March 17, 2015

Today’s Team: Sneaky Puncture
P/P Mechanical Scorpid (Barbed Stinger, Puncture Wound, Extra Plating)
S/S Young Talbuk (Horn Gore, Tough N’ Cuddly, Flurry)
H/H Tiny Sporebat (Shadow Shock, Leech Seed, Confusing Sting)

Rationale:
I’ve really been enjoying the Young Talbuk so I first chose the beast. I looked for a pet with some elemental damage (coverage against mechs) and came across the Tiny Sporebat. I included Shadow Shock for some anti-humanoid and Confusing Sting after I remembered that it can apply the poisoned effect. I thought that maybe I can sneak in a Puncture Wound (since it’s possible someone won’t realize that their pet is poisoned). I chose the Mechanical Scorpid for this. As much as I wanted to take Wind-Up I decided to play it safe and go with a move that can do damage each round instead of every other round so I chose Barbed Stinger.

Concerns:
The Mechanical Scorpid has been a big let down for me. I had hoped that it could be a top pet but the move set is too clunky with Wind-Up and too rng with Barbed Stinger (only a 20% chance at applying poison).

The Opposing Team:
P/P Bonkers
P/S Amber Moth
P/P Death Talon Whelpguard

The Battle:
031715EI really wasn’t sure what my opponent was going to start with. I chose my Mechanical Scorpid, my opponent chose the Death Talon Whelpguard. It turned out to be a bad start for me since the dragonkin had Darkflame. It caused around 650 strong damage before I could get my Extra Plating up. On the next round Shadowflame and Barbed Stinger were cast, with poison proccing from my attack. Would my opponent stay in for the Puncture Wound? Yes, the double attack did a total of 690 damage, nice. On the next round my mech finished off the dragonkin then had to face the moth. It was able to get off one Barbed Stinger (and another proc!) before dying.

031715CAgain, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. The moth still had its flying racial and it was faster than my flyer, so that wasn’t a great match-up for me. Also, I wanted to save the Young Talbuk for Bonkers since it would take weak damage from the monkey’s humanoid attacks. I decided to pit my flyer against the moth to try and take it below 50% so the talbuk could out speed it later, then hopefully handle Bonkers as well. Like most battles against moths, so much depended on whether or not the sleep procced. My Tiny Sporebat got hit with the Moth Dust but not the sleep. This allowed it to cast Leech Seed. I assumed that Cocoon Strike would come next; I saw a chance to grab the initiative. I swapped to my talbuk as the moth went into its cocoon.

031715ANow my Young Talbuk was faster than the moth (it is slowed while in the cocoon) and I could Flurry. Flurry is a unique move in the sense that if the first attack is blocked the other attacks still continue. I cast Flurry, broke through the cocoon and did enough damage to bring the moth below 50% health and out of the flying racial. Two more rounds of Flurry took the moth out before it could cast Moth Dust again. At this point the battle was pretty much over, barring great rng from Bonkers. Bonkers attempted a weak Haymaker but missed, then ran away befor the battle was finished.

24 Responses to March 17, 2015

  1. Tekulve says:

    I’m not a fan of medium damage slow pets like a p/p Bonkers…the s/s bonkers does very well in my experience

  2. Vapid says:

    I too have been enjoying the S/S Talbuk. Another team that might be enjoyable to play is the following:

    #Currently Unnamed
    P/S Stongrinder (Screeching Gears, Thunderbolt, Clean-Up)
    H/P Fragment of Anger (Seethe, Spitfire Beam, Soulrush)
    S/S Young Talbuk (any, any, Flurry) – I almost exclusively use Flurry as my only attack since this pet is often the sweeper. Pick whatever abilities for slot 1 and 2.

    I typically play my Bronze Whelp, Ore Eater, Ghastly Kid team but eventually someone decided to run a triple MPD out of frustration. That made me think of anti-decoy teams and I came up with the above.

    You have Clean-Up, Spitfire Beam, and Flurry which will all remove a Decoy and some ele damage abilities to hurt the mechs that use Decoy. The Talbuk is great against undead and critters. Considering two pets have stuns a Nexus Whelp with AW would seem a good counter, but this team managed to defeat a triple Nexus Whelp team too (I presume it was the same battler who tried the 3x MPD out of frustration).

    • Discodoggy says:

      I haven’t done much with any of the fragments yet, I’ll give this team a try.

      • Vapid says:

        One quick thought for the Talbuk. I said any ability for slots 1 or 2, but I rethought and feel as though Rend is the best choice for slot 2 since generally the S/S Talbuk is faster and the extra helps.

        Sooooo probably going with the following makes the most sense:
        Horn Gore, Rend, Flurry

  3. Sibel from Kazzak says:

    Where exactly does Discodoggy queue for pet battle PvP ?

  4. Tekulve says:

    Future considerations for top or high tier might include the Slithershock elver…the s/s is uncanny good in PvP …a ramping atk-plus stun/avoid or 2 avoids at 325 speed/260 power

    This pet needs no help even though PvP is filled with flying pets…it just makes for a perfect sweeper

  5. Vapid says:

    I have not tried my S/S Elver yet, but did try out a new team the other evening with quite good results … though you won’t like it Disco.

