Searing Gorge - Tamable Rares added in 5.1

February 15, 2013, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Burning Steppes Rares Spawns - Including Tamable 5.1 Rares

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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.

Rexxus, the black mastiff, is the only dog with this look that can be tamed by non-worgen hunters before encountering the Onslaught Bloodhounds in Dragonblight. So like Crystalback, this look can be tamed over 20 levels earlier as well.

Click map to Enlarge

Here are some screenshots of each of these rares in order by level. (Click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Hogzilla, Rexxus, Scorpoxx & Slavermaw

Avis, Crystalback & Snips

Each of these rares can be added to NPCScan. You can simply cut and paste this macro in game to add all of them automatically:

/npcscan add 50946 Hogzilla

/npcscan add 51048 Rexxus

/npcscan add 51002 Scorpoxx

/npcscan add 50846 Slavermaw

/npcscan add 50876 Avis

/npcscan add 50948 Crystalback

/npcscan add 51010 Snips

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Burning Steppes Rares Spawns - Including Tamable 5.1 Rares

February 18, 2013, 5:59 am

≫ Next: And the Ironman Challenge Continues...

≪ Previous: Searing Gorge - Tamable Rares added in 5.1

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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).

Although not unique, Favored of Isiset (the black and white two-headed vulture) is a fairly rare skin in that it only shares this look with one other mob in the game. That mob is Trachela, a quest npc required for the quest Torgos! in Terokkar Forest.

Heading to Molten Core to tame yourself a red corehound? Check to see if Magmagan is up first. He is now the lowest level tamable red corehound, and you can find him wandering just outside Blackrock Mountain near the lava behind Blackrock Stronghold. (Do note, he is exotic and requires beast mastery spec to tame.)

Ornat, the red nether ray, is one of only two nether rays with this look that can be tamed before encountering the Netherskate nether rays in Shadowmoon Valley. The only other tamable nether ray of this color is Blackbog the Fang (also a rare), you can find him in Felwood.

There are also two neat-looking ravagers, a dark green one (Venomspine) and red one (Azelisk). Each of these are colors that won't be common until reaching Hellfire Peninsula.

Deathmaw, the long-time tamable rare in this zone, used to have a unique look prior to patch 5.1. He now shares the same model and coloration with another rare worg named Grovepaw in Felwood. Deathmaw has long been known for his barking and making other random worg-type sounds when clicking on him. He also matches perfectly with one of the colors that the Worg Pup can summon in as.

Non-Tamable Rares:

Hmmm, not going to spend too much time on these guys. So here's the down low - Volchan is a rare elite, most people probably won't notice the difference, but my ironman toon sure did. The dude nearly killed him, so he does indeed seem to hit a little harder than a normal rare. Terrorspark is flippin' huge for a grell, and he no longer spawns in the trenches - you can find him just outside the trenches now. Hahk'Zor can be found all the way at the end of the Firegut Furnace (the lowest and most western cave entrance will get you there). Also, his name makes me lol.

Click map to Enlarge

I have screenshots below of each of these rares in order by level. The ones with the stars in the bottom left hand corner are the new tamable rares added in patch 5.1. The colors of the stars correspond to where they can be found on the map above.

Volchan, Azelisk, Catal & Deathmaw

Favored of Isiset, Gorgon'och, Ornat & Sunwing

Thauris Balgarr, Venomspine, Gruklash, Hematos & Jaxx the Rabid

Magmagan, Terrorspark, Chiaa, Hahk'Zor & Malfunctioning Reaver

All of these rares can be added to NPCScan. You can simply cut and paste these macros in game to add all of them automatically:

"Whoa, Nelly! Your BIG!"

/npcscan add 10119 Volchan
/npcscan add 50725 Azelisk
/npcscan add 50807 Catal
/npcscan add 10077 Deathmaw
/npcscan add 50810 Favored of Isiset
/npcscan add 9604 Gorgon'och
/npcscan add 50361 Ornat
/npcscan add 50357 Sunwing

/npcscan add 8978 Thauris Balgarr
/npcscan add 50730 Venomspine
/npcscan add 8979 Gruklash
/npcscan add 8976 Hematos
/npcscan add 50855 Jaxx the Rabid
/npcscan add 50842 Magmagan
/npcscan add 10078 Terrorspark
/npcscan add 50792 Chiaa

/npcscan add 9602 Hahk'Zor
/npcscan add 8981 Malfunctioning Reaver

And the Ironman Challenge Continues...

February 23, 2013, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Blackrock Mountain Rares

≪ Previous: Burning Steppes Rares Spawns - Including Tamable 5.1 Rares

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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):

For this challenge I added a little twist of my own in addition to the above rules, and that would be that most of my experience was to come from killing rares. (You can see all of my Ironman related posts by looking under the label WoW Ironman Challenge on this blog.) I made it to level 52 with my first toon Ironsteve, an undead hunter. I died when I accidentally clicked an Alliance flight master (d'oh!). I deleted him and re-rolled two more Ironman toons (Ironsteve the troll druid, and Ironstevo the undead lock). Ironstevo quickly overtook Ironsteve in levels, gaining most of his experience from finding treasure chests once reaching Outland and finished the challenge in early June of last year. You can read the post where I re-caped his journey here: WoW Ironman Challenge Complete!

I haven't touched either toon since then, but I decided that with a new level cap and not much else to do right now it would be a perfect time to dust both of them off!

Ironstevo~

Greetings! ~From Ironstevo and his trusty meat-shield Belnak

A lot has changed since I've last touched the iron-toons. When I had been participating in this challenge previously talent points had not yet been re-vamped. Ironstevo had a whole wealth of spells and abilities at his disposal (although none of them ever hit hard). Now that most spells become available once you choose a spec post-mop, Ironstevo has been left with the bare-minimum to work with. If you look at the UI below, you can see what Ironstevo has been left with. I pretty much only ever use buttons 1-5 with him now.

Soul Fire used to be Ironstevo's "big hitting" spell pre-mop. Corrupton, Agony, Immolate, Drain Soul...these were Ironstevo's bread and butter. Well now Ironstevo has been left with only one dot, Shadow Bolt and not a whole lot else. Ironstevo's rotation currently looks something like: Curse of the Elements, Corruption, Shadowbolt/Fel Flame/Drain Life (I like to switch up these three spells to keep it interesting) until the target is dead. It's slow going, but the voidwalker does a much better job at holding threat now and deals a fair amount of damage (he hits harder than poor Ironstevo). Ironstevo also noticed he got a lovely new racial ability called Touch of the Grave which deals about 40% of his dps and heals him for a hefty amount when it goes off. Between the new racial and Ironstevo's blue marshmellow shield it makes up for a lot of lost dps.

Another change that is quite nice is Ironstevo's mana pool. Now that mana pools are dependent on level instead of intellect, Ironstevo is sitting at a hot 100k just like the big boys with actual gear at 85! He can now last a heck of a lot longer without needing mana! Ironstevo even dinged level 86 a couple of days ago while doing his Love is in the Air dailies and was pleased to receive another 20k to that mana pool, and an extra 18k hp. 18k may not sound like a lot, but for an ironman toon it's a pretty big spike!

Ironstevo enjoying some holiday quest experience

Ironstevo received most of his experience from 85 - 86 by continuing to find treasure chests throughout Northrend. This amounted to most of his experience. Holiday quests, the daily quests A Way to His Heart... and Tending the Garden (LOVE this daily), and occasional Argent Tourney dailies accounted for the rest of his experience. The amount of xp chests give him only went down slightly when he dinged, so I have a feeling most of his experience will be coming from the same place at least until level 87. After that I've got literally everything available for Cataclysm content, as I've done no Cataclysm questing on him at all. Ultimately whatever I decide to do though, I'll be taking it slow n' steady.

Ironsteve

Ironsteve the druid is still around (and alive) as well. He's been following Ironstevo's footsteps using rares and treasure chests to get to where he is now. That is actually ALL he does for xp besides the occasional holiday quest. He's been spending a lot of time killing the various mobs in Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands each day.

Ironsteve finds a treasure chest in Swamp of Sorrows

Ironsteve was also pleasantly surprised when he dinged level 60 to learn that he could continue killing rares for only slighty less xp than he was earning at 59. Last year when Ironstevo hit level 60 the mobs all began to give only 10% of the amount of xp they gave before hitting 60. I am fairly confident that with this welcome change Ironsteve will be at least level 62 or 63 before hitting Outland (assuming he is still alive then).

Ironsteve dinging the big 60 right in Garrosh's face!

