Hillsbrad Foothills Rare Spawns

Dustwing - Tamed

Dust be gone! This post had been sitting around for far too long. Between the wee little one, holiday orders for the newly opened etsy store and the holiday season in general, time has been sparse around these here parts.

So anywho, I created a new undead hunter a few months back to level through some of the horde zones post-cata. I finally took my time going through Hillsbrad Foothills, and I've gotta say...wow. This zone is bursting at the seams with rares. There are a total of 24 of them currently. 14 of these rares are tamable by hunters, and 10 of them were added in patch 5.1. This means that the rest of you lowbie undead hunters have no excuse if you don't have a cool pet at this level range!

Let me start off by mentioning my favorite - Dustwing (pictured on the right). He's a level 22 white and yellow moth with a completely unique look. That's right, no other tamable moth in game looks just like this guy. You can find him on Purgation Isle in the southwestern part of the zone. Remember to look up when your looking for him, as he flies pretty high. Also be aware, there are some pretty fearsome worgen just below the area where he patrols.

The second pet that I just had to have when coming out here was Carcinak. Carcinak is a spikey deep sea crab that is dark green in color with some purple/pinkish details along his spine and claws. You can find this clickity clackity fellow where the green slime runs down and meets the sea just south of the Ruins of Southshore. You won't be able to tame another crab that looks like him until leveling up to 84 and finding the Mosstide Crabs in the Jade Forest.

Thoughts on Warlords of Draenor, (War)crafts & The Future

Anyone who follows this blog has probably noticed that I kind of dropped off the radar recently, and for various reasons. The first is that my little girl, who was born this past April, is becoming increasingly mobile. That being said, I've been spending a lot less time around the computer. Apparently for me less computer time doesn't necessarily mean less WoW related time though. I've whipped out my clay and art supplies and have been working on some Warcraft themed art!

Then, as much as I love WoW, I hate to admit that I have been a little bored in game over the past few weeks/months, only logging on to level battle pets and finish my weekly Celestial Tournament. I have however, been spending more time playing Hearthstone, and I have to say - for a game I thought I'd have no interest in, it has me hooked!

Blizzcon 2013 & Warlords of Draenor Reaction:

Oh how I wish I could have gone to Blizzcon this year. So many wonderful members of the community meeting in one place, the energy, excitement, all of the eye-popping cosplay - let me tell you, I watched my twitter feed feverishly the whole weekend. Had teleporters existed, and I had a free and trustworthy babysitter fall from the sky, I would have been there in a heartbeat! Ah well, hopefully I'll catch the next one.

I'm sure most people weren't too shocked about the announcement for the next expansion with all of the rumors being tossed around the interwebs beforehand. It was a title that just felt right when I first read it, and I was hoping that it wasn't just a rumor. Personally, I can't wait for it. I haven't been this excited about a new xpac since Wrath of the Lich King. It will be so wonderful to see some new life brought back to this game. Maybe I can even talk the hubby into playing with me again!

On the Instant Level 90:

Neverending Spritewood & Scary Sprites

I'm sure by now that most of this post will probably be old news, but hopefully some of you will find some tips I'll be sharing useful in snagging yourself a Dandelion Frolicker pet sooner rather than later.

Take a look at the screenshot below. This is the tree just east of Old Pi'Jiu with the Nice Sprites frolicking merrily around its base. See those purple crystals in the shot? Those are Neverending Spritewood Crystals. There are four of them - all are pictured in the screenshot below. I am showing you all four in one shot so that you can see exactly where each spawns from one vantage point. They cannot and will not spawn in at the same time. 

 

Spawn Time:

On the ptr, and when patch 5.4 went live, the spawn time on the crystals was about an hour. It has since been stealthily changed to about 15 minutes. Which crystal will spawn in next is completely random.

The Crystal "Daily":

You can only interact with the Neverending Spritewood Crystal once per day, per toon. Once you have completed the event, you can see the crystal when it spawns in again, but you will not be able to interact with it. Those of you with more than one level 90 can farm for this pet on multiple toons. I've been farming it daily on three toons myself.

The Fight:

Moonfang

I don't know about you all, but I've been having a blast so far since patch 5.4 hit. The Timeless Isle is where I've been spending most of my time. Between killing rares for pets, and pet battling for the Celestial Tournament, I have a hard time leaving that place! I've also been driving myself crazy in Proving Grounds on several of my toons trying for the gold. /Shakes fist at waves 9 & 10!

Whatever you've been keeping busy with over the past few weeks -- that's not all of the new content this patch has to offer. This weekend when the Darkmoon Faire floats back from wherever it disappears off to for the rest of the month, we'll have a chance to fight the new boss there - Moonfang!

Now unlike the Darkmoon Rabbit, Moonfang doesn't just spawn in out of the blue. She will only appear after many other (lesser) wolves have been slain throughout the forest. Killing enough non-elite level 89-90 Moonfang Snarlers, will cause a handfull of elite Moonfang Dreadhowls to spawn. The Dreadhowls are more difficult to kill and have a lot more health, but they are soloable. Killing these will eventually lure Moonfang out of her "den". Moonfang spawns right near the "corpse tree" just north of the fairgrounds. I marked the location on the map below. Her spawn timer is roughly an hour.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms Rares - Patch 5.4

It's no secret that the Vale of Eternal Blossoms has become one heck of a mess and quite a bit has changed in patch 5.4. I'm not sure however, if people realize how all of these changes have effected the rares in this zone - and that they've added new rares (sort of).

Rare Champions:

The eight rares required for the Glorious! achievement, Major Nanners, Yorik Sharpeye, etc, have not really been effected. Every one of them (minus Sahn Tidehunter who moved in patch 5.3) are in the exact same locations as they were at the beginning of MoP. The only major difference you'll notice with them, is that their surroundings got uglied up.

"New" Rares in the Vale:

Before the Vale got all funked up, people working on Golden Lotus rep could get credit for killing powerful enemies at the end of a long arduous line of dailies each day. Although there were sixteen of them, only a few were available to kill on any particular day. All of these powerful enemies were (and still are) required for the achievement One Many Army.

