Where the Wild Things Are: Savage

First up on my in-depth series spotlighting the Pandarian rares is the striking white tiger Savage.  We'll be journeying to the other half of the Jade Forest with Glimmer later in the week.

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Hey everyone! It's Kalliope. I'm hiding here in the Jade Forest, watching the fearsome tiger Savage prowl around.

He's a level 85 Pandarian tiger, the only white one in the game. The grey Pandarian tigers look similar in certain lighting, but the difference is always visible in the eyes. The grey tigers have pupils in their cyan eyes, while Savage's dark blue eyes lack them. 

As with all other cats in the World of Warcraft, Savage will have two abilities after being tamed. The first is roar of courage, which is getting a facelift in Pandaria, along with the other agility/strength buffs. The new Roar of Courage gives a mastery raid buff that scales with the hunter's level, maxing out at 3000 at level 90. The other ability is prowl, which allows him to enter stealth mode with a 50% movement speed penalty and grants a 20% damage bonus to his first attack from stealth.

Savage leaves bloody tracks when he walks. His prints are rather large, but their dark green coloration often blends in with the grass. This can make spotting some of his tracks rather difficult.

Savage travels around the north-central part of the zone, never quite crossing paths with Glimmer, the other Jade Forest rare. Most of his trail passes through aggressive mobs, so finding a safe spot to tame him at 85 could be a bit challenging.

His approximate spawn timer appears to be around two to eight hours here on the beta.

For the most current information on Savage and other hunter pets, be sure to visit Petopia and the Petopia forums.

From the floor of the Jade Forest, this is Kalliope showing you where the wild things are.

Where the Wild Things Are: An Overview of the MoP Rare Beasts

As we count down the days to Pandaria, I'll be taking you through a video tour of the nine rares who will be released with the expansion, starting with this overview.

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Hey everyone, this is Kalliope from the Petopia forums, here to give you a quick look at the nine rare spawn beasts who will be awaiting hunters in Pandaria on September 25th.

Back in patch 4.2, hunters were treated to 10 challenge tames. Each beast required hunters to figure out its taming mechanics and successfully execute them. Trial and error could often prove fatal.

The first wave of rare Pandarian beasts may not be anywhere near as deadly, but they're just as cunning. They still test hunters' skills, but rather than requiring swift reflexes, their focus is on tracking.

All nine rares have the same basic mechanics. They wander around stealthed, leaving tracks on the ground that only hunters can see. Once a hunter finds the end of the trail, a well-placed flare will bring out the beast. You can then either tame the beast or mark it with Hunter's Mark. Marking gives you the option of taming the beast in a safer area or allowing you to follow it around for a while.

It may sound simple by comparison to the original challenge tames, but these wily creatures are quite good at avoiding capture. Half-buried or missing tracks can throw even the most seasoned hunter off the trail. Some of the beasts cross bodies of water to lose the hunters following them, while others completely change directions after dropping a track. A couple of them even phase out in parts of their zone if the hunter hasn't completed certain quests yet. And if none of those tactics work, there's always the old standby of walking through a whole bunch of aggressive mobs.

Those aren't the only big differences between the new rares and their predecessors. The most noticeable change is that only hunters can see the tracks or flare the beasts into visibility. That means that your only competition while hunting is other hunters.

The new rares are also marked with elite gold dragons rather than silver to further discourage others from attacking them even when they're visible.

I'll be introducing each of the new rare beasts individually in subsequent videos and have already created a guide with helpful tips and tricks to tracking them down. And for even more in-depth information on the rares of Pandaria, be sure to visit Petopia and its forums.

From the Valley of the Four Winds, this is Kalliope, inviting you to stick around and see where the wild things are.