Today’s Team: Battlegropers
S/S Jademist Dancer (Steam Vent, Rain Dance, Acid Rain)
H/P Blighthawk (Slicing Winds, Ghostly Bite, Cyclone)
H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
Strategy:
I’ve recently fallen in love with Snarly as a sweeper (a pet used at the end of a battle to finish off any remaining pets) due to the priority move Surge and the ability to hit hard with Blood In The Water. He’s a great addition to a Cyclone and Rain Dance team (some call it a “clonedance” team). The plan is to use the Blighthawk to cast Cyclone then use Ghostly Bite. Then the Jademist Dancer will come in to cast Rain Dance. Rain Dance will make Cyclone hit at 85% rather than 35% plus give it a 50% chance to crit. I’ll then get off a few Steam Vents before deciding to stay in or swap back to the Blighthawk. I’ve won many games with just the Blighthawk and the Dancer so hopefully Snarly will have an easy job of cleaning it up.
Concerns:
My biggest concern is not knowing what to expect. I recently did a server transfer with an alt to transfer some gold to Area 52. This caused me to be locked into a new battlegroup. At first I was disappointed because I really liked my old battlegroup, but now I’ve realized that it’s a neat opportunity to face some new opponents.
The Opposing Team:
P/P Rotten Little Helper
H/B Darkmoon Zeppelin
P/P Xu-Fu
The Battle:
Can I just say that everything went as planned and call it night? The battle began as Blighthawk versus Rotten Helper. My opponent didn’t like the match-up so immediately swapped to Xu-Fu allowing me a free turn to get off my Cyclone. I cast Ghostly bite as Xu-Fu cast Prowl. Hmm. I decided to stay in and eat the Feed with the Blighthawk. Xu-Fu is back to full health. Time to forfeit lol! Instead I brought in the Dancer. Rain Dance then two Steam Vents (plus the Cyclone damage) was enough to take out Xu-Fu but the Dancer only had 37 hp left. The Helper came in and I decided to back line the Dancer in case a Minefield went down. Minefield is wasted when it only does 37 damage. The Blighthawk took a Club on the swap and then another to go to 0 hp before it cast Cyclone again. I guess my opponent put their hope in the Zeppelin because the Helper stayed in and died to a Ghostly Bite on the undead round. The Dancer came back in to Rain Dance before dying, then Snarly easily finished off the Zeppelin since it had taken so much back line damage from the first Cyclone.
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I like this combo! I’ve been toying around with different variations of Clone Dancer, myself. I came up with one earlier in the day after running into nothing but Crows Crows Crows. Yah, I was more than a little miffed. I think I scared ’em off, however, with this – Pandaren Air Spirit (Wild Winds, Whirlwind, Cyclone) + Jademist Dancer (Steam Vent, Rain Dance, Acid Rain) + Ominous Flame (Spiritfire Bolt, Scorched Earth, Conflagrate). LOLs @ tri-lementals! Gave a friend of mine a does of Clone Dance outside of SW in a duel as well…same first 2 pets as above, but with an Ashwing Moth (Alpha Strike, Nimbus, Moth Dust) to finish off leftovers. That one started with his Electrified Razortooth eating the PAS for lunch, too, lol.
Is there a specific reason why you always use a S/S Jademist Dancer? I would have thought that the other breeds are more useful since none of Jademist Dancers moves have to go first like stuns or avoids.
I keep telling myself that I’m going to level and start using my P/S but I never get around to it. Probably because I keep on winning with the S/S. You’re right that there’s no moves that specifically benefit from speed, but going first against most pets is reason enough. Every time that a battle has come down to the end and I get to go before my opponent I think “ahh, that’s why I keep using this”. I know a lot of people love the P/S, too. At some point I’ll get around to leveling it. Thanks for posting :).
Indeed, a very strong team. And i like Snarly
I tried this team out tonight, I really like it. The only time I had trouble was against backline damage teams.
Now that I took Snarly out of his spot on bleeding teams I’m finding all kinds of great teams for the croc.
I’ve been playing this team a good bit the past few days. Some games the Blighthawk and Jademist Dancer can duo the other team. Is there any other move comparable with cyclone?
I don’t think there is, I wish there was.
This…is a really good team.
Having a very tough time vs. Valk, Death Adder, and Darkmoon Tonk though. When things go well for this team I rarely have to use Snarly, but when they don’t go well it’s usually an ugly loss.
Sorry to come quite late to this discussion but I’m guessing you get notifications when people post on any thread, Disco. I have fallen in love with the CloneDance strategy as it seems I’m the only person on my meta doing it, which is always a bonus. Anyway, I noticed that there is a lively debate about which pet to use as a sweeper (I prefer Snarly to Mongoose Pup but both have their uses) but there doesn’t seem to be any discussion regarding the use of Blighthawk as the Cyclone caster. I therefore decided to do some trials of my own to see if he was indeed the best Cyclone caster.
What makes him so good in the first place? A decent health pool, the undead bonus round, and (with diseased bite rather than slicing winds) good coverage. Best of all? He casts the Cyclone and then hits hard with Ghostly Bite before swapping over to Jademist Dancer. I needed to find a pet that:
1. Has Cyclone
2. Can do something ‘awesome’ before swapping out to the Dancer
Those are the two requirements – other factors will make themselves known during tryouts. Here are my findings:
Jousters, Cockatiel, Dragonbone Hatchling, Fledgling Buzzard, Macaws/Parrots, Eagle Chick, Imperial Moth, Jade Crane Chick, Jade Owl, Gulls, Tickbirds etc.
These guys simply don’t have any ‘awesome’ moves to hit before swapping to the Dancer. I tried Hawk Eye to see if it buffed Rain Dance’s effects any further but if there was an improvement it was negligible. Also apart from H/H and H/P breeds these fliers were too squishy.
