Beasts of Fable

So a couple weeks ago I posted my initial thoughts on the new legendary pets that are part of the Beasts of Fable - something along the lines of them being stupidly easy. I had no idea at the time that they are the most brain dead battles in the game.

I originally had no plans to even post about them. They were simple enough - you pick 3 of a hard counter and press buttons to win. The reason for this post is to demonstrate just how little thought Blizzard put into creating these new legendary time-wasting battles.

What you say? It is sad, but every single one of them can be beaten by a very easy to put together trio of pets, using one skill. "What is this black magic you speak of?" you may find yourself asking.

Trample

In most situations Trample is a mediocre skill. When you are fighting a pet that has around 1600 health it translates into an ability that does about as much as any other. On the other hand, when you are fighting a "legendary" pet that has around 4300 health, that is suddenly 430 damage on top of the 150-200 damage the skill does without the bonus. Some other benefits - the bonus portion of the skill does not miss and it not affected by damage reduction modifiers. Even the turtles with Shell Shield or the Racoons thingy that reduces your damage by half will not affect the bonus damage of trample.

Some examples of me putting my expert skill in to action. In all of these videos I was pretty unlucky with the amount damage I took and they still all died easily.

My team consists of:
Clefthoof Runt
Stunted Shardhorn
Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm

There are a number of other pets that have Trample as well.

Grand Master Yon (Kun-Lai Summit)

Grand Master Yon took me a couple weeks to figure out when I first started but is now consistently a quick one shot. I actually figured an improved strategy but it involves Flayer Youngling which is somewhat hard to get. If you have a Flayer Youngling you can use it in place of the Kun-Lai Runt, but for the sake of this blog I will just list the strategy with Kun-Lai Runt since it is easier to obtain.

My Team:
Infinite Whelpling (take Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Early Advantage)
Kun-Lai Runt (take Thrash, Mangle and Rampage)
Power Level Pet (no restrictions)

Enemy Team:

Piqua (flying) (Flock, Lift Off, Squawk)
Lapin (critter) (Adrenaline Rush, Burrow, Flurry)
Bleat (beast) (Bleat, Chew, Stampede)


vs Piqua:
Start with Infinite Whelpling. You attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Early Advantage	Squawk
2	Pass	Lift Off
3	Healing Flame	Lift Off (hit)
4	Tail Sweep	Flock
5	Tail Sweep	Flock
6	Tail Sweep	Flock
7	Tail Sweep	Squawk

Kill consistently happens in round 7 unless you miss

vs Lapin:
Continue with Infinite Whelpling. You attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Tail Sweep	Adrenaline Rush
2	Switch to Kun-Lai Runt	Burrow
3	Rampage	Burrow (hit)
4	Rampage	Flurry
5	Rampage	Flurry
6	Tail Sweep	Flock
7	Tail Sweep	Squawk

Kill is likely in round 5 but sometimes happens in round 4.


vs Bleat:
Continue with Kun-Lai Runt. You attack second in all rounds.
If Lapin died in round 4, you need to adjust when to bring the power level pet in. If it a level one pet it is best to wait until the round where it uses Chew (it is possible for a level 1 to survive a round of stampede but not guaranteed)

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Switch to PLvl Pet	Chew
2	Switch to Infinite Whelpling	Stampede
Infinite Whelpling will die. Continue with Kun-Lai Runt
3	Mangle	Stampede
4	Rampage	Stampede
5	Rampage	Bleat
6	Rampage	Chew
7	Thrash	Stampede
8	Thrash	Stampede
9	Thrash	Stampede
10	Rampage	Bleat

Kill is likely in rounds 6-8.

Patch 5.2 Initial thoughts

The Thunder King came out yesterday and so far I have a mixed reaction, there are some really good changes but some annoying ones as well.

Good changes:
Bandages stacking
Pet tamer pets are in a predictable order now (I think)
Lots of new pets! some of which look awesome.

Annoying changes:
Half my pet add-ons are broken (I know this is temporary but still annoying)
The new legendary pets are stupidly easy but give garbage for experience
The new legendary pets daily quest adds a lot of extra flying around
Many of the new pets require you to participate in the new raid instance. I don't have time for that crap. Hopefully they will be cageable so I can just buy them.
They fixed the Dragonkin passive which makes dragons less potent.

