May 26, 2014

Pet Focus: Darkshore Cub
After not using any bleed times for quite a long time I’ve recently gotten back into them. I’ve also really been enjoying Bash and Clobber on 289 speed elementals. This led me to the P/P Darkshore Cub. Let me go right into the moves that I’m going to use, then later explain why I chose this breed of bear.

Slot 1: Bite or Roar
While the buff from Roar is nice in my other two slots I’m going to take moves with CDs, so I really want a spammable attack in the first slot. The 325 power of the Darkshore Cub makes Bite hit for 345 damage. That’s not too bad for a 100% accuracy move.

Slot 2: Bash Or Hibernate
I’ve always found Hibernate to be difficult to use. Sure, there have definitely been times when Hibernate has won battles for me, times when the opposing pet cant hit hard enough to kill through it. I really like it versus Lil’ Ragnaros when he goes under. However, more often than not I find Hibernate unusable. Either the opposing pet will be able to damage through it or the extra turns will allow them to set something up.

That leaves me using Bash. Bash on a 260 speed pet? So far it has come in handy. While 260 won’t out speed the common 273 and 276 speed pets, it will be faster than a lot of common enemies. When the bear is faster Bash is a really powerful move. It’ll basically give you an extra round, a round in which bleed will most likely be ticking and a round where Maul can come off CD.

Slot 3: Maul or Rampage
The bear is here to Maul pets while they are bleeding. This one’s a no brainer on a bleed team. If there are no pets to apply bleed then Maul is a mediocre move for a 3 round CD. Maul is only 95% accuracy, which means that every time I use it I am scared that the 5% will happen and cost me the battle. That’s not really the type of excitement I want Blizzard! I really wish more CDs were 100% accuracy.

The Darkshore Cub comes in three breeds:
P/P 1400/325/260
B/B 1481/276/276
H/P 1546/289/260

Because of Bash I was really tempted to go out and catch a B/B. That 276 speed might make a difference. Would it be worth losing that much power? I decided to look at the data that I’ve been collecting to see how 276 speed would compare to 260 speed versus the pets that I face the most.

Unborn Val’kyr: 260 is faster.
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling: both slower.
Anubisath Idol: 260 is faster.
Death Adder Hatchling: both slower.
KLR: 257 (P/P & P/B KLR) < 260 < 273 (P/S KLR) < 276 so the B/B bear might have an advantage here, but remember that the KLR will be slowing you anyways.
Fiendish Imp: both slower
Crow: after the racial is gone 260 is slower than all breeds. 276 is faster than one out of four breeds (273, 276, 289, 325).
Fel Flame: 244 (H/H & H/P) < 260 < 273 (H/S) < 276.
Lil’ Ragnaros: 260 is faster.
Moths: with the exception of a few breeds of Gilded Moth and Yellow Moth most have a base speed >=276.

It really doesn’t seem worth it to sacrifice so much power in order to be faster than a few breeds of KLR, Fel Flame and Crow. I should mention there are other bears with speeds of 260 and 276, but none of them have the 325 power of the Darkshore Cub.

Team 1: Bad News Bleeds
H/P Blighted Squirrel (Woodchipper, Crouch, Stampede)
H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
P/P Darkshore Cub (Bite, Bash, Maul)

As I mentioned earlier I will be using the bear on bleed teams. Mostly I will be replacing the Infested Bear Cub with the Darkshore Cub. I will be losing the almighty undead racial, but I will be gaining some speed and the beast racial. I mostly look forward to not having to deal with the curse of Infected Bite. IT’S CURSED I TELL YA! I should mention that the Darkshore Cub is 9-4-1 going into these battles whereas the Infected Bear Cub is 8-1-1.

Battle 1
vs. Death Adder Hatchling, Death Adder Hatchling, Death Adder Hatchling
All S/S breeds, which against a slow team like mine was probably in my favor due to all the wasted speed and resulting lack of power. It’s demoralizing to see those three snakes on the other side but it’s important not to panic. I had a few things going for me: Surge, BITW being able to hit through the blind and the undead racial. The Blighted Squirrel almost took out the first adder. What little bit of health remained was easily cleaned up with a Surge. I was hoping my opponent would try to poison Snarly before the blind came so I didn’t cast Surge. I lost that head game, which resulted in missed Rip. After the blind wore off I got the bleed going, then cast Rip again as my opponent swapped. Now both adders were bleeding and no blind could save them from the BITW. My bear ended up being able to Bite the last adder twice in a row for a win. Good start.
Record: 1-0

Team 2: Teeth And Paws
S/S Darkmoon Rabbit (Huge Sharp Teeth, Dodge, Stampede)
H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
P/P Darkshore Cub (Bite, Bash, Maul)

I used to always take Burrow in the third slot but more and more I’m going with Stampede. It has some nice synergy with bleed, and I also hate the feeling of being so exposed with my rabbit when emerging from the burrow. I guess I’m even more exposed being locked into a three round move, but at least I’m giving the other pet a huge debuff.

