Anubish Idol

[Jefra]

So with the change to crush making it a 100% hit chance but greatly reduced damage seems to have messed up some of my strats for the pandaren trainers. I still kill them usually had to reset once or twice more than normal but my question is has anyone else subbed out their idol because of this change and if so what pet has you exchanged it out for?

[Klaital]

I only use idol for Aki, and it still worked today even though it took one extra hit to kill her dragon, it was basically same as if crush would have missed once against it, which is still easily doable.

[Jefra]

The one that messes with my plan the most is on seeker zusshi. I would use the idol to protect my level 1 pet and the idol would kill the first two pets and then my perrodax hatchling would kill the last guy. Now my idol gets creamed by the critter pet. I pulled off the win on my third try but looking for a new strategy now.

[Klaital]

I do Zusshi with Spineclaw Crab (p/p) and Chi-Chi (though really about any flier will do in place of Chi-Chi). I start with leveling pet (though it needs to either be critter or be able to survive 3 rounds against the elemental due to the frost nova), but if you want to boost lower level pet you can just start with the crab and have the boosted pet out for 1 round when the crab dies (though you might actually need to purposefully let the crab die as it can occasionally solo it too). With the crab just do rend, blood in the water, then if the elemental isn't dead yet, one more rend should do the job, then against the snail, rend, healing wave, then blood in the water if its off cd, otherwise just kill the snail with rend spam, then against the strider rend, blood in the water, rend will usually kill it, or at least gets it low enough that it dies to the DoT next turn (when it kills the crab with pump). Roughly half the time the crab dies against the snail, if that happens just bring in your boost pet if you didn't start with it, then switch it to your flier, finish off the snail with whatever your basic attack is, and then just zerg the strider down with flying attacks, for example Chi-Chi usually kills it with 3 alpha strikes, though occasionaly it stays alive just barely from that and you need to hit it once more after eating the pump.

[Wolfson]

The only tamer I use Anub for is Burning Pandaren Spirit (I use him to wreck the dragon and deflect the fire spirit's first conflag, then I swap him out, and bring him back in at the end since Stoneskin blocks anything the firefly can do). The only difference I've noticed is that it sometimes does take one extra hit to kill the dragon, although that doesn't pose a problem for me. Pre-patch, it took 3 Crushes to kill the dragon, and I could afford to have Anub miss once (any more and he'd end up too low to deal with the firefly later). Now, it can sometimes take 4 Crushes, but I know it won't take more than that. What drove me nuts before was when I'd get a streak of bad luck and miss 2-3. So basically the change makes me trade an occasional extra turn for the security that I should never have to restart. That's a deal I'm pretty happy with.

[Iibis]

I've personally felt more unsafe with the Idol especially at the Burning Spirit. Simply because 1) Lift off cannot miss, 2) Breath cannot miss and 3) Crush can do many low damage hits in a row. Those facts combined with only the hope that lift-off/breath won't do high-end dmg before I manage to kill the dragon with Idol make the fight not 100% guaranteed to succeed. If Idol survives the dragon with about 200 hp left (can't remember exact amount), it probably won't be enough to survive 2 rounds of Swarm before Stoneskin is up (Swarm ticks will crit for sure at that point). That's why it's bad if it takes 1-2 rounds longer to kill. Maybe using Deflection against Lift-off might help, I used it today, but I also was at the situation that I had to pass because I could've killed the dragon too early, but then after passing a turn Crush hit for the lowest damage possible and the dragon still had 18 hp left. But overall I'd say it went better than without using Deflection against the first dragon.

Still I always prefer to use teams that I'm confident won't fail and I'm not confident about the Burning Spirit team. Maybe there will be some other team that can beat the fight fast & safe.

[Peanutty]

I've personally felt more unsafe with the Idol especially at the Burning Spirit. Simply because 1) Lift off cannot miss, 2) Breath cannot miss and 3) Crush can do many low damage hits in a row. Those facts combined with only the hope that lift-off/breath won't do high-end dmg before I manage to kill the dragon with Idol make the fight not 100% guaranteed to succeed. If Idol survives the dragon with about 200 hp left (can't remember exact amount), it probably won't be enough to survive 2 rounds of Swarm before Stoneskin is up (Swarm ticks will crit for sure at that point). That's why it's bad if it takes 1-2 rounds longer to kill. Maybe using Deflection against Lift-off might help, I used it today, but I also was at the situation that I had to pass because I could've killed the dragon too early, but then after passing a turn Crush hit for the lowest damage possible and the dragon still had 18 hp left. But overall I'd say it went better than without using Deflection against the first dragon.

Still I always prefer to use teams that I'm confident won't fail and I'm not confident about the Burning Spirit team. Maybe there will be some other team that can beat the fight fast & safe.

I still use my Idol on Burning Spirit and it seems to be even better than before. This is the rotation:

Against dragon: Crush, Sandstorm (while he is in air), Deflection. Crush til dead.

