Ban'Thalos

Ban'Thalos is one of the new "Challenge Tames" introduced in patch 4.2, and it has the added benefit of being a spirit beast, making it only available to BM specced hunters.

Ban'Thalos is one of the most desirable Spirit Beasts on my realm, and is the favorite of my collection.

Ban'Thalos patrols very high in the air at the Sanctuary of Malorne. You will need to be in the "Regrowth" phase just to see him, after the statue has been restored and the Firelands dailies have been opened up for you. Here is a link to the quest chain. In addition, these quests are not even available until you are 85 (and Ban'Thalos is 85 anyway).

Ban'Thalos flies too high to safely kite to the ground, you will die. The trick is, to stand on top of one of the trees by the sanctuary of Malorne. Here are the coordinates:

27.26, 64.25 

If you don't have an addon that will show you your location, try MapCoords. It's a lightweight addon that will show you your current location, and the location of your curser when you open the map. You can see your location in a panel just under your name plate in normal view.

Simply maneuver yourself to that location, and hit x, which will descend you. You shouldn't be able to descend lower than the tree top. Dismount, and if you don't fall down you've got it. Now starts the waiting game.

Spawn Times vary for Ban'Thalos, anywhere from 6 to 18 hours, although Blizzard may have nerfed this as I've been seeing at least once a day in the last three days. In any event, if you have NPCscan active and your cache is cleared, you should get a nice loud warning when Ban'Thalos appears.

Now comes the tricky part. Ban'Thalos will patrol around in a circle when he spawns, only half of which is in shooting range. You'll have to fly up a bit to get into range but (and I cannot stress this enough) only hit spacebar to ascend, do not move, or when you dismount you will take too much fall damage.

Before taming Ban'Thalos, drop own a Freezing Trap. Next mount up, and ascend until you are in range of him, and not a meter higher. When his pat takes him in range, simply cast distracting shot (any shot will do) to have him aggro you. You should fall down to the tree, and Ban'Thalos will be following you.

Immediately hit the Deterrence/Tame Beast macro, and tame. Ban'Thalos will spam a Moonfire like spell on you, but your Deterrence should protect you. Even though he casts a ranged ability, he will get right on top of you, and should be caught in your Freezing Trap. Once frozen, taming should be no problem.

A note to those on PVP servers. From what I've read on forums, you're pretty safe from players of the opposing faction (unless of course they get on the tree with you). Standing on top of the sanctuary statue will not bring them within range of you, so they'd have to fly up, cast some DoTs on you, and hopefully land safely. The problem is, you are right above the flight master for this spot and this will definitely aggro the flight master. Unless you have no armor on, you should be fine.

Left: This is where you'll camp. Right: Freezing Trap placement

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LINKS:
WoWHead Entry
Petopia Page