Battle with that pet

[Celya]

Unleash your Terrible Turnip, just don’t try and capture your opponent.

Yeah, when I read this I realised I didn't even know what the other option in slot 1 would be for a Turnip...

The first couple of teams I tried were variations on a [ability]Sunlight[/ability] team. FYI, I hate stall teams, so I'm not sure if I went into those teams with the proper amount of enthusiasm. Paired him with several pets that could benefit from the additional healing: [pet]Ruby Droplet[/pet], that was painfully efficient; [pet]Chi-Chi, Hatchling of Chi-Ji[/pet], that helped Tranquillity a bit; [pet]Blighthawk[/pet], to see if it buffs [ability]Consume Corpse[/ability] (not really sure if it did or not, didn't seem so); [pet]Pandaren Air Spirit[/pet], to buff [ability]Soothing Mists[/ability]. The Turnip himself has a weak team heal or weak self-heal on his second slot, even with Sunlight up neither impressed me much. However, it did seem to help other healer-pets, and it helped to have something that can change [ability]Darkness[/ability] or [ability]Sandstorm[/ability].

Tidal Wave is really weak AoE damage, and after you popped your 2nd and 3rd slot abilities, that's all you have left to spam. I tried a couple of [ability]Cleansing Rain[/ability] teams ([pet]Jademist Dancer[/pet] and [pet]Eternal Strider[/pet]), but it still hit really weak. It seems like [ability]Tidal Wave[/ability] would be good against [pet]Clockwork Gnome[/pet] with his turrets, or minefield pets. Sadly, despite using this pet over several nights, no one on my meta elected to use those pets so I couldn't really test out that theory!

For the last two nights I've been running with [ability]Sons of the Root[/ability]. General strategy went: Pop [ability]Leech Seed[/ability], then go underground for two rounds, then spam [ability]Tidal Wave[/ability] until you can start over again. This was surprisingly effective, and the Turnip showed himself to be a bit more tenacious than I had thought. It helps to time the [ability]Sons of the Root[/ability] a bit, eg go down after you get hit by Immolate but before your opponent drops Conflagrate. The damage is enough to take the edge of flyers and decoys, but likely won't kill anything.

My last team (Dandelion Frolicker/Chi-Chi/Turnip) went 6-1-2, but I think a lot of those were against the same opponent who was either new or trying out a lot of random teams, so I'm not sure if that kind of streak is likely to continue. I probably won't recomment the Turnip for PVP any time soon.

Vek, show me [pet]Bonkers[/pet].

[Vek]

Celya, I didn’t mean to limit you to the Wave attack. Sorry! Just this one time I faced a guy with Weakening Blow and I had a shell, so his other attacks didn’t hurt at all, while the weakening blow left me with 1 health each time. He would have won otherwise.

Bonkers… damn those chest! I really wanted the S/S Bonkers, since speed would make Dodge much more useful, alas tired of the stupid chests. The H/S one I got is sure good enough for PvE content and gets used quite a bit vs dragons. But I would bring out the P/P one for this, preferably with a speed boost.

P/S Arctic Fox Kit and a Blighthawk.

Bonkers crushed a Chrominius and almost took care of a Custodian by itself. If you get a lucky stun you can do even more damage. He also took out a Crawdad quite easily, but this time I got a nice stun. Azure Whelp went down in two hits.

P/P Bonkers do hit really hard and 260 speed is quite enough sometimes. But still found Dazzling Dance useful for being faster than a 273 dragon for example. Bonkers is a solid Humanoid. With dodge, shot at a stun and hard hitting attacks there is little to hold it back. Just keep an eye out for Val’kyrs, but I had the Fox for that. If you are not that into Dodge you can always Go Bonkers for 2 100% crit rounds.

Bonkers just feels solid. The only problem is opening all those chests and when you finally get a Bonkers you get a crappy breed. He just comes in too many breeds. Dammit.

Celya, if you don’t mind levelling a pet I would like you to give Tito a go. Otherwise Gooey Sha-Ling needs some love.

[Celya]

Bonkers… damn those chest!

Yeah, I hear you on that one. My first [pet]Bonkers[/pet] was a P/S, still soloes Yu'la for me every week, but I had to open 13 chests before I found my S/S, so I feel your pain! That was kind of a trick assignment, I use mine for PVP a lot and found him to be really solid, but never seen anyone else on my meta use him.

I would like you to give Tito a go. Otherwise Gooey Sha-Ling needs some love.

I ended up running with both for the past week.

First off, [pet]Tito[/pet]. He has a howling sound effect when summoned or when a battle starts that ended by driving me just a little bit nuts. In his first slot you get a choice between 100% hit chance move [ability]Bite[/ability], and widely RNG-based [ability]Triple Snap[/ability]. For the most part, I ran with Bite, since it's just too sad when Triple Snap hits only once. Second slot is a choice between [ability]Impale[/ability] and [ability]Howl[/ability], third slot gives you either [ability]Buried Treasure[/ability] or [ability]Cyclone[/ability] (cute little Wizard of Oz reference there). I like the mini-mindgame that using Howl gives you: your opponent has to either take a huge hit or lose a turn by swapping out, so I mostly used that. I did have a couple of games where Impale might have given me a useful little bit of extra damage, but those were situational at best.

I had two wildly successful teams with Tito. One was a predictable Clonedancer team, with my S/S [pet]Jademist Dancer[/pet] and P/P or H/H [pet]Emperor Crab[/pet]. The use of Howl adds some interesting move options to this game: if you Cyclone-Howl-Switch, often your opponent will switch in the same turn as you, basically letting you escape the free hit on your (oh-so-fragile) Dancer. A Cleansing Rain-buffed Surge hit a Howled non-elemental opponent for 700 damage in one very close fight.

The second very successful team was Tito paired with [pet]Warbot[/pet] and [pet] Spirit Crab[/pet]. This was one of the most devious teams I've ever come up with in my life, I think - you start with the Warbot, drop [ability]Minefield[/ability], [ability]Missile[/ability] and/or [ability]Extra Plating[/ability] if your opponent's first pet is a Val'kyr, then switch to Tito and Howl. Your opponent then has to choose between taking a Howled hit or letting another pet soak a hardhitting 325 power Minefield. This team wins, a LOT, and its definitely a keeper for me. However, you could probably sub any other Howl-using pet for Tito, so, just like the Clonedancer team, it's not a team that stands or falls by the assigned pet.

Of course, over the course of a week, I had several none-spectacularly-winning teams with Tito, but life's too short to post em all! Ultimately, Tito feels like a supportive pet - he works great in combination with some pets, but doesn't really shine on his own as a standalone strong pet. He feels fragile, having 1319 health without any damage mitigation options.

