January 25, 2014

Pet Focus: Son Of Animus
Son Of Animus is a pet that didn’t initially catch my eye. It seemed like a solid mech pet no doubt, but there are a lot of solid mech pets. It wasn’t until I noticed Touch Of The Animus that this pet really grabbed my attention. I think of Touch Of The Animus as Plagued Blood on steroids. It only lasts for two rounds but the heals are around 170 (the tooltip doesn’t state exactly how much). Well, that’s not a big deal; 170 per turn doesn’t seem that great. But it is. Since Touch works like Plagued Blood any pet that does damage to the inflicted pet will get 170 healing. The way to make Touch truly a game changer is to pair Animus with pets that have DoTs and field effects (DoTs applied to the field of play rather than a specific pet). Then you can get multiple heals of 170 per turn. Touch can actually for as much as Wish (over multiple rounds) if measures aren’t taken against it.

What if measures are taken against it? The best way to nullify the healing potential of Touch is to swap when it is applied to your pet. That’s why I like to apply it to pets that have DoTs on them or have a field effect going. The field effect will activate a heal before the pet has a chance to swap and it can’t swap out of a DoT. If none of these things are in place and they swap? At least you gained a turn on the swap. Remember that Touch also does 345 damage.

Let’s look at the other moves in each slot.

Slot 1: Metal Fist or Batter
With Animus having only one breed which is 260 speed I am very uncomfortable taking Batter. Sure you will out speed some slow undead pets and crabs but generally speaking 260 speed isn’t that fast. I always go with Metal Fist. The exception to this would be if you used a Dazzling Dance pet. Imagine hitting all three Batters after applying Touch. Yummy. I’ll leave that to someone else.

Slot 2: Siphon Anima or Touch Of The Animus
I already talked about Touch extensively and that’s what I’ll be using. Siphon Anima is still a solid healing move which does 310 damage and heals for the amount of damage done.

Slot 3: Extra Plating or Interrupting Jolt
Interrupting Jolt interrupts when you go first. Again, at 260 speed how often will you be going first? Extra Plating has won so many battles for me both on Animus and my trusty Warbot. For me this is a no brainer.

Enough theory, let’s se how Son Of Animus does in the queue.

Team 1: Frank Rizzo
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Death and Decay, Plagued Blood)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

I’ve been using this team since 5.3. Touch works so well with both Immolation and Death and Decay. The plan is to start with the Imp to get Immolation going then swap to the Scourged Whelpling after taking a bit of damage (because it’ll get healed back). The undead dragon will apply Death and Decay. Then I can bring in Animus to Touch when I need to.

Battle 1
vs. Stitched Pup, Anodized Robo Cub, Qiraji Guardling
The Stitched Pup started versus my Imp. Rather than use Gate to force a swap to what I thought would be a Sandstorm using Qiraji I decided to start Immolation then back line the Imp. I swapped to the Scourged Whelpling to apply Plagued Blood. I didn’t bother with Death and Decay because I assumed there would be a Sandstorm. The Guardling finally came in but there was no Sandstorm, it was never used in this battle. I applied Plagued Blood then swapped to Animus. Touch was used and Animus easily took out the Guardling then the Stitched Pup, thanks in part to the heals. The Robo Cub was easy enough to handle.
Record: 1-0

Team 2: Ratty Dreader
S/S Black Rat (Scratch, Poison Fang, Survival)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Death and Decay, Plagued Blood)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

This team is similar to the one above with the Imp being replaced by the Rat. The reason I often pair the Rat with Animus is because it can provide some weak coverage against elementals and it also has a DoT. I find with its low hp and all of the AoE pets around these days I have to be very careful with back lining the Rat after Survival. The plan is to get the DoT going with the Rat, swap to the Scourged Whelpling for Death and Decay then bring in Animus for Touch.

Battle 2
vs. Jademist Dancer, Gahz’rooki, Emperor Crab
Emperor Crabs scare me. I know both my Rat and Scourged Whelpling will have trouble taking out the Crab (I assumed it had a shield but it didn’t) so I had to build my whole strategy around taking down the Emperor Crab. Animus will get the job done but will my opponent allow it? Yes, they were kind enough to accommodate my plan. The Rat started versus the Dancer. I applied the DoT then my opponent swapped to Gahz’Rooki. I knew the Geyser was coming so my best bet was to keep the Rat in. Sure enough a Geyser was laid down and the timing was perfect: my Rat used Survival right before the Geyser went off so it did minimal damage and there was no stun due to the critter racial. This allowed the Rat to take out Gahz’rooki and get another DoT up on the Dancer. The Scourged Whelpling finished off the Dancer then Animus came in for the showdown with the Emperor Crab. It tired to Surge its way to victory but thanks to the Touch heals Animus was able to take out the Emperor. So far these battles haven’t really shown off the power of Touch but that’s the way it goes. At least these teams are flexible enough to go off plan and still pull out the wins.
Record: 2-0

Team 3: 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)

I just came up with this team a few days ago, it’s been really fun to use so far. The Fel Flame can change the weather to Scorched Earth which provides ticks for Touch heals. It also has a DoT so the heals can really add up if I can work it right. The Rat is here for the same reasons as above.

