Pet of the Month - Snaplasher

[Liopleurodon]

Be sure to check out this month's [url=https://www.warcraftpets.com/news/snaplasher-pet-of-the-month-april-2017/]feature on the Snaplasher[/url]!

How Do You Use Your Snaplasher?
The [pet]Snaplasher[/pet] isn't the best battler, but it can work in its own niche. It has some decent options for healing, plus roots or stuns for a bit better control of the match, which is quite necessary here.

There are two ways to play a Snaplasher. One is to select [ability]Lash[/ability] and [ability]Plant[/ability]. You can Plant and then sit there, using Lash at your leisure. One important thing to note is, this is not a valid strategy to deal with force swap teams. Although a Planted plant can't swap out, it's only the swaps you'd like to make that matter in this case.

For the other way to build, the Snaplasher will need a buddy with a [ability]Sunlight[/ability] effect to boost [ability]Solar Beam[/ability]. This also boosts the healing from Plant, which you can use through those recovery turns from Solar Beam. Though things may seem tricky with ability cooldowns, because you have to wait out those recovery turns it isn't an issue. This leads to a lot of big burst, so be wary of damage caps from [url=http://www.wowhead.com/pet-ability=1089/boss]Boss buffs[/url] or the Magic family trait.

As always, for Tamer PVE, you'll want to plan your moveset according to their known behavior. Namely, only use [ability]Stun Seed[/ability] if you want your opponent to swap, or you're up against a Critter, because Tamers are programmed to swap their pets when they can't act (and then you won't want to use it anyway, because Critters defend against your best abilities). You'll want to choose [ability]Entangling Roots[/ability] for most PVE encounters.

Due to the nature of recharge abilities, this likely won't be a favorite pet for PVP any time soon. It's just too easy to lock down the Snaplasher and mess with its combos. If you're PVEing and can plan, the Snaplasher can have some good results but without that control over what comes next you're in trouble.

The Snaplasher is similar to several other plant-type Elemental pets, though there aren't any which are identical. You may want to consider the [pet]Ammen Vale Lashling[/pet], [pet]Crimson Lasher[/pet], or [pet]Singing Sunflower[/pet] if you're not getting the drops you need. The Snaplasher only comes in B/B, so there's no real breed consideration.

[Vakeetah]

I find [pet]Snaplasher[/pet] extremely underwhelming in nearly every sense.

In terms of versatility, it is an Elemental with a full Elemental skillset. This alone puts it in a bad spot in terms of finding a niche, as there are plenty of other candidates with similar tools - more so considering Elemental is a type that contains fire, ice, plants, poisons, and whatnot Sure thing, it can CC and heal, but then again, so can others.

Then there's its B/B breed, which makes it neither strong, nor durable, nor fast. Bad stuff, considering [ability]Lash[/ability] requires a speed advantage, which isn't easy to reach with 276 speed (not without external support like [ability]Dazzling Dance[/ability]/[ability]Temporal Anomaly[/ability]). To make things worse, shares slot with [ability]Solar Beam[/ability], which also requires external support. Quite a disadvantage, considering similar pets can at least fall back to things like [ability]Poison Lash[/ability], [ability]Burn[/ability], or other means of "basic" damage moves. Maybe on PvE, if the enemy provides the Sunlight...?

So, we're looking at a pet that will need external support just to be functional, let alone good...

Personally, as cruel as it may sound, I believe the only thing [pet]Snaplasher[/pet] does well is looking beautiful (and is damn good at it, gleaming with pure life energy!) but it should leave battling to others