On to the [pet]Gooey Sha-ling[/pet]. I was busy running different combinations with him at the time he was assigned as an alternative, so I'm really just posting the findings I already made His first slot gives you either 85% hit chance [ability]Seethe[/ability] or [ability]Creeping Ooze[/ability]. Second slot gives you [ability]Call Darkness[/ability] or [ability]Breath of Sorrow[/ability]. Third slot is [ability]Agony[/ability] or [ability]Death and Decay[/ability].

This was a difficult moveset for me to make decisions on - I ran several battles with Creeping Ooze and Agony, only to find that I have nothing to spam when both DoTs are up, so I ended up relying on Seethe instead. Several annoying misses! but then there's no other kind, right? Ultimately, I found 1,1,1 to work best for me.

I had a fun combo going with a P/P [pet]Jade Oozeling[/pet] - you put put up Creeping Ooze then Agony then switch to Oozeling and put up [ability]Acidic Goo[/ability] - suddenly those DoTs are hitting for very hard indeed. However, this combo never won me any matches, it was just fun to play.

I then teamed him with a Val'kyr using [ability]Unholy Ascension[/ability] which was also fairly successful - partly because opponents were playing as if I was going to use [ability]Haunt[/ability].

The nice thing about this pet is that he doesn't miss under his own Darkness effect. He really impressed me against both the [pet]Blossoming Ancient[/pet] and [pet]Ruby Droplet[/pet], by reducing their healing and then hitting really hard (Seethe didn't miss here). Unlike Tito, he feels fairly solid on his own, if not exactly overpowered. I will definitely use him again.

Vek, I camped the Darkmoon Faire Rabbit last night, only for the pet to go to someone else - as usual. Let me live vicariously through your experiences, and take yours out for a spin in the PVP battlefields. If you feel like that pet is too strong for this thread, take your [pet]Darkmoon Turtle[/pet] out instead.

EDIT: typos.

[Vek]

Darkmoon Rabbit is a pretty nice fit in a bleed team. The S/S version comes with the usual dodginess of the other Rabbits. The one thing that separates the Darkmoon version is Huge Sharp Teeth that replaces Flurry. Huge Sharp Teeth damag in itself is pretty low and the bleed only lasts for 4 turns. Upside is that you can switch to a Maul/Blood in the Water pet, downside is that Flurry will be more effective after the first turn since applying the bleed again is not ideal. Noteworthy is that the Teeth are a beast attack and will be more effective vs humanoids than flurry is and the absolute best part is that it is strong vs other critters.

I tried a couple of different bleed teams, but mostly played with Toothy and Curious Wolvar Pup. I won about 75% or so of the battles. The damage output of the Rabbit feels quite weak, and the bleed from the crocs lasts longer. The one huge exception is when I was faced with other critters, mainly another rabbit for two battles. Here the Darkmoon Rabbit truly shined and killed it's non-darkmoon kin with no problem at all.

I also tried the Darkmoon Turtle for about 5 games. Unless facing undead or some elemental that you manage to trap(with grasp) you are not going to get much use from Turtles. To me they feel like one of the weakest pets right now. They all seem to suffer from very low Power coupled with 100% hit attacks that does well below 300 damage. This means you need to face opponents where your attacks are strong. I guess you can do ok vs rabbits as well with Shell, Bite and Headbutt(even though you wont get the stun). Powerball seems a bit out of Place and is only really useful to be fast enough to negate speed-bonus attacks from your opponent, since you don't have any abilities that really benefit from speed yourself. The Turtle just seemed to underpreform in every fight for me.

Celya your new mission is get some use from Lost of Lordaeron.

[Atroposz]

Hi guys!

Ive been furiously studying this post as a complete newbie and just wanted to thank you all for an awesome idea. Not only is it incredibly helpful to read experienced battlers discussing the merits of unusual pets, it's really helping me with understanding team building (and I'll admit I may have swiped a few of your ready-made teams).

My first attempts at PVP battles went... poorly. I've been doing tamers/spirits for so long, I wasnt sure what to do when faced with real thinking people. My first team was an Emerald Proto-Whelp, Emp Crab (both P/P) and something else random I threw in. After all, heal + shield is all that was needed, right? Ha. I managed to eke out a 2 wins vs an adders/valk team by pure luck before a bling/zandi combo ate my face. And then I hit a triple Kun-lai Runt team that stunned me into submission, then ate my face. *Then* I figured out that late at night you face the same few people over and over, and the person with the adders/valk got wise to my newbie 'skills' and brought in a raven. After 2 wins by sheer chance and 4 losses from lack of any clue, I was pretty much done with PVP ... until I found this lovely post (and PvpPetBattles[dot]com) which convinced me to give it another go.

Anyways. I think I've got a fairly decent collection, so if one of you would like to give me a challenge (er.. remedial level, I hope? Like Pet Battles 100?), I'll give it a go. I dont mind leveling anything, but I'd prefer not to blow any upgrade stones unless you notice Im missing something really helpful. Oh, and FTOM.. Fad of the Month?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled experienced battlers

[Regillixavatar]

Anyways. I think I've got a fairly decent collection, so if one of you would like to give me a challenge (er.. remedial level, I hope? Like Pet Battles 100?), I'll give it a go. I dont mind leveling anything, but I'd prefer not to blow any upgrade stones unless you notice Im missing something really helpful. Oh, and FTOM.. Fad of the Month?

First of all welcome to PvP pet battles and to WarcraftPets! I'm actually a new guy in this thread but I figured this would be a good time to jump in. I looked through your collection (love some of the names, lol) and you have a huuuuuge stable of pets to choose from so I highly doubt you'll need to level too many more for PvP teams.

If you read through a lot of PvPPetBattles.com you know that one of his favorite pets (and my personal favorite/avatar) is the H/H spirit crab. This bad boy clocks it at nearly 1900 health and 300 power...add in that he gets 2 free rounds due to his undead racial and he's a real gem.

Since death adders and Jademist dancers are very popular and you are a fairly new PvP battler I highly recommend you use Snap + Surge + Shell shield for his move; surge will let you get a hit in before his blind and you can shield in your blind turn to kill time or just melt an elemental pet's face in before it can heal (not to mention it shuts down attacks that do more dmg when they go first) .

It's up to you what you put in the other slots, but he does very well with an Unborn Val'kyr or Ghostly Skull using Unholy ascension to really amp up his damage. His main weakness are rabbits (since surge isn't as good and they can dodge snap) and and non-critter pets with critter moves.

I suppose this means that I've thrown my hat into the ring as well...be gentle!

P.S. FOTM is flavor of the month, I don't use those pets since I like to win in unique ways! Love live Mech + Undead + Undead

[Celya]

My first attempts at PVP battles went... poorly.

There's a really steep learning curve - as you do more, you perform better, you enjoy it more. I was only really in this for the [pet]Stunted Direhorn[/pet] to begin with, but am actually going on now since it's much more fun now. Welcome to the thread!

