Valley of the Four Winds Rare Champions

Moving out of The Jade Forest and into Valley of the Four Winds we step away from weapons as special drops and get our first taste of vanity items, trinkets and other fun (and quite useful) drops from rares. To see these special items in action check out this post: Sneak Peek: Special Drops from Rare Champions of Pandaria.

All of the rares in this zone are level 86 with health pools around 1.5M. Naturally they hit a little harder than those in The Jade Forest. They each have a 100% chance to drop an item level 410 pair of bop gloves of a random armor type as well as a Small Bag of Goods.

In my long and frustrating camp for Sulik'shor also I found out a lot more about how the spawn timers work on these rares. First of all, it seems that they typically all spawn in around the same time. A friend and I were camping both Sele'na and Sulik'shor and witnessed them spawning in at the same time. On many other occasions I've noticed others throughout the same zone either alive or as corpses while doing flyovers. This seems to hold true for each zone in Pandaria. The average spawn time seems to be around an hour, but I've seen them respawn in under and hour and up to almost 2 hours as well.

Click map to Enlarge

Nasra Spothide (Pandaren)
Nasra Spothide spawns under a small Pandaren structure on the far northeastern end of the zone just before the bridge leading into The Jade Forest.

Like other Pandaren her 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 his Chi Burst which deals some pretty massive damage.

Nasra has a small chance to drop a trinket called the Seed of Tranquil Growth. This trinket summons a cute little flower that looks just like the Ammen Vale Lashling.

The Jade Forest Rare Champions

Each zone in Pandaria has a total of eight rare champions, each one representing a different Pandarian race: Pandaren, Mantid, Saurok, Mogu Warrior, Mogu Sorcerer, Yaungol, Jinyu and Hozen. Each race has it's own set of unique abilities that can make them quite challenging to kill. (More info on each of the races abilities below.) All of these rares are part of the Glorious! meta-achievement (basically the new Bloody Rare & Frostbitten). Killing a single one will also grant you the achievement A Worthy Opponent, and killing one representing each race will grant you Could We Find More Like That? (Full map of Rare Pandarian Champions here: Map of Rare Pandarian Champions by Type.)

The rares in The Jade Forest are all level 85 and have a 100% chance to drop an item level 400 bop pair of pants of a random armor type. Each one of them also has a low chance to drop a Small Bag of Goods; which generally contains a bit of gold and useful items for crafting professions such as ore, cloth, leather, herbs and motes of harmony. The rares in this zone also each have a small chance to drop an item level 420 epic weapon. All weapons they drop are bop except for the bow dropped by Sarnak.

Click map to Enlarge

Urobi the Walker (Pandaren)
Urobi the Walker can be found sitting under a small Pandaren structure on a tiny island in Shang's Valley.

Like other Pandaren his three abilities are Chi Burst, Healing Mists and Spinning Crane Kick. The most important thing to know when taking him (and other Pandaren rares) 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.

Urobi has a chance to drop the agility staff Pathwalker Greatstaff.

Glimmer - Trackable Hunter Pet (Water Strider)

Glimmer is a level 85 unique red & grey water strider, and one of two new rare elite trackable hunter pets that can be found in The Jade Forest. (The other is Savage the white tiger.) Glimmer is an exotic pet and therefore can only be tamed by Beast Mastery spec hunters. Although Glimmer doesn't have a very long path he can be quite difficult to find due to some phasing issues throughout his path (more info on that further into this post).

How to track: Like the other trackable hunter pets, you will not be able to see him when he's up. He is completely stealthed. In order to locate him, you will need to find and follow his tracks - tracks that thankfully only hunters can see. Once you've found his tracks you'll need to follow them until you don't see any more. This is where I like to wait and watch where I think that he'll be walking next. Often times you'll see a new track appear right in front of you - this means you've found him!

Once you find him, the only way to see where he is, will be for him to walk through a flare. Don't throw your flare down on top of the track he just left, throw it a little further out in front of where you think he is. When he walks through your flare he will become visible. You can take this opportunity to tame, or you can throw a Hunter's Mark on him - which will keep him visible to you when he goes back into stealth. Hunter's Mark will make him visible to you, but only you when he's in stealth.

Glimmer's tracks are called "Flooded Tracks", and they really look nothing like any track you would expect to see from his weird bug feet. (I guess they're better than paw prints though.) His tracks are also not particularly difficult to find toward either end of his path. They are light in color on ground that is dark green through most of his path, making them stand out a bit. Like other beasts' tracks they do not stay up indefinitely; the furthest ones behind disappear one by one as new tracks are created.

Patrannache - Trackable Hunter Pet (Crane)

Patrannache is a level 86 pink crane, and one of the new rare elite trackable hunter pets introduced in MoP. Judging by his name, color and the fact that he is also a bird; it seems that he is somehow related to the well known Mazzranache found in Mulgore. Personally, I'll be looking for this guy first when MoP hits for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately Patrannache can be quite difficult to track down. I definitely found him to be the toughest of these new hunter pets to find without a doubt. He has an incredibly long and windy patrol route through a very good portion of The Valley of the Four Winds. (See map below for exact path.) Luckily he can be tamed by hunters in any spec, and once found he makes a unique pet that really stands out.