All sixteen of these "powerful enemies" still exist within the Vale, but they have changed drastically. First and foremost, they have been made rare! Well, I should say "rare". Like just about everything these days they are on fairly short spawn timers. You no longer have to wait days to see one either, all of them can (and will) show up every day - yay! It is also worth noting that they will all spawn in during a server restart.

Another important little detail is that many (but not all) of them have moved. I marked all sixteen of these fledgling rares with bright pink stars on the map below. Several of them spawn in caves/underground, and I have noted that on the map as well. If you scroll down below the map, I also have screenshots of each of them in their new locations.

What you get from killing them:

Timeless Isle Treasure

Anyone who has spent a bit of time on my blog should know that I love a good treasure hunt. From hunting down treasure chests across Azeroth on my Ironman toons, to looking for Troves of the Thunder King on the Isle of Thunder. I LOVE treasure! Well, I have to say I am in treasure heaven on the Timeless Isle!

Timeless Isle is loaded with so much treasure that there are actually multiple achievements associated with finding different kinds of treasure. Extreme Treasure Hunter, Where There's Pirates, There's Booty and Treasure, Treasure Everywhere are what I'll be covering in this post.

I have marked treasure spawn locations for all three achievements on the map below. Extreme Treasure Hunter chest locations are marked with bright green stars. Where There's Pirates, There's Booty spawns are marked with light blue stars. Treasure, Treasure Everywhere chests are marked with circles - with different colors indicating different types of chests. Skip below the map for more specific information on each achievement.

Timeless Isle Treasure Map (Click to Enlarge)

Treasure, Treasure Everywhere:

Yeah, it really is everywhere on this Island. I think I even stubbed my toe on a few of those Moss-Covered Chests. Seriously, those things are just all over the place.

Actually, there are 34 of them. However you only need to find 17 for the achievement. You will also need to find 4 sturdy chests, 2 Smoldering Chests, 1 Skull-Covered Chest, and the greatest chest of them all: the Blazing Chest.

I marked each of these chests on the map above, coded by color.

Timeless Isle Rares (Timeless Champion)

The Timeless Isle is chock full of rares. There are probably more rares packed onto this little island than anywhere else in the game. It even has all sorts of fun rare events, treasure chests, things to explore, you name it! For the purposes of this post however I will only be covering the elite and non-elite silver dragons.

Achievements:

Thirty-one of these rares are required for the achievement: Timeless Champion. (One of them that I am including in this post is not part of it, but still a silver dragon.) The items that these rares can drop are also a part of the achievement Going To Need A Bigger Bag. They aren't kidding either, we seriously need some new bags with like 50 slots for this place. That, or bottomless bags with no limit.

Loot & Tapping:

As I had mentioned in the Timeless Isle Preview post I did several weeks back, these rares have the same tapping system as the Isle of Thunder rares. You do not need to be grouped with other players to obtain loot when killing these guys. Even faction doesn't matter. As long as you participate by hitting them, you will be able to loot them. Although anyone can tap and loot, actual loot received will vary by person.

Each rare will drop several Timeless Coins. More difficult rares seem to drop more coins. They all have a chance to drop "Timeless" gear such as Timeless Leather Leggings, and also Burden of Eternity (a very nice item that will turn those leather leggings I just linked into an item level 535 item instead of 496.) Each of them also has a small chance to drop different items that the rare Pandarian Champions drop such as Big Bag of Herbs, Battle Horn, etc. Many of these rares have their own unique loot as well. As you scroll down through this post, you can see which items drop from each rare.

Finding Them:

Now as far as finding these rares - you'll probably easily stumble into more than half of them by just running around and exploring the Isle. When one is nearby you will see a small skull marked on your mini-map. I've done my best trying to make a map of where to find them all that wasn't totally funked up and as easy to read as possible. With this many rares that was not an easy task!

So anyway, here is the map below. For a more precise description of where you can find any one of these rares just scroll down through the post for that particular rare. Next to each rare I have written out more specifically where they can be found.

Map of all rares needed for Timeless Champion Achievement (Click to Enlarge)

 

(To see an even larger image of this map you can also right click the image and view it in another tab. From there you should be able to zoom even further.)

I have screenshots of all of these rares below, and because there were just so many of them I decided to group them by location starting off the coast and then moving inland. To the right of many of the rares I have also included screenshots of their special drops. (There were a couple of drops that I was not able to get before running out of time. I will add those pictures to this post when I receive them or when I can bother someone who has those items!)

Duskwood Rare Spawns

Duskwood, the dark and cursed level 20 - 25 Alliance zone just south of Elwynn Forest, has a total of eleven rares that can be found throughout it's forests. Three of these rares are tamable, however the majority are fittingly either undead or worgen.

Tamable Rares:

*Lightning Paw is a beautiful new spirit beast fox (added in patch 7.1.5) that can scale with your level starting at 17. She has multiple spawn points within bushes with blinking eyes around the western part of the zone. I wrote up a very detailed separate post on her here: Lightning Paw - New Spirit Beast (Fox)

Lupos (the level 20 white worg) does not have a unique skin, and beware of his melee attacks - this guy can give you Rabies! Naraxis (the level 21 red and green spider) is also not unique, but does have a pretty neat coloration in my opinion. Although her skin is fairly common now, during the Burning Crusade era the only mob that had this model and color was Terokkarantula in Terokkar Forest.

Non-Tamable Rares:

There are so many interesting rares in this zone. Each one really has their own story, and most of them even have their own titles. I'm not going to cover all of them, but I'd like to point out the ones I though were most interesting.

Watcher Eva <The Restless Dead> was the rare I found most intriguing. He is a non-hostile undead that patrols around the Tranquil Gardens Cemetery. His patrol route starts at the house of Blind Mary, then on to the campfire just outside, and then up to the graveyard. At the graveyard he will stop and kneel for a long while at one of the graves, when he stops at the campfire it almost looks as if he were preparing a meal. From there he walks back into Blind Mary's house and stands by the door where he states "They will pay for forsaking us. For leaving us amongst the beastly undead to rot..." When attacked he says "It did not have to be this way! I only wish to see my family again...to share with them this gift!" Poor fellow. I felt awful for attacking the guy.