Strategy changes:
Overall not much has changed. That's mostly a product of not relying of FoTM overpowered combos to beat everything. I did a run through last night of all the pet tamers and all of the strategies I've posted still work. I have changed one of my strategies which I hadn't gotten around to posting yet for the Vale of Eternal Blossoms pet tamer.

New Legendary Pets:
As I mentioned above, these are significantly easier than I was expecting. I was able to beat several of them with one pet, and all of them with two. It would have been cool for power leveling except for the fact that they give almost no experience. Several of them are easy because their move sets are pretty terrible and do very low damage overall. They are all easy because they only have one pet type. This means that you can stack three hard counters and faceroll. If you are looking for ideas on how to counter specific types, you can check out one of my early posts.

Whispering Pandaren Spirit

I am going to preface this by saying that I think power leveling a level one on this tamer is more effort than it is worth. It can be done somewhat reliably but it is unlikely you would one shot it on a daily basis due to the random nature of Slicing Wind and Moth Dust.

All three of the enemy pets in this encounter use flying attacks exclusively. This means you will want to have a solid dragon team to face them. I use Azure Whelpling because it is a hard counter to the critter. I round it out with Infinite Whelpling because well, as demonstrated in other battles, it is an awesome. pet.

My Team:
Azure Whelpling (take Claw, Arcane Storm, Surge of Power)
Infinite Whelpling (take Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Early Advantage)
Power Level Pet (no restrictions)

Enemy Team:
Dusty (critter) (Cocoon Strike, Moth Balls, Moth Dust)
Whispertail (dragonkin) (Flyby, Slicing Wind, Wild Winds)
Pandaren Air Spirit (Slicing Wind, Soothing Mists, Wild Winds)


vs Dusty:
Start with Azure Whelpling, you attack second in all rounds

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Claw	Moth Dust
2	Arcane Storm	Cocoon Strike
3	Claw	Moth Balls
4	Claw	Pass
5	Claw	Moth Dust
6	Arcane Storm	Cocoon Strike
7	Claw	Moth Balls

Kill will be in round 5 unless you miss

vs Whispertail:
Continue with Azure Whelpling, you attack second in all rounds.
I am going to detail the pessimistic results here. Moth Dust from the critter has a high chance to miss. If you get to the dragon with 800+ health, go with Claw, Claw, Surge of Power rather than using Sure of Power immediately.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Surge of Power	Wild Winds
2	Pass (auto)	Flyby
3	Pass (auto)	Slicing Wind
After Azure Whelp dies, switch to Infinite Whelp
5	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
6	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
7	Tail Sweep	Wild Winds
8	Tail Sweep	Flyby

Kill is likely in round 6

vs Pandaren Air Spirit:
You attack second in all rounds

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Switch to PLvlPet	Soothing Mists
2	Switch to Infinite Whelpling	Wild Winds
3	Healing Flame	Slicing Wind
4	Early Advantage	Slicing Wind
5	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
6	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
7	Tail Sweep	Soothing Mists
8	Tail Sweep	Wild Winds

This is subject to RNG. You will probably lose if it is not killed by round 8.

Grand Master Hyuna (Jade Forest)

Master Hyuna is another relatively easy fight. Skyshaper's overall damage is pretty low if you let your PLvlPet soak the Glowing Toxin. Dor the Wall attacks once every 4 rounds so with any avoidance ability you can reduce it to getting hit once every 8 rounds and with some of the better avoidance abilities you can avoid ever being hit.

I think any dragon + flying (with lift off) or mech (with repair or decoy) can have the same success rate at the two pets I use below. Since Dor the Wall has Shell Shield, make sure to take harder hitting attacks like Peck rather than multiple smaller hitting attacks like Slicing Wind.

