sky-bo vs. Darkmoon vs. Clockwork

[Rabbia73]

Just a few comments in passing here.

Okay so you are building your pet base up, and that's great, but in doing this "3 rares of each type", if I understand you correctly, I'd suggest maybe bear this in mind:

Take an example of two you mention - Darkmoon Tonk and the Clockwork Gnome. Both are Mechanicals, obviously, but they are really quite different, in how they PLAY. BOTH are very good, for PVE. But the Tonk is...essentially a flat out 'strike' pet, where you need major damage in a hurry, mainly from slots 2 and 3 - Shock and Awe and Ion Cannon. Clockwork Gnome is more of a 'take down over time' proposition, by comparison (although it can hit really hard in certain circs). You flood the turrets, while repairing as and when necessary (that's a simplification, but it'll do for now). So it's just going to depend on the situation. For example it's no good going for a flat out strike pet if you are left sitting there 'recovering', with a pet still up against you, unless part of the strat is just to let it die, as it is going to. Anyway I don't PVE that much these days, as I've had every pet IN game for a while, so it's just the new ones that come up and levelling those, for me to deal with. The achieves are all done. But from past exeprience I'd say I'd use the Tonk and Clockwork Gnome with about the same frequency - perhaps the Tonk more, but not by much. My point is, it's not quite as simple as 3 (or whatever number) of this and that class of pet - it's more about having a variety of useful abilities and ways to play, across all classes.

In a similar vein, the Darkmoon Zepp is a definite 'must have' for PVE imo, right up the top of any notional list. Anub Idol and Teroclaw are the only ones I can think of right now which might rival it. The Zepp has the (still I think) unique combo of Decoy and Explode, plus a solid slot 1 missile move. So with Decoy, you can swap in a low level pet, attack and get out, without harm. Or do many other advantageous switches, besides. Or just avoid that big move. But with Explode as well, this means the Zepp can do all the work, then when it's just about done, blow itself sky-high, kill off the last pet you are up against in the process, and in comes your lowbie pet, to suck up all the juice (meaning XP), having not had to do anything at all. Pretty damn hard to top that for levelling, which is obviously a huge part of PVE. If I'm doing a run of the Pandaria tamers for levelling purposes, for example, the Zepp is by far my most used pet. This is just how I go about things, and there are other ways to achieve the same end result. A lot swear by the Anub, but I prefer the Zepp as it makes for faster battles (although I do use the Anub on certain fights).

For PVE, make sure you get hold of a PP breed Emerald Proto Whelp. Still one of my favorite PVE pets, and I just love the pet, as a pet. But it is VERY good, regardless, for PVE.

[Gráinne]

It's interesting how we develop different patterns of favoured pets. I never use the Zepp. Well, it's in my strats for Thundering Spirit and Mo'ruk, but other than that, it never comes out of its slot in the roster. I do agree it's a good pet, but I never worked it into my routine. When I was doing wild battles, bandages were hard to come by, and the thought of deliberately suiciding a pet would have seemed insanely wasteful. Pets that died in one battle weren't earning their keep! I generally figure levelling pets 5 and up can take a hit, especially if the Idol's Sandstorm is up to soften any blow. For protecting level 1s, I have a Turkey with Food Coma.

OTOH, I have my own favourite utility pets, like Pterrordax Hatchling, Blighted Squirrel, Stitched Pup, Spawn of Onyxia, that are much less used, but I wouldn't be without because I had them from my early days and learned to use them thoroughly.

I often wonder, if someone went all the way through without reading any of the standard strats we all learned, whether they would come up with entirely different ones. I see Jerebear presenting new strats from time to time, and occasionally I think of working up new ones myself, but I don't really need to battle anymore, and I'm bone-lazy.

I see you've just passed Aki. Congratulations! Now, the Spirit Tamers and the Celestial Tournament lie ahead. You are already well equipped to handle all of Warlords and Legion, except for Family Familiar. At least, when you get your MPD and Starlette maxed. Those two come in amazingly handy in all sorts of places.

I understand the rule of thumb of getting three pets of each family as a starting roster, but I agree with Rabbia that you don't have to take it too literally. Once you have attained the lofty heights of getting a roster that can handle the Celestial Tournament, your attention will naturally turn towards understanding the various niches and functions that different pets in it can fill, if you continue to find challenge in battling.

