Taming Savage: Map and Coordinates!

Savage is one of the first new Rare Hunter Pets you'll experience in MoP and he is probably the only one I'm going to keep. Savage is the only White Pandaren Tiger (there are grey tigers which look similar but are not the same). Savage is also tamable at level 85, right when you enter the zone!

That's right, you can tame him right off the boat.

I tamed this pet on Luppin right after I completed the introductory quests. This appears to be the only phasing you'll have to go through to find Savage, I tracked him all through his path and he did not phase (although I lost a few of his tracks, so it may be that although Savage does not phase, his tracks do). Read past the break for more info and maps!

Taming Pets in Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria (MoP) is now Live!

With that comes many new changes, including one that I absolutely love, and another that I'm starting to warm up to.

The first is that each pet is capable of learning all three Pet Classes, Tenacity (Tanking) Ferocity (DPS) and Cunning (DPS/PvP)! What's even better is that you can change this very easily by selecting the specialization you wish in your pet's talent interface. Changing your pets' specializations are free (as apposed to changing YOUR specialization which can only be done at your trainer and costs gold each time) and can be done anywhere, in the field.

I can't describe how happy I am to finally be able to use Arcturis as a grinding pet in Tenacity spec. Or to have my Ban'Thalos be a Cunning Pet in Battlefields. Thanks Bliz!

The second change, of which I was skeptical at first but I am warming up to is the change in the way hunter pets are tamed. Gone are the days of camping the spawn point, waiting for NPC Scan to pop up and hoping some non-hunter isn't going to kill this rare before you can get to him. Instead, hunters will search for pets via tracks left by the pet - and only hunters can see them! Pets still drop tears of loyalty if killed, showing some love from Bliz on this issue.

One of the Rare Pet Tracks

So here's how it works:

Each of the 9 rare pets in MoP are invisible. They're not stealthed, they're not phasing, they're just plain invisible. The only way to make your pet to be visible is by dropping a flair where you think your pet might be and hoping they become visible.

So how do you guess where your pet will be? Its actually quite easy as I found out a few nights ago on Alexstrasza Server. You'll simply follow the tracks that each pet drops while they're patrolling their zone. All of the pets patrol their zone so no camping for us hunters, we have to actively search for our pets.

WoW Insider has a list of all of the tracks for each of the rare pets here. So far I've only been able to tame Savage but I'll be updating this site with guides to all of the tames as soon as I am able to.

Olm the Wise

Olm the Wise is a great pet, and I hardly see any hunters out there with him. Although he shares almost the exact skin as Ban'Thalos (minus the green glow) he is not an Exotic beast and therefore can be tamed by any hunter of a sufficient level (48 or higher).

Interestingly enough, Olm the Wise didn't always look like this. Before Cata he was a white owl that was friendly to alliance and hostile to Horde. This meant that he was un-tamable to alliance, and was the first White Owl any Hord hunter would be able to tame until they reached Winterspring.

In 4.0 Blizzard made a change to him, making him a Spectral Owl and tamable by Alliance hunters. Interestingly enough, this was done in patch 4.0.6, months before Ban'Thalos was released, so for a while this was the only spectral owl in the game, and a real owl at that. I think Blizzard knew they would be releasing Ban'Thalos and decided to give hunters a sneak peak.

Olm is a cunning pet, so he's great for PVP, with the added bonus of not having to be BM spec to use him in Arenas/Battlegrounds.

If you're using NPCscan (which you should) Ban'Thalos is not in it's standard registry, so you'll have to add him in. To do this, you'll need to know his NPC ID, which is: 14343

Other than that, there is absolutely nothing special in his tame procedure. Just fly around his spawn location until you see him. Spawn time appears to be about 8 hours but I've never failed to see him every time I go looking for him. Either many hunters don't know about him or don't care, but I find this to be one of my favorite pets.

VIDEO:

LINKS:
Petopia Page
WoWhead Page

Terrorpene

Terrorpene is a tricky character. There are actually quite a few creatures in the game with this skin but only Terrorpene is tamable. Although not technically a "Challenge Tame" I label him under Challenge Tames due to the damage you'll receive while taming him (see below). In addition, he is not a Spirit Beast so any hunter at a high enough level can tame him.

