Useful Tips for Camping Rares

I use a couple of tools in my search for rares, and I thought I would share them with you. :) I will keep this updated incase I find other useful ideas along my quest to find rare spawns.

Just a note: I have added all of the NPC IDs for the rares I post after their names in their corresponding blog posts that you would need to add in to NPCScan for the convience of all. So if you are confused as to what those weird random numbers are, that is what they are for. I have also added links to all rare spawns that I talk about on their specific blog posts. Just click their name the first time it is mentioned in the post and it will take you directly to their WoWHead page so you can learn more about them. I hope this helps everyone.

NPCScan: This add-on makes a sound and sight alert when it catches a rare in close range to you. It gives a easy click pop-up, which will auto target the npc upon click, and marks it with a green triangle. I use this add-on at all times. The only downfall I have found is that when I go afk, sometimes it finds rares already tamed, and therefore needs to be cache cleared. Doing so is simple, just log out and close the game (I recommend moving to an area where hunters won't be summoning their pets, as it can re-cache them upon login if you do), go to your World of Warcraft folder in your Program Files, go into Cache, WDB, and then enUS (enUK, whatever you may play on), and then delete the creaturecache.wdb (don't worry, this won't hurt your game). This will reset the cache, and allow the add-on to pick up NPCs again. The add-on will tell you which NPCs you have cached each time you log in, or switch to a new continent that happens to have cached NPCs, so be on the lookout for this if there is something you are looking for, as it will not go off if it is cached.
Download NPCScan here: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/npcscan.aspx


Flare: This is our hunter ability that allows us to see stealthed players or mobs. This is absolutely essential if you are looking to tame the Mist of Pandaria rare spawns. The only way to see them once you have found their tracks is to flare in the direction in which they are walking. Then you would want to instantly Hunter's Mark them so they do not disappear and require you to place another Flare.


Hunter's Mark: Hunter's Mark is a very useful tool in the taming of the new MoP rare spawns and it's built right in to being a hunter. Once you have found your beast's footprints and have flared him to expose him, make sure to use Hunter's Mark in order to keep him out of stealth to tame him. This way, you don't need to lose the tame due to flare fading. A good way to do this quickly if you freak out when you see a rare like I do is to use a hover macro that activates when you press a button as long as your cursor is hovering over the rarespawn. A hover macro for Hunter's Mark is shown below. Just copy and paste it into your macros menu and place it on your bars on a key you can hit quickly.


#showtooltip Hunter's Mark
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,harm,nodead] Hunter's Mark
/cast Hunter's Mark



WoW-Petopia: I use this site to not only have a quick link to WoWhead when needed, but to look up models easily and to see if they share models with something else. It also shows pet "class" abilities, as well as abilities specific to that species of pet. They update their information every patch, and add new rares and pets as soon as the information is released.
Link: http://wow-petopia.com/

Hunter's Track Beasts ability: This is the pretty basic one, just simply click the tracking bubble on your map (or click Track Beasts in your spellbook), and you will see all of the beasts in your area as a dot on the minimap in game. If you don't like add-ons or your computer is too slow for them, this method will likely be very helpful for you since it is already built in with your hunter.


WoWHead: I love this site because it's a database for literally anything WoW related you need to find. Simply type in the name in the search bar, and you can see all the abilities, locations, and user comments on how to tame, get to, or find the rare you are looking for with ease. It also works for things aside from rares, like raid drops, item information, quests, and so on. It's just an overall great database for WoW.
Link: http://www.wowhead.com/


Making a /Target Macro: If your computer is too old for add-ons and your web browser is too slow for searching, the easiest thing to do is make a nifty target macro. To do so, hit the Escape (Esc) button on your keyboard in game (the key should be on the top left of your keyboard),  and click [Macros] in the game menu that is brought up. This should bring up a macro menu. From there, click [New] on the bottom right of the menu, which should bring up a side panel. Name the macro there to whatever you would like, and select an icon. Doing this helps to differentiate which macro is which with ease. Then, once you are done, click [Okay]. You should see the icon in the top box of the menu. In the lower box, you can type in your macro simply by clicking the box and beginning typing. To make a target macro, simply type "/target x" where x is the name of the rare spawn you are hunting. You can add multiple rare spawns into the same macro, just hit Enter/Return and make a new "/target x" line and put in another rare spawn's name. From there, just drag it on to your bars and spam click/key smash the macro until the rare spawn you're looking for appears as your target.

Singular Macro Example:
/target Jadefang

Multiple Macro Example:
/target Sambas
/target Karoma
/target Madexx
/target Skoll

Deth'tilac, Solix, Anthriss, Kirix + Skitterflame: The Molten Front Spiders

Just to begin this post, all of these spiders are non-exotic, making them tameable by all hunters. Their special ability is Web, which holds the target in place for 5 seconds. They are Tenacity pets, making them excellent for PvP. They are all level 85, and cannot be found unless you have completed up to the quest Tortolla's Revenge in Mount Hyjal, and have started the daily questline at the Sanctuary of Malorne far enough to get into the Molten Front through the portal in the Regrowth. The portal opens after you turn in your first set of 20 Marks of the World Tree. I did all of these tames at level 85 and had a lot of fun with the experience, though now at 90 I believe they would be quite a bit easier with Binding Shot having been added into the game. A tip for checking if they are up is using Eagle Eye so that you don't waste your time walking around, as the Molten Front counts as an outdoor area.

 I've added a map here with all of their names, as well as a dot for where each of them spawn that is color coordinated with the ring around their image. I hope this helps in locating them for some. Now on to how to tame each and every one of these lovely molten spiders:







For Deth'tilac (54322), the purple and ice blue one. His mechanics make him probably the hardest tame in all of Cataclysm and WoW so far, along with the patience required and the possibility of someone ruining the tame for you. The pet sacrifice, kite with a trap, resurrect pet, and repeat tactic is likely the one I would try, as it is the one I've had the best results from. The reason for the sacrifice is that every time Deth'tilac has someone in melee range, he will use an ability called Deth Strike, which is an instant one shot, but it drops him by 10% health. Since you can only tame him BELOW 20% health, getting something (like a pet) or someone (like a friend) to die to it for you seems to be very helpful. Using friends to help you can also work, but just be careful not to kill him on accident. Also to note, just because he is below 20% doesn't mean he will stop Deth Striking. He still does it so make sure to not get in his melee range while taming.


For Solix (54321), the orange one, I simply completed my quest and kited him around the Igneous Depths room whilst using Concussive Shot on cooldown. The easiest way you can tame him is without even having the quest to go into his cave, and the adds the quest spawns won't spawn on you. I used to heat vents in the area to jump around ledges to save time running. Aspect of the Cheetah can also help here, just be careful of adds if they spawn from someone else on the quest and be aware of your Concussive Shot, as when it falls off he moves very quickly.


For Anthriss (54338), the yellow one, in the Molten Springs, I just sat in a pool of magma and tamed him. Was very simple, as this allowed me to avoid his mechanics completely. A tip to reduce your damage taken if you are below 90: During the Magmolias daily, picking up Magmolias gives you a temporary buff that absorbs fire damage, so avoiding the lava damage completely is possible with that buff.






For Kirix (54323), the green one, I traveled up the floating rocks just past the Furnace on Fireplume Ridge. It helps to do the Druids of the Talon Mark turn in and dailies up to that point before this, as they can carry you back up to the start if you fall, thus avoiding death. From there, I just stood on the ledge, and waited for Kirix to past within  range of my shots. I then allowed him to evade, and waited for him to start casting his poison, then popped deterrence to avoid it, hitting tame just as deterrence proc'd. You have to make sure he starts to cast that, otherwise he will be evading and the tame will fail. It may take a few tries, but patience helps on this one.


Skitterflame (54324), the red one, starts with 100 energy which prevents him from being tamed. As long as his energy is above 20, his buff persists. What you need to do is drop his energy below 20. To reduce his energy, I used the Freezing Trap method. This will freeze him and give debuff that reduces his energy every second. The trap will break once the debuff ends, so keep your defensive cooldowns for this, as you have to wait out your Freezing Trap cooldown with him hitting you. He can be kited with Concussive Shot, but be careful, as if he runs through lava, his energy with refill to 100 and you will have to start the process all over. You should be watching his energy carefully though, because if it reaches 0, he will die. For this tame, I actually had a really nice random druid come along and root him for me right as he got to 20 energy, so I skipped the cooldowns all together aside from Readiness to get an instant Freezing Trap refresh. So bringing a druid friend to this can be very helpful for this tame.

Ban'thalos, Magria, Ankha + Terrorpene: The Rares of Mount Hyjal

Ban'thalos (54320) is a level 85 Spirit Beast in the Regrowth of Mount Hyjal. Ban'thalos was actually quite a pain to tame for me. His moonfire DoT was killing me everytime, and it was making it quite frustrating for me to tame him, as my traps weren't taking for him. So I had my boyfriend (a rogue) come and help me. I got on top of tallest tree behind the Malorne statue at the Sanctuary of Malorne, and got onto the tip top of it, making sure I could mount there without falling down. I flew up, Arcane Shot'd Ban'thalos, and MD him to my boyfriend (who was also on the tree). He popped a smoke bomb to avoid the hit of the Moonfire then vanished, where I took aggro, and was able to complete the tame. Not exactly the way it's supposed to be done, but just a suggestion. Other than this, it is said people have just been able to Freezing Trap him, and I have seen this work before as well. I guess I was just having a bad day. I would also like to add that Ban'thalos will not show up unless you have completed up to the quest Tortolla's Revenge in Mount Hyjal, and have started the daily questline at the Sanctuary of Malorne. Ban'thalos is an exotic Spirit Beast and therefore must be tamed by a hunter with the Beast Mastery tree. When he flys, his wings have a glow that follows them as they flap, leaving light green streaks of gust in the air.

Magria (54319) and Ankha (54318) I found quite easy to tame, considerring I knew how to ahead of time. Magria is the blueish one, and Ankha is the greenish one. I had already saved a set with no armor to my armor sets on my character pane, so it saved me a lot of time. It's essential to do this, as the higher your armor rating, the more damage you take from both of these cats. They are immune to traps, and move quite quickly. I would recommend following them to find a good spot without mobs to tame them, as there are quite a lot of mobs in the Regrowth. I would also like to add that these two will not show up unless you have completed up to the quest Tortolla's Revenge in Mount Hyjal, and have started the daily questline at the Sanctuary of Malorne. It's a fairly easy tame as long as you remove your armor. They are both level 85 Spirit Beast, and therefore require the Beast Mastery tree to tame.

Terrorpene (50058) was a little annoying, as he hits decently hard at level 85, let alone 81. I would recommend having haste gear/pots etc during this tame, as he left me with 5.3k once I was done taming him at 85. His Burning Hatred DoT hits quite hard every tick, especially for a lower leveled hunter, so be warned. Popping Deterrence before hitting tame would probably be helpful. He is non-exotic, and therefore can be tamed by all hunters.

(Side Note: Terrorpene is a bit off in his picture, as he doesn't quite light up in flames like he would in-game on wowmodelviewer. His shell has more of a lava-like glow between his shell spikes in game.)

I've added a map here with all of their names and images, as well as a dot for where each of them spawn that is color coordinated with the ring around their image. I hope this helps in locating them for some.