There are two more undead rares in the zone; The Unknown Soldier and Eliza <Bride of the Embalmer>. The Unknown Soldier can be found kneeling over his own tomb in a secluded shrine near the mountainside in Beggar's Haunt. For an unknown soldier, he sure got quite the memorial (pictured at the very end of this post). I would love to know his story.

New Unique Tamable Rare & Some Trackable Pets not so unique anymore (5.4 PTR)

(Anything discussed in this post could very well change before going live, as this is from the PTR.)

I'm sure I'm not the only hunter out there that just can't get enough pets, especially the unique and hard to find ones. Well, when patch 5.4 hits we'll be getting at least one new unique tamable rare.

Meet Great Turtle-Furyshell.

Unfortunately, this spiked dragon turtle is one of the thirty-one rares on the Timeless Isle that needs to be killed in order to get the Timeless Champion Achievement. Not only is he required for the achievement, but he also drops Timeless Coins and potentially other nice loot such as Timeless armor (item level 496 armor pieces). For this reason, he will likely be DEAD almost immediately after spawning in on medium and high population servers. I imagine when the patch hits, that taming him will be a little difficult unless your in the right place at the right time.

Northern Stranglethorn Rare Spawns

There are a total of seven rares that can be found in Northern Stranglethorn, three of which are tamable.

These three tamable rares are also rather unique, as they are all neutral mobs and each have their own title representing a different element. Pogeyan (pictured on the right), is <The Fire Spirit> and has a completely unique look. He spawns just west of the Tkashi Ruins and is incredibly hard to miss when he's up - he's GINORMOUS.

Pogeyan also happens to be one of my absolute favorite hunter pets. He was the first unique pet that I tamed on my night elf hunter right when she hit level 28. I still use this pretty kitty today, and I make sure any new hunters I create have him. <3

Tsul'Kalu, the massive white gorilla, represents earth as <The Earth Spirit>. He even has an earth shield floating around him. Unfortunately he doesn't retain it once tamed. He spawns directly east of where Pogeyan can be found, just across the path. He shares the same look as only one other gorilla in game, and that is Uhk'loc, a rare in Un'goro Crater.

The Cape of Stranglethorn Rare Spawns

The Cape of Stranglethorn, the southern half of what used to be Stranglethorn Vale, is home to a total of five rares.

Tamable Rares:

Scale Belly, the blue and purple basilisk (pictured on the right), had a completely different look pre-MoP. He used to be a generic looking yellow basilisk with blue accents. The paint job he sports now is totally unique, making him a pretty desirable pet for low level hunters. I'm sure someone could even come up with a cool transmog to match him (yeah, mine clashes big time I know). 

Scale Belly used to be famous for dropping the Chromatic Sword. This sword has a very unique multi-color glow effect. Unfortunately he no longer drops the sword, and it cannot currently be obtained by any means in game. Well, let me take that back, technically you could still find one on the AH from someone who still has it and never equipped it - where in that case I'm guessing it would cost a fortune.

Kurmokk, the red gorilla, is also tamable. Unlike Scale Belly, he does not have a unique model. He is the lowest level tamable gorilla of this color though, and the only red one in Stranglethorn.

Non-Tamable Rares:

If you look closely at Lord Sakrasis, you will notice that he's wearing a Purple Trophy Tabard of the Illidari (well, the top half of one at least). He spawns across the rope bridge in front of the holy spring on the Naga Island.

Preview: Timeless Isle Rares (Patch 5.4 PTR)

(For the full list of rares, with map, drops, etc. be sure to check out this post: 

Timeless Isle Rares (Timeless Champion)

Before the Timeless Isle opened up on the PTR I knew their'd be some rares waiting. Using my eagle eye I could spot three or four of them from a distance, and nothing excites me more in game than new rares! Well now that the Isle is open I've done a lot of exploring and would like to share some of the rares I've come across so far - and there's quite a few!

While running around on the Isle if you pay attention to your mini-map you can see where these rares are. There are elite and non-elite ones, and each type will show up differently on your mini-map. Non-elite rares will show up as a little skull, and elites will show as a skull with little orange triangles around it.

So far looting them seems similar to the Rares on the Isle of Thunder, where anyone who tags them can loot.

As your looking through these screenshots, please remember that these are from the PTR and what you see here may change before going live. As always, you can click on the pictures for a larger, more detailed view.

Azshara Rare Spawns

The Evalchar - Tamed

Azshara is a level 10 - 20 zone that became a starter area for Goblins post-shattering. It's also totally shaped like the horde symbol, seriously - look at the map! How did that even happen anyway? It's crazy. Anywho, Azshara has a total of seven rares. Two of them are tamable, but only Scalebeard (the blue & yellow turtle) can be tamed by hunters leveling in the area.

The Evalcharr (pictured on the right) is also tamable - but he is an exotic pet, and therefore can only be tamed by hunters who are at least level 69 and in Beast Mastery spec. The Evalcharr is also a unique pet; meaning there are no other tamable chimearas in game that share his exact model and color.

I've stated this in the past, but I'd like to remind people that rares give a ton of xp for leveling toons. If your questing near any of their spawn points, it's definitely worth it to go out of the way a bit to see if their up.

Southern Barrens Rare Spawns

My last post covered the numerous rares in Northern Barrens. Well, now we'll be crossing the Great Divide into the Southern Barrens which contains 10 rares ranging in level from 30 - 36.

Tamable Rares

Three of the rares you can find in Southern Barrens are tamable, and one of them even has a totally unique look. Silithid Harvester, the green and pink beetle, was given a quite a make-over when Cataclysm hit. He used to be a bluish-green silithid, and has since transofrmed into what you see today. He is the only beetle currently in game with that color-scheme. You can find this big green bug just outside of Desolation Hold to the north.

Azzere the Skyblade, the red wind serpent (pictured on the right), does not have a unique look, but he is the lowest level tamable wind serpent in that color. He has a rather large patrol route just south of the Ruins of Camp Taurajo.

Snort the Heckler, the purple hyena, also does not sport a unique look. However he is the lowest level tamable purple hyena that you will find before hitting the hyenas in Tanaris. These days you can find Snort standing in the center of some large bones east of Vendetta Point.

