WoD pet news speculation and datamined

[Quintessence]

Day 14: Deebs, Tyri, Puzzle.



Deebs -

• - Probably best to use a pet that's slower than Deebs, to avoid extra damage from [ability]Blast of Hatred[/ability].
  - Maintains [ability]Weakness[/ability] on your pet while rotating Blast and [ability]Bone Prison[/ability] (when it's off CD).

Tyri -

• - Uses [ability]Call Darkness[/ability] then [ability]Surge of Light[/ability] as his first two moves.

Puzzle -

• - Seems like he always uses [ability]Dodge[/ability] first.

I think a wide variety of teams will be able to defeat this challenge, although they do hit hard and Puzzle having two avoidance moves can present somewhat of a problem if you can't outlast him.

Team that I used: [pet]Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling[/pet] (1,1,2), [pet]Moon Moon[/pet] (S/S 1,1,1), [pet]Infected Squirrel [/pet](P/B 1,2,1)

Moon Moon + Infected Squirrel worked really well together, especially since Tyri's attacks are weak against beasts (and Moon Moon changes the weather to avoid the 100% stun from Surge of Light). Moon Moon generally had enough health left to recast Moon Tears and give the squirrel enough set up to make the most of [ability]Creeping Fungus[/ability]. The debuff from [ability]Coin Toss[/ability] makes it hurt even more so, but thankfully the squirrel can heal every other round.

[Ryken]

Found the Umbrafen Spore pet, you can learn it, but it doesn't appear in your journal. /summonpet umbrafen spore summons it, but its a balloon at the moment ><

http://imgur.com/rbQLql1

[Ryken]

In regards to the spores, I'd be willing to wager they all come from vignettes on mushrooms around the world. Umbrafen spore came from Umbrafen in SMV. Crimson spore likely comes from the red mushroom grove in Gorgrond. Zangar Spore from maybe the northern border of Nagrand... I'm currently swimming around in the Zangar sea, maybe find the Seaborne Spore. No idea where the Brilliant one could come from though.

[El]

Brilliant Spore: Activate "A Strange Mushroom", north-west Spires of Arak immediately south-east of the Apexis Excavation, in the low-lying marshy area on the ground at about half-gnome height. Summons mini-boss called Rotcap. Loot corpse for the pet. Item is learned, but does not appear in the pet journal, so is probably lost for now.

[Ryken]

Nah, it can be summoned by typing /summonpet brilliant spore

This is likely similar to the MoP beta when pets were added before being put in the journal, they'll remain hidden but still learned, and will be shown in the journal once they're given proper models and abilities

[El]

That works. Flying pet. It's currently using a green/gold/orange balloon model.

[Quintessence]

Just as a small update to a previously mentioned menagerie battle: The Beakinator now has the Boss passive.

Everything mentioned before still applies.

He will almost always use Wind-Up and then Heartbroken, or he will stagger Heartbroken one round after the first Wind-Up. Every now and then (rarely) he won't use Heartbroken after Wind-Up at all. The AI seems smart enough to know when your pet can be killed within the next round or not, so it skips the extra (unnecessary) step of using Heartbroken. That's just my impression, though.

At 50% health or less he will lose his flying speed passive (goes from 422 to 281 speed).

The fight is doable with a wide range of pets that deal magic damage. I found avoiding the impact of Wind-Up and not attacking when Beakinator has the Overload buff up helped a lot.

[Quintessence]

Day 21 (It's been a while because there have been repeats for a few days. [url=https://twitter.com/TheCrafticus/status/499205981524729856]According to LeCraft[/url], teams are supposed to appear in a "round-robin" fashion): Jahan, Samm, Archimedes



Battle-wide buff (it affects both the opposing team AND your team): [url=http://wod.wowhead.com/petability=1387]Birds of a Feather[/url]

I found this fight is really, really fun. Big numbers EVERYWHERE, for both you and the other team. For me, it was hilarious to see such large crits.

Some observations:

Jahan

• Uses Arcane Storm first.
• Will sometimes use Tail Sweep before the flying passive disappears (kind of a waste, but it benefits you since your pet won't get hit twice in one round )

Samm

• Will use Rain Dance first (even though he's at full health), UNLESS your pet has less than 25% health he will use Predatory Strike first to finish it off.

Arhcimedes

• Uses Wild Magic first.

