Q:Hello, I just found your site and its looking awesome. only think i where wondering. Do you got some type of "small" list where you name all the pets are needed for the Tamer Strategies. specially doing the routine. Would be alot easier to have them all listed in one place.

moksu

Pretty much all the pets I’ve done a Pet Spotlight on are useful for tamer battles.  There are a few I haven’t gotten around to yet; so, since you asked, here’s a list of all the pets I specifically mention in my strategy guides:

Q:So, any plans for a 5.2-Compatible Payne Strategy?

gendouk

I’ll post one in a bit :)  I know a lot of people have been using Fluxfire Feline to beat Major Payne, and that won’t be effective in Patch 5.2 because of the Fluxfire nerf; however, Payne’s also going to be nerfed in 5.2, so I don’t think he’s going to be that bad. 

Pet Spotlight: Nexus Whelpling

Got a flyer you want dead? Nexus Whelpling’s the pet for you. Not surprisingly, the Breed 4 (P/P) pictured here is my favorite, but he also comes in Breed 8 (P/S) and Breed 10 (P/B). My standard loadout, pictured here, is Tail Sweep, Mana Surge, and Arcane Storm. Mana Surge is the Magic equivalent of Rampage: a 3-turn ability that does a large amount of damage, and has a 3-round cooldown once it’s finished. The tooltip says it does more damage during Arcane Storm, but apparently due to a bug this is not the case.  However, Arcane Storm remains a useful ability, as it hits all 3 of your enemy’s pets for a small amount of damage.  His spammable attack is Tail Sweep, a Dragonkin attack that does more damage if you go last, which given his slow speed, is going to happen more often than not. In the very rare event that you go first, you could switch it out for Frost Breath, which is a standard Dragonkin attack.

Obtaining one of these guys is fairly easy; they are on a slow-ish spawn timer and can appear in the wild all around Coldarra (a floating island northwest of Borean Tundra in Northrend).  Their spawn is slow enough that it might be a good idea to stone a Breed 4 rather than trying to farm a rare, but that will, of course, depend on how much time you have to kill.  It’s definitely worth getting your hands on one of these guys.

Pet Spotlight: Flayer Youngling

image

Flayer Mignon! Get it? Like filet…  Yeah.  Moving on.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the impending Reflection nerf, I felt the need to write about this little guy. In case you hadn’t heard, Reflection is being changed to Deflection; instead of turning the enemy’s attack back on him, you simply avoid it.  This takes an awesome ability and makes it meh. However, the Flayer Youngling will, I believe, remain an indispensable part of my arsenal.

As a Humanoid with Beast attacks, it’s the perfect counter for straight Critters (Critter-type pets with Critter-type attacks), since Humanoids take less damage from Critter attacks, and Beast attacks do more damage to critters.  More than that, though, it has a very powerful move, Rampage, which is effective against all pets except flyers.  Being able to Reflect a powerful attack against the enemy was great, but being able to avoid that same attack will also be useful.  And you can’t discount the Humanoid racial: at the end of every round in which he deals damage, he heals a little bit.

Obtaining one of these suckers is somewhat of a challenge.  I was lucky enough to capture the Breed 4 Rare pictured above, but they’re a scarce spawn like the Emerald Proto-Whelp.  Camp a character on Razorthorn Rise and check in periodically.  They come in all 10 (!) breeds, so getting the exact one you want is a crap shoot.  If you get lucky like I did, great; otherwise, seriously consider stoning him. 

Delveddeep says, ”Kun-Lai Runt provides a similar humanoid with Beast attacks niche and is more common on the ground to find a rare.”

Pet Spotlight: Emerald Proto-Whelp

The Breed 4 (P/P) Emerald Proto-Whelp pictured here is one of the most powerful pets in the game. I prefer to use all its Emerald abilities: Emerald Bite, Emerald Presence, and Emerald Dream; all of which scale up with power.  Emerald Dream is really powerful on its own, but when combined with Emerald Presence, the Emerald Proto-Whelp can normally heal back to full every six turns. Then you can whittle your opponent down with Emerald Bites.  It takes awhile, but this pet can defeat almost any tamer pet in existence, and it decimates Flying pets.  Its only real weakness is against pets with Humanoid attacks. Mechanicals take less damage from its Emerald Bite, but you could just use Breath against them instead.

To obtain one of these guys, prepare for a long wait in northern Sholazar Basin, in Northrend.  They spawn in the area known as The Savage Thicket, a burned-out section of woods where larger proto drakes also reside.  They are on a very long respawn timer, so I highly recommend camping one of your 80+ characters there and checking in periodically.  If you’re lucky enough to get a rare, great; otherwise, I’d just go ahead and stone him rather than try to farm one.  They come in breeds 4 (P/P), 8 (P/S), and 10 (P/B).  Obviously I prefer breed 4, but either of the other two should work fine, despite having 10% less power.