"Howl Bomb" Team

Recently I did a post on How to Defeat Lil' Oondasta 5.4 and used a team I referred to as the "Howl Bomb" team. Since that post I got a few emails asking to either explain the team or if any other pets could be used in place of the specific pets I used in the video. So a huge thanks to everyone that commented and took the time to write me, this post is for you!

Its a fairy simple team that is comprised of 3 pets. Only 1 of these 3 pets is really required for the team and the other 2 are up to you they only have a few moves that are required to get this combo off.

The purpose of this team is to do a shit ton of burst damage to a single pet, It was first brought up back when the beasts of fable had 4-5k health pools but when they nerfed the health of them in a patch and gave them the obligatory "takes 50% less Damage from all attacks" it was a lot less required. It was still useful and I will use it to make my life easier for any fight where I am fighting a single pet.

With the Celestial Tournament added in Patch 5.4, this team has been brought up on most of the pet battle forums again as an answer to the fights that have a single pet structure.

First let me start with the team set up that I use and afterwards I will give you suggestions on pets you can replace with the one I choose if you don't have access to the exact same team.

Crawling Claw (P/S)
Agony
Death Grip
Curse of Doom

Panderan Water Spirit (H/S)
Water Jet
Whirlpool
Geyser

Lil' Bad Wolf (P/P) or (S/S)
Counter Strike
Dodge
Howl


The Panderan Water Spirit is the pet that is required and the slot 2 and 3 abilities have to be Whirlpool and Geyser. Slot 1 is up to you I use Water Jet because the other option is Tidal Wave and if you are fighting a single pet fight, the ability to do damage to back-line pet is useless.

The Lil' Bad Wolf is my second pet, the pet for this slot has only one requirement, it has to have Howl. If you do a search for the Howl ability you will notice that there are 11 pets with this ability so any of them will do. Keep in mind that you still want a strong pet in this slot so chose the pet with Howl that has the best synergy with your team and also bring other good choices to the table.

If the other pet is faster then your choice for the pet you pick for Howl then you may not get that ability off in time for Curse of Doom, the fix for that is to sub in a Fox Kit. This is the fastest dog with the Howl ability and it will make sure that the round that Curse of Doom is going off you will get Howl up so it also benifits from the 100% increased damage buff.

• Stitched Pup - Cheap on Auction House or a blast to Farm him from Gluth.
• Core Hound Pup - If you have an authenticator you have him in your journal.
• Chrominius - Cheap on Auction House

Last Pet slot is taken by one of my favorite pets, Crawling Claw. The pet in this slot only needs to have Curse of Doom, but by far the Crawling Claw has a lot of utility besides only bringing Curse of Doom. Agony and Death Grip are great abilities and work well with this team. There are 9 pets that have Curse of Doom in their ability choices, most are Undead and the rest are Magic. If I had to replace this pet with another I would say it would have to be with one of the 3 other pets;

• Lesser Voidcaller - Can be bought.
• Lofty Libram - Easy to catch, cant be bought.
• Unborn Val'kyr - A pain in the ass to get but worth the effort.

Regardless of which combination of pets you went with you cant put this set up in play and watch the carnage. It's very simple;

Round 1: Open with Crawling Claw - cast Curse of Doom
Round 2: Swap in Pandaren Water Spirit - Cast Geyser
Round 3: Cast Whirlpool
Round 4: Swap in Little Bad Wolf - Cast Howl

The idea is that Curse of Doom is a 4 round ability so casting it first will have it go off when everything else is going off, Geyser is a 3 round ability and Whirlpool is 2 rounds the last pet it will cast Howl and that will increase the damage taken by the enemy pet by 100% so you should be looking at around 2k -2.5k and if you get lucky and any of them critical strike you are set. If your opponent is not dead the Howl buff is still good for one more round so it will double the attack. Additionally you will get the extra hit against a stunned opponent as long as they aren't a critter, thanks to changes in 5.4 critters are now immune to all stuns and root effects.