The iron druid has changed quite a bit just as Ironstevo has, but for the most part I am really liking the changes. Everything gets killed in kitty form. I generally start out a fight with a wrath, moonfire, rejuv then hop into kitty form where I rake, mangle until 5 combo points and then ferocious bite (popping out of kitty to rejuv when needed). Each tick of rejuvenation is worth about 25% of Ironsteve's health, it's an honest to kittens lifesaver. <3

Anywho, that's where my Ironman toons stand at the moment. Stay tuned for updates, and for anyone who has never tried this challenge before I highly recommend it - it's a lot of fun! ^-^

Blackrock Mountain Rares

March 1, 2013, 3:44 pm

≫ Next: How to Tame Degu (Red Spectral Porcupine)

≪ Previous: And the Ironman Challenge Continues...

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Chromehound and Chrominius (with magical pet biscuit)

Blackrock Mountain, the volcanic zone containing six instances between Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge, is home to three rare spawns. Two of these rares are exotic tamable hunter pets that were added in patch 5.1. The third rare I wouldn't even really consider a "rare" due to his incredibly short respawn timer, but thanks to his silver dragon portrait he'll get a quick mention here.

The most notable rare in this zone is without a doubt Chromehound, an eye-catching level 49 core hound that shares the exact same color and model as the raid boss Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair. Yes, those of us that have tamed Chromaggus already - hes not unique anymore. Quite honestly I don't think its a big deal though. This skin is still rare enough as it can only be tamed via these two sources. If anything, I think obtaining Chromehound as a pet can prove to be even more difficult than Chromaggus due to competition from others (especially with crz) and his spawn timer which seems to be somewhere in the 3 hour + area.

You can find Chromehound wandering around the circular path in the uppermost level (The Molten Span) when you first enter the mountain. Every time I've seen him up he was moving counter-clockwise, and spawned near the large northern chain. I drew his path in red on the map below.

The second new rare added to Blackrock Mountain in 5.1 is Crystalfang, a level 49 red shale spider. Crystalfang is one of only two tamable shale spiders that can be found in this color before encountering the level 80+ shale spiders in Deepholm and The Stonecore. That being said, you will still need to be at least level 69 and in beast mastery spec to tame him.

His spawn timer is similar to that of Chromehound, and you can find him in the lowest level of the mountain in The Masonary just west of the entrance to Blackrock Depths. He spawns right in the corner, surrounded by three aggressive dwarves. I have marked his spawn point in red on the map below.

The final rare in this zone has been a long time inhabitant, and can really only be called a rare thanks to his lovely silver dragon portrait. His spawn timer is incredibly fast - I'd say somewhere around 10 minutes give or take. This guy always drops the Vilerend Slicer, and like other rares - a very decent amount of experience for leveling characters. You'll find The Behemoth patrolling back and forth east to west through The Grinding Quarry on your way to Blackrock Depths.

How to Tame Degu (Red Spectral Porcupine)

March 4, 2013, 5:23 am

≫ Next: How to Tame Gumi (Blue Spectral Porcupine)

≪ Previous: Blackrock Mountain Rares

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As promised, I've written up some short guides on each of the new spectral porcupines that we'll be seeing in patch 5.2. As a quick overview - there are three spectral porcupines total, and they each have not only a unique look, but a unique way to tame them as well. These tames may remind you of the Molten Front/Mt. Hyjal taming challenges introduced in 4.2.

Each one of these beasts will have a buff called Strong Will when you first come upon them. The tooltip for this buff reads "Cannot be tamed until weakened". In order to weaken them to the point where they can be tamed you will need to dps them down to about 20% health. The thing is however, these pretties will two shot anyone that gets in their melee range. This is where your going to want to know a little more about what makes each of these beasts tick.

Degu, the red spectral porcupine, has an ability called Barbed Needle that will two-shot people with poison who attack her from too far a range. The spell tooltip reads a 15-50 yard range, so the goal with her is to try to always stay within 15 yards. It's also crucial not to let her get too close because she can also two-shot you with her melee hits. This particular tame requires keeping her at that "perfect" distance while dpsing her down until her Strong Will buff wears off.

Concussive Shot will be the most important tool in your box for this tame. Use it whenever it's off cooldown. Ice Trap will also come in very handy in slowing her down. I used Ice Trap and Snake Trap whenever they were up, and they certainly helped. Disengage can also be a lifesaver if you notice she is just about in melee range, but if you do use it make sure you run back toward her immediately! If you simply disengage and stay where you are you could end up getting hit by Barbed Needle. Moving forward toward her will get her to stop her Barbed Needle cast once you get within 15 yards. (Do note that Scatter Shot is completely ineffective against her.)

Degu patrolling along the canyon wall in Krasarang Wilds

The best place to kite her while dpsing her down is right along the canyon wall where she patrols. It's nice and straight, and you should encounter very few (if any) hostile mobs along that wall. I recommend using all of your cooldowns on her and don't forget to use Readiness so that you can utilize some of those cooldowns a second time. If things start to look bad I highly recommend using Feign Death to reset her. It takes far less time to bandage or eat than it does to run from the graveyard. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future, but currently your most likely to rez at one of the Valley of the Four Winds graveyards such as Halfhill if you die along the wall. I imagine this happens because although Degu is clearly in Krasarang Wilds, she is technically in Valley of the Four Winds. The zone doesn't change to Krasarang until you move a pretty decent distance from the wall.

I marked a red line on the map below to indicate where she can be found patrolling. ~

Here is a video below of a not-so-smooth tame where you can see me getting hit by Barbed Needle a couple of times (I used Exhilaration and then a health pot to regain my health after each hit). I even fracked up the actual tame as well by moving, causing Deterrence to end before tame beast could finish. Luckily tame beast finished before I got eaten for breakfast.

How to Tame Gumi (Blue Spectral Porcupine)

March 7, 2013, 10:28 am

≫ Next: Map of Rare Spawns on the Isle of Thunder

≪ Previous: How to Tame Degu (Red Spectral Porcupine)

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Gumi, the level 90 blue spectral porcupine, is the second of the three new spirit beasts added in patch 5.2 that I'll be going over. This little guy is one heck of a terror. In all honesty I thought this was one of the hardest hunter pets to tame that I've encountered yet. Maybe THE hardest. At least for me, taming this guy made taming the other two spectral porcupines seem like a cakewalk.

Like Degu and Hutia (Gumi's red and green buddies), Gumi will need to be kited and dps'd down to about 20% health before his Strong Will buff will drop and you will be able to tame him. He will also two-shot you if he gets within melee range. Unlike the other two beasts though, this guy has no special abilities to be aware of. What makes this guy so difficult is the speed that he moves at. 

This beast moves so fast, it's as if he's mastered the art of teleportation. Those who (like myself) could never seem to get out of the habit of backpedaling will likely have the toughest time taming him. It is possible though, it will probably just require a few more tries before you nail it. I'll be honest here, I died a lot trying to nab this pretty beasty. Thankfully there is a spirit healer very close by.

Where to find Gumi:

There are a few things I'd like to recommend to make this tame go a little more smoothly:

Glyphs:

• Glyph of Tame Beast
• Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah
• Glyph of Disengage
• Glyph of Ice Trap
• Glyph of Pathfinding

Talents:

• Posthaste - The extra speed buff can be very helpful in putting some distance between you and Gumi
• Binding Shot - An extra cc, I'd recommend using this right before your about to tame him
• Exhilaration - If Gumi gets too close and you eat a hit, this will come in handy
• Dire Beast - Basically an extra dot while kiting 
• A Murder of Crows - Best dot you can throw on him while running for your life
• Glaive Toss - It doesn't hurt to have an additional slow, plus it's instant!

Prepping to tame:

Before you even think about starting to kite this guy, make sure you are in beast mastery spec and that you have an empty stable slot open. You'll also want to make sure that you have aspect of the Cheetah up. If you choose to have a pet out to help dps him down a little faster, make sure that it has taunt off (otherwise Gumi will kill your pet). You'll also want to make a macro and have it on your hotbar so that you can abandon this pet right before you can begin taming Gumi. The macro to abandon your pet is: /script AbandonPet(). It's certainly not necessary to use another pet, but the extra dps can definitely make a difference, especially if you don't have the best gear.

Kiting location options:

Once your ready to tame, you will have quite a few kiting options. Some may find one easier than another. First, let me tell you what worked best for me. I chose to kite Gumi up through the mountain path north of Mount Neverest. I preferred this path because I encountered absolutely no hostile mobs along the way, I took no falling damage from using disengage, and being that it's already a laid out path - it's very easy to follow. At one point along the path (after you run past the graveyard) there will be a fork. Here you will take a left and then just keep following the path heading west. In the screenshot below I drew a line to show which path I mean. 

The next kiting option I've seen done successfully is to kite him around in a large circle. If you tend to backpedal like I do, I wouldn't recommend kiting this way. If your good a strafing you'll probably find this method fairly simple. You'll also encounter no hostile mobs, and if you're careful you shouldn't take any fall damage from disengaging down the mountain. I illustrated the path in the screenshot below.

