7.3 Breed Choices: Argus

[Gráinne]

So now we have the breeds for the Argus wild pets - at least I think we do - and it's time to look at what is available. I'm really quite unsure about several of the choices, so I'd welcome other views!


Antoran Wastes:

[pet]Antoran Bile Larva[/pet]: Nothing much new here. It's a Maggot/Larva, with Diseased Bite in place of the more usual Consume. P/S is still slow, not that it would matter much. Its Krokuun counterpart (see below) comes in H/H, so I'll take H/P here.

[pet]Antoran Bilescourge[/pet]: Generally I like my Fliers to have health, but an S/S Flier with Drain Blood? Just when you thought I was dead, I suck your health! Bwahahaha! Too tempting.


Krokuun:

[pet]Bile Larva[/pet]: Nothing much new here. It's a Maggot/Larva, with Diseased Bite in place of the more usual Consume. You can have any breed, so long as it's H. Its Antoran namesake comes in H/P with identical stats, so I'll file this under H/H.

[pet]Bilescourge[/pet]: I'm never sure about Fliers, so I tend to split the difference with H/P. A Flier that comes in a P/P breed, with Drain Blood, is interesting, though the damage options are not terribly exciting. There is a choice of DoTs, but will they be enough? Its Antoran cousin has the same base stats, and offers an S/S option for that Last Stand effect if your Drain Blood comes back at the right time. I think I'll break with my usual choice, and go for P/P on this one, though with a last sideways look at H/P, and at H/H with [ability]Consume Corpse[/ability] .... oooh that sounds tempting...

[pet]Flickering Argunite[/pet]: No choice here. H/S it is. It's basically an [pet]Elementium Geode[/pet] with a little more health, a bit less speed, and [ability]Surge of Light[/ability] in place of [ability]Elementium Bolt[/ability]. Maybe as part of a [pet]Bone Serpent[/pet] counter? Could be fun in the right circumstances, but I don't see it getting a lot of play.


Mac'Aree:

[pet]Arcane Gorger[/pet] and [pet]Felcrazed Wyrm[/pet]: I take these as a pair, since they are both Magic, and have the same moveset except that [pet]Arcane Gorger[/pet] has [ability]Flurry[/ability] in its first slot where [pet]Felcrazed Wyrm[/pet] has [ability]Fel Immolate[/ability]. That makes the [pet]Arcane Gorger[/pet] choice easy: I want a 325-speed S/S. My slower choice will be between the P/P and H/P [pet]Felcrazed Wyrm[/pet]. Since the species already has slightly high base health, I'll prefer the P/P, with the option between the defensive [ability]Deflection[/ability] and the all-out attack of [ability]Mana Surge[/ability].

[pet]Skyfin Juvenile[/pet]: I can't decide, or see a clear niche for this one. [ability]Wing Buffet[/ability] on a species whose max speed is 273 - what am I doing? As a Flier, I'll get it in near the start, and either [ability]Glowing Toxin[/ability] or [ability]Wild Magic[/ability] followed by [ability]Wild Winds[/ability] or [ability]Slicing Wind[/ability], then swap out? 1627-HP H/S with [ability]Glowing Toxin[/ability], or 1481-HP P/S with [ability]Wild Magic[/ability]?

[pet]Pygmy Marsuul[/pet]: Ah, nice to have some clarity. [ability]Flurry[/ability], [ability]Burrow[/ability], [ability]Crouch[/ability], [ability]Survival[/ability]. We have a Fox with a choice of [ability]Survival[/ability] or [ability]Feign Death[/ability] instead of [ability]Dazzling Dance[/ability]! So I want the S/S. As a side-note, its cousin, the [pet]Orphaned Marsuul[/pet], comes only in H/S, with a respectable 305 speed.

