1733 pets
If you love Pet Battling and dinosaurs, we've the perfect pet for you. You're sure to dino-score with this month's pet — Zandalari Kneebiter!
Collecting the Zandalari Kneebiter
The Dinomancers are level 90-91 hostile elites. There are roughly eight areas on the island where these NPCs spawn. Most come in packs of two or three, with only a few spawning in as single pulls.
Defeating Dinomancers is fairly straight forward, however it's important that you interrupt their heal. If allowed to complete the cast, the heal will bring them back to full health. After reaching 50% life, they will no longer heal themselves and instead transform into a dinosaur (a neat ability!).
The largest number of Dinomancers can be found on a boat just off the south-eastern coast of the Island of Giants. However, be wary of the level 92 rare elite, War-God Dokah, that also spawns on the boat. Unfortunately, he does not drop any of the Zandalari Raptor pets, but he can be avoided.
Traveling around the island to reach each pack of Dinomancers can be dangerous for characters sub-level cap. A max level character should have no problem safely moving around the zone and killing the NPCs.
All of the mobs found on the Isle of Giants are level 90+ elites. Flying is not permitted on the island, which can add to the difficulty of getting around.
Using an Intact Direhorn Hide while on the island can help reduce the distance at which the dinosaurs and Dinomancers agro onto you. This item can be purchased from friendly NPCs at a camp on the western side of the island.
The Zandalari Kneebiter is but one out of four possible raptor pet drops. With RNG being RNG you might need to kill many Dinomancers until you find your own Kneebiter.
This pet also comes in four different breeds — another reason to spend even more time on the Isle of Giants if you're looking to collect them all. But don't stay for too long; you might turn into a fossil yourself!
Battling with the Zandalari Kneebiter
The Zandalari Kneebiter is one of the most powerful solo pets in the game. That power comes from that one two punch of a combo in the form of Black Claw and Hunting Party.
Hunting Party functions similarly to Swarm, but deals more damage. It also has a cooldown and a shorter Shattered Defenses duration to compensate for its raw power.
The big combo comes when you add in the second slot ability Black Claw (pictured above), the strongest additive buff in the game. When you get that Hunting Party’s Shattered Defenses buff too, that extra additive damage gets doubled as well.
The obvious finisher is Bloodfang, which deals a good bit of damage for a decent heal, but again, when combined with Shattered Defenses a ‘good’ damager can get just plain silly.
The other three choices in the first three slots aren’t nearly as effective, generally speaking. On many other pets they’re passable beast moves, but in the Kneebiter they’re outstripped by the power of its other three moves.
A case could be made for Leap and its 100% speed modification over Bloodfang, depending on the fight. Bite is a decent, no-frills move, but Hunting Party’s big DPS and multiplier makes that far preferable. It’s rare that Screech is ever a preferred move, but side by side with Black Claw it’s a no-brainer.
The Zandalari Kneebiter is a dino-mite pet that deserves a place in a battler’s arsenal.
Battling Discussion on the Zandalari Kneebiter
Pet of the Month is co-written by Liopleurodon, an experienced pet battler and long-time WoW player. She maintains her own Pet Battle blog and is a Pet Battle columnist on the fansite Blizzard Watch.
No offense, but dang you for driving competition to my favorite place to farm this awesome pet :)