Elwynn Forest Rare Spawns

Elwynn Forest is a lush wooded valley in central Eastern Kingdoms, and home to the great human kingdom of Stormwind (which also happens to be the home of another rare). It is also the starting zone for the human race.

The first rare young humans could potentially run across in Elwynn Forest is Gug Fatcandle, level 4. Gug spawns in front of the closed mine entrance north west of Northshire, and he drops a 4-slot bag called the Fatcandle Bag.

Mother Fang (level 9) is also a very neat looking spider for new hunters to aim for if you like eye-catching skins. There is more info, screenies, etc. about her in this post: Mother Fang.

Fedfennel and Gruff Swiftbite (both level 9) can be difficult to pull by themselves depending on where they spawn in. It is possible to pull and kill their adds and then run out of range to reset these rares though.

Speaking of adds, Thuros Lightfingers (level 9) spawns in a small camp with three adds very close to him (two adds pictured in the screenshot below). If you try to pull him all four will follow you. I was able to take on all of them with my ironman toon (you can see the hairy fight at the end of the video below) but it sure had me a bit nervous so be careful!

All of their spawn timers seem to be fairly close to the 30-45 minute range.

Click Map to Enlarge

Some screenies of these rares in order by level and as you will find them in the world. ~

Dun Morogh Rare Spawns

Dun Morogh is a snowy region located in Central Eastern Kingdoms, it is also the starter area for both Dwarves and Gnomes and home of the great Dwarven City of Ironforge. Dun Morogh is also home to six rare spawns ranging from level 4 - 9.

The first one you will likely encounter when starting a new toon in Dun Morogh is Gibblewilt, a crazed leper gnome found just southeast of Gnomeregan. He is quite humorous to watch as he talks to himself, points this way and that, and throws his hands up laughing when he apparently tells himself a good joke.

Both Timber and Bjarn are tamable by hunters, and would make nice first rare pets for new Dwarves.

Great Father Arctikus is much higher level than everything else in the cave he patrols in, so lowbies questing in Frostmane Hold - be careful. He also has some odd phasing issues that I noticed when I was watching him. He was walking over and through walls, and at one point he phased out entirely only to reappear elsewhere in the cave...

Edan the Howler can be found at the back of The Grizzled Den (cave west of Kharanos).

Hammerspine can be found way at the back of the cave in Gol'Bolar Quarry. He has an enrage that HURTS. Fast-forward to the end of the video below and you can see how he left my poor ironman rogue with 1 health.

Click Map to Enlarge

All six rares, in order by level. ~

1st Blogiversary Contest, and the winner is...

Ok, so I'd just like to start this off by saying I had a heck of a hard time picking a winner for my 1st Blogiversary Contest (which was to tell me what your favorite rare in the game is, and why). There were just so many great entries! If you haven't read them all yet, I have each one listed in this post 1st Blogiversary Contest Submissions. If you have a few minutes to spare I definitely recommend reading them, there were some wonderful stories that were submitted.

So without further adieu I'd like to announce the winner, and the winner is Erinys of the Harpy's Nest Blog with her submission: A rare thing: Humar the Pridelord!

I chose Erinys' entry because ultimately...it was awesome. It was so well-written, and the content so emotional, it actually got tears welling in my eyes as I neared the end. The story she tells about the bond between hunter and pet, and ultimately the loss of that pet was just heart-wrenching and she did a beautiful job telling it. 

If you haven't read it yet, PLEASE DO! Here is her entry copied directly from her blog post:

My favourite rare spawn in game is this fellow here, Humar the Pridelord.

Way back in vanilla, my husband started playing a hunter as an alt with the eventual intention of making it his main for a period. As he levelled he started looking around on the internet, researching pets and looking for interesting ones to tame. That search took us to Petopia amongst other places and in the end lead to the Barrens. As a low level Night Elf hunter on a Horde heavy pvp server this was not an easy plan, however he persevered and was rewarded by a loyal companion who kept him company for a long time. Then when I came to make a hunter of my own, I followed in his footsteps, running from Theramore up into the Barrens to tame my very own Pridelord.

There was however a problem, back then levelling pets was horribly painful and because certain pets had different attack speeds, sometimes you just had to let go… a process which always left me feeling devastated.

———————-

The hunter and her shadow, a huge black feline slid through the forests of Ashenvale, instinctively keeping to the shade. Their passage was silent, paws and feet making no noise as they glided over twigs and heaps of dead leaves. As they neared the border with the Barrens, the Night Elf slowed her pace, her unease translating itself to her companion. The cat whined softly, rubbing his head against her leg. ”Sshh”, she reached down and stroked his thick fur, “almost there boy, almost there”. In reply, he licked her hand, his tongue rough as bark.