Dragonkin with Magic attacks shine in this battle, but magic attacks in general. The team I used: Sprite Darter Hatchling (2,2,1) and Emerald Proto-Whelp (P/P 1,1,2). I didn't use my third pet often at all, but just in case I had a Nether Faerie Dragon (2,1,1).

I'm sure there will be a lot of viable teams/strats though. The birds, while they do and can hit/crit hard, really don't have much in the way of defense. And with the Birds of a Feather passive affecting your team as well, it's entirely possible to burst them down before they get too much of a lead.

With good crit RNG, my Sprite Darter Hatchling can solo the entire team. With bad crit RNG, I need my second (or third) pet.

I don't know if this battle will go live with the battle-wide passive, it almost feels too strong. I could see the bird team having it (maybe a nerfed version, 50% crit is seems overkill) but also giving it to us makes the fight almost trivial.

Like I mentioned earlier, though, it's loads of fun seeing those giant crits flying around.

[Kpb321]

The crit buff should make pets with the new high damage range attacks really strong because crits are always high hits so the 50% buff should eliminate the low hits. Things like Moon Fang, Onyx Bite and Emerald Bite should do really well. The Emerald Proto drake or Emerald Whelping seems like a good option. The flying attacks will be weak against them. Emerald Presence is strong against multi hit attacks and they've got a high damage range magic attack.

[Poofah]

For example [url=http://beta.wowdb.com/pet-abilities/489-mana-surge]Mana Surge[/url] on Nexus Whelp. They even put up Arcane Storm for you.

[Quintessence]

Day 22: [url=http://wod.wowhead.com/npc=79751]Eleanor[/url]



Has the [url=http://wod.wowhead.com/petability=1089]Boss[/url] passive as well as [url=http://wod.wowhead.com/petability=1382]Unnatural Appetite[/url].

There are multiple factors that make this fight tough.

• She always uses [url=http://wod.wowhead.com/petability=1381]Death Blast[/url] first, which is a two round ability that is a guaranteed one shot on your pet if you don't avoid it or shield against it somehow (or if your pet is in the Magic family). She doesn't always use this ability on CD, making it somewhat unpredictable.
• Her passive heal is very potent. Without high damage against her, she will easily heal back up very quickly.
• She uses [ability]Rot[/ability] on your pet if it's not up and her ability isn't on CD. That plus her main attack, [ability]Chomp[/ability], is a nasty combo.
• Eleanor is Undead which means she has a "second life".
• Boss passive and boss-like health pool. 'Nuff said.

These things make this fight on par with [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10079&start=80#p88196]Stitches Jr. before he got nerfed[/url]. One could argue that Eleanor is even harder than Stitches was.

Initially, I spent a few hours trying out other teams of dodgers, burrowers, increased damage do'ers, etc. Rabbits, Squirrels, basically anything that had an avoidance move and did Critter damage. Hell, I even tried using Magic pets to cleanse Rot. A few times I barely squeaked through and Eleanor had a sliver of health left but it was futile.

In the end after hours of attempts and brainstorming, I had to fall back on the the tried and true strat [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10079&start=80#p88218]Poofah recommended[/url] for Stitches.

Consistently won with [pet]Unborn Val'kyr[/pet], [pet]Core Hound Pup[/pet] and a [pet]Gu'chi Swarmling[/pet] (which I rarely used but had as back up just in case).

Curse of Doom, Shadow Slash (to make sure a round goes by so Eleanor will waste Rot on my Valk and not my next pet), Haunt, swap to Core Hound Pup. Howl, Burrow, Scratch until Eleanor dies or pup dies.

I'm leaning towards considering this fight overtuned. I wouldn't be surprised if Eleanor was "nerfed" somewhat prior to release.

[Ravnhawk]

Just thinking about all the new pets makes me drool. Might have to break down and see about getting a beta account if they are still available.

Thanks all for the updates and strats!

Quintessence I love the posts kinda feels like I am fighting the boss as well.

[Poofah]

Has the Boss passive as well as Unnatural Appetite.

Unfortunately boss pets just have a fundamental flaw. They have more power than you, therefore a turn is 'worth' more to them than to you, therefore you must end the fight as fast as possible. Unnatural Appetite just makes every turn even worse for you. Therefore the best strategy is always the fastest most zergiest strat you can think of. And as long as Howl/Stampede interact so strangely with the Boss passive, we will always want to use Howl/Stampede.