Celya your new mission is get some use from Lost of Lordaeron.

I'm going to abandon ship fairly quickly here. I happen to have a H/H rare, which means 1806 health, which I thought might translate into big meat shield. Spoiler alert: it did not. However, my problem was not so much the pet's stats as it was his uninspiring movesets: [ability]Shadow Slash[/ability] vs [ability]Absorb[/ability], [ability]Siphon Life[/ability] vs [ability]Arcane Explosion[/ability], and [ability]Bone Prison[/ability] vs [ability]Curse of Doom[/ability]. I ended up going 2,2,1 for the first set of battles, and 1,1,2 for the second set.

I went with a Moonlight team to start with, [pet]Sprite Darter Hatchling[/pet] and [pet]Sporeling Sprout[/pet], thinking that Moonlight might buff the weak damage from Arcane Explosion as well as the heal from Consume. This turned out to be not only my first team, but my most successful team as well. It won 2 matches out of 4, and in one of those I got matched against a (?new) player who used his raven to use Nocturnal Strike without using Call Darkness first... Arcane Explosion barely dented the opposing teams, though, and since I never got matched against someone I wanted to not switch out, Bone Prison wasn't very useful. I tried several other combos, mostly groups of two pets that work together well with the Lost as a sweeper. In one battle it ate two Blood in the Water's without dying, so that was somewhat impressive, but otherwise I mainly won when the matchups were favorable to me.

Second set of battles: Shadow Slash (90% hit chance) missed a lot, Siphon Life does barely any damage for barely any healing, and there is too many ways for your opponent to avoid Curse of Doom. Lost did well against a lonely Idol spamming missing Demolishes, and also against a Moth whose Moth Dust missed twice in a row. But who wants to rely on a pet who only does well when its opponent misses a lot?

So really, not my favorite pet. I find it hard to work with his abilities, and that's why I'm throwing in the towel here. Maybe someone else can make him work, but I don't think I ever will. I shall retire him, and he shall serve out his last days as my death knight's loyal shadow.

I suppose this means that I've thrown my hat into the ring as well...be gentle!

Welcome to the fun! Most of your level 25 pets are very strong PVP pets already - I don't think anyone needs to go out and prove that a S/S Death Adder Hatchling is viable! I would love to see what you can do with the [pet]Electrified Razortooth[/pet].

[Regillixavatar]

Welcome to the fun! Most of your level 25 pets are very strong PVP pets already - I don't think anyone needs to go out and prove that a S/S Death Adder Hatchling is viable! I would love to see what you can do with the [pet]Electrified Razortooth[/pet].

The irony of my DAH is I tried to use it in my very, very first PVP battles and did terribly with it, mostly because everyone is so used to them. I also have to admit that I have wanted to work the Electrified Razortooth into one of my moonlight teams for a while. The team was Celestial Dragon (Flamethrower, Ancient Blessing, Moonfire), Xu-Fu (Spirit Claws + Feed + Prowl), Electrified Razortooth (Jolt, Paralyzing Shock, Devour/Lightning Shield).

Rip + Blood in the Water is too much setup and not really my style so I wanted the pet to be a little bit of a surprise; rooting a low HP pet with Paralyzing Shock and then finishing it off with Devour for a bonus Moonlight heal. The problem I ran into was a lot of healing moves and a lot of moves on CDfor the Razortooth leaving him to swap or pass...The team actually won a lot but mostly because the other two pets are so darn strong together leaving the Razortooth to either soak big attacks from the enemy or messing up devours >_<.

I eventually clued in and instead starting using it to force matchups that were good for my pets. I ran into an awful lot of Onyxia Whelplings (with a variety of names) and it was always nice to root them and then swapping to the Dragon when they Lift Off. Lightning Shield came through on multi-hit pets that were silly enough to stay, rooted, or just under 260 speed.The #1 use was definitely getting the big hit out with Paralyzing Shock and swapping to a better pet for the match-up until I could get another big zap. I didn't see enough Crow/Raven teams to see if he was any good at taking them down while avoiding nocturnal strikes but it was a really great match-up for the Son of Animus and Menagerie Custodian.


I suppose that means it is my turn to challenge you Celya! I had a very hard time finding a pet that hasn't been picked in a while but I think you should give Twilight Fiendling a chance, especially since they puffed Adrenal Glands since the last time it was used in this thread.

[Celya]

I had a very hard time finding a pet that hasn't been picked in a while but I think you should give Twilight Fiendling a chance, especially since they puffed Adrenal Glands since the last time it was used in this thread.

I think when a thread has run this long it's okay to have the same pet more than once, since different people have different approaches. Maybe not give the same pet to the same person twice, though

I ended up having some fun with the [pet]Twilight Fiendling[/pet]. The timing for this assignment was really good, since I went out to find a new one to replace my crappy S/B breed after [ability]Adrenal Glands[/ability] got buffed, but haven't played with it much yet. My new one is a P/P, which means a whopping 341 power with only 1319 health. I had briefly considered a H/P, which has a still acceptable power of 305 but with some more survivability built in with his 1465 health - but the P/P was the first rare I found, so I just went with that.

Ability-wise I went with [ability]Creepy Chomp[/ability], [ability]Leap[/ability] and [ability]Adrenal Glands[/ability] for the first couple of fights. Found myself not using Leap, ever, so I switched out to use [ability]Creeping Ooze[/ability] instead. I ignored [ability]Siphon Life[/ability], since I tried it out a lot with my previous pet and didn't like it much.

My first team had some thought behind it. I wanted to increase the Fiendling's survivability, so I opted to take a [ability]Celestial Blessing[/ability] pet as mate. I chose [pet]Yu'la, broodling of Yu'lon[/pet], since she has the anti-flyer attack in the first slot and [ability]Life Exchange[/ability] which is a magic ability that should be buffed by my third pet, the [pet]Celestial Dragon[/pet], with [ability]Moonfire[/ability] and [ability]Ancient Blessing[/ability]. Two dragonkin leaving you weak to humans? Not a problem, since the Fiendling's main attack is strong against humanoids.

In practice this team went okay but not great. It won slightly more often than it lost, and the losses were mostly close ones. I felt like Yu'la was being the weak link, so I replaced her with the [pet]Harmonious Porcupette[/pet]. He seemed a bit of a one-trick pony, not adding much to the fight apart from the Blessing.

After that, I started seeing a lot of dragonkin and elementals with anti-magic attacks, so I started making random teams, trying to get a feel for the Fiendling just by combining him with other nice pets. Some highlights: took out a Corefire Imp in two bites and a Dread Hatchling in three, soaked a minefield with Celestial Blessing which ended up doing about 300 damage (I almost felt sorry for my opponent there), ate many Burrows and Lift-off's and Nocturnal Strikes when I couldn't avoid them, and dealt many a hardhitting blow to annoying opponents.

