Ghostcrawler is one awesome looking pet. As you can see, he's a spectral crab. I see very few of these guys on my server, probably because no one ever quests in the new underwater zones. But if you are leveling a hunter, I would highly recommend going to Vashj'ir to level as your first leveling zone, and staying there until you get the sea horse mount. Then, go wherever you like.
For those un-familiar with the Ghostcrawler handle, Ghostcrawler the NPC is named after Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft. Very popular on Bliz's (and other) forums, this little crab spirit beast seems to have been aded primarily as a nod to him. But it's still a cool pet.
You'll find Ghostcrawler patrolling around the Abyssal Depths, in the bottom left hand corner of the map.
There is really nothing much to this tame. Ghost Crawler is level 85 so don't even bother looking for him until you've leveled.
Unlike almost any other spirit beast in the game, Ghostcrawler is in an area of the map that contains absolutely no quests. That's right, the only time a player will have a reason to be in his patrol area is if they are looking for Ghostcrawler, who, like all new rare spawns in Cataclysm, drops no loot except a 25g Tear of Loyalty.
He appears to have a roughly 8 to 16 hour spawn time, but I've never searched the area and not found him up.
Ghostcrawler does have an interesting ability, called "Nerfbat". Nerfbat apparently "nerfs all abilities to the ground" (another inside joke). In reality it appears to reduce healing received and does a decent amount of damage.
The best way to combat against this is to use your Deterrence/Tame Beast macro. I got him tamed at the first try with no problems, and I took no damage. He is not a challenge tame despite his nerf bat.
One note to those searching his area, he does seem to phase in and out during his patrol. This didn't cause a problem to me as the first thing I did was to hit him with distracting shot and he came right at me. I assume he's trapable (as most of the pre-4.3 pets are) but I didn't have time to drop one.
I love this Lion. Being Alliance, he matches the Alliance Guild Mount so he's pretty much the perfect pet. At least on my server he appears to be the most sought after Cat, even beating Skarr.
Sambas is classified as a cat, and therefore can be tamed by any hunter, not just BM hunters.
He has five Spawn locations which you can see here:
From what I've read his spawn timer is roughly 8 to 12 hours. There is no evidence he shares a spawn timer with Karoma, as I've read on some other forums. There is also no evidence that Karoma spawns only after Sambas has been Tamed or Killed. Rather, as far as I can tell, they are un-related.
Sambas is neutral, and does not pat. Rather he is quite easy to tame. The best method is to mount up and patrol between his spawn points. Using NPCscan (make sure to clear your cache) you should be alerted the moment you come in range.
Karoma is one of the most sought after pets in WoW right now. It was introduced with 4.0, is a Spirit Beast and appears to have a 6 to 12 hour spawn timer. He spawns in one of 6 locations randomly, and from what I've read he (along with all rare spawns) remain in his location until ether tamed or killed. He drops only the grey Tear of Loyalty, indicating quite clearly that he is meant by Blizzard to be a hunter pet only.
He is not technically a unique skin. He matches the skin of the Ancient Grimtotem Spirit Guide, a previously tamable pet that was made tamable, and then un-tamable during BC. Blizzard obviously never intended for them to be tamable, as they only existed for 7 seconds, too short for a normal Tame Beast cast. However, a few hunters found a way to tame them, and Blizzard allowed them to keep their hard earned pets.
Needless to say they are no longer tamable. However, Blizzard added them into the game in 4.0 again as a spirit beast. The Grimtotem Spirid Guides were classified as wolves in game, yet these are Spirit Beasts, requiring you to have BM spec in order to tame him.
One more thing to note: There is no evidence that he shares a spawn timer with Sambas. I've also seen on message boards that Karoma will not be spawned until after Sambas has been either killed or tamed. I can tell you from many hours of camping that Karoma will not spawn after Sambas. I'm quite certain their spawn timers are completely un-related.
The Tame:
Karoma is an easy tame. However, he's quite hard to find. He has one of 6 spawn locations and he will appear in one of them randomly. He does not patrol around, staying completely stationary.
This makes him a bit of a challenge as his spawn points are near to normal questing locations, and he is very likely to be spotted by a random hunter or player, and either tamed or killed. This will take a bit of diligence on your end in order to find him.
He has only 1 ability to worry about, he'll claw at you but if you're 85 and relatively well geared it should be no problem. Unfortunately WoWhead isn't listing his ability at the moment so I can't look up any data on it.
One thing to note is this: Karoma is the only Spirit Beast that is hostile.
Ankha and Magria are the two new Spectra Sabres that were added in Patch 4.2. You will find them patroling up and down the regrowth, and are part of the Firelands Daily phase, meaning you much be in the right phase to even see them (The Regrowth phase).
They are technically challenge tames, though once you figure out the trick you'll see that they're quite easy. These share their skin (though different hues) with Gondria and are the only Spirit Beasts with the sabre skin.
