Zagam's Celestial Tournament Guide

[Zagam 1,982]

Awesome!  I'll take your feedback, put into guide, and consider it stronger.  Congrats on the victory and thanks again for bringing weaknesses in guide to my attention!

 

Enjoy your new pet!

[Breakbeat 1]

Hello,

 

Facing the last of the three trainers this week, and there are more issues that need to be addressed.  Again, I've tried these about a dozen times to make sure I'm reporting accurate info and not just a victim of bad RNG.  I'm going to try to be brief, but don't hold your breath.  Here goes:

 

Blingtron 4000 - Solid strategy, everything goes down exactly as described in the guide.

 

Kiryn - If the Kun Lai Runt (mine is P/S) doesn't die to Summer's first attack (25% of the time), then the timing on the Shock and Awe / Ion Cannon combo needs to be adjusted.  Summer will now have Dodge off cooldown in time to mess up your combo whether or not you try to squeeze out one last KLR attack, or swap him ASAP.  The only way to make the combo effective after a KLR survival is either to postpone the whole sequence until after Summer's next Dodge (undesirable - too many rounds to survive), or "draw out" and negate the Dodge by doing Shock and Awe / Missile / Missile / Ion Cannon. You can't rely on Shock and Awe to stun either, as that is only a 25% chance and should be considered a nice bonus, not a requirement to win.  IMHO, the guide is far too confident on what will and will not happen in this encounter.

 

Wise Mari - Strategy does not work as stated for an S/S Sprite Darter Hatchling, which is what I have.  There are multiple issues, but what it boils down to is that Since the SDH is the opening pet, and cannot do a decent amount of damage to Carpe quickly enough, the whole strategy falls behind.  My whole pet team is low on health by the time Carpe is dead, SDH cannot do a decent amount of damage to Spirus before dying, Tarecgosa comes out with low health and then is dead before she can finish off the huge chunk of health left on Spirus.  So, the Mirror Strider (again, starting with low health) has to mop up Spirus, which is basically the end of things.  When River comes out he lands a Dive as well as a Whirlpool on the Strider, and it's game over.

 

Once again, this week I've sought out other guides (Wowhead's official guide, as well as one in the comments section of that guide) to find replacement pets to complete this battle.  Looks like an S/S Molten Hatchling can solo Wise Mari, and my backup plan beyond that is to replace Tarecgosa (and the Mirror Strider, effectively) with a Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling.  Both alternatives have been upvoted and seem to work well.

 

I've never really been disappointed with the information I've acquired from Icy Veins -- barring my Druid I have learned every other class from the ground up using Icy Veins guides, to great success.  I've never been anything but happy with the information I received, and certainly never felt the need to go back and dispute the information with the author of the guide.  I'm sorry to say, such is not the case with this tournament guide.  Step one is "RECOMMENDED PET ARMY".  So, trusting this site, I said, OK, I will go get these pets.  Which I proceeded to do, each and every one of them either farmed or stoned for rare and leveled to 25.  Time was put into Archaeology.  Money was spent for pets I didn't have.  I made only one substitute (Unborn Valkyr for Crawling Claw), but that's it.

 

I think a bit more care needs to be taken to look at pet breeds and see where different breeds may be interfering with your strategies.  I have no idea how many fights I found easy, following your guide, because I happened to have the same breed you did when you wrote it.  For all I know, week one would have been a disaster with different breeds.  I see other positive comments on your guide, and I can only assume that either people commented favorable because they did indeed have the breed you had, or I just got extremely unlucky and acquired "bad" breeds when I was capturing and leveling up the pets.

 

Either way, for the guide to be completely effective - Icy Veins style effective - the breed info needs to be given up front.

 

Thanks again for your time.

[Zagam 1,982]

Your feedback is appreciated.  I've had numerous positive reports of them one shotting the tournament.  I don't think it necessarily comes down to breed issues as even with the team I have listed, I still have RNG beat me at times. 

