October 18, 2014

Farewell 5.4 Part XI
It’s down to the top 40! Remember the rankings are based on how much I like the teams, not necessarily how good they are.

Team 40: Teeth And Paws
Competitive Rating: 8/10
Darkmoon Rabbit, Snarly, Darkshore Cub
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Blighthawk, Stitched Pup
It’s no secret that I love bleed teams, so it’s surprising that I took so long to get around to trying the powerful P/P Darkshore Cub. When I finally did I wasn’t disappointed. It gives bleed teams a more aggressive feel than the tanky Infested Bear Cub, which can be fun if your in the mood to see some even bigger damage from a bleeding Maul. In 5.4 I used Stampede instead of Burrow, but I decided to switch to the latter since it hits at 100% now. I’m glad I did in this battle because I was able to dodge the CoD then avoid Haunt with Burrow. Have fun Shadow Slashing. This was still very close due to the undead racial times three plus Consume Corpse, but the bear was able to save the win by Bashing the valk on its undead round.

Team 39: Moskau
Competitive Rating: 6/10
Fossilized Hatchling, Yu’la, Spirit Crab
vs. Iron Starlette, Nether Fairie Dragon, Grinder
I had a lot of fun with my only Fossilized Hatchling team. Sometimes Yu’la shines, sometimes she fails. Here she was unimpressive and I only ended up with a draw because Rock Barrage missed all three times on the application move. I can’t say that I’m happy with how barrage moves are behaving.

Team 38: Purple Legosi
Competitive Rating: 8/10
Spirit Crab, Death Adder Hatchling, Legs
vs. Dark Phoenix Hatchling, Corefire Imp, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling
With the nerfs to my crab and the adder I don’t see myself using this team much in WoD, but man was I happy to find a good fit for Legs. In this battle I got to use the fun combo of Whirlpool/Surge Of Power on the imp, nice try but your pre-heal wasn’t enough. The adder again performed well, I think it’s still useful, you can’t just blind and win like before. The battle ended up as Spirit Crab versus Dark Phoenix Hatchling; the elemental didn’t stand a chance.

Team 37: Contwerkulate
Competitive Rating: 5/10
Fel Flame, Blackfuse Bombling, Red Dragonhawk Hatchling
vs. Rabbit, Flayer Youngling, Eternal Strider
This is another team that I had tons of fun with. It wasn’t particularly good against the meta pets, but it could squeeze out some wins here and there. This battle was annoying because I loaded my Fel Flame wrong when making the team so I had Immolation instead of Conflagrate. I was still able to earn a close victory thanks to Armageddon killing the rabbit on the back line while it was waiting for its avoidance moves to refresh.

Team 36: Making Them Pay
Competitive Score: 9/10
Death Adder Hatchling, Spirit Crab, Alpine Hare
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Infected Bear Cub, Snarly
This is one of my most competitive teams in 5.4. It wasn’t perfect; it could beat idols sometimes, but they still gave it problems. Clonedance teams were problematic as well. Apart from those tams I felt very confident going into battle with Making them pay. How will it do in WoD? It’s still good, but we’ll have to wait to see which pets and teams shape the meta. Here I was well equipped to handle rag with my rabbit. The first trap was blinded and the second trap went off against my critter so the OP move wasn’t a factor. I made a really bad mis-click when I needed to swap but reapplied Shell Shield instead. That wasn’t enough to make me lose, in fact the adder survived with full health.

Team 35: Painsurge
Competitive Score: 7/10
Droplet Of Y’Shaarj, Spirit Crab, Snarly
vs. Anubisath Idol, Death Adder Hatchling, Cogblade Raptor
A win against an idol is always pleasing. I tried going back to Whirlpool since I thought I’d be seeing less adders. I get an adder, doh. It’s ok, Snarly still had Surge.

Team 34: All Buzz Cons
Competitive Rating: 9/10
Fiendish Imp, Warbot, Fledgling Buzzard
vs. Blackfuse Bombling, Dread Hatchling, Emperor Crab
Minefield and swap is still completely viable. The imp and Warbot are eternal! I didn’t even need my bird.

Team 33: Don’t Spike Me Bro
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Spirit Crab, Sen’Jin Fetish, Vengeful Porcupette
vs. Fiendish Imp, Son Of Animus, Scourged Whelpling
Thank goodness my opponent was using Siphon Anima and not Touch Of The Animus or I may have lost. I’m still adapting to Snap always hitting for 312 damage. Please give us back our once wonderful 95% moves by giving them a range like 90% and below moves. The nerf didn’t make much of a difference in this battle since my beast absolutely wrecked the Scourged Whelpling, making the Plagued Blood healing much less of a factor than it could have been.

Team 32: Squirt McGurt
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Eternal Strider, Jademist Dancer, Azure Crane Chick
vs. Zandalari Toenibbler, Death Talon Whelpguard, Nexus Whelpling
I decided to group all of my Eternal Strider “water” teams together since they are all very similar. This first one is Snarly-less but hits hard without him. The Azure Crane Chick has such a nice move set with Quills, Cleansing Rain and then Surge for when it loses the flying racial. A 25% damage buff from the weather is huge; I really don’t know why more people don’t use cleansing rain teams. The Nexus Whelpling was gimped by my weather change and the other two pets weren’t good enough to make up for this so I was able to win.