Battle 3
vs. Anubisath Idol, Anubisath Idol, Creepy Crate
There’s something nice about the consistency of my hatred for Idols. I’m not a fan of accuracy reduction in general and combine that with the… you know what? I’m not typing my anti-Idol tirade for the umteenth time. I’ll keep it to “I hate Idols”. This was a long battle with a ton of misses. I’ll focus on the awesomeness of Touch. Animus had taken out one Idol and the second was at a bit more than half hp when Animus died. Extra Plating you are my friend. On the turn Animus died it applied Touch so the Fel Flame had two rounds to work with. The Flame used Scorched Earth, it healed for 189 on use and 186 on the tick. Next round it healed the Flame for 164 and 179 on the two Conflagrate hits. It would have healed a fifth time but the Idol changed the weather. The heals weren’t enough to grab the win, but Survival forced a draw against this double Demolish spamming Idol user.
Record: 2-0-1

Team 4: Bionyx
P/P Spawn Of Onyxia (Tail Sweep, Scorched Earth, Lift Off)
H/H Scorched Earth (Flame Breath, Immolation, Conflagrate)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

I was looking for pets with Scorched Earth when I noticed the Spawn Of Onyxia. It’s a pet that I don’t use much so I decided to give it a shot. It may seem silly to give up a heal in the second slot for Scorched Earth so I can get healed by Touch. By giving the Scorched Earth duty to the dragon I can give two DoTs to the Fel Flame. If I can get both of those to work with Touch then I’ll be seeing massive heals.

Battle 4A
vs. Lil Ragnaros, Nether Fairie Dragon, Scourged Whelpling
The Spawn of Onyxia took out the Fairie Dragon, got a Scorched Earth off on Rag then watched him miss a Sulfuras Smash. My opponent ran. I’ve won a few and lost a few so far with this team but one thing I’m enjoying is how hard the Spawn Of Onyxia hits when the dragonkin racial is activated. 341 power plus and extra 25% hits so hard! I’ll count it as a win but I need to give this team another shot.
Record: 3-0-1

Battle 4B
vs. Anubisath Idol, Anubisath Idol, Creepy Crate
Really? Sucks to be me. I guess it sucks worse to be the Idol team because I won this battle. I couldn’t get the Scorched Earth strategy to work, but Animus got enough Touch healing to do well against the Idols. Again Extra Plating saved the day. It was very close but in the end the Fel Flame was able to take down the last Idol with DoTs because Sandstorm was on CD. Must… refrain… from… complaining about Idol.
Record: 4-0-1

Team 5: Feel The Burn
H/P Fire Beetle (Flank, Hiss, Scorched Earth)
H/H Fel Flame (Flame Breath, Immolation, Conflagrate)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

I really want this Scorched Earth plan to work today, dammit. The Fire Beetle was chosen for its Scorched Earth capabilities. I chose Flank and Hiss instead of Burn and Cauterize because there’s enough elemental damage already. I don’t like relying on speed reduction moves to get a third hit from a speed move but it’ll have to do for now.

Battle 5
vs. Imperial Eagle Chick, Brilliant Kaliri, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
I almost lost this one due to a dummy move. I started with the Beetle against the Yeti. I anticipated the Ion Cannon and brought in the Fel Flame to take it. I cast Immolation then had an idea. I swapped to Animus so I could put Touch on the ticking Yeti. If I didn’t do that I would have probably been able to take out the Yeti with the Flame. Instead the Yeti survived the recovery phase of Ion Cannon and was able to attack more, oops. Most significantly it got off a Call Lightning to help out the Cyclone birds. At least the Flame got some heals :). I was able to squeak this one out with 300 hp remaining on the Flame. Based on that performance I think that’s it for Animus for now. The true power of Touch never came through but when it does it’s amazing. If in six battles it was this difficult to pull off then perhaps that’s a good indicator of the level of difficulty of this move. If Animus does this well without Touch reaching its potential then just imagine how great Animus is when it does.
Record: 5-0-1