Grand Master Pet Tamer: Bloodknight Antari

NOTE: This was written pre-Patch 5.2. Some elements of this write-up may no longer apply, and my team choice(s) have changed.

For this Grand Master post, I'll be covering Bloodknight Antari. And yes, he's almost always crowded by his own pets as shown in the screenshot below. He must really love his companions! :P


Bloodknight Antari is Outland's Grand Master and is located in Shadowmoon Valley.

Pet team: Jadefire (elemental), Arcanus (magical), Netherbite (dragonkin)

Team quality and level: Rare (blue), level 24

Notable pets and attacks: Arcanus' Feedback combined with Drain Power and Amplify Magic, and Netherbite's Phase Shift and Soul Ward

Unlike Major Payne's team, where it was more efficient to burst down his pets as quickly as possible, for this team, I recommend a balance of damage and endurance. Antari's pets hit quite hard but they also have staying power and damage avoiding abilities.

Aquatic to combat elemental, dragonkin to combat magical, and humanoid to combat dragonkin. Again, this isn't mandatory, but I've found that using strong pets against this team is effective.

Jadefire
Out of the three pets, I think the Fel Flame is the weakest in terms of damage and resilience. For this pet, I usually go with my Mirror Strider (pets with the same abilities are Aqua Strider and Dancing Water Skimmer). It can do large burst using Pump and heal itself if necessary. Under most circumstances, though, the battle against Jadefire doesn't last more than 3 rounds, and my pet usually only needs to heal once.

Arcanus
This pet is trickier and has abilities, when combined together, pack a powerful punch. I put my trusty Wild Crimson Hatchling up to the task of defeating the wyrmling (similar pets include Crimson Whelpling, Spawn of Onyxia, and Onyxian Whelpling).

What you need to watch out for is Amplify Magic and Drain Power. When both are used one after another, Acranus' damage is increased 75% AND your pet will take 25% extra damage. When it has both these buffs and your pet has that debuff, Feedback can be a killer.

Because Arcanus has the potential to hit very hard in just a few rounds, I chose a pet that could heal itself for quite a bit on a relatively short cooldown. Plus being dragonkin, its attacks are strong against this magical pet, so it's possible to burst it down while enduring blast after blast. It's essential to continue damaging Arcanus while surviving, because it's difficult to last longer than a few rounds with that kind of incoming damage.

If you have a pet that has dragonkin abilities, but isn't of that pet family, that's fine. As long as your pet does decent damage and has a way to heal or avoid the large burst, it will do ok.

Netherbite
The last pet on Antari's team is a dragonkin with two damage avoiding abilities, Phase Shift and Soul Ward. For this pet, I pick my favorite Flayer Youngling, who also has a damage avoiding move.

Netherbite is one of those pets that has the potential to outlast your own. It's damage isn't too bad, but don't let that fool you. If you let the fight go on for too long, it's possible that it will get the better of your team.

The two abilities to be aware of here are its damage avoiding ones. Phase Shift will last 1 turn, while Soul Ward will last indefinitely so long as Netherbite doesn't receive an attack. This is important to note because you'll want to save your hardest hitting attack for when these two abilities are on cooldown, so as to not waste it.

What I normally do is use my youngling's Reflection on cooldown, and its main attack (that doesn't have a cooldown on it) for Phase Shift and Soul Ward. Using this ability will help get rid of Soul Ward and "pass" a turn so that Phase Shift can wear off (without having to actually pass a turn).

Why not save Reflection for when Netherbite does an actual attack? I figure that this pet can outlast mine so long as it keeps avoiding my pet's attacks. If my pet can replicate that by stealing a damage reduction ability, it will give my Flayer Youngling more of a chance and put it on equal footing. Whether my pet copies Phase Shift or Soul Ward, it doesn't matter. Either way, that's one round where it doesn't take damage, and one more chance to get the upper hand on Netherbite.

The pets and tactics mentioned above aren't mandatory. This is just what I've found to be most effective for me. You can definitely beat Bloodknight Antari's team with an assortment of other pets and methods; find what works best for you!