Solo Squirt strat

[Nixee]

Hello all, I came up with a strat to solo this fight with the following:

-Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling:
Rare, S/S (Only 1 breed available), 1/2/2 (Breath/Thunderbolt/Decoy)
- Leveling pet x2:
min HP: 350-500 (if Beast: 200-350, if Dragonkin: 500-700)

Notes:
- ! Despite it’s identical moveset, Darkmoon Zeppelin will not work because of it’s low speed !
- My current success rate is around 85% over 30+ attempts. But even after horrible RNG you can keep going if you wish. One time I won (and swapped in 2 lowbies) after starting Puzzle with 133hp and having already rezzed. You need very little HP for Puzzle if you're smart about using Decoy/swapping.
- You don't get "extra" XP for leveling 2 pets. Whatever XP you would get for 1 pet is split between the 2. It's just a personal preference if you want to level 1 or 2 at a time.

vs. Deebs:
Round 1: Thunderbolt
Round 2-5: Breath x4 until Deebs dies.

vs. Tyri
Round 6: Decoy
Round 7: Thunderbolt
Round 8-10: Breath x3 until Tyril dies.
* If he isn’t dead on Breath#4, you can forfeit or keep going and pray to the RNG gods.

vs. Puzzle
Round 11: Swap Carry #1 (Puzzle uses Dodge)
Round 12: Swap back to MPD
Round 13: Breath
Round 14: Breath
Round 15: Decoy
Round 16: Swap Carry #2 (Puzzle uses Dodge)
Round 17: Swap back to MPD (MPD dies and rezzes)
Round 18: Thunderbolt

Edit 19/04/15: Changed last few rounds slightly to
A-) Eliminate the risk of Thunderbolt killing Puzzle too early
B-) Eliminate the risk of Puzzle not using Portal if your Thunderbolt in round 7 missed him

[FuxieDK]

Great strat..

There is one small catch though:
If the first Thunderbolt crits on Puzzle, it will kill Puzzle, when you have only had one levelling pet out. That means, ALWAYS swap in the LOWEST carry pet in first, to maximize XP...

[Nixee]

Hey Fuxie thanks for letting me know I've never had that happen to me but I to be safe instead of Thunderbolt on Round 14 you can just Breath until Decoy > Carry#2 > have MPD die and rez when you swap it back > Thunderbolt > Probably wait through Dodge/Portal > Breath 1-2 times and you should still be able to kill him

[Jerebear]

Great strat..

There is one small catch though:
If the first Thunderbolt crits on Puzzle, if will kill Puzzle, when you have only had one levelling pet out. That means, ALWAYS swap in the LOWEST carry pet in first, to maximize XP...

Actually, you should always swap in the carry pet closest to level 10 or 11 as they get more EXP than any other level carry pet. Lowest level does not actually provide highest EXP. It's a hill shaped distribution with 10.5 at the peak.

Ranked highest EXP gains to lowest:
Level 10 & 11
Level 9 & 12
level 8 & 13
level 7 and 14
...
level 2 and 19
level 1 and 20
level 21
level 22
level 23
level 24

more info here:
http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8829

[Warfare]

Thank you all for the strats and the posts much appreciated.

[FuxieDK]

@ Nixee
I spent 50 minutes, using this strat earlier today.. I had 4 of those crits I mentioned..

@ Jerebear
I know about the level 10,5 stuff, etc etc..
I was in a hurry in my car, when I wrote it..
The info I wanted to relat, was that, if you had e.g. a level 24,75 pet swapped in first and then you crit, ypu waste a boat-load of XP, because there isn't a second carry to benefit from the remaining XP..

[Nixee]

Thank you for the info guys,
I think I'll edit the strat then and add the "safe" strat for the last part as an alternative. I'll personally stick with the normal one as its faster and as I was leveling last night like this from 12 am to 4am'ish and didn't have any crits, but I know it can be very frustrating if you get bad RNGs in a row and people might appreciate switching to a safer strat then as a relief. Unfortunately I'm unable to confirm other strats as 100% until Squirt is up again =(

[Iamnotapet]

Clever strat...

Is there some advantage to levelling two pets? I always thought they shared the available experience... is this not correct?

[Jerebear]

Clever strat...

Is there some advantage to levelling two pets? I always thought they shared the available experience... is this not correct?

The only advantage is when levelling two level 24 (sometimes 23...depends on your EXP buffs) so you don't waste a bunch of pet EXP. Levelling two low or mid level carry pets gives no real advantage at all.

They split the EXP in half if the same level. If not the same level, the lower pet gets 1/2 its normal EXP + a little bit more while the higher level pet gets half its expected EXP minus a little bit.

[Nixee]

Edited to make it safer. No advantage XP-wise, I just find mindless spamming on MPD less of a hassle than using 2 pets but that's all it is, just personal prefence.

[Beave]

You get no advantage in experience leveling two pets over one. I just throw a 2nd MPD in my 2nd slot and level one pet. It takes out the RNG due to missed attacks due to darkness and crits. Great approach. I'll be using this today.

Edit: I put in a ghostly skull as my 2nd pet and swap him in after my leveler. He one-shots Puzzle at that point with ghostly bite. 13 rounds repeatedly.