Unsung heroes 1 - Lazeebow

Happy Friday folks! Today I am starting a small collection of posts about my 'unsung heroes'. My monk is obviously my main toon and I love her dearly, however I also raid on a few other toons, some of which have contributed to guild boss kills, and I felt like giving them some love and credit, as you know I am somewhat of an alt-aholic, and seeing as my monk takes the limelight on the blog I thought it was time to properly introduce you to some of my other babies...I mean toons...ahem. 

So, for this post, ditch your brew, grab your guns, crossbows and your favorite companions, and meet Lazeebow....

It starts....

Lazeebow is my hunter, he's a loveable cuddly Pandaren with a flair for outrageous outfits, a passion for food, alchemy and is also a skilled engineer. Incidently Lazeebow has gone through some rather drastic changes since I rolled him. He was actually born a female goblin called Snoopscout, I rolled this class/race combo to help out my old guild with the stay classy goblin achievement. For all intents and purposes, she was never meant to go past 85, however, spurred on by the prospect of cooler pets being available at 90, I maxed her out, collected a few pets, then left her while I started to level other toons. After a while she went through a race change and became a female orc called Mogdurz - named after the female orc that works in the Gloombound Mine in Skyrim. However I still never played her, and one day while boredom was getting the better of me, I wondered what could possibly want to make me actually play my hunter. Being particularly fond of the male Pandaren I race changed yet again and renamed him Lazeebow, the name was just something that popped into my head at the time while i was thinking about his lore (I like to have a little story behind all my toons). 


Lore.

Lazeebow was born and raised near HalfHill, his parents were tragically killed by a rampaging mushan when he was young, so he was taken in by the Tillers, who raised him, and put him to work. He was content like this for many years, he worked hard on the farm, helped out at the market, gave people rides to nearby farms, and was a generally well known and loved figure. His pet tiger Cringer was never far away from him, although she was really his only friend. Although he was known by many, he never really had any special person to call his own, and often felt like something of an outcast, it never really bothered him too much, but he always wondered if there was something more out there for him than being a farmer. 
     As a rather portly chap, he was very fond of his food, he met other hunters that stopped by the market, all of them slim, agile creatures, with grace and poise. Even as a very skilled hunter himself, he had about as much grace as mushan, and slim was not a word he ever wanted to associate with himself. Some of them ridiculed him for his size, however he took it all in good humour, in fact, he never got flustered about anything, true to his name, he was one of the laziest Pandaren you would ever come across, although he loved to help people, his favourite activities involved sleeping and sitting in quiet contemplation as the world went about its business. He had adopted this mantra from a wise old brewer by the name of Chen Stormstout, whom he first met as a small cub himself. He had attempted to lasso one of the giant cranes that roamed the skies just outside halfhill, which of course had gone wrong and ended up with him running for his life, even after the giant bird had given up the chase, he kept running, and eventually bumped into Chen, who gave a huge belly laugh and looked down at him and spoke the words that would stick with him forever...
    "Slow down...life is to be savoured".
   After many years Lazee was helping out at the market one day when an orc in some incredibly flashy armor approached the stall he was selling bread from. As usual Lazee chatted away, introducing himself and talking about how wonderful Halfhill was, and offering the orc a taste of the fresh bread. However it wasn't long before he had to ask about the orc's armor, it was red and black, and had spikey shoulders that looked very fearsome, he was wielding two huge swords, with red and black hilts and some glimmering red runes engraved on the blades. It was all very impressive. The orc informed him that he was a mighty warrior, and he was gathering up supplies to visit orgrimmar and compete in the Brawlers Guild. Lazeebow had never heard of such a thing, so he probed the orc with more questions, and discovered that it was a tournament, where entrants had to vanquish many foes, in order to claim the honor and prestige of being the best. What interested him most however was the prize, a mushan beast that he could ride around on. He told the orc that he might just enter himself, at which point the orc threw back his head an laughed, 
"A farmer? In the Brawlers Guild? Are you crazy?!?! You'll get eaten alive by the first round opponent! Have you never heard of Bruce?"
Lazeebow cocked his head to one side and eyed the Warrior up and down.
"If you can do it, why shouldn't I?" He asked quizzically. The orc chuckled, 
"The names Darkguyver, look me up when you get there....if you even make it there" With a sly wink he turned and wandered off. 
Lazeebow knew it was his appearance that was deceptive, dressed in raggedy old clothes and sporting his tillers tarbard with his wooden bow he knew he didn't look like much else than a harmless farmer. Maybe a new outfit would change that....?

    Lazeebow packed up his things and left HalfHill in search of something more, he got himself a shining new set of armor, which he would later become known for wearing. As ostentatious as it was on anyone else, on a huge Pandaren it just looked incredible, he went to the Brawlers Guild, and there, after some quite heavy rivalry with Darkguyver, they both managed to fight their way to the top and earn their prizes. It wasn't until they discovered arena matches that the pair really bonded, and became firm friends. They spent their time competing against other pairs in their bid to become champions, they traveled Azeroth looking for more interesting armor and tougher foes to vanquish.

