This list is designed for those new to the PvP pet battle scene. Keep in mind that this should be used a starting point only. After you get the hang of pet battling you can explore your own ideas and synergies. The next top team is out there waiting to be discovered!
Here are my definitions of the tiers:
1st tier – You can build a team around these pets and expect to win often with the right support. I like to think of these pets as being able to carry lesser pets to great win rates.
2nd tier – These pets are not quite as good as the 1st-tier pets. You can still build a successful team around them, but due to certain constraints they will be not be able to single-handedly carry a team to success like the 1st-tier pets.
3rd tier – This is a general catch-all for the good PvP pets. Some will do better than others in certain situations.
* – denotes a pet that might not be great on its own, but can be very good with certain synergies.
1st tier
Bone Serpent
S/S Fiendish Imp
Teroclaw Hatchling
2nd tier
S/S Bronze Whelpling
Curious Wolvar Pup
P/P Emperor Crab
Frostwolf Ghostpup
Ghastly Kid* (Consume Corpse, Haunt n’ stall)
Graves* (Consume Corpse)
S/S Nightshade Sproutling* (darkness)
Ore Eater/Crusher
S/S Rabbits
H/S Scalded Basilisk Hatchling
Vengeful Porcupette
S/S Wicked Soul
3rd tier
Anubisath Idol
P/P Blackfuse Bombling* (Righteous Inspiration/Armageddon)
Blighted Squirrel
Blighthawk
Blossoming Ancient* (sunny day)
S/S Bonkers
Chi-Chi
Clockwork Gnome
Creepy Crate
Darkmoon Tonk
S/S Darkmoon Rabbit
Death Adder Hatchling
Dread Hatchling
Direhorn
Emerald Proto-Whelp
Enchanted Broom
Fragment Of Anger
Fossilized Hatchling
Foxes
Frostfur Rat
Gilnean Raven/Crow* (darkness)
Hydraling
Ikky
Infected Squirrel
Infested Bear Cub
Iron Starlette
Jademist Dancer* (clonedance)
Junglebeak* (clonedance/darkness)
Kun-Lai Runt
Lil’ Bling
Lil’ Ragnaros
Macabre Marionette
Mechanical Axebeak
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Magical Crawdad
Moths
Mr. Bigglesworth
Murkalot* (Righteous Inspiration/Armageddon)
Nether Fairie Dragon
Netherspace Abyssal
Nexus Whelpling
Prairie Mouse
Puddle Terror
Qiraji Guardling
Ruby Droplet
Scourged Whelpling
Servant Of Demidos
Singing Sunflower* (sunny day)
Snarly, Toothy, Muckbreath, Chuck* (bleeding)
Son Of Sethe
Son Of Animus
Spectral Spinner
Spirit Crab
Stonegrinder
Trunks
Warbot
Xu-Fu
Unborn Val’kyr
Zandalari Raptors
Zomstrok
Relevant synergies and combos
Clonedance – apply Cyclone the buff its hit and critical rate with Rain Dance.
Consume Corpse – use Haunt, when pet is Haunting it is considered dead, use Consume Corpse to heal. Can be done repeatedly.
Darkness – use Call Darkness to increase hit chance of Nocturnal Strike.
Haunt n’ stall – use Haunt, then Dodge, Feign Death, Burrow, etc. so that your opponent can’t hit you while taking damage from Haunt.
Minefield swap – use Minefield, then use a swap move like Nether gate or Sweep to force your opponent into the mines.
Righteous Inspiration/Armageddon – use Rightous Inspiration on a P/P Blackfuse Bombling. Armageddon will now go first and do over 2100 damage if not avoided.
Sunny day – use Sunlight to turn the weather into Sunny Day. Photosynthesis will now heal for two ticks per turn instead of one.
Powerful Moves
Righteous Inspiration – see above
Traps – stuns, interrupts and does damage all at the same time. Detonation round is random unless forced by an obstacle clearing move or a wave.
Other Synergies
Bleeding – use Rip or Woodchipper to apply the bleeding effect. Maul then does an extra attack and Blood In The Water has a 100% hit chance.
Conflagrate – Conflagrate does extra damage is the target is burning. This can be achieved by Scorched Earth, Flamethrower, Immolate, etc.
Mana Surge – Mana Surge hits an extra attack with the weather is arcane winds. Nexus Whelplings are the most commonly used pets for this synergy.
Here is a link to the WoD tier list:
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Yay for lists!!
First thing I noticed; no new Legion pets!
Not surprising though, it’ll take a while for them to find their rhythm and I’m certain at least one or two of the new RWL pets will make the list.
Two changes I’d make:
1) Weebomination? Hmmm I’m not too sure about that one. I think this little stinker is gone for good. IMO his best two uses were coupled with Graves & MPD and, secondly, sweeping in at the end of a dreadful breath team. Both of which took HUGE hits with the nerf bat.
