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Ghostlands - aka Dr. Whitherlimb

Ghostlands, the low-level Horde (and particularly Blood Elf) leveling zone, has only a single rare that you may stumble across while leveling. That rare is the mad scientist Dr. Whitherlimb.

Dr. Whitherlimb is kind of an interesting rare. When initiating combat with him he will always quote one of these lines:

"It is very kind of you to donate your organs!"

"Be proud, your brain will be put to good use in one of my abominations."

"Excellent! Fresh parts!"

(Well I guess there's no secret as to what he's been up to in Ghostlands...)

Dr. Whitherlimb has some unique abilities in combat. He will throw a Monstrous Elixir on himself that increases his size, strength and heals him. Then there is the debuff that I try to get... Every few seconds he will throw Withering Poison on you, which will make your character super tiny! Classes with pets will easily match (or shrink below) the size of their pet, and the best part is that the debuff lasts a whole 10 minutes so you can be super cute n' little well after he's dead. Yay!

Back in the day (before heirlooms and facerolling everything while leveling) this guy used to be pretty tough. I'm guessing that these days he'd be tough for an ironman challenger, and maybe even someone caught by surprise, but beside that I would assume he's pretty easy now.

Under the effects of Withering Poison

He's got loot that is unique to him that is also worth mentioning. Banshee Rod, Ghoul Hammer and Abomination Cleaver can only be obtained from him.

This crazy doctor can be found patrolling through any one of the four ziggurats in the zone. The Howling Ziggurat and Bleeding Ziggurat are southwest of Tranquillen on either side of the Dead Scar, and the other two are located deep inside of Deatholme. I marked each of his spawn points on the map below. These days he seems to spawn pretty randomly between the four, and has a fairly short respawn timer.

Hillsbrad Foothills Rare Spawns

Dustwing - Tamed

Dust be gone! This post had been sitting around for far too long. Between the wee little one, holiday orders for the newly opened etsy store and the holiday season in general, time has been sparse around these here parts.

So anywho, I created a new undead hunter a few months back to level through some of the horde zones post-cata. I finally took my time going through Hillsbrad Foothills, and I've gotta say...wow. This zone is bursting at the seams with rares. There are a total of 24 of them currently. 14 of these rares are tamable by hunters, and 10 of them were added in patch 5.1. This means that the rest of you lowbie undead hunters have no excuse if you don't have a cool pet at this level range!

Let me start off by mentioning my favorite - Dustwing (pictured on the right). He's a level 22 white and yellow moth with a completely unique look. That's right, no other tamable moth in game looks just like this guy. You can find him on Purgation Isle in the southwestern part of the zone. Remember to look up when your looking for him, as he flies pretty high. Also be aware, there are some pretty fearsome worgen just below the area where he patrols.

The second pet that I just had to have when coming out here was Carcinak. Carcinak is a spikey deep sea crab that is dark green in color with some purple/pinkish details along his spine and claws. You can find this clickity clackity fellow where the green slime runs down and meets the sea just south of the Ruins of Southshore. You won't be able to tame another crab that looks like him until leveling up to 84 and finding the Mosstide Crabs in the Jade Forest.

Another one that I thought was a nice addition to the zone is Lopex, the dark grey/black fox. He can be hound hiding in a hollowed out tree stump behind Durnholde Keep. The only other tamable foxes with this exact color-scheme are in Alliance territory, Redridge Mountains to be exact.

I'm sure some people either love or hate seeing the addition of The Dark Prowler to this zone. This level 21 black lion seems to have joined with Pitch in an attempt to make the beloved Humar the Pridelord even less unique looking.

I'm not going to go over all of these rares - there's just too many for that. I've marked them all on the map below though. In the map legend the stars indicate the newest tamable rares added in patch 5.1.

Click map to Enlarge

I've got screenshots of them all below. They are in order not only by level, but also in the same order as on the map legend above. (As always, click on the images to see a larger version.)

Indigos, Alitus, Miasmiss & Creepthess

Little Bjorn, Scargil, The Dark Prowler, Dustwing & Lady Zephris

Ro'Bark, Weevil, Carcinak, Lopex & Araga

Chordix (Exotic), Cranky Benj, Craw the Ravager, Jimmy the Bleeder & Big Samras

Tamra Stormpike, Gravis Slipknot, Lo'Grosh, Skhowl & Maggarrak

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

/npcscan add 47010 Indigos
/npcscan add 50335 Alitus
/npcscan add 50763 Miasmiss
/npcscan add 14279 Creepthess

You will be mine!!