Being a hunter doesn't always mean you get the crap jobs....

That's actually a lie, being a mobile dps that has only one castable ability that can be cast on the move anyway means you get ALL the crap jobs, but are they actually crap? Most of the time, doing these jobs enables your raid to kill bosses, and in the case of the one I am going to focus on shortly, means you actually get away with not having to deal with a lot of horrible boss abilities. I've used Lazeebow to help our guild get their first heroic Thok kill and more recently, Siegecrafter. I play Beast Mastery as my main spec, with Marksman as my OS but I only use this for PvP. It's not that i don't like survival, it just doesn't play as well for me personally as BM does. I understand that this may end up being to my detriment where I know that survival is better for some fights that BM is, and if it came down to the difference between a kill and a wipe I would switch.Even though Lazee hasn't even broken 570 Ilvl yet, he can still keep up with dps just fine, as I have spent a lot of time playing PvP on him, I have noticed my reactions are quicker and I can take preventative action for incoming issues without having to think about it too hard, thus making me a more capable player, even though my main role is a tank.


Belt Duty - spending hours on a giant treadmill and losing NO weight.

As myself and the other hunter in our group can obviously just go round and round on belts each time, we spend the entire fight not having to deal with any sawblades, lasers, bombs or magnets. To be honest, once you get comfortable with the matter purification beam rotation and work out your cds, the belts are a doddle. This is a short desctiption of how we managed our cds so that we could ensure we did the 10m damage to each item on the belts. 

Note: If you have even a flex AoC as i do, and it is fully upgraded, you will have Bestial Wrath available for each belt. Very importantly, if you do not have at least this trinket on flex fully upgraded you will not have a short enough cooldown on disengage to get onto the belts on time!!
Belt 1:
This belt is the easiest, both of us pre pot, get bloodlust, and use nothing more than Bestial Wrath, and kill command with Arcane shot, it is usually dead within around 5 seconds.
Belt 2:
For this belt I used Rapid Fire.
Belt 3: 
I use my stampede
Belt 4:
The other hunter uses his stampede, my Rapid fire is back up and it should die before it reaches the second set of beams.
Belt 5:
I use my gloves again, the other hunter uses his second pot, we both use BW
Belt 6: 
I use my second pot, other hunter uses his gloves and we both use BW
Belt 7: 
Anything and everything we have, my gloves are back up for this one and so is Rapid fire.
Belt 8:
As the other hunter has a heroic AoC he re uses stampede.
Belt 9:
My second stampede is up.
Belt 10: 
Finish off the boss!!

This is just the basic "big" cds that we used, obviously we both use glaive toss, kill command etc on cd. 
Talents & Glyphs: 
Posthaste and Glyph of Disengage are vital, or you will not make the distance to the belt!
Fervor is nice for extra focus though I found Thrill of the Hunt to be better for me personally. 
Spirit Bond - this is quite important, you have next to no healing on the belts (depending on where your raid team is tanking blackfuse), and for us the healers were all the way on the opposite side of the room, so having spirit bond to heal you while on the belt after you take a tick of overlaod is great.
Glyph of Deterrence - great for when you have to run through fire to reach the pipe
Glyph of Liberation - again, just a little help with healing, especially for when you are disengaging onto the belt, the ticks of overload are quite heavy and having those little touches just make it safer.
Pets:
I took a spirit pet, purely because it has a self heal. Pet can be somewhat buggy on the belts where you disengage up, so after many trials of different things, I settled on climbing the pipe, dismissing my pet, then re-summoning it as soon as I land, this way your pet stays with you and you get the maximum use from spirit bond.


Lazeebows Wardrobe and Companions.

 This is by far my favorite outfit, mostly because its bright and looks outrageous on a male Pandaren. It is the complete set from Ahn'Qiraj, including the bow. It's the set I currently use for PvE. The pet pictured with me is Mayhem (Originally Ban'tholos) my spirit owl, in my eyes he is one of the best looking hunter pets in the game. For PvE I always carry him, a sporebat for spell haste, a Hynena for attack speed, a wolf for crit and any other pet I desire, or anything the raid needs.



This is my current PvP set, its an old set of PvP gear which I bought for HP in the sewers in Dalaran, the bow drops from Illidan. Pets are quite variable for PvP, my go to pet is Mowgli because he gives me a crit buff, as this benefits myself and my partner who is a warrior. I like to have a carrion bird handy, as it reduces damage taken, a small raven or a gull for disarms, and a crab for stuns. Depending on the comp we are against, I will ususally use one of those pets listed.










