WoW Pet Battle Leech Cauterize

WoW Pet Battle Team: Corefire Imp and Molten Hatchling


I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to launch a new pet battle team. The last two teams we’ve tested have been focused on weather effects, but this time, I’m going weather-free! I didn’t say their wouldn’t be a theme though.

This team is all about big self-heals on DPS pets that can bring the pain. I want to be able to swap in a pet based on what will counter the opponents’ pet, and then keep it in there until it destroys its target.

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WoW Pet Battle Leech Pets

Corefire Imp

Role: DPS Tank
Type: Humanoid (Rare)
Source: Drop from Magmadar in Molten Core
Defining Ability: Immolation

Molten Hatchling

Role: DPS Tank
Type: Beast (Varied quality)
Source: Captured as level 14 in Searing Gorge
Defining Ability: Leech Life

Why The Combo Works

There’s one main reason why these two pets excel: they heal themselves, and can do it without sacrificing their DPS.

My favorite self-heal by a long shot is Cauterize, which scales the amount it heals based on damage taken, letting it usually scale with the amount of danger your pet is in.

A few other pets also have Cauterize or a similar ability, but none of them have the pure ability synergy of these two pets, which is why I picked them over the rest. I also like that both of these pets are easy to collect and don’t cost any money, so anyone can build this team.

The Corefire Imp was the instigator for making this team. I was leveling a few new pets through PvP at low levels and realized that about 30% of the time, my Corefire Imp could solo their entire team. It was amazing, and although its power didn’t quite hold up at higher levels, it’s still a solid pet that can hold its own against almost any other pet in the game.

The other superstar I found while leveling some new pets was a generic non-molten spider. I originally wanted him on the team, but then I saw that the Molten Hatchling had the same great skills as the other spiders, but with Cauterize thrown in on top of it. I couldn’t resist.

WoW Pet Battle Leech Burn

A lot of pets have heals, though. What makes this team extraordinary is the abilities coupled with that big heal. Molten Hatchling and Corefire Imp both have a secondary healing effect attached to a DPS attack.

Corefire Imp has the Humanoid passive that lets it heal for 4% of its health every turn that it deals damage. That’s great for most pets, but it’s amazing coupled with Corefire Imp’s Immolation. Immolation is a 9-round buff that goes onto Corefire Imp that causes it to deal a small amount of damage to the enemy active pet every turn–even if Corefire Imp is on your bench.

That means you can activate the buff when Corefire Imp is at low health, and then swap it to your bench and let it heal up 36% of its maximum health over 9 turns. On top of that, it’s weighing the scales in your favor as your current pet duels with its opponent.

Molten Hatchling‘s secondary trick is its Life Leech attack, which deals damage and heals the Molten Hatchling. It’s a small amount, but the trick is that the heal is doubled if the target is webbed, and looky-here, Molten Hatchling has a web that deals damage to the enemy pet every time it attacks! That combo evens out the damage dip from Life Leech, while providing big heals to Molten Hatchling every other turn. Woven in with Cauterize, and it gets scary good.

How To Execute It

The plan is pretty simple with this team, start with the Corefire Imp. Pop on the long DoT, and spam the fire punch until you need to heal. When he gets low, swap him to the backline and let the DoT keep ticking every turn so that it continues to procs the Humanoid passive–healing it for 4% of its health every turn while benched.

The Molten Hatchling will counter humanoids, critters, and anything that hits in small, frequent attacks. So swap that bad boy in whenever one of those pets pop in and laugh.

This team doesn’t have any cross-pet combos to pull off, but I kind of like that. There’s just one pet at a time that can combo with itself all it needs to.

WoW Pet Battle Leech Lava

Concerns

Honestly, I don’t have any major concerns with this team. I’m a tad worried that it has no burst damage at all, and it’s lacking any of the sillily overpowered pets du jour, but I like that in the long run. It means the team shouldn’t get nerfed and it’s reliable without feeling like its a gimmick.

Suggested Third Wheels

For the third wheel, I want to bring another pet that can heal itself, but maybe a different type of heal so its strong when Cauterize is weak.

Some options I’ve been toying with are Spirit of Competition, Disgusting Oozeling, Fetish Shaman, Crimson Whelpling, Blighthawk, or something with the Moonlight weather effect.

So far, I’ve been using Blighthawk the most. I love the undead passive, and I like that it has a way to become unattackable for a turn to dodge heavy hits from the burst damage pets. Its heal is a little wonky, since it requires one of your pets to be dead to heal 50% of its max health, but the amount healed is completely reliable.

WoW Pet Battle Leech Owl

How To Get The Pets

Corefire Imp:
This little guy will probably look familiar to old school raiders, because it’s a clone of the little always-respawning fire imps in Molten Core. The pet drops from the second boss in this level-60 raid instance, Magmadar (the item dropped is Blazing Rune).

He’s extremely easy to solo for a level 90, and any class can kill him within 5 minutes of getting into the raid instance. There’s no tricks: just don’t stand in the fire and punch him til he dies. (If you have a way to break fear, that’ll come in handy too.)

While you’re in Molten Core, why not clear the whole place for some classic duds and a chance at other pet drops in the raid? It should only take 30 minutes or so, and Wowhead has full strategies in the comments section of the boss pages if you need help.

Low level pet jockeys can also buy it off the auction house if they’d prefer. It’s a very common drop from the raid, so it’s not too expensive.

Bring a level 85+ character, or a chunk of gold for the auction house.

Molten Hatchling:
I think this is the first wild pet I’ve featured in a team! The Molten Hatchling can only be caught in Searing Gorge—right near the entrance to Molten Core, how convenient!

It shares a spawn with other fiery pets standing around the lava pools in the zone. The easiest way to force a spawn is to make a loop around all the lava pools in Searing Gorge where this can spawn and kill any critters standing there (whether they’re labeled as battle pets or not).

I was able to find 3-4 Molten Hatchlings on every full-cycle I did, and it only took me 20 minutes to capture a rare-quality one. Make sure you don’t settle for uncommon—the stat difference is worth the extra time!

Bring a level 13+ Mechanical pet if you want the fight to go smoothly.

Blighthawk:
This team will heretofore be known as the poor man’s team, because this is another easy-to-capture, doesn’t-require-money pet.

Blighthawk is only found in the city of Andorhal in Western Plaguelands. Alliance characters have a direct flight path to land in the equivalent of their nest, making it super easy to capture. Horde players will have to position themselves a bit more carefully to avoid guards, but it’s still simple for a high-level character.

Bring a level 10+ Critter pet if you want the fight to go smoothly.

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