March 27, 2015

Today’s Team: Aeth’s Starter Kit
H/H Anubisath Idol (Crush, Stoneskin, Deflection)
S/S Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (Breath, Decoy, Thunderbolt)
H/P Teroclaw Hatchling (Claw, Dodge, Nature’s Ward)

Rationale:
This is one of the reasons that I love being a part of the pet battle community. On the US forums Aeth has a contest where he gives new pets to people who make a worthy claim for why they would make a good owner of the pets. How awesome is that? When was the last time that you saw someone offer to give away some high level gear for nothing in the general discussion forums? This time around he was giving away a whole team, the team listed above. Someone asked if it would do well in PvP so I thought I’d try it out.

Since neither Breath nor Claw hit extremely hard I decided to go with Stoneskin on the idol rather than Sandstorm; I wouldn’t want the damage reduction to reduce the already low damage of Breath. The other move sets are fairly standard. The only real choice that I have is Claw or Alpha Strike for the Teroclaw Hatchling. I prefer Claw because it doesn’t rely on going first. Alpha Strike is useful for aquatics which can hard counter the bird when in elemental form, but even then I feel that Alpha Strike is somewhat wasted since so many aquatics have Surge. I’ll stick with Claw. It might also be good if I run into any rabbits who want to take down the decoy.

Concerns:
I still hate the idol! I may lose intentionally just so I can see it face down and laugh.

The Opposing Team:
B/B Winter’s Little Helper
P/B Clockwork Gnome
H/P Stitched Pup

The Battle:
I forgot how easy it is to win with three top tier pets. I “no timed” this one, mostly thanks to the Teroclaw Hatchling. I started with the MPD, which in retrospect wasn’t really a great choice. The Clockwork Gnome could take down the decoy fast, the elf had a lot of elemental damage, and the Stitched Pup wasn’t a likely starter. Oh well, as long as my MPD was in there I got off a Thunderbolt as the gnome cast Build Turret. I brought in the idol to cast Stoneskin to block the turret fire. The Stitched Pup came in to apply Plagued Blood to the idol, but the gnome didn’t receive any heals due to the block. Howl was cast so I used Deflection on the its first round and swapped to my bird on its second.

The Teroclaw Hatchling then ran the table. Between the gnome doing weak damage and having the ability to avoid the Howl bomb the Teroclaw Hatchling was extremely effective. My opponent did attempt a few Howl bombs against me with Ice Tomb but both times I was able to cast Dodge to avoid it. The Claw damage added up on the enemies while Nature’s Ward continually healed my bird. The mighty bird once again shows why it is one of the top new WoD pets.