So there you have it! Lazeebow in all his glory, complete with crazy clothes and fabulous pets. Next week I shall uncover another of my unsung heroes, until then....be good ;)

Talents for SoO - A closer look at which talents suit which bosses and why.

Hey guys, I was struggling to come up with a blog topic this week, and while raiding the other night I ran out of tomes of the clear mind and it suddenly hit me how often I talent change depending on the fight, so I though I would explain my thoughts on each talent, which fights I use them for, and let you in on some of my failed experiments when trying different ones out! (note: all from a Brewmaster PoV)


Level 15 talents.

Celerity - Having an extra roll can be really useful, especially on high movement fights, the added bonus of a cd reduction on these rolls means that if you spread them out properly, you can always have a roll ready, nothing worse than needing to move out of trouble and clicking the roll bind like a madman only to see its still got a 5 second cooldown. Some of the fights on heroic don't leave 5 seconds grace before you get slapped upside the head by something. I like to use this talent for Iron Juggernaut, as you need to take 3 bombs between tanking the boss, having the 3 rolls is pretty perfect here. I also like to use it on Spoils of Pandaria sometimes.

Tigers Lust - I love this talent, its pretty much my go to choice in this tier for most fights, its got a nice low cooldown, and provides not only a burst of speed, but frees you or anyone else you use it on from any slow effects, this is particularly useful for something like Garrosh, the adds he summons in phase one put a hamstring debuff on whichever tank they are attacking, and even if that's not you, you can put it on your co tank, meaning they can move out of the way of the iron star without being slowed. I use this for almost every fight in SoO, I personally value the short speed burst over the other two choices.

Momentum - I have not really found a place for this talent in Siege for myself, the extra distance on the roll is nice but compared to the other two options its just not as valuable to me, that being said, if you are add kiting on Garrosh, as long as you spread out the two rolls you have, you can make the most use out of the extra movement speed, combine this with keg toss and you can kite those adds for days, I think this talent would really shine if you're in a 25 man guild and on add duty in P3.


Level 30 Talents.


Chi Wave - Another "go to" talent for me, overall this does a lot of healing, and damage, plus it has a relatively low cooldown making it nice and spammable. It also uses the smart healing mechanic so it can be overall really helpful for your raid, especially your melee and co tank. I have used this talent for every single fight in the raid, and its always proved valuable.

Zen Sphere - Although I like the idea of this talent, running logs on it I have discovered that its overall healing and damage just don't stack up to Chi Wave, although its cd is shorter and you have have 2 orbs out at once, the amount it ticks for loses its value when you're being hit by bosses that have 300k+ melee attacks as standard. Thats not to say Chi Wave is any better in that situation, but it can provide on the spot "chunk" heals as opposed to a small ticking heal. I currently do not use this talent for any fights in SoO.

Chi Burst - I love this talent for aoe fights, it provides a huge burst of on the spot healing to anyone it travels through and contributes a very reasonable amount of damage to any adds. I favour it on fights like Galakras, sometimes spoils, though for progress I used Chi Wave as it requires less aiming and has no cast time so that I could focus more on add control and positioning, but once the fight was more committed to memory and I was more comfortable I switched to Chi Burst.

Level 45 Talents.

Power Strikes - As I do not generally have any issues generating chi I do not use this for any fight, that being said at lower gear levels it could be quite useful for ensuring you always have enough chi to keep BoK up and the ability to purify on demand.

Ascension - This is pretty much the only talent I use in this tree as it stands, I like having 5 chi available and as I do not run any extra haste and have reforged any haste i do have into mastery, the extra energy regen means I always have the 40 I need for my keg smash, coupled with the fact that I am very fond of RJW, I prefer the 15% regen to make sure I can use both as much as possible.

Chi Brew - Again I find this talent nice for lower gear levels and when I was struggling to generate chi, I still find it great for single target fights like Malkorok, where an instant chi generator can really come into its own, plus the extra stacks of EB are also great to keep a high uptime on it, especially when you run a lower crit build like I do.


Level 60 Talents.

Ring of Peace - This is a really nice talent when you have either a lot of adds to deal with or caster adds, the silence gives you a lot of breathing space and time to position yourself in front of the adds and stop them from stacking up behind you, I use this talent for Galakras, Spoils, Garrosh and sometimes General Nazgrim, depending on the raid comp at the time.

Charging Ox Wave - I really like this talent, however the only place I have really found it useful is Nazgrim, because in my humble opinion, the other two choices are better. Using it for Nazgrim adds means you can help lock down a mage that's casting while you're dealing with a Shaman, obviously this requires some careful aiming but once you get used to it, it can be great on this fight.

Leg Sweep - I used to use this on add fights, until I discovered that when you use it, it resets the swing on each add stunned, which will then all hit you together at once, which is fine if they dont hit very hard, but the adds on Phase One of the Garrosh fight hit for about 200k each, when there's 6 of them, and they hit you as one...it hurts! I have grown to favour RoP over this, once I started tanking bosses that hit harder, the reset swing can really knock you for six if you're not expecting it. One thing I will add, is that the animation for this is hilarious compared to the other two, and watching 6 adds fall over on their arses in unison is always great.


