January 23, 2014

Today’s Team: Junk Yard Vermin
H/H Fel Flame (Flame Breath, Scorched Earth, Conflagrate)
S/S Black Rat (Scratch, Poison Fang, Survival)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

Strategy:
The Fel Flame brings memories of early pet battles but I really don’t use it much anymore. I should go get a H/P breed, maybe I’d use it more. Any breed will work well with a Son Of Animus team because Scorched Earth and Flame Breath have great synergy with Touch Of The Animus. If Animus applies Touch to a pet standing in Scorched Earth the Flame will get healed. If it has the DoT applied it’ll get healed again. The Rat is there to provide a soft counter to elementals, to also provide some speed and a DoT of its own. I can either start with the Fel Flame or Rat then bring in Animus for the Touch.

Concerns:
I hate when my own Scorched Earth damages my own pets. It just annoys me lol.

The Opposing Team:
H/S Kovok
S/S Death Adder Hatchling
P/S Alterac Brew Pup

The Battle:
Even with a mech I need to be careful with this team. It’s beaten me a few times during the past few days. Kovok started versus my Fel Flame. Poison Fang and Pheromones were cast as my Flame used Scorched Earth and Conflagrate. I swapped to Animus to avoid the double hit from Puncture Wound. A Metal Fist was enough to take out Kovok, the Adder was next. As the blind came I cast Extra Plating. Puncture Wound took Animus to 0. The Extra Plating helped Animus survive the next Poison Fang so it was able to get off a Touch crit. That was huge. The DoTs killed Animus so now there’s two rounds of Touch on the Snake. Touch healed 181 hp on the Flame. If my opponent swaps I may be in trouble because I need these heals. I briefly considered brining the Rat out to have a 341 speed duel but critter versus beast? No thanks. The Fel Flame came out and I hoped there would be no swap.

The snake stayed in to my delight and I made a good call. I could have taken out the snake with a Scorched Earth or a Conflagrate but I decided to use Flame Breath instead so I could get more heals. It worked, my Fel Flame got some serious heals: 171 for the Flame Breath application, 170 from the Flame Breath tick and 187 for the Scorched Earth tick. Over 500 healed in one turn, nice. The snake had 14 hp left though so it was able to get off another Poison Fang before dying to Scorched Earth (which healed for another 163). Quite a bit of overkill but I needed the weather for Conflarate. The Brew Pup came in to use its shield then AoE. The Flame did some decent damage before dying, this was going to be close. It all came down to one last choice. Did I have enough hp to survive a Bite before I pop survival? I did a quick estimate and decided to chance it. I used Poison Fang and held my breath, Bite and Scorched Earth bring my Rat to… 8 hp! So damn close. I pop Survival which allows me to take out the Brew Pup. What a close one!