Donna's "no-bs" WoD 6.1 Pet Tamer Guide

[Donnamartin]

@Anasa
I don't have an Ancient since I haven't ever purchased anything from the in-game shop. That's an excellent suggestion though for people that do have the pet. And ganking alliance is....like the most important part of the loop, I don't know what you're talking about!

@Iamnotapet
I like this Gargra team and am going to use it from now on. It's a shade longer than the current team up, but since Quake is 3 automated rounds it doesn't feel as long. Also, it enables a level 1 pet carry which is useful, and burns swaps on rounds where you can't do damage anyway so it's pretty efficient. Good Tarr suggestion too.

@sepsis
Hilarious team proving how good the Weebom is - definitely using this team from now on as it is significantly shorter than the others posted and still only exposes the carry pet to a single burn tick.

@Skye
A couple ways Horde can get into SMV - my preferred way is to Spirit Lodge Portal there since it drops you right next to Ashlei. The Spirit Lodge is the best large building in the garrison already! You can also Wormhole there with Engy port, or set hearth and feather from Akeeta's in Spires and it gets you most of the way there I think. It isn't the end of the world to fly to Exile's Rise from Vesharr @ Veil Terook I suppose either.

@Jerebear
Great suggestions as always.

[Jerebear]

I wasn't able to get a good BONESTORM in without making the strat longer, so just leave it at Bone Bite if using that Tarr strat for now (I do have some other ideas, but I have a fever...so not now).

[Iamnotapet]

For Ashlei

I use a 1 leveller strategy... I prefer the quicker time to getting using two levellers (especially as they simply share XP gains)

P/P EPW (1/-/-)
Warbot (1/2/-)

1) Breath
2) Breath
3) Breath (Sometimes you will need 4 breaths)
4) Switch to Warbot
5) Minefield
6) Missile
7) Switch to leveller
8) Switch to EPW
9) Breath
10) Breath
11) Breath (Sometimes you will need 4 breaths)

[Iamnotapet]

For Taralune I us an 11+ pet only...

BECAUSE...

Whilst the L1 carry works perfectly it does not work every time...

BECAUSE...

Moth Dust

Sends my pet to sleep (happened tonight... didn't last night)

So I still prefer the following (it is quicker too)

Chromie the same...
11+ Pet soaks the sleep round
Nexus Whelpling (Arcane Winds > Mana Storm)

[Gromagrim]

My 1 hour route;

Start Taralune (Talador)
Engineering Wormhole to 'Lava and Snow' for Gargra
Hearth to Veil Terrok for Vesharr
Garrison Hearth for Erris (skip her since nerf)
Mole Machine - Avianna's Feather for Cymre Brightblade
Challengers Path to Temple of Jade Serpent for Hyuna of the Shrines
Fly to Whispering Panderan Spirit
Fly to Thundering Panderan Spirit
Fly to Farmer Nishi
Fly to Mo'ruk
Fly to Flowing Panderan Spirit
Fly to Wastewalker Shu
Fly to Aki the Chosen
Fly to Courageous Yon
Fly to Burning Panderan Spirit
Fly to Seeker Zusshi
Teleport to Karabor for Ashlei

All of the highest trainers bar Tarr the Terrible. Can follow this up with Cata trainers (using Tol Barad tabard) if you have any time left.

I would love a 1-hour route like this for Horde (we can't teleport to Karabor), meep!

Engineering wormhole to 'Shadows' for Ashlei, then I think riding from Frostwall will be fast enough for Gargra? I'm currently skipping Tarlune and starting at the DMF trainers instead. The wormhole isn't perfect, be ready to use your goblin glider. If you end up too far from the trainer, just skip them and HS straight to Spires of Arak.

[Moritsume]

I'd like to offer a different Taralune strategy, credit goes to prudentius@wowhead comments:

Nether Roach (any breed, however S/S are risky) (1/-/-)
Sprite Darter Hatchling or Nether Faerie Dragon (recommend S/B, but S/S usually works) (1/2/1)

1-6) Nether Blast
7) Bring in SDH, Moonfire
8) Arcane Blast
9) Swap to Carry
10) Swap to SDH
11) Life Exchange
12) Moonfire
13) Arcane Blast

This setup allows you to not worry about Counterspell or Moth Dust as the Roach is immune to Counterspell and dies to Moth Dust anyway. The swap occurs on a buff round so a level 1 works also.

[Darkchyld]

I would love a 1-hour route like this for Horde (we can't teleport to Karabor), meep!