Level 75 Talents.

Healing Elixirs - I was never a huge fan of this talent to begin with, but after combining it with the Chi Brew I discovered that for constant damage fights it is quite nice to have that extra heal, also, any fights where you are likely to be away from healers for any length of time. I currently use this talent on the  Norushen fight on account of the constant ticking aoe damage. 

Dampen Harm - This for me is a really nice damage against the hard hitters like Malkorok, General Nazgrim, Thok, paragons and Garrosh, although for Garrosh I sometimes like to take Diffuse magic, again depending on raid comp. Combined with my already high mastery build, If I am going to have to wait for too long for a guard and have no other cds left, it can take the edge off what could be otherwise fatal melee swings. As it is not affected by attack power it is also a great tool to pop at the start of the fight until you have enough vengeance built up to get a decent sized guard, as cold tanking on a monk can sometimes be a little painful.

Diffuse Magic - I love this talent for fights like Immersius, it means that if something goes wrong you can completely negate an entire corrosive blast. I also liked to use it if I was tanking He softfoot, as if you get into an awkward position when he has noxious poison, you can give yourself 6 seconds grace to reposition, and not take any extra damage from the poison on the floor. I also use this talent for Sha of pride, Siegecrafter and Garrosh for the whirling corruption if we have no DK's with AMZ present.


Level 90 Talents.

Rushing Jade Wind - A particular favorite of mine, even before it was remodeled in 5.4. Especially on Add fights like Tortos. Since the remodel it has become my favorite talent for all 3 specs of the monk, I find it particularly great for extra damage and chi generation on Galakras, Spoils and Nazgrim where there is a constant flow of adds to ensure said chi generation. That's not to say that I haven't used it on fights with less adds such as Sha of pride, or Garrosh. When you need to get and keep aggro on adds that may not be there for long, if you already have high vengeance, this talent is perfect, plus is means you do not have to channel SCK and you can keep using your other abilities. I appreciate that you still dodge and parry when SCK is going, but as someone who has 8% parry and 20% dodge (without taking EB into account) this doesn't really comfort me a lot, and there have been more than just a few occasions where I have fallen over because of this channel.

Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger - one of the coolest looking talents by far, a giant blue electric kitty fighting for you gives a certain amount of street cred over other tanks in my opinion! Xuen also does amazing amounts of damage, and he cleaves, but if you're looking for burst on a single target boss, this is the guy to do it. I like to use him for Malkorok, Iron Juggernaut, Thok, Seigecrafter, and for progress, he was brilliant for Spoils, as if you find yourself overwhelmed, you can bust him out and have him take over some of the ads and tank them for you, while doing batshit crazy amounts of damage, thus helping them melt a little faster. 

Chi Torpedo - Ever since I flung myself off Lei Shen's platform when forgetting how far this thing goes in compared to a roll I have been a lot more cautious about using it. In all honesty, for Siege, it just doesn't stack up to the other two options in this tier for me. I don't use it for any fights, purely because it means I would have to forgo either my Kitty or my RJW. It's a shame really, because I believe it has its uses, and the animation is pretty awesome, but with the amount of healing and mobility Brewmasters already have, it just doesn't have any value for me.

Lady Monks....ASSEMBLE!!!!!!!!

Well hello darlings!!

As you know I am an avid viewer of Monk Meditation, and the other lady monks and I decided that it was time to take over once more, so last night, we entertained the dojo, with wit, charm, sophistication and some FABULOUS monk info on Monk Meditation Episode 29, Ladies Night Part Deux!! The show was hosted by yours truly, and I'd like to give a huge shout out to the MM gang for letting us take over and have such a fun night. 
My beautiful co-hosts for the evening were:
Tigercrane - @Ashveridian
Sunnier - @Sunnierbrew (Sunniers Blog)
Stormieh - @Stormieh_MW (Sentry Totem)
Jadedot - @Plumwd  (Chi Burst Forums)

We discussed the recent Beta changes, took questions from the lovely Dojo, and let everyone know how we're all preparing for WoD. Check out the video below ;)

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Monk Meditation is part of Catalyst Gaming Media. For other great gaming blogs, podcasts, and events, visit catalystgamingmedia.com

Pet Battles: Beasts of Fable

Hi guys!

Sorry for the delay getting this post out, I have had some personal things to take care of and I appreciate everyone's patience!! A little plus since my last post, our guild managed to down Thok on heroic so we are now working on the mighty Siegecrafter! To finish off my Battle Pet extravaganza posts, today I will go through my tactics for defeating the beasts of fable, and finish up my favorite pets list, so sit back, relax, and lets get to it!