They picked their moment, waiting until the Orcs guarding the rampant were distracted by a party of young Trolls, arrogant and brash on their first trip to Ashenvale. Moving in tandem like a well oiled machine, they worked their way deeper and deeper into enemy territory. The cat scouted ahead whilst the Elf shadowmelded beneath the heavy squat trees. Had any eyes seen them, it would have been clear that this was an old familiar pattern.

On a hill over looking the Crossroads, they stopped for food and to gather their strength for what was to come. Thick steaks for the cat, donated by a dinosaur whose curiosity had done him no favours and dumplings from home for the hunter. After they ate, they stretched out and gazed down at the busy town beneath them. ”Remember all the fun we had here boy?”. The cat purred, rubbing his head against her. “Hunting all those cowardly Horde. There was that warrior, the Troll, we chased her half way to Orgrimmar didn’t we”. He growled, showing a touch of fang and she smiled, patting him. “You liked the taste of Troll didn’t you boy”. The two of them lay in companionable silence, reliving their glory days, as they stalked living prey across the barren landscape of their memories.

As dusk fell, an observant watcher would have seen two moving shadows drifting towards Ratchet. A hunter, her violet skin and height marking her as a Night Elf walking lightly in the pawprints of a large black cat who ran a little ahead, turning back every minute or so to make sure she was still there. As they covered the dusty ground, the hunter’s thoughts returned to the first time she had followed this path. That nervousness in the pit of her stomach, the tension in her grip on her bow, both feelings she had thought were long gone came swimming up from the dark depths of her memories. Sensing her distress, the cat paused for a second, licking her hand to reassure her.

Just above the Goblin settlement of Ratchet, they came a halt, pausing to listen to the sounds of drunken partying mingling with the drunken yells of the dock workers loading ships for Booty Bay. Closing her eyes for a moment, the hunter let her thoughts drift back to the days when she too had frequented those parties, waking up to a throbbing headache, foreign sheets and the golden eyes of her cat, regarding her and her new friends expressionlessly as he guarded her belongings from quick fingered thieves.

“Almost there boy, almost home”. The cat whined in agreement and led the way, past gnarled and twisted trees, their thick branches providing the only shade and through thick grasses which cut at your legs, flicking back like whips. Before she realised it, they were back at that spot, the right place under the right tree. Sitting down, their backs to the broad trunk she tried to put her thoughts in order. Stroking his fur, she found herself gazing down at the white marring the thick black coat. In her head, the white hairs melted into snow and the temperature dropped as the parched earth grew a snowy blanket. Out of the shadows, the bridge at Dun Baldar crystallised into being. The acrid smell of gunfire caught the air, the heavy thud of war drums and the twang of her bow strings replaced the Goblin sea shanties but most importantly, the large feline shape at her side, the shadow which tied all these memories together bounded like a kitten through her subconscious.

Ragged breathing pulled her from the safety of the past, “it’s alright boy, you’re home now”, blinking back tears from her silver eyes, she held him close. She felt the last rough stroke of his tongue across her hand, one last goodbye before her friend slid into the realm of memories and dreams, leaving her alone beneath the open sky. Digging the grave was easy, leaving him in it, far harder. Looking down at her closest friend, so small and somehow diminished in death, she found herself cursing her race, condemned to keep leaving those she loved in the cold damp earth.

Walking away, followed by nothing but her own lengthening shadow, she wiped away her tears. Then before beginning her descent into Ratchet, to the tavern in which she intended to drink until all this was just a bad dream, she looked back. There in the half light, she saw him again, standing proud before the tree. A sea breeze caught the branches, shifting the light and revealing nothing but long grasses, shattering the mirage. “Goodbye old friend and good hunting”, raising her hand in farewell, the hunter, her heart breaking headed into town alone.
——————–

Now of course, it’s a different story as all my hunters have more than enough room to house him. That emotional bond with my virtual pets is just as strong however, the one thing guaranteed to make me mad in pvp is to persecute my pet. You can /spit spam me until I’m drenched or laugh at me until you cry and you won’t get a reaction. Hurt my pet though and you better be ready to die, over and over again.

Congratulations Erinys! What a fantastic story! ^-^ As you are aware for your prize you can choose any one of the $10 companion pets from the Blizzard Store. Just let me know which one you would like and we'll work out the details from there!

1st Blogiversary Contest Submissions

I am no longer taking submissions for my 1st Blogiversary Contest, which was to tell me what your favorite rare is and why, and I would like to thank everyone who submitted an entry. I received entries in several different forms including blog posts, replies to my original contest post and by email.