Downside: extremely weak against pets with multiple attacks and/or DoTs (looking at you, Lightning team with the turrets!). Dies fairly easy when playing without the Celestial Blessing and/or extra health from Ancient Blessing.

All in all: solid pet, but not strong enough to carry other pets unless matched up really well.

Regillixavatar, I had an opponent today who played really badly with his [pet]Core Hound Pup[/pet]. Maybe you can make it work better?

Vek, I noticed you got skipped with a pet assignment last time round. If you're not yet bored with the thread, and haven't assigned yourself a pet yet, try to perform some tricks with your [pet]Tideskipper[/pet].

[Tekulve2012]

Hey guys ... Sorry to butt in and interrupt the flow but I have to compliment you on what you're doing here ... It's the best pet battles thread I've ever seen for PvP ...much appreciate your work and detailed commentary!

[Vek]

Not bored at all, just been swamped at work. Not much play time lately. Nice to see some new blood joining in, welcome!

Tidskipper is a very unique Aquatic pet. First it is a low drop rate drop from a raid and annoyingly it also comes in three breeds. My first Tidskipper I had was the H/H breed. It truly sucked in PvP, just too weak and too slow for my taste. Even with a mighty health pool of 1766 it seemed to go down fast, also its abilities didn't really seem to go well with 244 speed. Still being slow might benefit the Tidal Wave from time to time, since if you are faster you must "wait" one turn to clear the field. A month ago or so I wanted to try the Tideskipper again, have left it untouched since I first got it and it didn't do much for me at the time, but I felt I needed another breed. So running the raid and checking AH I finally got the H/S one I felt would benefit more, especially Clobber. I can see that H/P would also be nicer than H/H one since you will hit for quite a bit more.

This assignment made an ample opportunity to try it out. This aquatic has two different humanoid attacks. The regular 80% hard hitter Crush and a quite strange, and what I thought would be very bad(since it was of no use when I first tried it out), 100% to hit that hurts even more than Crush. The trade off is the 1 round cooldown and finally that you hurt yourself for quite a lot. Tidal Wave is of course excellent against minefields and turrets, as well as doing small AoE damage. Grasp is interesting for its ability to hold an opponent in place to take a Geyser hit.

I switched abilities around quite a bit during the testing, sometimes I had the right ones and some times I wished I didn't just change them. To complement the Tideskipper I brought along a Azure Crane Chick(small AoE heal and buffing tidal wave and grasp) and a Vengeful Porcupette(I just find this a very fun pet to use, and it has defence against birds and eats death adders, and is strong against undead).

I started out with Clobber but got little use out of it, which makes me think the H/P breed might be the way to go, so after a couple of fight I switched to Geyser. Wanting to try out Body Slam I used that at the start too. It has benefit of being 100% instead of 80% to hit like Crush and it actually hurts a lot, but you do almost half of the damage to yourself so it is a double edged sword, also it is not spammable. But when it crit for over 600 then it was definitely worth it, but when not getting crits it does not feel so great. I had the pleasure to try it against a dragon and that went as expected, dead dragon. Still I switched to Tidal Wave since it was generally more useful. When I switched from Body Slam I needed a bigger hitter in first slot so then I also switched from Grasp to Crush. Though there is still use for Grasp, especially against elementals, but Crush just hits that much harder.

Most fights the Tideskipper didn't really work out, especially when I ran into crows and ravens. Since Tideskipper is Aquatic he dies quickly to them. But he was very useful when I ran into Valk'yrs. High health pool while taking very little damage from their undead attacks, it hardly tickled even with Curse of Doom etc. Best use I got of the Tideskipper was against cyclone casting dragons, the Tidal Wave cleared the Cyclone, Crush hit the Dragon hard and Tidal Wave in lightning weather(thanks to my opponent) hurt their team even more. Next best match up was against Lil Raggy with Sons of Raggy, the Tidal Wave cleared away the sons and allowed me to place a Geyser with no damage in return. Just be sure not to try and sweep away any traps that Raggy puts down. Another battle, vs a Death Adder and two Jademist Dancers, after my Vengeful Porcupette had powerballed its way to more speed than the Death Adder and my opponent figured that his Dancers would take strong damage and not being able to avoid Geysers he fled. But the absolute nicest fight was when the Tideskipper faced of against Crawling Claw, taking very little damage while doing Tidal Waves to severely hurt a Raggy in back line. Raggy switched in and I swept away the Sons. Done deal.

But you really need these kinds of match ups, undead and elemental, perhaps a dragon(here slow speed might be more useful). Against most others the Tideskipper will go down quickly. It is fun to try out and since it has strong damage against both dragons and mechanicals which makes it quite unique amongst its aquatic kin. It is absolutely not as useless as I initially thought, and if Valks keep being popular this can be a fun and different aquatic counter to use.

Celya, Kovok has note seen much love since Pheromones nerf, give it some.

[Awq]

Not bored at all, just been swamped at work. Not much play time lately. Nice to see some new blood joining in, welcome!

Tidskipper is a very unique Aquatic pet. First it is a low drop rate drop from a raid and annoyingly it also comes in three breeds. My first Tidskipper I had was the H/H breed. It truly sucked in PvP, just too weak and too slow for my taste. Even with a mighty health pool of 1766 it seemed to go down fast, also its abilities didn't really seem to go well with 244 speed. Still being slow might benefit the Tidal Wave from time to time, since if you are faster you must "wait" one turn to clear the field. A month ago or so I wanted to try the Tideskipper again, have left it untouched since I first got it and it didn't do much for me at the time, but I felt I needed another breed. So running the raid and checking AH I finally got the H/S one I felt would benefit more, especially Clobber. I can see that H/P would also be nicer than H/H one since you will hit for quite a bit more.

I had a H/H Tideskipper. These thoughts exactly reflect my own. The move set is interesting and it is aquatic. It should do well in the current metagame. I can't get it to work. My breed appears to be the problem. I was planning to get a HS breed.

Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Crystal Spider, Jadefire Spirit
I was assigned the Scalded Basilisk Hatchling. I have used this pet at least a few hundred times in a wide variety of teams. It is a great staller. It is a great stand alone pet. It can provide control for a team. The beast racial is good because of its control. You generally get quite a few rounds with the beast racial up. Overall this is a great pet. It has one weakness. Pets that are faster than it.
I like to play this pet in a slow meta game. If you do play it in a faster meta game (like the current one) you either need a faster pet or a pet that deals with speedy pets really well. Speed is pretty much the only weakness that this pet has.
It is an uncommon pet as well. Opponents often underestimate this pet. One thing that I've seen often is that someone swap in pets with <40-60 health against this guy. Which usually means that their pet will die without firing one hit. It performs still reasonable against opponents with shields. It stuns them before the shield, which means at least 2 rounds of pressure on their pet.

