Hi everyone,
I've done the Celestial Tournament three times now, so I have now seen all of the initial trainers. The Celestial Tournament is a weekly "scenario" in which you are faced with three trainers which change every week (three teams of three for a total of nine trainers) and then face the four Celestial pet battles -- Xu-Fu the Tiger, Chi-Chi the Crane, Zao the Ox, and Yula the Dragon -- which are the same every week. You cannot use your heal button or rez any pets during the entire scenario.
Here is the information I've gathered to help me beat these battles. I'm writing it up here so that it might be useful to others, and also so that I can find it easily in the future!
Zlinka's Pet Battle Strategies
Tip #1: Take one tamer at a time at first. When facing a set of tamers for the first time, I found it helpful to take on just one tamer at a time with a variety of test teams. I'd figure out the best team and strategy for that tamer, then I'd leave the scenario, heal and rez my pets, then go try another tamer. Once I had figured out all three tamers for that week I would go in at full health and take them all down one after the other easily. Doing a set of test runs and then resetting the scenario helped me go in very strong for my serious attempt.
Tip #2: The pet-healing strategy. You can't use your heal button, but you CAN heal your pets during the battle by using a trick. Two of the Celestials, Chi-Chi the Crane and Yu-la the Dragon, do not attack on their first turn. So it is possible to heal your pets up before attempting the Celestial battles. Simply choose one pet that has a group heal, like a cricket, and two pets that need healing. Put the Cricket in the lead position, engage Chi-Chi, cast the group heal, and forfeit. Repeat until the two backline pets are fully healed. There is no forfeit penalty in the Celestial battles so it is possible to get them to full health. There are also tamers who do not attack during the first turn, so it is possible to heal up on those as well (I think Wise Mari is one of these).
Now, on to the battles. I lean toward conservative, reliable strategies that work every time rather than flashier strategies that depend on lucky RNG.
I have placed Alternative Teams and Further Suggestions behind Spoiler buttons to reduce clutter.
Trainer Team #1: Chen Stormstout, Wrathion, and Taran Zhu
I find Chen and Wrathion to be the hardest tamers in this set. Chen starts out with a possible stun, so I do Chen first and re-start the scenario until avoid the stun on that first turn. Then I do Wrathion.
Chen Stormstout
a) Darkmoon Zeppelin
b) Kun-lai Runt
c) Legs.
Open with the zeppelin and build a decoy. If the zep gets stunned re-start the fight. Missile until the beast dies. Explode against the cricket pet. Bring in the Runt, Mangle then Rampage. Put Mangle on the elemental if you can. Bring out Legs, use Pump and Whirlpool.
Note: Cho's first pet always starts with a possible stun. This is not so bad on the gnome, which is fast, so he gets a turret built before the stun lands. With a slower pet, however, I found that my success in the fight depended on whether that first stun landed.
Alternate teams:
Wrathion
a) A fast rabbit really shines against Cindy. Use Burrow to avoid the Ice Tomb, and Dodge right after that to minimize other damage. The rabbit takes little damage from Blistering Cold.
b) Scourged Whelpling (Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath). Swap in the Whelpling when Alex comes out. Use Call Darkness and Dreadful Breath against Alex. The Whelpling may die to Alex, but Dreadful Breath will have done damage to Dah'da too.
c) Kun-Lai Runt (Takedown, Mangle, Rampage). Bring in the Runt against Alex and Dah'da. May need to mop up with the rabbit.
Alternative teams:
Other suggestions:
Taran Zhu
Three grubs, all with Consume, Acidic Goo (which I didn't use), and Leap. The hardest opponent was the one that stuns -- might want to find a way to burrow to avoid that stun. But this strategy works even without burrow. The next-hardest one is the one that self-heals.
I used 3 H/H maggots (two devouring maggots and one maggot, which have H/H breeds with a health of 1887). I recommend H/H here because a) this is an endurance fight, in which both you and at least one of the opponents the opponent have self-heals; and b) it's possible to recover from very low health with Consume, so having a little more health means that you get several more turns out of each grub; and c) Leap makes the base speed of the grub irrelevant -- with Leap on, your grub will go first with any base speed. With that in mind, the highest-health grubs are the best here.