In the Wild Terrorpene has 111,561 HP and hits quite hard with his Burning Hatred Ability which does 10k damage every second. As an 81 Elite pet he is quite hard to tame if you are not 85. This pet appears to have been designed by Blizzard as something Hunters who were decked out in Epics from Wrath would be able to tame within their first few days of leveling.

As such, if you are between 81 and 84 I recommend stacking as much fire resistance as possible in order to tame. A healer wouldn't hurt either. Make sure to use your Deterrence/Tame macro and you should be fine.

Terrorpene spawns around the Sulfiron Spire area, and can spawn at any location within his spawn zone. He does not patrol, however, tending to stay stationary until he is killed or tamed.

He has a 6 to 12 hour spawn timer, and from what I have seen on my server is probably the most sought after pet in Hyjal, particularly because you do not need to be in any phase to tame him. As a result, I've only ever seen Terrorpene once in the wile and that was when I tamed him.

Something else to note: Terrorpene (like all turtles) is a Tenacity pet. As such, he is great for soloing and questing, and not so hot for dungeons. He drops only the standard grey Tear of Loyalty and offers no achievement for killing him. All of the above information leads me to believe that Terrorpene was created just for hunters to have while leveling to 85.

VIDEO: (sorry for the annoying music on this one, I'll try to see if there is better video of this)

LINKS:
Petopia Page
WoWhead Page

Sambas

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.

LINKS:
Petopia Page
WoWHead Page

Solix

Solix is one of the new Challenge Tame Spiders added in Patch 4.2. He and Deth'Tilac are the only two unique spiders of the lot, as Kirix, Skitterflame and Anthriss all share skins with common spiders in the area. Solix actually shares a skin with Cinderweb Spiderling, but these are not tamable. So Solix is the only way you'll get a pet with this skin. And he's a tough one.

Solix appears to have a 7 to 12 hour spawn time, and will always spawn in the same location.

Solix spawns in the Molten Front, the new Firelands daily quest location, so you'll need to be in the proper phase to reach it. Once you're there you can stop questing. Solix is located on the right side of the map (see below) in a cave called Igneous Depths. If he's up your NPCscan will go off well before you've reached the cave.

Once in the cave you'll see he sits in a lava bath. He has a buff on him called Blazing Speed, which increases his attack speed by 1000%, movement speed by 100%, and makes him untamable until his energy drops to about 20%. So like Deth'Tilac and Skitterflame, he must be kited. However, when his energy gets to 0, he dies.

This is a tame where you MUST use your hotkeys. What I use (as I still use W to move forward) is I had Cuncussive Shot in the #2 action bar slot, and I have the following macro written:

/cast Trap Launcher
/cast Ice Trap

set for Shift+E, but whatever works best for you. The issue with this macro is that you'll have to hit your hotkey twice.

Some suggest putting Aspect of the Pack/Cheetah on for increased run speed, as you're dead in one shot if he melee's you anyway. I didn't do this because I was worried about the flames hitting me and slowing me down (the lava pits will shoot some fire up at you from time to time) but you might try it if you need a little more space between you.

The best method is as follows:

Lay down an Ice trap right in front of the Lava Pool. Open with Scatter Shot/Concussive Shot and immediately run from him. Watch the timer on the Concussive Shot as you'll need to quickly turn (hence using the mouse rather than A/D keys) and fire another Concussive shot (hence the hotkey) and lay your traps down as soon as you can.

Once his energy bar reaches 20% his buff should go off. You must then Concussive Shot (and Scatter shot if it's up) and launch your Ice Trap, get at max distance (via Disengage) and begin the tame ASAP as his energy goes down fast. No need to pop Deterrence as his hits ignore it.

If you've got someone helping you, a mage would be nice for chill effects, and another hunter with a spider or shale spider would be fantastic for additional CC. He's immune to Freezing Trap and all other CC's (other than the slowing ones).

There you have it. Hopefully with a little practice you should have a very unique pet. Took me two tries, and he nearly died the 2nd try.

Map:

VIDEO: This is a great Video from Deadly Slob on how to tame.