Battle 2A
vs. Droplet Of Y’Shaarj, Scourged Whelpling, Stunted Direhorn
This is a formidable team with a good player controlling it. Although I haven’t seen it much recently I remember losing to it in the past. Thankfully I had Snarly to throw off their strategy. Most Droplet Of Y’Shaarj teams like to start with that pet to get the weather/AoE combo going so I started with Snarly. My opponent saw this coming so they went with the Stunted Direhorn as an opener. After the bleed I thought they would swap, but didn’t so I missed the first opportunity to hit BITW. I Surged to avoid the interrupt then not wanting to be fooled again I tried BITW. The beast stayed in and died, leaving Snarly with 40 hp. After that, the Droplet came in and tried to take the DMR out with Corrosion. Dreadful Breath teams are so powerful when unimpeded but once you throw a wrench in their plans they fall apart pretty easily. The DMR and bear finished things off, even though my opponent made a valiant attempt at swapping out of an incoming Maul. These people are making me work for my wins today. Triple Twilight Fiendlings please!
Record: 2-0

Battle 2B
vs. Dread Hatchling, Kun-Lai Runt, Lil’ XT
I accidentally queued with the same team as last time. It’s funny because if you showed me the three teams that I’ve faced so far and asked which one I would most likely win against I would pick this one, but I lost. I mistimed casting Dodge so I let the XE-321 Boombot hit me while Heartbreak was up. Apparently counting is hard for me. It was almost worth the mistake watching the bear hit Lil’ XT for 1077 + 684 damage before and after Failsafe. There was a darkness miss by the bear later but really I lost from my earlier mistake. I still had a chance, the last round was Snarly against the Dread Hatchling, both 244 speed and within kill range (for BITW). I won the coin toss but missed the hail-mary 50% accuracy BITW for the loss. Bash was able to get a stun in on the P/P KLR by the way. I will now attempt to queue with the correct team, wish me luck.
Record: 2-1

Team 3: Dude, Where’s My Croc?
H/P Blighted Squirrel (Woodchipper, Crouch, Stampede)
B/B Electrified Razortooth (Rip, Blood In The Water, Lightning Shield)
P/P Darkshore Cub (Bite, Bash, Maul)

A bleed team without Snarly? What am I thinking? I haven’t been having much luck with the Electrified Razortooth lately. I have a bad feeling about this.

Battle 3
vs. Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Clockwork Rocket Bot
This was a very interesting battle while it lasted. I had the bleeds to make the basilisks pay for feigning to the back line and an elemental to deal with the mech, but my opponent had the speed and the CC. I put a bleed on a basilisk with my undead squirrel after I was free from the prison then brought in my elemental. The elemental turned out to be a major problem for the basilisks since they didn’t want to take the damage from Lightning shield so were passing when it was up. Like I said it was interesting. The battle could have gone either way when my opponent went afk for four rounds then fled. What a bummer.
Record: 3-1

Team 4: Darkshore Deathsquad
S/S Squirrel (Woodchipper, Crouch, Stampede)
P/P SHimmershell Snail (Absorb, Acid Goo, Headbutt)
P/P Darkshore Cub (Bite, Bash, Maul)

This is one of my “map buddies” teams which are comprised of pets from a single map, in this case Darkshore (duh!). It’s good for a themed wild pet team but I really don’t have high expectations. I’m tentative about Stampede on the Squirrel. Without that nice buffer from the undead racial it’s nowhere near as survivable as the Blighted Squirrel so I don’t want to be locked into a three round move. The snail is a decent enough pet, I should try harder to come up some good snail teams.

Battle 4
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Lil’ Ragnaros, Pandaren Monk
How lucky is that that I run into Lil’ Ragnaros with two critters. How unlucky is it that I missed two 95% moves in one battle? Both a Maul and a Headbutt missed. What was I saying about wishing CDs were 100%? The snail was really a failure here, it hardly contributed to the win at all. The bear made up for it by surprising the Unborn Val’kyr with a Bash then a bleeding Maul to end it earlier than it probably expected. Thankfully the Pandaren Monk missed a Jab at the end of the battle to sort of even the rng out. My bear survived the battle with only 24 hp, thanks to the Pandaren Monk only being able to do weak damage.
Record: 4-1

I had a few more teams in mind but I’ve battled a lot during this three day weekend and I’m really feeling the need to do something else. I don’t think the Darkshore Cub will replace the Infested Bear Cub on my bleed teams but I will certainly use it again in the future to provide some variety.