Both Ankha and Magria, like Skarr and Karkin, share the same spawn location and spawn timer, which is supposed to be about 12 hours. These two beasts patrol around the regrowth area, and are quite hard to miss even if you don't have NPCscan active. It is a 50% chance which will spawn, Ahkha (Green) or Magria (Blue).
Each has the same buff on them which causes more damage the greater the amount of armor the hunter has. Anyone with even Cata Greens will be killed before they can ever complete the tame.
What then, is the solution? Simple, get naked. Remove all items that give an armor bonus. Once your armor is down to zero you'll find the cats do almost no damage. Cast tame beast and enjoy your new spirit beast.
Today must be my lucky day! (See a Video of me helping a friend below)
Earlier today I tamed Deth’Tilac. I’d been camping for Karkin and decided to check Deth’s spawn point and lo and behold I tamed him. I went back to my old camping spot, and started writing the Deth post, when my NPCscan goes off. Tabbing back into WoW I see an Orc Hunter running around with Karkin as his pet. Bad form dude, but whatever. Well I thought, he must have just tamed him, so it’ll be another 12 hours. I logged off and continued to write.
About two hours later (roughly 6:55PM Server Time) I decided to log back on and see if any of the rares were up (I have everything from Molten Front except for Karkin, but I know a few hunters out there looking for rares) and NPCscan goes off. It was Karkin! I clicked on it and sure enough I saw the Silver Dragon. Unfortunately he was on the “bad” spawn point. More of that later. So I hopped over and tamed him, easy as could be.
Karkin and Skarr share the same spawn location and same taming tactics, so I had already done my trial and error on Skarr. You MUST be MM spec for this tame. Only one of them will be up at any given time, and it is supposed to be 12 hours before another spawns after being tamed/killed. They are each equally as likely to spawn in one of the two spots, so you have a 50% chance of getting either Skarr or Karkin and a 50% chance of them spawning in either location. Not bad odds if you ask me, you should be able to grab both of them if you're willing to spend the time.
SKARR AND KARKIN TAMING GUIDE
Getting over there: (See Map)
Skarr and Karkin both spawn in the Fireplume Peak, the North Western area of the Molten Front, the Firelands questing zone introduced in Patch 4.2. You must be in the right phase to enter the zone.
In order to reach Both Skarr and Karkin you'll have to make it over to Fireplume Peak. This is a bit tricky, as the easiest access point is blocked by flame (at least at the phase in which I am).
The easiest method, in my book, will require a big sacrifice. You're going to have to die. So repare, then run up north to Ragnaros' Reach. In the Upper Left corner of that area is a spot where you can jump over to get on the other side of the wall. Next, you'll have to die. Get to the point where you're facing Fireplume Peak. Then run off the cliff. You should die underneath the Peak about in it's center. If all goes well, you'll spawn at the spirit healer and it'll let you resurrect, without rez sickness. See my video of the approach at the end.
Now you're at Fireplume Peak. Skarr and Karkin share two spawn points. Their re-spawn timer is supposed to be 12 hours static, but I think it may fluctuate between 6 and 12. Regardless, you can camp between the two spawn points on Fireplume Peak and if they spawn you'll be in range for NPCscan to go off.
The Tame
Both creatures have same set of abilities. During the cast they'll cast two abilities: Fieroclast Barrage and Fireball. Fireball is relatively safe, but Feirclast Barrage will interrupt your tame, regardless of Deterrence, and will two shot you easily.
Additionally, they will only cast it after you have cast Tame Beast. Therefore:
1) Cast Tame Beast
2) as they cast Fieroclast Barrage, hit escape (to cancel the tame) and cast Silencing Shot.
3) cast your Deterrence/Tame Beast Macro.
And you're done. This is a relatively simple tame, considering it's a bit hard to get to the area. Additionally, one of the spawn locations requires you to hop on some of the hopping platforms to the south of Fireplume Peak, as you won't have LOS from your camping position.
About the Spawn Locations:
Both Karkin and Skarr share the same spawn timer and the same Spawn Locations. One is quite easy to tame, the other requires a little bit of maneuvering, as you can see below:
As you can see, the "good" spawn location is quite easy. it is located directly ahead of the spirit healer. The "bad" spawn location is quite tricky, you'll need to hop on some of the stones in order to have Line of Sight in order to tame. If they spawn at the "bad" spawn, it may be easiest to mount up and run/jump over to the other ledge, across the chasm with the jumping stones. Here's the view from that side:
If you don't want to risk dying, you can try to hop your way down the stones until you have LOS. Here's the best path (beware, some stones collapse on you).
As you can see, its far easier to just mount jump your way over to the ridge on the right. From there, it's only 1 jump away from a platform that is in range to tame.
A video of the easy way to get to Fireplume Peak. The other method is to run through the band of fire as mentioned above.
VIDEO:
This is a video of me helping a friend (actually I spammed in trade that it was up and he was the first to PM me) tame Skarr. Method is the same for Karkin
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