Critter:

This was by far, the hardest category to pick my favorites in, mostly because it houses some of THE cutest pets that WoW has to offer, after MUCH deliberation I have picked 5 that I love, either for their looks or their utility!
The Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm, because omg HOW cute? Plus the little trumpet he gives every now and then is just adorable! I purchased this little guy off the AH, and he's usually easy to find on there and not too expensive. 

Bubbleflex my Gu'chi Swarmling, named because he was given to me by a friend with that name, he drops off the rare on the timeless isle but I had been unsuccessful in getting one so he was generously donated and thus named in honor of the donor! I have not leveled him yet, but he is cute and squidgy looking and I want to cuddle him :D

The Armadillo pup, which is capturable via pet battles, just...too cute.

Dippy my Darkmoon Hatchling, again, just very cute and seeing as I have the mount to match he makes a great "on show" companion pet!!

Finally, (and you MAY have heard of this little guy before...) Brian, the legend that is my Rapana Whelk. The pet that can seemingly solo all manner of other pets, I love him, he's gotten me out of so much trouble, and he was also the first pet I captured at rare quality!

Aquatic:

Squirt, my eternal strider, he's a great leveling pet and his self heals are really awesome!

Muckbreath, I bought this little chap from the AH because he is VERY cute, I do intend to level him at some point.

Finally the Spawn of G'nathus, this pet is a guaranteed drop from a giant version of himself that swims around the north of townlong, beware, this guy has 40m hp and hits like a truck, but worth it as the pet is awesome!!

Beast: 

Another really hard category, but I have narrowed it down to just 3! The Clefthoof Runt, available via pet battles in Nagrand, very cute and looks awesome when you pop a pet biscuit on him!!

My Direhorn runt, a drop from the isle of giants, he's very cute I hate seeing the place on the isle where they are captured, I want to take them all home!!

Finally, Kovok, probably one of my favorite pets of all time, I LOVED the Klaxxi quests involving this guy, and I was quite distraught when I found out that I had to kill him during the SoO raid encounter!

Elemental:

The last pet family, again these all seem to be rather cute but I have picked my favorites, most of these I actually use, as the elemental pets are great against mechanical pets.

Jack, the Sinister Squashling, the first pet I leveled to help me deal with the battle pet tamer with 3 mechanical pets, and the one I use against the guy on Darkmoon island.

Minme, my Ruby sapling, so named because he looks like my druid when he is in treant form and I like to have companions that look like me :p

Timmy, the Terrible Turnip, this guy is seriously cute and REALLY useful for battling. He is a reward from planting a special seed on Sunsong Ranch.

So there you have it, all my favorite pets for each of the pet families! Now onto some much larger pets, the Beasts of Fable. These guys can be found dotted around Pandaria and you can't really miss them as they are all huge!! I don't tend to use leveling pets with these that much, mostly because some of them are quite hard to defeat and they don't really provide a lot of XP, not enough to make it worth it for me anyway!!



No-No (Vale)

He is an aquatic wonder, down next to a pool and a lot of other little aquatic pets (Incidentally this is a great place to level pets due to the abundance of 25s here)
I use:
Leveling pet
Amber Moth
Firefly
To be honest, any flying pets (particularly the ones with moves like Take Off and Cocoon Strike) will be just fine here, you can always get away with using your leveling pet first as No-No will always cast his Beaver Dam, which blocks 2 attacks from both sides, giving your level pet its XP and time to change to your first flying pet. Although I find No-No to be a little on the daft side - he casts beaver dam usually followed by a dive, which seems pointless as the dives damage is blocked by the dam, make no mistake, when he does hit with his Tail Slap, it hits for 600 hp each time, so avoid as many as you can with Cocoon Strike and just use what you can to nuke him down, he has a lot of HP but he's not particularly dangerous as he will usually use Tail Slap twice before he starts building dams again!


Dos - Ryga (Kun-Lai)

This was an interesting one, I tried all sorts of weird and wonderful combinations on this fish, eventually stumbling on a crazy powerful combo of just two pets on Wowhead (the comment I refer to is number 23 god bless that person!).
I use:
Pandaren Water spirit
Chrominius
Nothing else required, you can use a level pet here though I wouldn't recommend it as it can mess up the sequence you need to kill him.
Open with the Spirit, Cast Geyser, cast Whirlpool,
Switch to Chrominius, Cast Howl followed by Surge of power, the fish will be dead :)
If Dos starts with Whirlpool himself you will need to forfeit and restart as it will kill Chrominius!


Kafi (Kun-Lai)

Personally I use the Pandaren Water Spirit/Chrominius combo for this one too, though you can use other combinations of pets, as he is a beast, any 2 mechanical pets will see him on his way, particularly the Son of Animus due to his crazy self heals! The third pet can be your level pet if you wish.