/npcscan add 50929 Little Bjorn
/npcscan add 14276 Scargil
/npcscan add 50818 The Dark prowler
/npcscan add 50858 Dustwing

/npcscan add 14277 Lady Zephris
/npcscan add 14278 Ro'Bark
/npcscan add 51057 Weevil
/npcscan add 50955 Carcinak
/npcscan add 51076 Lopex
/npcscan add 14222 Araga
/npcscan add 51022 Chordix
/npcscan add 14223 Cranky Benj

/npcscan add 50967 Craw the Ravager
/npcscan add 14281 Jimmy the Bleeder
/npcscan add 14280 Big Samras
/npcscan add 14275 Tamra Stormpike
/npcscan add 14221 Gravis Slipknot
/npcscan add 2453 Lo'Grosh
/npcscan add 2452 Skhowl
/npcscan add 2258 Maggarrak

Thoughts on Warlords of Draenor, (War)crafts & The Future

Anyone who follows this blog has probably noticed that I kind of dropped off the radar recently, and for various reasons. The first is that my little girl, who was born this past April, is becoming increasingly mobile. That being said, I've been spending a lot less time around the computer. Apparently for me less computer time doesn't necessarily mean less WoW related time though. I've whipped out my clay and art supplies and have been working on some Warcraft themed art!

Then, as much as I love WoW, I hate to admit that I have been a little bored in game over the past few weeks/months, only logging on to level battle pets and finish my weekly Celestial Tournament. I have however, been spending more time playing Hearthstone, and I have to say - for a game I thought I'd have no interest in, it has me hooked!

Blizzcon 2013 & Warlords of Draenor Reaction:

Oh how I wish I could have gone to Blizzcon this year. So many wonderful members of the community meeting in one place, the energy, excitement, all of the eye-popping cosplay - let me tell you, I watched my twitter feed feverishly the whole weekend. Had teleporters existed, and I had a free and trustworthy babysitter fall from the sky, I would have been there in a heartbeat! Ah well, hopefully I'll catch the next one.

I'm sure most people weren't too shocked about the announcement for the next expansion with all of the rumors being tossed around the interwebs beforehand. It was a title that just felt right when I first read it, and I was hoping that it wasn't just a rumor. Personally, I can't wait for it. I haven't been this excited about a new xpac since Wrath of the Lich King. It will be so wonderful to see some new life brought back to this game. Maybe I can even talk the hubby into playing with me again!

On the Instant Level 90:

I have pretty mixed emotions on the insta-level 90 toon that we'll all be getting. I think that no matter how these toons get to start off, whether it be the whole Death-Knight style - learning skills a few at a time as you first progress or something else entirely, that level 90 dungeons are going to be messy, especially in LFG. I can just picture it now - the tank is all like "what does this button do?" as a pack of pissed off whatchamacallits are all nom noming on the healer's face, while two of the three dps are off in some other room pulling everything and the remaining dps is picking their nose while watching it all.

I am pleased with the fact that I'll be able to play with my friends on another realm straight off the bat though. I'm thinking that because I already have several 90's on my Alliance server, that I'll most likely end up using my insta-90 to make a Horde toon on Thrall to play with the lovely folks of Trauma II. As for which class/race I'll choose - that's still up in the air. I'll probably end up choosing something that can heal & dps, which has always been my preferred way to play.

Some changes I'm looking forward to:

Character model updates. This this this! I can't wait to see what my Night Elf hunter is going to look like. Boxy hands, and well, everything, was getting pretty old. I'm looking forward to seeing my little gnomes not look like actual boxes any more too. :)

Hunter weapon sound changes. Need I say more? Maybe I'll actually want to use a gun now if it looks nice.

Garrisons. If I spend half as much time working on my Garrison as I did my farm, I'll be there a lot. I haven't read a whole lot into them yet, but from what I have so far - they look awesome.