Another way I've seen him tamed is to kite him down the mountain. Personally I wouldn't recommend this way unless your very careful with Disengage. Disengaging at the wrong location while working your way down can lead to a ton of falling damage or even death. I also found there was a much greater probability of running into hostile mobs along the way. Which ever route you decide to take though, it will probably take a few tries before you figure out what works best for you.

Making it happen:

Now let's talk about the tame itself, and the spells you should be using the most to make this work. Concussive shot is a must. This spell should be used whenever it's not on cooldown. The moment the debuff wears off of Gumi's speed skyrockets instantly. Use Glaive toss whenever it's available, and the same goes for Ice Trap. Concussive shot is your most important slow, but glaive toss and ice trap certainly do help. 

Keep up as many dots up as you can while trying to keep as much distance as possible. That really is the name of the game here. Try to keep serpent sting up at all times. Use A Murder of Crows right away, and after using readiness be sure to use it again! The same goes for Dire Beast, summon this extra pet whenever it's up. Most of your damage will likely be coming from your dots, so everything helps. Don't forget to throw a snake trap and explosive trap in his path as well. Snake trap not only adds a dot, but it will also help slow him down a bit.

If you get hit by Gumi while kiting be sure to pop a healing potion or use your Exhilaration. When/if he hits you don't forget to put aspect of the Cheetah back on, as getting hit will knock the buff off if your using the glyph. If things start looking bad and Gumi is all up in your junk, Stampede can be your best friend. I found Stampede to be my "oh shit!" button for this tame. I'd recommend not using this cooldown right away, but save it for when you really need it.

When Gumi starts getting fairly low on health (25-30% or so) get ready to begin your tame. Make sure there is as much distance between you and him as possible. As soon as his Strong Will buff wears off you'll want to throw a Binding Shot in front of him, use that pet abandon macro, then hit Deterrence and Tame Beast as quickly as possible. 

Here is a video below of my successful kite through the mountain path and tame. ~

Good luck to those who give this guy a shot and happy hunting! ^-^

Map of Rare Spawns on the Isle of Thunder

March 7, 2013, 3:52 pm

≫ Next: How to Tame Hutia (Green Spectral Porcupine)

≪ Previous: How to Tame Gumi (Blue Spectral Porcupine)

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Tabbing in and out of wowhead to find these guys was driving me nuts. Here is a map for you guys (and me) to use to more easily find all of the rares on Isle of the Thunder King.

All of these rares are required for the Achievement Champions of Lei Shen except for Ra'sha (the rare who drops Ra'sha's Sacrifical Dagger). Ra'sha also does not share the same tapping system as the other rares on the isle. Only those grouped with someone who tap him can loot him.

Click map to Enlarge

Also here's some npcscan id's for those who use it. Add em all instantly with these macros:

/npcscan add 50358 Haywire Sunreaver Construct
/npcscan add 69664 Mumta
/npcscan add 69996 Ku'lai the Skyclaw
/npcscan add 69998 Goda
/npcscan add 69997 Progenitus

/npcscan add 70000 Al'tabim the All-Seeing
/npcscan add 69999 God-Hulk Ramuk
/npcscan add 70001 Backbreaker Uru
/npcscan add 70002 Lu-Ban
/npcscan add 70003 Molthor

Much more detailed post on these guys incoming. Until then enjoy.

How to Tame Hutia (Green Spectral Porcupine)

March 10, 2013, 8:11 am

≫ Next: War-God Dokah (Rare Elite on Isle of Giants)

≪ Previous: Map of Rare Spawns on the Isle of Thunder

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Hutia is the final spirit beast I'll be going over that was added in patch 5.2. I found Hutia to be a little more forgiving to tame than her friends Gumi and Degu. Well actually, make that a lot more forgiving.

As with the other two spectral porcupines, Hutia has about 4M health and must be dps'd down to 20% before her Strong Will buff will drop and she can be tamed. If she gets within melee range she will two-shot you. She is fast, but thankfully she is not nearly as fast as Gumi. She also doesn't have any type of ranged attack like Degu does. The thing to know about Hutia is she's got an annoying heal called Spirit Heal that she'll cast periodically as shes chasing you. This spell needs to be interrupted! 

Helpful Glyphs and Talents:

You can easily make this tame smoother by using certain glyphs and talents. Glyph of Tame Beast I would definitely recommend. Glyph of Disengage can also prove to be handy (I used both of these glyphs when I tamed her in the video below.) If your having trouble Glyph of Pathfinding, Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah and Glyph of Icetrap may be enough to make a successful tame (I didn't use these).

Talents that will come in handy with this tame are Posthaste (for the nice speed increase), Silencing Shot (to interrupt her heal), Exhilaration (in case she manages to hit you), Dire Beast (for the extra dot while kiting), A Murder of Crows (another dot) and Glaive Toss (for the additional slow and damage).

Kiting:

Once you've got your glyphs and talents ready, be sure you know where you'll be kiting her. I found the best option was to simply kite her around the large tree on the ground. She can't run through the tree to smack you, but you can conveniently use all of your offensive abilities right through it! I drew some red arrows in the screenshot below to show the path I used.

The Tame:

Before pulling her be sure to put down an Ice Trap and Snake Trap in her path. When your ready to go, hit her with a Serpent Sting and Concussive Shot and start moving away. Throw as many dots on her as possible including your Dire Beast and Murder of Crows. While keeping your dots up, it's very important to make sure the Concussive Shot debuff doesn't wear off of her.

While keeping her at a distance and working down her health it is crucial that you pay attention for her heal. She will periodically cast Spirit Heal on herself, and if it gets off she'll regain a very large portion of her health. To interrupt her heal simply hit her with  your Silencing Shot. She casts her heal infrequently enough that the cooldown on Silencing Shot should be finished and ready to go each time. If for some reason Silencing Shot is not available to you, Scatter Shot will also work on her.

Don't forget to use readiness so that you can use your big dots like Murder of Crows a second time. I also recommend waiting to use Stampede for emergency circumstances (shes up in your face and everything seems to be on cooldown). Of course if things are going quite smoothly and your confident she won't get anywhere near you I'd say go ahead and use it for the extra dps.

Once you have her down to about 20% her Strong Will buff will drop and she will become tamable. Before you start to tame, be sure to put as much distance between you and her as possible. Refresh Concussive Shot, throw down an Ice Trap in her path, hit Deterrence and Tame Beast. If things go smoothly Tame Beast should end just before she can get to you or she may get off one hit (which shouldn't matter so long you had plenty of health to begin with). Now hopefully you have a pretty new pet! ^-^

Where to Find Her:

You can find Hutia in The Jade Forest standing in front of a large fallen tree just northwest of Greenstone Quarry. I marked her exact location with a red dot on the map below.

WTB more stable slots Blizz.

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War-God Dokah (Rare Elite on Isle of Giants)

March 18, 2013, 5:27 pm

≫ Next: Like Raptor Mounts? Spend some time on the Isle of Giants!

≪ Previous: How to Tame Hutia (Green Spectral Porcupine)

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War-God Dokah <Ward of Beasts> is a level 92 rare elite that can be found on the Isle of Giants. He is located at the bow of the ship in the southeastern part of the zone. (Map with exact location further down in post.) This ship is inhabited by a pretty hefty Zandalari Dinomancer population.

Getting to Dokah without a flying mount can be a little tricky, especially if you don't feel like plowing your way through a heap-ton of elite mobs and the Primal Devilsaur that stands just outside the ship on your way in. To get onto the ship your going to need to jump onto one of the small canoes on the northwest side right near the two Dinomancers and the Devilsaur. Rogues and druids can simply stealth by them, hunters can get past with camouflage and everyone else who can't stealth...your in luck! You can get past every hostile mob on the ship with a neat dinosaur disguise called the Intact Direhorn Hide.

Alliance can purchase this disguise from Agrant Sharpshot on the western side of the island. Horde can purchase their disguise from Arnold Raygun on the eastern side. I would recommend purchasing several disguises because when/if your disguise wears off the item will have disappeared from your bags. I marked the locations of where you can find each of these vendors on the map below.

When you have your disguise, make sure you use it before getting too close to the ship. I chose the left canoe to get up, as it seemed a bit further from the hostile mobs. Once your on board just keep as much distance as possible between you and anything hostile and make your way up to Dokah.

This method is really only necessary if your trying to get to Dokah quickly and without dying. Otherwise I totally recommend clearing the Dinomancers for their loot. The Dinomancers can drop four different battle pets including: Zandalari Toenibbler, Zandalari Anklerender, Zandalari Footslasher and Zandalari Kneebiter. For hunters they can drop an Ancient Tome of Dinomancy, which will allow the taming of Direhorns in any spec. They even have a small chance to drop Zandalari Journals required for the Achievement Zandalari Library Card.

