Rare Pandaria Hunter Pets - A New Kind of Challenge

If there were one thing in MoP Beta that I had been biting my nails in anticipation for, its rare hunter pets. Well, we've finally got em' ...and with a fun new twist! These pets need to be tracked down...literally. These beasts have long, windy patrol routes where they will leave tracks behind them as they walk. Each rare has their own unique track, and here's the kicker...the pets are completely stealthed.

The only way these beasts will become visible is for them to walk through a flare. Hunters Mark can be applied to them while they are in the flare to help aid in tracking for that particular hunter. Another interesting thing to note, is that both tracks and the pets are only visible to hunters! (Hunter's prayers have been answered by the gods of WoW!) ^-^

Their tracks do not stay up indefinitely; the furthest ones behind disappear one by one as new tracks are created where the beast is walking. Currently the tracks are a bit buggy. On Beta right now nearly all tracks need to be followed BACKWARDS in order to find the beast making them. Some of the tracks also spawn in under ground, and others float strangely over the terrain making them even more difficult to find.

The most difficult tracks for me to follow were Patrannach's Barely-Visible Tracks and Savage's Bloody Tracks. The reason for this was because they blended in so well with the terrain, and because each had occasional missing tracks. One thing that help out a LOT when looking for any of the tracks was to put ground clutter on the lowest setting.

So far there are nine pets altogether, with at least one in each zone. They range in level, with the lower level ones naturally residing in the lower level zones. They are currently classified as elites with golden dragons around their portraits, and although they do hit hard most people shouldn't have trouble with them. (I tamed Savage with a level 85 hunter, and he still didn't get me lower than 60% health without a frost trap or deterrence up.)

So without further adieu, let me introduce these new pets in order by zone. ~

Click on the name of the rare to be taken to the page on that particular pet with extra screenshots, maps, video and far more information.

Jade Forest

Name: Glimmer (Water Strider) **Exotic pet
Track type: Flooded Tracks
Rough location: Near The Arboretum and down past the Temple of the Jade Serpent

Glorious! Achievement & New Rare Champions in Jade Forest

 

Quick beta update here: With the re-opening of the Jade Forest I was able to hunt down the last few rare Pandarian Champions needed for the Glorious! Achiement. I can confirm that as of right now there are a total of 56 rare Pandarian Champions that can be found across Pandaria. (See screenshot below.)

The rares added in the Jade Forest each drop a Small Bag of Goods, a nice blue bop piece of armor, and an epic item level 420 weapon. All of the weapons I found were bop, except for the Fishsticker Longbow which is bind on equip and drops off of Sarnak, a Saurok that spawns in a cave on the eastern coast.

Searing Gorge Rare Spawns

Searing Gorge is a fiery and rocky zone located in the mid-Eastern Kingdoms. It is home to the Thorium Brotherhood, Dark Iron Dwarves, various types of fire elementals, golems and spiders. It is also home to seven rare spawns ranging from level 47-50.

Shleipnarr is a gorgeous fiery horse that looks exactly like the warlock Felsteed mount (my mount of choice for the warlock ground mounts). This rare is also very likely a reference to Sleipnir, the eight legged steed of Odin, one of the Norse gods. I hadn't realized this until I had read Navi's post: My favourite rare spawn(s). Here is the Wikipedia entry for Sleipnir for anyone curious: Sleipnir.

Both Slave Master Blackheart and Smoldar spawn underground in the Slag Pit, so if you don't run into them where their dots are on the map below - don't worry, they may still be up. If you don't use SilverDragon, just do a /target Slave Master and /target Smoldar to see if they are. Slave Master Blackheart spawns in the Slag Pit, right in front of the Quarry Gate. Smoldar spawns down in the lava pool right before you get to the Flamewraiths.

Click Map to Enlarge

Each of these rares in order by level, and as you'll find them in the world:

Sneak Peek: Special drops from Rare Champions of Pandaria

Each of the rare champions in Pandaria drops a nice piece of blue bop gear and a chance to drop Small Bag of Goods. Several of them also have a special item unique to that particular rare. These special drops include fun vanity items, trinkets, companion pets and items that will be very useful in pvp.

I've put together a list below of each one of these super fun items sorted by the zone they can be found in, along with screen-shots and which rare drops the item.

I will be updating this post (which will more than likely become it's own page at some point) as new items/information are available. Also, don't forget - you can click on the images to see larger, more detailed images. Until then, enjoy!

Dread Wastes

Ai-Li's Skymirror - Drops from Ai-Li Skymirror (Pandaren)

Elixir of Ancient Knowledge - Drops from Krol the Blade (Mogu Warrior) 

Eternal Warrior's Sigil - Drops from Gar'lok (Mantid) 

Golden Fleece - Drops from Omnis Grinlok (Saurok)

Videos of each new type of Rare Champion in MoP

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!! Mists of Pandaria Beta Post:

After days of searching, I'm pretty sure I've found every new rare champion that currently can be found on the beta. (The Jade Forest is still offline.) That includes the Saurok as well, which are not yet included as part of the Glorious! Achievement.

The achievement as seen in the screenshot above, will definitely be changing in the near future I'm sure. Not only are Saurok missing, but there are two rares (Kal'tik the Blight and Urgolax) that are listed twice. When all of them are added in there will be over 50 rares! =)

I've gotten pretty familiar with fighting each type of champion, and I can say the toughest ones for me as a hunter were the Panaren and the Jinyu. Well, the Pandaren were not necessarily difficult as much as they were annoying. With only one silence, if they got two heals off in a row their health would reach full again and the fights would just last forever.

The Jinyu I found difficult because not only do you need to interrupt a spell that will kill whatever they are targeting, but they hit pretty hard as well. The lower level Jinyu that I came across weren't that bad, but the higher level ones I had to try often more than once to get them down. I also had to blow every cd. One of the fights I actually finished with about 1% of my health left. Yikes!

Anywho, I thought it would be nice to actually show you guys how each of these rares actually fight instead of just writing about it. So without further adieu, here is each type of rare pandarian champion in action:

Westfall Rare Spawns

Westfall, a zone populated mainly by humans and known for it's farms and rolling pastures is home to seven rares ranging from level 10 - 14.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, these rares give an enormous amount of experience when you find them on toons that are similar in level. Killing one of these rares is basically equivalent to one quest turn in, and finding them at rested will give double the xp - so be sure to look for these guys when your questing to speed up your leveling!

Slark and Brack, both murlocs (cringe), move VERY quickly along the shoreline. They also have the potential to pull a lot of friends, so be careful.

Vultros can be found in five different areas, each area he spawns at is littered with hay bales. He is tamable by hunters, and makes a nice pet for lowbies. He even has his own post here.

Master Digger spawns all the way at the back of the Jangolode Mine where the quest Livin' the Life takes place.

I also read that Leprithus only spawns at night. I have no idea if this is a rumor on not. It took me a while to finally find him up. When I eventually did find him up it was at night, although I did check his spawn area during the day as well. If anyone has seen him up during the day (not just light out - but actually during the daytime hours) I'd like to know purty pwease.

Click map to Enlarge

Each of these rares as you'll come across them out in the world: