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.