Monthly Archives: December 2013

Anubisath Idol

Let’s talk about this OP jerk.

I’m sorry, was that overly prejudicial and just a tiny bit bitter? The reason, as a dedicated pet battle blogger, I kind of hate this pet is because its moveset gives it a bunch of utility unparalleled in nearly any other pet. If I write a walkthrough somebody frequently chimes in with, ‘I just use the Idol.’ Well, unless it’s an encounter better served by using the Pandaren Water Spirit which–don’t even get me started.

If you’ve read through the archives here and are familiar with the blog a bit, you’ll know that my style of guide is somewhat wordy. I usually describe a fight, my tactics, and make suggestions of types of moves across a number of pets to counter a tamer’s strategy. My aim is that you’ll be able to find a solution to a tamer’s puzzle with what you have in your stable already, even if you need to level it a bit. As such, you’ll frequently see phrases like, “a damage shield” or “avoidance move” or “a pet with some kind of weather.” The reason I engaged in that bit of baldfaced bias earlier is because this pet? This pet has all three of those.

The Anubisath Idol has Stoneskin (damage shield), it has Sandstorm (weather, and ersatz damage shield to boot), and it has Deflection (avoid). There really isn’t another pet with this kind of utility. A snail may come close, but the function of the more difficult to time Dive makes it so that you’re still somewhat vulnerable to certain counters and definitely to most DoTs, while Deflection is a straightup dodge everything move. Also, the Humanoid Anubisath has very few weakness in the current tamer battles while Critters generally get eaten alive on the regular. As a result, the Anubisath Idol can stand in on nearly any of the Pandaria tamer battles without blinking an eye. I’ve seen a few walkthroughs floating around claiming that you can carry a pet on all of the Pandaria tamers with him and one other battle pet.

His one Achilles heel is that his offensive accuracy is a bit low. His highest accuracy offensive move, Crush, is a base 80% hit chance. If you happen to choose Sandstorm, its accuracy hit means this plummets further to 70%. His other main offensive move Demolish shares that slot, and hits ludicrously hard but has an extremely low base 50% chance to hit, making it generally a poor choice prone to RNG woes. To round out the moveset, also RNG-heavy, is Rupture, with a 25% chance to stun. This shares a slot with Deflection, generally making Rupture not worth it.

His model is a fun, unique one, straight out of AQ40, which is where he drops. You can also buy him off your friendly neighborhood AH, but he tends to be on the pricier side because he is so invaluable as a fighter. He is also a part of the Raiding With Leashes achievement, making him one of many necessary to obtain in order to get Mr. Bigglesworth. Bigglesworth has a lot of good utility himself, with some avoids and a stun or two, but it’s not the near-universal utility the Anubisath has.

Guys, I’d tell you to go nab this pet ASAP but really, this guy’s utility is so good that he’s kinda putting me out of a job here. So if you love me and want to keep reading, please make like Nancy Reagan and say no to this teeny juggernaut.

…Please?

Pet Battles 101 – A Beginner Guide

Rotten Little Helper

Hyuna Of The Shrines

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6.0 Update: This strategy is still fully functional for level 1 carries against Hyuna. It’s also now functional for an Elekk Carry as a step in the achievement An Awfully Big Adventure.

Depending on your journey through Pandaria, this is either one of the most idyllic pet battles around, or one of the most depressing, making it an absolute must to complete before we continue on to unbroken Draenor.

Well, some of the ‘must do’ status is also because you can carry a level 1 pet here, but that’s so much less poetic.

The Feline Familiar is, as addressed on the blog before, a very unique battle pet. I like using mine here because of the magic damage against Hyuna’s first battle pet Skyshaper, a Flyer. As long as you use a pet with Stoneskin or something like it (even Sandstorm) you’re good to go. I really like using my Emerald Whelpling with Emerald Presence here, and that may be a better choice, but it’s a bit less attainable than the Feline so I chose to highlight the latter. I’ve even used my Emperor Crab in this carry strategy successfully, even though he takes extra damage from everything Skyshaper dishes out. I’d recommend staying away from the aquatics in general though.

The Gilnean Raven can be swapped with many different flying pets too, but the anti-healing effect of Darkness combined with the Raven’s strong offense makes her my #1 pick here. Lastly, the placement of the pets is important, as we’ll be sending in that level 1 Marionette late in the match.