Ok so now your probably going to want to know a little bit about how to fight War-God Dokah. Dokah has a little over 42M health and will require a few people to defeat. I took him down in a group of all hunters and a druid tank (video below). I've also heard of others two and three manning him as well. Naturally the ideal group will have some sort of tank, heals and a dps. Before engaging him you should also clear out the hostile mobs in the immediate area nearby to avoid getting adds during the fight. (Note: Depending on how long it takes you to kill him these mobs may respawn while your still in combat with Dokah. If this happens just cc them or burn them down.)

If you are familiar with the abilities the Zandalari Warbringers use, you should be pretty comfortable fighting Dokah - he uses the same ones.

• Horrific Visage - Causes a random person to flee in fear for 8 seconds. (Pretty self-explanatory)
• Meteor Shower - These are very big meteors - it's hard not to see them. They do hurt, but are easy to move away from, especially for ranged who can stand out of range of the shower entirely.
• Scarab Swarm - These scarabs can be aoe'd down, they don't do a ton of damage but they can be annoying to healers. They will eventually despawn if not killed.
• Thunder Crush - The spell effect is very obvious on the ground in front of him. It looks like a lightning cloud sitting just over the ground. Move out of it.
• Vengeful Spirit - Dokah will periodically summon a spirit that will go after different party members. DO NOT let this spirit hit you. She hurts - very badly. She also moves very slowly and can be slowed even further. If she's coming at you just move away until she despawns.

War-God Dokah's drops are also fairly similar to those of the Warbringers, minus the mounts disappointingly. He has a very good chance to drop a Small Bag of Zandalari Supplies and a Big Bag of Zandalari Supplies. Each of these can contain all sorts of materials used in professions. The big bag also has a chance to contain some epic weapons & armor. In addition to the bags, he generally drops quite a few reputation items including: Stolen Golden Lotus Insignia, Stolen Celestial Insignia, Stolen Shado-Pan Insignia and Stolen Klaxxi Insignia.

This guy has a fairly short respawn timer as well, so if you get a group together for him - odds are he'll be up.

Like Raptor Mounts? Spend some time on the Isle of Giants!

March 23, 2013, 7:04 pm

≫ Next: Fishin' for Rares: Krakkanon

≪ Previous: War-God Dokah (Rare Elite on Isle of Giants)

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Ahhh mounts, who doesn't love em? Mounts, pets, titles, vanity items - they're the only things in game that will truly last patch after patch, and with each new expansion. Today I'm not going to talk about rare spawns, I'm just going to blab a little about some of these new mounts I'm loving in patch 5.2. Specifically - the Raptor mounts!

In patch 5.2 there were four new raptor mounts introduced to the game. All four of these mounts can be obtained by spending some time on Jurassic Park the Isle of Giants. Killing the dinosaurs on the isle will land you stacks and stacks of Giant Dinosaur Bones, which can ultimately be used to purchase Reins of the Bone-White Primal Raptor. This mount looks very similar to the Ivory Raptor, an Old School Ride that was taken out of the game in patch 1.4.

Bone-White Primal Raptor (Thank you to Arelae and Rickoutragos for posing for me!)

The larger, more difficult to kill dinosaurs drop more bones. For example, a Primal Devilsaur will land you anywhere between 35-45 bones, whereas a much easier to kill Young Primal Devilsaur will get you between 11-13 bones. Once you've collected 9,999 bones you can turn them in to Ku'ma<The Bone Collector>, to complete the quest A Mountain of Giant Dinosaur Bones. You'll find Ku'ma in a cave on the western side of the island. The quest reward is the previously mentioned sexy Bone-White Primal Raptor. You'll also receive a feat of strength called I've Got 9999 Problems but a Bone-White Primal Raptor Ain't One.

The larger dinosaurs have more health and deal a lot more damage, and will therefore require a group to kill. Their younger versions should be soloable by most classes depending on your gear. While farming for bones, it is very likely that at some point you will come across a Primal Egg. This egg will hatch into a Cracked Primal Egg  in three days time and will contain one of three different mounts: Reins of the Green Primal Raptor, Reins of the Red Primal Raptor or Reins of the Black Primal Raptor.

Primal Eggs can drop off of any dinosaur mob on the island. They have a higher chance to drop off of the larger mobs than the young ones though. The egg is unique, so once you have one in your bag you cannot  loot another one until the one you have hatches. The color mount that you will receive from the egg is completely random, and it is possible to see the same color more than once. I received my first Primal Egg from a Primordial Direhorn Hatchling, which I pretty much farmed exclusively. When the egg dropped, I had killed enough dinosaurs to collect 1,321 Giant Dinosaur Bones.

My first egg contained Reins of the Green Primal Raptor (pictured below). This guy kind of looks like an un-armored version of the no longer obtainable Swift Razzashi Raptor - the one mount I desperately wanted and farmed for but was never able to obtain before being taken out of the game pre-cataclysm. This guy's no substitute, but he's still pretty awesome looking.

Green Primal Raptor

Anyone who is familiar with the Savage Raptor TCG mount should notice the incredible similarities between it and the Red Primal Raptor. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed to find out that they looked so incredibly similar. The only difference between the two seems to be the saddle and reins color. Below you can see the Savage Raptor (left) and Red Primal Raptor (right) standing side-by-side for comparison. I personally think they should have made the Red Primal Raptor a little more, gee I dunno...red. Meh, oh well. At least bronze is in the red family.

Savage Raptor and Red Primal Raptor

I think my favorite of the three possible mounts from the cracked egg is the Black Primal Raptor (pictured below). He's got such purty blue eyes! ^-^ This mount looks fairly similar to the Venomhide Ravasaur mount obtainable by Horde characters for completing the quest They Grow Up So Fast.

Black Primal Raptor (thanks Reinoverall for posing for me!)

Primal Eggs can also be obtained from a couple of other sources outside of farming dinosaurs. The Shiny Pile of Refuse that drops from Oondasta, and Treasures of the Thunder King (from bosses in Throne of Thunder)  also have a small chance to contain an egg.

Ultimately, I really do like all of these new raptor mounts. Yes, even the Red Primal Raptor. As someone who plays predominantly Alliance, it's nice to have some more choices when it comes to raptor models now. I also love the fact that they are unarmored and feather-free. Don't get me wrong, some of the armored ones look fantastic - it's just that I REALLY like the less-frilly look.

Fishin' for Rares: Krakkanon

March 31, 2013, 3:46 pm

≫ Next: Isle of Thunder Rares Spawns

≪ Previous: Like Raptor Mounts? Spend some time on the Isle of Giants!

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Fishing, it's not something I usually talk about on my blog. Mainly because it's never had anything specifically to do with rares (the silver dragon kind) until just recently. Well, patch 5.2 sure added a lot to the fishing profession, and one of those things is a rare - that you can fish up!

Meet Krakkanon. He's a really, really BIG kraken that you can fish up in any of the new fish of the day locations throughout Pandaria.

If you haven't been keeping up on fishing since the patch, let me give you a brief overview of some of the changes. Each day there is now a new "fish of the day" location somewhere in Pandaria. The fish of the day locations contain tons and tons of very fast re-spawning pools of one kind of fish. The type of fish that the pools contain depends on what location the pools are in; and although the pools are named slightly differently, the fish caught are identical to the ones already existing in Pandaria.

The fish of the day location seems to be determined randomly, and resets at 3am PST. To find out where the fish of the day are located on any particular day, you can talk to the fishing trainer Ben of the Booming Voice. Ben is located just outside of Halfhill at 58.9, 46.9, standing beside the Gilding Stream.

When you talk to Ben, he'll tell you where the fish are migrating on that day and what type of fish can be caught there. If your lazy like myself, you can even ask him to mark the exact location on your map. When he marks your map it will show up like the little red x that you see on the left in the screenshot below.

Fish of the day location marked on World Map and Mini-Map

There are nine possible locations where the fish of the day could be. (I have marked all of them on the map below, as well as where you can find Ben of the Booming Voice.) When you get to the designated area, if you are tracking fishing pools your mini map should look something like the one in the screenshot above. You will also know your in the right spot because there will be several friendly npc's fishing there, including Salty El herself from El's Extreme Anglin'!

Possible fish of the day locations. Click map to Enlarge.

There will literally be more pools there than you can fish, and they will keep re-spawning at an accelerated rate. Fishing these pools is a nice fast way to stock up on fish you may be needing, and it's been reported that even the coveted Sea Turtle mount can be fished out of them! If you don't have a water-walking ability, I highly recommend getting the Angler's Fishing Raft to easily move between pools. Also, don't forget to use your Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm if you have it, as it will allow you to stock up on those fish even faster! (More info on where to find the charm and other treasures in this post: Lost and Found Achievement: Where to Find Lost Treasures in Pandaria.)

Once in a while a larger than average size pool will spawn in, and this pool will have a different name than the smaller ones around it. In the screenshot below, we had been fishing from Sha-Touched Spinefish pools until this Large Pool of Sha-Touched Spinefish appeared. The large pools always contain the same type of fish as the other pools around it, however it will contain many more - we fished this pool for about 10 minutes before we finally got to the bottom of it.