Use Leap to increase speed, the follow it with Consume, which has a 1-turn cooldown (so the pattern is Leap-Consume-Leap-Consume with all three grubs until all three panda opponents are dead). The fight takes a while but it eventually wears all the opponents down.
Other suggestions:
Trainer Team #2: Blingtron 4000, Wise Mari, Shademaster Kiryn
Edit: I found Blingtron to be the hardest of these three, so I started with him and kept fighting him until I won, restarting the instance each time. Then Shademaster, then Wise Mari, who were both easier in comparison (one-shots). Wise Mari in particular has been straightforward the two times I've fought him -- I've yet to use my third pet on him.
Blingtron 4000
a) Legs (Pump, Surge of Power, Whirlpool) -- Legs is good in this position as it is a Magic pet and so cannot take more than 50% of its health at once (which helps him survive Au's charge), but it also has aquatic attacks which are strong against elementals.
b) Corehound Pup (Thrash, Howl, Burrow)
c) Fel Flame (Burn, Immolate, Conflagrate)
Start with Legs, cast Whirlpool, then Pump twice. The Pump plus the Whirlpool should kill Au.
Next comes Banks, the pig.
Cast what you can against Banks, as you'll only have 1-2 hits before Legs dies. Cast Whirlpool if you can, or Ion Cannon if Whirlpool isn't up yet. If you think you have two turns left in Legs, try Pump + Pump. Then Legs dies to Banks.
Bring out the Corehound Pup. Immediately burrow to minimize damage, then Howl (damage increaser) then Thrash, Thrash. Repeat until Banks dies. Then Howl and swap out.
Bring in the Fel Flame, open with Conflagrate to take advantage of the damage buff from Howl. Then Immolate. Cast Conflagrate on Cooldown. Spam Burn as filler.
Edit: A key factor to winning with this lineup is to get the Corehound's Howl up before your Fel Flame enters the fight, because the Howl massively buffs the Fel Flame's Conflagrate (to 1500 or so, which will nearly kill the Blingtron's Lil'B). Without Howl the first Conflagrate is much smaller, and the final fight becomes more of a slugfest instead of an almost-oneshot. To get that Howl in, your Strider needs to kill, or almost kill, the first pet, and the Corehound needs to kill, or almost kill, Banks.
Other suggestions:
Wise Mari
a) Crow (Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
b) Onyxian Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Deep Breath -- could also use Lift-off instead of Deep Breath to avoid the whirlpool/dive combo)
c) Strider (unused) (Water Jet, Healing Wave, Pump) (or Legs with Pump, Surge of Power, Whirlpool)
Start with the Crow and open with Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike, then Alpha Strike again. The crow finishes off the carp and most of the magic pet. Then bring in the Onyxian Whelpling. Use Tail Sweep, and healing on cooldown, until it dies. My whelpling never died, but finished off the magic pet and killed the elemental pet. I used Deep Breath once to good effect. Could also choose Lift-off instead of Deep Breath to avoid the otter's whirlpool/dive combo. If needed, use the aquatic pet to finish him off.
Alternate Teams:
Further Suggestions:
Shademaster Kiryn
a) Zandalari Kneebiter or Anklerender (Hunting Party, Black Claw, Bloodfang)
b) Terrible Turnip (Tidal Wave, Leech Seed, Sons of the Root)
c) Anubisath Idol (Demolish, Stoneskin, Deflection)
Start with the raptor. Cast Black Claw, then Hunting Party. This is enough to bring the first pet to low health. Finish him with Bloodfang. Cast Black Claw to help the Turnip, then retire the Kneebiter and bring in the Turnip.*
On the Turnip, start with Sons of the Root. The Cat will Call Lightning then build a turret. Kiryn's Cat's own Lightning Storm + your raptor's ongoing Black Claw will do significant damage to the Cat, and your Turnip's Son's of the Root will both protect the Turnip and damage the Cat (with buffs from Black Claw and Lightning Storm). Cast Tidal Wave to remove the Turrets once the burrow is over. Leech Seed for Health. This is enough to kill the cat. Retire the turnip, bring out the Idol.