When a boss is too easy, we don't need to use Howl/Stampede. But it would be easier if we did.

When a boss is hard, it's beatable with Howl/Stampede, but very few other strats.

In the end after hours of attempts and brainstorming, I had to fall back on the the tried and true strat Poofah recommended for Stitches.

I think this is terrible. There should not be a canned pre-fabricated strat that 'solves' every boss pet before you even see it. I wish they would address the Howl vs Boss issue, and then tone down Stitches/Eleanor: they'd be challenging again, but doable with a broader range of strats. If all they do is nerf the individual bosses, then I can just load up my generic boss pet team and never even look at what the boss does, and I'll still win.

[Dakender]

Have not seen or heard much about Doopy ? ? Anyone else messed with him?

[url=http://s741.photobucket.com/user/Dakender/media/Games%20People%20Play/World%20Of%20Warcraft/WoW%20-%20WoD%20-%20Beta/Doopy01.jpg.html][/url]

[Quintessence]

[url=http://www.wowhead.com/npc=71438]Doopy[/url] is an NPC that already exists in-game (added in patch 5.3.0). Defeating him will reward you with a [url=http://www.wowhead.com/item=97280]Challenge Card[/url] for the Brawler's Guild, but that's it. I imagine that's why not much has been said about him.

[Dakender]

[url=http://www.wowhead.com/npc=71438]Doopy[/url] is an NPC that already exists in-game (added in patch 5.3.0). Defeating him will reward you with a [url=http://www.wowhead.com/item=97280]Challenge Card[/url] for the Brawler's Guild, but that's it. I imagine that's why not much has been said about him.

It just seems he has changed, or maybe it's a combination of all he new buffs/debuffs etc... my normal team got spank'd Maybe it's just an off night

[Dakender]

Not sure if this could be part to get a squid pet or now, but it looks just like Syd the Squid ......... This is some kind of creature that jumps on your head when you get in the area of Lost Veil Anzu, coords of about 65.3, 52.2. There is only one mob in the area Oskiira the Vengeful that you could kill to see if it will evolve, but you can't get very far without it jumping off your head and buff is gone.

When he is on your head it gives 2 diff buffs:
1. Borrowed Thoughts: Damage sealt increased by 20%
2. Amorphic Cognitor: Host to a strange creature. Killing enemies may cause it to evolve. "Consume, interact, explore, EVOLVE!"

Amorphic Cognitor Pic

Buff 1 & 2 Pic

[Quintessence]

Day 24: Quintessence of Light



No Boss passive or any other buff.

I don't think this battle is complete yet. Without any type of passive or buff, this fight's just the same as battling a normal pet except it has high health and hits somewhat hard. That's it. It didn't even really matter in what order the attacks were executed.

In its current state, I won the battle with 3 snails of varying breed. Technically 2 snails since I didn't even need to use the third.

With 2 attacks that are weak against Critters, snails are pretty much the best choice for this fight. At least for now. If devs decide to stick some sort of passive that's strong against Critters, well then there goes my strat lol.

Currently, [ability]Cauterize[/ability] and [ability]Heat Up[/ability] are only mild annoyances. I feel like those two attacks should be more threatening. [ability]Fire Quills[/ability] hits for a decent amount, but against Critters it's not as bad. Quintessence of Light goes from 473 speed to 315 once her Flying passive drops off.

In the end I really think that this encounter is incomplete. There's no point in testing it right now since any results from testing won't be applicable to the end product.

[Grarn]

Did seem very easy, Chrominius with howl and surge of power was all I needed. When I saw the rider hop off I assumed it was a 2 pet battle. Little surprised it wasn't, maybe that's what was missing.

[Flohsakk]

I wanted to avoid too much direct damage abilities (but effective magic ones if necessary), so my team was:

• [pet]Infected Squirrel[/pet] (1,2,2)
• [pet]Jade Oozeling[/pet] (1,1,2) H/H
• [pet]Viscidus Globule[/pet] (1,2,2)

Squirrel bites one time and then you start to apply DoTs to the target: [ability]Creeping Fungus[/ability] -> [ability]Corpse Explosion[/ability] -> (if your undead passive is activated make sure both Dots are there, in extra round I prefer refreshing Fungus, not a a 2nd Explosion) -> [ability]Acidic Goo[/ability] -> [ability]Corrosion[/ability] -> [ability]Ooze Touch[/ability] Spam.

@patf0rd