One thing to remember is to make sure the pet that you have to apply the Howl ability has to be faster so that when you swap out the Pandaren Water Spirit and bring that pet in you don't lose the turn due to speed. If you don't have a faster pet than your opponent then Curse of Doom will go off before you get to buff it with Howl.

This isn't really practical in PVP or against PVE teams with 3 pets but it is fun as hell against single pet teams. It's quick and over in 4 rounds 90% of the time.


Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.

5.4 Pet Battle Changes

Pet Battle General

• Round timers in PvP Pet Battles will now get progressively shorter for a player who takes more than 15 seconds to issue a command during their turn.
• Players are now able to trade in any 3 of the same family specific Flawless Battle-Stones for a single Marked Flawless Battle-Stone.
• Viewable pet battles will now display working health bars.
• Battle Pet levels are now only shown on the map if you are tracking Battle Pets.
• Battle Pet Training cost and the price of pets sold by Battle Pet Trainers have been greatly reduced.
• Any Battle Pet that could be awarded from a Throne of Thunder boss on Raid Finder difficulty can now be won from a bonus roll, in addition to the standard bonus roll reward.

Family Changes

• Aquatic type's passive effect now reduces damage from damage-over-time effects by 50%, up from 25%.
• Critter type's passive effect now makes critters immune to roots, stuns, and sleep effects.
• Dragonkin type's passive effect now activates after an attack brings a target's to below 50% health, up from 25%. Deal 50% additional Damage on the next round after bringing their target’s health below 50%
• Elemental type's passive effect now only affects negative direct effects of weather. (E.g. Sandstorm's accuracy reduction won't be applied, but the damage reduction will.)
• Magic type's passive effect now caps damage taken at 35% of maximum health, up from 40%.

Battle Pets

• Darkmoon Zeppelin: Several abilities have swapped positions.
• Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling: Several abilities have swapped positions.
• Tiny Twister: The Sandstorm ability has been replaced with Call Lightning.

Battle Pet Abilities

• Battle Pet abilities with a component that increases in damage every time it hits will no longer reset when an opponent's pet gets swapped. (Arcane Blast, Frog Kiss, etc.)
• Accuracy now affects the entire team.
• Call Lightning's duration has been reduced to 5 rounds (down from 9 rounds), and cool down has been increased to 5 rounds (up from 3 rounds).
• Dark Simulacrum has been replaced with a new ability, Rot. Rot deals Undead damage and temporarily turns the enemy pet's type into Undead.
• Death Grip cool down increased to 4 rounds (up from 3 rounds), damage has been reduced by 50%, and hit chance has been reduced to match similar abilities.
• Nether Gate damage has been reduced by 33%.
• Sandstorm's duration has been reduced to 5 rounds (down from 9 rounds), and cool down has been increased to 5 rounds (up from 3 rounds).
• Sweep damage has been reduced by 33%.
• Trihorn Charge damage has been reduced by 11.5% and now has a 1-round cool down.
• Trihorn Shield now displays the correct amount of damage reduction.

Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.

How to Defeat Lil' Oondasta

Since today was the first day of the Patch 5.4 - Siege of Orgrimmar most of you are going there to fight in the Celestial Tournament. Beside where the quest is for the Celestial Tournament there is an NPC named Little Tommy Newcomer who has a daily account challenge for you. The daily is to defeat a pet called lil' Oondasta. This pet is a legendary in every sense of the word. He will eat your face if your not careful. It took me 2 tries to be him with my Howl Bomb team. I figure I would share this strategy since I haven't seen one out there yet.

The quest is called - "Defeat Little Tommy Newcomer" It will reward you with 19 gold and 500 Timeless Coins and can be done once a day per account.

You need the following pets with these abilities queued in each slot;

Crawling Claw (P/S)

• Agony
• Death Grip
• Curse of Doom

Pandaren Water Spirit (H/S)

• Water Jet
• Whirlpool
• Geyser

Lil' Bad Wolf (P/P)

• Counter Strike
• Dodge
• Howl

lil' Oondasta has these 3 abilities in the chamber and all of them hit like a truck; Spitfire Beam, Frill Blast & Crush.

