How to Defeat Dos-Ryga and Other Legendary Pets

With the advent of patch 5.3, Blizzard did a little bit of tweaking on the legendary pet battles. Most notably, all legendary pets required for the Beasts of Fable dailies now reduce all incoming damage by 50% and it seems to have increased their damage output, too.

Presumably these changes are in response to those who felt that the so-called “legendary” beasts were…well, not very legendary. Personally, I don’t really want “difficulty” in my pet battles. A little bit of a challenge is all in good fun, but I always felt that pet battles were a fun side-quest. They should be kept fun and simple, otherwise they get to be a hassle and a chore and I have enough of that with other aspects of the game.

But, that is my personal opinion. Many folks seemed to think the legendary beasts of fable were too easy and Blizzard has answered. Now it seems the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction: folks are now complaining that these battles are too difficult. My opinion falls somewhere in between. I find them challenging but overall surmountable. In fact, I don’t see too much of a difference between pre and post patch battles.

However, if you’re struggling, then I have a few tips for you.

First of all, there are a lot of good “universal” pet teams out there that folks claim can take on every legendary pet without the need to swap pets or change up your team. These are great, but it’s always been too much work for me to put together one team that has enough synergy and firepower to take out many vastly different opponents.

My strategy had always been to up my team with 3 pets that are strong against the legendary. If the legendary is aquatic, 3 flying pets, and so on. If that proves to be a mistake, then I will swap pets around as needed. However, after killing these legendaries a few times I have it down as to which pets work the best. After a while, I got it down. I don’t think the legendaries are too hard.

HOWEVER. Dos-Rgya for some god-forsaken reason has been over-tuned to the point of ridiculousness. Even a full team of my best fliers couldn’t make a dent in him with his 50% damage reduction and his ability to heal to full health every few turns. His attacks simply hit too hard for any pet to survive without healing, but if you sacrifice a turn to healing you can’t put out enough damage to win the fight. It’s awful. After struggling with him for a solid hour, I finally hit the internet to do some digging. Here’s what I found.

If you’re having trouble with Dos, or any of the legendary pets, there is a team that can take them out in one hit. Yeah, one. Your team should look like this:

1 cockroach or beetle. Must have Survival and Apocalypse. Does not have to be level 25, but must be high enough not to die in one hit. High speed pets are useful here.

2 water strider pets. Must have Healing Rain and Soothe. Should be level 25.

The strat:

Send in the roach/beetle. Use Apocalypse.

Dos-Ryga will use Whirlpool. You may keep your roach in combat for this turn. Swap him before Whirlpool hits.

Send in a strider. Use Soothe.

Do not attack Dos-Ryga. Heal yourself as needed. Keep using Soothe to send him back to sleep. Pass on your turn if you can do nothing but attack. The point here is to stall and buy time, not do damage. Switch to the second strider when the first dies.

Important: after some testing it appears to me that Apocalypse WILL NOT hit if the roach is not out. You must swap to the roach in order for this attack to hit. Switch him in when Apocalypse has 2 rounds left. Use Survival immediately to be sure your roach doesn’t die from Dos-Ryga’s attacks prematurely.

Wait for Apocalypse to hit. It has a 100% chance to hit.

Win!

Notes:

This strategy relies heavily on your ability to bullshit for 15 rounds. Always use a heal on cooldown. Pets with high amounts of speed are a saving grace in this set up. The ability to get in a heal before Dos attacks is priceless. Use Soothe on cooldown as well. You must not attack him for this strategy to work. This includes DoT attacks. Apocalypse is a one-hit kill, so the point of your striders is simply to last long enough for Apocalypse to kill him.

This strategy should work for any legendary pet that you’re struggling with but I have only tested it on Dos. It took a few tries to get it right, but it works like a charm. Hopefully this gives you some hope if you’re struggling and getting downtrodden. Pet battles are supposed to be fun!