Team 31: Surgio By Armani
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Eternal Strider, Snarly, Azure Crane Chick
vs. Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Celestial Dragon, Infinite Whelpling
The next water team on the list lost to the mech dragon. Decoys can be annoying when you have no way to deal with them.

Team 30: Purple Crane
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Eternal Strider, Snarly, Azure Crane Chick
vs. Anubisath Idol, Harbinger Of Flame, Clockwork Gnome
Another win against an idol, nice. When 6.0.2 was installed it reset my settings and I didn’t realize it until I went to adjust them. My particle density was on low and it really screwed with some of the visual effects of pet battles. I changed it to ultra and it’s like I’m playing a different game. I don’t even think it’s very hard on my comp since it doesn’t cause any lag, while just about everything else does on my old computer. I’m thinking of getting a new computer for WoD but aren’t sure yet. It would be nice to not have to set my view distance to low, among other things. Ok, back to pets, the extra damage from the cleansing rain buff mad a difference, as did a failed repair attempt by the gnome.

Team 29: Death By Water
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Jademist Dancer, Eternal Strider, Snarly
vs. Nether Fairie Dragon, Jademist Dancer, Blackfuse Bombling
This team seemed to be just a step ahead of the other three water teams in the win column. I have no data to support this, hence the word “seem”. Perhaps it was because of the two aquatics soft countering the all too common valk. This battle made it “seem” like I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about since I lost badly. Even though Steam Vent seems to have taken a hit by being made into a 100% move the interaction between Cyclone and Rain Dance still works fine.

Team 28: Gu’Chi Crew II
Competitve Rating: 7/10
Fiendish Imp, Imperial Eagle Chick, Gu’Chi Swarmling
vs. Fluxfire Feline, Mirror Strider, Nordrassil Wisp
My team got better in 6.0 since Burrow and Lift-Off are 100% moves now. Easy win.

Team 27: Born To Be Crabby
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Dandelion Frolicker, Spirit Crab, Death Adder Hatchling
vs. Red Panda, Clockwork Gnome, Voodoo Figurine
With this win I now have a level 90 paladin… which I have no idea how to play. This team ranks so high because early in 5.4 I really had a lot of fun with it. Though overall I’d say the Dandelion Frolciker ended up being a disappointment. I just couldn’t put my hopes in a 50% avoidance move when I needed to. Perhaps I can find a use for a Barkskin build.

Team 26: X-Visitors
Competitive Rating: 6/10
Yu’la, Ravager Hatchling, Spirit Crab
vs. Scourged Whelpling, Clockwork Gnome, Infinite Whelpling
Three cheers for the Ravager Hatchling! This battle was going to be a draw from the turret killing the beast after the death of the gnome, but Devour saved the day with its heal. I hope there are more Celestial Blessing pets in WoD.

Team 25: The Suggested
Competitive Rating: 8/10
Spirit Crab, Alpine Hare, Death Adder Hatchling
vs. Magical Crawdad, Swamp Croaker, Gilnean Raven
Look at all these Spirit Crabs! At one point I stopped using it as much but later it had a rebirth when I realized how useful Surge could be against adders. This battle showed how little offense this team has; it just couldn’t take down the opposing pets before the heals could take effect. I’m a little bit worried about the Tiny Bog Beast in WoD now that the adder and valk are nerfed and won’t shape the meta. Since the snake was really fast and the valk was really slow mid-speed pets had a chance to shine. The reason is because since adders are so fast people had to think of other ways besides speed to counter them and since valks are so slow speed wasn’t an issue with them. Thus speed was less of a factor in countering these two pets so the meta slowed down to some extent. Now that these pets are gone speed is going to become more important so a 289 speed Bash may not be that effective. Just a theory. Or maybe I’ve battled too much today and am going slightly crazy. It has happened before.

Team 24: Flaming Gobbo
Competitive Score: 5/10
Unborn Val’kyr, Fel Flame, Treasure Goblin
vs. Murkalot, Unborn Val’kyr, Amber Moth
Ha ha. Their RI/Haunt abuse was squashed by my Haunt then Portal. Shortly afterwards they fled.

Team 23: Gu’Chi Crew
Competitive Score: 7/10
Fiendish Imp, Sen’Jin Fetish, Gu’Chi Swarmling
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Magical Crawdad, Restless Shadeling
Somehow my moves got reset right before the battle after I got the message “you can’t do that in a matched pet battle”. Weird. So I was stuck with Rush instead of Nether Gate and Chomp/Consume instead of Swarm/Burrow. Somehow I still managed to win, thanks to a crit the killed the valk a turn early as we were headed for a draw.

Team 21: Blight Bastards
Competitive Score: 8/10
Blighted Squirrel, Fiendish Imp, Sen’Jin Fetish
vs. Magical Crawdad, Swamp Croaker, Gilnean Raven
That was for The Suggested! Earlier I didn’t have enough offense to take out this team, this time I had plenty. Plenty of little DoTs amplified by Wild Magic and Stampede. Two times Wish didn’t heal its intended target thanks to those little DoTs adding up to death.