What are best nukes after pre-patch tuning?

[Logansfury]

Posting this here as well as at blizz's forum, this is HUGE on my mind right now lol

I see a lot of big attacks had dmg reduced, and im really dissapointed howl bomb is gone

How does Chrom's Howl>Surge of Power compare to other nukes now?

Is Murkalot's Righteous Inspiration swapping to any certain pet giving a highest dmg potential hit now?

I recall reading Stonegrinder has been hit really hard by nerf, and Thunderbolt is hitting less hard on all pets now. How did Trunks come out with his AoE?

As far as nuke teams or a replacement for pve Howl Bomb goes, what now is the biggest/are the biggest combo hit/hits in the game?

Thx for reading

[Vakeetah]

[pet]Trunks[/pet] AoE has been nerfed along with [ability]Thunderbolt[/ability] (after all, [ability]Avalanche[/ability] is the same spell at all effects).

While technically not a "nuke", Clawstampede setups remain untouched and extremely powerful ([ability]Black Claw[/ability] + [ability]Hunting Party[/ability], or [ability]Stampede[/ability]).

As for [pet]Chrominius[/pet], he remains about the only pet that can reasonably use [ability]Howl[/ability], due to not having multi-hit skills, and providing the single largest possible hit in [ability]Surge of Power[/ability]. While still powerful, with the loss of Howlbomb combos, it is now behind against [pet]Iron Starlette[/pet]'s [ability]Wind Up[/ability] + [ability]Supercharge combo[/ability], which is slightly slower to set-up but doesn't root you in place.

[Uduwudu]

[pet]Trunks[/pet] AoE has been nerfed along with [ability]Thunderbolt[/ability] (after all, [ability]Avalanche[/ability] is the same spell at all effects).

While technically not a "nuke", Clawstampede setups remain untouched and extremely powerful ([ability]Black Claw[/ability] + [ability]Hunting Party[/ability], or [ability]Stampede[/ability]).

As for [pet]Chrominius[/pet], he remains about the only pet that can reasonably use [ability]Howl[/ability], due to not having multi-hit skills, and providing the single largest possible hit in [ability]Surge of Power[/ability]. While still powerful, with the loss of Howlbomb combos, it is now behind against [pet]Iron Starlette[/pet]'s [ability]Wind Up[/ability] + [ability]Supercharge combo[/ability], which is slightly slower to set-up but doesn't root you in place.

I kinda think that by the time we factor in the Howl nerf by Chrominius, and then realize that he can not do anything for a couple more rounds, and ends up dead, you will probably find that another pet can do better. Starlette is still good, as are many other Mechanicals at this point. I happen to like them and specially the ability "Decoy". Get all 4 of the Zandalari pets (very easy to get!) and level them ... 2 of them are massive with that Claw/Hunting Party and Stampede ability. The other two are useable, but not as great. They do some nice damage.

I still rely on my Dragonkin for most damage, I think. Other than that, Mechanicals ... they are all worth it without fail and having one of each to help substitute means you should have about 20 to 25 Mechanicals at level 25 to make it easier to cope. I do think, however, that we should stop thinking about the 2K and 1500 point hits ... and work other pets ability into the mix. For example, the pet that does 2K, also (usually) takes a lot of damage. Thus a pet that takes little damage and can still dish out a positive amount, would be just as efficient, though not as fast.

The nature of the game, even in PvE or PvP, is that you have to take it down faster and faster so you don't take damage. While this is nice in many cases, it is trivializing the game, and I think that Blizzard is concerned with this attitude, and the ability of of things to happen and players to learn how to play their characters. This, btw, is in contrast to the Shadow Knight characters that EQ used to have, when they PvP'd against a Bard ... that fight could take an hour or more ... and it was tricky at times. But in WoW, it has become quick and faster, and make sure that the mob is down quick, and the bad side of that is that any defensive abilities are completely ignored! Totally ignored.

So, in my book, you still want to know who can nuke better, but I think that you will gain much more appreciation and toughness if you know which pets take the least damage ... no one posts that information! Everyone looks for speed (so your pet goes first) or power (so you hurt more) and the rest is left behind. Making these other abilities more important would help balance the game out some ... and I think that is a good thing.

[Myfurion]

Ghostly bite still has a good amount of damage on the frostwolf ghostpup at 690 / 1035( strong or crit if not on humanoid). It does have a 3 round CD and a stun attached to it, but you can work around that by swapping to something else or compensating by using the weather effect that prevents stuns and roots from being applied, with say a nexus whelp to benefit from the weather by using the mana surge attack for bonus damage. Since it is a dragonling, it will work well against flying types.

I would think that a darkness combo type bird would be dangerous however, as it could deal strong damage and remove the weather, then attack with the nocturnal strike. Crows, Ravens, and Gilnean version, as well as Dread hatchling are the popular ones for those combos however. I do see Junglebeaks from time to time running the heal with the 2 round 50% hit and crit chance buff with nocturnal strike, but that isn't anything to worry about due to the typing advantage.

The whelpling would also be good against terokkar hatchlings that sit in the background without the heal buff, as it would cleave with arcane storm once or twice if you use the whelp as a starting pet.

Be sure to watch out for the undead damage reduction during the dead round, it makes the bite only deal like 517 or so damage if i recall. Even so, if the opponent has a humanoid type that can fight the whelpling, the ghostpup can easily nuke it if you managed to get the weather effect out. The most popular humanoid I see is generally anubisath idol however, and with 1700 health ghostly bite won't one shot, and if you use critter moves on the primary spell it will deal weak damage. The good news is, most anubisath idol users opt for the damage and 25% chance stun move over deflect, so that isn't as big a worry.

Both of these pets would be strong if buffed by the righteous inspiration, as ghostpup could deal upwards of 1380 damage, more if strong / critical, with the ghostly bite. For bird types or humanoids,that damage is devestaing. Plus, the pup would be faster than a dodge move unless they prempted the dodge before the swap. The nexus whelp would either receive a massive boost to one round of mana surge, or the arcane storm can double up and deal good aoe damage. Considering murkalot usually runs a finisher of its own with falling hammer, you could easily reduce the backline pets with this combo to range of ghostly bite and falling hammer, all while preventing the self stun by utilizing the arcane winds effect.

[Logansfury]

Hi Myfurion,

Ive been running the arc winds team with murk, ghostpup and whelpling since Disco turned me onto it, it immediately appealed to me but was fodder for the last meta so I never could use it as much as I wished. If this team has become more viable in the new meta im going to be really happy