8.3 PvP Updates

With the release of patch 8.3 there have been more additions to the PvP pet roster than just new pets. A new weather effect came with the patch and two old ones have been changed. Because of that development we made a revision to the tier lists (meta and families).

1. Toxic Fumes

is the newest weather. It has two effects; it extends the duration of any damage over time effect by 1 round (the opposite of cleansing rain) and all pets are considered poisoned. This makes it a versatile ability because there are multiple ways to gain value from it. Ansteckungsschlag and Bisswunde are the only two abilities that are stronger against a poisoned target, but since all pets with these can apply poisons themselve this combo isn't that powerful. The more impactful synergies come from DoTs that used to be balanced by lasting for a short duration and can be extremely potent having one extra round of effect under Toxische Dämpfe. Examples would be Giftprotokoll, Großer Stich or Korrosion.

2. Blizzard

is one of the two old weather effects that got changed. On top of the chilled bonus it now also increases all elemental damage by 25%. This is a huge buff and will likely make blizzard a far more popular weather to use in the future. It also doesn't require a complicated setup to be useful, just make sure to have some other elemental abilities in your team and you already gain value. Especially moves that combo with chilled like Tieffrieren are stronger now if you can pull it off. Should you see an increase of blizzards in your meta remember to stay away from mechanicals and play more critters.

3. Mudslide

is the other weather that got changed. However in my opinion this one is not a buff and I find this new modification questionable. Schlammlawine now increases the damage of all critical hits by 25%. The problem here is that there aren't enough combos you could play together with this weather. In every match these 25% could backfire since your enemy also benefits from that. At the moment the only pet that makes sense to be played with it is the Küstenhüpfer. Besides the weather it also has Regentanz, which makes it far more likely to get value from the extra critical damage. Therefor the bounder now is one of the best pets to play in teams that are based on hit/critical strike chance increases like Clone Dance.


You can see all the changes to the tierlists over there in the changelogs (at the bottom of the "Quick Info" box). Nevertheless I'm going to list the additions and removals here, but leave out the adjustments to dependancies for some pets.

4. Additions

4.1 Meta Tier List

+Anomalus T2
+Glanzhufhirschkalb T2
+Düsterschnabeljunges T2
+Mieser kleiner Helfer T2
+Küstenhüpfer T2
+Leerenglüher T2

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+Zehenknabberer der Zandalari T3
+Schlammschnegel T3
+Schneeboldwicht T3

4.2 Families List

+Mieser kleiner Helfer
+Schneeboldwicht
+Sonnenbeschienener Falter
+Leerenglüher
+Leerenvernarbte Heuschrecke
+Anomalus
+Kreischer
+Verfluchter Verhexer
+Klagender Peitscher
+Winziger Schneemann
+Cholerian
+Huschender Zitteraal
+Junger Sandsieber
+Alarm-o-Köter
+Schlammschnegel

5. Removals

5.1 Meta Tier List

-Verwaiste Teufelsfledermaus
-Zwielichtwelpling
-Nachtschattensprössling
-Zwergmarsuul
-Purpurkugelfisch
-Bronzewelpling
-Poda
-Squirky
-Kobaltblauer Rabe
-Junger Axtschnabel
-Grausiger Spucker

5.2 Families List

-Flipps
-Hopfling
-Schildwachengefährte
-Lebendige Flüssigkeit
-Geisterhaftes Stachelschweinchen
-Willy/Schielauge
-Lüftchen
-Ewiglebende Spore
-Paradoxer Geist
-Kovok
-Verbrühtes Basiliskenjungtier
-Thaumaturgisches Ferkel
-Mechanischer Präriehund

Should you be interested in getting some first impression on how the new pets and weather effects could look like in PvP you can watch this video of Rosqo and me showcasing them in some fun duels.