I think everyone should get a chance to read all of the entries before a winner is picked, so I would like to share them with you. I have quoted the entries received via email and as a response to the contest post below so that they can easily be read in one place. For entries received via blog posts I have included links directly to the posts. Definitely check them out if you haven't yet - they have some very nice visuals to go along with their responses (images will carry no weight when the entries are being judged as not everyone was able to submit them).

(Entries are listed in the order they were received.)

Entries Submitted via another blog (with links to posts):

Ashenvale Rare Spawns

Ashenvale, a beautiful ancient forest in Northern Kalimdor and home to the Night Elves, has been heavily scarred recently by ongoing attacks from the Horde's lumber camps, cursed dragonkin, and the demons of the Burning Legion. Even though this zone has faced it's share of troubles over the past few years I still think it is one of the most gorgeous zones in the entire game. (Pre-cata Ashenvale was my absolute favorite zone, no contest.)

This zone is also home to a dozen rares ranging from level 21 - 26. Darkslayer Mordenthal can be found attacking Ashenvale Outrunners south of Splintertree Post, and both him and Apothecary Falthis can only be attacked by Alliance players.

Both Mist Howler and Ursol'lok can be tamed by hunters, unfortunately neither have unique skins.

Under-geared people (this means you ironmen toons!) be careful pulling Akkrilus. Several felguards and fel hunters need to be cleared out before you can reach him at his alter. Once the way has been cleared he will have two fel guards on either side of him, and in my experience pulling either felguard will also pull Akkrilus - and he cannot be pulled by himself. (If you skip to about 6:30 in the video below you can see my ironman warrior was nearly killed by him.) 

All of these rares are on fairly short re-spawn timers. Funny, she doesn't look druish... Lady Vespia's timer is around 10 minutes, where Terrowulf Packlord (one of the few remaining worgen in game with the original badass skin) has a longer one probably closer to 30min - 1hr or so. The rest of the rares in the zone fall somewhere in between.

Click Map to Enlarge

Some screenies of all twelve of these rares as you'll find them in the zone in order by level. ~

Salyis' Warband & Galleon - MoP World Boss

(Updates toward bottom of post.)

Chief Sayis' Warband, Blizzard did a wonderful job on this model!

After maintenance this morning I logged into the beta to do a few quests in the Valley of Four Winds before going to work. The moment I logged in I noticed people in general chat looking for more to help down a rare world boss. Naturally I was curious and offered to join in.

It turns out this boss is actually an entire war party called Salyis' Warband. The party is made up of several saurok (reptilian humanoids) who man two huge cannons on top of a kodo-like beast called a mushan named Galleon. The party is led by Chief Salyis (seen standing on Galleon's head).

I'm not sure yet if the War-band spawns in any other locations, but when our group attempted downing them we found them on the Rumbling Terrace shooting cannonballs over the river. I put a red dot on the map below to show where we found them.

Darkshore Rare Spawns

Darkshore, a shadowy forest bordered by both mountains and sea, on the north western part of Kalimdor, is home to nine rares. These rares range from level 12 - 19, and for the most part are lower in level toward the northern end of the zone, and get higher in level as you move south. 

Shadowclaw and Strider Clutchmother are two notables in this zone as they can both be tamed by hunters. Shadowclaw is also a unique hunter pet and looks exactly like the alliance Striped Nightsaber mount, making him a nice find for lowbie hunters. He is stealthed, so he can literally sneak right up on you while looking for him if your around his level. Strider Clutchmother travels with two smaller tallstriders which will attack when she is attacked or if you try to tame her.

Click Map to Enlarge

All of these rare are on incredibly fast re-spawn timers, somewhere in the 10-15 minute range sounds about right. I actually leveled one of my ironman toons from level 12 to 24 on three rares in the zone without questing at all. As you can see from the screenshot below, I repeatedly killed Strider Clutchmother (20 times), Shadowclaw (49 times) and Lord Sinslayer (38 times). You can also see in the screenshot that Lord Sinslayer had last been seen only 9 minutes before I started attacking him in the shot. (I believe I was actually working on another blog entry while this toon waited shadowmelded for the re-spawns.) ;)

Alani The Stormborn - the New Aeonaxx/TLPD of Pandaria?

(Updates toward bottom of post.)

The new Aeonaxx/TLDP of Pandaria?

Flying high above the Vale of Eternal Blossoms glides a gorgeous majestic dragon named Alani, The Stormborn. (Perhaps a reference to Daenerys Targaryen, mother of Dragons, aka. Daenerys Stormborn from GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series?)

Alani is a level 92 silver dragon leading me to believe that we may just be seeing a glimpse of the next Time-Lost Proto-Drake/Aeonaxx. At least that's what I'm hoping for because WOW would this make an amazing looking mount!

Look at that Gorgeous Face!