More unstructured content similar to that on the Timeless Isle. When I had more time to play I didn't mind dailies so much. Now that I have a kiddo in the picture, I very much mind dailies. The little bit of time I do have to log in I want to use to just have fun. The Timeless Isle has allowed me to do just that. Bring on more content like this Blizz, woot!

(War)Crafts or: What I've been spending my time on recently:

For those who read my blog and also follow me on twitter, you've probably already seen a few of the projects I've been working on. I tend to get so excited when I'm almost finished with one that I just tweet to the world what I've done so far before it's even finished. I also snuck in a new page on this blog called "Crafts of War", which has a small version of my etsy shop on it, and will always show my most recent additions.

So yeah, I've been doing some real life jewelcrafting and making a bunch of neat little miniature sculptures. Everything I've done so far is WoW related, and I've been really enjoying myself putting everything together. Until now, I had just been stocking up my store, and didn't want to point it out until I had a few items up. Well, I have a few up now and I have a lot more items in the works. Which brings me to thinking about future plans for this blog...

Where this blog is headed:

I have no plans on abandoning this blog any time soon if that is what you were expecting. I actually have a lot of half-finished posts I've been meaning to work on for what seems like forever. One of those you'll probably see within the next couple of weeks, however don't be surprised if the time between posts starts lengthening out. If I had nothing else going on, there's nothing I would enjoy more than sitting down and writing about rares and other miscellaneous WoW topics, but that just isn't the case. I don't know if my posts regarding the next chapter of WoW will be as in depth as they have this past expansion, but I'll certainly try my hardest to keep them up to the same level no matter what happens.

Until next time, stay safe all of you here in the U.S. during the holiday season coming up. <3

Neverending Spritewood & Scary Sprites

I'm sure by now that most of this post will probably be old news, but hopefully some of you will find some tips I'll be sharing useful in snagging yourself a Dandelion Frolicker pet sooner rather than later.

Take a look at the screenshot below. This is the tree just east of Old Pi'Jiu with the Nice Sprites frolicking merrily around its base. See those purple crystals in the shot? Those are Neverending Spritewood Crystals. There are four of them - all are pictured in the screenshot below. I am showing you all four in one shot so that you can see exactly where each spawns from one vantage point. They cannot and will not spawn in at the same time. 

Spawn Time:

On the ptr, and when patch 5.4 went live, the spawn time on the crystals was about an hour. It has since been stealthily changed to about 15 minutes. Which crystal will spawn in next is completely random.

The Crystal "Daily":

You can only interact with the Neverending Spritewood Crystal once per day, per toon. Once you have completed the event, you can see the crystal when it spawns in again, but you will not be able to interact with it. Those of you with more than one level 90 can farm for this pet on multiple toons. I've been farming it daily on three toons myself.

The Fight:

Ok, so the basics are this. Once you interact with the Neverending Spritewood you will immediately receive the Crystal Breaker debuff. This debuff only lasts one minute and makes the sprites aggressive toward you. The aggressive sprites that you aggro will toss Sticky Sap on you through the entire event. This debuff stacks, making gathering them quickly (or fleeing) a little more difficult.

Starting the event by becoming a Crystal Monster! RAWR!

The nice sprites will turn into one of two types of sprites when they attack you. Most of them will become little blue Angry Sprites, but if your lucky several will become larger bright green Scary Sprites. Scary Sprites are the mobs that can drop the adorable Dandelion Frolicker pet. The pet itself has a fairly low chance to drop chance.

Scary Sprite pictured on the right

From my experience so far, it seems that the more sprites you kill, the better chance you will have of getting a Scary Sprite to spawn. Granted it is random though. I've had massive pulls before with only one or two Scary Sprites. I've also had smaller pulls yielding far more Scary Sprites. (When I say this, I do mean after the hotfix on Oct. 9: "Scary Sprite now deals 40% less damage and should spawn slightly more frequently.")

Angry Sprites each have 196k health, and Scary Sprites have 393k. Any sprites not dead after the minute is up and the debuff wears off will turn friendly and run away. The sprites each hit for roughly 5 - 7k, and of course double that when they crit. If you pick up a lot of sprites this damage will add up very quickly. I have watched far too many people pull half the sprites at once only to get eaten alive and die just seconds later. Having some damage mitigation and heals is highly recommended here. If your not sure how many you can take on at once, play it safe. Remember you only have one shot at the event each day per toon.

