March 11, 2015

Seeking a Third
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)
H/H Bone Serpent (Bone Barrage, Death and Decay, Lift-Off)

I got tired of being patient today and bought an H/H Bone Serpent for way too much (15k). That’s fine, I’m pretty flush right now thanks to gold falling from the sky in WoD so why not spend it on something I want. I decided right away not to go with the build that I’ve seen other people run, which is with Call Darkness and Nocturnal Strike; you know how I feel about darkness. Even so, I may later construct a darkness team despite my hesitation. For now, though, it’s the move set listed above. I realize this isn’t much different than a Macabre Marionette, with the difference being Lift-Off instead of Bone Bite/Macabre Maraca and the stats. The Bone Serpent has 1644 health and 309 power, compared to the 1546/289 of the marionette.

I decided to pair my new undead with Son Of Animus for TOTA. This pet is trickier to use than the similarly used Son OF Sethe since it only has one healing effect, whereas the Son Of Sethe has two. This means that a smart opponent will swap out when TOTA is applied. That’s what is nice about field effects like Death and Decay and Bone Barrage: they will get in at least one healing tick at the end of the round before the opponent can swap.

So far this combo has performed well against most teams, but has lost against teams full of top tier pets. Hopefully I’ll run into a great team to practice against.

Pet 1: H/S Fel Flame
The Fel Flame and TOTA work wonderfully together. The Fel Flame’s weather and DoT provide the opportunity for multiple heals. I finally got an H/S when I was headed to Black Temple, I might as well give it a shot.

Battle 1: OG Flamebone
vs. MPD, Bone Serpent, Hydraling
Bad start. There’s nothing worse than when you plan the whole sequence of moves out in your head, figure out exactly what to do and then have that plan completely foiled by rng. It looked like having an H/S Fel Flame was going to pay off, at least by forcing a draw. I needed to swap the Fel Flame in, take a hit on the swap, then get off a Scorched Earth to kill the Bone Serpent and maybe even survive the Nocturnal Strike due to the elemental racial. I could do this because of the 273 speed. The Bone Serpent could then clean up the MPD since it had a lot of health and it wouldn’t be bothered by Decoy. Instead the whole sequence was ruined thanks to a crit on the swap which killed my Fel Flame. Now my own Bone Serpent had to take the Nocturnal Strike which meant not enough health to take out the MPD. To add insult to injury my opponent named their pets after a pro wrestler. I used to like watching wrestling… when I was twelve.

Pet 2: H/H Fel Flame
Same pet, more health. This is my preferred breed of Fel Flame.

Battle 2: OG Healthbone
vs. Kun-Lai Runt, Grommloc, Mojo
This was a massacre. Bone Barrage tore the KLR and Grommloc apart. Mojo didn’t swap out when TOTA was applied so the flame received six heals, the Bone Serpent three and the Son Of Animus three. That’s around 2k health healed. Too bad it doesn’t always work out like that.

Pet 3: H/H Shadow Sporebat
Spore Shrooms can hopefully add to heal fest in conjunction with TOTA. Leech Seed also provides some direct heals. I got beat by an idol earlier and made this team in response with Shadow Shock as my main attack.

Battle 3: OG Shadowbone
vs. Pandaren Water Spirit, Puddle Terror, Leviathan Hatchling
You know what would be nice? If my flyer has some, um, flying attacks. Actually it didn’t matter since the Bone Serpent and Son Of Animus were able to two-pet this battle. This is the third battle with this team in which that happened. Clearly the Shadow Sporebat is my new good luck charm, at least for tonight. Whenever I face a Pandaren Water Spirit I pray that I have some sort of avoidance. I did, and Lift-Off saved the day by avoiding the one-two punch of Geyser and Whirlpool. My opponent couldn’t catch up after that.

Pet 4: Tiny Bog Beast
A stun, a multi-attack and a big damage (although multi-round) attack. I still love the Tiny Bog Beast.

Battle 4: OG Swampbone
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Stitched Pup, Corefire Imp
Please keep naming your pets things like “Ipwnu”, because when you don’t pwn me it provides me with some free entertainment. The best part of this battle was when the Stitched Pup sent a Howl my way then took a Clobber to the face. No extra damage for you! The second best thing about this battle was when it happened again. Bone Barrage against a humanoid is absolutely brutal when all three hit. I should give my opponent some credit though; I started off fast and then shut down the Howl but they managed to stay in the battle with a fighting chance. A lot of battlers would run after the second Clobber.

Pet 5: Zandalari Anklerender
I bought some P/P raptors but still haven’t leveled them so I’m still using my P/S. With this team I’m trying to create two different types of synergy. The Bone Serpent can heal with TOTA, but if I get Black Claw up the effects can also take pets down fast.

Team 5: OG Clawbone
vs. Clockwork Gnome, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Son Of Sethe
Damn, this was heading towards an epic ending when my wife started to talk to me. Ignoring my wife for WoW is not how I roll. I’m pretty sure I was headed for a loss anyways, but it was going to be close. I still had a Black Claw in the pocket and both effects down with the possibility of Lightning. Unfortunately, we will never know the ending. My apologies for fleeing if my opponent is reading.