A very helpful add-on here is Pet Battle Tactician, which tells you the opponent's abilities and cooldowns. I had trouble using the Idol in this slot until I got this add-on, which let me predict the wolf's dodge.
With the idol, apply Stoneskin when the wolf has Dodge up to avoid wasting a hit that would be dodged anyway. After the wolf has buffed himself with Pounce, hit Deflect to avoid the incoming buffed hit. Otherwise, hit Demolish.
* You can also retire the Kneebiter WITHOUT casting Black Claw -- he'll retire at much higher health as he'll avoid the cat's nasty lightning storm. The turnip can kill the cat on its own, but will get more damaged in the process. The longer duration of the fight means that the cat has time to cast Lightning Storm a second time, but this can be used to your advantage against the Wolf. When the Wolf comes out, immediately submerge, and all the little attacks + the cat's second lightning storm will bring the Wolf down by a lot.
Trainer Team #3: Dr. Ion Goldbloom, Lorewalker Cho, Sully the Pickle
Edit: Of the three teams, I find this one to be the easiest. I have been able to beat this set of trainers three times now with the teams listed below with no losses (though there were some close calls!).
Lorewalker Cho
a) Nether Faerie Dragon (Arcane Blast, Life exhcange, Moonfire)
b) A Spider (Strike, Brittle Webbing, Leach Life)
c) Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Plagued Blood)
Open with Moonfire against Cho's Wisdom Pet, and then Arcane Blasted until Wisdom was dead. He'll bring out his second pet, Patience the Broom. The Faerie Dragon will be damaged but that's actually good here: hit Life Exchange, then swap in the Spider. With the Spider keep Brittle Webbing up, then Leech Life when it needs a heal, then hit Strike. When the Spider dies, bring in the Scourged Whelpling. Hit Tail Sweep to finish off Patience the Broom, then he'll bring out his last pet. Hit Call Darkness, then Plagued Blood, then Tail Sweep. When I tried this the Whelpling went down alarmingly fast and ended up being killed, so I had to bring out the very damaged Fairie Dragon back in and managed to finish him off. I've won twice with this team, and a similar thing happened the second time. I needed the Undead's rez on the Whelpling, and had to finish his last pet off with the very injured Faerie Dragon. It was very close -- I only won because my Faerie Dragon went first. May need to research this team more for a cleaner win.
Sully the Pickle
a) Frog (Tongue Lash, Swarm of Flies, Bubble). I used a Swamp Croaker
b) Kun-lai Runt (Thrash, Mangle, Rampage)
c) Yellow Moth (P/P) (Alpha Strike, Cocoon Strike, Moth Dust)
Start with the Frog. Get Swarm of Flies up, then Tongue Lash. Cast Bubble to avoid two attacks' worth of damage. The Frog should take Socks (undead racoon) out easily.
He will then bring in Monte, a rabbit. Get Swarm of Flies up, then Tongue Lash until the Frog dies.
Bring in the Kun-Lai Runt. Get Mangle up, then Rampage. This, plus a Thrash perhaps, should be enough to kill Monte.
He will bring Socks out (undead Racoon). Get a hit in against Socks, but the Runt will die pretty fast.
Bring out the Yellow Moth. Moth Dust and Alpha Strike, can use a Cocoon Strike in there if you want.
Other suggestions:
Dr. Ion Goldbloom
a) Emerald Proto-whelp (Emerald Bite, Ancient Blessing, Proto-Strike)
b) Darkmoon Tonk (Missile, Ion Cannon, Shock and Awe)
c) Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (with Breath). Breath is a strong anti-magic attack, and Mechanicals have bonus defense against magic.
Alternate for c): Onyxian Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Lift-Off)
Start with Proto-strike as his pet will start with a lift-off so you lift-off as well. They'll hurt each other in the air. The whelp will hurt the first pet, Screamer. Screamer will be swapped out for Trike, a beast. Hit Beast with the Tonk.