This pet comes in HB and HS. Speed is the most important stat for this pet, so I generally choose HS to be safe. Both breeds are viable. I do appreciate the additional damage that the HB does. I do not meet a lot of pets with 289-304 speed.
I chose my HS basilisk for both teams. I do not have a great pet to cover faster enemies.

I wanted to try a fun team that involved stunning pets to death. It was unlike other teams that involved the Scalded Basilisk Hatchling.
Scalded Basilisk Hatchling HS, Jadefire Spirit, Crystal Spider HS

This team is quite gimmicky. It is made around stuns and around free swaps. It should be able to kill a pet, while taking less hits.

It is build around a certain chain:
Stun -> Trash -> Trash? -> Feign Death -> Swaps in Jadefire Spirit -> Damage? -> Fade -> Swaps in Crystal Spider -> Web -> Spiderling Swarm. The goal is to get a pet below 800 hp by using the Scalded Basilisk or the Jadefire Spirit. The Crystal Spider can clean it up with its combo.
Another advantage of this team is that you can choose the match ups that you want. It has 2 free swaps (The Scalded Basilisk into Jadefire Spirit through Feign Death and Jadefire Spirit into Crystal Spider through Fade. Feign Death can make this less reliable midgame, because it swaps in the pet with the highest health). It also has stuns which provides control and 'free' rounds. This is a great defensive team. You can avoid being hit for 5 rounds.
The Jadefire Spirit can hopefully counter Mechanicals. It can hopefully counter speedy pets with its Shield.
The team has quite a lot of weaknesses. There are plenty of counters. It has two beasts, which make Mechanicals dangerous. It is countered by faster teams. It is relatively weak against Sandstorm and Shields. Tanky teams can hurt.

It is a gamble how it will go.

W Snarly, Infested Bear Cub, Warbot; L Pocket Reaver Lil Bling. Strand Crawler; W Untamed Hatchling, Macabre Marionette, Elder Python; L Mechanical Pardaren Dragonling, Creepy Crate, Fossilized hatchling; W Electerifcied Razortooth, Flayer Youngling, Corehound Pup; W Xu-Fu, Singing Sunflower, Magical Crawdad; L Xu-Fu, Singing Sunflower, Magical Crawdad; L Val'Kyr, Death Adder Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling.

The team did not do well. I had unfavorable match-ups. The team was countered by speed like I anticipated. I encountered a lot of mechnicals, including 1 that was faster than me. The teams damage sustained damage was quite low. This made it weak against healers.
I did not play this team well. I made at least a dozen errors in these matches. I might try it again on a rainy sunday, and attempt to learn how this team works.
It still managed to beat teams that are strong like the bleed team. It's not a weak team, but it has too many weaknesses (and I played it horribly, which did not help).

So I tried to do a few more matches with the Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, in a different team.

Val'Kyr, Infected fawn (23), Scalded Basilisk Hatchling

I wanted to level my Infected Fawn through pvp. It was already quite high in level. It has consume corpse, so it makes sense to pair it up with Unborn Val'Kyr. I might as well pair it with the Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, for the sake of the assignment. There are better control pets out there for this team. I experimented with flurry, because there are many slow undeads out there. This team will be weaker against pets that are faster, it however has plenty of options.

This is a random Val'Kyr team. it will be countered by faster Val'Kyr team, but overall it will do well. You use spells that stall (Consume Corpse, Crystal Prison, Feign Death) so that the damage Val'Kyr becomes more effective. It is quite forgiving. I will provide a short write up on the matches I played.

W Dancing Water Skimmer, Bonkers, Menagerie Custodian; W Dancing Water Skimmer, Bonkers, Menagerie Custodian (F); W Unborn Val'Kyr, Chrominius, Anubisath Idol; W Fossilized Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Death Adder Hatchling (Fawn turned 25); W Amber Moth, Feverbite Hatchling, Celestial Dragon (I forfeited. CoD 1 round left which would have given me the win, with 3 of my pets still alive)

Dancing Water Skimmer, Bonkers, Menagerie Custodian
I used Haunt vs the Custodian, he used Ion Cannon on my Val'Kyr. My Basilisk got swapped in. I did damage until his reload period was over. Then i stunned and killed it. I could just sweep the whole team with my Basilisk. I could easily dispose of Bonkers, it was slower than me and did ineffective damage. Only the Dancing Water Skimmer left. 3vs1. I had some fun using Feign Death to mitigate Dancing Water Skimmers damage.

Unborn Val'Kyr, Chrominius, Anubisath Idol (Fawn turned 25)
I started with my Fawn. I could flurry the Val'Kyr down. It did not use CoD+Haunt, so I assumed RD, but I could not be sure. I swapped in my Val'Kyr on his undead turn. I could either remove haunt with a Haunt of my own or I would have 1 turn less while being able to control the pacing. It had RD. I would prefer the Dragon as a second pet, so I hoped that he would not use the Anubisath idol on my undead even if that was his ideal match-up. He did use Chrominius. I used haunt and so I swapped in my basilisk. My Basilisk killed Chrominius with ease. The opponent used his Cannon the first round, which made it a free kill for the Basilisk. It even managed to bring the Anubisath to 30% before my basilisk was in danger. I still had all 3 pets alive, because the Basilisk + Haunt carried this team well.

Fossilized Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Death Adder Hatchling
Tough one. I was unfamiliar with the Fawn, but I decided to put it to the test. My basilisk was weak against both the Death Adder & the Dragonling. I had no other option than to pair it against the Fossilized.
My other two pets were countered by the adder. If I could snipe the Adder with my Valk, I might get a win.
The fawns selfhealing (Siphon Life + Consume Corpse x3), its removal of the shield and the undead racial could be good, it was the only thing that might work. I could not see a way to win versus two faster pet.
I swapped in the Fawn on the first round, to eat the 100% miss (+could selfheal if they attacked instead of blinded). It ate the blinding poison. So I swapped in Valk to hopefully CoD+Haunt the adder. He sadly swapped in Fossilized. I killed it with my Basilisk. He used the adder again. I tried the tac again. This time it worked. His adder would die, but so would my Valk (once it would res). The adder slowly died versus my stallers
After that I could slowly kill the Mechanical Panda with flurry, siphon life and Consume Corpse x2. His damage was low versus my undead, I would often hit once with flurry. I still slowly managed to beat him!
Unexpected win.

Vek, battle with the Tiny Flamefly. I discovered this pet recently. It is the first Flying pet that I really liked.
Please assign me any wild or BoE pet.

[Celya]

Celya, Kovok has note seen much love since Pheromones nerf, give it some.