[pet]Warpstalker Hatchling[/pet]/[pet]Warpstalker Runt[/pet]/[pet]Voidstalker Runt[/pet]: in B/B and P/S only. Same moveset, same stats, same breeds. Nothing terribly exciting here: it's a Lizard, with [ability]Blinkstrike[/ability] replacing [ability]Quick Attack[/ability], so you won't be using it unless you specifically want the Blinkstrike. Only B/B and P/S available, so I'll take one of each. (Edited: h/t Peanutty below)

[pet]Void Shardling[/pet]: Comes in lots of breeds, and it's a low-health Magic pet. If I just want to go on all-out attack with [ability]Arcane Storm[/ability] and [ability]Arcane Blast[/ability] I have better options than the 1485/301/260 H/P so I'm thinking the stun chance with [ability]Soulrush[/ability], and [ability]Phase Shift[/ability] when needed. So the 325-speed S/S is is.

[Peanutty]

Bile Larva(s): Since I collect unique skins I had to have a total of 3 out of Bile Larva and Antoran Bile Larva. Fossorial Bile Larva from skinning (P/P only) has the same moveset as well. So I ended up with H/H and H/P for Bile Larva and P/B for Antoran Bile Larva since it's the only one with that option, and as none of the speedier breeds are all that speedy as you noted.

Bilescourge(s): I went with P/P since a pure power breed was available and because the Antoran version with same moveset doesn't have a P/P option. Antoran Bilescourge I went with H/P. Never been overly keen on S/S fliers due to the racial.

Arcane Gorger and Felcrazed Wyrm: I also did S/S Gorger and P/P Felcrazed. Unlike fliers, I do seem to like speedier magic family pets. The S/S is squishy but the racial will help in blunting big hits.

Skyfin Juvenile: I couldn't decide either, but as it has 2 different skins I ended up with P/B and H/S, just to split the difference. The other two Skyfin pets, Docile and Fel-Afflicted, interest me more being H/H and P/P respectively.

Pygmy Marsuul: I also went with S/S, as well as a S/B (2 colors of skin). The moveset favors speed.

Warpstalker/Voidstalker Runt: Basically the same pet in 2 different colors and have the same moves as Warpstalker Hatchling. I split the difference and went with B/B on one, P/S on the other, just to spread the love.

Void Shardling: I also went with S/S to benefit Phase Shift.

[Rosqo]

I pretty much went with these choices too.

The skyfins are a bit odd you're right and the only one that will get a lot of playtime from me is the cageable fel-afflicted which is top t1.

[Gráinne]

Thanks, Peanutty, for pointing out that I had managed to confuse the Warpstalker and Voidstalker into one. I have corrected my post.

[Peanutty]

You're welcome. But let's face it, if you only looked at moves and stats, the two "Runts" really are identical.

[Noel]

Agreed about the Void Shardling; they seem a bit rare on my server though have yet to find an S/S.

[Lolfixheal]

I'm a bit late coming to post to this, but its first now I'm taking up the task of catching these wild pets. Haven't played WoW for some months with Argus patch being quite boring and dull, not to say completed as well early on.

It is hard to find people discussion breeds and there is definitely some choices to be made with this batch of pets. I don't want to stone a pet well knowing its sub-standard breed, so I'd like to do the homework too. It settles my nerves to see that both Gráinne and Peanutty has the same thoughtprocess about the breeds as I have as well. Looking at same moveset, see what options are available, can you snatch a purebreed here, take another purebreed there. What works best with the abilties the pet has and considering the racial too? Can the pet even reach a certain speed plateau to make it worthwhile dumping points into speed?

- I'm going SS and PP on the manawyrms
- double PS on the Runts, in these situation i always opt for the healthdrop to get 289/289
- SS on Voidshardling because phaseshift and trait (115dmg less vs HH variant)
- SS on Marsuul
- I reckon HH and SS on Bilescourge fliers as there isn't really ability to sport the PP beside slot1 cookiecutter.
- Juvenile flyer I'm thinking PS, the speeds 273, but there isn't much saved by dropping lower, then i rather maintain the plateau and pump power. All breeds available are close together in a medicore pool of bad, pick at own leisure :p
- the larvas are easy, they so damn slow so HH the one that can, HP the other, the skinning one being the PP. Covered.

