Thundering Pandaren Spirit - Revisited

The difficulty I’ve had with Thundering Pandaren Spirit lately, coupled with the impending Fluxfire Feline nerf, has compelled me to come up with an alternate strategy, and I’ve made one that works very well.  You can view it on Youtube by clicking here, or read it about it below.

Pets and Abilities to use:

Rabbit (Speed>300, level 25) with Flurry, Dodge, and Burrow
Flayer Youngling with Triple Snap, Reflection, and Rampage.

Strategy Overview:

Lead with your carried pet and allow it to take a hit, then use Rabbit on Pandaren Earth Spirit, and Flayer Youngling on Sludgy.  Use Rampage to kill Sludgy; then the Rabbit dodges or Burrows under all of Darnak’s attacks.

Reliability: 5/5 (Very Reliable)

Detailed Strategy:

With this strategy, it doesn’t really matter which of your opponents’ pets you face first.  Lead with your carried pet and allow it to take a damaging hit before swapping out.  Any Magic pet, even a level 1, is capable of this, because Magic-type pets cannot take more than 40% of their HP in a single hit.  Level 1 Mechanicals can also be safely carried, since a large hit will just cause Failsafe to kick in and they will come back to life.  Once your pet has taken a hit, swap to your Rabbit for the Pandaren Earth Spirit, or Flayer Youngling for Sludgy.  It’s critical that the Rabbit has a Speed higher than 300 so that it goes first against the elemental and Darnak, each of which has speed of 300.  Pandaren Earth Spirit will always attack in the following pattern:

  1. Crystal Prison
  2. Rupture 
  3. Stone Shot
  4. Stone Shot
  5. Stone Shot 
  6. Rupture
  7. Crystal Prison
  8. Stone Shot 
  9. Stone Shot
  10. Rupture 
  11. Stone Shot
  12. Stone Shot
  13. Repeat

Rabbit’s avoidance cooldowns are Dodge at 4 rounds, and Burrow at 5 rounds (counting from when you go under; the cooldown doesn’t begin ticking down until you burst out).  Since Rabbit is a critter, and you’re going first, it doesn’t matter if you get hit with Crystal Prison, and you will take reduced damage from Stone Shot.  Rupture does a lot of damage, so you want to try and avoid it as much as possible.  Use Burrow on rounds 2 and 8, and Dodge on rounds 5 and 10. By weaving your Dodges and Burrows so that you avoid Ruptures, you can whittle him down with Flurry, which will always strike at least twice since you’re going first.

Darnak, like the Pandaren Earth Spirit, also attacks in a set pattern:

  1. Stoneskin
  2. Burrow (go under)
  3. Burrow (burst out)
  4. Stone Rush
  5. Do Nothing (empty round, everything on CD)
  6. Stone Rush
  7. Repeat

Using a fast Rabbit, you can Dodge on Round 3, which will avoid the Burrow burst-out and 1st Stone Rush, and Burrow on Round 6, which will avoid the 2nd Stone Rush.  Use Flurry on all other rounds.  It’s slow, but it’s 100% reliable.  You will never take a hit from Darnak using this strategy.

Notes on Pet Choice:

Any Rabbit with Speed over 300 should work, but ideally, you want one with Speed as close to 300 as possible.  305 would be the best.  The reason for this is any Speed higher than that is essentially wasted, because it could have gone into other stats.    I’ve used a plain Rabbit, breed 11 (S/B, 1465 health, 240 attack, 322 speed), but breeds 3 (B/B) and 12 (H/B) would be even better. Other viable options are Arctic Hare breed 3, 11, or 12, Grasslands Cottontail breed 5, Hare breed 3, 11, or 12, Mountain Cottontail breed 3, Snowshoe Hare breed 3, 11, or 12, Snowshoe Rabbit breed 3 or 11, Tolai Hare breed 3, 11, or 12, and Tolai Hare Pup breed 3, 11, or 12.

For your second pet, anything that can kill Sludgy will do. Really you could probably substitute any good Beast, or something with strong Beast attacks like Flayer Youngling. I’m thinking about trying Egbert; since he has Feign Death, he’ll make pet switches faster.