Alani has 1264k hp. I watched her fly around the zone for about 15-20 minutes with my eagle eye and she patrolled all the way from the most eastern side to the west, making it a very large patrol area. She was generally flying fairly high in the air, but did occasionally dip down low enough to the ground that she probably would have been within range to hit with a ranged spell. 

First Blogiversary! ~ Contest & Giveaway

It's officially been a year today since I started this blog with my first post about using NPCScan to find silver dragons, and what an amazing year it has been! I've since posted 165 posts (probably about 85-90% of them specifically relating to rares, and I have had a blast doing so.

This blog was created specifically with the intention of helping others find rares in game, and I think I've done a decent job sticking to that theme. I've written the occasional post related to in-game holidays, mounts, and of course the WoW Ironman Challenge (which I've been quite obsessed with recently), but ultimately I try to and would like to continue trying to keep it mostly "rare" themed.

I've had a lot of fun hunting these rares down, taking screen-shots, writing about them -- and I think above all, I have really been enjoying the feedback from the community.

I've also had a lot of fun playing around with the blog itself. I'm still totally a blog noob, but I really enjoy messing around with the colors and gadgets, trying to figure out what looks best, while still making sense and not being a total eye-sore. My biggest goal recently was to make navigation a little easier, which I have sort-of succeeded at, but I'm still not done with it. My goal for the next year is to continue trying to make navigation easier, while of course adding new content.

Stats:

Stats are fun. Plain and simple. Because they are so fun here are a couple of stats from my blog from the past year:

WoW Ironman Challenge Complete!

Ironstevo has done it! He has gone where no other undead have gone before. He has finally completed the WoW Ironman Challenge! It was a long, perilous and incredibly nerve-wracking journey. Now that it's over Ironstevo is going to get himself a cold one, put up his rotting feet and relax.

For anyone unaware the WoW Ironman Challenge is to level from 1-85 using the rules below.

Only White or Grey gear. No Heirlooms of any kind.
No transfer of gear, items, or money from any other character (yours or others).
No gear enhancements, including gems, enchanting, and reforging. Class abilities are allowed (eg. Rogue poisons, Shaman imbues).
No specialization, talent points, or glyphs. No pet talent points.
No professions or secondary skills, except for First Aid.
No potions, flasks, or elixirs except for required quest items.
No food buffs or other external buffs (including buffs from items and other players).
No groups or assistance from other characters, even if not grouped.
No dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, or arenas.
No guilds, except for level 1 guilds created specifically for the Ironman Challenge.
No Refer-A-Friend.
No addons which assist in combat and/or leveling (eg. leveling guides, Ovale).
THE BIG ONE: No deaths. Character death for any reason disqualifies the character
The following are allowed:

All class abilities, racials, and personal buffs.
All mounts, bags, and non-combat pets.
All quests, including holiday events and dailies (unless prohibited by some other rule, eg. Fishing and Cooking dailies).

More info on the challenge can be found on this thread on the World of Warcraft forums: The Official Ironman Challenge Thread. There is also a leader-board that automatically tracks progress at wowironman.com. This morning after Ironstevo hit 85 it looked like this:

Teldrassil Rare Spawns

Teldrassil, or "Crown of the Earth" (Darnassian translation), is an island (and a great tree) off of the Northeastern coast of Kalimdor. It is also the starting area for Night Elves. If I had to choose, I'd say that this is my favorite starting area in the game. There is just something so magical about it. The massive towering trees, the night elf dwellings built in and among them, the gorgeous colors, and then there's the music...it just brings it all together.

Teldrassil is also home to seven rare spawns. Three of which are furbolgs. There are no rares in the immediate area where new toons start in Shadowglen, but as soon as you head south you are likely to encounter Uruson, a furbolg who patrols around Starbreeze Village. 

Most of them don't patrol much other than Fury Shelda. She patrols a larger area and flies very fast. Her patrol area can also be quite dangerous because of the numerous harpies in the area. I advise clearing an area along her patrol route before engaging her. 

Duskstalker, the white spotted cat, doesn't patrol but instead has four separate spawn points south of Lake Al'Ameth. He is also a unique hunter pet since cataclysm and makes a nice low level pet for lowbie hunters. He also matches the Spotted Frostsaber mount perfectly. More info on Duskstalker in this post.

All of these rares have very short spawn timers. As short as even 10 - 30 minutes I don't think would be far fetched at all.

Click Map to Enlarge

All seven of them just waiting to be killed, and in order by level~

Threggil, Uruson, Blackmoss the Fetid & Duskstalker

Grimmaw, Agal & Fury Shelda

And because I'm totally addicted to ironman toons, here is my newest ironman challenger taking down each one of these rares:

Ishnu'ala friends.