If you are serious about trying to get this pet, you are going to have to do as much aoe as possible while watching your health. Friends can come in very handy here. Although other players cannot help you kill the sprites, you can still be buffed and healed by them. You can also group with others doing the event and roll if the pet drops even though you were not the one to start it.

There are many many helpful items you can have ready to go for this fight that will increase your dps and survivability significantly. I try to have as many as I can before waiting for the crystal to spawn in each day. I usually average about 300k dps on each of my toons with all of the extra buffs.

Items I highly recommend using for this event:

• Thick Pi'jiu Brew - This is my favorite item for this event. The amount of aoe damage this does is no less than AMAZING. The Spectral Brewmaster tends to do about 70-80% of the damage when I use my bear tank, and a good 40% - 50% or so on my hunter. Seriously, the dps this little helper does is just insane. Check out the screenshot below for some actual numbers. No matter how much dps you can lay out I still recommend having this item handy. You can get it from the Spectral Brewmaster mobs right nearby in Old Pi'Jiu. It should take no more than a couple of minutes to get one to drop. 

• Bubbling Pi'Jiu Brew and Misty Pi'jiu Brew can also be used at the same time for some extra dps, but they don't do nearly as much damage as their Brewmaster buddy. This drops from Spectral Windwalkers and Spectral Mistweavers respectively.
• Strange Glowing Mushroom - Another phenomenal item for this event. My hunter in particular LOVES these. Between the heals and +focus regen, I can get off a rediculous amount of Multi-Shots one after the other and not worry about my health if I forget to misdirect. I try to have 5 or 6 of these ready to go and just use them back to back as they wear off. You can get these from the Damp Shambler mobs or Rock Moss in the Cavern of Lost Spirits.
• Faintly-Glowing Herb - This is another very helpful heal over time item that you can use several of one after the other during the event. These drop from the Ashleaf Sprite mobs found at the base of the trees along The Blazing Way, as well as Leafmender.
• Timeless Nutriment buff from a Ripe Crispfruit - These look like red apples hanging from trees. There is one right next to the event area.
• Dew of Eternal Morning, Book of the Ages and Singing Crystal will also make this a lot easier. You'll probably have several of these in your bags already from killing mobs on the isle. 
• Any Celestial blessing from a Time-Lost Shrine (all shrine locations are shown on the wowhead map in that link). The blessings include: Wisdom of Yu'lon, Xuen's Strength, Chi-Ji's Hope and Fortitude of Niuzao.
• Any one of the Timeless Legends items. (Click on the items listed below to see the maps on Wowhead of their locations.) Finding any one of these items will give you an extra action button in the middle of your screen. Cloudsrike Family Helm = Cloudstrike, Riverspeaker's Trident = Rivercall, Flameheart Shawl = Flameheart & Snowdrift Tiger Talons = Snowclaw. Using the button will deal an enormous amount of aoe damage to enemies within 8 yards. Make sure you have a hefty pile of sprites before you use your ability. With the cooldown you will only be able to use it once during the event. This should one-shot most of the sprites.
• Heroism/Bloodlust, Timewarp, Ancient Hysteria, Drums of Rage for big burst of extra haste.
• Food Buff
• Flask, potions, elixirs, etc.

So far I have seen the pet drop twice. I've probably killed north of 300 Scary Sprites along the way. Hopefully the rest of you will have better luck in seeing it drop than I did, because that ends up being less than a 1% chance. Ouch! 

Moonfang

I don't know about you all, but I've been having a blast so far since patch 5.4 hit. The Timeless Isle is where I've been spending most of my time. Between killing rares for pets, and pet battling for the Celestial Tournament, I have a hard time leaving that place! I've also been driving myself crazy in Proving Grounds on several of my toons trying for the gold. /Shakes fist at waves 9 & 10!

Whatever you've been keeping busy with over the past few weeks -- that's not all of the new content this patch has to offer. This weekend when the Darkmoon Faire floats back from wherever it disappears off to for the rest of the month, we'll have a chance to fight the new boss there - Moonfang!