 

Remember, this guide isn't an official guide released by Icy-Veins.  This material is purely a voluntary guide written by me - it has no association with Icy-Veins at all other than it being displayed here.  It was my efforts to put forth a guide to help people through the Celestial Tournament since a lot of the guides out there were incomplete, didn't include pet rosters, and didn't give step by step strategies.  Most of the time, other guides simply said "use Pet A against Pet B" and that was that.  This was my attempt to put a solid set of strategies together in one place. 

 

I'll take another look into this set of trainers.  To be honest, when I did this Celestial Tournament guide, I didn't pay attention AT ALL to any of my breeds.  I just went out, got pets that fit, leveled them, and won with them.  From my understanding, pet breeds matter a SMALL amount, mostly in speed ratings to determine who goes first, but not much after that.  I could be wrong.  I'll take a swing at these guys again today and see what changes could be made. 

[dean771 3]

Speed is a massive factor with any pet with CC, turns a 2 turn CC into a one turn and visa versa if your bet has a dodge/blind

[Oltier 471]

I've been wondering Zagam... Once I've got the celestial pets and I just want to farm the tournament for rarity tokens and whatsoever, could I use any of the celestial pets in any team? (I haven't used your tactics before so I assume you are more familiar with it and the replacement possibilities :P)

[Zagam 1,982]

Most of the Celestial pets are kinda meh.  They're fun to use, but hard to use competitively.  Yu'lon can dub as a flyer with Takeoff, but she'd mostly be useful as a Dragon with her breath attack.  Xuen is super nifty against Critters, but you don't come up against any.  He's decent against Flyers with Moonfire and his Magic Claw attack, but that's a reach, too.  Chi'ji can be used as a Flyer with his triple attack.  I've never found a use for the ox. 

 

You could probably easily fill them in somewhere.  I just wanted them to have them.

[Xahn 0]

After Doom has been applied, your Pandaren Water Spirit will apply Geyser and Whirlpool.  Swap to Chrominius and apply Howl.  Finish Zao with Surge of Power.

 

I'm sorry but this is so stupid, when I swapped to chrominius the bull just one shotted chrom, I almost cried..wasted too much time already trying to deal with all the previous round.

[Zagam 1,982]

I'm sorry but this is so stupid, when I swapped to chrominius the bull just one shotted chrom, I almost cried..wasted too much time already trying to deal with all the previous round.

It's not "stupid" when it is proven to work.  You may have experienced what we call RNG which can create a random effect that isn't beneficial to you.  It's highly likely your Chrominius wasn't at 100% HP or perhaps "the bull" got a lucky crit.  Sometimes, this happens.  Persistence will win the Celestial Tournament, not blindly charging through.  RNG can break some of the most consistent strategies.

[Kezzedrix 0]

Thanks for the great Guide. I am currently leveling all the pets you recommend in your post. However while reading all the infos on the different battles I come across the section for Dr. Goldbloom. There the following is written:

 

Screamer starts with the ability Take-Off.  Since we used your Sprite Darter Hatchling against Sully, he'll be missing some HP.  Bring in your Terrible Turnip and use his Inspiring Song to heal your Sprite Darter Hatchling, then immediately forfeit.  Do this until your Sprite Darter is fully healed.  Your Sprite Darter Hatchling feels like cheating with how well he will dominate Screamer.  Open up with Evanescence to completely avoid his Take-Off damage.  Use Moonfire and Arcane Blast to bring him to 50%.  He will use Feign Death and swap to Trike.  The turn that he hits 50%, bring in your Son of Animus (preferred) or a Personal World Destroyer.

 

The list of pets you recommend for this fight is:

 

Sprite Darter Hatchling

Scourged Whelpling

Personal World Destroyer

 

Now I am a bit confused where the Terrible Turnip comes from? Or should I use this pet in case the Sprite Darter Hatchling was severly damaged? Which pet from the above list should be replaced than?

Edited September 25, 2014 by Kezzedrix

[Zagam 1,982]

Re-read what you copied in green - it says to use the Terrible Turnip to come in and heal your pets that are injured and then forfeit.  There is no penalty for forfeiting a pet battle, so you can just initiate fighting him over and over using a heal and then forfeit for as many turns as it takes to restore your pets to full HP.  It feels dirty and cheating, but it works.  Once they're healed up, you use the lineup I provided.