[Rabbia73]

Well the Irish certainly have their own way of doing things, even more so maybe the women - for one thing one of the nicest accents in the world for mine, also. (My grandmother was Irish).

Anyway I tease, I tease (insert appropriate emoticon here - certainly no offence intended). It might assist people (lol it may not idk) for me to outline my standard levelling run, these days. As background, at this point I have....1077 pets, 827 unique, according to my journal, most of which are levelled. I have every pet which comes from the game itself, except one - the PVP pet from the Olympics years ago - Murkimus (wasn't into pets at the time) - plus these current pets - the PVP Fanatic ones (almost done), Wisdomball, and Knockoff Blingtron. These I'll get for the sake of it, before long. Despite appearances I'm really more interested in the battling than the collecting. So I don't have every one of the Pet Store ones, nor the Refer a Friend ones, nor most of the Blizzcon ones, nor a lot of those via other games (although Graves was a must, which I have of course). The two I will get are Murkalot and Mini Thor (plus w/e others from w/e that game is), for PVP purposes. With the Blizzcon ones - I'll get them IF I think they will be good for PVP, but otherwise no. So as soon as they changed the most recent one for example, I said: 'okay forget that then'. I am a completionist, but just prefer to set some kind of limit, for sanity's sake. I do opt for the Deluxe Editions though, for the pets.

Bear in mind I went through the hard slog quite a while ago now, and it was a hard slog indeed, all that levelling. Thankfully these days it's an easy 'when I can be bothered' exercise, or nothing at all as I obtain multiple Ultimate Stones from multiple chars, from the Pet Week event - have about 10 of these just sitting around, waiting for use at this point. I do enjoy the run though, so sometimes I'll it just do it for the hell of it, and it is SO automatic, I've done it so often. If I still had a heap of pets to level, I'd make good use of Squirt at the Garrison, plus do the run I'm about to outline, to get it done asap.

It's nothing remarkable, but it will level approx.4-5 pets from zero to max. in one run, plus extra. And of course there are the goodies you pick up along the way, including more bandages than you'll use. This takes a bit over an hour - I can never seem to quite get the last guy in, within a pet treat timeframe, which I use when I remember to. During Pet Week, this all skyrockets, obviously - so a great deal more. I may omit some of the names but you should be able to figure out the route regardless.

So:

Shadowmoon Valley - Ashlei
- Tranq Mech Yeti
- zero level pet
- Darkmoon Tonk

Frostfire Ridge - Gargra
- Warbot
- zero level pet
- Cogblade Raptor

(hearth to Summer's Rest)

Vale of Eternal Blossoms - Thundering Pandaren Spirit
- Shimmershell Snail or Mudshell Conch
- Darkmoon Zepp
- zero level pet

Jade Forest - Hyuna (Dawn's Blossom)
- Sunreaver MicroSentry
- Darkmoon Zepp
- zero level pet

Jade Forest - Whispering Pandaren Spirit
- Celestial Dragon
- teen level pet
- Infected Squirrel

Vale of Eternal Blossoms - Aki the Chosen
- Zandalari Anklerender or Kneebiter
- Clockwork Gnome
- teen level pet (or lower)

Dread Wastes - Wastewalker Shu
- Red Cricket (god that pet is good when you can use it)
- teen level pet
- Tranq Mech Yeti

(take Halfhill FP)

Valley of the Four Winds - Farmer Nishi
- Eternal Strider
- teen level pet (or lower)
- Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot

Krasarang Wilds - Mo'Ruk
- Darkmoon Zepp
- Chrominius
- zero level pet (red-lining a bit here as you can't have your Zepp stunned or it's trouble, but still very doable)

Krasarang Wilds - Flowing Pandaren Spirit
- Teroclaw Hatchling
- (the kitchen sink level 25 as the Tero can solo, but ok best a flyer like a Moth, whatever)
- teen level pet

Townlong Steppes - Seeker Zusshi
- Electrified Razortooth
- Darkmoon Zepp
- zero level pet (? - most often it will be a teen)

(pet treat will be over or almost over by now)

Townlong Steppes - Burning Pandaren Spirit
- Anub Idol
- teen level pet (or lower)
- Darkmoon Tonk (not because it's good for this fight particularly, but I'm going to use it on next guy, so fewer swaps)

Kun Lai Summit - Courageous Yon
- Anub Idol
- teen level pet (or lower)
- Darkmoon Tonk

* When I indicate 'teen level pet', this may well be a level 20-something pet, especially in the latter stages, but I mean as a suggested minimum.

