Skitterflame is a level 85 rare spawn (added in patch 4.2) with approx 347.5k hp. He can be found in the Molten Front on the south west side of Fireplume Peak hiding in a lava pool. I have indicated where he is located on the map below. I have seen him there 3 or 4 times so far so I'm not really sure if he can be found elsewhere on the Peak. When not engaged he kind of just waits there chillin' in the lava.
This is strictly a TAMABLE HUNTER PET. If Skitterflame is killed all he drops is a Crystalline Tear of Loyalty. If your not planning on taming him, don't be a douche. Leave him alone.
I have seen quite a few people try to tame Skitterflame now and fail. Most likely because they didn't understand the mechanics of the tame. Like Solix, Skitterflame has energy. When his energy runs out he dies.
At the beginning of the fight Skitterflame has 2 buffs. They are:
- Superheated: Too hot to safely tame.
- - Burning Frenzy: Damage increased based on current energy. If energy reaches zero, creature dies.
The only way to tame him is going to be to "cool him down." This is accomplished using freezing traps and ice traps, scare beast is helpful here as well between laying traps. Frost traps give him a debuff called "Cooling Down," this debuff drains his energy. For this tame you are going to need to kite him and be very aware of his buffs. You are going to need to watch his energy bar very closely. If it gets too low and especially if it runs out, he will die.
I've seen that two freezing traps is generally not enough, but three seems to be too many and will more than likely kill him. My best advise would be to break the third trap to get his energy down enough but not kill him. Also, if he gets way too dangerously low on energy you can run him back through the lava pool and it will reset his energy back to 100.
Keep kiting him until his Superheated buff wears off. The moment his buff is gone start the tame. Use any speed/haste buffs that you can to help finish the tame.
He doesn't share a spawn timer with any of the other spiders in the Molten Front and his timer is approximately 6-17hours.
I have a video below of a successful Skitterflame tame using a completely different (and way more simple) method. If you have survival spec, just hit him with a Wyvern Sting and tame him while he's snoozing. I didn't even know this was possible until I saw it happen! About 4 or 5 other hunters in the area were repeatedly failing with the trapping method (as you can see from the skeletons everywhere) and this guy just walks in and tames him like its nothing.
New 4.2 Hunter Taming Challenge Rares:
- Ankha, Spirit Beast Cat (Mount Hyjal)
- Ban'Thalos, Spirit Beast Owl (Mount Hyjal)
- Magria, Blue Spirit Beast Cat (Mount Hyjal)
- Anthriss, Yellow Lava Spider (Molten Front)
- Deth'tilac, Purple Lava Spider (Molten Front)
- Kirix, Green Lava Spider (Molten Front)
- Skitterflame, Red Lava Spider (Molten Front)
- Solix, Orange Lava Spider (Molten Front)
- Skarr, Black Metallic Cat (Molten Front)
- Karkin, Metallic Crab (Molten Front)
I'll share my quick story here, although I wish I would've recorded it. I just tamed Skitterflame today, a couple hours ago while waiting for Skarr to spawn (Still waiting), after two unsuccessful attempts, one because he two shotted me, the other because I kited him too far away from his spawn. Lucky for me, a mage was in the area. Desperate to have Skitterflame go away because he was attacking the poor soul whenever s/he went nearby. So, I told him I would go in for another attempt. Frost Trap, waited for cooldown to pop. Pull. Frozen. Mage becomes Meat Shield bait. Frost Trap, run. Cooldown. Mage runs like a mofo. Pull a fire hawk. Killed Fire Hawk. Last Frost Trap, Buff drops, kills traps. Deterrance, Tame. Success. I used NO haste buffs prior to Taming. I prefer the old school method.
ReplyDeleteFrom this, consider bringing someone to distract Skitterflame off of you, whether they have a shield or a slow so you don't get instaraped when he gets nearby.
Hope this helps.
After a few failures a couple nights ago, which included killing the poor guy, I found Skitter up the next morning. I had spent some time taking what others have suggested and formulated a plan for what I thought would work.
ReplyDeleteI first cleared the area of the mobs, there were two of them in the area I wanted to use.
I positioned myself to the west of Skitter, near the end of the little run there. I placed an Ice trap at the edge of his pool and waited till a couple ticks left of trap cd. I pulled Skitter and placed a Freezing trap on the edge of the ice. I was able to pop Readiness and place a second Freezing trap while he was frozen. While he was frozen in the 2nd trap, almost where I was standing, I ran back across to the edge of his spawn pool. At this point he unfroze and turned towards me. His energy was down to 17 when he advanced and I started to tame. He never got a shot off on me and I took no damage.
I guess the main thing here is the use of 1 Ice and 2 Freezing traps. It worked perfectly and just wanted to share for those who want to tame this best looking spider in game.
Hopes this helps add some info!
Vorondil of Rexxar
Thanks for sharing your method, and a big CONGRATS! I loooove it when people add helpful info. ^-^
DeleteI know this is an older post, but perhaps someone can help me out. I am Lv100, and clearly too strong to chip away at Skitter's health while I kite. But! I also cannot only drop frost and ice traps because they don't drain him enough between drops. Ugh! So, any suggestions? Will this be a tame where I should bring along a lower level friend to do damage while I drop traps to cool him down? Anything at this point will help! I have all the other rares in this region! I wanna complete the set haha!
ReplyDelete