Ti'un the Wanderer (Townlong)

Ugh this turtle, hits like a truck and takes no prisoners, I don't even bother to use a leveling pet here, because he usually kills 2 out of my 3 pets. His Tidal Wave move is REALLY annoying as he casts it very often and it does damage to your other 2 pets. After much deliberation and many many tears over this damn turtle, here is my pet combination;
Amber Moth
Firefly
Rapana Whelk
Now, here's the kicker, this fight can go a number of different ways depending on how lucky you are, if you're lucky and Ti'un doesn't block EVERY DAMN SPELL YOU HAVE (Not bitter) then you can almost kill him with the moth alone....however.....I'm generally not that lucky and it usually takes me 3 or 4 goes before I get enough hits on him to kill him, fortunately he doesn't heal. The Whelk is my back up pet, the two flyers can both do damage while avoiding pump (which I appreciate can be unpredictable but it hits for a k so...), as much as possible, when he casts his Tidal Wave, Brian (Rapana) seems to take less damage than most other pets so he is my safety net, though if everything goes correctly, you shouldn't actually need to use him.


Gorespine (Dread Wastes)

The hedgehog from hell!! To be honest I struggled way more than I should have with this one, but now I have a pretty safe combo that allows me to kill him fairly quickly!
I use;
Darkmoon Tonk
Darkmoon Zep
Son of Animus
I open with the Tonk, cast Shock and Awe, use missiles until I get to 1/4 HP (this wont take long he hits hard) when I know he is going to kill me next hit I cast Ion Cannon, which will hit him after the tonk reforms from its first death, I then let him kill the Tonk and use Decoy and Missiles on the Zep to finish him off, he should be dead before you need the Animus, but I don't recommend a leveling pet here either.


Skitterer Xi'a (Krasarang)


Another aquatic boss pet to deal with, though he's not as much of a pain in the arse as Ti'un, I take;
Amber Moth
Firefly
Anubisath Idol (anything tanky here for me, though if i had another flying pet, it would be here)
He SHOULD die from the second pet, however as with all of these boss pets, he is subject to the RnG gods too, so it may take a few gos.



Greyhoof (Valley)


This guy is relatively easy to sort out, and I would encourage taking a level pet here (just be careful of the pet's level, he hits REALLy hard to low level pets!), personally I take;

Level pet (usually at least 7+)
Darkmoon Tonk
Darkmoon Zep

The Tonk and the Zep should be able to see him off, usually I will lose the Tonk but if I use decoy on the Zep it gives enough time to get Bombing run up and finish him off with that and missiles.



Lucky Yi (Valley)


This guy is also pretty easy to take down, especially if you have plenty of speedy beast pets, I use;
Level pet
Kovok
Zandalari Footslasher/Anklerender/Kneebiter/Toenibbler
It can be a little risky to take a level pet but it's doable if you get some crits, if you can double up on the little Zandalari guys go for it, I currently only have 1 at max level so I have to use Kovok as he is my only other beast pet. Sometimes it takes a few gos but he should die fairly consistently with only 2 beast pets.



Ka'wi the Gorger (Jade Forest)


I always feel bad killing this chap, he looks all squidgy and cuddly!! He's pretty simple to kill,  I use;
Kovok
Zandalari Dino (any type)
Plains Monitor
As these are the only 3 beasts I presently have at max level, they are all I can use!! He should die pretty easily though ,Kovok should take half his HP, with the dino dropping him to next to nothing if not killing him, with the monitor finishing him off. What i will say is that as soon as I have two more of those Dinos leveled I will use 3 of them against him!



Nitun (Jade Forest)


This one is a bit of an odd one, considering he is a critter, my first thought was to take beasts. However, everytime he kills a pet (and he hits REALLy hard) he heals for practically all his HP. This was really frustrating for me until I tried something, and found the answer....undead pets. When he kills them, he doesn't heal, so pick any 3 undead pets you like and let him have it!! I currently use;
Stiched Puppy
Fossilized Raptor
Unborn Val'kyr
provided I use Plagued Blood>Howl>Diseased bite, I may even get another bite off before he kills the puppy, of course with no healing he should only have about half HP left, I use Claw on the raptor to finish him off, healing as and when needed. I rarely use the third pet so if you wanted to, you could use a level pet here, but be careful, he does hit quite hard.

That concludes my Pet Battle extravaganza!! Thanks to those that have commented so far, if you still want to be in with a chance to win the Gusting Grimoire that i have, you have until Friday 22nd August to comment as I will be announcing the winner then!

Pet Battles: Pandaren Tamers

Happy Friday darlings!! Well it's a rather dreary day here so I'm drinking a nice hot brew - Twinnings English Breakfast tea incidentally - (Someone asked me on twitter what my 'brew' was!) and today I am going to embark on the second of my Pet Battles series, there will also be an opportunity to win yourself a Gusting Grimoire in honor of me reaching 10k pageviews on this blog! 