2) Ironstarlette. Maybe it’s just me, but this guy is so overlooked. Against a skilled battler, the whole match can sometimes boil down to a mexican standoff/guessing game of when to dodge/swap/stun. And anytime a pet can sway a battle like that and turn the entire thing into a coin flip has to be respected.
Is it because magic-types and elementals make such short work of this guy?
Anyway, keep it up! I’m off to slowly grind my 5k away.
There will be some Legion pets soon. Wicked Soul seems like a sure thing at this point.
Good call on the Weebom. I don’t think I’ve lost to one since the nerf. I may have some residual fear left over from what it once was.
Just played with Blood Boil for the first time. Running Clone+Drain Blood. And it seemed very very strong. Easily tier 2, from what I saw. Took down entire teams by itself.
First, being a magic pet, Clone only takes 33% of your hp.
Second, when the clone copies Drain Blood, it heals the active pet. So with the ooze, it can easily heal past the 33% Magic break points.
Third, it can cast Drain blood with no cooldown. Allowing the active pet to heal an obscene amount.
Thanks for the tip, I went out and bought a couple to try em’ out. Got an H/H and a P/P. And yes I’m a lazy bastard, only rand ICC and Ulduar a few times and I’m already buying RWL pets 😛
the new blizzcon murloc pet is pretty solid, the evasion + clone self means that you won’t take any damage from clone AND that your clone can potentially perma-evasion your front line pet, solid comp to switch to a heavy damage dealer while the clone is alive
Celestial Calf is extremely strong atm. it’s up there with broot, Magical Crawdad and the other unkillable things
In case you still don’t have your s/s death adder hatchling, you can actually find a snake in stormheim that has the exact same stats and has the puncture wound/blinding poison moves. It’s a shame they look a lot smaller than the death adder, but hey, no more endless grinding in timeless isle to end up getting the wrong breed of an ex-overpowered pet.
Had a lot of fun making other players miserable with the couple I captured, and have actually also found use for them in PvE.
Thank you for recommending Rose Taipan. Thanks to this poisonous snake I made pretty solid team: S/S Rose Taipan (Poison Fang, Puncture Wound, Blinding Poison), S/S Wicked Soul (Shadow Shock, Agony, Haunt) and P/P Emperor Crab (Surge, Healing Wave, Shell Shield) due to frequent Wicked Souls or Unborn Val’kyrs. It’s pretty easy to obtain team if you are new to battle pets.
Think the two pets from timeless isle the infinite hatchling and paradox spirit with temporal anomaly could be worth adding. Blightbreath, stardust, magma rageling and celestial calf are all strong too.
Any breed for Bone Serpent that are better?
I really like the H/H due to all the health. It can get off a few barrages, both darkness and strike, then swap out with enough health left to be a factor when it comes back in. However, I do see people use other breeds. There have been a few cases where the 292 speed serpent has won the battle due to being faster than a 289 speed pet, but that is not often.
With the Family Brawler fest going on, the fiedish imp is having a hard time of it…Legion pets are slamming him.
Still strong but might be knocked from it’s lofty status.
I suggest the Twilight clutch be considered for top tier, Infernal Pyreclaw likely tier 2 -at least-…. the Skyfin juvenile and the (p/p) Blazehound both impress me too.
As a tweak, the s/s Nightshade sprout is versatile, (you have it listed for darkness) instead of darkness, I highly recommend running it as a healer. Let’s face it, this is what a fiendish imp does to survive so well..the imp just has the extra racial self heal advantage.
I have had many opponents quit after watching a fast blinding + healing sproutling solo half their team and stay near full health..if the opponent cannot outspeed the sproutling, it is simply game over for them.
I’m not a great fan of stalling or healing teams, but the quick blind and backline heal combo makes it an effective pet that is a great 3rd on any team.
Unfortunately it is not a cheap pet to get anymore.
Tekulve
Thanks Tekulve, this list needs an update for sure. I keep waiting for that moment when I feel like an expert again lol.
I would put in a vote for the s/s sneaky marmot as a tier 2 pet. The blind/burrow picks make it last and allow it to outmatch many pets one on one.
Pet was helpful. I hope it gets an update soon
What do S/S, P/P, H/S, etc… mean?
Here is an explanation:
http://pvppetbattles.com/breeds/
BFA tier list when?
I’d have to play a lot more than I’m doing now to make a BfA tier list. It’s 9/16 and so far I’ve only collected 4 BfA pets haha. Maybe next semester if I don’t take any more classes, but right now I’m leaning towards doing that. So then the summer if I’ve even collected all the pets by then 😛
BfA tier list inc this weekend.
Gotta give the site some attention