My Team:
Infinite Whelpling (take Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Early Advantage)
Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling (take Peck, Squawk, Lift Off)
Power Level Pet (no restrictions)

Enemy Team:
Skyshaper (flying) (Slicing Wind, Confusing Sting, Glowing Toxin)
Fangor (beast) (Vicious Fang, Hiss, Burrow)
Dor the Wall (aquatic) (Headbutt, Healing Wave, Shell Shield)


vs Skyshaper:
Start with Infinite Whelpling, you attack second in all rounds

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Tail Sweep	Confusing Sting
2	Switch to PLvlPet	Glowing Toxin
3	Switch to Infinite Whelpling	Slicing Wind
4	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
5	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
6	Tail Sweep	Slicing Wind
7	Tail Sweep	Confusing Sting
8	Tail Sweep	Glowing Toxin

Kill is likely in round 6.

vs Fangor:
Continue with Infinite Whelpling. You should still have the Dragonkin Passive up for bonus damage.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Early Advantage	Hiss
2	Healing Flame	Burrow
3	Tail Sweep	Burrow (hit)
4	Tail Sweep	Vicious Fang
Infinite Whelp usually dies in round 4 or 5. Switch to Gryphon.
5	Peck	Vicious Fang

Kill is likely in round 5.

vs Dor the Wall:
Continue with Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling. Dor only attacks once every 4 rounds and his attack (Head Butt) is weak against air. Lift off is on a 5 round cooldown so every other attack can be avoided. Use squawk prior to the attacks you cannot avoid to further mitigate the damage.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Lift Off	Headbutt (miss)
2	Lift Off (hit)	Shell Shield
3	Peck	Healing Wave
4	Peck	Shell Shield
5	Peck	Shell Shield
6	Squawk	Headbutt
7	Peck	Shell Shield
8	Peck	Healing Wave

Kill is likely in round 6, 7 or 8

This is a slightly different approach using Darkmoon Zeppelin instead of Gryphon. Darkmoon Zeppelin can avoid 100% of  the Turtles attacks with Decoy. I prefer using Gryphon though because as seen in this video, Zeppelin takes forever to kill him.

Grand Master Nishi (Valley of the Four Winds)

It is fitting that Grand Master Nishi is a farmer. He is likely the most farmed master pet tamer in the game. A few patches ago it was possible to accept a tamer quest, defeat all three of a tamer's pets, get the experience reward and then drop the quest so it could be done again. This was really effective because Grand Master Nishi is and has always been the easiest pet tamer in Pandaria.

It is possible to use level one pets in this tamer. The strategy I am going to layout here is the one I use to kill it quickly and efficiently. It does limit the type of level one pet you can use to critters or level ones that have more than 164 health. This limit could be removed by using something with Sandstorm such as Anubisath Idol and starting against Toothbreaker. The limitations comes from the back row damage done by Siren's Sunlight. It does approximately 164 elemental damage. Level one pets tend to have anywhere from 136 to 166 health making it difficult for most of them to survive. Critters take less damage from elemental, so critters will only take about 105 damage making it easy to survive one hit.

In this fight you face two elementals and a beast. Naturally I like to bring out my trusty snail to wreck the elementals. In this guide and video I used Darkmoon Zeppelin but anything that does good mechanical damage will work. I normally use Mini Thor.


My Team:

Shimmershell Snail (take Acidic Goo, Ooze Touch, Dive)

Darkmoon Zeppelin (take Missle, Decoy, Bombing Run)

Power Level Pet (Any critter or any pet with more than 164 health)

Enemy Team:

Siren (elemental) (Photosynthesis, Solar Beam, Sunlight)

Toothbreaker (elemental) (Insipring Song, Leech Seed, Sons of the Root)
Brood of Mothran (beast) (Acidic Goo, Burrow, Consume)

vs Siren:
Start with Shimmershell Snail against Siren. You will attack second in all rounds. I start against Siren specifically so that if there is a miss and your power level pet cannot survive two Sunlight hits, it happens early and you can restart. It also prevents the effect of Sunlight lasting long enough to benefit the Beast.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Acidic Goo	Sunlight
2	Dive	Photosynthesis
3	Dive (hit)	Photosynthesis
4	Ooze Touch	Photosynthesis
5	Ooze Touch	Photosynthesis
6	Ooze Touch	Photosynthesis
7	Ooze Touch	Photosynthesis
8	Ooze Touch	Sunlight
9	Ooze Touch	Photosynthesis

