Great Father Arctikus - Ice troll warlord

Circumstances beyond my control and a severe case of writer's block have messed with my update schedule lately. To everyone reading this, I'm very sorry for that and will try to do better in the future. I was recently re-motivated by finding and photographing three more rarespawns I was missing in-game, which made me very happy. I'm not sure I'll reach completion before Cataclysm arrives, but I'm going to try!

Anyway, onward to today's entry.

Interestingly enough, starter area rares are often more interesting than those found in secondary leveling zones. For some reason, many memorable critters exist in the starter areas which have some piece of lore, a quest, unique loot or just look interesting, whereas rarespawns in the level range of 20-40 rarely have any of that. Today we're visting yet another rare mob found in the dwarven homeland of Dun Morogh, and a quite interesting one at that!

This post is about Great Father Arctikus.



Where to find Arctikus

Great Father Arctikus is a rare mob troll found inside Frostmane Hold in Dun Morogh in the Eastern Kingdoms.



Frostmane Hold is not very large, just your average-sized cavern complex. Arctikus will patrol around inside, usually walking around one of the larger chambers. Since he is on a very short respawn timer (like most starter area rarespawns), this means that he is rather easy to find.

Combat and loot

Unlike many non-elite rares, Arctikus can create a bit of a problem for an unprepared player encountering him. He is level 11, a good 3-4 levels higher than anything else in the Frostmane area, meaning a character doing quests around those lower levels may get in trouble. Furthermore he is fortified by a paladin-like Devotion Aura which reduces physical damage done to him and hits quite hard.



His most dangerous ability, however, is that he has a pair of healing spells. One is a heal-over-time and the other is a heal which will restore him to 100% health. None of his abilities pose a danger if you are close to his level or higher, but engaging him at a lower level may end up very messy. Fully restoring his health before chopping your character down is something he is perfectly capable of. Interesting how his abilities are Paladin-like, eh?



For those adventurers lucky enough to encounter and kill Arctikus at the appropriate level, he has two unique pieces of loot! One is a simple white-quality belt, and the other is a simple mace. Neither is very exciting, but it is always nice to find unique pieces of loot.

What's his story?

Compared to many rarespawns, Great Father Arctikus has a place in lore. His title and the names of his drops were good indications, but in this case we actually have a confirmation: Arctikus is the leader and ruler of the Frostmane Tribe. It's always great to find reference to a rarespawn in lore, and this confirms his place as the "big bad" of Dun Morogh, sending out his warriors to attack the dwarves and gnomes.



As with most ice trolls, Arctikus also got something of a makeover with the release of Wrath of the Lich King. With the creation of the new, beefy ice troll model used for the Drakkari and other trolls in Northrend, even their old world cousins received some attention and got upgraded. This makes sense, as according to lore the Frostmane are closely related to the Drakkari. As with the new forest troll models previously implemented, the female trolls look the same as normal jungle trolls. A shot of Arctikus' old model can be seen in the lore link above.



Finally, Arctikus is one of few rare mobs that has some unique lines. I didn't even notice this the first time I ran into him, but when he attacks you he will shout out a line in the troll language.



I must confess that I didn't actually go back with a troll character to learn what it is he's saying. Instead I just looked it up online. According to WoWhead observers, his two possible lines are:

"You dare defile Frostmane Hold, [race]. Prepare to die!"

and

"Oh, we are going to get along just fine, [name]."

I love that he has these extra lines as well, they really cement him as a unique individual within the Frostmane community. I wish more mobs had little touches like this!

In closing, Great Father Arctikus is an awesome rarespawn. He has a great model, a solid place in lore, unique drops (which fit with the lore) and even some quotes! I love this guy and think everyone who hasn't seen him should go look for him.

Until next time, watch out for troll ambushes;

~Dragonshade

The great white: Bjarn

As i mentioned in my first post, I chose a hunter to be the character I chase down rare mobs with for a number of reasons. However, I started the hunter long long before that, mostly because I thought taming exotic wild beasts would be cool. Of course, back then picking your pet was an extremely complicated affair with a lot of different factors weighing in, and Petopia wasn't around yet.

I know that for a lot of hunters, the appearance of the pet is as important as what abilities it has. In fact, with the normalization of pets, you could argue that it's even more important to pick one that you think looks cool.

And this brings us to Bjarn.



Who is he, and where can I find him?

Bjarn is a white bear who can be found wandering around the Tundrid Hills in Dun Morogh, the dwarven homeland.



The easiest way to find him (if he's there) is to go south from Kharanos and then turn east into the small pass between the hills. You should cover all the spots where Bjarn can be found by doing that. Actually, you have a fairly good chance of finding him, since reliable evidence indicate that all the rarespawns in starter areas in the old world (Dun Morogh, Elwyn, Teldrassil, Durotar, Mulgore and Tirisfal) respawn in something like 30 minutes time.



What's so special about Bjarn?

Well, that depends on how you see it. He is not a unique model or a unique coloration for a bear. However, except for one other mob ( Mangeclaw, also found in Dun Morogh), Bjarn is the only white bear that you can tame for a long long time.



In fact, you have to wait until you reach Winterspring to find other pure white bears, and that's not until level 53 and higher. Bears are quite nice tenacity pets (that would be "tank" pets for those of you not of a hunter inclination), and I personally think the white color looks great.

So, if you're an aspiring hunter who wants to tame their first pet and want a white bear, who should you go for? Bjarn or Mangeclaw?

Well, while Mangeclaw is a quest mob and thus "always" active, the low respawn time on Bjarn makes this kind of a non-issue. The big difference between the two for a low-level hunter, though, is that Mangeclaw sports a quite nasty surprise for would-be tamers. Mangeclaw will do a knockdown attack which will most likely break the taming, so unless you have some tricks to prevent that, Bjarn is much easier to tame for a level 12-ish character.

Of course, if you're playing a Horde character and want to tame either of these, especially at the first level you can do so... it's going to be a bit of an adventure, requiring long treks through enemy lands. But really, what hunter wouldn't take that challenge for a cool-looking pet?



If you're not a hunter and decide to kill Bjarn instead, he actually has a unique drop. A white, non-binding leather chest called "Black Bear Hide Vest".

Yes.

A pure white bear... gives you a black bear hide to make a vest from.

Anything else?

Well, I want to mention that "Bjarn" is likely derived from the scandinavian word for bear, "björn". It sounds nice and fitting for a Dun Morogh creature. Blizzard also reused the "Bjarn" word recently for the Halls of Lightning boss called General Bjarngrim, once again evoking images of vikings (who often named and compared themselves to bears to gain the animal's strength).



If you do decide to go and look for Bjarn, good luck with the taming!

~Dragonshade

The poison tomorrow: Gibblewilt

I figured we might as well get some rarespawns up in the blog as soon as possible, eh?



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