Since I started pet battles around the time SoO dropped, I never actually played while [pet]Kovok[/pet] was overpowered. I have one, a H/P, since that is what was cheapest on ah at the time, and I leveled him to 25 because I was so upset at having to kill Kovok in SoO... I mean, I killed turtles for you! *sobs in a corner for a bit* Aaaanyway, I've seen him on opposing teams once or twice and he never struck me as a threat before. I did not expect any fun from him!

His moveset is unique and I played around with the different ones for a bit. My first thought was to use the DAH combo of [ability]Poison Fang[/ability] and [ability]Puncture Wound[/ability], with [ability]Digest Brains[/ability] in the second slot. I didn't put much thought into his first team, since I just wanted to try out that moveset - chose a [pet]Rabid Nut Varmint[/pet] and a [pet]Dandelion Frolicker[/pet]. I lost twice in a row, can't remember against which teams. Noticed that I don't have any protection against mechanicals, specifically against Decoys, so I changed to a [pet]Chi-Chi, Hatchling of Chi-Ji[/pet], and an [pet]Infected Squirrel[/pet].

Won the next 3 games, and Kovok (to me, surprisingly) carried his part. He even (slowly) took out an Idol with Puncture Wound, even though the DoT from Poison Fang was not ticking well.

Time to try something different: Poison Fang, Digest Brains, [ability]Black Claw[/ability]. Paired him with the Infected Squirrel and [pet]Sporeling Sprout[/pet]. DoT heavy team, so of course I got matched to a 3 different Sandstorm teams in a row (it may have been the same player, but it was different team compositions each time). Black Claw turned the table on my enemies, and the one round where Black Claw, [ability]Creeping Fungus[/ability] and [ability]Stampede[/ability] all hit the Qiraji Guardling was simply glorious... I won one, lost one, and drew one.

Met a Call Lightning team next, I was able to use [ability]Crouch[/ability] on the Sprout before he used Call Lightning, and after that the Lightning did all my work for me and I won easily. This of course inspired me to switch out the Sporeling Sprout for my [pet]Skywisp Moth[/pet], to provide my own [ability]Call Lightning[/ability] with. Won a couple, lost a couple, didn't keep count but it felt about 50-50.

Started seeing a LOT of triple mechanical teams, so switched out the Infected Squirrel for Chi-Chi again. Won once, lost twice, won once. Saw a triple dragon team and realised I didn't have any anti-dragonkin attacks, so switched out Poison Fang for [ability]Body Slam[/ability] and went back to Black Claw again. Thought I could Black Claw - Body Slam - Digest Brains, but in practice it did not work well. Suicided myself a couple of times in the next few runs, and didn't like it much. Saw a lot of Idols, so tried to pair Kovok with a [pet]Blighthawk[/pet] and an [pet]Emperor Crab[/pet]. Won twice, with the P/P Emperor Crab taking out the H/H Emperor Crab in a weird one on one game (my Surge and Shield against his Snap and Whirlpool).

All in all, I think Kovok has been underrated since the nerf. I didnt try Pheromones at all. Although I didn't really find a team for him to shine in, he has been solid. If you use Poison Fang and Black Claw you don't have much in the way of spammable abilities, but several times when using Black Claw on my last turn I was able to set up my next pet very nicely indeed. Poison Fang and Stampede is... just wonderful. Puncture Wound hits for much harder when you have 289 power than it does on my 260 power S/S DAH. The heal from Digest Brains is decent, although I suck at getting the timing right sometimes. I will definitely play around with this pet some more from now on.

Awq, I love the look of my shale hatchlings. There's 3 wild varieties in Deepholm (Amethyst, Crimson and Topaz) and one BoE pet (Tiny Shale Spider). They all share the same moveset, but base stats and breeds differ. Pick anyone that you have, and see if they can work in PVP as well.

[Vek]

Tiny Flamefly is a quite unusual flying pet. It comes with a couple of regular flyer attacks in Alpha Strike and Adrenaline Rush. It is currently also the only flier with Hiss, I really can't see much use for this one on the Flamefly especially when compared to the other choice in slot 2, I guess it comes from almost looking like a cockroach. It also comes with Swarm(Stampede for Fireflies), like most other Fireflies have. What really differentiates the Tiny Flamefly from the others is that it comes with both Burn and Immolate, two elemental fire attacks. We have seen Burn on Flamering Moth(from timeless isle) and there is quite alot of fliers that are strong against mechanicals(I would say especially the Nether Rays with Lash).

Choosing a Flamefly is easy since it only comes in one breed. 1481 health, 260 power and 292 speed. Even if its power is the avarage 260, Burn will hit for above 300 damage(around 500 on mechanicals) since it is a 90% hit move, and with the double damage buff from Swarm things will really start to hurt.

First evening I tried the Flamefly out I didn't lose a singel game, went like 10-0. The Flamefly didn't carry the team but it certainly didn't make a fool out of itself. The team I was using was P/P Diemetradon Hatchling, I really wanted to give this pet another shot and it worked out a bit better this time, I went with Claw instead of Quick Attack and the Claw hits for 433(!) and easily up to 600 with beast racial active. Problem is of course that it has 244 speed(but with Screech this is not much of a problem), but I was facing alot of Undeads, Crabs and Idols. When my opponents started bringing birds I tried switching to Quick Attack instead, but in the end I felt Claw was more powerful. It had no problem killing a Blossoming Ancient in two of the fights, the damage was just to high for the healing. The last member was Rotten Little Helper(1,1,1), a pet I have not used that much either. I must say that the RLH was a true star player, with 333 power the Booby-Trapped presents hurts so much it even one-shotted a Xu-Fu at full health. And Greench's Gift is a gamechanger. In one game I had played badly and the helper had suffered alot, in came a full health Idol. After the presents went off and the Idol got a gift the tables had truly turned.

The Flamefly was VERY useful against the mechanicals I faced. It easily took out a XT and left a Blingtron burning with Swarm debuff for a 1400 hit from Greench's Gift. Also was very nice to apply Immolation and Swarm, this burned alot of pets really well even when they switched pets which often left the first pet to die in backline. The Flamefly I used didn't have any strenght against Aquatics but they are not very common in my meta, so that really wasn't a problem. All in all it never felt out of place in any of the battles even if it perhaps didn't kill all pets one on one it often left the battle with Swarm debuff up for easy clean up. Also since it is a flyer with good speed it was nice to have as a last pet to clean up stragglers. To be fair I didn't run into many of the top pets this evening.

Second evening I switched team to Vengeful Porcupette and Voodoo Figurine. This team also did really well. Started facing quite alot of Crows/Ravens and DAH. Both the Porcupette and Figurine does really well against these opponents. Also nice to be able to cleanse minefields and cyclones. I went for another winning spree and once again the Flamefly was useful. Immolation and Swarm is a perfect match for Decoy pets, they take strong damage from the elemental attack and Swarm hits through the Decoy and doubles that damage, it racks up quickly.

