How to use Pandaren Earth Spirit

[Zaelo]

Hey all,
I've recently leveled my Pandaren Earth Spirit to 25, but I am finding it difficult to decide what abilities to give him.
This is what he has:

Slot 1:
- Stone Rush (1 round cooldown): Deals 119 damage and 51 to self.
- Stone Shot (no cooldown): Deals 68 damage.

Slot 2:
- Rupture (3 rounds cooldown): Deals 102 damage and has 25% chance to stun.
- Rock Barrage (2 rounds cooldown): Deals 108 damage + 20 per round for 3 rounds.

Slot 3:
- Crystal Prison (5 rounds cooldown): Stuns target for 1 round.
- Mudslide (3 rounds cooldown): 102 damage + Muddy Terrain for 9 rounds; pets that just entered the battlefield are rooted for 3 rounds.

So yeah, here are my observations / questions:

1) Would you guys choose Rupture (chance to stun) or Rock Barrage (more damage)?
2) Im not sure I appreciate spells like Crystal Prison as much as most do, is it just me or this ability is pretty much useless if you're slower than your opponent? Unless it's to break a multi-round ability that can be broken, you'll just end up wasting a round to make him waste one too... what's the point?
3) If you go Stone Rush + Rupture + Crystal Prison, for maximum chances to stun, you end up having to pass a turn at some point because everything will be on cooldown sooner or later, so that combination, although fun, is probably not the best.

So for those out there using him, what abilities do you give him?

[Poofah]

Rock Barrage has a high miss rate and works out to be fairly mediocre damage. As you say, the stuns are also mediocre due to his 260 speed. The NPC version makes good use of his stuns, but he has 300 speed and it makes a huge difference.

The only use I've found for this guy is a Stone Rush/Rupture/Mudslide setup. It's very good sustained damage but you make literally no decisions due to the cooldowns, and there's no tricks to him at all (you have to go Rupture/Stone Rush/Mudslide/Stone Rush, repeat--you can swap the Rupture and Mudslide, that's the only decision you get). He can be annoying to fight though, because his high damage and decent health means he will take a chunk out of most pets -- and since he's immune to Mudslide, he can swap out and possibly trap you in an unfavorable matchup.

[Frozenpets]

sadly I find it to be a pain to use the earth spirit, grinder, pebble etc. just so many better elemental options

[Zaelo]

Thanks Poofah that was a good analysis!

Are you sure Rock Barrage has a high miss rate though??
I don't see it mentioned in the tooltip, and I haven't been playing with him enough to notice myself

There's gotta be a table somewhere with the hit chance of each ability uh?
I think I saw one somewhere at some point, but can't remember where..

And Frozenpets: there are totally better elemental options out there, but that wasn't the question
I just wanted to discuss how to use this particular one hehe

[Zaelo]

Ooh I found it, it was on wowdb
They indeed list Rock Barrage has having 50% accuracy, that's horrible >.<

Bleh, I like this pet less and less