First off I shall continue with my favorite pet(s) in each category....

Flying:

For my flying pets I have a love of my Amber moth (who is yet to be named) and Sparks, my firefly, who actually dropped out of a random goodie bag from a ToT LFR. I love him because he's really pretty, however for 'usefulness' I tend to go with the moth as it hits harder and can usually dispatch any aquatic pet quite quickly, however it can also hold its own against non aquatic pets due to it having 'cocoon' which can make it avoid an attack every 3 rounds!


Undead:

I really struggled with this category, seeing as most of my favorite pets seem to be in it! However I managed to restrain and just pick these three... 

My Unborn Val'kyr, she's so pretty...I actually have no idea what she is like as a battle pet, I am aware from my readings that I will possibly need her for the Celestial Tournament but she's just so beautiful I mainly got her for her looks (yes I am that shallow)

Bones, my Fossilized Raptor, apart from being unbelievably cute, he matches my mount and he's quite a handy little pet to have around, especially if you are facing humanoid competition! 

Finally, my last choice in the category isn't particularly cute, or fluffy, or sparkly, which are the qualities I usually look for in a pet, but I have fallen in love with him none-the-less, I think mostly out of pity as I felt so sorry for him when I saw him. Over the months he has actually turned out to be a great pet and got me out of some crappy battles with difficult opponents, may I present to you, my slightly scruffy looking Stitched Puppy 'Patches'!

Dragonkin:

An easy choice here, one for looks and one for looks AND utility!!
My Celestial Dragon, because sparkly, pretty, shiny reasons! 







Lishi, the Wild Crimson Hatchling, she's not only really pretty but she's a really nice pet to use in battles due to her speed and self heals.




Pandaren Tamers.

Before I start I am going to dish these out in the order that I fly round them in, (bear in mind I also incorporate the Pandaren Spirit Tamers and the Beasts of Fable) it seems to be the 'shortest' route and if you are busy working on other things like blogs and such, there a flight posts near each one so you can take a kite if you don't want to fly there yourself. (Although this is a longer route ultimately)


Aki The Chosen.

Found in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms (now by Mistfall Village - Pre 5.4 she was near the Seat Of Knowledge)
Her 3 pets are Chirrup (Beast), Stormlash (Dragonkin) and Whiskers (Aquatic).
For her I like to use (in this order);
Leveling pet

Anubisath Idol
Amber Moth
I use the leveling pet for 1 turn unless they are 20+, then they can sometimes hold out for a few turns but rather than take risk I will use my Idol to kill both Chirrup his Stoneskin pretty much negates all of the Swarms he casts, and Stormlash, for her I will always use Deflection as soon as she is brought out to block her call lightening, which can remove half HP if it crits. This obviously leaves me with Crush/Demolish to deal damage, as Chirrup poses less threat i take Crush which is good against Stormlash, who hits a lot harder and needs to be taken care of quicker. The Idol should easily survive these two, as long as you keep Stoneskin up, I bring out the Amber Moth for Whiskers, as its Slicing Wind, Cocoon Stike and Mothballs are all very strong against him.


Courageous Yon.

A little harder to find initially, he is in a tiny almost invisible cave on top of a mountain on the West of Kun-Lai Summit, he looks a little like Taran-Zhu, and his 3 companions are; Piqua (Flying), Lapin (Critter) and Bleat (Beast).
The pets I use for this tamer and order;
Leveling pet
Anubisath Idol
Son of Animus (If you don't have one, any mechanical pet, preferably with a self heal will be fine)
I will, as usual, use the level pet for one turn, and make use of the Idol's Stoneskin ability as once again, it negates most of not all the damage from Piqua's Flock move. I will also use him for Lapin, however it can be a bit touch and go and crit dependent with this fight, though most of the time Lapin should die, leaving you with a small smount of HP, I swap out the Idol for the animus and make a start on Bleat. Make no mistake, this pet can hit like a truck, especially if 'Chew' Crits, although it shouldn't do, if you're feeling vulnerable you can put your shiled up first, then just use Touch of Anima to regain any health lost from his first 2 turns, tha snimus hits really hard and it should only take you 3 turns dealing to kill him.

Seeker Zushi.

On the same Island as Niuzao Temple next to the lake, this Jinyu's 3 pets are; Diamond (ele), Mollus (Critter) and Skimmer (Aquatic).
The pets I use;
Pandaren Water Spirit
Level Pet
Amber Moth
I use the Pandaren Water Spirit to kill the first pet he has, as he has 3 moves strong against other elemental pets, but is fortunately not susceptible to the attacks that Diamond uses as they are not particularly strong against other ele's. I will bring out my leveling pet against Mollus (who works the same way as the Rapana Welks), for one turn and then use the Amber moth to finish Mollusc and kill Skimmer. If by some unlucky chancce I get crit by Skimmers Pump move, I will bring out the Pandaren spirit to finish him off, being careful to use Dive to negate a move.