To start the fight you want to open with the Crawling Claw and cast Curse of Doom, then he will get owned by lil' Oondasta. Next pet up is the Pandaren Water Spirit, cast Geyser and then Whirlpool. Finally bring out Lil' Bad Wolf and cast Dodge, this would will be faster so you will get an extra round of Dodge for free. Lil' Oondasta will miss and you will cast Howl. After that just watch the carnage unfold. If Geyser, Whirlpool, and Curse of Doom don't kill him, he will be stunned and Counter Strike will do him in the next round. Win.

You can read a longer version of the Howl Bomb Team where it take a bit more time to explain the dynamics of this team for when you are fighting single pet adversaries. This team can be used on other legendary pet fights in the Celestial Tournament.

Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.

Best Add-Ons for Pet Battles

I tried to narrow this list down to only 3 but after a lot of thought I realized that there are 4 add-ons that I cant be without. If anyone of these add-ons are not working I am dead in the water when it comes to my daily routine when it comes to pet battling in the World of Warcraft.

Battle Pet Binds - This is a very light weight add-on that is only used for displaying the keys that you can hit instead of clicking with your mouse. I use this when I am recording the pet battles for the posts I write and publish both here and on YouTube. I also get lazy and when I am doing 2 or 3 dozen PVP matches in a row I like to be able to just use the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Battle Pet BreedID - This is also very light weight and it puts the breed beside the pets in the AH, Pet Battle UI, and in your pet journal. Knowing the breeds of your pets cannot be understated, so this add-on is defiantly a "must have".

Pet Battle Teams - If you have multiple teams you use for dailies or PVP you need something to keep them. This add-on will save team builds and the moves you chose for each pet based on what was selected when you locked the team. With out this add-on I would be relying on memory or keeping some type of written record, neither of which are good for your sanity.

Pet Tracker - This is the largest most involved add-on that i use, it will show you way more information than you need but is one of the best "all-in-one" add-on out there and EVERY pet battler should have this add-on. There are a lot of guides out there to show you how to use this add-on. Josh Augustine has a great review of this add-on at his site and there is an episode of his podcast where he talks about the Pros and Cons of using Pet Tracker.

Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.

Defeating the Burning Pandaren Spirit Tamer

This strategy is set up to be able to kill all three of the enemy pets with two pets and carry another along for the ride to level. This daily yields about 5500 XP (with Safari Hat equipped). The main reason this strategy works is because the AI for these NPCs is predicable. I do this on a daily basis for the Bag of Loot, Pet XP, and a little bit of gold. This is one of three of these Pandaren spirits that you can carry a pet along to level with. Check out the strategy posts I wrote for the Flowing Pandaren Spirit, the Thundering Pandaren Spirit and the Whispering Pandaren Spirit.

The Location

The Burning Pandaren Spirit Tamer is located in the norther tip of Townlong Steppes. The closest flight point to him would be Longying Outpost located to the Southeast of his position.

The Daily Quest

You will pick up the quest – Defeat the Burning Pandaren Spirit from him at his location. Upon completion, this quest will reward you with:

11 or 19 gold (depending on your level)
Pandaren Spirit Pet Supplies
5 x Valor Points
2 x Lesser Charm of Good Fortune

The Fix

You can generally carry a pet of level 10 or higher with this tamer. The pets that are doing all the heavy lifting are what i have always used with success, Harbinger of Flame and Tiny Blue Carp. The Harbinger of Flame is the only one I would say was Required for this strategy but I have heard of pet battlers using Anubisath Idol as a replacement. The Tiny Blue Carp on the other hand is interchangeable with a few other pets, the only requirement is that the pet you change him out with needs to have Surge and Pump available in its moves set. You will need both of these abilities to pull this off with the strategy.

