Rarespawn shorts: Gnawbone

Okey, I have a confession to make. Even I, with my nearly boundless enthusiasm for rarespawns in World of Warcraft, sometimes find myself lost for words. There's some rare mobs that just aren't that special, and I can't speculate much about them either. They're just plain and average, and my entries tend to reflect that. But I still want to cover them, and for that purpose I'm going to experiment with a shorter entry form for some of these mobs. Don't worry, I won't do this with any creature that I believe has some more worthwhile qualities. This is just to get some of these duller mobs out of the way so I can focus on the more unique ones.

Let me know what you think about this "short" entry type.

Gnawbone

Gnawbone is a rare gnoll found in the Wetlands, in the Eastern Kingdoms. He's somewhat tricky to locate because he can spawn in many different spots along the Sundown Marsh in the central part of the zone, and patrols quite far.



Gnawbone has no real special abilities or loot, and is an easy kill for any class. He does drop the crude flints required for Rethiel the Greenwarden's quest to slay the gnolls cutting down and burning the trees of the zone.



Gnawbone is a Mosshide gnoll, a vicious tribe who are cutting a swathe of destruction through the Wetlands in their desire to expand.



His name is derived from the common gnoll line "More bones to gnaw on", showing their desire to consume their enemies.



Gnawbone is a very average rare, with not much to distinguish him. He will likely vanish in Cataclysm, when the Wetlands will be drastically changed.



Until next time.

~Dragonshade

Sad-eyed bog beast of the wetlands: Mirelow

Today's rarespawn is another bog beast (AKA "plant elemental"). These creatures are vaguely patterned after such legendary comics characters as the Swamp Thing and the Man-Thing (and by extension their grand-daddy the Heap), and this shows since they combine several design elements from those characters. Otherwise, the concept of plant-like shambling monsters are also present in Dungeons & Dragons, most likely another source of inspiration.

This entry concerns Mirelow.

Knee-deep in muck

Mirelow is a rare mob bog beast found in the Wetlands, in the Eastern Kingdoms.



Mirelow is somewhat tricky to locate. It can be found wandering along the waterways of the western part of the Wetlands, only north of the road to Menethil Harbor. Without an addon that locates rarespawns, Mirelow does stick out from the other bog beasts in the area by being a mixture of green and brown (instead of pure green).



Combat and abilities

Mirelow is a very simple combatant, as are most level 20-ish rarespawns. It is not an elite, does not hit very hard, and has only one special ability (Entangling Roots, resembling the druid spell). Mirelow has very little health and can be slain like any common mob in the area.



It should not pose a danger to anyone to defeat, even at the appropriate level. When defeated, Mirelow will of course drop a better-than-average level appropriate item, usually an uncommon quality magic item. It has no special drops.



Since it's so easily slain and wanders over a very large area, Mirelow was quite tricky for me to locate. I only lucked on it once, during nighttime (not in itself unusual, many of my rare 'finds' occur during night). Finding and photographing it may take some dedicated stalking.

Lore

Mirelow is not a special rare by any stretch. I cannot think of any special lore for it that doesn't apply to any other bog beast in the Wetlands. It may be one of the tainted elementals that have arisen recently in the area which Rethiel the Greenwarden fights against.



In Mirelow's defense, though, I will say that the particular color scheme used for it (which you normally don't see used much) looks very nice. I still like the bog beast model (with the little details such as the flowers on the upper torso), although it could of course benefit hugely from being spruced up. Mirelow also looks like cool creeping through the boggy waterways of the Wetlands, giving the whole scene an almost eerie look.



All in all, a not-very-special rarespawn that at least looks cool!

Until next time;

~Dragonshade

Ooze on the hill: Sludginn

You know how I talk about finding things you didn't know existed in the game a lot? The rare mob for this installment, Sludginn, is a good example of that.



The art of finding slimes in high places

I'm going to change up the format a bit and tell the story of how I found this creature first. Sludginn can be found in the Wetlands, more specifically just south of Menethil Harbor.



Now, I had of course studied wowhead for all the available information on the various rarespawns that can be found in the Wetlands, and had looked up Sludginn. I had never in all my years in WoW seen a rare mob slime there, and what was even more confusing was that the registered spawn points for it were in the murloc area just south of Menethil, right where you have a few quests to do.

I've been to this area many many times on many characters and never seen even a glimpse of a slime. Nevertheless, I began haunting the area whenever I visited the Wetlands, searching for the slime. Of course, slimes are uncharacterized creatures and cannot be tracked by a hunter. I spent a good amount of time doing this without ever seeing as much as a tendril of ooze.

I started to suspect that this was a rare mob with a very long spawn timer, or that I was extremely unfortunate with the times I visited and that it had been killed by someone else.

And then, one day... I saw it.

While flying.



I was flying... somewhere... from Ironforge. I can't even remember what I was originally doing. And then, as the griffon swooped down across the small hills on the shore south of Menethil, I saw it. Up on a small hill above the murloc area where I believed the slime would spawn, there it was. Of course, I immediately dropped what I was doing and headed back there. After a few moments of frantic searching, I discovered what I'd never noticed before.

At the rear end of the small valley just south of the wrecked ship, there's a small path which leads up onto a small hill overlooking the water. This is the only way to get up there from the Wetlands. And that's where Sludginn spawns. All that time I had been looking in the wrong spots, and never even bothered to try a /target because I was sure I would see it if it was there.

Live and learn.

So who or what is Sludginn? And what is its story?



Sludginn is a rarespawn ooze, one of a small "family" of five named oozes found throughout the old world. They are all named, and apart from Viscidus in Ahn'qiraj are the only named oozes in existence. Physically, Sludginn is the standard ooze. A deep blue coloration with a humanoid skull clearly visible through the translucent matter. I do like the ooze model, but the bottom part of it looks rather bad, and could probably do with a makeover to become a bit more fluid.



There's no lore for the oozes in the Wetlands, so I can only assume that Sludginn is a particularily vicious specimen named by the locals. Maybe it predates on the murlocs living nearby, eating both them and their refuse? Game-wise, Sludginn does not move from its small hill, only shifting back and forth slightly. It seems fairly content where it is.



While it has no lore or any special drops, Sludginn is just a fun discovery. Finding it so unexpectedly after a long time of fruitless searching was amazingly fun, and the kind of thing that motivates me to do these types of things.

Watch where you fly! There just might be an ooze nearby.

~Dragonshade