Seeking A Third (part three)
S/S Death Adder Hatchling (Poison Fang, Puncture Wound, Blinding Poison)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Surge, Shell Shield)
Here’s the links to part one and two: 7/5/14, 7/7/14. I’m a bit tired of running this comp but I still had a few pets that I wanted to try as a third. I’ve conceded to the fact that with these two pets there isn’t any one pet that’s going to fill all the gaps against the top pets and teams on my meta, I will always be exposed to some sort of counter. So far the two teams that I’ve enjoyed the most have been with the Lost Of Lordaeron and Legs as the third pet, I’ll certainly be playing those more in the future (when I need a competitive team, that is).
Pet 9: H/H Robo-Chick (eck, Overtune, Wind-Up)
I have to admit that the few Emperor Crabs I’ve seen lately have really gotten into my head. That is a tough pet to take down if you’re unequipped. Hopefully Peck and Wind-Up will be enough to get through the shield and heals if I face one. I’ve always liked the S/S Robo-Chick but in this case I’m going for the beefy H/H breed. With the mech racial it has over 2,100 hp to deal with.
Battle 9
vs. Blighthawk, Lil’ KT, Death Talon Whelpguard
Not the best team in the world to test out mine on. The Robo-Chick had a lot of hp to deal with for my opponent. I made sure I didn’t end up with a situation where I had to face Lil’ KT an its elemental damage with my mech. Not really a battle for the ages, this one turned out how you would expect with the OP snake team winning. I keep thinking that my bringing an adder out regularly is going to come back and bite me with a general escalation of the meta, but I haven’t seen much difference in the past week. I did see a big change between the end of May and the end of June though.
Pet 10: S/S Enchanted Broom (Broom, Sweep, Clean-Up)
I normally like Wind-Up instead of Clean-Up but since I’m trying to cover my weakness I’m going with the move that can clear away a Cyclone if necessary.
Battle 10
vs. Arctic Fox Kit, Ethereal Soul-Trader, Spineclaw Crab
I forgot that Clean-Up had 85% accuracy, not 95%. I missed both a Clean-Up and a Snap, but the battle wasn’t close enough that it mattered. I remember for the first year of grad school I had to commute for an hour to get there. It really wasn’t a big deal because I knew that’s just how it was going to be since I didn’t want to move closer. It was easy to deal with since I knew it wasn’t going to change. After I decided to move closer to the college that hour of travel became so painful. Why? I knew it was going to change soon so my outlook on it changed. That’s how I feel about misses right now. While somewhat painful you just had to deal with them because that’s how it worked and it wasn’t going to change. Now that I know the accuracy system is going to change every miss becomes much more painful since I know accuracy is being reworked so I won’t miss any more Snaps.
Pet 11: S/S Qiraji Guardling (Crush, Sandstorm, Blackout Kick)
This team is going to take some finesse because there’s some anti-synergy between my own weather and the snake’s DoT. It’s good to have some flying damage.
Battle 11A
vs. Shore Crab, Wild Crimson Hatchling, Corehound Pup
I forgot to do change my moves so I had Crush, Hawkeye and Reckless Strike. What a bad match-up for my unfortunate opponent. The Qiraji Guardling took out most of the crab and the whole dragon.
Battle 11B
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Crawling Claw, Spirebound Crab
At first I thought this was going to be a tough battle but I ended up no timing my opponent (all my pets survived). I let the Crawling Claw put a CoD on my snake since I figured my opponent would swap me out right away. It happened, which allowed me to swap right back in and later get a Blinding Poison up on the turn the CoD was going to hit. I had to eat a trap with my Spirit Crab but the 1887 hp allowed it to take some damage and give up the turns without perishing. Sandstorm helped to take out the crab and towards the end of the battle my opponent made the classic CoD mistake. Rather than take my humanoid out with a Shadow Slash the claw applied CoD, which never went off since my Qiraji Guardling died long before the four rounds was up.
There were some more pets that I wanted to check out but I’ve officially had enough of seeking a third for this combo. As I mentioned above the two pets I enjoyed the most are the Lost Of Lordaeron and Legs, but besides that I didn’t come up with anything special. I’m not sure what I will do next on the competitive side of things. It is kind of fun trying to come up with a top flight winning team but at the same time it gets boring to faceroll so many teams and it isn’t good for the meta in the long run. Who knows?
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Having tried out the Spirit Crab back in 5.3, when I first found your site, and got the feeling it wasn’t my cup of tea back then I have decided to give it another shot. And so far it has worked out much better than back when I first started out(perhaps experience has something to do with it). I think this “searching for” series made me try it again.
I have also decided to finally give the Turkey a shot, finally landed on the same you used P/S Highland, having tried the healthier but slower Plump for a while. Food Coma is very useful, and I like it’s power against Crawdads that are more common for me right now.
Sometimes, not very often, you run into an opponent using a rarely seen pet and get surprised by how it performed. My third pet was one of these. Elder Python from Isle of Thunder. The other snake(other than DAH) that has a different moveset. When I first captured one I was on the hunt for the H/S one with 305 speed, but when I first tried it out it felt very underwhelming. So I went out and got a H/H one instead and boy have I changed opinions about this beast. 1644 Health makes it last long, makes the beast racial last longer, and speed advatage is fixed by Slither(also 305 speed is not much in this day and age…). There is a nice inevitable rythm to the Python and it does really well against many opponents, even mechanicals get hurt alot with Poison Fang ticking strong. The only real trouble I have found is that Huge Fang is 95% and Slither 85%, but anecdotal evidence suggest they miss less than seriously needed Wind-Up hits.