Now unlike the Darkmoon Rabbit, Moonfang doesn't just spawn in out of the blue. She will only appear after many other (lesser) wolves have been slain throughout the forest. Killing enough non-elite level 89-90 Moonfang Snarlers, will cause a handfull of elite Moonfang Dreadhowls to spawn. The Dreadhowls are more difficult to kill and have a lot more health, but they are soloable. Killing these will eventually lure Moonfang out of her "den". Moonfang spawns right near the "corpse tree" just north of the fairgrounds. I marked the location on the map below. Her spawn timer is roughly an hour.

The fight itself isn't incredibly difficult, but she does have some abilities that you should be aware of.

• Leap for the Kill - Leap at the target. Enemies in melee range are knocked down and suffer 300% weapon damage as Physical damage. This ability will kill most people, and you have only a second warning before she'll land on you - when she does, SPLAT. 
• Moonfang's Tears - Inflicts weapon damage as Arcane damage every 2 sec. to all enemies in an area for 12 sec. These will be very obvious. Just move out of the white circle on the ground ASAP.
• Moonfang's Curse - Enemies within 10 yards are transformed into half-wolf servants of Moonfang for 5 min. This will transform players into badass-looking pre-cata style worgen. You'll buff her and help her out and whatnot. Run away asap when you see her casting it. 
• Call the Pack - Summons one Darkmoon Wolf for every enemy within 40 yards. Dps should aoe these down otherwise they'll end up eating your healers.

One of the easier ways I've seen this boss killed, is for the tank to simply kite Moonfang around in a very large circle. Dps and heals can stand in the middle (but not all bunched up obviously) between the trees where Moonfang spawns in. For love love of puppies, if you have aggro please don't run far from her spawn point - she WILL reset.

Moonfang's Spawn Point

Moonfang's Loot:

Shimmering Moonstone is the item that summons a rideable Moonfang. When you summon this mount moonlight will appear all around and then disappear a few seconds later. The glowing crescent moon over it's head will remain.

Using /mountspecial will get this lovely mount howling at the the moon.

Unfortunately this mount cannot be learned. The moonstone will remain in your bag, which you can use to summon this temporary mount. It can only be used while the Darkmoon Faire is in town, and will disappear when the faire leaves.

Moonfang Mount

Moon Moon, is a fun pet that will dance with you when you /dance with him. When he dances he takes the center stage in a beam of moonlight. Multiple people dancing with him will get him changing directions as he dances. Also, like the Spring Rabbit, he will occasionally wander off and then leap back to where your character is standing. When he leaps back through the air he leaves a sparkly blue trail of what I believe is moon dust. ;) To see these animations and pet battle abilities in action, check out Cymre's video on Youtube: Moon Moon (animations and pet battles).

Dancing Moon Moon

Moonfang's Paw is a transformation item that will allow you to look like a little Moonfang for 10 minutes with the buff: Aspect of Moonfang. What's neat about this item is that you can still attack while in this form. It looked like my hunter was shooting arrows out of her wolfy head!

Under the effect of Moonfang's Paw

Using Moonfang Shroud will put a white wolf mask over your characters head. Upon actual use of the item your character will howl at the moon - literally. A crescent moon will briefly appear in front of you when you use the item and then fade away. With only a ten second cooldown, you can howl at the moon to your heart's content.

Moonfang Shroud

Moonfang can also drop another paw. (Poor wolf.) Moonfang's Paw is an item that can be used for transmogrification. (It seem the paw never made it to live.) Moonfang's Pelt is a common drop as well. This item starts the quest Den Mother's Demise, which can be turned in right at the fairgrounds for 10 Darkmoon Prize Tickets.

Anyone who assists in the fight can loot her, and loot is personal just like the Timeless Isle rares.

For anyone interested, I made a short(ish) video showing how to lure Moonfang out of her den, and then of the fight itself. Enjoy!

Vale of Eternal Blossoms Rares - Patch 5.4

It's no secret that the Vale of Eternal Blossoms has become one heck of a mess and quite a bit has changed in patch 5.4. I'm not sure however, if people realize how all of these changes have effected the rares in this zone - and that they've added new rares (sort of).

Rare Champions:

The eight rares required for the Glorious! achievement, Major Nanners, Yorik Sharpeye, etc, have not really been effected. Every one of them (minus Sahn Tidehunter who moved in patch 5.3) are in the exact same locations as they were at the beginning of MoP. The only major difference you'll notice with them, is that their surroundings got uglied up.