All in all I had a good run with the Tiny Flamefly, it is especially useful against mechancial pets. It is sure a pet I will revisit.

Celya time to join the dark side, bring out your Lesser Voidcaller.

Edit: Tried the Flamefly with another team. Kovok(1,2,1) and Clockwork Gnome(1,2,1). This played well to boost the Flamefly. Black Claw, even with short duration, is a very powerful debuff and it works wonders for Immolate/Swarm(and of course combines very well with the Turret). Even quite easily took out a team with two elementals.

[Danifae]

I'm following this thread for quite some time and I love it. Time for me to join in on the PVP fun!

I have quite a lot of level 25 pets, but I don't mind leveling one, so pick something

Vek, I'm very interested to see what you can do with a Blackfuse Bombling (it hasn't been assigned before right?). Especially the abilities in slot 3 seem to be a bit difficult to get full advantage from.

[Regillixavatar]

So I was quite a bit slow coming back to the thread this round since I actually was moving my characters over to a new server. I finally got a couple battles in with the Core Hound Pup and I feel like I was one of those people who doesn't quite know how to use it >_<. Overall I ended up going about 5/14 with the team but most of those were likely due to operator error and the fact that a new server meant a whole new meta-game.

Since dodge is pretty sweet if you can go first I added a Pygmy Direhorn to slow down the enemy team and also get some good AOE. The team still needed some Flyer Protection so I added a P/P Emerald Proto-Whelp (Emerald Bite, Shield, Proto-Strike). This started off as a pretty ok idea but boy did I learn just how slow that Pup is at 211 speed. This team squeaked 2 wins in but the Pup mostly sat on the backline and looked pretty...the idea of using Dodge as an avoidance move was poor since even if you get to Dodge a CoD or a whirlpool he didn't have enough Power or Speed to really shine with it.

I got a bit frustrated with the loss rate so I decided to just jam the pet into one of my standard PvP teams and used the Pup (Scratch, Howl, Burn), Darkmoon Tonk (Missile, Minefield, Ion Cannon), and Spirit Crab (Snap, Surge, Shield). This helped me a lot with the umpteen Death Adders that I was running into but RNG was just not my friend in these fights and I only managed another 3 wins with this group.

The only shining moment for the Core Hound Pup was when he would go in against Pet 2 of an opponent that had a Mech Pet in slot 3. He would howl and get a 800 dmg burn before folks would decide that it was worth sending the mech in to eat the elemental dmg. Unfortunately this was usually a poor choice as they were mechs with only mech moves.

Danifae, since you are joining the fray I am curious about what you can do with your Red Cricket. He's a monster at 370 power and also comes with a heal for 600 and solid avoidance Cocoon Strike.

[Vek]

I got the P/P Blackfuse Bombling so 341 power is quite nice. All three available breeds have 227 speed, this is something I usually shy away from. Not many pets are this slow, notable exceptions are Raggy/Deathwing/Spirit Crab. I can live with going last, but 227 speed is troublesome especially since it is slower than the very popular Unborn Val'kyrs. This means you have to be careful not to waste a big hit when they are going to Haunt, so Blackfuse Bomblings does not seem to be a good pet to use against the Valks, perhaps the H/H Breed with 1800 health could more easily soak CoD and Haunt.

One parameter of this assignment is the third slot ability. Explode or Armageddon. I have never been really fond of Explode, this needs to be used on a "fresh" opponent or you might as well use a regular attack. Armageddon I have actually a lot of experience with, but it only comes from the much faster Rascal-Bot. 227 speed and a use-and-die move you really need to know when to use it, otherwise you will not get it off. I went with Armageddon, I just like being able to hit things like Death Adders for 500 damage while they stand in back line.

Flame Jet is the Blackfuse Bombling signature move so I needed to use that(this made me chose Zap in first slot so I would have a bit more diverse types of damage). Flame Jet has a chance to ignite the ground which means your opponent counts as burning. To me that felt like an ample opportunity to bring some pets with Conflagrate. I brought Harbinger of Flame(1,1,2), that I have not used in ages, and a Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling(2,2,2). The Dragonhawk is faster than any Death Adders so I thought most of my troubles would come from Valks.

Strangely enough the queue brought me an opponent with a Wild Hatchiling(cyclone/lightning), Clockwork Gnome, Stunted Shardhorn. Well I just had some perfect counters to his pets, ouch. The Harbinger cleared out cyclones and turrets while bringing strong damage against both the Wild Hatchling and Clockwork Gnome(700 damage hits even without burning from Conflagrate). Blackfuse Bombling only had to come in at the end and use its strong Zap against the poor beast.

Second fight I came up against a Darkmoon Tonk, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling and a third i sadly don't recall. Truly a bad match-up for this opponent. Harbinger cleaned up two minefields and a decoy, Conflagrate and Flame Jet truly hurt. After this fight I ran into a lot of Dread Hatchlings and Valks and things started to go downhill, lost 3 in a row. I switched companions to Vengeful Porcupette and Willy(I have been trying to boos the Porcupette with partners with Rot, working out so so). Got a draw against a triple Undead(Valk, Stitched Pup, Infected Squirrel). This team is quite annoying, and would probably have been a push over if I had went with Tongue Lash for Willy but I had not wanted to overdo it on critter damage type attacks. Switched one ability on Willy from speed debuff to the interrupt and won the rematch win only Willy as a casualty.

Took a break and came back a while later and lost two in a row. Switched Willy to the Lil' Bad Wolf(had faced some truly annoying critters) and the Vengeful Porcupette for a Ravager Hatchling. Come up against a Creepy Crate, S/S Bonkers and an Azure Whelpling. First fight was a bit troublesome, the Azure Whelpling used Ice Tomb which would really hurt my Bombling. After some switching I managed to slow Bonkers with the Ravager and after that my Wolf had the upper hand. I got a rematch and now I truly got to see the power of the Blackfuse Bombling. This time my opponent started with the Crate. After a nice Flame Jet, that ignited, and two Zap hits(one a crit), the crate was dead and it had only put up a CoD, done one Bonestorm and done a bite. After the undead turn the Bombling got in two hits on the Azure Whelpling, and in the turn where the incoming Ice Tomb would go off I used Armageddon to take the Whelpling out and get a head start on Bonkers. So Blackfuse Bombling took out two pets, nice. The Ravager Hatchling easily dispatched of Bonkers after applying the speed rebuff.

All in all I got too see both the ups and downs of the Blackfuse Bombling. Of course I didn't try out all abilities this time. Luckily I didn't face anyone with much crowd control which would easily defuse the bombling, but I also got to see just how hard it can really hurt your opponent. Still it is just too slow for me to be really comfortable with. Definetly not a bad pet.