Fishing a Large Pool for Krakkanon

When the large pool has finally been fished clean, a rare elite kraken named "Krakkanon" will appear. This rare has a massive health pool of about 20 Million hp. He will not automatically aggro when he spawns in, and he cannot be "tapped" by a single person. Any angler in the area who participates in killing him will be able to share in the reward.

Krakkanon has a very large hit-box, and he only uses two abilities - neither hit very hard. His two abilities are called Gurrggggle and Shpshhh. They are both dealt as frost damage. The most annoying this he does is a knock-back that will toss you into the air in a big spray of water, but it can be avoided. If you see a small pool of water forming under you, you will have a couple of seconds to move out of it before it errupts and tosses you into the air. He should be soloable by just about any class depending on your gear. (The only time I could really see this fight being difficult would be if it continued on for a very long time and he slowly whittled your health down.)

Once defeated, Krakkanon always seems to drop a 20-stack of the type of fish that spawn in that current location. He has a high chance to drop one of the "rare-catch" uncommon quality fish like the Flying Tiger Gourami, which starts a quest that can be handed in to Nat Pagle to increase your reputation with him. Krakkanon also has a pretty decent chance to drop Nat's Fishing Journal, a bind on account item that can be used to raise fishing on your alts. Until you reach revered with Nat pagle, this is the only way to acquire this item, and it will save you a lot of gold if you were planning on purchasing it. If he drops any of these items, anyone who attacked him will all get the same loot.

The rewards aren't super-spectacular for fishing up and killing this guy, but all in all I think it's a nice addition to the game and a great way to break up the monotonous task that fishing in wow can be.

Isle of Thunder Rares Spawns

April 3, 2013, 5:10 am

≫ Next: Trove(s) of the Thunder King

≪ Previous: Fishin' for Rares: Krakkanon

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There are a total of eleven rares on the Isle of Thunder. Ten of them are required for the achievement Champions of Lei Shen. They are all on very short re-spawn timers that seem to be between 30min to an hour, and certain rares become available after unlocking different Stages of progression on the Isle. (More info on that below.)

All of these rares (minus Ra'sha) share the new tapping system introduced in patch 5.2, where so long as you participate in killing the rare you will have access to it's loot. As more and more people join in on the fight, the mob's health pool will increase with each additional player. All in all, I think this new system is great, as it gives players around the Isle more time to get to each rare once it's been called out.

Each of these rares is guaranteed to drop a Tome of Valor worth 15 valor points each time you kill them. They will also drop a single Shan'ze Ritual Stone and a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen for an individual character once each week (so long as you haven't already looted the key elsewhere). Obtaining three ritual stones will unlock the group quest Setting the Trap, which will then lead to the weekly group quest Champions of the Thunder King. Obtaining a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen will unlock the weekly solo scenario Troves of the Thunder King where you will have five minutes to grab as much treasure as you can before the clock runs out.

These rares also have a very small chance to drop the item that begins the questline for warlocks to get their green fire; Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion. The tome seems to be roughly a 2-3% drop chance off of any one of the rares (minus Ra'sha), and can only be looted by warlocks. When combined with a Healthstone the item becomes The Codex of Xerrath, which starts the questline with An Unusual Tome.

So without further adieu, here are each of these rares listed below in the order they became accessible on the Isle. If you scroll further down the page I also have a slightly more up to date map showing exactly where they can be found.

Haywire Sunreaver Construct
NPCID: 50358
Coordinates: 48, 85
Location Description: Running along the shores in southwestern Ihgaluk Crag
Base Health: 10539k
Notable Loot: Sunreaver Micro-Sentry

Abilities: Haywire: Go Haywire! Deals 18500 to 21500 Nature damage to all enemies within 40 yards every 1 sec. for 20 sec and increases movement speed by 100%. (Ranged players can still dps him and not get hit, so long as you stay right at about 40 yards. Others should be able to heal through it. If you don't have heals, I recommend getting away from him for the 20 seconds he casts this.)

Ku'lai the Skyclaw <Ward of Beasts>
NPCID: 69996
Coordinates: 36, 82
Location Description: Patrols the beach south of Za'Tual
Base Health: 7167k, Pet: 1969k

Abilities:Bladewind: Spin around in a whirl of blades, inflicting 46250 to 53750 Physical damage to nearby enemies every 1 sec. for 10 sec. (This is easily avoidable  Simply move out of melee range when he starts spinning.)
Leaping Rend: Leaps at the target and slashes, causing the target to bleed for 20000 Physical damage every 1 sec. for 10 sec. (Ranged players - be sure to stand fairly close to him, he only seems to use this ability when your far, and it HURTS.)
Pet (Tamed Pterrorwing): Spirit Bond (So long as his pet is alive, Ku'lai will take half damage. KILL HIS PET FIRST.)

Progenitus <The Firstborn>
NPCID: 69997
Coordinates: 50, 74
Location Description: At the very top of the highest peak in Ihgaluk Crag. You will need Skin of the Saurok disguise to reach him.
Base Health: 7588k

Abilities:Evolution: Increases all damage dealt by 10%.
Mutagenic Burst: Inflicts 46250 to 53750 Nature damage to all enemies within 5 yards and knocks them up.
Unleash Blood: Inflicts 46250 to 53750 Nature damage to all enemies within 10 yards and knocks them back. (This ability can be a real killer, and quite literally because it can knock you off the mountain. Either stun him while he's casting it and run away, or position your back against the big dinosaur head.)

A note for pet classes: Use the "move to" option to keep your pet on the top of the mountain, especially if your pet has aggro. You can also put your pet on passive to keep Prog from chasing it down the mountainside if someone else is there tanking.

Mumta <Thief of Souls>
NPCID: 69664
Coordinates:
Location Description: On the top floor of The Hall of  the Grand Imperion in the Court of Bones.
Base Health: 6745k

Abilities:Darkest Darkness: Reduces healing taken by 99% for 20 sec.

Spirit Bolts: Deals Shadow damage to all nearby enemies every 0.5 sec.

Vengeful Spirit: Summons a vengeful spirit to assist the caster. (This is by far the most important thing to look out for while fighting him. If the vengeful spirit is coming after you - RUN AWAY. The spirit hits very very hard, but it can be kited and slowed and will eventually de-spawn.)

Goda
NPCID: 69998
Coordinates: 53, 53
Location Description: Standing inside of a tree in northeastern Diremoor, just south of the wall separating the next part of the zone.
Base Health: 10539k

Abilities:Crystalline Shield: Protects the caster in a crystalline shield, reducing magical damage taken by 10%. (This ability stacks, but can be purged, dispelled, etc.)
Shell Spin: Spins around for 10 sec , inflicting 92500 to 107500 Physical damage every 1 sec. to enemies within 10 yards and knocking them back. (This hits pretty hard, but is super easy to avoid. Just run away when he starts spinning.)

Al'tabim the All-Seeing
NPCID: 70000
Coordinates: 44, 31
Location Description: On the Northwestern shore next to a large cauldron.
Base Health: 6323k

Abilities:Meteor Shower: Summons a shower of meteors, dealing Fire damage at the impact locations.
Omen: Inflicts 400000 Shadow damage after 2 min. Leaving combat cancels the effect. (This debuff isn't much to worry about if multiple people are killing him and he goes down fast. If you are soloing him however, and your dps isn't high enough this debuff can be deadly. I imagine classes with some kind of damage absorption would fair better against this guy solo.)
Shadow Bolt Volley: Hurls missiles of dark magic, inflicting Shadow damage to nearby enemies.

God-Hulk Ramuk
NPCID: 69999
Coordinates: 60, 50
Location Description: In front of the stairs leading down to the gate to Stormsea Landing. (Becomes accessible during Stage 3)
Base Health: 8431k

Abilities:Blessing of Thunder: Call for the blessing of Lei Shen, increasing damage dealt by 100%, damage taken by 50%, and reducing movement speed by 50% for 15 sec.
Crouch: Crouch down into a ball, reducing incoming damage by 50% and healing for 5% of maximum health every 3 sec. for 20 sec. (This ability CAN and SHOULD be interrupted.)
Pound: Pound the ground, inflicting 138750 to 161250 Physical damage to enemies within 5 yards of the impact and knocking them back. (This has a cast time, just be sure to run away the moment it starts.)

Lu-Ban <The War Crafter>
NPCID: 70002
Coordinates: 54, 35
Location Description: At the Thunder Forges, standing in front of a large mogu statue and table with mogu weapons on it. (Becomes accessible during Stage 4.)
Base Health: 6745k

Abilities:Skyforged Hammers: Skyforged hammers inflict 27750 to 32250 Nature damage on melee attack.
Storm Bolt: Fling a hammer at a distant target, inflicting 138750 to 161250 Physical damage and stunning them for 3 sec. (He casts this when your further than 15 yards from him, so ranged players just don't stand too far away.)

