WarcraftPets Forum

So, posting in another thread and the thought for this thread came up.

Pick a family and then post, in your opinion, what is the best pet to take against that family.

For example,

Flying

Pet to Take: Sprite Darter Hatchling

Why: It's a dragon so takes less damage from Flyers AND has an avoidance and 2 strong vs flying abilities AND is rare AND has the higher speed rating. It's the perfect pet vs. flyers.

I had this same idea and did some research. Here are some of my findings of pets that have attacks strong against a particular family and are of a family who takes less damage (though this of course isn't foolproof as many pets have several attacks from a different family).

Note this is strictly about damage strengths/advantages, other utility/healing not included because on most families the 'counters' are extremely limited

Aquatic: Jade Owl (Magic with a good bit of flying damage) though it isn't extremely easy to get, Enchanted Broom has a little flying damage as an alternative. I believe uncommon is the only quality for either (pre-battle stones)
Beast: Haven't found one, not sure there is a flyer with mechanical damage.
Critter: Flayer Youngling (humanoid with good beast damage). Curious Wolvar pup has one attack at level 10 as an alternative
Dragonkin: Scourged Whelpling (Undead with one CD and one channeled humanoid damage ability)
Elemental: Any Snail (Not a solid counter, as though it is a critter, its one Aquatic ability is a level 20 with a CD)
Flying: As you mentioned, the Sprite Darter Hatchling is a glaringly strong counter
Humanoid: Maggots or Spiders (Both are beasts with an undead 'life leech' like ability. Not particular strong though)
Magic: Mechanical Pandaren Dragonlilng (mechanical with one spammable dragonkin attack), think it is only uncommon
Mechanical: Most any elemental, as elementals are both strong offensively and defensively against Mechanicals. I prefer the Phoenix hatchling so far.
Undead: Most Toads (Aquatic with good critter damage)

Hope that helps.

Great suggestions! I'll have to try out some of these.

I came to mostly the [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=725&p=5520#p5520]same conclusions[/url], except I prefer Emerald Whelpling to Sprite Darter Hatchling: heals and shields are much more potent when incoming damage is nerfed, and Sprite Darter Hatchling doesn't get to go first against a Flyer so Evanescence is only a 1 turn dodge instead of the usual 2.

I also can't find a Flyer with a mechanical attack, so anti-Beast is the least obvious choice for me: I like Darkmoon Zeppelin for the decoy ability and a choice of burst damage abilities (Explode is 900+ damage against a Beast). I've also been happy with various Moths, and Pterrordex Hatchling is very good with high power and a solid heal.

In practice, a crab or Magical Crawdad is very strong against critters, since they tend to have flurry or stampede as their big damage moves, and Shell Shield subtracts from each hit of those attacks. For the same reason, Jade Owl is rather lackluster against crabs, since his flying attacks are multi-hit and get heavily nerfed by Shell Shield, and the crab is typically doing damage with a Beast attack instead of Aquatic.

Good thoughts! I hadn't seen your thread, but glad to see I had a lot of the same conclusions. In my notes, I have jotted down that several whelps are strong counters as well, just the Sprite Darter was very accessible to me already having a few (and I don't have the emerald whelping, but it'll be pushed up on my 'to-get' list. Thanks!