Northern Barrens Rare Spawns

The Barrens. Ahhhh, this zone brings back some fond memories. Barrens chat, pvp at The Crossroads, the first instance I ever stepped foot in (Wailing Caverns), and of course, who could forget Mankrik's wife? Well unfortunately that mega-jerk Deathwing tore the zone in half when Cataclysm came and funked everything up. Fortunately the rares weren't scared off though, as a matter of fact you can still find sixteen of them in Northern Barrens!

Tamable Rares:

Three  Five of these rares are now tamable by hunters as of patch 6.0.2 (when hydras became tamable). You do not have to be beast mastery spec to tame any of them. Humar the Pridelord, the black lion (pictured on the right), used to have a one of a kind unique look and was very highly sought after pre-wotlk. Although I'm sure he's still sought by hunters these days (especially lowbies), there are now two other cats that look just like him. One of those is The Dark Prowler, a level 21 rare in Hillsbrad Foothills (added in patch 5.1). The other is Pitch, the level 76 quest npc in Sholazar Basin. You can find Humar resting under a large tree just north of Ratchet. (On a side note, some of you may remember the wonderful story that Erinys of the Harpy's Nest blog wrote for my 1st blogiversary contest last year about Humar. If you haven't read it yet - please do! It's an amazing story about the bond between hunter & pet, and just an all around wonderful read.)

Dishu, the orange spotted cat, looks exactly like a druid's travel form (pre-mop). Dishu has three different spawn points northwest of The Crossroads. Currently with Battlefield: Barrens going on, Dishu's south-west spawn point is right on top of a hay bale next to a Kor'kron structure.

Wetlands Rare Spawns

Wetlands is a very aptly-named, swampy and predominantly Alliance zone. Throughout your sodden travels, keep your eyes out for twelve rares that call Wetlands their home.

Probably one of the more well-known rares in this zone is the Razormaw Matriarch, who used to drop the Razormaw Hatchling pet. This pet no longer drops from her, and can now be looted directly from her nest which can be found right near by her spawn point. (Nest shown in screenshots below.) You can find her in the cave at Raptor Ridge. When you enter the cave, simply stick to your right. She spawns at the end of the peninsula in the cavern filled with shallow water. She is also tamable, although not unique.

Leech Widow, the green and black spider, can also be found in a cave (Thelgen Rock). The entrance is at 53.2, 62.9. She is located deep inside, beside the large shallow pool of water. Again, she is tamable but not unique. Sludginn can be found in the bottom of Ironbeard's Tomb, and he is HUGE. He takes up the entire area! The rest of the rares in this zone can be found outdoors.

Prince Lakma (The Last Chimaerok)

A couple of weeks ago one of my readers reminded me about this rare. I had taken all sorts of screenshots of him over a year ago and somehow just never got around to writing about him. Well, I've been following this guy around for the past few days, and with bags chock full of Chimaerok Tenderloin - I'm ready to give you all the skinny on him.

Prince Lakma (perhaps the son of Lord Lakmaeran?) is a level 87 rare chimaera with approximately 4.2M health. You can find him flying around the lush green area in the mountains between Feralas and Silithus. I marked his patrol route in red on the maps below.

Now here is the interesting thing about this rare - because his patrol route spans two different zones (and I'm assuming because of CRZ) it is possible to find two versions of him up at any given time.

Blogiversary Contest Winners!

My Second Blogiversary contest ended last night, and I would just like to thank you all for the lovely comments and again for the support. :) I did a /roll 1-38 this morning, and as you can see from the screenshot above it landed on 29 and then 6.

That means the winner of the Crawling claw pet is: Akira Voorhees

The winner of a TCG pet of your choice from the ones I listed is: Cain

The winners have been contacted via email, and will have a week from the time of publishing this post to respond. If prizes go unclaimed, I will do another /roll in game to determine another winner.

Congratulations to the winners!

Second Blogiversary & Giveaway

Wow! I can't believe it's been two years already since I started rambling about rares on this blog. Seriously, where has the time gone?! I have to say, this past year of blogging has been even better than my first. With the addition of like eight bazillion rares in Pandaria, and a heaping ton of fun new hunter pets - I've had a LOT of fun things to write about.

Let's take a look at what's been happening around here this past year. ~

One of my goals was to improve navigation, and I think I've somewhat accomplished that with my tabs up above. The first tab I added was the List of Rares by Zone, after that addition I just continued adding tabs from there to help people find more specific rares. The List of Rares by Zone tab gets the most hits by far, but I notice plenty of people using the rest of the tabs as well - specifically the hunter pet related ones. I notice people using the search option too, but not nearly as often.

In the last year I've written a total of 82 posts (83 counting this one), bringing my total post count to 248. Although I have produced less posts than the previous year, I'd like to think that the quality of posts has gone up. On average I've been spending a lot more time on each one compared to last year.

Some of my posts have been wildly successful (based on the number of views), and then there are ones that I'm simply proud of based on quality and content. First, let me tell you all which posts were deemed most popular according to their view count.

Top Five Posts from the Previous Year based on Views:

Thousand Needles Rare Spawns - Including Tamable Rares added in 5.1

With the extremely welcome change of raising hunter's stable slots to a maximum of 50 (up from 20) in patch 5.3, I figured it would be a good time to continue on with my posts on low level rares - including more interesting and unique hunter pets. I don't know about anyone else, but I have a lot of new pets (and a lot of previously abandoned pets) to find and fill my stable with in the very near future.

Taming Skyshadow

Well, Thousand Needles has a lot to offer hunters as far as tamable rares are concerned. Twelve of the fifteen rares in this zone are tamable, and nine of these are fairly new (added in patch 5.1). Two of these rares even have unique looks. (Note: The three silithid rares are exotic, therefore hunters need to be at least level 69 and in Beast Mastery spec to tame them.)

Skyshadow, the level 43 grey, yellow & orange spiked wind serpent, has a very appealing unique coloration and model (pictured on the right). He can be found in the far eastern part of the zone near Splithoof heights. He spawns in a relatively out of the way area near the other cloud serpents overlooking the sea. For those without flight - just head straight up into Splithoof Heights from the water and then eastward along the mountain until you get to the flat overlook.

Barnacle Jim, a level 40 spiky sea crab, also has a unique look. You can find him swimming around underwater in Splithoof Crag in front of the remains of a large Centaur tent.