    #Widget the Dark
    Widget the Departed S/S (Pounce, Spectral Strike, Call Darkness)
    Bone Serpent [any breed – mine is S/S] (Bone Barrage, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
    Any third Darkness/Noc Strike Pet
    *Junglebeak, Gilnean Raven/Crow/Dread Hatchling, etc

    Unlike a standard Darkness team that only uses flyers, this uses undead pets which is nice way to avoid dragons or magic. The Serpent is a nice counter to decoys and humanoid, while with Widget being fast can attack critters (though rabbits will still come out ahead). The third can technically be any darkness pet, but there are interesting choices outside of the Crow, Dread, Gilnean setup.

    -Junglebeak or Axebeak (P/P) have Rain Dance along with Noc Strike, the heal and 50% +hit/crit is great for a flying sweeper, but if Bone Barrage is up then Rain Dance helps that too.
    -Sentinel’s Companion is a pet I see, but never paired with Darkness teams. Which is strange since the first slot ability Dark Talon has a 200% hit chance. I would go with (Dark Talon, Nocturnal Strike, Moonfire)
    -Frostfur Rat with (Sneak Attack, Crouch, Call Darkness) as either the S/S or P/P breed might work too – never tried.

  6. Tekulve says:

    Hiya
    I’ve tried the h/s Young talbuk which has 260 power and 289 speed …it does well and i leveled and tried the s/s young talbuk…also a strong pet

    I see the great advantage of having the s/s talbuks speed but when you face so many slow undead it seems to be a waste

    In the end I will likely use an h/p.. Extra health (1546 compared to 1400) and 289 power seems excellent to me
    ———
    BTW the fragment of anger move set that Vapid uses above is also gaining PvP popularity …a great MpD answer

    • Vapid says:

      You are correct that the extra speed is ‘wasted’ against the slower undead pets, but I have found the extra speed useful in a number of instances:

      -against MPD, attacking before they can place decoy and then after for immediately destroying it
      -against critters to protect my FofAnger
      -oddly effective against pets with shields as it attacks first (exception being the S/S Ore Eater)
      -against magic pets since all attacks are below the 35% threshold

      But putting aside the MPD, a slower more powerful Talbuk should be as useful in all of the cases.

      • Vek says:

        I have noticed that Flurry even when slower will always remove both stacks of Decoy. I think this works in similar way to how Cyclone will always remove both stacks, if cyclone is up Before Decoy of course. But it might just be Flurry, it also hits multiple times even when missing due to blind. Still Flurry is quite bad after the Decoy is gone, if you are slower.

        • Vek says:

          I have not managed to get a hold of an S/S Talbuk, but I finally got around to level up the P/B one I did get hold of. 273 speed is just above the 260 range(not many undead are faster than this). Flurry as I said above works wonders against Decoy even if slower, and Horn Gore is there for solid damage when it is slower. So far, three battles, it has worked as good as I had hoped it would.

  7. Kenakth says:

    Actually just captured a shadow sporebat and came across this as I was working on building a team around it. Just something I noticed, I think you may have been using the tiny sporebat on this team, as the shadow sporebat cannot have confusing sting. Nice team idea, though… I like seeing teams that use unorthodox pets without 2 top-tiers to carry the token pet.

  8. Vapid says:

    @Vek and Tekulve
    I agree 100% that S/S is overkill for undeads, but for the moment all I have is an S/S version. Any breed above 270ish is probably fine for an undead counter. I just only have the S/S 325 in my stable and nothing to compare, but for MPDs on occasion it has been worthwhile.

    I’m curious about Tuff and Cuddly in the second slot. I have generally chosen Rend since it is basically the same as Flurry but a beast attack which is good against critters instead of undead. I enjoy the extra possible 3 hit attack with Rend. It might just be the 325 speed, but I have never been in a scenario where the reduce damage is beneficial.

  9. Tekulve says:

    I’m a fan of Dazzling dance comps .. This gives you freedom to go with more power breeds to take out undead faster…

    Crouch / tough n cuddly are great vs haunt/turrets(though I seldom see CWGnomes now )… if you don’t use aquatics

    I haven’t tried my fragment of anger yet but I’m looking forward to it

    Vapid- the s/s Talbuk IS a great pet , lots going for it!
    I just find that more than 1400hp is valuable when aoe is hammering your back line so badly(cyclone/weebom)

  10. Discodoggy says:

    I like the arguments for an H/P versus an S/S. Like you guys pointed out, Horn Gore does well enough against pets that are faster than the talbuk, but I really want to be faster for Tough N’ Cuddly.

  11. Tekulve says:

    Not to flog a dead Talbuk here..but often end up putting down the crouchtype moves after a haunt or CoD (4th turn smack) so it covers more damage…I still see Valkyrs and the ghastly kid all over my meta

  12. Vapid says:

    I gave Tuff n Cuddly a try and have to say it has been quite powerful. Oddly like Tek just mentioned most of the teams I faced had Ghastly Kid or Valks so the mitigation was ideal.

  13. Discodoggy says:

    I finally picked up an H/S and an H/P. After running into a few FoAs and a fetish I got frustrated with H/P and moved on to the H/S. It’s been working well.

    • Vek says:

      Yes, a bit more than 260 speed is preferrable. I still only have the P/B and find it useful. But right now I having much better success with the Mountain Panda, which I pretty much never found useful in MoP. 289 speed with scratch, rock barrage(excellent vs decoy) and burrow.

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