Kill typically happens in round 5 or 6.

vs Toothbreaker:
Continue with Shimmershell Snail. You attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Pass	Sons of the Root
2	Pass	Sons of the Root
3	Pass	Sons of the Root
4	Acidic Goo	Leech Seed
5	Ooze Touch	Insipring Song
6	Ooze Touch	Pass
7	Ooze Touch	Pass
8	Ooze Touch	Leech Seed
9	Ooze Touch	Sons of the Root

Kill typically happens in round 7 or 8.

vs Brood of Mothran:
Continue with Shimmershell Snail. You attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Acidic Goo	Acidic Goo
2	Switch to PLvlPet	Burrow
3	Switch to Snail	Burrow (hit)
Snail will die. Switch to Mechanical
4	Bombing Run	Consume
5	Decoy	Pass
6	Missle	Acidic Goo
7	Missle	Consume
8	Missle	Burrow
9	Missle	Burrow

Kill typically happens in round 6 or 7.

Burning Pandaren Spirit

This is a fight that has some unavoidable back row damage thanks to Cyclone. Fortunately it is able to be mitigated to the point where you have to get very very unlucky to not have a level one survive. There are some limitations though. Sandstorm reduces the Cyclone damage from  around 110 damage to around 30 damage. This means a level one pet with about 150 health should be able to sustain 4 or 5 hits. Unfortunately elementals ignore all weather effects, which means they do not benefit from Sandstorm. An elemental would only be able to sustain one non crit hit. The likelyhood of only taking one hit during this fight is very low.

This fight is also kind of goofy in that Anubisath Idol can solo the entire fight. I like to keep my trusty snail ready in case something goes wrong, but it is not really necessary. You can sub in anything including another level one if you want.

My Team:
Anubisath Idol
Shimmershell Snail
Power Level Pet
As mentioned above, it can be anything but an elemental. It is also better to avoid aquatic since it will take extra damage from cyclone.

Enemy Team:
Crimson (dragonkin)
Pandaren Fire Spirit (elemental)
Glowy (flying)



vs Crimson:
Start with Anubisath Idol. You will attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Sandstorm	Cyclone
2	Pass	Lift Off
3	Reflection	Lift Off (miss)
4	Crush	Breath
5	Crush	Breath
6	Crush	Breath
7	Sandstorm	Cyclone
8	Pass	Lift Off
9	Reflection	Lift Off

A kill is likely by round 6 or 7 but may take longer due to the increased miss chance from Sandstorm

vs Pandaren Fire Spirit:
Continue with Anubisath Idol. You will attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Reflection or Sandstorm	Conflagrate
2	Sandstorm or Crush	Cauterize
3	Crush	Immolate
4	Crush	Pass
5	Crush	Pass
6	Reflection	Conflagrate
7	Sandstorm	Cauterize
8	Crush	Immolate
9	Crush	Pass

Reflection and/or Sandstorm may be on cooldown depending on when Crimson dies. Save Reflection for Cauterize, use Sandstorm whenever it is up, and Crush when everything else is on cooldown.

vs Glowy:
You will attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Sandstorm or Crush	Confusing Sting
2	Switch to PLvlPet	Glowing Toxin
3	Switch to Anubisath Idol	Swarm
4	Reflection	Swarm
5	Sandstorm	Swarm
6	Crush	Swarm
7	Crush	Swarm
8	Crush	Swarm
9	Crush	Confusing Sting

As long as you keep Sandstorm up and let the power level pet soak the Glowing Toxins, it doesn't matter what attacks or level 25 pet you use. You will not take any damage.

Flowing Pandaren Spirit

This is the one pet tamer I don't try to use level one pets against. There is a bunch of back row damage and avoiding that damage requires Sandstorm and some luck. If and when I come up with a low variance strategy that allows level one pets I will add it to the guide.

Poor little Marley

This is a somewhat amusing fight because if done correctly poor little Marley never gets a single attack off. Any air with Lift Off should be able to accomplish that.

