Tuesday 26 August 2014

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



Monday 18 August 2014

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!

























Friday 1 August 2014

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