Alternative to Squirt? Fighting Andurs

[Dementron]

It's Sign of the Critter week, but North America isn't lucky enough to have Squirt up this week. What North America does have right now (as of writing) is the Beasts of Burden world quest in Stormheim.

The quest requires you to beat Andurs and Rydyr, who have one pet each. The quest doesn't end until you've beaten BOTH of them. I've just been challenging Andurs over and over, because his Mini Musken always starts by channeling Niuzao's Charge, making the first turn safe for any carry.

My strategy is simple:
1) Carry pet: any ability or pass
2) Swap to Unborn Val'kyr
3) Haunt, bring in Zandalari Kneebiter
4) Black Claw
5) Hunting Party
6) Hunting Party continues, Mini Musken goes down.

As always with the Haunt/Zandalari strategy, you could probably swap out the Val'kyr for a Ghastly Kid or Wicked Soul, and the Kneebiter for a Zandalari Anklerender or maybe Ikky. A different setup might need an extra attack, like a Curse of Doom.

I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner, and I sincerely hope it never gets nerfed.

[Q8e192]

Thanks for the post. The xp is so-so compared to other tamers (pretty much the same as wild pets) BUT more importantly, you inspired me to create a challenge ... beat Andurs in <=5 rounds with a carry

[Paladance]

As far as I can recall Shipwrecked Captive gives a similar experience, but lasts longer due to a full team and has an annoying AOE.
Nevertheless, it's repeatable aswell, and a weekly not a WQ.
The guides are outdated, so maybe could it encourage someone to give it a try?

One of the pets has to be fast. Maybe a felbat. Maybe a wasp. Or just a swift fox.

[Jerebear]

Generally during sign of the critter week I get a lot of level 1-16 pets, set rematch to ascending with auto sort and I do the MoP/WoD circuit every day. 2 battles gets you from 1-24 with just the safari hat. 1 hour for 17 tamers isn't bad (plus I can usually fit in one more). It's also around 3/4 of a level for sub 110 alts.

As far as I can recall Shipwrecked Captive gives a similar experience, but lasts longer due to a full team and has an annoying AOE.
Nevertheless, it's repeatable aswell, and a weekly not a WQ.
The guides are outdated, so maybe could it encourage someone to give it a try?

One of the pets has to be fast. Maybe a felbat. Maybe a wasp. Or just a swift fox.

Did they buff the shipwrecked captive then? I haven't tested in a few months. Previously it was nerfed to garrison levels (T=0.5).

[Paladance]

Did they buff the shipwrecked captive then? I haven't tested in a few months. Previously it was nerfed to garrison levels (T=0.5).

I think it's still that way, but I compare a trio of pets to a single epic opponent which compensates for the lower T value.
e.g.
930 XP for lvl 22 no hat

but apparently it's more annoying than it's worth it!

[Jerebear]

Just for comparison:

A regular MoP/WoD/Legion 3 pet tamer:
5.0x tamer bonus, 2.5x multipet bonus => 12.5x overall exp bonus

Andurs/Ryder
5.0x tamer bonus, 1.0x multipet bonus => 5.0x overall exp bonus

Shipwrecked Captive
0.5 tamer bonus, 2.5x multipet bonus => 1.25x overall exp bonus

So beasts of burden is about 4x more exp than the shipwrecked captive and faster/easier as well (as paladance indicated).

[Dementron]

Ooh, I hadn't seen the actual math on their XP amounts, good to know. I felt like Andurs with Sign of the Critter gave roughly as much xp as Squirt without it (using treats and the Safari Hat both times), getting a pet to level 22 in three fights (after which I would use level stones), but with faster fights. So, Andurs + Pet Week isn't really comparable to Squirt + Pet Week, but if he happens to be up during Pet Week I think he's worth farming.

[Jerebear]

Ooh, I hadn't seen the actual math on their XP amounts, good to know. I felt like Andurs with Sign of the Critter gave roughly as much xp as Squirt without it (using treats and the Safari Hat both times), getting a pet to level 22 in three fights (after which I would use level stones), but with faster fights. So, Andurs + Pet Week isn't really comparable to Squirt + Pet Week, but if he happens to be up during Pet Week I think he's worth farming.

Yeah, Squirt gives 2.5x more exp than Andurs, so a pet week Andurs is more than a non pet week squirt, but, as you noted, if both are up during pet week, Squirt will win out. Andurs is also faster, so that plays a role in the process. For example, if Andurs takes half as long as squirt then Squirt is realistically only 1.25x more EXP (assuming both are up at the same time). I don't know if it actually takes half as long, but you get the idea I hope.

[GormanGhaste]

I have three Ikkys, so I'll use: 1. carry pet 2. swap to Ikky 3. Black Claw 4. Flock. A crit from the Musken is a bad day for Ikky, but having a Zandalari in the third slot is a good backup.

[Paladance]

Ow! My bad. I was thinking that the WQ was nerfed aswell.

Still, the more alternate options, the better. But that's me, who uses even the minute gains to adjust the experience for using battle-training stones.

It would be helpful if Rematch was able to show where (level + XP bar) a pet would be after a particular encounter. Some hints of a choice, efficiency-wise or BTS-wise, would be also appreciated.

[Paladance]

It seems that this quest is up once again, US/Oceanic servers take a look 5h 15 min later.

[Troutleap]

Fortune smiled on us during the Sign of the Critter, and Andurs and Rydyr were up THREE times! From all the WQs I have stacks of several hundred bandages lying around, so I like to quickly raise level 1 pets with Andurs. My strategy is not very inspired, but it is effective. Also, you can split the XP between two level pets if you like.

Use an Iron Starlette (P/B, H/P, or P/P breed) with Wind-Up, Toxic Smoke, and Explode as your starter pet. The other two can be any pets you'd like to level.
1. Toxic Smoke
2. Wind-Up (charge phase)
3. Toxic Smoke
4. Wind-Up (attack phase)
5. Explode
Iron Starlette and Mini Musken die at the same time, and your other pets split the XP. In and out in five moves with no swaps. The whole fight takes about 50 seconds. Iron Starlettes are pretty cheap on my server's AH, so you can stock up on three and rotate them before healing with bandages. The P/B and H/P breeds are my favorite, as they are the most resilient to crits. P/P also works, but is thrown off if Mini Musken crits on its charge attack.