Backbreaker Uru
NPCID: 70001
Coordinates: 50, 25
Location Description: He patrols the back entrance of the Lightning Vein Mine. (Becomes accessible during stage 4.)
Base Health: 9275k

Abilities:Break Spine: Crush the target's spine, rooting them in place and reducing their chance to dodge and parry by 100% for 15 sec. (He uses this on his current target.)
Massive Stomp: Deals 185000 to 215000 Physical damage to all enemies within 30 yards. This ability only affects targets that are on the ground. (Combined with Break Spine, this ability can be very painful. All you need to do to not get hit is jump before he gets the cast off. If your his main target and your pinned down though, get ready to heal or use some defensive cd's.)

Molthor <The Gatekeeper>
NPCID: 70003
Coordinates: 62, 48 & 58, 35
Location Description: He has two spawn points. One of them is behind God-Hulk Ramuk on the overlook at Stormsea Landing. The other is in the back of the Swollen Vault. (Becomes accessible during stage 5.)
Base Health: 8010k

Abilities:Horrific Visage: Strikes fear in an enemy, causing it to flee in terror for 8 sec.
Scarab Swarm: Summons a bevy of scarabs to attack the enemy. (These can easily be aoe'd down.)
Thunder Crush: Crush enemies in a cone in front of the caster for 231250 to 268750 Nature damage. (Move out of this when you see it on the ground. It hurts. It looks like a grey thundercloud floating just above the ground.)

Click to Enlarge

Ra'sha (NOT part of the Champions of Lei Shen Achievement)
NPCID: 70530
Coordinates: 39, 81
Location Description: In the back of the cave by the water where the skeletal raptors are located. The cave is guarded by two elite Zandalari Execution Guards.
Base Health: 4075k
Notable Loot:Ra'sha's Sacrificial Dagger (Ra'sha does not share the same "tapping system" as the other rares in this zone. The first person/party to engage him will be the only ones able to loot him.)

Abilities:Bloodbolt: Inflicts damage to an enemy and reduces its movement speed for 4 sec.
Bloody Strike: An instant attack that deals 110% weapon damage.  Increases attack damage by 5%, but reduces chance to hit by 5%. Lasts 15 sec.
Mark of Blood: Place a Mark of Blood on an enemy.  Whenever the marked enemy deals damage to a target, that target is healed for 4% of its maximum health. Lasts for until cancelled. (Simply stop hitting him when he puts this debuff on you, otherwise the fight will go on forever.)

Although he isn't part of the Champions of Lei Shen achievement, he will still drop a guaranteed Tome of Valor and potentially a Shan'ze Ritual Stone. Unlike the other rares on the island he could also potentially drop a Small Bag of Zandalari Supplies or a Big Bag of Zandalari Supplies.

Helpful Addons:

IoTRares

Ever wonder what that addon is that has people calling out which rare is up, with info on the rare's location and % health left in general chat on the Isle? That is the addon IoTRares. Not only will it call out in general when you've targeted a rare, it also keeps track of when you've last seen each rare to more easily keep track of which ones will likely be spawning in next. Here is an example below of both what you'll see called out in general chat, and the timers for when each rare was last killed that only you will see.

What is nice about this addon is that it's not as "spammy" as you'd think it would be. When several people in an area working on one rare all have this same addon only one person will call out the progress on that rare in general. I've found this addon very helpful, as I know many others on my server have as well. You can download this addon from Curse. 

TomTom

If you use tomtom, you can simply add these waypoints to a macro for each of their spawn locations to show up on your map:

/way 35.0 82.0 Ku'lai

/way 51.3 71.2 Progenitus

/way 35.1 62.5 Mumta

/way 53.7 53.1 Goda

/way 61.5 49.6 Ramuk

/way 59.3 35.7 Molthor

/way 63.5 49.2 Molthor

/way 54.4 35.6 Lu-Ban

/way 44.7 29.7 Al'tabim 

/way 48.6 89.8 Haywire

/way 48.4 25.3 Backbreaker Uru

/way 39.4 81.6 Ra'sha

NPCScan

You can also add each of these rares into NPCScan, and it will pick them up so long as they aren't cached. You can add them quickly with these macros:

/npcscan add 50358 Haywire Sunreaver Construct

/npcscan add 69664 Mumta

/npcscan add 69996 Ku'lai the Skyclaw

/npcscan add 69998 Goda

/npcscan add 69997 Progenitus

/npcscan add 70000 Al'tabim the All-Seeing

/npcscan add 69999 God-Hulk Ramuk

/npcscan add 70001 Backbreaker Uru

/npcscan add 70002 Lu-Ban

/npcscan add 70003 Molthor

/npcscan add 70530 Ra'sha

Happy Hunting! :)

Trove(s) of the Thunder King

April 7, 2013, 6:46 pm

≫ Next: A Precious Little Announcement

≪ Previous: Isle of Thunder Rares Spawns

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Ahhhh treasure, who doesn't love finding a big honkin' treasure chest? I know I always get a little excited each time I run across one while playing. Well this post is all about treasure baby. No, not the typical treasure chests you'll find out in the world (although you should be looking for those too), but the actual chests you can find throughout the Isle of Thunder: Trove of the Thunder King.

Finding your first Trove of the Thunder King will land you the achievement Thunder Plunder which counts toward the meta-achievement: Stormbreaker.

These chests generally contain about 30 gold, a Shan'ze Ritual Stone, a Fortuitous Coffer (which will usually yield 1-3 Elder Charms of Good Fortune and a small chance at any one of the books required for the Zandalari Library Card Achievement). If you have not yet looted a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen since the weekly Tuesday reset from a rare or another source, there is a good chance you'll see one in your chest as well.

The Key to the Palace of Lei Shen will get you into the ultra fun, timed, single-player scenario Troves of the Thunder King, where there will be enough treasure to practically make your brain explode - but I'll leave that for another time.

So here's the deal with these chests: You can only see and loot a single Trove of the Thunder King once per week, per character. (Source) Now apparently there have been some rare instances where people have come across more than one in a week; it seems this has been when people have found chests within just a minute or so of one another - before the server has had a chance to flag that character complete for that week. That was never intended, and is apparently being worked on.

If you have multiple 90's and aren't sure if you've looted one of these chests yet this week, there is a quick way to see if you have. Simply copy and paste this command into chat:

/run print(IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(32609))

If you see a "1" in the chat window, that means you have looted a chest this week. If you see "nil", it means you have not yet looted a chest this week. (Source)

For those who use the addon tomtom, you can use a series of macros to add waypoints of all the chest locations found so far. (Waypoints taken from wowhead map on 4/7/13.)

/way 53.2, 24.6
/way 50.4, 27.3
/way 49.1, 27.2
/way 47.7, 25.7
/way 48.0, 29.3
/way 52.4, 37.0
/way 48.8, 43.0
/way 56.8, 45.7
/way 57.5, 48.6
/way 55.1, 49.1
/way 54.1, 53.6
/way 55.5, 53.7
/way 60.9, 53.6
/way 59.3, 56.8
/way 34.9, 47.6
/way 45.2, 50.7

/way 44.1, 56.1
/way 46.3, 57.5
/way 46.6, 61.6
/way 38.9, 54.7
/way 33.4, 57.5
/way 33.2, 60.5
/way 33.8, 60.5
/way 36.1, 58.5
/way 38.7, 59.6
/way 37.9, 61.0
/way 36.9, 60.7
/way 35.6, 63.7
/way 39.6, 64.9
/way 37.0, 68.1
/way 44.3, 67.5
/way 28.9, 80.8

/way 33.4, 76.3
/way 39.1, 76.8
/way 40.8, 74.7
/way 43.5, 78.6
/way 43.8, 82.8
/way 48.0, 82.1
/way 51.5, 89.6
/way 53.8, 82.7
/way 52.9, 77.3
/way 51.2, 74.8
/way 51.5, 74.0
/way 47.5, 72.5

When you have all of these waypoints in, your map will look like the one in the screenshot below. You will also be able to see the locations as you come up on them on your mini-map. Now some of these chests are located underground, in buildings etc., over at Wowpedia they have another map that shows which of these chests are under and above ground. Unfortunately the map is rather small and has about half of the known locations to date on it, but some may still find it helpful.

Trove of the Thunder King Locations

When you do find a chest, be aware that you cannot open it while in combat. Also, if you find one in the saurok area you will loose your Skin of the Saurok disguise when you try to open it. Those saurok are not very hospitable when they realize you aren't one of them.

A Precious Little Announcement

April 22, 2013, 1:05 pm

≫ Next: Lesser Charms of Good Fortune to Drop from Rares in Patch 5.3 & Sahn Tidehunter Moved

≪ Previous: Trove(s) of the Thunder King

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So I tried to find a cute baby night elf or draenei to take a screenshot of for this post, because I figured it would be more appropriate given the characters I play in game, however it just didn't happen. I actually couldn't find a baby draenei model anywhere. Where do draenei come from? Eggs? Then holy moly, the night elf one I found.. simply terrifying. So here is a cute human baby to preface my announcement.

