Did you know??? - pet abilities

[Genome]

While most experienced pet battlers probably know these things, I thought that I would list them for those just getting started. Heck, even some experienced PvP'rs may not know some of these. Please add to these as it helps make more comps viable, and may help alleviate stagnation .

[ability]Sear Magic[/ability] will remove [ability]Minefield[/ability], [ability]Death and Decay[/ability], and [ability]Cyclone[/ability] from the battlefield!

[ability]Focus[/ability] will allow your attacks to hit through [ability]Blinding Poison[/ability]. [ability]Laser[/ability] will as well.

[ability]Wild Magic[/ability] will allow DoT/Multi-hit abilities to deal dmg through [ability]Sandstorm[/ability] / [ability]Shell Shield[/ability]. So will [ability]Black Claw[/ability],[ability]Foreboding Curse[/ability], and [ability]Exposed Wounds[/ability].

[ability]Arcane Storm[/ability] will keep self-stunning moves from applying the stun (i.e. [ability]Ghostly Bite[/ability]).

Abilities like [ability]Ice Barrier[/ability] can be used strategically to the other person's advantage as it blocks two attacks from EITHER team. Basically, I never attack when Ice Barrier is cast by the other player, and either swap to get ready, or heal/defensive prep. This is also very useful as many people who use [pet]Mr. Bigglesworth[/pet] will cast ice Tomb before using the barrier, and if you don't attack, the tomb may be blocked by the barrier!

Abilities like [ability]Surge[/ability] are great against stun-if-user-goes-first types of moves, such as [ability]Horn Attack[/ability] and [ability]Kick[/ability]. If you use the ability and go first, you will avoid the stun.

HoT abilities like [ability]Soothe[/ability] and [ability]Renewing Mists[/ability] can stack, making for some excellent regen.

A few pets can get three ticks of regen from [ability]Plagued Blood[/ability], even without a multi-hit main attack. [pet]Fel Flame[/pet] can do so with [ability]Immolation[/ability], [ability]Scorched Earth[/ability], and [ability]Flame Breath[/ability] (technically he can have four ticks of regen if you include the initial dmg from FB). [pet]Scourged Whelpling[/pet] can do so with [ability]Death and Decay[/ability], plus [ability]Tail Sweep[/ability] if it hits twice (go for the h/h/ breed here). Of course, the potential king of this would be the [ability]Clockwork Gnome[/ability] using [ability]Build Turret[/ability] and [ability]Blitz[/ability].

A few mutli-hit abilities will get a few hits in through [ability]Blinding Poison[/ability], even without hit modifiers. Abilities like [ability]Build Turret[/ability], and [ability]Blessed Hammer[/ability] are a few examples.

All right, let's see some creativity at work!

[Tekulve2012]

You could rename your post 'Did you know - pet abilities'

Great ideas and helpful tips for those who could use a primer...some may appreciate some suggested pets and best breed for PvP along with your info

Well done

[Sibi]

This will be super useful when I finally suck it up and start the pvp battles. *One day*
::bookmarks thread with other pet related things!::

[Sepsis]

[ability]Moth Dust[/ability] can sleep critters, also ignores and doesn't apply resilience. Infuriating when coming up with a team for the Whispering Pandaren Spirit.

[ability]Explode[/ability] bypasses damage reductions like [ability]Shell Shield[/ability] and the -50% damage Bosses have.

[Vek]

Sear Magic type abilities will also remove things like Ice Tomb, Geyser, Whirlpool.

Focus apparently affects how many hits you will make with Triple Snap... or was that only come WoD?

Ice Barrier will also block delayed effects. For example if your opponent has used Spore Shrooms on you. Cast Ice Barrier(or other barriers(prismatic/illusionary, beaver dam)) on the turn Spore Shrooms will go off. It will then block the attack and the debuff disappears.
You can also use Ice Barrier to get out of a minefield. Your opponent uses Minefield. You use Ice Barrier and next turn switch away. The barrier will eat the minefield hit, as long as you opponent has not brought down the barrier in the previous turn.

Flurry. This is one of the few abilities that will keep going and not be stopped fully by bubble/decoy/barrier/blind(?). Truly useful if you are faster.

All %-based attacks will not be affected by any damage reduction or damage buffs. They do a fixed % based damage. Like Explode(40%) or Glowing Toxin(6%). These will do same damage even when in Sandstorm, if you opponent has a Shell Shield, if you have used Howl or Black Claw. They are affected by Sunlight though.

Agony. If you are stuck with only Agony for a couple of turns. Then it is better to cast it once and let it run its course since damage will increase. If you reapply Agony the damage it does starts over and will do the lowest amount of damage each time you apply it.

If you have a low health undead in back line you can switch it in to take a minefield hit and you will still have two turns. Stupid bug I guess.

When a Moth does Cocoon Strike they will count as speed 0. If you know when they are going to use Cocoon Strike or get lucky you can use this to your advantage. For example: Flurry will hit 2-3 times since you are definetly faster than 0. If the Moth is in a cocoon use a two turn move like Lift-Off or Burrow, the Moth will first miss one attack coming out of the cocoon, then it will be faster and not able to hit your pet.

Blood in the Water and Spectral Strike will Always Hit if the criteria of the ability is fulfilled. No matter how blinded you are yourself. Can still be avoided by evade moves of course.

The battlefield is actually three different height levels. Air - Ground - Below Ground, or whatever you will call them. Lift-Off will evade attacks at Ground of Below Ground but can still be hit by other Lift-Off type abilities. Same if you are below ground, like Sons of the Flame/Root, you can still be hit by pets using Burros/Dive.

Swarm of Flies is a very special case ability. It will still hit pets in the Air or Below Ground, and it will hit through barriers and bubbles. But it will not remove stacks from barriers and bubbles.

You can avoid things like Curse of Doom by using Burrow or Lift-Off, on the turn it is about to go off.

Early Advantage will only do it's "double" damage part if the opposing pet still has more health after the first damage inflicted. The second part also will hit through any Blinding Poison etc.

Probably well known but the Unborn Val'kyr will die the true death if it uses Haunt on a pet that just died. Will most likely happen if in a Haunt duel against another Unborn Val'kyr, but will also happen if the pet it was about to Haunt used Explode or Armageddon.

Gravity. Second time you use this ability it will do NO damage...

Poison Fang, while being a beast attack and strong vs critters, leaves a poison DoT that is actually elemental(strong vs mechanicals) damage.

Having sunlight up will make mechanicals come back to life with more health when they use fail-safe.

Edit: Macabre Marionette is also pretty good at getting Plagued Blood hits. Death and Decay and then Bone Barrage.