 

Glad you appreciated the guide and hope it turns out positive for you.  Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

[Kezzedrix 0]

Thanks for the quick reply. Next time I will google unkown words like forfeit before complaning. I thought I would mean the same than swapping.

[Pandomin 0]

Took all the trouble to register just to let people know that this guide has severe flaws, i got the exact pets and done it step by step 6 times, and get random screw ups on different bosses every try. Do not bother trying this guide but rather find one that works.

[Zagam 1,982]

Took all the trouble to register just to let people know that this guide has severe flaws, i got the exact pets and done it step by step 6 times, and get random screw ups on different bosses every try. Do not bother trying this guide but rather find one that works.

Sorry to hear that you had no success.  If you have something to contribute that would benefit the guide, I'm all ears.  I've had NUMEROUS successes myself and many others find success with this guide.  Best of luck in the future.

[Ironsights 1]

I've been sponging off this guide for so long thought I finally better come along and say thanks for it!

 

Everything worked a charm (except for Wise Mari) and obvious RNG bad luck. I've cleared the tournament 9 times now following this.

 

So, thank you very much Zagam!

 

The only one I'm consistently having issues beating is the Wise Mari set up but I think the issue is my S/S breed of Darter just not having enough punch, too many Carpe breaths get through and then Spirus' Arcane Blast just wipes me out unless RNG favours me and I land some Slicing Wind crits early doors.

 

Edit: Quick update to this - I switched out lil' Tarecgosa for the Scourged Whelping from elsewhere in the guide (since it isn't used in these 3) and it just made mince meat of him. Give it a try next time if anyone else is struggling.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Ironsights

[Zagam 1,982]

Glad to hear you had success!  One of the things I'll improve this guide on is including the breeds of the pets.  I think someone else struggled because I ignorantly thought breeds didn't matter, but some of the speed thresholds mattered a lot.

 

Thanks for the extra contribution!

[Chunks 0]

Hi, is this guide still up to date? It has worked for me most of the time but i'm stuck on Shadowmaster Kiryn, when he swaps out Nairn i switch to my fel flame but his mechanical pet does a thunderstorm not mentioned and i can barely kill him off with it, then when i switch back to my kun-lai runt his has healed for quite a bit and i can't finish it off anymore with mine...

Any suggestions? 

[Zagam 1,982]

I've not tried the Tournament since I got all my pets.  I was unaware of any changes made to the Tournament, but I wouldn't rule out that possibility.  Others have found success with some RNG failure - how many times have you tried?  If you're hung up on one trainer, just keep trying until you manage to pull it off.  I found some weeks to be incredibly frustrating as it felt like they cheated.  I consider it a "wipe" and just come back for another attempt, just like I do my progression raiding.

 

As for changes, if your Fel Flame isn't making the cut, perhaps try another pure Elemental pet that also have Elemental skills and see if you have better luck.  There are lots of Elemental pets/abilities in the big pet list.

[Dallas 1]

Awesome guide, thank you very much. I made an account just to reply, so helpful I would however make a small note, about the crawling claw/lesser voidcaller. Claw is a pain to farm, and I've had no luck farming Tempest keep on 3 characters for weeks. Instead emphazsize on the Doom spell, which is really all that matters. I bought the Lil K.T after looking at another guide. I desperately wanted the pets on your list, but those 2 drove me crazy, just a small note Other than that, it is truly awesome, just completed my first one, and it went smoothly :D

Edited October 12, 2014 by Dallas

[Zagam 1,982]

I wanted to avoid asking anyone to buy extra pets but I can appreciate desperation through a lack of drops. I'll be sure add that to the list!

[Cheze 6]

I too registered to tell you how useful this guide was; it helped me a lot.  Here's some tips for fights people seem to be having problems with:

 

Niuzao: You don't need to use the crawling claw doom/howlbomb combo against him; he can be easily defeated with a couple of zandalari raptors.  Open with a raptor, use black claw and then hunting party.  Niuzao will kill the raptor, but not before you hurt him quite badly.  Bring in your second raptor and use hunting party again and you should finish Niuzao off pretty comfortably.  Obviously howlbomb also works, but this way you don't have to spend the time healing your water spirit/chrominius up between celestials.

