Verified pvp pet battle teams

[Tonid]

Since I'm nearing my 1000 wins (at 920 at the moment), I thought it might be a good idea to share my experiences with a couple of my favorite teams, and if the moderators want to pin this topic -- to make it a topic to share your teams as well.

Here are my teams in order of preference and experience.

1. Whirly whirly AoE
- Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (Breath, Thunderbolt, Decoy)
- Fossilized Hatchling (Bone Bite, Death and Decay, BONESTORM)
- Creepy Crate (Creepy Chomp, Curse of Doom, BONESTORM)

This is by far my favorite and best win-to-loss ratio team, however, the fight takes quite a while due to multi-switches, and long animations (bonestorm in particular). It's very versatile, as not many opponents use critters or frogs. However, I was almost totally nuked once by a single squirrel, so there are cases, when this team is a sure-loss team.

My strategy is to usually open up with MPD, set up Decoy, Thunderbolt, then switch to Crate, put up doom, then Bonestorm -> Hatchling: bonestorm, D&D, back to Crate, bonestorm, back to hatchling, bonestorm, back to MPD, Decoy, Thunderbolt, etc. Rotation varies depending on the opponent, however. If I see a humanoid that's likely to come up first (eg. one of the imps), I start with crate, and doom the opponent immediately. If I see pets with damage reduction, D&D makes no sense. If I see that the opponent may finish with an undead, I make sure to leave one of my undeads alive (since Breath is weak against undead). If the opponent is left with 3 low health pets, Breath is an excellent finisher, since MPD is quite fast (usually faster than most enemies), so it kills off the remaining pets one by one. This team has even proven successful against anti-swap teams, as usually I swap after 2 moves anyhow (so roots don't work much), haven't seen people use Mudslide in pvp more than once or twice, and even tonks with their explosions are not much of a problem. It's not too good however, if your pets get dotted one by one, since they tend to die off quickly then. This team needs some practice to master, but I can recommend it to everyone, as I'd say more than 500 of my battles were won using this one.

2. Let the darkness fall
- Gilnean Raven (balance) (Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
- Crow (speed) (Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
- Dread Hatchling (Shadow Talon, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)

This team would be way better, if all the pets were of the speed breed, but I never bothered to catch more crows during DMF (if I did, the team would be even stronger). The strategy is obvious: use Darkness to counter any other weather effects, lower opponent hit rate, and guarantee your Nocturnal Strike (strong hit). Sometimes it requires swapping (to kill something dangerous fast with 2 nocturnal strikes in a row), sometimes you can just use it with no swapping at all. You have to learn to predict opponent moves with pets which can block attacks, so that you don't waste your nocturnal strikes. Takes some practice, but easier, and much, much faster than my first team. Extra bonus: such popular death adders are helpless, since their blinding spell is useless against nocturnal strike (it still hits, even if you're blinded), and they're weak against flying. I've had one opponent with 2 death adders forfit dozens of times just after seeing my team (after he got beaten badly many times). Obviously this team is bad if you get an opponent with elementals! Elementals ignore darkness, therefore your nocturnal strike has only a 40 percent chance against them! Dragonkin are not much of a problem, since darkness is strong against them (hit with darkness, swap, another darkness, finish off the poor dragon).

3. Stun you round
- Stunted Direhorn
- Pygmy Direhorn
- Direhorn Runt
(all 3: Trihorn Charge, Horn Attack, Primal Cry)

Another quite fast and easy team, but lots depends on RNG here, since it's mostly based on stuns. Not too good if the opponent has flying pets, too (since beasts are weak against them). Mechanicals may cause problems but I've beaten quite a few using stuns. The strategy again is simple. Use Primal Cry to slow down the enemy, so that your Horn Attack hits first and has a 50 percent chance to stun the opponent. Speed and stun are key here. You have to predict opponent moves, so that you don't waste your primal cry if the opponent blocks (e.g. anubisath idols). Worst opponent: three moths, then you're pretty much dead on arrival.

4. Let there be light
- Enchanted Lantern
- Festival Lantern
- Lunar Lantern
(all 3: Beam, Flash, Light)

This is one of my newest additions, especially strong against all-moth teams. Not too good against mechanicals however, then you're pretty much dead on arrival as well. You can swap (Flash -> Light, swap, Flash -> Light, swap etc.) or stay with a single lantern until it dies. Obviously, the strategy is to blind the opponent, hoping they miss their attacks, and finish them off with Light. This team is not good against experienced players who know how and when to swap their pets (if they get blinded, they swap out). Most players however don't do that I noticed (at least here in Europe). The win rate here is not as good as with the other teams, but it's fast and fun to play.