LINKS:
Wowhead Page
Petopia Page

Karkin & Skarr

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

LINKS: Skarr

Petopia Page

WoWhead Page

LINKS: Karkin

Petopia Page

WoWhead Page

Deth'Tilac

Early today, at about 12PM Server Time (US-Alexstrasza) I finally tamed Deth'Tilac. Deth'Tilac is one of the 4 new challenge tame spiders that came in Patch 4.2 located in the Molten Core (the Firelands Daily zone), but is only one of the unique skins (the other being Solix, who does share a skin with Cinderweb Spiderlings but these are not tamable). Deth'Tilac is therefore a truly unique spider as there are no others in the game with his skin.

Deth'Tilac was by far the hardest tame I've ever done. Every other pet that I have I've been able to tame by myself, but I was completely unable to solo this creature (although from what I know of his behavior it is doable for a decently geared hunter). Perhaps if I spent more time in dungeons and less time hunting rares I'd have had the gear to allow me to tame him but... I digress.

Luckily a guild mate was able to hop on his mage and help me through it. Deth'Tilac killed him and nearly died before I tamed him at less than 1% health (for him).

Here are the specifics:

Deth'Tilac has a 12 hour spawn timer, as do all of the Challenge Spiders, from what I am aware. 

Deth'Tilac is immune to CC at this point. Previously he was rootable, but as of today neither myself nor my mage could CC him with any of ours. However he is slowable, so Frostbolt, Ice Trap, Concussive Shot and Scatter Shot are your friends.

Deth'Tilac has a buff on him called Molten Will which makes him immune to Tame Beast until he is at low health, about 20% in my case. This isn't actually a problem because he is a tank and it is very hard to get his hitpoints down (but we'll get into that later).

He also casts Aura of Deth'spair (reducing all healing you can receive by 99%), Deth Metal (increasing movement speed unless he is taking damage) and Deth Strike. Deth Strike is what you need to watch out for, it is uninterruptible, takes 2 seconds to cast and instantly kills whomever he targets. Luckily, it is a melee ability. Additionally, every time he successfully casts it, it reduces his hit points by about 10%. This is the main mechanism to bring his health down.

So the dilemma: you need to let Deth'Tilac cast Deth Strike in order to bring his health down... but it kills whoever it is cast upon. So, unless you have 8 good friends willing to die for the cause, you'll have to have the right strategy.

Strategy:

The key here is to kite Deth'Tilac around his spawn zone, without leaving it (as he will reset). You'll also need to have creatures upon which he can cast his Deth Strike. The best method is to have a spider pet (or four of them, there are spiders around his spawn point that you can easily tame) because they CAN CC him (I believe a Shale Spider's CC would work as well, but I did not have one on me when he spawned). I repeat, spiders webs are the only thing I know of that will CC him completely as of right now. 

The best strategy is this: kite Deth'Tilac around his spawn zone with some DoT abilities (serpent sting). Make sure you are keeping concussive shot on him at all times, and laying Ice traps to slow him down. He needs to take damage all the time or his Deth Metal ability will activate, making him move much faster. Snake Traps and Immolation traps are good, remember the damage dealt is just to keep him slowed down, not to get his health down.

He'll do that on his own. You'll need to sacrifice your pet for him to use his Deth Strike on, at least 8 times (less if you do a lot of damage). This will make it tricky as even if you have 4 pets with you, you'll have to resurrect each pet at least once.

The best time to resurrect is after the following sequence: Hit him with concussive shot and scatter shot, Launch an Ice Trap in his path. Disengage and begin to raise your spider. You should have just enough time to get your spider up, have your spider web him, and get away from him as he casts Deth Strike on your spider. Rinse and repeat.

At 20% health, you'll need to dismiss your pet, Concussive shot and Scatter schot him, Ice trap him and get at max distance. Cast Tame beast (Deterrence doesn't work on his Deth Strike) and hopefully you should have enough time to tame him. 

It may be worth it to hire someone to help you, if you cannot find someone. A mage would be best, but anyone who can slow him down at range. Just be sure to tell them to stop when he gets to 20% health, and he'll need to have aggro on YOU during the whole Taming Process. 

VIDEO (not my own, I was on my laptop at the time and couldn't record)

LINKS:

WoWHead Page

Petopia Page