Lesser Charms of Good Fortune to Drop from Rares in Patch 5.3 & Sahn Tidehunter Moved

With patch 5.3 just around the corner I figured I'd give a quick heads-up about a few of the changes that will be affecting rare spawns in Pandaria when it goes live.

The biggest change affecting all of the rares in Pandaria (minus the Zadalari Warscouts & Warbringers) is that they will all drop several Lesser Charms of Good Fortune now. I flew around the ptr killing each rare up, and every one dropped several charms. The amount seemed to be about 3-5 from each.

That isn't the only thing being added to their loot tables though, Blood-Soaked Invitations will also have a chance to drop off of the rares in Pandaria (minus the rares on Isle of Thunder). I'm not sure what the drop rate will be on them, but I had to kill about ten rares before I saw one. (Official patch notes)

I think this is a wonderful change. I'll admit, as much as I love pet battling I was getting a bit tired of it in order to get my Lesser Charms. It will also be nice to see people hunting these rares down again given this new incentive. I know I won't be flying by and leaving any of them alive any more when I come across one.

Also, the Big Blossom Excavation totally destroyed Sahn Tidehunter's Little pond in Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The poor guy had to move with his dead crab Carapin to the northern pond next to Mogu'shan Palace. He is shown at his new location in the screenshot below.

Sahn Tidehunter at his new location in patch 5.3

(And on a personal note - Our new girl baby turned one month old yesterday, and she's doing quite well. She went on her first road trip last week and she had a lot of fun. She absolutely LOVES bumpy car rides. I'm also fairly certain that I witnessed her first real smile this morning! ^-^)

A Precious Little Announcement

So I tried to find a cute baby night elf or draenei to take a screenshot of for this post, because I figured it would be more appropriate given the characters I play in game, however it just didn't happen. I actually couldn't find a baby draenei model anywhere. Where do draenei come from? Eggs? Then holy moly, the night elf one I found.. simply terrifying. So here is a cute human baby to preface my announcement.

That's right, if you haven't already guessed this post is all about baby! The hubby and I just welcomed our first child into the world last Thursday, April 18th. She weighed a healthy 6lbs 10ounces and measured in at about 20'' long. She's got a full head of dark brown (maybe even black) hair and her eyes are getting bluer each day. She's absolutely gorgeous and I must say, I'm totally in love. <3

That being said, activity on my end regarding this blog will be slowing down significantly for the next few weeks/months until we've established a nice routine with our new addition. I will still be answering questions/comments, etc.

Until my next post, (pre) Happy Children's Week!

Trove(s) of the Thunder King

Ahhhh treasure, who doesn't love finding a big honkin' treasure chest? I know I always get a little excited each time I run across one while playing. Well this post is all about treasure baby. No, not the typical treasure chests you'll find out in the world (although you should be looking for those too), but the actual chests you can find throughout the Isle of Thunder: Trove of the Thunder King.

Finding your first Trove of the Thunder King will land you the achievement Thunder Plunder which counts toward the meta-achievement: Stormbreaker.

These chests generally contain about 30 gold, a Shan'ze Ritual Stone, a Fortuitous Coffer (which will usually yield 1-3 Elder Charms of Good Fortune and a small chance at any one of the books required for the Zandalari Library Card Achievement). If you have not yet looted a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen since the weekly Tuesday reset from a rare or another source, there is a good chance you'll see one in your chest as well.

Isle of Thunder Rare Spawns

There are a total of eleven rares on the Isle of Thunder. Ten of them are required for the achievement Champions of Lei Shen. They are all on very short re-spawn timers that seem to be between 30min to an hour, and certain rares become available after unlocking different Stages of progression on the Isle. (More info on that below.)

All of these rares (minus Ra'sha) share the new tapping system introduced in patch 5.2, where so long as you participate in killing the rare you will have access to it's loot. As more and more people join in on the fight, the mob's health pool will increase with each additional player. All in all, I think this new system is great, as it gives players around the Isle more time to get to each rare once it's been called out.

Each of these rares is guaranteed to drop a Tome of Valor worth 15 valor points each time you kill them. They will also drop a single Shan'ze Ritual Stone and a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen for an individual character once each week (so long as you haven't already looted the key elsewhere). Obtaining three ritual stones will unlock the group quest Setting the Trap, which will then lead to the weekly group quest Champions of the Thunder King. Obtaining a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen will unlock the weekly solo scenario Troves of the Thunder King where you will have five minutes to grab as much treasure as you can before the clock runs out.

These rares also have a very small chance to drop the item that begins the questline for warlocks to get their green fire; Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion. The tome seems to be roughly a 2-3% drop chance off of any one of the rares (minus Ra'sha), and can only be looted by warlocks. When combined with a Healthstone the item becomes The Codex of Xerrath, which starts the questline with An Unusual Tome.

So without further adieu, here are each of these rares listed below in the order they became accessible on the Isle. If you scroll further down the page I also have a slightly more up to date map showing exactly where they can be found.

Haywire Sunreaver Construct
NPCID: 50358
Coordinates: 48, 85
Location Description: Running along the shores in southwestern Ihgaluk Crag
Base Health: 10539k
Notable Loot: Sunreaver Micro-Sentry

Abilities: Haywire: Go Haywire! Deals 18500 to 21500 Nature damage to all enemies within 40 yards every 1 sec. for 20 sec and increases movement speed by 100%. (Ranged players can still dps him and not get hit, so long as you stay right at about 40 yards. Others should be able to heal through it. If you don't have heals, I recommend getting away from him for the 20 seconds he casts this.)

Fishin' for Rares: Krakkanon

Fishing, it's not something I usually talk about on my blog. Mainly because it's never had anything specifically to do with rares (the silver dragon kind) until just recently. Well, patch 5.2 sure added a lot to the fishing profession, and one of those things is a rare - that you can fish up!

Meet Krakkanon. He's a really, really BIG kraken that you can fish up in any of the new fish of the day locations throughout Pandaria.

If you haven't been keeping up on fishing since the patch, let me give you a brief overview of some of the changes. Each day there is now a new "fish of the day" location somewhere in Pandaria. The fish of the day locations contain tons and tons of very fast re-spawning pools of one kind of fish. The type of fish that the pools contain depends on what location the pools are in; and although the pools are named slightly differently, the fish caught are identical to the ones already existing in Pandaria.

