--- GENERAL PART ---
Flyers are complicated.
Most of the abilities rely on power or speed (or both) so while you consider the health factor, the HP differences between breeds need to be really significant to outweigh the advantages coming from other stats.
Yet, the flying racial -- 50% more speed while having more than a half of the health -- asks for stamina or other means of survivability. (This is why any flyer that can protect or heal themselves is instantly recognised. [pet]Teroclaw[/pet],
almost any moth or [pet]Chi-Chi[/pet] are the examples.)
I'd tell that if there was no penalty for hybrid breeds, a B/B or P/B would be ideal. That isn't the case, so it's up to someone what they deem the most important.
--- END OF GENERAL PART ---
So, on the Crow.
Abilities:
[ability]Peck[/ability]: power.
[ability]Alpha Strike[/ability]: speed. Obvious.
[ability]Squawk[/ability]: speed for a longer debuff, power in a default way but not more.
[ability]Call Darkness[/ability]: Power for a hard hitter is usually good. Health if it's your only pet relying on the weather and you have no elementals either.
[ability]Murder[/ability]: health = speed > power. But with no DoTs or stuff such as [ability]Wild Magic[/ability] this is purely for an epic animation.
[ability]Nocturnal Strike[/ability] = power.
+ background: Back in time it was The One to make [ability]Call Darkness[/ability] + [ability]Nocturnal Strike[/ability] thing but then there came a [pet]Bone Serpent[/pet] and the ancient curse once more has pushed the feathered ones into the oblivion.
Available breeds:
The only "pure" breed is S/S with 325 speed. What is nice if you don't care at all about the racial and just want to spam your main attack, with other stuff treated quite casually. But consider a fact that this isn't the only fast pet that can do that.
P/S. Would be okay, but 289 value for either is like a Guinea pig (neither pigs, nor from Guinea), while the health still is average. Compare with a [pet]Nightwatch Swooper[/pet] that is a completely different P/S.
P/B and B/B is a simpler choice between more power and health, but the 3rd and 4th grade of bonus may be discouraging.
Conclusion (that will be shorter, I promise!):
Sometimes there is no ideal solution, what can make a pet outclassed, but you still can attempt to find a path that is interesting for you.
S/S is good but that speed may seem overbuffed sometimes. This isn't, however, anything you should be afraid about.
P/B is probably slightly better than P/S and B/B but still underbuffed in general.
Congratulations and good luck. (I have an S/S too, a pure fate
)
And yep, Darkmoon Faire seems sinister sometimes. Even the game hosts aren't nice if you try to pay attention about what they say. Not the first haunted carnival, not the last, however, and yet it's still a bit merrier than the rest of the Azeroth. Makes one think how much the world needs to be fought for.
