Aki the Chosen - Patch 5.2 Edition

The first time I fought Aki the Chosen, I won; my last pet had less than 50 health, but I still won!  These days, victory is much more certain, and I can even carry a level 1 pet (as long as it’s not an elemental).  Check out how below, and/or in my video strategy guide.

Pets and Abilities to use:

Anubisath Idol (level 25) with Crush, Sandstorm, and Deflection
Yellow Moth (level 25) with Alpha Strike, Cocoon Strike, and Moth Dust 

Strategy Overview:

Use Anubisath Idol’s Sandstorm to negate all damage from Chirrup, and whittle it down with Crush. Bring in your carry pet to Chirrup while Sandstorm is active. Use Crush to dps Stormlash while keeping Sandstorm up.  Do as much damage to Whiskers with Anubisath as you can, and finish him off with Yellow Moth if necessary.

Reliability: 5/5 (Very Reliable)

Detailed Strategy:

Aki’s pets are Chirrup the Cricket, Stormlash the Dragon, and Whiskers the Mongoose.  She will randomly choose Chirrup or Stormlash to go first; usually it’s Chirrup. Whiskers always goes last. Regardless of which pet she puts out first, bring up Sandstorm right away; for Chirrup, you’ll take 1 round worth of damage from Swarm, and all future hits will be completely blocked. As of Patch 5.2, you won’t even get the Shattered Defenses debuff. Swarm always lasts 3 rounds.  After Swarming, Chirrup will cast Inspiring Song; then, if his health is low enough he will do Nature’s Touch. Then it’s back to Swarming again. Make sure to refresh Sandstorm periodically, but make sure it’ll be available when Stormlash comes up (unless he went first). 

Stormlash himself is simple enough to defeat.  Use Sandstorm on the first turn to overwrite Lightning Storm, then whittle him down with Crush.  Normally my Anubisath Idol will still be alive for Whiskers; if not, you can use your Yellow Moth to do the last hit on Stormlash, then kill Whiskers.  If you don’t have a Yellow Moth, almost any species of flyer will do.  Remember to wear your Safari Hat!  

Thundering Pandaren Spirit - Patch 5.2 Edition

Though I’ve already revised my Thundering Pandaren Spirit strategy once already, the latest patch has forced me to revise it again; oddly enough, bringing Fluxfire Feline back into the mix.  You can view the updated video guide 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
Fluxfire Feline (level 25) with Claw, Flux, and Prowl.

Strategy Overview:

Lead with your carried pet and allow it to soak some damage, then use Rabbit on Pandaren Earth Spirit, and Fluxfire Feline on Sludgy.  Use Prowl-Claw-Claw 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 Fluxfire Feline 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 areArctic 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.

Pandaria Tamers Speed Run


All the Pandaria tamers defeated in a single video :) Sped up for your viewing pleasure.  In real time it took me 53 minutes to complete.  As always, links to the individual videos are available on my Youtube Channel, or the Tamers page.

Delveddeep Vs. Seeker Zusshi

 Bat really is pretty excellent, I know Reckless Strike seems like a big risk, but it’s a huge hit with little in the way of other downsides, and bite is a solid beast attack for critters.  Bat is great for aquatic/critter teams, much like Snarly does excellent with elemental/critter.  Usually Snarly kills the elemental and 3/4ths the critter, bring in lowbie for a round, then switch to bat, one bite dead, reckless, reckless, then bite will kill (just in case it misses and you soak a pump after being slept)
-Delveddeep


This alternate strategy for Seeker Zusshi works quite well; it’s fairly reliable, and it has the upside of taking about half the time of my strategy.

Pets and Abilities to use:

Snarly (level 25) with Rip, Surge, and Blood in the Water
Bat (level 25) with Bite and Reckless Strike

Strategy Overview:

Snarly takes out Diamond quickly, then rips into Mollus.  Once Snarly dies, bring in the carry pet for a round against Mollus, then finish up with your Bat.

Reliability: 4/5 (Fairly Reliable)

Detailed Strategy:

You want to lead in with Snarly against Diamond (Diamond starts most of the time, but if you get Mollus, you probably want to forfeit and try again).  As Delved said above, Rip, Blood in the Water, Surge, Surge to defeat Diamond; then Rip, Surge, Blood in the Water against Mollus.  At that point you’ll probably be dead (you’ll be lucky if you get to use BITW on Mollus); bring in your carry pet for 1 round against Mollus, then use Bat’s Bites to finish Mollus; Reckless Strike Skimmer until he’s toast.  Check out the video of this fight here.

Notes on Pet Selection:

As previously noted, Snarly is the best of the 4 crocopets, but any of them should work pretty well.  There are a lot of different breeds of Bat; Delved uses a Breed 4 (P/P), and since I don’t have a Breed 4, I use a Breed 7 (H/P). Both of them work well, but his does more damage.