That's right, if you haven't already guessed this post is all about baby! The hubby and I just welcomed our first child into the world last Thursday, April 18th. She weighed a healthy 6lbs 10ounces and measured in at about 20'' long. She's got a full head of dark brown (maybe even black) hair and her eyes are getting bluer each day. She's absolutely gorgeous and I must say, I'm totally in love. <3

That being said, activity on my end regarding this blog will be slowing down significantly for the next few weeks/months until we've established a nice routine with our new addition. I will still be answering questions/comments, etc.

Until my next post, (pre) Happy Children's Week!

Lesser Charms of Good Fortune to Drop from Rares in Patch 5.3 & Sahn Tidehunter Moved

May 19, 2013, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Thousand Needles Rare Spawns - Including Tamable Rares added in 5.1

≪ Previous: A Precious Little Announcement

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With patch 5.3 just around the corner I figured I'd give a quick heads-up about a few of the changes that will be affecting rare spawns in Pandaria when it goes live.

The biggest change affecting all of the rares in Pandaria (minus the Zadalari Warscouts & Warbringers) is that they will all drop several Lesser Charms of Good Fortune now. I flew around the ptr killing each rare up, and every one dropped several charms. The amount seemed to be about 3-5 from each.

That isn't the only thing being added to their loot tables though, Blood-Soaked Invitations will also have a chance to drop off of the rares in Pandaria (minus the rares on Isle of Thunder). I'm not sure what the drop rate will be on them, but I had to kill about ten rares before I saw one. (Official patch notes)

I think this is a wonderful change. I'll admit, as much as I love pet battling I was getting a bit tired of it in order to get my Lesser Charms. It will also be nice to see people hunting these rares down again given this new incentive. I know I won't be flying by and leaving any of them alive any more when I come across one.

Also, the Big Blossom Excavation totally destroyed Sahn Tidehunter's Little pond in Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The poor guy had to move with his dead crab Carapin to the northern pond next to Mogu'shan Palace. He is shown at his new location in the screenshot below.

Sahn Tidehunter at his new location in patch 5.3

(And on a personal note - Our new girl baby turned one month old yesterday, and she's doing quite well. She went on her first road trip last week and she had a lot of fun. She absolutely LOVES bumpy car rides. I'm also fairly certain that I witnessed her first real smile this morning! ^-^)

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Thousand Needles Rare Spawns - Including Tamable Rares added in 5.1

May 26, 2013, 6:56 pm

≫ Next: Second Blogiversary & Giveaway

≪ Previous: Lesser Charms of Good Fortune to Drop from Rares in Patch 5.3 & Sahn Tidehunter Moved

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With the extremely welcome change of raising hunter's stable slots to a maximum of 50 (up from 20) in patch 5.3, I figured it would be a good time to continue on with my posts on low level rares - including more interesting and unique hunter pets. I don't know about anyone else, but I have a lot of new pets (and a lot of previously abandoned pets) to find and fill my stable with in the very near future.

Taming Skyshadow

Well, Thousand Needles has a lot to offer hunters as far as tamable rares are concerned. Twelve of the fifteen rares in this zone are tamable, and nine of these are fairly new (added in patch 5.1). Two of these rares even have unique looks. (Note: The three silithid rares are exotic, therefore hunters need to be at least level 69 and in Beast Mastery spec to tame them.)

Skyshadow, the level 43 grey, yellow & orange spiked wind serpent, has a very appealing unique coloration and model (pictured on the right). He can be found in the far eastern part of the zone near Splithoof heights. He spawns in a relatively out of the way area near the other cloud serpents overlooking the sea. For those without flight - just head straight up into Splithoof Heights from the water and then eastward along the mountain until you get to the flat overlook.

Barnacle Jim, a level 40 spiky sea crab, also has a unique look. You can find him swimming around underwater in Splithoof Crag in front of the remains of a large Centaur tent.

I would also like to point out that Rrakk, the level 42 red bat, is an elite rare (notice the wings on his silver dragon portrait below). He has about triple the health as the other rares in the zone. You can find him in the grassy area north of Splithoof Heights.

Click map to Enlarge

I have screenshots below of each of these rares in order by level. The ones with the stars in the bottom right hand corner are the new tamable rares added in patch 5.1. The colors of the stars correspond to where they can be found on the map above.

Barnacle Jim, Kaxx, Cyn, Nyaj& Rrakk

Achellios the Banished, Krkk'kx, Venomclaw, Harb Foulmountain& Skyshadow

Gibblesnik, Strix the Barbed, The Barbed Horror, Ironeye the Invincible& Vile Sting

All of these rares can be added to NPCScan. You can simply cut and paste these two macros in game to add all of them automatically:

Hangin' with Barnacle Jim (Tamed)

/npcscan add 50952 Barnacle Jim
/npcscan add 50741 Kaxx
/npcscan add 50892 Cyn
/npcscan add 50748 Nyaj
/npcscan add 50329 Rrakk
/npcscan add 5933 Achellios the Banished
/npcscan add 4132 Krkk'kx
/npcscan add 51001 Venomclaw

/npcscan add 14426 Harb Foulmountain
/npcscan add 50785 Skyshadow
/npcscan add 14427 Gibblesnik
/npcscan add 50727 Strix the Barbed
/npcscan add 51008 The Barbed Horror
/npcscan add 5935 Ironeye the Invincible
/npcscan add 5937 Vile Sting

Second Blogiversary & Giveaway

June 6, 2013, 9:40 am

≫ Next: Blogiversary Contest Winners!

≪ Previous: Thousand Needles Rare Spawns - Including Tamable Rares added in 5.1

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Wow! I can't believe it's been two years already since I started rambling about rares on this blog. Seriously, where has the time gone?! I have to say, this past year of blogging has been even better than my first. With the addition of like eight bazillion rares in Pandaria, and a heaping ton of fun new hunter pets - I've had a LOT of fun things to write about.

Let's take a look at what's been happening around here this past year. ~

One of my goals was to improve navigation, and I think I've somewhat accomplished that with my tabs up above. The first tab I added was the List of Rares by Zone, after that addition I just continued adding tabs from there to help people find more specific rares. The List of Rares by Zone tab gets the most hits by far, but I notice plenty of people using the rest of the tabs as well - specifically the hunter pet related ones. I notice people using the search option too, but not nearly as often.

In the last year I've written a total of 82 posts (83 counting this one), bringing my total post count to 248. Although I have produced less posts than the previous year, I'd like to think that the quality of posts has gone up. On average I've been spending a lot more time on each one compared to last year.

Some of my posts have been wildly successful (based on the number of views), and then there are ones that I'm simply proud of based on quality and content. First, let me tell you all which posts were deemed most popular according to their view count.

Top Five Posts from the Previous Year based on Views:

5. Sha of Anger - MoP World Boss - I had written up this post last summer while I was playing early on in the mop beta. At the time of writing this he was not only quite difficult to kill, but he would despawn and reappear somewhere else on the map every time he was engaged and reset. Between his difficulty level and griefers I never did get to participate in a kill until mop was released.

4. New Rares and Mounts Coming in patch 5.2 - With the promise of so many new rares coming in patch 5.2 I just had to get the down low on the ptr. This post covered a lot of the earlier patch 5.2 ptr related rares. The IoT rares weren't all in their live locations yet and many of them had placeholder names. Goda wasn't even a turtle - he was a super badass elite Drakkari Golem that really packed a punch. I really enjoyed the research involved in putting this particular post together.

3. Map of Rare Pandarian Champions by Type - Not a whole lot of text goin' on in this post, just one heck of a detailed map. This post was very popular when MoP was first released. In the last few months people viewing this post have steadily decreased, while posts on rare champions in specific zones have gone up.

2. The Jade Forest Rare Champions - I'm not sure why, but for some reason the rare champions in The Jade Forest are much more popular than the ones in other zones on this blog. This post has seen about double the views as any of the other zones I've covered in Pandaria.

1. Map of Rare Spawns on the Isle of Thunder - Bleh, it just figures. The post viewed most on this blog is one that I spent the least amount of time on. I literally threw this map together in no time at all to have a quick reference to glance at. The post I would have preferred people to be looking at instead is this one: Isle of Thunder Rares Spawns. I put a lot of time into that post, and there is SO much more useful info.

Between our good friend Google, the navigation on my blog and whatever other factors, those were the top posts this past year based on the numbers. Now, if I could choose five different posts - ones I believe more worthy based on time and effort put into them, quality, content, etc.. they would be completely different. Here are the posts that I believe should have been in the top five.