How to track: Like the other trackable hunter pets, you will not be able to see him when he's up. He is completely stealthed. In order to locate him, you will need to find and follow his tracks - tracks that thankfully only hunters can see. Once you've found his tracks you'll need to follow them until you don't see any more. This is where I like to wait and watch where I think that he'll be walking next. Often times you'll see a new track appear right in front of you - this means you've found him!

Once you find him, the only way to see where he is, will be for him to walk through a flare. Don't throw your flare down on top of the track he just left, throw it a little further out in front of where you think he is. When he walks through your flare he will become visible. You can take this opportunity to tame, or you can throw a Hunter's Mark on him - which will keep him visible to you when he goes back into stealth. Hunter's Mark will make him visible to you, but only you when he's in stealth.

Patrannache's tracks are called "Barely-Visible Tracks", and they are very aptly named. Patrannache's tracks are incredibly difficult to see. They are very small, and blend right into the ground for most of his path. If you want any hope at all of finding these tracks it is an absolute necessity to turn ground clutter down to a minimum. I also found it helpful to hover my mouse over different anomalies in the terrain that I was scouring over so that the name of his tracks would pop up if I'd come across one. Like other beasts' tracks they do not stay up indefinitely; the furthest ones behind disappear one by one as new tracks are created. The best advice I think I can give when looking for his tracks is to take it slow, and check each area thoroughly. It is very easy to scan the terrain with your eyes and miss his tracks entirely - which may actually be right in front of you.

Bristlespine - Trackable Hunter Pet (Porcupine)

Bristlespine is a level 88 blue porcupine, and one of two rare elite trackable hunter pets that can be found in Kun-Lai Summit. (The other is Stompy the Goat.) He has a pretty long patrol route through most of southern Kun-Lai Summit. (See map below for exact path.) He can be tamed by hunters in any spec, and makes a fairly cute little pet.

How to track: Like the other trackable hunter pets, you will not be able to see him when he's up. He is completely stealthed. In order to locate him, you will need to find and follow his tracks - tracks that thankfully only hunters can see. Once you've found his tracks you'll need to follow them until you don't see any more. This is where I like to wait and watch where I think that he'll be walking next. Often times you'll see a new track appear right in front of you - this means you've found him!

Once you find him, the only way to see where he is, will be for him to walk through a flare. Don't throw your flare down on top of the track he just left, throw it a little further out in front of where you think he is. When he walks through your flare he will become visible. You can take this opportunity to tame, or you can throw a Hunter's Mark on him - which will keep him visible to you when he goes back into stealth. Hunter's Mark will make him visible to you, but only you when he's in stealth.

Bristlespine's tracks are called "Puzzling Tracks", and they look a wee bit large for the size of this little fellow. Like other beasts' tracks they do not stay up indefinitely; the furthest ones behind disappear one by one as new tracks are created. His tracks are dark green in color and most of his path is along dark brown grass, making them a little difficult to spot at times. His tracks are definitely easier to find if ground clutter is turned down to the lowest setting.

Portent - Trackable Hunter Pet (Quilen)

Portent is a level 90 Quilen that can be found patrolling through the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. He is one of the rare elite trackable hunter pets introduced in Mists of Pandaria. He is an exotic beast, therefore he can only be tamed by hunters that are specced Beast Mastery. Like Madexx, the scorpion in Uldum, he can spawn in several different colors. In Portent's case, he spawns in four: blue, red, purple and green. I believe each color is unique, and the color he spawns in is totally random. 

How to track: Like the other trackable hunter pets, you will not be able to see him when he's up. He is completely stealthed. In order to locate him, you will need to find and follow his tracks - tracks that thankfully only hunters can see. Once you've found his tracks you'll need to follow them until you don't see any more. This is where I like to wait and watch where I think that he'll be walking next. Often times you'll see a new track appear right in front of you - this means you've found him!

Once you find him, the only way to see where he is, will be for him to walk through a flare. Don't throw your flare down on top of the track he just left, throw it a little further out in front of where you think he is. When he walks through your flare he will become visible. You can take this opportunity to tame, or you can throw a Hunter's Mark on him - which will keep him visible to you when he goes back into stealth. Hunter's Mark will make him visible to you, but only you when he's in stealth.

Portent's tracks are called "Dusty Tracks." Like other beasts' tracks they do not stay up indefinitely; the furthest ones behind disappear one by one as new tracks are created. His tracks are dark brown in color and almost his entire path is on bright yellow ground, making his tracks one of the easier sets to find. Although they do stand out well, I still recommend turning the ground clutter option down to low to make finding them a little easier.