I did a quick search and found 4 suitable replacements for the Tiny Blue Carp:

Fishy

Purple Puffer

Sea Pony

Tiny Goldfish

Lets assume you have the same to pets I use in the video, you want to set them up like so;

 
Pet Slot 1             Carry Pet (must be able to survive 900 damage and do 300 combined damage)

Pet Slot 2             Harbinger of Flame (P/S): Jab > Magma Wave > Impale
Pet Slot 3             Tiny Blue Carp (H/B): Surge > Healing Stream > Pump

The Fight

Crimson - Abilities: Breath > Cyclone > Flyby

When the fight starts you want to open with your Harbinger of Flame, the first 2 moves you cast will be Magma Wave. The first one will clear the Cyclone off the field and the second will just do damage to the pets in the back line. Your next move will be Jab and then another Jab and that should kill the first enemy pet.

Pandaren Fire Spirit - Abilities: Conflagrate > Immolate > Cauterize

The next pet up will be the Pandaren Fire Spirit. His first move will be an early nuke he casts and will most likely kill your Harbinger of Flame, that's fine because that's all you needed him to do. The next pet you move to the front line is the Tiny Blue Carp, This pet will need to charge Pump then do 2 Surges back-to-back. After the second Surge unleash your stored charge of Pump, this will kill him.

Glowy - Abilities: Swarm > Confusing Sting > Glowing Toxin

The last pet out will be Glowy, your Tiny Blue Carp will be OK for health for now but after the glow fly stacks his damage over time poisons on it you will have limited time to beat him. Depending on how much heath you have left you will use the same rotation you just used on the Pandaren Fire Spirit, Pump, Surge, Surge, Pump. If by some chance one of those surges is a critical strike you may want to skip the Pump and just Surge one last time before you die so you don't kill him without having a chance to get your carry pet into the fight. Once the Glowy is down to under 300 heath swap in the carry pet and finish him off. You want the ability to that you use on your carry pet to do damage and as much of it as possible, don't bother with damage over time or heals, go strait for the throat because he will be using Swarm by now and that damage will get heavier and adds up fast.


Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.

PVP Team Spotlight: Team 1

This post is attached to the six fights I recorded and uploaded to YouTube. I have to say that the time involved in doing this was massive but I think the videos will help people see what I am talking about in the post better. This team is very accessible to most players and I'm sure you could substitute breeds or other pets for the same end result.

I picked out one of the teams that I use on a regular basis and recorded six consecutive fights and narrated them. the team I used was comprised of;

Giant Bone Spider (P/S)
Slot 1: Poison Spit
Slot 2: Siphon Life
Slot 3: Death Grip

Oily Slimeling (H/H)
Slot 1: Absorb
Slot 2: Corrosion
Slot 3: Acidic Goo

Zandalari Kneebiter (S/S)
Slot 1: Hunting Party
Slot 2: Black Claw
Slot 3: Bloodfang

I use the same basic strategy and it seems to work 90% of the time. I open with the Giant Bone Spider and on the first pet I cast Siphon Life, then Death Grip. when the next pet is pulled to the front line i will cast Siphon Life then Poison Spit until Death Grip is off cool-down. I will repeat this until my Giant Bone spider is killed.

The next pet I put in is the Oily Slimeling. I first get his 2 dots going, Acidic Goo then Corrosion. after the dots are on the opponent I'll spam Absorb. Absorb does damage then heals your slimeling for an equal amount. When the dots are falling off I will refresh them both and go back to spamming Absorb until the slimeling is killed.

If those 2 pets don't finish the match, you have the Zandalari Kneebiter for cleanup. the Zandalari Kneebiter needs to cast Black Claw first then cast Hunting Party. If by some odd chance that doesn't end the match then you can refresh Black Claw and cast Bloodfang.

Here is a list of the 6 videos showing how I use this team;

 

 

So far this is the team I use each week to knock out my What We've Been Training For weekly done quickly, this quest requires you to win 10 PVP pet battles using the "find Battle" feature in your pet journal.

Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.