Like Raptor Mounts? Spend some time on the Isle of Giants!

Ahhh mounts, who doesn't love em? Mounts, pets, titles, vanity items - they're the only things in game that will truly last patch after patch, and with each new expansion. Today I'm not going to talk about rare spawns, I'm just going to blab a little about some of these new mounts I'm loving in patch 5.2. Specifically - the Raptor mounts!

In patch 5.2 there were four new raptor mounts introduced to the game. All four of these mounts can be obtained by spending some time on Jurassic Park the Isle of Giants. Killing the dinosaurs on the isle will land you stacks and stacks of Giant Dinosaur Bones, which can ultimately be used to purchase Reins of the Bone-White Primal Raptor. This mount looks very similar to the Ivory Raptor, an Old School Ride that was taken out of the game in patch 1.4.

Bone-White Primal Raptor (Thank you to Arelae and Rickoutragos for posing for me!)

The larger, more difficult to kill dinosaurs drop more bones. For example, a Primal Devilsaur will land you anywhere between 35-45 bones, whereas a much easier to kill Young Primal Devilsaur will get you between 11-13 bones. Once you've collected 9,999 bones you can turn them in to Ku'ma <The Bone Collector>, to complete the quest A Mountain of Giant Dinosaur Bones. You'll find Ku'ma in a cave on the western side of the island. The quest reward is the previously mentioned sexy Bone-White Primal Raptor. You'll also receive a feat of strength called I've Got 9999 Problems but a Bone-White Primal Raptor Ain't One.

War-God Dokah (Rare Elite on Isle of Giants)

War-God Dokah <Ward of Beasts> is a level 92 rare elite that can be found on the Isle of Giants. He is located at the bow of the ship in the southeastern part of the zone. (Map with exact location further down in post.) This ship is inhabited by a pretty hefty Zandalari Dinomancer population.

Getting to Dokah without a flying mount can be a little tricky, especially if you don't feel like plowing your way through a heap-ton of elite mobs and the Primal Devilsaur that stands just outside the ship on your way in. To get onto the ship your going to need to jump onto one of the small canoes on the northwest side right near the two Dinomancers and the Devilsaur. Rogues and druids can simply stealth by them, hunters can get past with camouflage and everyone else who can't stealth...your in luck! You can get past every hostile mob on the ship with a neat dinosaur disguise called the Intact Direhorn Hide.

Alliance can purchase this disguise from Agrant Sharpshot on the western side of the island. Horde can purchase their disguise from Arnold Raygun on the eastern side. I would recommend purchasing several disguises because when/if your disguise wears off the item will have disappeared from your bags. I marked the locations of where you can find each of these vendors on the map below.

How to Tame Hutia (Green Spectral Porcupine)

Hutia is the final spirit beast I'll be going over that was added in patch 5.2. I found Hutia to be a little more forgiving to tame than her friends Gumi and Degu. Well actually, make that a lot more forgiving.

As with the other two spectral porcupines, Hutia has about 4M health and must be dps'd down to 20% before her Strong Will buff will drop and she can be tamed. If she gets within melee range she will two-shot you. She is fast, but thankfully she is not nearly as fast as Gumi. She also doesn't have any type of ranged attack like Degu does. The thing to know about Hutia is she's got an annoying heal called Spirit Heal that she'll cast periodically as shes chasing you. This spell needs to be interrupted! 

Helpful Glyphs and Talents:

You can easily make this tame smoother by using certain glyphs and talents. Glyph of Tame Beast I would definitely recommend. Glyph of Disengage can also prove to be handy (I used both of these glyphs when I tamed her in the video below.) If your having trouble Glyph of Pathfinding, Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah and Glyph of Icetrap may be enough to make a successful tame (I didn't use these).

Talents that will come in handy with this tame are Posthaste (for the nice speed increase), Silencing Shot (to interrupt her heal), Exhilaration (in case she manages to hit you), Dire Beast (for the extra dot while kiting), A Murder of Crows (another dot) and Glaive Toss (for the additional slow and damage).

Kiting:

Map of Rare Spawns on the Isle of Thunder

Tabbing in and out of wowhead to find these guys was driving me nuts. Here is a map for you guys (and me) to use to more easily find all of the rares on Isle of the Thunder King.

All of these rares are required for the Achievement Champions of Lei Shen except for Ra'sha (the rare who drops Ra'sha's Sacrifical Dagger). Ra'sha also does not share the same tapping system as the other rares on the isle. Only those grouped with someone who tap him can loot him.

Click map to Enlarge

Also here's some npcscan id's for those who use it. Add em all instantly with these macros:

/npcscan add 50358 Haywire Sunreaver Construct
/npcscan add 69664 Mumta
/npcscan add 69996 Ku'lai the Skyclaw
/npcscan add 69998 Goda
/npcscan add 69997 Progenitus

/npcscan add 70000 Al'tabim the All-Seeing
/npcscan add 69999 God-Hulk Ramuk
/npcscan add 70001 Backbreaker Uru
/npcscan add 70002 Lu-Ban
/npcscan add 70003 Molthor

Much more detailed post on these guys incoming. Until then enjoy.
Detailed post on these guys with updated map is complete. Check it out here: Isle of Thunder Rare Spawns. Enjoy!

How to Tame Gumi (Blue Spectral Porcupine)

Gumi, the level 90 blue spectral porcupine, is the second of the three new spirit beasts added in patch 5.2 that I'll be going over. This little guy is one heck of a terror. In all honesty I thought this was one of the hardest hunter pets to tame that I've encountered yet. Maybe THE hardest. At least for me, taming this guy made taming the other two spectral porcupines seem like a cakewalk.

Like Degu and Hutia (Gumi's red and green buddies), Gumi will need to be kited and dps'd down to about 20% health before his Strong Will buff will drop and you will be able to tame him. He will also two-shot you if he gets within melee range. Unlike the other two beasts though, this guy has no special abilities to be aware of. What makes this guy so difficult is the speed that he moves at. 