My Top Five Picks from the Previous Year:

5. Patrannache - Trackable Hunter Pet (Crane) - This bird was a total #$@*% to track down. When I finally did find him, I wanted to make sure I could get as much info on him as possible. I definitely put more time into following stinky pinky here than any other pet. The fraps video of my following him was over an hour and a half long unedited. Using footage from that video I put together an incredibly accurate map of his ridiculous path. At the end of the day I was extremely happy with what I put together.

4. How to Tame Degu, Hutia & Gumi (Spectral Porcupines) - Yeah, I know there are technically three posts here, but I am equally proud of them and believe they should be listed together. I really enjoyed not only writing these posts, but doing the research and learning these tames was a ton of fun. As much as I appreciated having to track down rare pets early on in the Mop expansion, I always love a good Molten Front/Hyjal style taming challenge.

3. Where to Find the Riches of Pandaria - One of my readers (Cain) suggested that I write this post after reading Lost and Found Achievement: Where to Find Lost Treasures in Pandaria (which also came very close to making this list). I thought it was a great idea, and conveniently a few days after seeing his suggestion Blizzard added the Riches of Pandaria Achievements.

2. New 5.1 Rare Faction Champions in Krasarang Wilds - A Closer Look - This is another post that I really enjoyed doing the research on and writing about. I spent a lot of time camping these guys with my hubby, and things got pretty competitive for a while - which made putting it together even more fun. At the end of the day I just felt really good about how well this post came together, and I was not the least bit afraid to hit "publish".

1. The Darkmoon Rabbit - I had a blast writing this post. I loved how Blizzard used Monty Python and the Holy Grail references like crazy with this fuzzy little ball of death, and I had fun with it! Even looking back at it now I have to chuckle a bit.

So my lists don't coincide - at all, but that's fine. Even the posts that I thought should have made the top of the list still had a lot of views. I know they have been helping people as well, and ultimately that is what this blog is all about after all - helping people find those elusive rares and taming some sweet new pets. Although people don't always comment, I know I have some lurkers out there too. You know who you are!

My Thanks to all of You:

So, as a way of saying thanks to my readers, I am going to have a little giveaway again this year. I am giving away two battle pets to two lucky commenters: the Crawling Claw and another from the WoW TCG.

All you have to do to enter is simply comment on this post. I will choose TWO winners from the comments randomly using a /roll in game.

The first roll will win the Crawling Claw pet shown above - I hear this pet is quite OP in the pet battling world, and they are still pretty hard to come by these days. The second roll winner will get to choose one pet from the list of TCG pets below:

• Eye of the Legion
• Gregarious Grell
• Purple Puffer
• Landro's Lichling
• Landro's Lil XT
• Sand Scarab

(For example, if there are 23 comments I will do two rolls (/roll (1-23)) in game. If the rolls are 14 and then 21, that means the 14th commenter wins the Crawling Claw and the 23rd commenter has their choice of TCG pets listed above.)

These are not TCG codes I'm giving away, they are caged battle pets that need to be traded in game. Winners will need to have an active World of Warcraft subscription in order to receive their pet. Anonymous replies, or anyone not registered with Blogger will need to put some contact info in their reply. (This is so that I can contact the winners.) An email address, twitter info or even a character name & realm will be fine.

The contest will be open for 10 days (ending Midnight on Sunday, June 16th EST). I will post who the winners are shortly after. Winners will have one week to claim their prize. (If anyone simply wishes to comment but doesn't want to participate, please state so.)


Thanks all for another wonderful year!

Much Love, Euphyley <3

Blogiversary Contest Winners!

June 17, 2013, 8:04 am

≫ Next: Prince Lakma (The Last Chimaerok)

≪ Previous: Second Blogiversary & Giveaway

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My Second Blogiversary contest ended last night, and I would just like to thank you all for the lovely comments and again for the support. :) I did a /roll 1-38 this morning, and as you can see from the screenshot above it landed on 29 and then 6.

That means the winner of the Crawling claw pet is: Akira Voorhees

The winner of a TCG pet of your choice from the ones I listed is: Cain

The winners have been contacted via email, and will have a week from the time of publishing this post to respond. If prizes go unclaimed, I will do another /roll in game to determine another winner.

Congratulations to the winners!

Prince Lakma (The Last Chimaerok)

June 19, 2013, 4:41 pm

≫ Next: Wetlands Rare Spawns

≪ Previous: Blogiversary Contest Winners!

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A couple of weeks ago one of my readers reminded me about this rare. I had taken all sorts of screenshots of him over a year ago and somehow just never got around to writing about him. Well, I've been following this guy around for the past few days, and with bags chock full of Chimaerok Tenderloin - I'm ready to give you all the skinny on him.

Prince Lakma (perhaps the son of Lord Lakmaeran?) is a level 87 rare chimaera with approximately 4.2M health. You can find him flying around the lush green area in the mountains between Feralas and Silithus. I marked his patrol route in red on the maps below.

Now here is the interesting thing about this rare - because his patrol route spans two different zones (and I'm assuming because of CRZ) it is possible to find two versions of him up at any given time.

In the video below you can see my hunter tame him in Silithus, and then find and kill him in Feralas only moments later. All you need to do is move back and forth between the zone lines and wait a few moments. If he is up in either zone he should show up within a half a minute or so. The spot where I waited for him was at about 21.8, 6.0 (in Silithus) and then moving north ever so slightly to 48.0, 79.0 where the zone changes to Feralas.

This guy only has one notable drop, and that is Chimaerok Tenderloin. He generally drops about a full stack of them. This item is used in the epic cooking recipe Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops. This is the only epic quality recipe in game; it used to be obtainable via the quest: Recipe: Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops which was part of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line. The quest can no longer be completed since Cataclysm, therefore the only way this recipe can be obtained these days is to trade/purchase it from another player who still has the unlearned recipe.

For level 90's he is not difficult to kill. His lightning shield hit my character for less than 1k each tick, and I hardly had to worry about keeping my pet healed.

Prince Lakma is also tamable by hunters. Those looking to tame him will need to be at least level 87 and in Beast Mastery spec to tame him. Note that he is immune to Freezing Trap. 

Prince Laka Tamed

His spawn timer seems to be somewhere in the range of 1 - 2 hours. 

Remember, if you find him - be sure to look for the second version of him while your there!

Wetlands Rare Spawns

June 27, 2013, 1:17 pm

≫ Next: Northern Barrens Rare Spawns

≪ Previous: Prince Lakma (The Last Chimaerok)

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Wetlands is a very aptly-named, swampy and predominantly Alliance zone. Throughout your sodden travels, keep your eyes out for twelve rares that call Wetlands their home.

Probably one of the more well-known rares in this zone is the Razormaw Matriarch, who used to drop the Razormaw Hatchling pet. This pet no longer drops from her, and can now be looted directly from her nest which can be found right near by her spawn point. (Nest shown in screenshots below.) You can find her in the cave at Raptor Ridge. When you enter the cave, simply stick to your right. She spawns at the end of the peninsula in the cavern filled with shallow water. She is also tamable, although not unique.

Leech Widow, the green and black spider, can also be found in a cave (Thelgen Rock). The entrance is at 53.2, 62.9. She is located deep inside, beside the large shallow pool of water. Again, she is tamable but not unique. Sludginn can be found in the bottom of Ironbeard's Tomb, and he is HUGE. He takes up the entire area! The rest of the rares in this zone can be found outdoors.

Chops, the brownish green and orange crocolisk (pictured on the right), is a brand new rare to the zone (added in patch 5.1). You'll find him swimming around in the river between Wetlands and Arathi Highlands. To get to him by foot simply head north over the Thandol Span and make a right. There is a path leading down to the water from Arathi. Due to CRZ, you probably won't see him until you cross over into Wetlands (down by the water). If he's up you won't miss him because he's quite large. He is tamable, and although not unique you won't find another croc to tame that shares his same model and coloration until reaching the mid-level 80's and heading to Uldum.

Click map to Enlarge

Here are some screenshots of each of these rares in order by level. (Click on pictures to enlarge them.)

Ma'ruk Wyrmscale, Gazz the Loch Hunter, Leech Widow& Gnawbone

Two-Toes, Rufus Darkshot, Sarltooth& Mirelow

Sludginn, Garneg Charskull, Razormaw Matriarch & Chops

Razormaw Matriarch & her Nest

All of these rares can be added to NPCScan. You can simply cut and paste these two macros in game to add all of them automatically:

/npcscan add 2090 Ma'ruk Wyrmscale
/npcscan add 44227 Gazz the Loch-Hunter
/npcscan add 1112 Leech Widow
/npcscan add 14425 Gnawbone
/npcscan add 44224 Two-Toes
/npcscan add 44225 Rufus Darkshot
/npcscan add 44226 Sarltooth

/npcscan add 14424 Mirelow
/npcscan add 14433Sludginn
/npcscan add 2108 Garneg Charskull
/npcscan add 1140 Razormaw Matriarch
/npcscan add 50964 Chops