Defeating the Thundering Pandaren Spirit Tamer

This strategy is set up to be able to kill all three of the enemy pets with two pets and carry another along for the ride to level. This daily yields about 4600 XP (with Safari Hat equipped). The main reason this strategy works is because the AI for these NPCs is predicable. I do this on a daily basis for the Bag of Loot, Pet XP, and a little bit of gold. This is one of three of these Pandaren spirits that you can carry a pet along to level with. Check out the strategy posts I wrote for the Flowing Pandaren Spirit, the Burning Pandaren Spirit and the Whispering Pandaren Spirit.

The Location

The Thundering Pandaren Spirit is Located in Kun-Lai summit just North East of the Shrine of Two Moons.

The Daily Quest

You will pick up the quest – Defeat the Thundering Pandaren Spirit from him at his location. Upon completion, this quest will reward you with:

11 or 19 gold (depending on your level)
Pandaren Spirit Pet Supplies
5 x Valor Points
2 x Lesser Charm of Good Fortune

The Fix

Here is the set up you will need to have in order to roll over this fight;

Pet Slot 1             Carry Pet (must be able to survive a 600 damage attack)

Pet Slot 2             Alpine Hare (any rabbit w/ 300+ Speed): Flurry > Dodge > Burrow
Pet Slot 3             Lil’ Smoky:  Missile > Toxic Smoke > Sticky Grenade

The Fight

Pandaren Earth Spirit - Abilities: Crystal Prison > Rupture > Stone Shot

Start out with your carry pet. The Pandaren Earth Spirit will cast Crystal Prison first so your first move will be a pass. His second attack will be Rupture which will deal about 500-550 damage to your carried pet. So, the carry pet needs to have enough health to withstand a hit. Switch in your rabbit and use Burrow to avoid one Stone Shot . Next use Flurry for two turns, then use Dodge to avoid the Rupture in and also the following Stone Shot . Use Flurry once, and then start again with Burrow, rinsing and repeating till the Earth Spirit is dead.

So here is the sequence you will use repeatedly no matter what the enemy pet does;

Burrow >> Flurry >> Flurry >> Dodge >> Flurry (RR)

Don’t worry if your Rabbit is very low on health, he will not get hit again during the rest of this fight.

Sludgy - Abilities: Creeping Ooze > Expunge > Ooze Touch

Mechanicals take less damage from 2 out of 3 of Sludgy's attacks, and when possessing Beast type ability, can put out a lot of damage to get him down quick.

When Sludgy comes out, switch to your mechanical. I will start with Sticky Grenade then Toxic Smoke. Keep using Missile until Toxic Smoke wears off then refresh it, if he isn’t dead by this point he will be by the first Missile attack. For this fight all the mechanical pet you use has to do is kill this enemy pet. It’s fine if you mechanical pet dies as long as Sludgy is dead as well.

Darnak the Tunneler - Abilities: Stoneskin > Burrow > Stone Rush

Switch your rabbit back in as soon as Darnak comes out; he will do Stoneskin when you swap. Next use Flurry for one round, and when Darnak submerges, use Dodge, which avoids not only the Burrow, but also the following Stone Rush after he emerges. Continue with Flurry for the next 2 turns, the second Flurry will not be answered back because by this point he has no abilities that are off cool down for him to use. Finally use Burrow   which avoids Stone Rush. Now rinse and repeat until he is dead.

This sequence is a bit different from the sequence you used to kill the Pandaren Earth Spirit  but if you use this sequence of attacks use repeatedly you won’t take a single point of damage and will kill the last pet in this fight;

Flurry >> Dodge >> Flurry >> Flurry >> Burrow (RR)

Check out the Warcraft Pet Battles Reddit if you want access to some of the best posts out there about Pet Battling in the World of Warcraft. Subscribe to the Eviscerated Gaming Podcast at eviscerated.net and the YouTube Channel for more videos. Follow the show on Twitter @eviscerated_GP and you can Follow me @r9sid9nt9vil.