Against fire spirit: Deflection if it's up first round, otherwise Sandstorm if up, or Crush if both are down. Continue to Crush or Sandstorm (when it's up). When you have 2 rounds left on the fire dot that he puts on you, use Deflection. Crush/Sandstorm til dead. Repeat with Deflection with 2 rounds left on fire dot if needed.

Against fly: Deflection if it's up first round, otherwise Sandstorm if up, otherwise Crush once. Swap to carry pet for 1 round. Swap in 3rd pet (I use Mana Wyrmling with Feedback, Drain Power and Mana Surge). Drain Power, and then Mana Surge should finish it easily.

[Trece]

I have also noticed Anub is much less effective in the dailies. I haven't subbed him out except for Aki which I use PP Guardling

[Jerebear]

I think the underlying issue here is that the way the hit mechanics work, you will be using the Anub an extra round more often. Before, you only had a 20% (30% under SS) to miss so most of the time, you could Crush through enemies pretty easily (some people's bad luck not withstanding of course). However, it is now a 50% chance (60% under sandstorm) to hit low and for most a single hit low is enough to force another round. However, I've been using the Anub on Aki, Yon, and the Burning spirit to test and so far it hasn't been any harder doing them than it was before.

[Jazeel]

I used the anub on the weekend against 3 different tamers, and apart from maybe taking a turn longer on aki, i found the low hits to be no real issue, certainly superior to the miss 2 times in a row and restart the fight hassle i often had, especially against the burning spirit fight.

[Kel]

Yea, I'm with Jazeel here. I ran the full daily loop where I use Anub and he seemed better than before. No more "MISS/MISS/MISS" and lose crap. I thought the difference was most notable on the Fire Spirit. That stupid dragon didn't mow Anub down now that he doesn't miss so often.

[Aalea]

The one that messes with my plan the most is on seeker zusshi. I would use the idol to protect my level 1 pet and the idol would kill the first two pets and then my perrodax hatchling would kill the last guy. Now my idol gets creamed by the critter pet. I pulled off the win on my third try but looking for a new strategy now.

I use Bonkers for Aki and he always finishes the dragon off in two hits if I leave the alpine fox in for the lightning.

I use the Idol on the Pandaren Fire Spirit and I did notice he took longer than usual to kill the first two pets.

[Rendigar]

Like Peanutty I've altered the strat I am testing against the Burning PS to include Deflection as the 3rd move, however what I've done is make it so if I get a crit on the 1st or 2nd crush I skip a round so the 3rd crush is on the last round of deflection, thus it is available for the conflag on the 1st round vs the burning spirit. Since lift-off does more damage than breathe it works out - unless the idol gets critted himself. You can still eat a conflag if you crit on the 3rd crush, unfortunately, but there's no way to avoid that. Still it has worked consistently the 2 days I've been testing it out.

[Terrorpene15]

Aki is really easy if you use specific pets. I had issues using Aki to level my 3rd pet until I used my Kun-Lai Runt first, have him rampage the first 3 moves, this takes out the first pet, then have him throw in a frost shock(his 2nd skill ice move I think that is its name) and that allows you to get a 2nd move before the runt dies, which = thrash. so you now have aki's 2nd pet to half life, bring in your flayer, he can stun him, then put him away. this leaves a fairly weak third aquatic pet to face off against a 100 percent healthy flayer and your third pet.

as for the idol, I have just changed my rotation a bit on the fire spirit, but I'd argue its far less frustrating now. I was missing far too often before with crush, it may be less damage, but ill take the sure thing any day.

[Finnelis]

For aki, I believe, the strategy involving the clockwork gnome and a breed 4 Zandalari anklerender works especially well and involves a remarkably low amount of turn (even though due to the turrets the turns themselves are slightly longer than usual).

[Guest]

The only tamer I use Anub for is Burning Pandaren Spirit (I use him to wreck the dragon and deflect the fire spirit's first conflag, then I swap him out, and bring him back in at the end since Stoneskin blocks anything the firefly can do).

Burning Spirit can be killed with just a snail. Absorb, Dive and Shell Shield.
Dive to dodge the dragon lift offs
Absorb to heal itself
Shell Shield to prevent the glowfly pets trample

[Jerebear]

The only tamer I use Anub for is Burning Pandaren Spirit (I use him to wreck the dragon and deflect the fire spirit's first conflag, then I swap him out, and bring him back in at the end since Stoneskin blocks anything the firefly can do).

Burning Spirit can be killed with just a snail. Absorb, Dive and Shell Shield.
Dive to dodge the dragon lift offs
Absorb to heal itself
Shell Shield to prevent the glowfly pets trample

Yes, but there is also a question of speed. The Anub + Electrified Razortooth team is faster than a snail based team that manages a carry pet. Makes a different when you are trying to get as many tamers as you can within the 1 hour buff.