November 22, 2014

Five Wins Or Bust
I’ve been having a lot of WoW fun outside the realm of pet battles for the first time since cata, which means that I haven’t been pet battling a lot. I do have a few new teams that I can use today.

Battle 1: Scoopers
Molten Corgi, Red Dragonhawk Hatchling, Lava Crab
vs. Lil’ Bling, Lil’ Deathwing, Vampiric Batling
This was my first Molten Corgi team. A new pet with a swap move is exciting, I’m sure we’ll be able come up with team better than this one, which is a case of throwing something together quickly. It is fun using the Lava Crab. The Corgi’s forced swap of Lil’ Deathwing kept the dragon from casting the feared Elementium Bolt long enough for me to get ahead on damage. All of the elemental damage had no trouble handling Lil’ Bling. All this damage makes me wish that I had a Soul Of The Forge, but prices are dropping steadily so I’m trying to be patient before purchasing one. Thanks to a server merge with Hydraxis the Terenas auction house is no longer my personal atm machine so I need to be careful with my gold. Soon soul, soon.
Record: 1-0

Battle 2: Blingbeast 1000
Molten Corgi, Red Dragonhawk Hatchling, Cogblade Raptor
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Kun-Lai Runt, Death Adder Hatchling
After having their 305 speed adder forced out by the corgi and then having the KLR get stomped by the dragon my opponent fled. I guess it was somewhat embarrassing having a humanoid killed by a dragon, but the battle was nowhere near over in my opinion. I guess as long as there’s no penalty for fleeing people will continue to leave when things go bad. I’m not advocationg for a desertion penalty; the last thing I want is something to keep people from battling. I just wish that people would stay a bit longer rather than flee at the first sign of opposition.
Record: 2-0

Battle 3: Rat Squad
Frostfur Rat, Frostfur Rat, Frostfur Rat
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Grommloc, Murkalot
I couldn’t resist making a team of all three of the pure breed Frostfur Rats (S/S, P/P and H/H). It’s actually been doing much better than I expected in the queue. With two of my rats having Refuge and with Murkalot having Shieldstorm there were a lot of blocks taking place in this battle. There were also a lot of counters; my rats soft-countered Lil’ Ragnaros, the humanoids soft countered the critter damage and Smash hard countered the rats. I think the match-ups favored my opponent because I was going to have a hard time taking out those humanoids. I really didn’t think I had a chance but a few Darkness misses at the end kept my team in it. Smash was my undoing, causing over 900 damage with the buff from Giant’s Blood. Grommloc survived the battle with only 49 health, good times.
Record: 2-1

Battle 4: Wolfgang Peck
Frostfur Rat, Frostwolf Ghostpup, Junglebeak
vs. Gilnean Raven, Gilnean Raven, Rotten Little Helper
I was just saying how too many people flee at the first sign of trouble; this opponent was not one of them. The battle started off horribly for my opponent. The Rotten Little Helper threw down the Booby Trapped Presents while my undead doggy cast Refuge. The humanoid stayed in to take a Ghostly Bite to the face, then watch its trap get blocked when I brought my rat in. The rat finished off the humanoid with Darkness. I had barely taken any damage and my opponent was down to two ravens. The ravens made a valiant attempt at salvaging the win, taking out both the ghost wolf and the rat. The battle ended with an medium health S/S raven versus my full health P/P Junglebeak so anything could have happened. The Junglebeak hit a Nocturnal Strike crit for over 1k damage, ending the drama abruptly. My hat goes off to my opponent’s gumption.
Record: 3-1

Battle 5: Teroscurry
Frostwolf Ghostpup, Prairie Mouse, Teroclaw Hatchling
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Pandaren Monk, Lil’ Deathwing
Teroclaw Hatchling is win. I can’t tell you how much I’m loving this pet with the Dodge and Nature’s Ward combo. This combo allows it to keep its flying racial up for longer than most birds. It comes in an H/P breed so it does decent damage as well. This time my opponent didn’t let me use Ghostly Bite on the humanoid so I had to work a little harder for the win. Lil’ Deathwing missed the 50% Cataclysm which helped me out a lot. The biggest factor towards my win was probably bringing in the Teroclaw Hatchling to get its heal going during Sons of the Flame, then having Claw hit high when rag emerged to kill him and deny him laying a trap.
Record: 4-1

Battle 6: Warlords Of Sporenor
Bronze Dragon, Sporeling Sprout, Robo-Chick
vs. Softshell Sapling, Grove Adder Hatchling, Chrominius
Ugh, the turtle was an uncommon level 23, so I had a huge advantage. My opponent made some good swaps and some good choices but their team was somewhat weak even without the level disadvantage. I’m sure once they get a little practice under their belt and some better bets they will be a formidable opponent. This was an easy win as you would expect. I have to say apart from the nerf of all 95% moves (I’m looking at you, Snap) I like the changes in accuracy mechanics that WoD has brought us. I bring that up because I have too many memories of missing a battle winning Jab with the Sporeling Sprout. Not anymore. Sure, I can hit low, but somehow hitting low isn’t as disappointing as a miss. At least that’s how I feel so far, I reserve the right to change my opinion :). And by the way, what’s up with every battle taking place at my garrison? It’s so dark.
Record: 5-1