Wastewalker Shu.

For me, this guy is a bit of a pain in the arse, even though he has a really cool looking helmet on, I don't even bother trying to level a pet with this one due to his irritating combo of pets that all hit like trucks and are all quite tanky. He uses; Crusher (Aquatic), Pounder (Ele) and Mutilator (Beast).
I use;

Amber moth
Eternal Water Strider
Dark Animus/Darkmoon Tonk/Zepplin
I have tried using levelling pets,. but so far I have not found a 2 pet combo from my own that can reliably 2 v 3 his pets, I shall keep trying and get back to that at a later date perhaps. With no leveling pet, I simply use the Moth on Crusher (Be sure to use Cocoon when the Whirlpool is on 1 to avoid the damage), the Water Strider against Pounder (who needs to be killed quickly as he damages your other pets), and my mechanical pet of choice against Mutilator the super hedgehog!!


Mo'ruk.

Down on an island at the south of Krasrang, this Hozen has 3 delightful pets which took me a while to work out a decent enough combo for to enable me to use him for leveling! He uses; Woodcarver (Beast), Lightstalker (Flying) and Needleback (Aquatic).
I use;
Level pet
Darkmoon Tonk
Amber Moth
I will as usual use the level pet for one turn, it will usually be subjected to Woodcarver's Acidic Goo, which, unless the pet is < level 5, *shouldn't* do it fatal damage. I then switch to my Tonk, deposit mines, then use Charge and lock on to finish the squidgy bug off. I don't tend to panic too much if the tonk dies here, the mines will remain in place, and they will dish out a great deal of damage against Lightstalker when he comes out, you can either finish him off with the tonk if it's still alive or switch to the Moth, which is then used to kill Needleback.

Farmer Nishi.

I always feel bad killing this Pandaren's pets, I love her happy little sunflower and I hate beating him up, however, if I don't get rid of him quickly he can cause Issues!! She uses; Siren (Ele), Toothbreaker ((Ele) and Brood of Mothran (Beast).
I use;
Eternal Strider
Level pet
Son of Animus/Darkmoon Tonk/Zepplin.
I use the Strider to dispatch Siren (Begrudgingly), I ensure that I replace his sunny weather with my cleansing rain, I usually charge pump first and let him cast his Sunlight, then cast my Cleansing water, then let loose with the charged pump, this should almost kill him, leaving a water jet or two to finish him off, if you can recharge pump before he dies ready for Toothbreaker then great.  I usually take the opportunity to bring out my level pet once Toothbreaker casts Sons of Root, I will use my charged pump before hand before swapping the Strider out. After my level pet has had 1 turn I will bring back the Strider and do my best to kill him with that, its not quite the end of the world if he kills the strider as long as you have him on relatively low HP, it just becomes a bit laborious to finish him off with your mech pet as he is resilient to their hits. After he has gone I use the remaining mech pet to kill off the Brood of Mothran and job's a good'un!

Hyuna of the Shrines.

Just south of Dawns Blossom is the final tamer on mainland Pandaria. She has 3 companions, Skyshaper (Flying), Fangor, (Beast), and Dor the Wall (Aquatic).
I use;
Leveling pet
Darkmoon Zepplin/Son of Animus
Amber Moth
As always, I bring out my level pet for one turn, then pull out the Zep/Animus and use him to get rid of Skyshaper (the Animus hits harder for this and has a self heal, making him a more kilely candidate for helping with the other pets). If the Mech pet survives Skyshaper i will usually use them until Fangor kills them, then switch to the Moth, fortunately tall of fangor attacks are weak on the moth, so he should go down pretty quick, for the last pet it's a classic Flying Vs Aquatic, and the moth should take care of Dor with ease.

Little Tommy Newcomer.

Dont let the name fool you, this 'little' guy only has one pet sure, but it's a friggin monster!! I do not use leveling pets against this guy, he also only gives you timeless coins and no sack of pet goodies for defeating him but it's one of those things I had to do at least once!
He uses;
Lil' Oondasta (Who is incidentally not THAT little)
I use;
Darkmoon Tonk
Darmoon Zepplin
Son of Animus

Basically any combination of all Mechanical pets will work on this guy, his Frill blast, which he will open with, will swap out your first pet for your second one, so I use the pets in the order above, so that I can get my Decoy up quickly for his second move Spitfire Beam. After that it's a case of do as much damage as you can while he annihilates your pets with his Crush.  Have fun with this one ;)









Win a Gusting Grimoire!!!!

So to honor my 10k views i am giving away the TCG pet aforementioned. I have the code to the pet ready and waiting, to win the pet, simply comment on ANY of my pet battle posts, about anything pet related, your favorite pet for example, and I shall draw at random from the comments and announce the winner next Saturday after Fridays post has been up for a day!!

Be good

Dark