May 5, 2014

Five Wins Or Bust
I’ve queued up a lot more these past few days because I’ve been trying to collect data on what realms/battlegroups people come from. It’s a slow process. In 24 battles I’ve gotten one new data point. Not too many people name their pets, and even when they do I can’t always track the player down. At any rate it’s got me battling more. I figured as long as I’m battling more I might as well start keeping data on the pets I’m facing like I did here: pet frequency table. So here I am right back in the thick of pet battles when I thought this was going to be a slow month. What am I thinking!

Battle 1: Death By Water
Eternal Strider, Jademist Dancer, Snarly
vs. Bonkers, Anubisath Idol, Kun-Lai Runt
Where’s an undead pet when you need one? Thankfully Bonkers didn’t hit either of his stuns. I started out by buffing my strider with Pump, casting Cleansing Rain when Bonkers cast Dodge then swapping to the Jademist Dancer. I kept it in until the next two rounds of Dodge (it was an S/S Bonkers) when I swapped back to the Eternal Strider who finished the monkey and pounded the Anubisath Idol with an 891 damage Pump. My Jademist Dancer replaced the strider, finished the idol then missed an unbuffed Steam Vent on the KLR. It was looking to be a nail-biting showdown between Snarly and the KLR until Deep Freeze missed. After that it was easy.
Record: 1-0

Battle 2: Batter Not
Sen’Jin Fetish, Robo-Chick, Tiny Twister
vs. Lava Crab, Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling, Cogbalde Raptor
Whenever I get hit by a Conflagrate I feel a little bit sad. Conflagrate teams used to be so fun before it got nerfed, especially when fighting the annoyingly OP Fluxfire Feline. But alas, it’s second attack now does less damage and it’s not a very effective strategy for the most part. This was a really straightforward battle. The voodoo mask killed the dragonhawk and applied Wild Magic to the crab, the Tiny Twister killed the crab and left Wild Winds for the Cogblade Raptor, then the Robo-Chick came in to finish off the mech. There was a slight chance of the slower Cogblade Raptor winning but that went out the window as soon as Repair was cast.
Record: 2-0

Battle 3: The Usuals
Spirit Crab, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Robo-Chick
vs. Restless Shadeling, Anubisath Idol, Netherspace Abyssal
It’s nice to see uncommon pets like the Netherspace Abyssal in the queue. It’s never nice to an Anubisath Idol in the queue. The Spirit Crab seems like it could go toe to toe with the idol in a Sandstorm, but I often seem to have bad luck with rng when testing my crab against the giant dog-face. This battle was no different with the idol hitting three straight Demolishes against the Spirit Crab. At least the Rupture didn’t stun. I was lamenting my opponent’s luck after the idol killed my crab, but I was still able to pull off a close victory. How? My opponent made an unnecessary swap to lose a turn, plus the Basilisk was able to avoid both a Rupture and a Meteor Strike with Feign Death. The always important Wind-Up hit the Netherspace Abyssal towards the end to seal the victory. I really wish that Wind-Up was a 100% move.
Record: 3-0

Battle 4: Crystal Castle
Enchanted Broom, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Mongoose Pup
vs. Emperor Crab, Nether Fairie Dragon, Cheetah Cub
One of the bad things about having a blog is that you have to share your embarrassing defeats with the world, like when you lose to a Cheetah Cub. Crystal Castle was one of my favorite 5.2 teams, I dust it off every now and then for the hell of it. It’s a team that is very reliant on speed and the Cheetah Cub gave the Scalded Basilisk Hatchling and Mongoose Pup trouble. I needed to try and save the Enchanted Broom for the Emperor Crab since it had a shield which shut down the other two pet’s attacks. At one point I made a bad choice in bringing in the broom when I shouldn’t have which may have determined the battle since the Emperor Crab survived with only 273 hp.
Record: 3-1

Battle 5: Ratty Dread
Scourged Whelpling, Black Rat, Robo-Chick
vs. Anubisath Idol, Death Talon Whelpguard, Blighthawk
First a Cheetah Cub and now a Death Talon Whelpguard. I must be losing it. Not really, it’s that damn Anubisath Idol. What’s that, the third idol in five battles? Annoying. I had been lucky while doing just a few battles a day to not run into many idols, but now that I’m chain queueing I’m seeing that they are just as much of a problem as ever. The Spirit Crab got stunned by Rupture and the idol never missed in the Sandstorm. My Robo-Chick made a valiant effort at taking it out with Wind-Ups, but it couldn’t take the ugly statue down fast enough.
Record: 3-2

Battle 6: A New Hope (slash edition)
Fiendish Imp, Warbot, Sen’Jin Fetish
vs. Jademist Dancer, Yu’la, Xu-Fu
Lately I’ve been running Flame Breath and Wild Magic (the “correct” move set as Rhonstifor calls it) on the Sen’Jin Fetish but with all of the Anubisath Idols around I was hoping for the chance to Shadow Slash one into oblivion. Instead I was wishing that I had the 100% Flame Breath since a missed Shadow Slash almost cost me the battle. I don’t have much respect for Xu-Fu anymore but perhaps I should. Prowl and Spirit Claws can sure put a hurt on. I had the Warbot to soak some of the damage and dish out a good deal of mech damage so I ended up being okay. I was really scared of Life Exchange as my near full-health imp was casting a kill shot Burn, a miss could be trouble. The 90% move came through and the battle was won. One more. /pant
Record: 4-2

Battle 7: Beige Bandits
Qiraji Guardling, Living Sandling, Direhorn Runt
vs. Forest Moth, Lil’ Bling, Kun-Lai Runt
Whenever I see a moth on the other side I get a bit worried. I really wasn’t sure how to start this battle since I guessed my opponent would start with the moth. I chose the Qiraji Guardling to start and it ended up being a good choice. My Quiraji Guardling missed its first Crush but after that it didn’t have any problems hitting. The Moth Dust didn’t proc any sleeps so my humanoid was able to take out the moth. Next came Lil’ Bling which locked itself into Inflation so my drooling elemental came in to make it pay. The KLR was really no problem after that, I took it out without ever having to use the Direhorn Runt. Five wins out of seven is a tolerable win rate to me, I’ll consider the night a success. Except for losing to a Cheetah Cub, that’s just wrong.
Record: 5-2

Edit: Remember this week we are doing some testing to try and figure out how the PvP pet queue is related to realms and battlegroups. Each night this week from 10-11pm EST when you queue for pet battles please change the name of your lead pet to whatever realm you are queueing from. For example, my leading pet would be named “Terenas” if I queued from that realm.