Undead pets beware! I also have some strong attacks against humans and one beast attack. That’s not a very wide range of family attacks. Still, since undead are so common there’s a good chance I’ll end up with a juicy target for my Scratches.

So far I’ve played this team five times and I’ve won against teams with undead pets while losing to teams without them. In one of the battles I lost by a measly eight health. Yes, eight. Due to this I finally decided to go with Roar on the dillo rather than Shell Shield, something I’ve talked about doing but still always ended up taking the defense over the offense. Last time I said I was going to make the change I still chose the shield out of habit. Not this time. Fear my roaring critter!

Concerns:
Three of the same move is not really a good idea. I should probably trade in the dillo for another pet.

The Opposing Team:
P/P Eye Of Observation
P/P Ravager Hatchling
P/S Sentinel’s Companion

The Battle:
Nice! This is a team that beat me earlier so I had a chance at some revenge. Just like before, the battle started with the Frostwolf Ghostpup versus the Ravager Hatchling. That ravager would have put the big time hurt on either of my critters so this was a match-up that I liked. The beast brought my undead pet to zero before dying, then was replaced by the Eye Of Observation for the first rng moment of the battle. Both pets were 260 speed so there was a coin toss to see who goes first. I wanted to win so that I didn’t get blinded. Unfortunately I lost the toss and took the 50% blind, but then rng favored me by letting the Ghostly Bite hit anyways. The magic racial was useful for once and greatly diminished the 690 damage from my undead pup.

I brought the Stone Armadillo in next. It blocked the eye’s attack as it cast Roar. I can’t imagine an armadillo roar being too frightening, but it was enough to buff the dillo’s attacks by 25%. The Sentinel’s companion came in, possibly hoping to get a Soulrush stun. The critter racial made sure that didn’t happen. A couple of low hits and a couple of high hits left the flyer dead. I swapped to my skunk after the Eye Of Observation came in and it took the blind. The skunk’s Rake missed then it cast Bleat. I was fairly certain that I had things wrapped up when rng decided to make it more interesting with an Arcane Blast crit for 732 damage which left the skunk dead. Lens Flare was off CD so the dillo got blinded before attacking. It could have gone either way at this point depending on the rng. Those sacrifices to the dice gods must have paid off because not only did the critter hit through the 50% blind but it hit high, taking out the eye for a close win. There weren’t even any undead pets.