January 16, 2014

Today’s Team: Retaliating Two
S/S Darkmoon Rabbit (Huge Sharp Teeth, Dodge, Burrow)
H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
P/P Sen’Jin Fetish (Shadow Shock, Immolate, Sear Magic)

Strategy:
I’m still trying to figure out the Retaliation battlegroup that I’m now on. I decided to start keeping track of which pets appeared the most so I can do a better job of countering the meta. The pet that appeared the most so far is… drumroll… Unborn Val’kyr. I don’t have a lot of data yet but so far out of forty-three battles there have been thirteen Val’kyrs, which is about 30%. No surprise there. Second place is tied at six appearances for the Idol, Fiendish Imp and Lil’ Rag. Then there are a bunch of the usual suspects clumped around third including the Death Adder, Tonk, Raven, Brew Pup, Dragon Hatchlings, Blighthawk, etc. So far no Crawdads, let’s keep it that way.

So what does that have to do with my strategy? I’ve picked a team that will be decent against the top Retaliation pets. The Fetish will do ok against Idols and Val’kyrs. Shadow Slash hits Idols hard, Immolate and Cleanse is good combo to back line Val’kyrs. Both Snarly and the DMR are decent against Ragnaros due to them being a hard and soft counter, plus there’s the critter racial for traps. I could go with a regular rabbit instead of the DMR but I wanted a little bit better of a chance at hitting a bleeding Blood In The Water. Plus the DoT will be a gift that keeps on giving for any Adders that pop up. I’ll most likely start with the rabbit and go from there. My priority will be to hit a bleeding Blood In The Water.

Concerns:
How will this team do if it’s not facing those specific pets? Is there enough synergy to win?

The Opposing Team:
H/H Unborn Val’kyr
H/P Stitched Pup
P/S Blighthawk
Make that fourteen out of forty-four Val’kyrs.

The Battle:
A Haunt and Consume team. Normally something to be feared, this time I was not worried at all. I say it a lot because I face a lot of Val’kyrs: you know they’re going to start with it. I should have been keeping track of that stat, too. I bet all fourteen Val’kyrs started the battle. Of course I started with my Fetish. The Val’kyr cast Curse then Haunt, I cast Immolate then Shadow Shock. I thought the Pup would come out to Howl but instead the Blighthawk joined the party. It used Lift-Off as I Seared. Have fun burning on the back line you overused ghost! The Lift missed before another Immolate set the undead bird on fire. The Fetish took an Infected Claw before getting off a Slash then I swapped to Snarly. I figured I would save the Fetish for another Haunt if I needed it.

Snarly easily took out the Blighthawk without even having to use Blood In The Water. A missed Infected Bite made matters worse for my opponent. The Val’kyr was next so I brought back my Fetish. The Fetish took a Curse, the Val’kyr decided to Shadow Shock spam rather than Haunt. It finished off the Fetish but the DMR was able to kill the Val’kyr and not let it get a Haunt off thanks to all of the avoidance. Now both the DMR and Snarly had a lot of health. Even with the Consume Corpse heal the undead dog was no match for my two remaining pets.