As you noticed, I've mostly used uniform teams with similar/same spells/composition. I prefer them to the approach most players have (3 totally different pets, complex combinations etc.), since it's simply much faster to play with such a team, and it requires less thinking. Sure, the success rate may not be as high, but I'd rather lose a fight or two than win at the cost of healing myself all the time and trying to survive (then the fight lasts three times longer, so it's a waste of time). My approach has been: fast win or fast lose (except for the first team, due to its high success rate), and it seems to have paid off so far, as I only have 80 wins for my title left (I've made it a chore to win 10 fights daily and kept a calendar, so that I knew when I can expect my title to arrive XD).

Would love to hear your experiences with different teams, especially those highly successful (and quick!). Maybe I'll try and fit in some of them before I finish pvp battling (after I get the title), to make this finishing off less boring XD.

[Gulnarr]

I run several different teams, but my favorite is:
Kovok (Poison fang, pheromones, black claw)
Fossilized Hatchling (Bone bite, Ancient blessing, Bonestorm)
Alterac Brew-pup (Bark, Tough n' cuddly, Avalanche)

It's an AoE team with the brew-pup as a finisher and a Kovok to give you more options. Kovok is amazing against teams that rely on an early switch for a combo, like a clone dancer team. I run his health breed, so it's possible for him to get a poison fang + black claw on two different pets before dying, and he may get pheromones off as well. That first pet is almost guaranteed to die if he gets a black claw + poison fang + pheromones hit. Even if they don't switch early, Kovok can usually at least trade with the first pet to come out, if it's something you need dead quickly. The fossilized hatchling comes out next and does his standard bonestorm -> heal -> bone bite until bonestorm is available stratagy. Once he dies, the brew-pup is the finisher. Avalanche is a great AoE move that does its damage split between all remaining enemy pets. There shouldn't be much left by the time the pup comes out , and with the damage reduction from both tough n' cuddly and bark, he should be able to survive until the second avalanche. Not much will live past the second avalanche.

[Shankmcgank]

2. Let the darkness fall
- Gilnean Raven (balance) (Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
- Crow (speed) (Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
- Dread Hatchling (Shadow Talon, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)

Elementals ignore darkness, therefore your nocturnal strike has a 50 percent chance against them! Dragonkin are not much of a problem, since darkness is strong against them (hit with darkness, swap, another darkness, finish off the poor dragon).

One thing I should note...With the debuff from Call Darkness, it's actually only a 40% chance to hit vs. Elemental with Nocturnal Strike.

[Tonid]

One thing I should note...With the debuff from Call Darkness, it's actually only a 40% chance to hit vs. Elemental with Nocturnal Strike.

You're correct, I'll edit the original post if I can ^^

[Se5s]

Lil' Rag - smash, trap, sons
Xufu - claws, moonlight, prowl
Idol - demo, storm, rupture.
basically this team gets there way more than it should. demolish annihilates beasts (when it lands <_>), prowl > moonlight 1 shots crows, magma trap is the biggest random threat in all of pvp pet battling. all 3 have super ultra smash moves that can be used every round. sons of flame is epic and mostly unknown or not thought of as avoidance. prowl > spirit claws 1 shots those pesky dodging rabbits.

Peddlefeet - rapid fire, lovestruck, love potion
Stunted Direhorn - charge, horn, primal cry
Fossilized Hatchling - claw, blessing, bonestorm
i start with peddlefeet to whittle down their entire team. by the time they finally get through his stuns and heals all three of their pets should be at least a quarter hp down, if not a third (especially dragonkin.) depending on the enemy team comp, i'll bring in the hatchling or the direhorn as the situation calls. typically i use the direhorn as a sweeper...if you know direhorns, you know why lol

Chi Chi - quills, wild magic, ethereal
Corefire Imp - burn, immolation, wild magic
Fiendish Imp/Netherspace Abyssal - burn/crush, immolation, gate.
pretty straight forward. it's hilarious when this team wins. it's suuuper silly lol

[Tekulve2012]

I read somewhere on some forum post about this team so all credit to Monori who adds comments below. I've used the trio with excellent results! : (p.s.- I'm well aware these pets are not the easiest to get) ...

P/P breed Blackfuse Bombling- use Armageddon and whatever other 2 you like
Murkalot- Righteous Inspiration (Monori suggests falling murloc too)
S/S Bonkers- dodge -tornado punch (and your fav.1st move-jab is what I like)


Battle tactics
If you face any beasts (hi there DAH) they will get creamed for 1000-1100 dmg when Murk pulls in the Bombling to do his Kamikaze Armaggedon move.... this team was also suggested as a way to snuff out those who start with U.Valk. ..you start with Murkalot and RI... then the fun begins... even if you don't face the Valkyr ..fliers may lose their speed adv. because the buffed Armageddon brings opp. back row pets to near 1/2 hp

If you think your opp. will be using stuns, go with Bonkers to start and try to pick when stun/avoidance will be used .. even if you don't guess right, Bonkers is a fine solo battler and you can still do the R.Inspiration buffed Armag. move later in the battle.