The last pet, Chaos, was a little trickeier. My Onyxian Whelpling's Tail Sweep and one self-heal worked well. Chaos has a strong anti-dragon attack which is bad for the whelpling -- a better would be a non-dragon pet with a magic attack, like the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, which is also resistant to magic attacks, but the Onyxian Whelpling did work. I will try the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling next time.
CELESTIALS
Before starting on these guys use the heal trick on Chi-Chi or Yu-la to heal up the pets you need to full.
Chi Chi
a) Pandaren Water Spirit (Water Jet, Whirlpool, Geyser)
b) Chrominius (Bite, Howl, Surge of Power)
c) Rapana Whelk (Absorb, Acidic Goo, Dive) (unused, but useful as backup as it's a critter so it takes less damage from Fire Quills).
Start with the Water Spirit. Open with Geyser, then Whirlpool, then swap him out for Chrominius. On Chrominius, cast Howl, then Surge of Power. The massive combined nuke of Geyser, Whirlpool buffed with Howl, followed by Surge of Power, is enough to one-shot Chi Chi. No need to bring out a third pet. I've always won with this combo.
Other suggestions:
Zao
a) Pandaren Water Spirit (Water Jet, Whirlpool, Geyser)
b) Chrominius (Bite, Howl, Surge of Power)
c) Third pet to clean up. Darkmoon Tonk perhaps.
The Water Spirit and Chrominius should be healthy enough to hit Zao after Chi Chi. If they're very damaged you can heal them on Yu-La before hitting Zao.
Start with the Water Spirit. Open with Geyser, then Whirlpool, then swap him out for Chrominius. On Chrominius, cast Howl, then Bite (this Bite in second position is very important. When I forgot it, Zao would survive the nuke with 100 points left and heal himself -- very bad), then Surge of Power. The massive combined nuke of Geyser, Whirlpool buffed with Howl, followed by Surge of Power, is enough to one-shot Zao. No need to bring out a third pet.
Alternative Teams:
Other suggestions:
Xu Fu
a) Clockwork Gnome (Metal Fist, Repair, Build Turret)
b) Zandalari Kneebiter or Anklerender (Hunting Party, Black Claw, Leap)
c) Darkmoon Zeppelin (Missile, Explode, Decoy) (unused) or another Zandalari raptor.
Start with the Gnome and build a turret, then swap him out. Bring in the raptor. Open with Black Claw, then Hunting Party. Return to the Gnome and build one more turret. The two turrets buffed with Black Claw and Hunting Party are usually enough to finish him off.
If you have a raptor in the third slot, you can swap him in after the second turret and hit Hunting Party to take advantage of the ongoing Black Claw buff.
If you have a Zeppelin, you can swap it in after the second turret, build a decoy to buy yourself some time, then missile or explode.
Most of the damage comes from the Turret buffed by Black Claw, so you can use any speedy pet with a stampede type attack as the third pet. Can also used a Cogblade Raptor with Exposed Wounds to boost the turrets.
Other suggestions:
Yu-La
a) Mr. Bigglesworth (Claw, Ice Tomb, Barrier)
Mr. Bigglesworth can solo this fight. Cast Claw, Ice Tomb, Ice Barrier, PASS TURN (to avoid hitting your own Ice Barrier), Claw, Claw, Repeat. If Mr. Bigglesworth dies, swap in a backup: Peddlefeet and a Kun-lai Runt.
Other suggestions:
Sources
I've learned a lot from other experienced pet battlers, especially Androctonus and Nganga. Thank you guys!
I've also gathered a lot of information on pet battle strategies that is available from various sources online. Some of my biggest sources are:
* The Pet Battle forums on Warcraftpets.com. They also have a good basic pet battling guide.
* The Celestial Tournament guide on Wowhead.com
* Pet battle guides on the Cathedral of Tainted Souls blog. There is no index on this site, so it needs to be searched through Google (name of the blog + name of the opponent you plan to face is sufficient), but he has clear, detailed descriptions of the opponents' abilities, and the detailed descriptions of what your moves should be.
* Pet Battle forum on Elitist Jerks
* El Fuego's pet battle guides. Contains helpful videos.
