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.