Family Familiar All-Stars

[Saasan]

I think Blizz really did a good job with the meta achieve this expac. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always had standby favorites for PVE trainer battles. Need a water pet? Purple Puffer! Something tanky? Hello Emerald Proto-Whelp! Fighting a water elite? Chicken swarms! That’s why I’m enjoying the Family Familiar fights: my usual strats don’t work most of the time and now I have to shake things up. It’s got me looking through my collection like never before, and I’ve realized that some families don’t have much variety. Critters, for example. I have over a hundred critters, and I can’t help but feel they are mostly repeats. Fawns, beetles, rats, rabbits, snails.

Anyway, this got me thinking: there must be some “new” must-haves for pet battles that you didn’t use before. Take yesterday against Trapper Jerrun, for instance. I’ve never used Hops in a fight before, and that little dude nearly soloed the whole thing. What pets have stood out for you guys? Has anyone made a list of your repeat successes?

[Lolfixheal]

I do like the concept, also gives 10 seperate achievements to work on. Some trainers are easy and some are more hard. Either way you need to come up with a strategy reliant only on 1 type of pets. Cool idea.

However, I utterly despise the massive gating and severely bad RNG when it comes to completing the achievements on a single toon post-WQ. I would love to spend an evening at 1 trainer running all 10 pet comps through, trial and error. Instead I gotta wait for potentially 1 credit out of 120 necessary every day. At some point its going to slow down aswell because the trainers being offered are no longer needed by your achievements as credits.

Guess I'll have to level an alt to 110, don't turn in WQ unlock and travel around doing my thing :p

[Papazol]

So-so. Pet masters are a bit weaker, what I need for satisfied chalenge.

[Saasan]

Guess I'll have to level an alt to 110, don't turn in WQ unlock and travel around doing my thing :p

^^ I 100% suggestion you do this! It takes me up to an hour and a half to complete a trainer with all ten families (trial and error on my own, unless I get *really* stuck), but even though that gets tiring it's better than waiting gosh-knows-how-many-months for trainers to spawn. I think the most I had done on a trainer was three families (and that was only the one trainer! everyone else was less!) before I learned about the alt trick and got on it. I believe I am now up to at least seven families per trainer. Definitely faster to level an alt versus waiting for all the trainer spawns.

Anywho, my original question: I've thought of three pets that have shined through multiple trainers for me--Spectral Porcupette, Servant of Demidos, and Spawn of G'nathus.

[Quintessence]

I can't really remember any "stand outs" for Family Familiar. (Then again, I haven't been paying close attention.)

I agree, though, this achievement has made me utilize my collection even more so than usual. Lots of old(er) pets getting some battling action! It's been really fun trying out different strats and teams with pets that normally don't get to come out and play.

I've been using the [url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/smart-pet-search/]Smart Pet Search[/url] here on WarcraftPets to create all one family teams. X family that's strong against *blank*. Sometimes the returning results don't work and I have to think even further outside the box, but gives me a good starting point!

[Gráinne]

Like Quintessence, I can't really point at any special stars.

I made a "Basic" team for each family

Basic Aquatic: Two Emperors and a Puddle Terror
Basic Beasts: Anklerender, Spider, Zao
Basic Critters: Rabbit, Snail, Fawn
Basic Dragonkin: 3 Nexus Whelplings
Basic Elemental: P/P Shale Hatchling, Sproutling, PWS
Basic Flying: H/P Bloodbeak, Teroclaw, Pterrordax
Basic Humanoids: S/S Imp, Rotten Little Helper, Idol
Basic Magic: Wisp, Brightpaw, P/P Jade Oozeling
Basic Mechanical: 2 Starlettes and an MPD
Basic Undead: Kid, Bone Serpent, Blighthawk

and those, with a bit of rearranging, easily blew away most of the battles. I would try it once with the Basic team. If I didn't one-shot it, I would see what didn't work, maybe switch in another pet and usually get it the second time.

That, as I say, easily accounted for most of the battles.

Most.

