Hunters - Tame a Gorishi Grub while you still can!

The Gorishi Grub in all it's glory

This is the Gorishi Grub. He's big. He's green. Quite frankly, he's awesome - and he may only be tamable for a little while longer. The Gorishi Grub has been in the game for eons, but had never been tamable until patch 5.1 hit. Perhaps he was never meant to be though? In the patch 5.2 ptr he can no longer be tamed. Whatever the case may be, if your even remotely interested in this guy you better snag him while you still have a chance!

Well, how do I tame this guy and where do I find him? I'm glad you asked. This ridiculously awesome looking worm spawns from level 54 rare named Clutchmother Zavas in Un'Goro Crater.

Badlands - Tamable Rares added in 5.1

Tabbs - Tamed

When the magic wand of rare tamable pets was waved over Badlands this zone saw eight new additions. There are now a total of seventeen rares that call Badlands their home. You can see the other nine in this post: Badlands Rare Spawns.

One of the news rares in this zone sports a totally unique look, and that is Tabbs the cat (pictured on the right). This cat looks like a cross between Pogeyan (hunched, shiny look with red eyes) and Araga (coloration). You can find her sleeping along the mountainside just behind a small camp.

The rest of these new tamable beasts aren't unique, but there are still some pretty neat looking ones that low level hunters may find interesting. I think Blackshell the Impenetrable has a very attractive coloration (which is strangely enough not even close to black) that isn't very common.

Zormus, the dark purple warp stalker, shares the same look as only one other mob in the game, and that is Gezzarak the Huntress. Gezzarak is a spawned mob for the quest Adversarial Blood up in Skettis. The addition of this rare not only allows lower level hunters to have this model as a pet earlier, but it will also save people from having to farm for Shadow Dust and then Time-Lost Scrolls x10 to summon her.

Dread Wastes Rare Champions

Looking for fun vanity items? Rare companion pets? Or perhaps something more useful? Look no further, the rares in Dread Wastes can drop all of these things. Each of the items are listed below next to the rare that can drop them. You can also see some screenshots of each of these items in action in this post: Sneak Peek: Special drops from Rare Champions of Pandaria.

The rares in this zone are all level 90, with health pools around 3.8M. They each have a 100% chance to drop either an item level 440 or 450 rare quality bop chest piece of a random armor type and a small chance to drop a Small Bag of Goods.

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.

Click map to Enlarge

Ai-Li Skymirror (Pandaren)

Ai-Li Skymirror can be found kneeling in the middle of what's left of a large dead tree stump just south of Rikkitun Village.

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

Ai-Li has a small chance to drop a really neat vanity item called Ai-Li's Skymirror. This item allows you to take on the shimmery appearance of other players. It works on players using transformation mounts and other transformation items, druid shape-shifts, all sorts of fun stuff. The effects don't break in combat either like a lot of other transformation items do. The one downside to this item is that unfortunately it can't be used while mounted.

Hunters Rejoice! New Spirit Beasts Coming in 5.2

It's been quite a while since hunters have seen any new spirit beasts. Well, in patch 5.2 patient hunters everywhere are finally getting some new ones, and I have to say - I think they look great! These spirit beasts are all porcupines and they will be making an appearance in three different colors: red, green and blue.

Click picture to Enlarge

My favorite thing about these new beasts, is that in the style of the Molten Front/Mount Hyjal taming challenges introduced back in patch 4.2 - these guys are NOT going to be easy to tame. Each one of these pretty spectral porcupines has it's own unique challenge associated with it. Unlike the beasts in the Molten Front/Mt. Hyjal though, these pretties are not going to sport a silver dragon around their portraits - which I think is a great idea. They will instead have the golden elite dragon pictured above. Although these beasts are likely going to be rare, the silver dragon seems to scream to people "Kill me, I probably drop some awesome loot." I imagine when non-hunters spot one of them with just the golden dragon, that they'll be more likely to continue on their way.

All three of these beasts have slightly under 4000k hp, and will have to be kited and dps'd down (not unlike Deth'tilac) to about 20% in order to remove their Strong Will (Cannot be tamed until weakened) buff. Each of these beauties will pretty much two-shot anyone they attack within melee range, and taming them will require some patience and practice.  

New Rares and Mounts Coming in patch 5.2

There are quite a few things I'm excited about in patch 5.2. Naturally, one of those things is the addition of a whole heaping ton of new rares. We've got many different types of rares to look forward to as well; new world group bosses on each of the new islands, rare elites requiring a small group to kill, rare soloable elites and other miscellaneous rares will all be making an appearance soon! We're even going to be seeing some new mounts - DINOSAUR MOUNTS - from these guys. Hurrah!

Zandalari Warbringers & Warscouts

The Zandalari Warbringers are five rare elites that will be spread out around the continent of Pandaria. These rares can be found in The Jade Forest, Krasarang Wilds, Kun-Lai Summit, The Dread Wastes and Townlong Steppes. (See map with locations further down in this post.) They each have 21079k health and will require a group to defeat. (On the ptr we were able to defeat them with a group of three - two BM spec hunters and an elemental shaman, however it went much more smoothly with a full group of five.)

Each of these rares drop 3-4 very nice reputation items including: Stolen Celestial Insignia, Stolen Golden Lotus Insignia, Stolen Klaxxi Insignia and Stolen Shado-Pan Insignia. They also tend to drop either a Big Bag of Zandalari Supplies or a Small Bag of Zandalari Supplies. Each of these bags will contain a fairly decent amount of crafting materials, and are basically another version of the bags that drop off of the rares in Townlong Steppes. That's not all these guys can drop though!

Zandalari Warbringers (Click photo to Enlarge)

If you look carefully at the screenshots above, you'll notice that the Warbringers are sitting on different color mounts. There are three colors that they can spawn in, and the color that actually spawns seems completely random. You may ask, Why does it even matter? Well here's why - because these rares each have a small chance to drop a mount, and not just any mount - their mount. The one they are sitting on when you engage them. Killing a Zandalari Warbringer on a Jade Primordial Direhorn will give you a small chance at that mount. At least this is what I have seen so far. I saw these mounts drop multiple times on the ptr, and each time the color that dropped was the exact same color as the one ridden by the Warbringer. It could be coincidence, but until I see otherwise I'm pretty sure this is the case.

Here are some screenshots of each of these new Direhorn mounts (which I think look absolutely fantastic).

Eastern Plaguelands - Tamable Rares added in 5.1

Snort - Tamed

Nine new rare beasts were introduced into Eastern Plaguelands in patch 5.1. This brings the total rare count for this zone to twenty-two! You can read about the other thirteen in this post: Eastern Plaguelands Rare Spawns.This zone got some really neat looking additions in my opinion. Four of these new tamable rares are "ghostly" see-through models, and they retain that look after taming.

The four ghostly rares are: Spirocula (love the name) - a level 40 white worm (must be BM spec to tame), Fene-mal - a level 41 black and white two-headed vulture, Snort - a level 41 brown saber tooth worg and Varah - a level 43 undead boar. Each one of these ghostly rares is also totally unique.

The remaining rares added to the zone are not unique, but will still make some very interesting looking pets. Bleakheart, the white demon dog, shares a model with only one other mob in game. That mob is Fidonis, who is another new rare added in patch 5.1. You can find him in Felwood. Quirix, the brown scarab beetle, has a model and color that could previously only be found in Uldum. Anyone that has ever quested through Zangarmarsh will probably recognize Sporeggon, as he is essentially the twin of Sporewing.