Lets talk Double Counter pets

[Luciandk]

Ive not seen much talk about double counter pets, but I could be interested in seeing what people have found or use:


Dragonkin counter:
Undead takes less damage from dragons and only one Ive seen with humanoid attacks is Scourged Whelpling

Humanoid counter:
Beasts takes less damage from humanoids, and out of the grubs with undead attacks Mr. Grubbs seems to be the overall best one to milk the undead attack.

Undead counter:
Aquatics takes less damage from undead, and from what Ive noticed frogs is those with critter attacks. But with tonguelash requiring high speed to work consistently, Leopard Tree Frog seems the definite choice with its 325 speed.

Magic counter:
Mechanicals take less damage from magic, and the only mech with dragonkin damage is Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling

Critter counter:
Humanoids take less damage from critters, and while theres a few humanoids with beast attacks, I feel Curious Wolvar Pup really stands out as a critter mauler.

Aquatic counter:
Magic pets take less damage from aquatics, and only one with flying damage afaik is Jade Owl

Elemental counter:
Critters take less damage from elemental, and snails in particular have a nasty aquatic attack to hurt elementals. Like a breed 6 Shimmershell Snail

Mechanical counter:
Mechs stand out as having a singular hard counter in elementals that both takes less damage from them as well hurting them with elemental attacks. I am fond of Elementium Geode with its combo of crystal overload and stone rush.

Flying counter:
Dragonkin takes less damage from flyers, and while there is a lot of dragons with magic attacks to hurt flyers. I find that Chrominius stands out with his 1shotting potential from Howl+Surge of Power

Beast Counter:
Fliers take less damage from beasts, while they are hurt by mechanical attacks. Only pet with such a combo is unfortunately the Dragon Kite tcg pet as far I know.


What other pets would you folks think of note for this list? Though I would say it makes a quite good core for any prospective pet battler looking to make solid teams.

[Quintessence]

For an effective counter against Critters, there are a few more in addition to the Curious Wolvar Pup. Flayer Youngling, Kun-Lai Runt, and even Stunted Yeti. I'm not sure which would be the "best", though. I tend to favor Flayer Youngling (even after Reflection became Deflection nerf).

Against Flying, I enjoy using the Sprite Darter Hatchling (life exchange is so much fun) or the Emerald Proto-Whelp when I want a bit more 'pow' lol. A guildmate swears by the Emerald Whelpling instead.

I honestly haven't found a maggot or spider that I like, but then again I haven't gone up against many Humanoid pets (in PVE). Any recommendations for a solid spider?

[Tahsfenz]

Curious wolvar pup rocks critter socks off

[Poofah]

[url=http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=996]Linky[/url] to an old similar thread, though I think the conclusions were basically the same.

Also, petsear.ch has a [url=http://petsear.ch/CounterFinder]neat 'counter-finder' feature[/url]. Instead of just countering beasts or mechanicals, you can choose any pet in the game, and it finds double-counters for that pet.

There are definitely some types that don't really have good counters. Beasts for example only have Dragon Kite, which is really unsatisfactory because its mech attack has a long cooldown, and it's fragile. I usually end up using Darkmoon Tonk or Zeppelin for tamers instead, depending if the beast is last in the lineup or not.

Sometimes specific abilities can trump type advantage, too. Against elementals, I often prefer a rabbit or Anubisath Idol to a snail. Sandstorm is nearly as good as having a type advantage because of elementals' silly passive.

For PvE, I tend to think of double-counters in terms of tamers. Ie, is there a pet that can hard-counter 2 of a tamer's 3 pets? For example, for the spirit tamers:

Water -- Jade Owl, with Thrash/Adrenaline Rush/Lift-Off; the first two pets deal all aquatic damage, and you have flying damage for the fish (plus avoidance for his burst abilities), and beast damage for the critter.
Fire -- Anubisath Idol; humanoid damage for the dragon, and Sandstorm plus Deflection completely negate the elemental's damage (Immolate+Conflag).
Earth -- Darkmoon Rabbit; avoidance and critter racial for all the elemental's stuns in addition to nerfed incoming damage, plus beast damage for the ooze, and he can solo the last pet with his avoidance.
Air -- Soul of the Aspects; their damage is all flying, Claw beats up the moth (critter) while Deflection avoids his stun, and Surge of Light takes a big chunk out of the dragon, especially if you can line it up with your dragonkin passive.

[Luciandk]

Hrm, some interesting thoughts in that older thread. Especially in regards to molten-hatchling. Beast with an undead attack and appearing to have a LOT of longevity with two heal abilities. Gonna catch an S/S one tomorrow and test it out. Intrigued indeed.

[Kpb321]

While not actually a double counter I find that I often prefer a water strider pet to a snail. A snail should be able to beat any elemental, especially when you go Absorb/Shell/Dive, but it can be very time consuming. A strider on the other hand can hit much harder with the water jet/pump combo and can self heal reasonably with healing wave. Strider is much better verses Farmer Nishi for example.

[Poofah]

Molten Hatchling is great, yes. S/S is probably good in certain situations, but I'd aim for something with more power, as Leech Life scales out of control with power versus a humanoid (every point of power gives 0.75 extra points of damage plus 1.5 extra points of healing)

I also like striders vs Nishi, but I like Purple Puffer even better. He's got essentially the same moveset but lots more power (his Pumps are ~1150 damage versus elementals), and you can take Surge to partially negate the speed disadvantage.

[Luciandk]

Molten Hatchling is great, yes. S/S is probably good in certain situations, but I'd aim for something with more power, as Leech Life scales out of control with power versus a humanoid (every point of power gives 0.75 extra points of damage plus 1.5 extra points of healing)

I also like striders vs Nishi, but I like Purple Puffer even better. He's got essentially the same moveset but lots more power (his Pumps are ~1150 damage versus elementals), and you can take Surge to partially negate the speed disadvantage.

Hrm, Im inclined to agree after trying out an S/S Molten Hatchling. Its too fast. Speculating on a breed 4 spider instead.

[Tahsfenz]

There is no p/p molten hatchling I don't think. Best will probably be p/s followed by b/b.

[Luciandk]

I wasnt talking of a molten hatchling explicitly for a breed 4 spider.

[Tahsfenz]

Ah okay, though maybe you were because of its unique move set.

I think there are 2 that have a p/p breed when I looked yesterday. One is the one that only shows up @ night in duskwood and I don't remember the other. Clearly I'm good with names too

[Luciandk]

Theres 3 power breed spiders with same stats and moveset, so its just a question of picking a prefered look.

[GormanGhaste]

Hmm, think I may level Mech Dragon, Sprite Darter, and Feverbite Hatchling next.

[Halbi]

Against humanoids, I prefer the Crystal Spider. I like having the additional stun with the web/leech combo.

[Duroxas]

I find the Emerald Proto-Whelp to be absolutely solid against fliers, but I intend to give Chrominius a shot as soon as I can.