Start at Ashlei (Spirit of Shinri to FP) -> Vesharr -> Taralune -> Garrison Hearth -> Aviana's feather to Gargra -> Bodyguard Vivianne garrison portal -> Mole Machine -> Cymre -> Shrine Hearth -> Aki -> Nishi -> Mo'ruk -> Flowing -> Shu -> Yon -> Burning -> Zusshi -> Shrine Hearth -> Thundering -> Whispering -> Hyuna -> Garrison Hearth -> Aviana's feather to Tarr

If I do a perfect roue after Hyuna with DMF up (~10 mins left on buffs), I can go Hyuna -> Garrison Hearth -> Ashran Portal -> TB Portal -> 2xDMF trainers -> logout to preserve buff and wait on garrison hearth CD -> Garrison Hearth -> Aviana's feather to Tarr

[Iamnotapet]

I'd like to offer a different Taralune strategy, credit goes to prudentius@wowhead comments:

Nether Roach (any breed, however S/S are risky) (1/-/-)
Sprite Darter Hatchling or Nether Faerie Dragon (recommend S/B, but S/S usually works) (1/2/1)

1-6) Nether Blast
7) Bring in SDH, Moonfire
8) Arcane Blast
9) Swap to Carry
10) Swap to SDH
11) Life Exchange
12) Moonfire
13) Arcane Blast

This setup allows you to not worry about Counterspell or Moth Dust as the Roach is immune to Counterspell and dies to Moth Dust anyway. The swap occurs on a buff round so a level 1 works also.

Nice...
After my post I had a quick look through my critters but couldn't find anything of value... totally forgot the Nether Roach as I haven't levelled mine yet... must try this tonight. Might go and grab a H/P and level it up. Alternatively I will level my H/S.

The most important thing for me is that the strat is RNG and crit proof because having to do it twice costs more than an extra round or two does.

UPDATE: Gold...just did it with H/S Roach and P/P NFD

[Jerebear]

Not crit safe, but very few strats really are:

Taralune
Fragment of Desire (Arcane Blast, Soul Ward, Soulrush)
Carry Pet (any...no damage)
Azure Whelpling (Breath, Arcane Storm, Surge of Power)


Alternates for the Azure Whelpling (less safe):
Chrominius (Howl, Surge of Power) or Lil' Tarecgosa (Arcane Storm, Surge of Power) or Coilfang Stalker (Gravity, Surge of Power)
*Pick non beast ability for remaining slot...just in case

R1: Arcane Blast (interrupted)
R2: Arcane Blast (blocked)
R3: Arcane Blast
R4: Arcane Blast
R5: Soulrush (First enemy dies...you should be at 550 health)
R6: Soul Ward
R7: Arcane Blast
R8: Arcane Blast (undead racial triggers)
R9: Arcane Blast (2nd enemy dies and you fully die)....Select Carry Pet
R10: Swap to Sweeper Pet
R11: Arcane Storm (or Howl or Gravity depending on your sweeper)
R12: Surge of Power

This strat avoids the sleep using Soul Ward. However, an early crit in the wrong spot can mess up the fragment of desire. If the Fragment of Desire is below 448 health at the end of R5 (so also for the first round vs the 2nd enemy), it won't kill the 2nd pet. There is an 89.5% chance of a crit not happening in a bad spot.

Edit:
With the Azure Whelpling as your sweeper, you have some backup that can possibly recover from a crit to the fragment. If the fragment has less than 448 health vs the 2nd pet, just Arcane Blast until your Fragment is dead (hopefully 2x Arcane Blasts), swap in your carry pet, swap in Azure Whelp, then Arcane Storm and Breath until 2nd enemy dies. A single Surge of Power will kill the 3rd pet.

[Iamnotapet]

Nice use of Soulward there I will use this tonight...

Not crit safe, but very few strats really are:

True... I got one last week on Vesharr when the mech managed to crit my Hatespark for 764 and 460 essentially two shotting him after Chrominius had lost the coin toss and dies early, I doubt if that will happen in another 100 times, but it did happen...
likewise I think that my carry which was level 21 had to finish off Tarr once... (I usually just level a single pet from 1 to 25 in Draenor... and use the Pandaria Trainers to get through the L1's I have left)

Alternates for the Azure Whelpling (less safe):
Chrominius (Howl, Surge of Power) or Lil' Tarecgosa (Arcane Storm, Surge of Power) or Coilfang Stalker (Gravity, Surge of Power)

Celestial Dragon with Arcane Winds / Moonlight / Flamethrower... will kill the last pet and a half. Nexus Whelpling AS/MS will... P/P NFD which I just used (H/P probably better) will also work. The only times I can recall losing this is if Grace sleeps my second pet.