This beast moves so fast, it's as if he's mastered the art of teleportation. Those who (like myself) could never seem to get out of the habit of backpedaling will likely have the toughest time taming him. It is possible though, it will probably just require a few more tries before you nail it. I'll be honest here, I died a lot trying to nab this pretty beasty. Thankfully there is a spirit healer very close by.

Where to find Gumi:

How to Tame Degu (Red Spectral Porcupine)

As promised, I've written up some short guides on each of the new spectral porcupines that we'll be seeing in patch 5.2. As a quick overview - there are three spectral porcupines total, and they each have not only a unique look, but a unique way to tame them as well. These tames may remind you of the Molten Front/Mt. Hyjal taming challenges introduced in 4.2.

Each one of these beasts will have a buff called Strong Will when you first come upon them. The tooltip for this buff reads "Cannot be tamed until weakened". In order to weaken them to the point where they can be tamed you will need to dps them down to about 20% health. The thing is however, these pretties will two shot anyone that gets in their melee range. This is where your going to want to know a little more about what makes each of these beasts tick.

Degu, the red spectral porcupine, has an ability called Barbed Needle that will two-shot people with poison who attack her from too far a range. The spell tooltip reads a 15-50 yard range, so the goal with her is to try to always stay within 15 yards. It's also crucial not to let her get too close because she can also two-shot you with her melee hits. This particular tame requires keeping her at that "perfect" distance while dpsing her down until her Strong Will buff wears off.

Concussive Shot will be the most important tool in your box for this tame. Use it whenever it's off cooldown. Ice Trap will also come in very handy in slowing her down. I used Ice Trap and Snake Trap whenever they were up, and they certainly helped. Disengage can also be a lifesaver if you notice she is just about in melee range, but if you do use it make sure you run back toward her immediately! If you simply disengage and stay where you are you could end up getting hit by Barbed Needle. Moving forward toward her will get her to stop her Barbed Needle cast once you get within 15 yards. (Do note that Scatter Shot is completely ineffective against her.)

Blackrock Mountain Rares

Chromehound and Chrominius (with magical pet biscuit)

Blackrock Mountain, the volcanic zone containing six instances between Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge, is home to three rare spawns. Two of these rares are exotic tamable hunter pets that were added in patch 5.1. The third rare I wouldn't even really consider a "rare" due to his incredibly short respawn timer, but thanks to his silver dragon portrait he'll get a quick mention here.

The most notable rare in this zone is without a doubt Chromehound, an eye-catching level 49 core hound that shares the exact same color and model as the raid boss Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair. Yes, those of us that have tamed Chromaggus already - hes not unique anymore. Quite honestly I don't think its a big deal though. This skin is still rare enough as it can only be tamed via these two sources. If anything, I think obtaining Chromehound as a pet can prove to be even more difficult than Chromaggus due to competition from others (especially with crz) and his spawn timer which seems to be somewhere in the 3 hour + area.

And the Ironman Challenge Continues...

Well, it's that time again. The time where a new expansion has been out long enough to evoke longer stretches of boredom while playing my mains. Dailies wore out their welcome months ago, raid finder hasn't produced a drop for any of my toons in weeks and one can only do so much pet battling before their brain explodes. So I find myself once again picking up where I left off with the WoW Ironman Challenge last summer.

For anyone new to this blog, last year when things got dull at the end of Cataclysm I decided I'd give the Ironman Challenge a shot. Here is a quick recap of the rules (Full list of rules and current challengers can be seen at wowironman.com):

Level from 1-85 using the rules below. (1-90 now that the level cap has been raised.)

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 elixir  s 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

A quick history of my Iron toons (the Ironsteves):

Burning Steppes Rares Spawns - Including Tamable 5.1 Rares

When patch 5.1 hit the number of rares in Burning Steppes doubled. Deathmaw used to be the only tamable rare in this zone, but with the addition of nine new beasts there are now ten interesting rare pets here to choose from! There are even a couple with completely unique looks.

Sunwing - Tamed

Tamable Rares:

The most notable one is probably Sunwing, the absolutely gorgeous black dragonhawk (pictured on the right). Before patch 5.1 Sagan was the only dragonhawk in game with this beautiful coloration. Being the pet of an npc however, he was not tamable. Well now with a little bit of patience (or luck) this pretty pet can be yours. He spawns in the far southwestern part of the zone, between the mountains west of Flamestar Post. You'll know your in the right area when you see a bunch of scorpids and worgs wandering around. Now unfortunately with CRZ and this being a fairly busy questing location, some camping may be necessary to find this guy alive. When he does spawn in he will be flying high above the ground - not so high though that your tame beast won't reach.

Chiaa, the black and yellow spiked wind serpent, also has a totally unique look. You can find him in the mountains just north of Blackrock Stronghold. He is extremely easy to spot when hes up not just because of his color, but because he's fairly large as well (see size comparison in the screenshot at the end of this post).

Searing Gorge - Tamable Rares added in 5.1

Many zones in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms were given some rare love when patch 5.1 hit, Searing Gorge was one of them with seven new additions. Each of these new rares are beasts, and are therefore tamable. There are now fourteen rares total in this zone. You can see the other seven in this post: Searing Gorge Rare Spawns.

The only one of these beasts that requires beast mastery spec to tame is Slavermaw the devilsaur. Although he is only level 48, that still means he cannot be tamed until at least level 69. Slavermaw can be found patrolling in the mountains among a bunch of searing lava spiders north of The Cauldron. When he is up he is quite easy to spot because he's rather large. Slavermaw also shares the same model and color as King Mosh (the devilsaur in my header image).

Slavermaw isn't the only large and in charge rare addition to this zone, Hogzilla (oh how appropriately named) is also enormous. He spawns in front of the blocked off cave entrance in the far southwest end of the zone. During the Lunar Festival Elder Ironband stands right in front of where Hogzilla spawns. In the screenshot on the right (where Hogzilla is about to eat the poor elder) you can see a nice size comparison of the two. Hogzilla is the only tamable rare with this look outside of Razorfen Kraul.

Crystalback, the blue and white felboar, is also a pretty neat addition to the zone. This boar shares the same look as the Shard-Hide Boars on Ogri'la plateau in Blade's Edge Mountains. That means hunters can now have a pet with this look over 20 levels earlier.