I've done the Celestial Tournament three times now, so I have now seen all of the initial trainers. The Celestial Tournament is a weekly "scenario" in which you are faced with three trainers which change every week (three teams of three for a total of nine trainers) and then face the four Celestial pet battles -- Xu-Fu the Tiger, Chi-Chi the Crane, Zao the Ox, and Yula the Dragon -- which are the same every week. You cannot use your heal button or rez any pets during the entire scenario.
Here is the information I've gathered to help me beat these battles. I'm writing it up here so that it might be useful to others, and also so that I can find it easily in the future!
Zlinka's Pet Battle Strategies
Tip #1: Take one tamer at a time at first. When facing a set of tamers for the first time, I found it helpful to take on just one tamer at a time with a variety of test teams. I'd figure out the best team and strategy for that tamer, then I'd leave the scenario, heal and rez my pets, then go try another tamer. Once I had figured out all three tamers for that week I would go in at full health and take them all down one after the other easily. Doing a set of test runs and then resetting the scenario helped me go in very strong for my serious attempt.
Tip #2: The pet-healing strategy. You can't use your heal button, but you CAN heal your pets during the battle by using a trick. Two of the Celestials, Chi-Chi the Crane and Yu-la the Dragon, do not attack on their first turn. So it is possible to heal your pets up before attempting the Celestial battles. Simply choose one pet that has a group heal, like a cricket, and two pets that need healing. Put the Cricket in the lead position, engage Chi-Chi, cast the group heal, and forfeit. Repeat until the two backline pets are fully healed. There is no forfeit penalty in the Celestial battles so it is possible to get them to full health. There are also tamers who do not attack during the first turn, so it is possible to heal up on those as well (I think Wise Mari is one of these).
Now, on to the battles. I lean toward conservative, reliable strategies that work every time rather than flashier strategies that depend on lucky RNG.
I have placed Alternative Teams and Further Suggestions behind Spoiler buttons to reduce clutter.
Trainer Team #1: Chen Stormstout, Wrathion, and Taran Zhu
I find Chen and Wrathion to be the hardest tamers in this set. Chen starts out with a possible stun, so I do Chen first and re-start the scenario until avoid the stun on that first turn. Then I do Wrathion.
Chen Stormstout
a) Darkmoon Zeppelin
b) Kun-lai Runt
c) Legs.
Open with the zeppelin and build a decoy. If the zep gets stunned re-start the fight. Missile until the beast dies. Explode against the cricket pet. Bring in the Runt, Mangle then Rampage. Put Mangle on the elemental if you can. Bring out Legs, use Pump and Whirlpool.
Note: Cho's first pet always starts with a possible stun. This is not so bad on the gnome, which is fast, so he gets a turret built before the stun lands. With a slower pet, however, I found that my success in the fight depended on whether that first stun landed.
Alternate teams:
Wrathion
a) A fast rabbit really shines against Cindy. Use Burrow to avoid the Ice Tomb, and Dodge right after that to minimize other damage. The rabbit takes little damage from Blistering Cold.
b) Scourged Whelpling (Call Darkness, Dreadful Breath). Swap in the Whelpling when Alex comes out. Use Call Darkness and Dreadful Breath against Alex. The Whelpling may die to Alex, but Dreadful Breath will have done damage to Dah'da too.
c) Kun-Lai Runt (Takedown, Mangle, Rampage). Bring in the Runt against Alex and Dah'da. May need to mop up with the rabbit.
Alternative teams:
Other suggestions:
Taran Zhu
Three grubs, all with Consume, Acidic Goo (which I didn't use), and Leap. The hardest opponent was the one that stuns -- might want to find a way to burrow to avoid that stun. But this strategy works even without burrow. The next-hardest one is the one that self-heals.
I used 3 H/H maggots (two devouring maggots and one maggot, which have H/H breeds with a health of 1887). I recommend H/H here because a) this is an endurance fight, in which both you and at least one of the opponents the opponent have self-heals; and b) it's possible to recover from very low health with Consume, so having a little more health means that you get several more turns out of each grub; and c) Leap makes the base speed of the grub irrelevant -- with Leap on, your grub will go first with any base speed. With that in mind, the highest-health grubs are the best here.