** Use FP's when they are close by, so you can switch over teams en route, plus do any thinking needed about which pets you are levelling will be used where, make that critical bathroom visit or whatever.

*** Do this on whichever non 110 alt has Panda flying, so as to gain a decent whack of XP in the process.

**** You may have to polish off one or two to obtain that last smidgen of XP to hit lvl 25, by means of the wild pets close by. No biggie.

Done. Get this down, or whatever route and pet mix you come up with yourself, and ultimately it will just go 'boom, boom, boom...' - you'll be really motoring, no prisoners taken, ruthless. When finished you can sing a quick verse or two of 'Toora-Loora-Looral' to restore yourself, and THEN open up all your goodie bags, including HEAPS of bandages (really, don't worry about them). Hopefully you got a Water Spirit for AH.

[Rabbia73]

Oh no I'm certainly open to change, so would appreciate any input to speed things up. I've made several changes over the years, but you know, you get lazy with this stuff. As I say I'd like to be able to get all the above down in under an hour so I could do it all within the space of one pet treat - as it stands now I come up just short of that.

For most of the above teams, I must admit I can't see how I could make them any faster, as they are pretty fast as is, but as I say I'm open to suggestions, sure.

Maybe one less verse of 'Toora-Loora-Looral' might help...

[Rabbia73]

I appreciate this v much Biscuit, and I can see a few good ideas here just 'on paper' already, kind of thing. This is the Net and you can't see me, but whatever else I might say, (and lol I don't know yet all I'll say as am running a few things through my head), I mean most of all, that it is appreciated.

Interesting you ask about the Infected Squirrel. That team, for that fight, has been that way from the beginning, when I first stumbled into pets. I'd always been a mythic type raider (quite serious without going overboard - still am really but taking a break atm), with no appreciation of pets, when I bought a Lil' Bad Wolf from trade during MoP, just because I like wolves. I had no idea it's not really what I consider a wolf. But in any case the thing was, on top of that it was level 25, so I couldn't even bring it out without getting other pets up. Off I went, from that inauspicious beginning, and by the end of MoP I had every pet you can get from the game itself bar one as I've said. As part of that, I think pets were a lot cheaper then and I was flush from running people through CM's anyway, also nobody in my raiding group cared about pets so had no problem slinging whatever dropped to me - so it didn't take long.

Anyway.

With that team, (and the strat was totally lifted from someone) the idea WAS you could accommodate a level 1 pet, and use Corpse Explosion much like the Zepp uses Explode, with the difference that you had to bring the last guy, the Spirit, down a fair bit lower (around 400 from memory), before doing so. Of course the Spirit is getting a heal constantly, so you had to be careful. So yeah, you take Creeping Fungus, to negate that, plus a bit of extra damage. But no, not Stampede - Diseased Bite hits the Spirit quite hard, or at least hard enough. But it could all be... a bit dicey, I found. carrying a level 1. A lot would depend on how far the Celestial would get, and that would depend on whether it lost a turn or even two, via Moth Dust in the early going. You also have to make sure to anticipate moves like Cocoon (he uses it whenever it's off CD, so not hard), so not to be wasting major damage moves obviously, while at the same time getting your abilities used and then back off CD as early as this would allow. If your Celestial is still up when the Spirit comes in, with enough HP to get even one move off, you can't lose basically. Anyway so I figured I might as well use a teen, as the object was to level pets to max anyway, and I had other tamers for the level 1's, so I did/do that, and didn't/don't use Corpse Explosion any more either. So all up, I was just being lazy and 'adjusted' using the same team as always - never bothered to overhaul it completely. It never fails though, in fairness. Plus I like the bonging sound of Fungus.

I'm going to do a comparison run, and check out your suggestions. As I said I can see some useful stuff there I think. With Ashlei and Gargra though, well...look with Ash, okay of course you can put in two level pets, but then they split the XP, no? I'd just prefer to get the one up, higher. I go Tranq Mech - Lightning Bolt (to change the weather back) then Fist the guy to death, switch to the level pet when Elekk comes in, then out, go to Tonk and then Missile down the 3rd pet, then Shock and Awe then Ion Cannon the Plushie, when it comes back. I think it's fewer moves. With Gargra, I think we'd use about the same number of moves - yours might be one less, I'll check.

In a tear, will report back. Thanks again.