Todays Team: Purple Hooters
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
P/S Scourged Whelpling (Shadowflame, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
Strategy:
As far as strategy goes it doesn’t get much easier than this. Start with Acid Rain then spam Dreadful Breath. Really, that’s it. The two Scourged Whelplings have some burst for the end of the battle after the AoEs have done a lot of damage to the back line pets. What can I say, I got a late start tonight and want easy mode.
Concerns:
Dreadful Breath is extremely weak without Acid Rain. If the weather gets changed then it won’t be causing much pain. This team is also not very dynamic. Plan B, what’s that?
The Opposing Team:
P/S Corefire Imp
P/P Ragnaros
P/S Pandaren Monk
The Battle:
The Corefire Imp started out against my Droplet Of Y’Shaarj. It started its Immolation while I cast Acid Rain. No weather changers on the other team meant nine rounds of Cleansing Rain for my Dreadful Breaths. My opponent swapped to Lil’ Ragnaros which was okay with me. Any swaps meant more Dreadful Breaths damaging the back line. It turned out that Lil’ Rag had Conflagrate which again was okay with me. No traps is a good thing. My Droplet Of Y’Shaarj died before getting off another Cleansing Rain. I brought in the H/H Scourged Whelpling for five straight rounds of Dreadful Breath. After it perished I brought in my last pet to face all three survivng pets, although both back line pets were in kill range of Dreadful Breath. Now I had to make the only real decision of the battle, do I use Dreadful Breath or not? It would kill the two back line pets but then I’d be locked into it for three rounds, two of which would be one on one versus the Corefire Imp. The other option would be two try and kill them all without AoE. The other option would be to kill them off one at a time but there was a problem with that. My Call Darkness would benefit the Pandaren Monk by giving Fury Of 1,000 Fists a 95% chance to stun. Dreadful Breath it is. I took the two back line pets out but things were looking bleak against the remaining Corefire Imp. I thought a Burn crit sealed my fate, but then the next Burn missed, which allowed me to win a close battle.
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Me playing catchup again – sorry for the late post. I tried this team last night and just found it TOO lazy. I’m all for teams that keep it simple but I found that, once rain had finished I was left with two slow pets who weren’t fast enough to get the job done. A fast pet gives you a bit more control towards the end of the fight.
Of all the pets that have Dreadful Breath the fastest is Hopling – maybe try him as your third pet after the H/H Whelpling. You can either continue with Dreadful Breath or finish with Tongue Lash/Poison Lash. Although these aren’t hard-hitting moves you will probably go first with them, which might be all you need to finish off your opponent.
You could argue that there’s no need to continue Dreadful Breath to the bitter end, especially as the rain will probably stop with your Scourged Whelpling. In this case option one is to go for a fast sweeper. Your old pal Snarly is a good option (Surge or Rip) are perfect ways to finish off low-HP pets. Other than that a S/S DAH or a Direhorn Runt would also work.
Final option – continue down the AoE path. Peddlefeet is good with both his speed and Rapid Fire. P/P Pocket Reaver would hit hard with Quake. My first choice? Chrominius or Lil’ Tarecgosa. Both have a spammable AoE but being Dragonkin, their bonus can boost the damage further, especially as your enemy’s will already be at or below 50% health.
Food for thought – I will try each of these teams and post again on here with my results.
Team 1 – Hopping Soaked
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
S/S Hopling (Crush, Poison Lash, Dreadful Breath)
I maintain that you can never make the rain last to your third pet but the Hopling is handy if you want to play him second instead of the Scourged Whelpling to continue Dreadful Breath. His speed plus Crush can often finish opponents, although the 80% move can let you down when you most need it.
Team 2 – Drowning Dundee
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
H/P Snarly(Rip, Surge, Blood in the Water)
Some helpful synergy here between Rain and Snarly’s water moves. Despite being slow his Surge can shut down faster pets. He also serves as anti-Valk if necessary.
Nice teams. I’ve never been able to find a good use for Hopling. It seems this may be a great place for him. Crush and Poison Lash allow for some flexibility when the Dreadful Breath strategy breaks down.
The other team you mentioned is probably my best Dreadful Breath team. Snarly is such an amazing sweeper. Check it out here: 1/13/14.
I agree completely that the double Scourged Whelpling team is extremely boring. It is a good team though. I faced one last night and even with some aquatic pets with aquatic damage I lost. I felt my opponent played well, perhaps this was you.
I was running Droplet Yshaarj double Scourge Whelp team pretty much all last night. Did your aquatic team have Azure Crane Chick? I think I remember that fight.
Yeah I’m on EU so not me I don’t think.
Team 3 – Dreadful Fang
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
S/S Death Adder Hatchling (Poison Fang, Puncture Wound, Blinding Poison)
Almost too easy. The DAH just gives you so much control. As a sweeper it’s practially unbeatable as even birds are slower once they’re below 50% health. The DAH can start if you’re facing a team that forces a change of strategy.
Team 4 – A Dire Situation
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
P/P Stunted Direhorn (Trihorn Charge, Horn Attack, Primal Scream)
Another team that’s just a bit too good. Need a quick finish? Trihorn Charge will probably get the job done and opponents’ speed won’t be an issue. More AoE? Primal Scream will give you that – it will probably make an remaining pets slower than you also and thus vulnerable to the stun effect of Horn Attack. Really liking these teams!
I’m totally going to try these teams, so far every dreadful breath team I’ve tried I sucked however I didn’t match up these interesting thirds. Worth a try!
Peddlefeet didn’t quite have the power to finish a fight off in the couple I tried with him.
Team 5 – Rust Resistant
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
H/P Pocket Reaver (Metal Fist, Quake, Supercharge)
Two confessions to make. Firstly I don’t have a P/P Reaver. Secondly I didn’t really need one. In the tests I did the other teams were so messed up from the first two pets that I never cast Quake. I assume it will work wonders however. I don’t feel the need to pay another visit to Tempest Keep as the extra HP in this breed gives the third pet more survivability.
I’m not a big fan of Peddlefeet myself. I do really like that direhorn team.
Lil’ Tarecgosa didn’t fare nearly as well as I’d hoped in the test battles I put him through. Lots of mechs to soft counter his magic damage (which is all he has with the moves I chose for him) and lots of humanoids moves to hurt him. Plus most of the opponents’ pets were quicker than him. Chrominius fared better…
Team 6 – Rain makes me hungry
P/P Droplet Of Y’Shaarj (Corrosion, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath)
H/H Chrominius (Arcane Explosion, Ancient Blessing, Ravage)
This dragon had far more survivability than Tarecgosa (and easier opponents if I’m honest). Arcane Explosion, when used, did the trick, but the team name alludes to how I actually had far more success with Ravage. It’s a shame the move locks you into a two-turn sequence but, due to the low health of my opponents’ remaining pets, I actually killed two pets in a row with Ravage and got healed twice in the bargain. Ancient Blessing gives a little more insurance and it’s an easy choice over Howl, which serves little purpose with this type of set up.
That concludes my journey into the Purple Hooters setup. I’ve really enjoyed this case study, as I do whenever I encounter two pets that can be refined in so many different ways with a third.