"New" Rares in the Vale:

Before the Vale got all funked up, people working on Golden Lotus rep could get credit for killing powerful enemies at the end of a long arduous line of dailies each day. Although there were sixteen of them, only a few were available to kill on any particular day. All of these powerful enemies were (and still are) required for the achievement One Many Army.

All sixteen of these "powerful enemies" still exist within the Vale, but they have changed drastically. First and foremost, they have been made rare! Well, I should say "rare". Like just about everything these days they are on fairly short spawn timers. You no longer have to wait days to see one either, all of them can (and will) show up every day - yay! It is also worth noting that they will all spawn in during a server restart.

Another important little detail is that many (but not all) of them have moved. I marked all sixteen of these fledgling rares with bright pink stars on the map below. Several of them spawn in caves/underground, and I have noted that on the map as well. If you scroll down below the map, I also have screenshots of each of them in their new locations.

What you get from killing them:

Killing these rares will give you 220 reputation with Golden Lotus (440 with bonus reputation). They each have a high chance to drop Treasures of the Vale and 2-3 Aged Mogu'shan Cheese, Aged Balsamic Vinegar or Ancient Pandaren Spices.

Elixir of Wandering Spirits - A ghostly Che Wildwalker with pet Kyo

I would like to point out that a fun new item was added to Treasures of the Vale in the last patch: Elixir of Wandering Spirits. This elixir allows you to take on the form of a Golden Lotus Hero for ten minutes.

If you spent a lot of time doing Golden Lotus dailies pre-5.4 you may recognize some of these heroes. A ghostly version of Che Wildwalker (pictured on the right) or Leven Dawnblade, and a sha-touched Rook Stonetoe or Sun Tenderheart are just a few of the possible heroes you can pay tribute to.

You can cast and mount while shape-shifted, and the color/size of your mount will be effected as well. Unfortunately if you log out or use your hearthstone while under the effects the disguise will wear off.

So, without further adieu, here is a map showing where you can find each of these rares. As I mentioned earlier, the bright pink stars are all of the "new" rares. The small colorful circles are the original rare champions.

Click map to Enlarge

Here are some screenshots of these rares in their new locations, with a brief description of their spawn points. I have also listed coordinates. Please be aware that the coordinates for any of the rares that are underground (such as the three in Guo-Lai Halls) will not make sense unless you are underground as well. This is because Guo-Lai Halls has it's own map when you enter it. The coordinates correspond to that map, not the one above. As always, just click any of the images to see a larger version.

Aetha - Spawns where the pond used to be above Mistfall Village, very close to Major Nanners. (35.0, 90.07)

Bai-Jin the Butcher - He now spawns at The Five Sisters (17.05, 48.41)

Baolai the Immolator - Spawns by the mountainside at the Ruins of Guo-Lai (28.6, 43.51)

Bloodtip - In the pool at the back of the Guo-Lai Ritual Chamber in Guo-Lai Halls. (75.76,  47.59)

Cracklefang - Found north of Tu Shen Burial Ground surrounded by a gory mess. (46.37, 59.25)

Gaohun the Soul-Severer - Main room in Guo-Lai Halls. (53.44, 59.09)  Entrance at (22.49, 26.9) 

General Temuja - Has a small patrol through Winterbaugh Glade (29.76,  57.74) 

Gochao the Ironfist - In the small cave at the top of Ruins Rise. (26.92, 13.05)

Huo-Shuang - In the Hall of the Serpent (just beyond the door in Hall of Tiles) in Guo-Lai Halls (63.8, 19.26)

Kri'chon - Spawns right in front of the door, at Gate of the Setting Sun. (6.21, 58.78)

Quid - Found in what used to be The Summer Fields. (66.68, 39.60)

Shadowmater Sydow - Found hovering over the small pond west of Mistfall Village. (30.61, 78.36)

Spirit of Lao-Fe - Inside the small cave at the Tu Shen Burial Ground. (47.43, 65.63) 

Vicejaw - Sits by the bank of the now-dry Whitepetal Lake. (37.52, 51.14)

Vyraxxis - Found on the wall at (7.93, 33.90)

Wulon - At the very back of the Silent Sanctuary. (45.48, 76.23) Entrance is at (40.25,  77.14)