 

Taran Zhu: Kovok is pretty effective here, if you have him.  Lay down phermones, then use poison and puncture wound against zhu's first monk until he swaps it out.  Kovok should have enough health to poison his second monk and lay down phermones again.  By the time kovok dies, the poison/phermones combo should be well on its way to killing zhu's first pet and will have his second one heavily damaged.  I then swap in a spider with brittle webbing, poison and leech life.  That's usually enough to beat zhu, but you can keep another undead pet in reserve to finish him off just in case.

 

Before I got a kovok, I found I could beat zhu pretty reliably with a team of three spiders.  Leech life is effective against his humanoid pets and combined with brittle webbing pumps out a lot of damage, and their poison takes advantage of zhu's pet swapping.

 

ed: also, a magical crawdad is an excellent counter for stormoen.  Shell shield blocks all his turret and lightning storm damage, and spamming surge means that his batter only hits 1-2 times.  Try to time your wish and shield refreshes on the turns that he builds turrets, but even if you don't do that perfectly you should be able to grind him down pretty reliably.

 

ed2: if you're having trouble with wrathion, trying subbing a snail in for the hare pup.  Grind Cindy down with absorb and acidic spit, using dive to avoid ice tomb.  Your goal is for the snail to survive long enough that Cindy's cold debuff completely falls off; by then you'll have done significant damage to Alex.  At that point another pet with humanoid attacks can finish the battle quite easily.  I follow up with a wolvar and keep a flayer in reserve, but the wolvar can usually finish Alex and Dah'da off.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Cheze

[JamesHarrisonMaclin 0]

I've been sponging off this guide for so long thought I finally better come along and say thanks for it!

 

Everything worked a charm (except for Wise Mari) and obvious RNG bad luck. I've cleared the tournament 9 times now following this.

 

So, thank you very much Zagam!

 

The only one I'm consistently having issues beating is the Wise Mari set up but I think the issue is my S/S breed of Darter just not having enough punch, too many Carpe breaths get through and then Spirus' Arcane Blast just wipes me out unless RNG favours me and I land some Slicing Wind crits early doors.

 

Edit: Quick update to this - I switched out lil' Tarecgosa for the Scourged Whelping from elsewhere in the guide (since it isn't used in these 3) and it just made mince meat of him. Give it a try next time if anyone else is struggling.

 

If you dont  have Tarecgosa or Scourge whelping Onyxia whelping is a suitable substitute and if you time it just right you can beat the waveling with it as well  the set up i use for Wise Mari is  Nether fairie dragon Onyxia Whelping and Mirror strider which is uncommon btw and it works unless you get a bad RNG

[JamesHarrisonMaclin 0]

On the Guide for Shadowmaster the second pet always starts with Call Lighting and then does Turret which you do not mention the Call Lighting 

[JamesHarrisonMaclin 0]

Awesome guide, thank you very much. I made an account just to reply, so helpful I would however make a small note, about the crawling claw/lesser voidcaller. Claw is a pain to farm, and I've had no luck farming Tempest keep on 3 characters for weeks. Instead emphazsize on the Doom spell, which is really all that matters. I bought the Lil K.T after looking at another guide. I desperately wanted the pets on your list, but those 2 drove me crazy, just a small note Other than that, it is truly awesome, just completed my first one, and it went smoothly

 

Lofty Libriam has the Doom spell and is a wild battle pet so if you dont have the CC/LVC or LKT you can capture the LL and just lvl it to use since doom is the only spell needed from those three pets

[Morgalice 0]

Hi! Great guide and I can't wait to get started, but I do have one question. Is there a possible substitute for the Clockwork Gnome? He is the only one I don't have or have a good sub for. Thanks in advance!

[Don 0]

I think you can use Azure Whelpling in place of Lil' Tarecgosa. It also has Breath/Arcane Storm/Surge of Power.