Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen PvP comps

[Hazal]

I just got my hands on this lovely [pet]Xu-Fu, Cub of Xuen[/pet] this week and I think that it's quite strong for PvP but I haven't made any good comps with it yet. I'd like to use Feed as a selfheal to keep the pet up, but otherwise I'm not sure what to do.
Do any of you forum posters have any suggestions on what comps would be good in PvP
Thanks for reading

[Kpb321]

IMO this pet isn't going to be strong in PvP. The best combo is Prowl then feed but that telegraphs to your opponent what you are trying to do and prowl pretty much ensures that your opponent will be going first. All it takes is a swap, a dodge, etc and your cd's are blow and you heal for nothing. Against Battlemasters etc where you can actually get this combo off it will be really effective but it shouldn't work well against any good pvp opponent.

[Luciandk]

yeah, im kinda inclined to agree, Xu-Fu is an one trick pony. But it is godlike against pve trainers.

[Sellys]

I've been using a breed 5 nether faerie dragon to dodge dots/apply moonlight, my cub of xuen, and a pandaren fire elemental. I found the biggest problem I had was with mechs since they murdered xuen and the dragon didn't do much damage to them. The pandaren fire elemental has magma wave to wash away turrets, flamethrower which is an effective way to make thing burn, and conflag. It's been working pretty well.

One of the things I found was that feed is often better to use without prowl. Sure it doesn't hit as hard, but it will hit more often. Although, you can do stuff like prowl + spirit claws and if it's dodged you still have your prowl buff to use feed next round.

[Poofah]

He's a one trick pony, but it's a heck of a trick. Avoidance moves counter him very effectively due to Prowl forcing him to go last, however not every pet has an avoidance move, and avoidance moves can be baited. It's high risk but extremely high reward, and just the threat of Prowl+Feed puts significant pressure on your opponent. Consider that after you see Xu'Fu Prowl, it's now too late to swap to an avoidance pet: Xu'Fu's free turn will be Feed. So if Xu'Fu is the opponent's active pet, your active pet must have avoidance or some kind of answer for Prowl/Feed. Meanwhile the Xu'Fu player is not really constrained: they can just swap to something else and save Xu'Fu for when the avoidance pet is dead or their cooldown used.

So let's assume that you are well-prepared, and you have one really solid answer for Xu'Fu -- let's say Enchanted Broom (Batter/Sweep/Wind-Up). Now you queue and zone in to see your opponent has Xu'Fu. Do you start with the Broom? You basically have to, because if the opponent chooses Xu'Fu to start then it's already too late to swap to the Broom: Broom will eat 35% of its health and Xu'Fu will happily swap out with no damage.

So suppose that you do start with Broom, and the opponent starts Xu'Fu. This is the best situation you could expect in the circumstances, but it's still not 'good'. Xu'Fu is just going to Feed and backrow himself. And now your Broom is hamstrung by the fact that Xu'Fu is on the bench -- it can't use its best move (Sweep) because once Sweep is on cooldown then Xu'Fu is an active threat again. And it can't die or else Xu'Fu gets to munch one of your non-avoidance pets. So you're going to have to bench the Broom with enough health to deal with Xu'Fu when it comes back. Meanwhile the Xu'Fu player is free to swap in and out and force you to respond.

Basically, if I have Xu'Fu, then I have a lot of options while you have few. I get to dictate the matchups to a large extent because my Xu'Fu makes you constantly worried about having the wrong pet or using up your avoidance move. I get to ask the questions; you are forced to answer.

[Kpb321]

I think that really depends on the popularity of the swap teams after the nurf. If you are still seeing tons of swap teams in pvp then it really isn't going to be very good but you are right that against a team with out a swap or with only a single swap pet you do have to worry about dealing with it.

[Hazal]

I really appreciate all these post from all of you!

[Poofah]

I think that really depends on the popularity of the swap teams after the nurf. If you are still seeing tons of swap teams in pvp then it really isn't going to be very good but you are right that against a team with out a swap or with only a single swap pet you do have to worry about dealing with it.

Death Grip got overnerfed but Gate/Sweep probably didn't get hit hard enough. I suspect imps and brooms will still be prominent. Other than that, a lot of the popular teams don't have good answers for Prowl/Feed. Critters are the best avoidance pets but they're basically extinct due to Direhorns, which also got undernerfed and will still feature. And anyway Xu'Fu doesn't need any fancy tricks against a critter; he can 2-shot them with just Spirit Claw.

The mechs that became popular due to Direhorns will help discourage Xu'Fu, but aside from Zeppelin (not super common) they don't have avoidance. So Xu'Fu will take 2 big hits, chomp them for 1k+ while healing to full, then happily backline himself.

Otherwise, I'm struggling to think of popular pets with good answers. Anubisath is a solid option, but only if he takes Demolish over Crush. Crows could limit the damage: if the crow opens with Darkness+Nocturnal Strike, then Prowl+Feed would be 735 damage + 370 heal (with 20% miss chance). This is obviously better than 1k+1k but it's still a lot for 2 turns.

The other new 5.4 pets and changes are going to shake the metagame up quite a bit though. A bunch of overpowered stuff is just now becoming available, e.g. Jadefire Spirit's stupid Fade, Valk's new Haunt, Xu'Fu, Kovok, etc. It could be quite a mess -- ie, Xu'Fu is obviously not ok by 5.3 standards, but the power level is going up in general, so by 5.4 standards he might be more in line.

[Domie]

I dont think he is as much of a "one trick pony" as people say, he is really powerful, specialy if you have someone else to apply moonlight for him, 500 damage as 100% hit is strong, and his heal isnt wasting a turn, but deals damage at the same turn, and him being a beast just means he can give an even bigger beating.
You shouldnt rely on prowl+feed, prowl should either be used when you know your opponent will be dodging or the like, or you can set up the prowl+feed if your opponenet have a pet out that cant interact with it.