And then there were the tough ones. Some of the Family fights on Merayl and Bredda are just not guaranteed do-able, and I wheeled in some specific pets like [pet]Tiny Blue Carp[/pet], an Aquatic with a strong attack against Flying, and [pet]Lifelike Toad[/pet], a Mech with a heal and a Aquatic attacks, and trust in some RNG.

Pet with avoidance, like Slithershock Elver, MPD, Wisp were necessary on some battles to bypass rounds that would otherwise cause a loss on the spot. My first night against Bredda I did magic last, after bashing my brains to get a 100% strat for Flying, and I was just tired, and I went to XuFu's to suggest my Flying strat, and saw a suggestion at there to try [pet]Spectral Tiger Cub[/pet], and that saved me, because the Blind RNG was beating me bad on Bredda Magic.

I think I would nominate S/S [pet]Fawn[/pet] or P/P [pet]Gleamhoof Fawn[/pet] for MVP. In battles against Beasts, that type-change and heal was an eye-opener.

[Peanutty]

I've done critters, magic so far, and working on aquatic, flying, humanoid and mechanical. Here's some standouts so far:

Critters: fast rabbits! They don't need to be S/S though, I find H/S or S/B to be fast enough. Frostfur Rat was a new standout for me. Most of my battles were won with 3 rabbits or 2 rabbits + Frostfur.

Magic: Syd the Squid was my superstar for this family. S/S Nordrassil Wisp is an old standby for me that I still found good use for in these battles. Harmonious Porcupette was a new standout for me as well, with his massive healing ability.

Aqua: I found myself mostly using crocolisks, various crabs, and the newer frogs (the ones with Bubble, i.e. Mud Jumper). A new standout for me would be S/S Slithershock Elver which is the aquatic version of the speed rabbits. And of course Mr. Pinchy was an old reliable that still stands the test of time.

Flying: Blazing Firehawk and Mechanical Axebeak were "new" standouts to me. Crow/Raven types (Call Darkness + Nocturnal Strike) are old favorites of mine that did well also.

Human: Anubisath Idol is the old reliable. Murkalot has been a lot of fun too but I know fewer people have him.

Mech: Lil Bling and MPD are more old reliables for me. I've barely started mechanical achieve though.

I like that everyone's list is so different, shows you how varied the "teams" are and how well different pets work in these battles.

[Klaital]

Here are the basic teams I have used for each family so far, had to change them some for particularly tricky fights but work for most!

Aquatic:
P/S Mongoose with Gnaw, Survival, Dive
Hydraling with Deep Bite, Lightning Storm, Shell Armor
Spawn of G'nathus with Swallow you whole, Dive, Thunderbolt

Beast:
S/S Death Adder Hatchling with Vicious Fang, Puncture Wound, Blinding Poison
Elder Python with Poison Fang, Huge Fang, Slither
Feline Familiar with Onyx Bite, Stoneskin, Devour

Critter:
Snowshoe Rabbit with Flurry, Dodge, Burrow
Gu'chi Swarmling with Swarm, Chew, Consume
Rapana Whelk with Ooze Touch, Shell Shield, Dive

Dragonkin:
Dream Whelping with Emerald Bite, Emerald Presence, Healing Flame
Onyxian Whelpling with Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Lift-off
P/P Albino Chimaeraling with Tail Sweep, Roar, Lift-off

Elemental:
Droplet of Y'shaarj with Swallow You Whole, Acid Rain, Dreadful Breath
Jademist Dancer with Steam Vent, Acid Rain, Rain Dance
Lil' Ragnaros with Sulfuras Smash, Conflagrate, Flamethrower

[Jerebear]

I've made a lot of use out of the Young Mutant Warturtle. Jab, Smoke Bomb, Pump is my usual setup unless the fight requires something specific. I don't know if he is a superstar, but has been a big help on a lot of my aquatic teams. Just being able to smoke bomb once to avoid something while dishing out pumps has been really useful.

[Sepsis]

I've made use of a [pet]Ghostshell Crab[/pet] at least a couple of times against flyers. Bubble to avoid Lift-Offs and Spirits Spikes to punish them for multiple attacks. Was notably useful against Bredda.