Use Leap to increase speed, the follow it with Consume, which has a 1-turn cooldown (so the pattern is Leap-Consume-Leap-Consume with all three grubs until all three panda opponents are dead). The fight takes a while but it eventually wears all the opponents down.
Other suggestions:
Trainer Team #2: Blingtron 4000, Wise Mari, Shademaster Kiryn
Edit: I found Blingtron to be the hardest of these three, so I started with him and kept fighting him until I won, restarting the instance each time. Then Shademaster, then Wise Mari, who were both easier in comparison (one-shots). Wise Mari in particular has been straightforward the two times I've fought him -- I've yet to use my third pet on him.
Blingtron 4000
a) Legs (Pump, Surge of Power, Whirlpool) -- Legs is good in this position as it is a Magic pet and so cannot take more than 50% of its health at once (which helps him survive Au's charge), but it also has aquatic attacks which are strong against elementals.
b) Corehound Pup (Thrash, Howl, Burrow)
c) Fel Flame (Burn, Immolate, Conflagrate)
Start with Legs, cast Whirlpool, then Pump twice. The Pump plus the Whirlpool should kill Au.
Next comes Banks, the pig.
Cast what you can against Banks, as you'll only have 1-2 hits before Legs dies. Cast Whirlpool if you can, or Ion Cannon if Whirlpool isn't up yet. If you think you have two turns left in Legs, try Pump + Pump. Then Legs dies to Banks.
Bring out the Corehound Pup. Immediately burrow to minimize damage, then Howl (damage increaser) then Thrash, Thrash. Repeat until Banks dies. Then Howl and swap out.
Bring in the Fel Flame, open with Conflagrate to take advantage of the damage buff from Howl. Then Immolate. Cast Conflagrate on Cooldown. Spam Burn as filler.
Edit: A key factor to winning with this lineup is to get the Corehound's Howl up before your Fel Flame enters the fight, because the Howl massively buffs the Fel Flame's Conflagrate (to 1500 or so, which will nearly kill the Blingtron's Lil'B). Without Howl the first Conflagrate is much smaller, and the final fight becomes more of a slugfest instead of an almost-oneshot. To get that Howl in, your Strider needs to kill, or almost kill, the first pet, and the Corehound needs to kill, or almost kill, Banks.
Other suggestions:
Wise Mari
a) Crow (Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)
b) Onyxian Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Deep Breath -- could also use Lift-off instead of Deep Breath to avoid the whirlpool/dive combo)
c) Strider (unused) (Water Jet, Healing Wave, Pump) (or Legs with Pump, Surge of Power, Whirlpool)
Start with the Crow and open with Alpha Strike, Call Darkness, Nocturnal Strike, then Alpha Strike again. The crow finishes off the carp and most of the magic pet. Then bring in the Onyxian Whelpling. Use Tail Sweep, and healing on cooldown, until it dies. My whelpling never died, but finished off the magic pet and killed the elemental pet. I used Deep Breath once to good effect. Could also choose Lift-off instead of Deep Breath to avoid the otter's whirlpool/dive combo. If needed, use the aquatic pet to finish him off.
Alternate Teams:
Further Suggestions:
Shademaster Kiryn
a) Zandalari Kneebiter or Anklerender (Hunting Party, Black Claw, Bloodfang)
b) Terrible Turnip (Tidal Wave, Leech Seed, Sons of the Root)
c) Anubisath Idol (Demolish, Stoneskin, Deflection)
Start with the raptor. Cast Black Claw, then Hunting Party. This is enough to bring the first pet to low health. Finish him with Bloodfang. Cast Black Claw to help the Turnip, then retire the Kneebiter and bring in the Turnip.*
On the Turnip, start with Sons of the Root. The Cat will Call Lightning then build a turret. Kiryn's Cat's own Lightning Storm + your raptor's ongoing Black Claw will do significant damage to the Cat, and your Turnip's Son's of the Root will both protect the Turnip and damage the Cat (with buffs from Black Claw and Lightning Storm). Cast Tidal Wave to remove the Turrets once the burrow is over. Leech Seed for Health. This is enough to kill the cat. Retire the turnip, bring out the Idol.