The reason for the shield ability is clear fairly quickly. All of Skyshaper’s abilities are small hits, and it’s also packing DoTs. As long as you keep that shield up you’ll make it through no problem.

Fangor is a fairly standard snake, and you should make it through at least half of his life with your first pet. He’ll Burrow early on though. If you’re having trouble and just want the bag, I’d recommend a mechanical here, with a but. You’ll be able to summarily mow down this snake with say, a Clockwork Gnome, but the fight really starts once you get to Dor the Wall so you need to choose your moves carefully.

Dor has a big heal and uses a Shell Shield of his own. The very first time I did this fight, I blasted through the first two pets in under 10 turns, but the entire fight lasted over 150. I was using my usual anchor, the Emperor Crab, with his own heals and Shell Shield.

The heal is why the Gilnean Raven, with its Call Darkness heal counter, shines here. Because of the shield, you’ll want to stay away from multi-hits, like Moth Balls, in favor of large ones, like Moth Dust.

Dor’s 3rd ability, his only offensive one, is Headbutt, which is where that level 1 carry comes in. Headbutt is on a 4-round cooldown, so once he performs it the first time, you have 3 rounds to swap in that level 1 pet with no risk. With a Safari hat, he’ll be level 11 after you win.

Hopefully in far fewer than 150 rounds.

Skywisp Moth

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Recently, I’ve launched onto an impromptu project, working out a way to do the Celestial Tournament with only tamed battle pets. It’s rather hit or miss thus far. This little moth, added in 5.4, is fairly instrumental in my strategy for that.

Don’t let its cute, glowing particle effect fool you. It has a very unique combination of abilities which turns him into a veritable beast killer.

Taming one is a bit of a challenge. In order to get to the spawns, you have to be able to access the Timeless Isle. I’d also suggest going on a character with a bit of offensive firepower and some kind of slowfall or a Goblin Glider. A mage is really excellent.

In order to access these guys you’ll need to hitch a ride on an albatross.

It’s not a very, let’s say, pleasant proposition for your character, especially since those albatrosses like to take their sweet time sauntering their feathery behinds around, but doing so is fairly key for accessing several different things on the Isle. Once I get past the areas with a lot of player foot traffic I usually try to get the albatross down so that just a couple of hits will kill it, because if you overshoot your target it’s quite the pain in the behind. You may need to do this several times to get the breed or rarity you’d like too.

The reason for the slowfall is that there are only 2 ways down. Either hitch another long, circuitous ride with another albatross, or jump.

The reward is worth it. This is one of the best pets to kill Beasts, bar none. Aside from the largely unattainable Dragon Kite ($80 USD or so on ebay at the time of this post) this is the only Flying pet with a mechanical ability, making it both offensively and defensively strong against beasts. This guy is particularly suited to go up against Xufu because his Cocoon Strike ability can be timed to intercept either Xufu’s Feed or the enormous first hit of Moonlight. Many moths have Cocoon, but lack the offensive firepower to beat Xufu down before his next Feed. Call Lightning is a game changer.

For Xufu and this tamed-pets-only project specifically I’m pairing him up with the very few mechanical tames that are out there. So very, very few tames. A fast Cogblade Raptor with Exposed Wounds and Batter in particular makes for a really nice combo. Were I not limited to only tames I’d also strongly suggest the Clockwork Gnome, a long-time favorite here at the Roundup to pair with Call Lightning.

If you’re using the Call Lightning ability I highly recommend using the Moth’s multi-hit Slicing Wind over Reckless Strike. Call Lightning shares a slot with Moth Dust, which has a chance to stun. It’s a decent ability, and it’s also key in many strategies which use other moths, making this particular moth kind of a 2-for-1 battle pet.

A fun ability which isn’t quite as functional in the situation I’m planning for here is Counterspell. Because it doesn’t ‘silence’ the ability along the lines of Nevermore, or even put it on cooldown, Xufu will just Moonfire or Feed on his next turn. Sometimes this delay is excellent strategy but here it’s far better to just absorb it.

Beyond the battle mechanics, for me personally this little guy will be an excellent companion as I make my way into Warlords of Draenor. With the ban on flight until 6.1, he will be an excellent reminder of the times I took to the sky and flew among the stars.