I just find this combination of Food Coma and Spirit Crab working very well, so thanks for that inspiration!
And by “searching for” I of course mean “seeking a third”. I just didn’t check before typing and my memory decivied me.
I have really started to drag through, perhaps not the bottom but close, the unused pile of pets lately.
First I’m have quite fun with the Silithid Hatchling(!). My main thought was to use it against Unborn Val’kyrs. It has Scratch(critter damage) so it hits for about 500, and can then cast Sandstorm to help a bit with the Haunt damage. First time, and only time so far, I had a chance to try this out I got food coma up on the Valk and after the first scratch my opponent decided it wasn’t a good match up. Sadly the Valk never came into play again so I can’t really say how this plan will actually work.
On the other hand I think I have surprised a couple of opponents, as you often do when using less used pets, and Sandstorm and the Turkey really went to work on a couple of Death Adders. With Sandstorm up their weak attacks do pretty much nothing against the Turkey. Of course Sandstorm is not unique to the Silithid.
I even tried running with a Darkmoon Eye(Laser,Eye Blast,Interrupting Gaze) and lucked out in running into two Death Adders. Eye Blast speed debuff with Interrupting Gaze is quite nice against DAH, but they don’t hurt that much. Laser never came into play since the DAH missed it’s Blind in the Sandstorm. After the DAH’s were dead I got silly lucky with my opponents Son of Animus missing two attacks(sandstorm again) and my Silithid winning the roll on going first to get Survival up and again on the turn after Survival ran out.
I don’t think I dare use the Darkmoon Eye again, but the I will definitely try the Silithid some more(so far part of 6 straight wins, though I’m sure that will even out).
Nice, I’m glad it’s working out. I was surprised by the number of people that let you put them in a coma and don’t swap out. I would swap to the crab and either shield or cast Whirlpool depending on the enemy. It’s like starting the battle with a free turn.
I will admit that I’ve been caught off guard by the Elder Python a few times. Someone on my meta used to use an H/H. It’s been a while so I don’t remember what team it was on, just that it beat me enough so that when I faced that team I didn’t take the Elder Python lightly.
I don’t think it counts as a rarely seen pet but I’ve been using a Lost Of Lordaeron a lot lately. The 1806 hp on the H/H along with the undead racial makes it very tanky. I’ve managed to kill quite a few pets on the back line with Arcane Explosion and I’m just loving the strong damage to birds. I haven’t come up with any great new teams but I’ve been having some fun with it.
I think I have encountered the Lost of Lordaeron approximately 5 times total during my soon to be 6k pvp wins. I think I may have used it a bit more than than but never with too much success, I always seem to run into a well played crawdad when running any undead and the LoL mainly has Undead attacks. I would love to use it against Idols, so perhaps I need to try it again. Always fun to rediscover and reevaluate pets. What abilities do you use?
I must say I am having some excellent fun with the Highland Turkey, Silithid Hatchling, Death Talon Whelpguard. 14-1 now. Have started to run into a lot of Fiendish Imps, sandstorm really helps, paired with Scourged Whelpings that the Silithid eats up nicely. And also took out a Fossilized Hatchling in three Scratches and cushioned the Bonestorm with Sandstorm. Of course it is not alone, Turkey still helps to control the flow and the Whelpguard hits seriously hard(whirlwind to destroy decoys). Have managed, by team effort, to bring down an Idol. Val’kyrs was not much of a problem. But have surprisingly yet to face any MPD’s.
Did you forget Lil’Bling? oO Shame on you 😉
Poor lil’ guy has been typecast as a lightning pet for me. I need to give him a chance elsewhere!
I’ve been getting good success with an Emerald Proto-Whelp as the third pet in a Spirit Crab & Death Adder team. He takes out most flyers easily and is also a good counter if the opponent has a death adder as well.
Didn’t think of that, that’s a good idea. I can see how it could be really successful.
One thing about Emerald Proto-Whelps, I love them but they’re susceptible to the crazy number of Mechanical Pandaren Dragonlings that are in my meta right now.
The MPD’s are a pain. I’ve found that the crab handles them best, but without a multi-attack pet it can be a struggle. Obviously they hurt the adder, but the shield and emerald presence help somewhat.
Which multi-attacks work to destroy the Decoy/Bubble? I know “Flurry” works, and those that benefits of beeing faster like “Alpha strike”, “Pounce” or “Gnaw” don’t work.
Any other? “Trash”? “Quills”?
Wamp: Flurry is the only one of those 2-3 hit abilities that is not stopped. But there are other abilities that always hit numerous times. Stampede/Swarm/Flock/Inflation/Dead Mans Party. Then you got “barrage” type abilities. Banana Barrage/Nut Barrage/Egg Barrage/Make it Rain/Bone Barrage.
And of course some other three hit abilities, like Plot Twist/Blessed Hammer.
Thank you Vek.
I didn’t know about Plot Twist (because Rascal Bot is very uncommon) and I haven’t Murkalot.
I didn’t think about barrage abilities.
Spiderling Swarm should also work. But I never see that in use and I couldn’t make much other use of it last week when trying to make it work in some teams
I can see that as a nice fit. It can be quite a brutal pet to face if you don’t have the tools to take it out.