[Jerebear]

Those alternates were more for the "two shot" capability they provide. There are definitely a lot more options (some are probably a safer backup as well) if you are willing to add the extra round or two (not a bad idea for many). I don't mind the risk as the Azure Whelpling seems to recover in the majority of situations (again not all, but most). I can accept the risk on that.

[Donnamartin]

And here I liked the Nether Roach being in for Chromie on Taralune, but Jerebear goes and posts this Fragment team that is 2 rounds shorter. Definitely swapping to that team - I never *loved* my Taralune team because I would forget to pass on that one round all the time lol.

[Jerebear]

Just be aware that it is a bit more "crit" risky for those 2 rounds. Still with the Azure Whelpling as the sweeper it isn't too bad on that (still has a chance to go south). The nether roach one might work out better in terms of RNG (haven't extensively tried it mind you...so it may or may not).

[Iamnotapet]

lol yeah first time I tried the fragment I got an early crit straight up lol... an early crit on the roach makes no difference at all BUT finding a second pet that can always carry it off is problematical... dear me... moth dust

Am finding the blossoming ancient on the Cymre strat problematical as well... seems to kill the idol at exactly the wrong time... so that the dragon walks into a round of rot and flies... cops a sunlight to the faceand is almost dead before getting off a shot... I always used the Teroclaw here with Yula... I tried him again and he certainly offers better control... he heals on the undead round... dodges the sunlight then backlines after that... the mech cannot take him out... now that I think about it if I could still use a level 1... I used to start with the leveller and soak the first rot... but that isn't necessary.

Will try it tomorrow and post the strat after that...

[Jerebear]

lol yeah first time I tried the fragment I got an early crit straight up lol... an early crit on the roach makes no difference at all BUT finding a second pet that can always carry it off is problematical... dear me... moth dust

I was trying the roach out today (I have an H/P) and a crit knocked the roach out early. I think for both the fragment and roach it depends "when" the crit happens. I know as long as the one Feedback or Call lightning attack doesn't crit on the fragment, it can handle a crit on the other rounds, but if either the Feedback or Call Lightning attacks crits on the fragment, it gets more difficult.

I didn't have time to play with the roach much to see where the crits are that knock it out (could be the same places, but had to run errands...so didn't test out). I'll see if I can tomorrow.

The nice thing about the Fragment vs the Roach is an early crit on the Roach at the Call lightning knocks it out with no damage to the second pet, but with the fragment you at least get one hit in (undead round with soul ward). Also, with the fragment, if the crit happens on the Feedback round, then you actually have a decent chance at getting two hits on the 2nd enemy before dying (I forego soul ward and just mash arcane blast hoping he doesn't sleep on the undead round). I haven't tested with the roach enough to know how an early crit affects it.

I think the big variability in the strat will come from which sweeper is used. Nether Faerie dragon seems the safest that I have tried, but I have had pretty good success with the Azure Whelpling as well (NFD is still safer due to Life Exchange)

[Pyy]

Just got to say thanks for this guide. I came back to WoW after a few months off and couldn't find the strategies that matched my old teams for these guys. All of yours worked first try so I saved them ty!

[Iamnotapet]

I was trying the roach out today (I have an H/P) and a crit knocked the roach out early.

rofl... that would be right...

I think the big variability in the strat will come from which sweeper is used.

Yep... Taralune is an interesting one to 2 Pet a Level 1 on... as is Cymre... the rest are toast...

[Painbow]

Wow! Awesome, Donna! Thank you so much for doing this -- I'm going to try it right now. I hope my post regarding efficient WoD trainer paths including teleport items maybe inspired you to make this, but either way it's much appreciated!

I was wondering if you would like to consider the Garrison follower "Vivianne" as a way to speed up the path if possible? When she's level 3, she gives you this spell that has no cooldown and can be used any time in Draenor: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=174909/viv ... l-garrison

Also, I'd like to mention the addon "Rematch." For the longest time I never gave it a chance and instead used PetBattleTeams. Boy was I missing out. This is what my MoP Teams looks like in Rematch: http://i.imgur.com/rCqR8SA.jpg

See all those blue uparrows? Those are slots for leveling pets, and there's a cool pet leveling queue so you never have to think about it. The best part is not only do the teams automatically load when highlight a tamer, but the right leveling pet loads into the slot depending on your "leveling preferences" you can set for each team, which for me is 500 HP and level 22 Minimum for Aki the Chosen. It really is fantastic.