Brilliant Kaliri, Owls and Miniwing.
These guys all have Predatory Strike which is a large move to hit before swapping over. However you’ll almost never get the almost pointless bonus it has and these birds have simply too little health to survive for what is a poor hit compared to Ghostly Bite.
Moonkin Hatchling
This almost made it into a permanent team. I tried both Clobber and Entangling Roots in his second slot for that ‘awesome’ move but both had their drawbacks. Clobber only gives you its full benefit about half the time due to the Moonkin’s mediocre 276 speed. A better breed could have made this pet far more competitive. As for roots, it’s easily avoidable and the CloneDance strategy isn’t one that benefits from rooting an enemy pet. In short I had a few wins and a few losses and didn’t feel this guy was strong enough to compete with the Blighthawk.
Nether Faerie Dragon (P/P) (Arcane Blast, Life Exchange, Cyclone)
Now we’re talking! This is currently in a permanent team of mine (entitled ‘Upgrade to P/P’ to remind me to go to Feralas and get one!) after doing a great job. With 341 power his Cyclone will crit for around 200 and his awesome move is Life Exchange, which will claim back some damage he’s already taken (even more if he’s slower than the opponent!). Low HP makes him vulnerable to certain strategies but I enjoyed great success with him.
Pandaren Air Spirit (Slicing Winds, Soothing Mists, Cyclone)
Another keeper. More of a softly, softly approach, PAS casts Soothing Mists before swapping to the Dancer, making both fragile elementals last much longer and allowing the player to get through more cycles of CloneDance than with any other combo I’ve tried!
Serpent Hatchlings
Despite their intimidating power they are just too squishy. Let down by their low HP and lack of speed, I never got a second Cyclone cast with one of these guys, especially as Call Lightning was the ‘awesome’ move I was using (the only real option). If you fought the right opponent you’d decimate them inside of 15 rounds, otherwise I found these dragons to be too weak. The Jade Hatchling has a slightly better health pool so if you try any, go with him.
Tiny Twister (H/S) (Slicing Winds, Bash, Cyclone)
I’m already a fan of this guy from your team Marionette Barry so I know he’s an unsung hero! That 289 speed is vital for Bash to stand any chance of giving you two turns of benefit. It can obviously still fail against a lot of quicker pets but as you’ve said yourself, 289 is quick enough generally. In this case it allows the Dancer to swap in without taking any damage. Not such an issue the first time when he’s usually coming in with full health, but the second time he can often be quite low when teamed up with the Blighthawk.
Tito
I almost found a use for this otherwise neglected pooch. I tried both Howl and Impale. Impale was ok but didn’t do any better than Predatory Strike has earlier. Howl was the interesting one as it forced opponents to swap out, thus giving the Dancer a free swap in, or they stayed in and took some meaty damage (my biggest Steam Vent crit on a debuffed opponent was over 1200). Tito’s speed is decent, as is his attack, but these attributes come at the expense of his HP, and in a meta full of mechs he just wasn’t surviving long enough to be viable.
Conclusion:
I have three new teams for you to try, Disco. I would be honoured if you would give them a shot on your meta at some point in the future and see how they do. I wonder if I can convince the world that there are other pets out there that can rival Blighthawks in their CloneDance teams.
Team 1: I.O.U.
P/P Nether Faerie Dragon (Arcane Blast, Life Exchange, Cyclone)
S/S Jademist Dancer (Steam Vent, Rain Dance, Acid Rain)
Either Snarly or Mongoose Pup – whichever you prefer
Team 2: Winds of Change
H/S Tiny Twister (Slicing Winds, Bash, Cyclone)
S/S Jademist Dancer (Steam Vent, Rain Dance, Acid Rain)
Either Snarly or Mongoose Pup – whichever you prefer
Team 3: Mist You
B/B Pandaren Air Spirit (Slicing Winds, Soothing Mists, Cyclone)
S/S Jademist Dancer (Steam Vent, Rain Dance, Acid Rain)
Either Snarly or Mongoose Pup – whichever you prefer
p.s. Sorry for taking over your blog – you can have it back now!
p.p.s. Notice how my team names are getting better?
Thank you so much for such a detailed analysis. I will certainly try out these teams. The Tiny Twister looks the most appealing to me. Like you said, Bash on a 289 speed pet can be so effective. I will give the P/P Nether Fairie Dragon a chance, too. I tried that team with an S/S NFD and Evanescence, but the 341 power along with the dragonkin racial sounds very appealing. Life Exchange is such an interesting move. As far as the last one goes I was just commenting in today’s daily about how much I liked Soothing Mists, this’ll give me the perfect chance to use it. I’ll let you know how these teams perform on my meta.
Edit: And yes, I do like the names
I’ve been using the Air Spirit/Jademist Clone Dance combo for a couple months now, heh. I really love its pacing. Start off with Whirlwind, then Cyclone…then it’s off to the races. 😀
For the 3rd pet, there’s also the Death Adder Hatchling…but the one that might surprise you, and it’s done extremely well too…is the Ominous Flame.
Technically, I built this team to combat a Triple Crow combo that I’d been running into that was wrecking my other Clone Dancer comps. I’ve even beaten teams that used an Eternal Strider and/or Crabs with this.
Air Spirit – Wild Winds/Whirlwind/Cyclone
Jademist – Steam Vent/Rain Dance/Acid Rain
Ominous – Bolt/Scorched Earth/Conflag
You’ve got anti-Aquatic covered. Air Spirit can soak a Valk admirably, do nice AoE as well as front-line DoT…and the Ominous can come in and clean up with some anti-Flier and anti-Mech. I can’t say it’s never lost a match…but one thing it’s never lost is the fun factor. 😉