[Drlambda]

For [pet]Skyfin Juvenile[/pet], i'm firmly in the H/S camp by now. The additional staying power seems to be way more important than hitting a bit harder on the P/S, and i think all other breeds aren't worth discussing, because if you want to run a flyer that's slower than [pet]Teroclaw Hatchling[/pet] and [pet]Alpine Foxling[/pet]s with Dance and has a similar moveset, [pet]Fel-Afflicted Skyfin[/pet] is pretty clearly better than a slow Skyfin Juvenile.

I'm pretty much only using Wild Winds / Wild Magic / Wing Buffet. Wild Magic deals a grand total of 7 less damage per hit, Wild Winds is 27 less initial and 5 on the tick. I think that's pretty marginal compared to the 150 hp you get extra, which make it way harder for pets like Rabbits to just bruteforce it under 50%.

For the others, i have pretty much the same thoughts as most of the other posters. I want my [pet]Void Shardling[/pet] to be S/S because i want a versatile and fast magic pet with a [ability]Dodge[/ability] and S/S [pet]Arcane Gorger[/pet] with [ability]Flurry[/ability] is the answer to a question i forgot long ago.

For the flyers, as of right now the reason to run a flyer for me is that it's faster than Teroclaw Hatchling. If it isn't, it has to be pretty damn good to even be considered (see Fel-Afflicted Skyfin.) Thus, while i have many [pet]Bilescourge[/pet] breeds, i don't think i'm gonna use any of them anyway unless the meta shifts a lot.

[Uduwudu]

Hi,

Weird ... I have yet to use many of these pets on any fight, daily or otherwise.

Am I thinking correctly that most of their stats and trickery is really ... just poor in general? I don't see that any of these, so far, is a "major" pet that stands out and we use everyday to make our macaroni and cheese!

[Rosqo]

Hi,

Weird ... I have yet to use many of these pets on any fight, daily or otherwise.

Am I thinking correctly that most of their stats and trickery is really ... just poor in general? I don't see that any of these, so far, is a "major" pet that stands out and we use everyday to make our macaroni and cheese!

You pve right? If you pvp s/s Arcane Gorger, s/s Pygmy marsuul, s/s void shardling, skyfins and Flickering Argunite should all be interesting at least.

[Gráinne]

pet that stands out and we use everyday to make our macaroni and cheese!

Find me a pet that makes mac and cheese for me (at least if it's good mac and cheese) and I will collect that pet!

No, I don't think any of these pets are outstanding battlers, but Blizzard make sure that most of the most powerful pets are cageable. I think this is not a great idea, but that's how they do.

When considering pets you will likely never use in a battle, you simply may not care about breed, and that's OK. But if you have that collector's compulsion to choose a breed for a reason, as I do, it's interesting to think how they would best be used.

[Uduwudu]

...
You pve right? If you pvp s/s Arcane Gorger, s/s Pygmy marsuul, s/s void shardling, skyfins and Flickering Argunite should all be interesting at least.

The Battle ID addon did not update fast enough and I ended up with bad versions of those 3. I'm now updating the Gorger and the Marsuul and then will look for the others and what to get for them. For the most part that was the reason for my kinda taking a backseat to the different types , and now that I can see them, I can clean up what is used/needed.

[Peanutty]

Battle Pet BreedID always updates a few days after a patch, so if you're inclined to consider breeds before picking up pets, you can use WCP instead as it updates immediately. On each pet's profile page click the Battle Info tab, and at the top is the stat calculator that shows all breeds and the stat numbers corresponding for rarity and level. So every new patch I reference the Battle Info to see what breeds are available along with abilities, and then I chose breeds I want. Then I go pet hunting! While in combat I use the stat calculator to capture the breed(s) I selected.

(I already know the comeback is "That's too much work!" but pet battle content is always the first thing I want to work on, so to me it makes more sense to make your breed picks ahead of time and get the right one, than to come back and redo it all later).

When considering pets you will likely never use in a battle, you simply may not care about breed, and that's OK. But if you have that collector's compulsion to choose a breed for a reason, as I do, it's interesting to think how they would best be used.

I admit I haven't used any Argus pets for anything really. I just like nitpicking what I collect because I'm really detail oriented and the breeds I choose are what makes my collection mine.