A very helpful add-on here is Pet Battle Tactician, which tells you the opponent's abilities and cooldowns. I had trouble using the Idol in this slot until I got this add-on, which let me predict the wolf's dodge.
With the idol, apply Stoneskin when the wolf has Dodge up to avoid wasting a hit that would be dodged anyway. After the wolf has buffed himself with Pounce, hit Deflect to avoid the incoming buffed hit. Otherwise, hit Demolish.
* You can also retire the Kneebiter WITHOUT casting Black Claw -- he'll retire at much higher health as he'll avoid the cat's nasty lightning storm. The turnip can kill the cat on its own, but will get more damaged in the process. The longer duration of the fight means that the cat has time to cast Lightning Storm a second time, but this can be used to your advantage against the Wolf. When the Wolf comes out, immediately submerge, and all the little attacks + the cat's second lightning storm will bring the Wolf down by a lot.
Trainer Team #3: Dr. Ion Goldbloom, Lorewalker Cho, Sully the Pickle
Edit: Of the three teams, I find this one to be the easiest. I have been able to beat this set of trainers three times now with the teams listed below with no losses (though there were some close calls!).
Lorewalker Cho
a) Nether Faerie Dragon (Arcane Blast, Life exhcange, Moonfire)
b) A Spider (Strike, Brittle Webbing, Leach Life)
c) Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Call Darkness, Plagued Blood)
Open with Moonfire against Cho's Wisdom Pet, and then Arcane Blasted until Wisdom was dead. He'll bring out his second pet, Patience the Broom. The Faerie Dragon will be damaged but that's actually good here: hit Life Exchange, then swap in the Spider. With the Spider keep Brittle Webbing up, then Leech Life when it needs a heal, then hit Strike. When the Spider dies, bring in the Scourged Whelpling. Hit Tail Sweep to finish off Patience the Broom, then he'll bring out his last pet. Hit Call Darkness, then Plagued Blood, then Tail Sweep. When I tried this the Whelpling went down alarmingly fast and ended up being killed, so I had to bring out the very damaged Fairie Dragon back in and managed to finish him off. I've won twice with this team, and a similar thing happened the second time. I needed the Undead's rez on the Whelpling, and had to finish his last pet off with the very injured Faerie Dragon. It was very close -- I only won because my Faerie Dragon went first. May need to research this team more for a cleaner win.
Sully the Pickle
a) Frog (Tongue Lash, Swarm of Flies, Bubble). I used a Swamp Croaker
b) Kun-lai Runt (Thrash, Mangle, Rampage)
c) Yellow Moth (P/P) (Alpha Strike, Cocoon Strike, Moth Dust)
Start with the Frog. Get Swarm of Flies up, then Tongue Lash. Cast Bubble to avoid two attacks' worth of damage. The Frog should take Socks (undead racoon) out easily.
He will then bring in Monte, a rabbit. Get Swarm of Flies up, then Tongue Lash until the Frog dies.
Bring in the Kun-Lai Runt. Get Mangle up, then Rampage. This, plus a Thrash perhaps, should be enough to kill Monte.
He will bring Socks out (undead Racoon). Get a hit in against Socks, but the Runt will die pretty fast.
Bring out the Yellow Moth. Moth Dust and Alpha Strike, can use a Cocoon Strike in there if you want.
Other suggestions:
Dr. Ion Goldbloom
a) Emerald Proto-whelp (Emerald Bite, Ancient Blessing, Proto-Strike)
b) Darkmoon Tonk (Missile, Ion Cannon, Shock and Awe)
c) Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (with Breath). Breath is a strong anti-magic attack, and Mechanicals have bonus defense against magic.
Alternate for c): Onyxian Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Healing Flame, Lift-Off)
Start with Proto-strike as his pet will start with a lift-off so you lift-off as well. They'll hurt each other in the air. The whelp will hurt the first pet, Screamer. Screamer will be swapped out for Trike, a beast. Hit Beast with the Tonk.
