Grand Master Pet Tamer: Courageous Yon

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.

Next up in the line of Pandaria Tamers is Courageous Yon. When the ability Chew was way overpowered (before the nerf) I struggled so much in the battle against his team. This was the only Pandaria Tamer that I had problems with, until I figured out his team's quirks (and Chew was nerfed, of course XD).


Courageous Yon can be found in Kun-Lai Summit in an obscure cave in the snowcovered mountains in the lower left area of the zone. West of Kota Basecamp if you're looking at the map.

Pet Team: Piqua (flying), Lapin (critter), Bleat (beast)

Team quality and level: Epic (purple), level 25

Notable pets and attacks: Piqua's Lift-Off, Lapin's Burrow, Bleat's Chew

All of the pets on this team have hard-hitting abilities, two of which also include avoidance. There are a few ways you can handle this unique set up: out damage them, out last them, or avoid specific attacks. For me, I've found that avoidance abilities work best. It gives me extra time to work on defeating each pet, without having to resort to wasting a round on healing or hoping a large burst doesn't miss or is dodged.

The most common order in which Yon's pets come out are: Piqua, Lapin, and Bleat or Lapin, Piqua, and Bleat. I've only very rarely come across Bleat as the first combatant when challenging Yon to a Pet Battle.

I go with strong pets for my team on this fight. Undead (with a magic attack) to combat flying, humanoid (with beast attacks) to combat critter, and mehcanical to combat beast.

The key to this battle is timing. You'll want to time your abilities and cooldowns just right so you don't waste them. If you can figure out the quirks and patterns of Yon's team, defeating him will be no problem for you!

Piqua


I use a Restless Shadeling for Yon's flying pet (but I used to use the Wild Crimson Hatchling). Usually Piqua will follow a specific order of attacks, and the one you need to watch out for is normally used during the second round but keep in mind it takes a total of 2 rounds to resolve.

Since Piqua uses Lift-Off as its second attack, I can use any ramp up ability first. This is usually a dot or some other damage increase. During the round where Piqua flies up into the air is when I have my shadeling pop its avoidance move, Phase Shift. If your goal is to prevent any damage from Piqua's Lift-Off attack, any avoidance ability will work, so long as you can time it right.

Phase Shift will last through the damage portion of Lift-Off, leaving my shadeling unharmed. From there, it's just a matter of defeating Piqua before it can get another Lift-Off out. In most cases, a second one doesn't occur, but if it does, Phase Shift will be off cooldown by then. An avoidance move with a short cooldown comes in very handy for this particular match up, just in case Piqua manages to dodge a lot of your basic attacks.

Lapin


The next companion that is sent out to battle is Lapin, the rabbit. Again, the second attack that it uses is most likely the one you need to be aware of, Burrow. Much like Piqua, this move also takes 2 rounds to finally hit.

That being said, I save my Flayer Youngling's avoidance move, Reflect, for the round where Lapin comes out of the ground. This negates any burst and from there my pet can continue to work on defeating this bunny.

Lapin normally doesn't last to get another Burrow off, which is a good thing since Reflect is on a fairly long cooldown. Thankfully, my youngling has quite a bit of burst, and unless Lapin dodges a lot or my pet misses too often, I normally don't have to worry about blocking another round of large incoming damage.

Bleat


This is the pet that gave me the most trouble when the ability Chew was overpowered. The damage this attack did was insane! It was eventually nerfed, but that doesn't mean you should ignore this move completely. Chew can still cause quite a bit of damage to your pet, especially if it's used before Stampede.

Stampede places a debuff on your pet which increases the damage it takes. Combine that with Chew, which already hits for a large amount, and your pet's health could take a nosedive fairly quickly.

Whenever I'm up against Bleat, I find that he will use Chew first, which means Stampede will be second. To try and reduce how much damage my pet will take, I use the Darkmoon Zeppelin's Decoy ability first. This won't block the initial Stampede, but it will prevent Chew from landing. Since Stampede hits multiple times and Decoy only blocks two attacks, my zeppelin can't avoid 100% of the damage during the second round of Stampede.

After Decoy has been deployed, I send out my "ramp up" (Bombing Run) and proceed to knock down Bleat's health as best as I can. Because Stampede is a three round ability and Bleat usually likes to heal himself after casting it, I normally have about 2-3 more rounds where I can just pump out damage on him.

If I don't miss and Yon's pet doesn't dodge, I'll usually defeat Bleat just as he's performing a second Chew (it never has a chance to hit, though). Bombing Run ends up being the killing blow most of the time.

I've tried to use my ramp up ability first, but it never ends very well. It's important to control how much damage Bleat does to your pet, not just how much you can do to it. If your pet can survive the first few rounds of burst, it will have a higher chance of consistently putting out damage later.

As always, 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 Corageous Yon's team with an assortment of other pets and methods; find what works best for you!