With regard to countering Tiptoe (the critter), Kun-Lai Runt is classy and pretty easy to get. I do think that anything with Rampage would make quick work of it. It is good to have Rampage to kill it quickly and avoid too many tidal waves. There is a pretty long list of pets that use rampage, and I suspect you could have success with most of them.

My Team:
Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling (take Peck and Lift Off)
Kun-Lai Runt (take Thrash, Mangle and Rampage)
Anything with more than 700 health
The more health your power level pet has the less risk of it dying to Tidal Waves. Sometimes Tidal Wave is cast as few as 3 times. Other times it can be cast as much as 8 times. 

Enemy Team:
Marley (aquatic)
Tiptoe (critter)
Pandaren Water Spirit (elemental)



vs Marley:

Start with Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling. You will attack first in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Peck	Whirlpool
2	Peck	Dive
3	Lift Off	Dive (miss)
4	Lift Off	Dead

If Lift Off misses just restart the fight. You will not have taken damage yet.


vs Tiptoe:
Tiptoe does not have a 100% predictable move set. In all cases your move set is the same. There will only be a 1 round difference depending on if and when it heals. You will attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Switch to Kun-Lai Runt	Water Jet or Tidal Wave
2	Rampage	Water Jet or Tidal Wave or Healing Wave
3	Rampage	Water Jet or Tidal Wave or Healing Wave
4	Rampage	Water Jet or Tidal Wave or Healing Wave
5	Thrash	Dead or Water Jet or Tidal Wave

Unless you miss, this will not go past round 5. If you miss just continue to Thrash.


vs Pandaren Water Spirit:
Continue using Kun-Lai Runt. You will attack second in all rounds.

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Mangle	Geyser
2	Thrash	Whirlpool
3	Rampage	Tidal Wave
4	Rampage	Tidal Wave (Whirlpool & Geyser hit)
Kun-Lai Runt will die at the end of this round. Select your power level pet.
5	Anything	Tidal Wave
6	Switch to Gryphon	Whirlpool
7	Peck	Geyser
8	Peck	Tidal Wave
9	Peck	Tidal Wave

Elemental should be dead by now. If not, use Lift Off as appropriate, if you have enough health to sustain the whirlpool hit, save lift off for the geyser to avoid being stunned.

Grand Master Shu (Dread Wastes)

This is a particularly easy fight. You'll want an air with Lift Off or Cocoon Strike and a mechanical with Decoy or Repair.


My Team:
Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling
Darkmoon Zeppelin
Power Level Pet

Enemy Team:
Crusher (aquatic)
Pounder (elemental)
Mutilator (beast)


vs Crusher:
Start with Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Peck	Renewing Mists
2	Squawk	Whirlpool
3	Peck	Surge
4	Lift Off	Surge
5	Lift Off (hit)	Surge (miss)
6	Peck	Dead

vs Pounder:
Continue with Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Squawk	Sandstorm
2	Peck	Rupture
3	Peck	Earthquake
4	Peck	Earthquake
5	Peck	Earthquake
6	Lift Off	Rupture (miss)
7	Lift Off (hit)	Dead or Sandstorm
If Lift Off misses, Gryphon will die, continue with Zeppelin
8	Missle	Earthquake
9	Missle	Earthquake
10	Decoy	Earthquake
11	Missle	Rupture (miss)
12	Missle	Sandstorm(miss)

If Gryphon does not miss on any round, Pounder will die in Round 7. Since Sandstorm is active, misses are common. The fight may continue on to round 12 or possibly longer if you are unlucky.

vs Mutilator:

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Switch to PLvlPet	Spiked Skin
2	Switch to Zeppelin	Powerball
3	Decoy	Powerball
4	Bombing Run	Powerball
5	Missle	Counterstrike
6	Missle	Spiked Skin
7	Missle	Powerball
8	Decoy	Powerball
9	Bombing Run	Powerball
10	Missle	Counterstrike

Because Sandstorm may still be active during the early rounds against Mutilator, there will be more misses than normal. Use Decoy and Bombing Run whenever they are off cooldown.

In this video I use Gryphon Hatchling which is a pet store pet.

Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling has a similar move set.

Thundering Pandaren Spirit

When Thundering Pandaren Spirit Tamer was first released, it was considered one of the most difficult tamers in the game. The boards were filled with ample "ZOMG ITS IMPOSIBLE BECUASE I DONT KNOW HOW TO BEAT IT NERF NERF NERF" threads on a daily basis. Sadly but not atypically, Blizzard gave in and nerfed it by making the 3rd pet easier. As it turns out, this had no effect on my strategy at all, because this is a tamer in which you only need to kill the first two pets.

Confused? Let me explain.


There is a wondrous ability found on all beetles and roaches called Apocalypse. This will bypass all avoidance mechanisms and one shot any pet, except for beetles and roaches. It takes 15 rounds for it to land, which means you have 15 rounds to kill the first 2 pets. This is ample time. Since roaches are critters, they take less damage from the elemental.

There are a few valid ways to beat the encounter with two pets but this is my favorite way and uses some of the more classy pets.

My Team:
Death's Head Cockroach (take Flank, Survival, Apocalypse)
Cogblade Raptor (take Batter, Screech, Expose Wounds)
Power-level Pet
There are no restrictions on the power level pet. It can be a level 1 of any time. It will not take any damage.

Note: Any cockroach with more than 300 speed works. There are lots of options, I just chose one with a cool name.

Enemy team:
Thundering Pandaren Spirit (elemental, 300 speed)
Sludgy (critter, 334 speed)
Darnak the Tunneler (beast, 300 speed)


The following battle sequence is an example what you can expect to encounter. Since skills like Flank have a random element, and all skills have a chance to miss, the amount of damage done per round is not predictable.

vs Thundering Pandaren Spirit:
Start with your Cockroach, you will attack first every round so the stuns will have no effect

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Flank	Crystal Prison
2	Flank	Rupture
3	Apocalypse	Stone Shot
4	Flank	Stone Shot
5	Flank	Stone Shot
6	Flank	Crystal Prison
7	Flank	Rupture (probably kills you)

You will most likely kill it sooner than round 7

vs Sludgy:

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Switch to Cogblade Raptor	Expunge
2	Expose Wounds	Creeping Ooze
3	Screech	Ooze Touch
4	Batter	Ooze Touch
5	Batter	Expunge
6	Batter	Creeping Ooze
7	Batter	Ooze Touch

There is a good chance Cogblade Raptor will die in round 5 or 6. Switch to cockroach if that happens. Cockroach will be faster thanks to Screech so it should be able to finish him off in one turn even if cockroach is low health.

vs Darnak the Tunneler:
By this point there should be 4 or less turns left on apocalypse.
Darnak does not do any damage until the 3rd round.
This is when you want to get your low level pet in there for experience credit

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Switch to PLvlPet	Stone Skin
2	Switch to Raptor or Roach	Burrow
3	Survival	Burrow (hit)
If using Raptor, just let it take the hit.  If using Cockroach make sure to get Survival off.  Cockroach must not die before apocalypse lands
4	Survival	Stone Rush

Some examples of this strategy:

Grand Master Zusshi (Townlong Steppes)

As mentioned in a previous post, snails are the bane of elementals. This fight is a good example of why.

Your other pet will want to be something that counters critters, air and has an avoidance ability. Typically I use Wind Rider Cub. Since that pet comes from the pet store I wanted to demonstrate this strategy with a more common and easy to get pet such as Dragonbone Hatchling.

My team:
Shimmershell Snail (take Ooze Touch, Acidic Goo, Dive)
Dragonbone Hatchling (take Thrash, Hawk Eye, Lift Off)
Power-level Pet
There are no restrictions on the power level pet. It can be a level 1 of any type. It will only take 75 damage (95 if mechanical).