The last pet, Chaos, was a little trickeier. My Onyxian Whelpling's Tail Sweep and one self-heal worked well. Chaos has a strong anti-dragon attack which is bad for the whelpling -- a better would be a non-dragon pet with a magic attack, like the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, which is also resistant to magic attacks, but the Onyxian Whelpling did work. I will try the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling next time.
CELESTIALS
Before starting on these guys use the heal trick on Chi-Chi or Yu-la to heal up the pets you need to full.
Chi Chi
a) Pandaren Water Spirit (Water Jet, Whirlpool, Geyser)
b) Chrominius (Bite, Howl, Surge of Power)
c) Rapana Whelk (Absorb, Acidic Goo, Dive) (unused, but useful as backup as it's a critter so it takes less damage from Fire Quills).
Start with the Water Spirit. Open with Geyser, then Whirlpool, then swap him out for Chrominius. On Chrominius, cast Howl, then Surge of Power. The massive combined nuke of Geyser, Whirlpool buffed with Howl, followed by Surge of Power, is enough to one-shot Chi Chi. No need to bring out a third pet. I've always won with this combo.
Other suggestions:
Zao
a) Pandaren Water Spirit (Water Jet, Whirlpool, Geyser)
b) Chrominius (Bite, Howl, Surge of Power)
c) Third pet to clean up. Darkmoon Tonk perhaps.
The Water Spirit and Chrominius should be healthy enough to hit Zao after Chi Chi. If they're very damaged you can heal them on Yu-La before hitting Zao.
Start with the Water Spirit. Open with Geyser, then Whirlpool, then swap him out for Chrominius. On Chrominius, cast Howl, then Bite (this Bite in second position is very important. When I forgot it, Zao would survive the nuke with 100 points left and heal himself -- very bad), then Surge of Power. The massive combined nuke of Geyser, Whirlpool buffed with Howl, followed by Surge of Power, is enough to one-shot Zao. No need to bring out a third pet.
Alternative Teams:
Other suggestions:
Xu Fu
a) Clockwork Gnome (Metal Fist, Repair, Build Turret)
b) Zandalari Kneebiter or Anklerender (Hunting Party, Black Claw, Leap)
c) Darkmoon Zeppelin (Missile, Explode, Decoy) (unused) or another Zandalari raptor.
Start with the Gnome and build a turret, then swap him out. Bring in the raptor. Open with Black Claw, then Hunting Party. Return to the Gnome and build one more turret. The two turrets buffed with Black Claw and Hunting Party are usually enough to finish him off.
If you have a raptor in the third slot, you can swap him in after the second turret and hit Hunting Party to take advantage of the ongoing Black Claw buff.
If you have a Zeppelin, you can swap it in after the second turret, build a decoy to buy yourself some time, then missile or explode.
Most of the damage comes from the Turret buffed by Black Claw, so you can use any speedy pet with a stampede type attack as the third pet. Can also used a Cogblade Raptor with Exposed Wounds to boost the turrets.
Other suggestions:
Yu-La
a) Mr. Bigglesworth (Claw, Ice Tomb, Barrier)
Mr. Bigglesworth can solo this fight. Cast Claw, Ice Tomb, Ice Barrier, PASS TURN (to avoid hitting your own Ice Barrier), Claw, Claw, Repeat. If Mr. Bigglesworth dies, swap in a backup: Peddlefeet and a Kun-lai Runt.
Other suggestions:
Sources
I've learned a lot from other experienced pet battlers, especially Androctonus and Nganga. Thank you guys!
I've also gathered a lot of information on pet battle strategies that is available from various sources online. Some of my biggest sources are:
* The Pet Battle forums on Warcraftpets.com. They also have a good basic pet battling guide.
* The Celestial Tournament guide on Wowhead.com
* Pet battle guides on the Cathedral of Tainted Souls blog. There is no index on this site, so it needs to be searched through Google (name of the blog + name of the opponent you plan to face is sufficient), but he has clear, detailed descriptions of the opponents' abilities, and the detailed descriptions of what your moves should be.
* Pet Battle forum on Elitist Jerks
* El Fuego's pet battle guides. Contains helpful videos.