Regillixavatar time to bring out your Living Fluid.

[Danifae]

The Red Cricket comes in a P/S breed, but while it has a lot of power, it doesn’t have a lot of speed. It has a meager 1197 health, but a very strong heal.

I went with Skitter, Cocoon Strike and Nature’s Touch. Unfortunately I met a lot of fast pets and the Cricket just doesn’t stand up to them. Because they go first you have to predict what your opponents move is going to be so you can either cast a heal or a Cocoon Strike to block the attack. Sometimes I guessed wrong and the Cricket ended up dead.

So to help the Cricket in the health department I used Yu’La for Celestial Blessing. This worked reasonably well, but I still missed speed. And the moment the Blessing wore off he was still quickly killed. So instead of the Living Sandling I was using I switched to an Artic Fox Kit for the Dazzling Dance. The speed bonus was great, but it was too much of a hassle to cast it, switch to Yu’La for the Blessing and then finally to the Cricket.

So I ditched the Fox and decided to use Screech in the first slot instead of Skitter. That meant loss of damage, but I got myself a speed bonus. This set-up gave me a nice battle. Me and my opponent were down to our last pets: the Cricket and a Lava Crab. The cricket won due to an excellent heal and the Cocoon Strike. It took patience and quite a lot of rounds, but the Cricket persevered. Though the Cricket didn’t do much damage because of Screech, it also meant that the Lava crab couldn’t heal much and that made me win.

All in all I played nine games. I won four and lost five. My best pet in all these battles was Yu’La. She did good damage, had Lift-Off to avoid strong attacks and could cast Celestial Blessing to help the Cricket and my third pet.

Mostly the Cricket didn’t make a fool of itself, but the low health really did her in. I had some nice fights, but I'm afraid I'm putting her back into the stables.

Vek, can you show me what you can do with a Coilfang Stalker?

[Celya]

Celya time to join the dark side, bring out your Lesser Voidcaller.

I've had some mixed results with the [pet]Lesser Voidcaller[/pet]. Forgot to make notes, and played over several nights, so this is gonna be a "short" post.

I started off by trying him out with random pets, just to get a feel for him. First slot is 85% hit chance undead move [ability]Shadow Shock[/ability] vs 100% hit ramp-up magic move [ability]Nether Blast[/ability]. I tried both. On the one hand, the Voidcaller often lasts long enough to ramp-up the Nether Blast; on the other hand, I faced a lot of humanoids over the past week and Shadow Shock came in handy as well (couple of crucial misses). Second slot [ability]Siphon Life[/ability] vs [ability]Prismatic Barrier[/ability]. I had some success with the Barrier: once I blocked a Rupture I saw coming, and once I faced an opponent who didn't want to take the Barrier down, and I took it down in time for [ability]Curse of Doom[/ability] to hit. However, using it can lead to a game of chicken which can be really annoying. Curse of Doom came in handy several times; [ability]Drain Power[/ability] helped against a few flying pets.

I won a few, lost a few. Took on an Idol, and won (the Idol missed a couple). Paired him with Harmonious Porcupette and took a Celestial Blessing'd Minefield which crit for 231 damage (I think I could hear my opponent scream). Lost a few games to being outplayed - kept forgetting the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling has an antimagic attack, silly me. Slowly whittled down a few other pets. Performed well against a Dread Hatchling - once. I tried several different teams, but couldn't really make the Voidcaller stand out as part of one of them.

Ultimately, not the worst pet I've tried yet. He can be useful when your other pets dont have avoidance to soak big telegraphed hits, and when you need a third pet with a large health pool for whatever reason. It takes a long time for opponents without anti-magic attacks or lots of multiple hits (eg, turrets under lightning) to kill it. He can outlast minefields, very often. He's not bad against flying pets, but not great, either.

I don't like the breed mine has (H/H). It translates into "pet that takes ages to kill but doesn't really take out other pets while lasting". He felt a bit like a staller pet, one I'd pull out to soak a minefield with while saving the other pets on the team for the real action. Except he has only one weak heal, so he doesn't stall well. I think, after experimenting, I'd like to have the H/P breed. Maybe. If I don't just let him follow my mage around.

Danifae, I want a dragonkin in this thread again. Show me[pet] Lil' Tarecgosa[/pet].

[Vek]

Coilfang Stalker can be an annoying pet to get hold of, unless you buy from AH, since it drops from Lady Vashj. It also comes in three different breeds, but the differences here are hardly noticable. My problem with the Coilfang Stalker is that it is pretty much a one-trick pony. All of it's attacks are Magical. I has no "trick" or avoidance moves, it can only really trap an opponent and go attack for attack, and unless you are facing a bird it will be a tough battle.

One thing I did notice is that not many people are used to 200% hit chance of Laser, though they learn quickly. Today a lot of Death Adders has wasted a turn casting Blinding Poison and when that happens it's quite nice to sit back and still be sure your attack will hit. A nice thing is that two Lasers will set a Death Adder up to being killed by Surge of Power(at least on my P/B breed Stalker). I just love how you see the Death Adder use go "WTF!", noticable by the time it takes for them to make their next move, when Laser just messed with their plans. Often though they don't stick around to be Surge of Power'ed, so be wary of that mindgame.

But I really must say outside Birds(especially Call Darkness birds since Laser won't miss) and the occasional Death Adders I am not a big fan of the Coilfang Stalker. Though it did manage to Surge of Power(for the win) a Blingtron with Extra Plating up, don't try this at home since it does laughably low damage(even without Extra Plating).

Also I couldn't find any real good partners to use with it, it felt quite stand aloneish. In a triple bird/moth environment it will earn it's keep, perhaps partner with other pets that take advantage of Call Darkness(nothing like using a Ghostly Skull with Spectral Strike and nuke Crows right after they cast Darness, or a nice Rascal-Bot with it's hard hitting Phaser). For me it couldn't really handle Val'kyrs, perhaps if I had taken Illusionary Barrier instead of Gravity, but I am not a big fan of that kind of Barrier.

Sorry but I can't give a "good" team with this pet. Use two others that go well together and stick this in as a third pet, or just pick two pets that do well in the current evening. It's not a truly weak pet. But if you go with Laser(which can be a life saver) and you don't face Blind/Darkness then you have just nerfed yourself damagewise. Also I don't really fancy the second ability slot choises at all. Gravity, you will often not wan't to waste a turn doing no damage just to keep your opponent from being able to switch. Im sure though others like the Barrier better than me. Surge of Power is a nice finisher, but since you will be unable to do anything for two turns after use it carefully. Amplify Magic might have some use in boosting Laser damage, but then you will still "waste" a turn. Not a favourite pet.

Celya how about having some fun with the Feline Familiar?