As a humanoid, the s/s Bonkers gets a bit of self heal... has great speed and the dodge move.. tanky ...hits hard and can finish off a lot of wins for you if you start with Murkalot. This is a fast team to use, so that appeals to me. Some may worry about using 2 humanoids on a team ..well the battle is often over quickly enough for that to be a non factor unless they stack 3 awesome humanoid crushers against you. I haven't seen that occur ...it may after you win a bunch in a row so like in all pet pvp, not a bad idea to mix things up with different comps.

Edit This week I got stuck in a sort of pvp loop vs a team of 3 (s/s breed) Death Adders and it was fun blasting them to bits..won 4 in a row against them including them fleeing..once Armageddon hit the adders for a total of 3800 damage (1600crit vs in play adder and 1100 apiece to his back row !) Also, if ending with Murkalot, then note that Murkalot's blessed hammer attack does dmg through the blinding poison attack(usually hits once or twice) So if Death Adders plague you ..voila a team that is the answer, esp. when you dodge or switch-fake their blinding poison
Good luck all

[Monori]

^This is my team!

It's definitely reliant on having Murkalot of course, but the real hero here is Bonkers(S/S) because even if I face a team full of elementals and they barely get nuked by Blackfuse Bombling, Bonkers can usually take the entire team out by himself he is that strong. Very very rarely do I even need to bring Murkalot back into the fight and if I do it's normally to use one move to finish someone off.

One thing I will add is that for Murkalot, I typically always use Falling Murloc as my second ability for the times I get a team where I know using RI early is basically a waste of time(ie 3 elementals) so what I will do is just use that right away and after im stunned(and do 700 damage) I simply swap him out for Bonkers and let him take two or all three pets out. If Bonkers dies, ill usually bring in the Bombling and let him use his other heavy hitting moves and save an unbuffed Armageddon for when he comes back to life and of course murkalot to finish off the last pet which even if that last pet is a full HP pet, RI works on himself if no other pet is alive, so I basically just do RI on myself, next turn I always go first and then I use Falling Murloc for almost 2k damage and its game over

Here is a quick video of it in action vs a normally very difficult team: http://youtu.be/JsYSkq4HeUc

Good luck!

[Taintedone]

I base my experience around my 1700+ pvp wins. By FAR my most successful pet has been my Blossoming Ancient. He can solo most teams he goes against, so I bring other pets that synergize with him well, like a moth to counter aquatics strong against the tree, and whatever other pet I think will go well. I base my teams on the people I battle over a short amount of time. The only downside to the tree is its low damage, so up against healing pets you're in for a long fight, unless you can switch effectively to kill the healer. The best counter to the tree i've found is the Jademist Dancer, because it can change the weather and is super strong against elementals.

[Tuatha]

Semi-retired for the past few months, but i logged on last weekend and this to find my bread and butter team working just fine for 10 wins. The only troubles i had were a murkalot team and a mech dragon team. Still, beat that second team twice after the one loss...

bb Unborn val, speedy rabbit (357) and a ps crow.

The valk starts with haunt unless its a 1800+ health or mech, then lead with cod and haunt rnd 2.

Generally follow withthe rabbit to dodge, attack, burrow. Then pull the valk back out to haunt again.

The crow is situational. Aquatics, flyers who are faster than the rabbit, beasts. He's really the 3rd wheel that brings it all together.

[Worgenbait]

This is the team I've been using almost exclusively the last few weeks, it has a 95% success rate at this point, though it does have weaknesses, which I will cover.

(B/B) Unborn Val'kyr
Stitched Pup
'Lil Bling

I start with the Valk, hit haunt right off, and depending what I am facing, bring out either pet. If it's Stitched, I go Howl, if it's Bling, I usually go Make it Rain then Inflation. What this does is increase the damage for the haunt, and usually the pet dies fast. Switch back to Valk when their pet dies and repeat. Even if they switch, the pet still takes damage from the haunt and you just beat down the new pet they bring in.

Now, for weaknesses. Hardcore heal teams kick my team's butt. Magical Crawdad especially, as undead attacks are weak and wish just... frustrates me. Not all aquatics are bad though, I've downed double-aquatic teams thanks to the Bling, but that Crawdad, especially combined with Blossoming Ancient (third pet I've seen varies, but often a Valk or Sunflower is the third one I've seen), is a no win sitch for my team.

That said, but for that major weakness, it has been a very successful team that slaughters the opposition without even losing one on my end half the time. And Crawdad isn't an end-gamer if that's the only healer, just means you have to time the attacks just right to take it out properly.