Zusshi's Team
Diamond (elemental)
Mollus (critter)
Skimmer (aquatic)


vs Diamond:
Start with Shimmershell Snail

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Acidic Goo	Frost Nova
2	Dive	Howling Blast
3	Dive (hit)	Frost Shock (miss)
4	Ooze Touch	Frost Shock
5	Ooze Touch	Frost Nova

vs Mollus:
Continue with Shimmershell Snail

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Acidic Goo	Acidic Goo
2	Switch to Dragonbone Hatchling	Dive
3	Hawk Eye	Dive (hit)
4	Thrash	Absorb
5	Thrash	Absorb
6	Thrash	Acidic Goo
7	Thrash	Absorb

Mollus usually dies in in round 5 or 6

vs Skimmer:

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Thrash	Cleansing Rain
2	Switch to Shimmershell Snail	Soothe
3	Dive	Pump
4	Dive(hit)	Pump(miss)
5	Switch to PLvlPet	Pump
6	Switch to Shimmershell Snail	Pump(hit)
Shimmershell Snail dies to Pump. Use Dragonbone Hatchling
7	Thrash	Cleansing Rain
8	Thrash	Sleep
9	Lift Off	Pump
10	Lift Off (hit)	Pump(miss)
11	Thrash	Pump

If you do not kill it by round 11, you have gotten pretty unlucky with misses and will probably die in round 12.

I am abnormally lucky in this video but the strategy is the same

Same strategy with a different flying pet.

Grand Master Mo'ruk (Karasang Wilds)

As I alluded to in the first post, every Pandaria tamer can be defeated by two pets. Whats more interesting is that you can power-level a level one pet on all but two of the Pandaria tamers. The Pandaren Water Spirit and Pandaren Fire Spirit tamers do considerable back row damage making it impossible to keep a level one pet alive (it is theoretically possible but extremely unlikely that the Pandaren Fire Spirit tamer does no back row damage).


My team:
Darkmoon Zeppelin
Infinite Whelpling
Power-level Pet
There are no restrictions on the power level pet. It can be a level 1 of any type. It will not take any damage.

Mo'ruk's Team
Woodcarver (beast)
Lightstalker (flying)
Needleback (aquatic)


vs Woodcarver:
Start with Darkmoon Zeppelin

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Decoy	Acidic Goo
2	Switch to PLvLPet	Burrow
3	Switch to Zeppelin	Burrow (miss)
4	Bombing Run	Consume (miss)
5	Missle	Pass
6	Missle	Acidic Goo
7	Decoy	Consume
8	Pass	Burrow
9	Missle	Burrow (miss)

Important note: You could kill Woodcarver in round 7 instead of casting Decoy. It is better to take a Consume hit and get Decoy up so that Moth Dust is blocked.


vs Lightstalker:

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Bombing Run	Moth Dust (miss)
2	Switch to Infinite Whelpling	Moth Balls
3	Early Advantage	Alpha Strike
4	Healing Flame	Alpha Strike
5	Tail Sweep	Moth Dust
6	Tail Sweep	Moth Balls
7	Tail Sweep	Alpha Strike

vs Needleback:

Round	Your Move	Enemy Move
1	Early Advantage	Grasp
2	Healing Flame	Headbutt

Infinite Whelpling might die in round 2 depending on how much damage was taken against Lightstalker.
If Infinite Whelpling is still alive, Tail Sweep and Healing Flame until whelp or turtle dies.
If whelp dies, finish turtle with zeppelin.
Be sure to time Decoy so that it blocks charge.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense (Essential Pets)

...but its even better to have a good offense and defense. A well known fact about presenting a information is that if you have a chart, graph or table to back it up, it automatically becomes correct.

Tamer	Aqu	Bea	Cri	Dra	Ele	Fly	Mag	Mec	Und
Vale	1			1		1
Valley		1			2
Karasang	1	1				1
Dread	1	1			1
Town	1		1		1
Kun-Lai		1	1			1
Jade	1	1				1
Earth		1	1		1
Air			1	1	1
Water	1		1		1
Fire				1	1	1
Uldum		1	1			1
Icecrown		1			1			1
Shadowmoon				1	1		1
Winterspring		1		1		1
Deadwind					1				2
Darkmoon		1					1	1
Totals	6	10	6	5	11	7	2	2	2

The purpose of this table is to show that some pet types are represented far more often than others. For this reason it makes sense to make sure to have some solid counters to the ones you will face most often.

