This is the battle that I had the most trouble with before I sat down to work out a strategy. In fact, you will find advice from other pet battlers telling you to choose the earth spirit as a reward from the initial quest so you don't have to do this fight ever again. However, with this strategy you can pull off an easy win.
Recommended lineup: Rapana Whelk, Cogblade Raptor, Grassland Hopper.
First, let's review the Pandaren Earth Spirit.
In battle it can go first or second.
It is an elemental that deals elemental damage.
It has 334 attack power and 300 speed and uses the following abilities.
Crystal Prison does no damage and stuns the target. It has a 5-turn cooldown.
Rupture does elemental damage and has a 25% chance to stun the target. It has a 3-turn cooldown.
Stone Shot does straight elemental damage. It has no cooldown.
For this pet, I like to use a snail. Here's why.
A snail is a critter and resists elemental damage.
Critters also resist crowd control effects, such as stun, suffering for only the current round instead of the next round as well.
Snails have the ability to dive. Dive is a high-damage aquatic attack and elementals such as the earth spirit will take increased damage from it.
Types of snail include the Rapana Whelk, Rusty Snail, Shimmershell Snail, Silkbead Snail, and Scooter the Snail. If you don't already have a high-level snail, go for the Rapana Whelk since it can be captured at high level in Dread Wastes and will probably be ready for this fight upon capture provided it's blue.
Which abilities should you use? Hands down, you should definitely choose Acidic Goo and Dive For the slot-1 skill it's up to you, but I like to use Absorb because the little bit of healing can help me hang in there if I find I'm missing often.
To start the fight, keep hitting Acidic Goo (2) until it lands. It might take a few tries because the stun interrupts your turn. The goo will add 25% damage to the target for 3 rounds.
Once you get the goo to stick, hit Dive (3). Don't worry if your snail's health is dropping in the meantime because once the dive hits it will rock that earth spirit.
Repeat if necessary, using your slot-1 ability to pick away at the spirit between dives and, if using Absorb, to heal your snail.
If your snail is max level, keep it in and try to get goo on the next pet before it kills the snail.
Next, let's look at Sludgy.
It can appear first or second in battle.
It is critter that deals aquatic and magic damage. It's basically an oozeling that's been classified as a critter.
It has 300 attack power and 334 speed and uses the following abilities.
Creeping Ooze is a DoT that does aquatic damage, lasts for 3 rounds, and has no cooldown.
Expunge does magic damage and has a 3-turn cooldown.
Ooze Touch does magic damage and has no cooldown.
Here, you will want to use a mechanical pet that deals beast damage. I recommended the Cogblade Raptor because it is the highest level capture that meets the requirements, but you could also get the same use out of an Anodized Robo Cub or a Fluxfire Feline. None of these are particularly easy to come across (especially if you're horde) so if you're going to step down to something else, keep in mind that mechanical pets are best at resisting and beast damage is going to pack the biggest punch against Sludgy. Avoid using pets of the elemental or flying variety.
If you are using a Cogblade Raptor, I suggest using Bite, Screech, and Repair. You probably won't need the Repair.
If you are using an Anodized Robo Cub, then Bite, Repair, and Maul will serve you well. Again, you probably won't need to Repair.
Everyone's favourite of these three is the Fluxfire Feline. Using Claw, Wind-Up, and Supercharge in conjunction will make Sludgy wish he'd stayed home. Use Wind-Up once first for the damage modifier, then keep using Supercharge and Claw until he's low enough that spending the Wind-Up will end it. If this is the second fight in the battle, you can also hold off on spending the Wind-Up to do massive damage to the last pet because it's a beast and we all know what mechanical damage does to beasts.
The last pet will always be Darnak the Tunneler.
It is a beast that deals beast and elemental damage.
It has 300 attack power and 300 speed and uses the following abilities.
Burrow makes it unattackable for 1 round and then deals massive beast damage on the next turn.
Stone Rush does elemental damage and damages itself in the process.
Stoneskin reduces the amount of damage it takes by a set amount. Avoid using attacks that do a small amount of damage several times and favour attacks that do a lot of damage less often.
This pet is the reason this battle is so intimidating, but it becomes ridiculously easy if you use the right pet. For this, I strongly recommend using a Grassland Hopper. Yes, it's a critter and Darnak deals massive beast damage, but that is a non-issue and here's why.
The most important ability to choose here is Cocoon Strike. This will let you avoid every instance of Burrow. If your hopper's speed is higher than Darnak's (you can catch a 325 speed hopper in Townlong Steppes) you will always see the Burrow coming. After Darnak is under the ground, use Cocoon Strike and the Burrow will be blocked.
If you don't have a higher speed rating than Darnak, that's still fine. Using Screech will fix that.
For the third ability, either of the heals will do.
You will be dealing next to no damage to Darnak but he will deal plenty of damage to himself when he hits you with Stone Rush, so don't even worry about your damage. All you need to focus on is avoiding those Burrows.
Other hoppers include the Marsh Fiddler, Red Cricket, and Singing Cricket.
Now you should have no trouble defeating the Thundering Pandaren Spirit. Go forth and spoil your friends with earth spirits.
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