Cursed Birman and Widget the Departed thoughts

[Luciandk]

Ive just aquired both and have had a closer look at them.

The P/S [pet]Cursed Birman[/pet] looks fairly underwhelming at first glance. But it has one obvious combo in Prowl + Call Darkness. But that effectively wastes your points in speed, dropping you from 289 speed to 202 speed.

The other combo is Spirit Spikes+Devour, giving you a bit more of a tanky setup.

The slot 1 abilities seems fairly bad as well. Not being a really speedy pet, its not guaranteed to get decent use out of Pounce. And Spiritclaws, while much nicer damage, requires moonlight for optimal use. Something which Birman cant provide himself, unlike Xu-Fu.

Only saving grace is the Undead racial, imho. Even if its weaker the faster you are.


The other pet [pet]Widget the Departed[/pet] has a much better designed skillset, even if it also have spirit claws. Being S/S it can much more reliably make use of Pounce, and it comes with a better combo in Call Darkness and Spectral Strike.
Sure it could use Prowl+Spectral Strike, but would need a feeder pet for Call Darkness or Blind, besides neutering its 325 speed. Pounce, Spectral Strike and Call Darkness looks like the optimal setup for this pet, imho.


Widget the Departed is the clear winner of the two new spectral cat pets imo. But both pets should have had [ability]Sneak Attack[/ability] instead of Spirit Claws, wouldve fit them -MUCH- better!

[Awq]

I am really happy with these new pets. I love the model, and I like their move-sets. I am excited about these cats, I am especially looking forward to using Cursed Birman. I am not sure if I will use Widget the Departed, but it has great self synergy and it will be a useful pet for many!

I do like Spirit Claw on Cursed Birman, I dislike it on Widget the Departed.

[Gilneas]

Dunno, Spirit Claw seems appropriate as they are ghost cats.

[Ril]

who cares about the skill set (i'm saying this as an enthusiast battler), it's MORE KITTENS! they need to add a new title like "really crazy cat lady" or "insane cat lady" or something.

on a side note, do you folk know if the bonfire xp bonus also applies to battle pets as well?

[Aeolyn]

Widget is cuter too. He's definitely the better of the two pets.

[Vek]

While Widget is kind of Crow/Bigglesworth with an obvious and powerful combination I think Birman might pretty much be a perfect partner in a moonlight team.

Spirit Claws will always hit. Spirit Spikes will do 10% additional damage. Devour will heal for 25% more. And it is still undead and have both a bit of protection and strong attacks vs critters. While it could have been faster for even better use of Pounce and Spirit Spikes 289 is not that bad. I look forward to trying this one out more than Widget.

[Vek]

After trying them both out Widget is of course the most obviously powerful pet of the two. Call Darkness + Spectral Strike both changes the weather, inhibits healing and does huge damage. It will still suffer 40% to hit drop if an elemental is switched in. But at least Spectral Strike won't suffer to it's own blind, like Nocturnal Strike does. It seems like a very good pet to join a darkness team, but is quite powerful on it's own.
*Edit 40% to hit vs Elementals, not 50%*

Cursed Birman does not nearly come with the same power. It works rather well in a Moonlight team. Not suffering misses from Spirit Claws is nice and does ok damage. Spirit Spikes is a decent shield for 289 speed, which can be useful depending on opponent, but the damage buff in moonlight is not really noticable.
Devour... well I just can't seem to play correctly with this(and similar abilities). They do pretty low damage but if they kill they heal for alot. But I'm sure it is only me, but I have a hard time timing it correctly. Also it's quite annoying that you cant Devour undead(since they are so popular). Without Moonlight it is a bit weaker but not noticably so. If running without Moonlight I would probably go with Prowl instead of Devour.

[Poofah]

Devour... well I just can't seem to play correctly with this(and similar abilities). They do pretty low damage but if they kill they heal for alot. But I'm sure it is only me, but I have a hard time timing it correctly.

Devour is a 'win more' ability and is pretty bad against real opponents. You need to deal a killing blow with a weak 230 dmg attack -- if an opponent lets you manage this, then you've got them in a terrible position already, and thus the heal is not likely to be relevant to the outcome of the fight. It's a huge health swing when it comes off, so it's great for wild pet groups. But if you do manage to time it correctly in PvP, it probably means that you worked yourself into such a good position that it hardly matters what ability's in that slot.

If that slot were Feed instead, she'd be super.

[Sile9]

Definitely having the best results with Prowl. I've been running Widget, Cursed Birman, and Mr. Bigglesworth with considerable success and have noticed that the Birman can really turn games around much like the direhorn. It's especially juicy how Prowl interacts with Spirit Spikes boosting its damage without being consumed which can confer a major advantage under certain conditions as you can kill off a slower and lower HP pet while lining up burst for a fresh one if you know they're going to attack.

[Vek]

It's especially juicy how Prowl interacts with Spirit Spikes boosting its damage without being consumed which can confer a major advantage under certain conditions as you can kill off a slower and lower HP pet while lining up burst for a fresh one if you know they're going to attack.

Good catch, if somewhat strange that Prowl is not consumed. Excellent "Prowl defense".

[Luciandk]

It's especially juicy how Prowl interacts with Spirit Spikes boosting its damage without being consumed which can confer a major advantage under certain conditions as you can kill off a slower and lower HP pet while lining up burst for a fresh one if you know they're going to attack.

Good catch, if somewhat strange that Prowl is not consumed. Excellent "Prowl defense".

Sounds like a clear bug that should be reported to the crafticus. Doesnt look like intended behavior that you can effectively boost 2x skills that way.

[Awq]

Yea. I noticed that on the first day. I did like the concept of a defensive Prowl user.
I tried to get Birman to work, but I couldn't. I haven't found pets that synergized well with its damage values.

[Poofah]

if somewhat strange that Prowl is not consumed.

On the other hand, it would be strange if an opponent could clear off your Prowl by intentionally attacking into a reflective damage shield, and thereby avoid an even bigger Prowl hit next turn. That would be punishing you for using your own abilities.

[Vek]

I would think a spirit spikes * 2.5 would be quite hurtful enough.