Countering Elementals

As seen in the chart, you will be fighting more elementals than anything else. Most of the elementals are particularly nasty and have the potential to do high damage. Fortunately there is a very strong counter to elementals: the mighty snail.

Snails have a lot going for them. For starters they are critters, which means elementals do weak damage against them. They have Acidic Goo, which is a damage over time ability that boosts their attack damage by 25%. The main reason snails are better than other critters is their Dive ability. Dive is a very high damage aquatic attack, made even higher by the bonus damage given from Acidic Goo. Aquatic attacks are strong against elemental. All of this combined means that Dive can hit elementals for over 1100 damage. Lastly, Dive allows you to avoid most attacks if timed correctly.

There are five easily obtainable snails available. There is only one type available with extra power. Snails are naturally slow so trying to get a snail with increased speed is ineffective. Even a S/S will be slower than all of the tamer pets. Power is best because the extra power will help kill an enemy a hit earlier in many cases.  The I started out with was Silkbead Snail. They are found in Pandaria and can be captured at lvl 24, meaning you only have to level them from 22 to 25. Eventually I switched to using a Shimmershell snail because it is the only snail that can have extra power.

Effective options include:

• Rusty snail
• Shimmershell snail
• Scooter the snail
• Silkbead Snail
• Rapana Whelk

Countering Beasts

Should have used Decoy

Beasts are the next most common enemy you will face when fighting tamers. Beasts take extra damage from mechanical attacks and their attacks are weak against flying. As far as I know there are no flying that do mechanical damage. I prefer to go with mechanical pets and kill them fast. For a long time I used Mini Thor and Landro's Lil XT. More recently I realized that Darkmoon Zeppelin is amazing.

Of the 10 beasts that you have to face, 7 of them have high damage abilities with 3 or 4 round cool-downs like Burrow or Rampage. Zeppelin has two attacking abilities with good damage. What makes the zeppelin a great choice is Decoy. Using decoy you can prevent the beasts from landing their high damage attacks. This allows you to finish it off with most of your health intact.

Most mechanical pets do very well against beast so I would not call Darkmoon Zeppelin a must have but it will certainly make things easier for you. It is worth noting that Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling has almost the same move set as Zeppelin.

Countering Flying

Even Strong Mad can counter flying

Flying is very easy to counter. Flying attacks are weak against dragonkin, and some dragonkin have magic attacks which are strong against flying. This makes them hard counters and very effective. My best results have come from using Infinite Whelpling. Early advantage can dish out huge damage, particularly after you kill the flying and attack the next pet with the 50% bonus damage from dragonkin racial passive. Infinite whelpling can be somewhat difficult to obtain but it is worth the effort. If you don't have one, there are many other dragonkin that can be effective.



Countering Aquatic

Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a fish like a bird circling in for the kill. Aquatic pets take extra damage from flying attacks. Aquatic attacks are weak against Magic.

There is one hard counter to aquatic: Jade Owl

Whether to use Jade Owl or a flying is up to you. I actually only just now discovered Jade Owl as a result of writing this blog. I do plan to try it out and expect it to work well. That said, aquatic is easily countered by most flying. The main thing I have always focused on was the skills available to the flying. It is important to have a good damaging ability and an ability that can avoid attacks. Most flying pets meet these two requirements.

Damaging abilities: Peck, Slicing Wind
Avoidance abilities: Lift Off, Cocoon Strike

My primary flying pet has been Gryphon Hatchling



Countering Critters

Critters attacks are weak against Humanoid, and some humanoids have beast attacks which are strong against critters. This makes them an effective hard counter most of the time. It is worth noting that there are many critters that have non-critter attacks so there isn't one pet that will hard counter every type of critter.

There are two types of critter counters I use.

For most critters I use Flayer Youngling. Kun-Lai Runt is also a very strong and easier to acquire pet.
For critters with Swarm or equivalent abilities, I prefer to use turtles. Most turtles have beast attacks and Shell Shield which completely negates all swarm damage.


Countering Everything else

The rest of the counters do not really have what I would consider must have pets so I will just talk about them briefly when they come up in the individual tamer guides.