Crow and Gilnean Raven

[Meatloaf80]

Isn't giving a pet mostly always goes first 200 speed and taking 200 power away kinda gonna make them useless now? So now they go first even before they go first and now they hit like a wet noodle?

[Tekulve2018]

Hiya
So, battlepets, like your WoW toons, can be used for pve (wild battles) or pvp.

Today I was in the pvp queue and I came up against some heal teams ..so out came my s/s ravens(×2 with a p/p frostfur rat).
The ravens are now 'unobtainable' but are still on many AHs... sometimes for a steal.

They offer a 357 speed (very top level for any pet used) even after the flying racial is lost. The darkness
dampens the fun for imps, sunflowers, B.Ancients and Broots. The lower power on the speed breed is no biggie since nocturnal strike hits so hard and you get 2 hits with Alpha strike..it hits for plenty.

Speed matters a lot in pet pvp. Note that the Frag. Of Anger owns all flying pets though and is pretty popular in pet pvp since it hard counters the MpD.
Tekulve

[Meatloaf80]

Thanks for the reply and feedback, glad to know they are still useful.

[Tekulve2018]

Happy to help
Another quick note, in pve...the raven was my pet of choice in pandaria.
The Vale of EBlossoms has a gang of eternal striders for leveling pets (and alts if you're bored of questing).
It is fast and those battles match you against 2 healing aquatics nearly every time.

Since then, the crickets near Lucky Yi (cornish rex cat and MPDragonling)) and Squirt day in Draenor's
garrison (bronze whelp +widget) are better choices.
Tekulve

[Gráinne]

My preferred farmer of the aquatics in Vale at Mistfall or beside No-No was always Pterrordax Hatchling, because it can heal itself and go for hours.

[Lolfixheal]

What happened? I saw the blue post about the targeted nerfs, yet for all the talk I can't see any changes to my my SS Raven and PS Crow in game? They are the same as always. So what was all the fuss about that I clearly missed?

[Lordy]

What happened? I saw the blue post about the targeted nerfs, yet for all the talk I can't see any changes to my my SS Raven and PS Crow in game? They are the same as always. So what was all the fuss about that I clearly missed?

The base speed of all the Crow type birds (Including the Dread Hatchling) have all been increased slightly and the base power reduced. This means that your SS Raven who used to have a speed of 325 (Assuming Blue lvl25) now has a speed of 357. The PS Crow who used to have a speed of 289 now has a speed of about 322 I believe. You will also see the power stats have reduced to balance the increase in speed.

Overall this was considered a Nerf by most as the birds were already fast having the flying racial and the drop in power was likely to reduce their effectiveness slightly with the higher speed being of less use to them.

[Lolfixheal]

Thanks for the explanation, I couldn't remember the old stats, so they looked unchanged, makes perfect sense as I can confirm the numbers you provided. Yes that is a huge nerf, personally I've always opted for PP and power on birds for that big first-strike damage when racial is active. Power levels are quite low now. I guess it was QQ from PvP scene who triggered these changes and yet, there are way worse pets in the thousand of pets in the game.

But yeah annoying, if they keep doing this going forward, the time, effort and money put into breed hunting only get revoked night over.

[Rosqo]

You can still get a p/p 325 power darkness bird only crows, gilnean raven and dread raven were changed. This change seems more aimed at getting players to use the newest call Darkness fliers rather than the originals. I think Blizzard prefer their newest models to be used.

[Tekulve2018]

Let's not forget the flying pet racial here...below half health, you'll want a great base speed stat so you attack first.

If you are running a Darkness team it means that if you have 357 base speed like an s/s raven or crow, you can either win a match late game with that hit.or throw down weather before your pet dies which can hinder opp. healing or cause an important miss.

Pet pvp fans will tell you that speed wins. Power is often thwarted because the moves are 'telegraphed' and easy to block, shield, blind or outclass with speed....iron starlettes come to mind. Often a speedy nightshade sproutling or (powerballed) vengeful porcupette can beat 1.5 of your opponent's team. The awesome thing about a foxling or vengeful porc. Is that when they are prepping their speed advantage, they are getting hit..meaning they are simply closer to the time for their racial-beast- advantage.

[Lordy]

Pet pvp fans will tell you that speed wins. Power is often thwarted because the moves are 'telegraphed' and easy to block,

That's true but a little less so in regard to flyers due to the racial. P/P, P/S or even H/P fliers are often preferable to S/S as for half the fight too much extra speed is wasted. The Crow used to be a bit of an exception to this rule as its move set was very hard hitting even at 260 power and a 325 speed was still often good enough to go first even when the racial was lost. With Power tuned down and the additional speed unlikely to actually be of much benefit in most battles its a Nerf for that breed. However For the dread Raven is might actually be a buff as it still boasts a pretty high power and its speed is now just a little over the important 289 mark.

[Rosqo]

Lordy is correct for a flier speed is less important as quite often it will be wasted whilst it is above 50% health. The power of the crow was that it had the hard hitting darkness & nocturnal strike combo at 325 speed. The changes essentially nerfed power for speed that will be wasted is lots of situations.
Be mindful when choosing which pet will be best based on speed as things like undeads, priority move pets, speed buff/debuff, mechanical or fliers won’t always follow this rule.

[Tekulve2018]

Points well taken about speed being wasted in the 1st half of the flying pet's hp.
End game is when speed matters.

Truth be told, I seldom meet many flying pets in the queue... other than darkness ones. If I use one, I will save it as my 3rd as long as my opp. does not use aoe or can force swap me. During the brawler achieve you'd see 3x fliers but it isnt a hugely popular family. Their attacks lack great variety and dont offer super synergy with other top pets imho.

[Rosqo]

Think of it this way if your flier ends up facing a rabbit in the final match up it’s going to be much more beneficial for you to run more power as it’s likely you will be able to kill the rabbit before it takes away your racial. Most of the time speed based pets will loose out to your power flier before it looses its racial this is because speed based pets rely on their speed to land extra attacks or gain additional avoidance.