Edit: Also could you, like the 5.4 guide, put potential alts just under the first 3 recommended pets? That way it's easy to see right away that I can use Blossoming Ancient (2,2,2) instead of the Emperor Crab and so on.

Edit 2 - My thoughts on the guide:
WOW that was fast! I just did it in about 23 minutes. Every strategy worked exactly as outlined except Cymre Brightblade. It took me like four tries to get it. During Gyrexle, despite what it says (Early Advantage > Tail Sweep > Tail Sweep), he didn't die on the second tail sweep, or even the third--my P/P Infinite Whelpling did. The only difference is I used the Blossoming Ancient, but maybe tomorrow I'll try the Emperor Crab instead, because it took a lot of turns to get Gryexle down with the Ancient.

Still, very impressive guide! I LOVE guides like this and I wish some day someone could make one for the Celestial Tournament because despite having 3 of the 4 pets from there, I still dislike doing it due to RNG and problems no matter which guide or video I try. :/

[Jerebear]

Edit 2 - My thoughts on the guide:
WOW that was fast! I just did it in about 23 minutes. Every strategy worked exactly as outlined except Cymre Brightblade. It took me like four tries to get it. During Gyrexle, despite what it says (Early Advantage > Tail Sweep > Tail Sweep), he didn't die on the second tail sweep, or even the third--my P/P Infinite Whelpling did. The only difference is I used the Blossoming Ancient, but maybe tomorrow I'll try the Emperor Crab instead, because it took a lot of turns to get Gryexle down with the Ancient.

The strat may have to be modified for the blossoming ancient depending on how you used it. The strat is very specific. You have to kill the latern and then proc the dragonkin racial so when you cast Early Advantage it consumes the dragonkin racial. The next tail sweep forces the mech racial and procs the dragonkin racial so that the 2nd tail sweep has enough damage to kill it. If you don't do it in the right order you won't have the dragonkin racial up to kill the mech before he heals.

P/P emp crab and P/x Infinte Whelp:
R1: Cast Whirlpool
R2: Cast Snap
R3: Cast Snap (Whirlpool lands)
R4: Cast Snap

At this point the Idol will be sub 250 HP (it will take one more snap if you don't have P/P breed emp crab). If you had any crits, the idol will be pushed into Undead round. Either way:

R5: Swap to carry (he'll cast Dark Rebirth regardless)
R6: Swap to crab
R7: Cast Renewing Mists
R8: Cast Snap (this will force into undead racial or drop HP if racial already proc'ed)
R9: Swap to Inf Whelp (Idol will die either from racial expiration or Dark Rebirth damage)

R10: Cast Healing Flame (must be done on first round versus lantern)
R11: Cast Tail Sweep (forces Lantern below 50% health and dragonkin racial)
R12: Cast Tail Sweep (consumes dragonkin racial)
R13: Cast Tail Sweep to kill lantern and proc Dragonking racial

R14: Early Advantage (consumes dragonking racial for massive damage (1600+)
R15: Cast Tail Sweep to force mech racial and proc dragonkin racial
R16: Cast Tail Sweep for the kill


Notice the rounds that the dragonkin racial is proc'ed and consumed. If you use the Blossoming Ancient in a way that prevents that sequence for the Inf Whelp, it won't work the same. This is very specific so that R11-R16 go smoothly.

Note that if you Crit kill the lantern a turn early or you crit on the first proc of Early Advantage, the sequence won't go correctly anymore. It rarely happens, but keep an eye out. I've done this strat a ton of times. It works barring certain crits. None of the abils have damage variation, so the results are repeatable as long as you follow the sequence correctly.

[Jerebear]

This is a mostly for fun Taralune strat:

Hatespark the Tiny (Blast of Hatred, Conflagrate, Flame Thrower)
Azure Whelp (Breath, Arcane Storm, Surge of Power)

R1: Blast of Hatred
R2: Blast of Hatred (double hit so some damage done even with cocoon)
R3: Blast of Hatred (watch out for crit on you here..can hurt the strat)
R4: Flame Thrower
R5: Conflagrate to kill first enemy

Should be at 469 health barring crits. Need at least 295 Health to survive Call LIghtning.

R6: Blast of Hatred (this + Flame Thrower ticks + LS procs = loss of flying racial)
R7: Flame Thrower (slightly more damage than BoH since faster) and die....Select Carry pet
R8: Swap from Carry pet to Azure Whelpling
R9: Arcane Storm (kills 2nd pet)
R10: Surge of Power to kill 3rd pet


So 10 rounds...but needs Hatespark the Tiny. Fun stuff! Maybe not guide worthy, but fun to figure out. Has about a 6.13% chance that a crit will mess it up.