Our very first rare mob is Gibblewilt.
Who is this guy?
Gibblewilt is a leper gnome, and apparently a mage. He shares the standard leper gnome body with some simple gear, and generally does not look very different from his normal brethren.
Where can you find him?
Gibblewilt is found hanging out near one of the houses in upper Gnomeregan, located in the western end of Dun Morogh. Gnomeregan was once the gnomish capital, and the proud center of their industrialized society. However, when a large force of troggs burrowed into the mostly subterranean city, the gnomes panicked and Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg detonated a radiation bomb in the bowels of the city to slay the invading creatures. However, this misguided scheme managed to kill more gnomes than troggs, turning most of the survivors into twisted, insane savages who see anyone else as a trogg to be destroyed.
The unafflicted gnomes fled to Dun Morogh and the dwarven capital of Ironforge where they sought shelter, and are even today working on one day reclaiming their lost capital and finding a cure for their beleaguered brethren.
What's his story?
The loot he drops may provide a clue, as both items are called "Foreman's" (a vest and pants). Presumably Gibblewilt was a gnomish foreman, engineer and mage before the disaster, and is now just roaming around the devastated city looking for "troggs" to kill. He attacks using a simple fireball, and is honestly not much of a threat even at the appropriate level, unless he drags a bunch of his friends in with him.
Fun facts section
This is where I bring up anything related (or unrelated if I feel like it). In this case, I want to talk about change.
You see, to this day, as far as I have been able to determine, no rarespawn has ever been removed from World of Warcraft. There have been rare mobs added, and some areas have been redesigned, but none have been removed altogether. Well, change is coming.
With the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the old world will get a significant facelift. Old zones will change, sometimes dramatically. What does this mean for the rarespawns that currently occur there? Nobody knows, but it is likely that many of them will vanish. After all, how could a level 20-ish rare mob fit into a zone re-done as a high-level questing area?
This is actually another reason I am running around photoing these guys. What I take are snapshots of what the game looked like originally, the mobs, the environment... When things change I will have these pictures to look back on and remember how it was before. Now, don't get me wrong. I am actually really excited about Cataclysm. I just want to take the time to see the world the way it was before it happens. This is also why I have gone to greater effort to see the rare mobs of the old world, as Outland and Northrend will (presumably) not be changed significantly in this expansion.
What does any of this have to do with Gibblewilt, a tiny leper gnome in Dun Morogh?
Well, it was recently announced that in the upcoming patch 3.3.3, the Alliance will finally recapture the surface of gnomeregan and make it habitable again. Now, this may mean that little Gibblewilt will soon find himself homeless. After all, not much room for him if we're setting up camp where he currently lives.
Will Gibblewilt be the first rare mob of World of Warcraft to go extinct? Only time will tell.
~Dragonshade
2 comments:
Whoa, I missed the memo about retaking part of Gnomeregan in 3.3.3! I hope the trolls will be taking steps to form their own kingdom as well...
Yes, the trolls are retaking Echo Isles at the same time. I saw a new storyline post about it came up today.
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