Pet of the Month - Crow
Posted: August 15th, 2014, 1:18 pm
Many thanks to [profile]Liopleurodon[/profile] for writing the battling portion of our newest feature, [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/news/crow-pet-of-the-month-august-2014/]Pet of the Month[/url]. Here are some additional points on the [pet]Crow[/pet] that she wanted to share!
How Do You Use Your Crow?
First, let's address the raven-shaped elephant in the room. A lot of tamers prefer their [pet]Gilnean Raven[/pet] over Crows. Gilnean Ravens stopped coming in a breed variant other than B/B around patch 5.2. Before that, there were several different breeds available, which were retained by Ravens learned prior to that point. The Ravens are able to be caged and traded so you may still be able to snag that coveted P/S, but you're going to pay through the nose for the privilege.
The Crow is available in all the same breeds that were available to the Ravens, and for the low, low price of free. The Raven does have a few additional moves ([ability]Nevermore[/ability] is a really fun gimmick) but for the tamer who doesn't have deep pockets, a Crow is a really solid option.
The[pet] Dread Hatchling[/pet], obtained in the Warlords of Draenor Collector's Edition, is the only other pet with [ability]Nocturnal Strike[/ability] and Darkness self-synergy. It also has a whopping 337 power at cap, making it the hardest hitting of the 3. However, since it costs actual real-life cash to buy that Collector's Edition, it also hits my wallet the hardest.
My most typical use of the Crow is defeating pets that can heal. Dos-Ryga in particular has huge heals that are made fairly trivial by the heal-stifling [ability]Call Darkness[/ability]. Also, the Crow's Flying damage with the huge hit Nocturnal Strike lays Dos out with ease, since he's a fish and all.
The other unique thing the Crow has going for it is [ability]Murder[/ability]. That double damage debuff is a boon in nearly every single-pet fight. This goes double in fights where your opponent is aquatic, or in fights where your opponent uses a lot of beast damage, like a couple of the players in the Celestial Tournament.
As always with multi-hitting abilities, you need to be wary of teams with shields. I use my Crow to beat Wastewalker Shu's aquatic crab Crusher, but if I forget to adjust my moveset and go in with Murder and [ability]Alpha Strike[/ability] instead of the Darkness and Nocturnal Strike combo plus [ability]Peck[/ability], I'm pretty much toast because of Crusher's shell shield.
In PVP, Crows are one of my favorite vehicles to destroy certain turtle teams. When my draws run heavy on Crawdads or Sunlight flowers, Crows can frequently level the playing field with Call Darkness alone.
Crows are generally good for Blitz-style, win fast/lose fast teams. They lack good defense but make up for it with Darkness and offense that generally hits too hard to be healed through. Crows also make for good team synergy with a number of pets. In particular, the Darkness blind they put up plays really well with a few other partners. The [pet]Pandaren Monk[/pet]'s [ability]Fury Of 1000 Fists[/ability] ability gains a 95% chance to stun when the opponent is blinded, for instance. However, if your opponent is packing, say, a [pet]Death Adder Hatchling[/pet] (and they probably are), they can use your Blind against you, too.
One last tip for the Nocturnal Strike and Darkness combo before I ponder over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. Darkness, a weather effect, increases Nocturnal Strike's accuracy to 100% due to blind. This means that, when facing elemental pets, your chance to hit with Nocturnal Strike remains its typical 50%. Also, because blind merely increases Nocturnal Strike's chance to hit to 100% rather than making it 'always' hit, debuffs which decrease your hit chance will still affect Nocturnal Strike's chance to hit detrimentally. The most frequent (slightly maddening) offender here is that Darkness's blind will decrease that 100% back down to 90%.
Sorry about that. It's rather a downer. But hey, at least we can commiserate in the comments, right?
So, how do you use your Crow?
-[url=http://battlepetroundup.com/]Tamer Liopleurodon[/url]
How Do You Use Your Crow?
First, let's address the raven-shaped elephant in the room. A lot of tamers prefer their [pet]Gilnean Raven[/pet] over Crows. Gilnean Ravens stopped coming in a breed variant other than B/B around patch 5.2. Before that, there were several different breeds available, which were retained by Ravens learned prior to that point. The Ravens are able to be caged and traded so you may still be able to snag that coveted P/S, but you're going to pay through the nose for the privilege.
The Crow is available in all the same breeds that were available to the Ravens, and for the low, low price of free. The Raven does have a few additional moves ([ability]Nevermore[/ability] is a really fun gimmick) but for the tamer who doesn't have deep pockets, a Crow is a really solid option.
The[pet] Dread Hatchling[/pet], obtained in the Warlords of Draenor Collector's Edition, is the only other pet with [ability]Nocturnal Strike[/ability] and Darkness self-synergy. It also has a whopping 337 power at cap, making it the hardest hitting of the 3. However, since it costs actual real-life cash to buy that Collector's Edition, it also hits my wallet the hardest.
My most typical use of the Crow is defeating pets that can heal. Dos-Ryga in particular has huge heals that are made fairly trivial by the heal-stifling [ability]Call Darkness[/ability]. Also, the Crow's Flying damage with the huge hit Nocturnal Strike lays Dos out with ease, since he's a fish and all.
The other unique thing the Crow has going for it is [ability]Murder[/ability]. That double damage debuff is a boon in nearly every single-pet fight. This goes double in fights where your opponent is aquatic, or in fights where your opponent uses a lot of beast damage, like a couple of the players in the Celestial Tournament.
As always with multi-hitting abilities, you need to be wary of teams with shields. I use my Crow to beat Wastewalker Shu's aquatic crab Crusher, but if I forget to adjust my moveset and go in with Murder and [ability]Alpha Strike[/ability] instead of the Darkness and Nocturnal Strike combo plus [ability]Peck[/ability], I'm pretty much toast because of Crusher's shell shield.
In PVP, Crows are one of my favorite vehicles to destroy certain turtle teams. When my draws run heavy on Crawdads or Sunlight flowers, Crows can frequently level the playing field with Call Darkness alone.
Crows are generally good for Blitz-style, win fast/lose fast teams. They lack good defense but make up for it with Darkness and offense that generally hits too hard to be healed through. Crows also make for good team synergy with a number of pets. In particular, the Darkness blind they put up plays really well with a few other partners. The [pet]Pandaren Monk[/pet]'s [ability]Fury Of 1000 Fists[/ability] ability gains a 95% chance to stun when the opponent is blinded, for instance. However, if your opponent is packing, say, a [pet]Death Adder Hatchling[/pet] (and they probably are), they can use your Blind against you, too.
One last tip for the Nocturnal Strike and Darkness combo before I ponder over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. Darkness, a weather effect, increases Nocturnal Strike's accuracy to 100% due to blind. This means that, when facing elemental pets, your chance to hit with Nocturnal Strike remains its typical 50%. Also, because blind merely increases Nocturnal Strike's chance to hit to 100% rather than making it 'always' hit, debuffs which decrease your hit chance will still affect Nocturnal Strike's chance to hit detrimentally. The most frequent (slightly maddening) offender here is that Darkness's blind will decrease that 100% back down to 90%.
Sorry about that. It's rather a downer. But hey, at least we can commiserate in the comments, right?
So, how do you use your Crow?
-[url=http://battlepetroundup.com/]Tamer Liopleurodon[/url]