Silverpine Forest Rare Spawns - Including Tamable 5.1 Rares

When patch 5.1 hit, Silverpine Forest saw the addition of five new tamable rare beasts. There are now fifteen rares total in this zone and seven of them can be tamed by hunters. Low level undead hunters, this means you have a lot of choices now for interesting rare pets when leveling through here!

Tamable Rares:

Finn's Gambit, the armored black boar, is the lowest level tamable boar with this look. The next boars with the same skin that you can find are in Razorfen Kraul. Finn's Gambit stands on the hillside west of the murloc village eyeing some mushrooms when hes up.

The Lost Gilnean Wardog (pictured on the right) is the lowest level tamable rare with this look for non-worgen characters before finding the level 40 Blighthounds in Eastern Plaguelands. You can find the Lost Gilnean Wardog running very quickly in a circle around some abandonded campsites just north of the Deep Elem Mine.

Gnath, the blue worm, is the only worm that can be found in this color outside of Maraudon. (Please note - Gnath is an exotic beast, and therefore can only be tamed by beast mastery spec hunters.)

Gorefang, the light grey worg, is the first wolf with this look that low-level horde toons will encounter before stumbling upon many level 30+ that look just like him in the Hinterlands. As of patch 5.1 Gorefang also seems to have at least one additional spawn point. I have been finding him repeatedly in Valgan's Field, just east of the farm patrolling among the dark grey worgs and ferocious grizzly bears.

Non-Tamable Rares:

Arathi Highlands - Tamable Rares added in 5.1

When patch 5.1 hit, Arathi Highlands saw the addition of nine new rare beasts. This ups the total number of rares in the zone to a whopping nineteen. You can see the other ten non-tamable rares in this post: Arathi Highlands Rare Spawns.

Every one of these rares can be tamed by hunters in any spec except for the shale spider Glint. Glint is one of only three tamable shale spiders that can be tamed early on before hitting Deepholm. So Beast Mastery spec hunters - that means you can have a shale spider right at level 69.

None of these rares are unique, but as you can see in the screenshots below there are some pretty nice looking ones. I love the coloration on Boros the wasp. This is the lowest level wasp you'll find with this particular look. Phalanax, the black and white beetle, also has a pretty rare skin. You can find him inside the ogre cave in the southern end of the zone.

Click map to Enlarge

Here are some screenshots of each of these rares in order by level. (Click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Silithus Rare Spawns - Including Tamable 5.1 Rares

Silithus is a pet collector's dream for hunters. With the addition of ten new tamable beasts to this zone in patch 5.1 there are now sixteen tamable rares, and nineteen rares total in Silithus. Five of these new rares have totally unique looks too!

One of the most notable additions is Acroniss (pictured on the right), a beautiful pink and red arcane wyrm. You can find him in Twilight's Run (his exact location is marked with a red star on the map below). He spawns in the very back of the cave, right where the summoning circle is and he does not patrol.

Acroniss - Tamed

There are also three new damaged silithid "brain" bugs; a pink one (Qem), blue one (Manax) and an orange one (Qu'rik). These bugs have a really neat glow animation with tiny bugs flying over their damaged heads - and they keep the look when tamed. All three can be found underground. Qem and Qu'rik you will find in Hive'Ashi, and Manax can be found in Hive'Regal. NPCScan will pick them up above ground, and having a raid target icon on them will prove very helpful in pinpointing their exact locations. (Please note that silithids are an exotic family, so you will need to be in beast mastery spec to tame them.)

The final unique pet that was added to this zone is Karapax, a very colorful ravager (orange, red, pink & purple). He spawns above ground between the termite mounds northeast of Hive'Ashi. He is not exotic and can therefore be tamed by hunters in any spec.

Although not new to the zone, there are two more unique pets that can be found flying around. Those are the wasps Rex Ashil and Zora. Rex Ashil flies in and out of the tunnels around Hive'Ashi, and Zora has multiple spawn points underground at Hive'Zora.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms Rare Champions

Major changes occured in the Vale in patch 5.4. See this post to see how it effected the rares in it: Vale of Eternal Blossoms Rares - Patch 5.4

Vale of Eternal Blossoms, a zone for max-level players, is home to eight of the rare champions of Pandaria. Just like in previous zones, there are one of each type (Pandaren, Mantid, Saurok, etc.) and they all count toward the achievement Glorious! Being the final (and therefore highest level) zone, these rares hit harder and have more health than any of the ones I've covered yet.

The rares in this zone are all level 91, with health pools a little over 4M. They each have a 100% chance to drop an item level 440 bop cloak with random stats and a small chance to drop a Small Bag of Goods. They also each have a chance to drop some very fun vanity items, or some useful items as well. Each of the items they can drop are listed below next to the rare that drops it. You can also see some screenshots of each of these items in action in this post: Sneak Peak: Special drops from Rare Champions of Pandaria.

As I have stated in a previous post - many of them seem to spawn in around the same time, so if you run across a corpse or someone else fighting one of these rares it wouldn't hurt to check the rest of the spawn points to see if any others are up.

Also note that many of the rares in this zone are affected by phasing. If you can't see Ai-Ran, Major Nanners, Mold One-Eye, Urgolax or Kang it's because you haven't done the opening quest line to unlock the Golden Lotus dailies  This quest line starts in Kun-Lai Summit at the Temple of the White Tiger with the quests Temple of the White Tiger (Alliance) or Temple of the White Tiger (Horde). Following these quest lines will open the gates into the Vale and eventually change the phase so that you will be able to see all of these rares.

Click map to Enlarge

Ai-Ran the Shifting Cloud (Pandaren)
Ai-Ran can be found meditating in the small cave just east of Mistfall Village beneath the Tu Shen Burial Ground.

Like other Pandaren Ai-Ran's three abilities are Chi Burst, Healing Mists and Spinning Crane Kick. The most important thing to know when taking him down is to interrupt Healing Mists, and run away from Spinning Crane Kick. Ranged players should also stand within 15 yards of him to avoid his Chi Burst which deals some pretty massive damage.

Ai-Ran has a small chance to drop Essence of the Breeze. This is a curious item that when used will give you a ten minute buff called Gentle Breeze. While under the effect of this buff, each time you jump you will be propelled a few yards forward. One great use for this item is untangling the plants on your farm much more quickly!