The OverAchiever: Guide to Bloody Rare

Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we're back to flying endlessly around spawn points.

So, how many of you are still with us after Frostbitten? My guess is that most of you are still circling Storm Peaks in a desperate bid at Vyragosa. My friends, I salute you -- but the rest of us are going to pack up and ship out to Outland.

Bloody Rare tends to be slightly easier than Frostbitten for the simple reason that Outland is even emptier than Northrend, and there are no rares here competing for spawn times like Vyragosa and our old buddy, the Time-Lost Proto Drake. You'll still find a few people leveling their Wrath-era alts through Northrend, but the population of Outland players usually vanishes by Zangarmarsh or Terokkar. However, that's just been my experience, and as always, realms will differ.

And no matter how empty Outland seems, there are still a few rares here that will drive you up a wall.

General tips and tricks

We discussed this in more detail over at our guide on Frostbitten, but here's a quick recap if you don't have time to visit the other article:

• Download SilverDragon or _NPCScan and _NPCScan.Overlay.

• The average rare mob is bigger or more visually distinctive than its surrounding counterparts.

• Respawn times vary by mob. The average respawn time is three to six hours.

• Most of your competition for rare mob achievements will fall into one of two categories: people who luck into killing a rare mob while they're just running around questing, and people who are specifically hunting them, like you. You can't do anything about the former, but you can avoid more of the latter by hunting during off hours or major server events elsewhere.

• If you're having real problems getting one mob in particular, position your character next to a known spawn point right before a server reset.

• Some of these mobs are extremely frustrating to hunt, and there's no grand strategy here in the long run. A combination of timing and sheer rotten luck may keep you hunting some specific mobs for weeks, if not months. That's normal.

Bloody Rare

Welcome to Outland! Please park your sanity at the door. You won't be needing it.

• Hellfire Peninsula You'll probably have your toughest time here and in Zangarmarsh competing against level 58+ players. Your first target is Fulgorge, a bright purple burrowing worm that can spawn in one of three places. So how can you see where he is if he's underground most of the time? If you're not using a mod to locate rares, look for the telltale purply-red stones thrown up in his wake. Mekthorg the Wild, a fel orc, can spawn around Hellfire Citadel or in the fel orc village Zeth'gor in the southeastern end of the map. He's arguably the most difficult of the Hellfire spawns to find, since everywhere he paths is in a high-traffic questing area. Vorakem Doomspeaker, a purple eredar demon, can spawn in one of four locations: around the Pools of Agonnar, along the ridge south of the Throne of Kil'jaeden, or north or south of the Path of Glory around 73,42 or 72,56.

• Zangarmarsh Bog Lurker, a pink fungal giant, can spawn in one of three locations: in a circle east of the Ango'rosh Grounds, in an arc south of the Twin Spire Ruins, or in the extreme southeastern edge of the map. The Coilfang Emissary, a female naga, can spawn in so many different locations that it's probably better just to look at the map on Wowhead. Be warned that she usually spawns under a hut and will not be visible from the air, but she's stationary. Use a mod, because she definitely has one of the longer respawn times among the mobs here. Slightly easier to find is Marticar, a pretty eye-popping white and pink fen strider who can spawn in one of three locations: along the western edge of the zone, northwest and north of the Coilfang Reservoir, or along the edge of the Dead Mire. Unfortunately, because he's so obviously a rare mob from a distance, he's probably the toughest Zangarmarsh rare to land.

• Terokkar Forest Crippler, a spectral skeleton, can spawn pretty much anywhere around the Bone Wastes except for the southwestern portion. (If you think of the Wastes as a giant clock, you can find him pretty much anywhere except between the 5 and 9 positions.) He can be problematic if you run into a lot of people doing archaeology in Outland. Doomsayer Jurim, a male draenei, may be one of your most maddening finds, as one of his spawn points will see him path straight into the weapons of the Shattrath city guards. If you get lucky, you'll find him on the path south of the Cenarion Thicket or walking between Shadowmoon Valley and Tuurem instead. Okrek, a Skeksis, can spawn in one of four locations: at 49,18, at 59,24, at 31,43, or at 56,68.

• Nagrand There are only two mobs to hunt for in Nagrand. The first is Goretooth, a crocolisk. You'll find him in one of four locations: in the lake between Garadar and the Throne of the Elements, in the waters below Halaa, in the lake south of Sunspring Post, or in the lake in the extreme southeastern end of the map. Be forewarned that he will not necessarily be easily visible from the air, because he may be underwater. Voidhunter Yar, an armored voidwalker, can only spawn in a circle around Oshu'gun.

• Blade's Edge Hemathion, a black dragon (does he stand out? Oh yeah!) spawns and paths around the central portion of Ogri'la (i.e., not in the two demon areas in the north and south). Finding him can be difficult if there happen to be a lot of people on your realm either grinding Ogri'la or Skyguard reputation. Morcrush, a quartz giant, is equally visible from afar. He can be found pathing along the eastern plateau or west of Gruul's Lair. Speaker Mar'grom, a caster-type ogre in orange robes, can only spawn in the central portion of the map in the "ogre valley" stretching between Gruul's Lair and Bloodmaul Outpost. The really sad thing is that Mar'grom actually has a pretty good handle on things and -- well, he's what we might call a political realist. I felt guilty killing him.

• Netherstorm Chief Engineer Lorthander, a male blood elf, can spawn around three of the five manaforges: Ara, Duro, or Coruu. While always surrounded by other blood elves, you can usually pick him out pretty easily by the fairly unique weapon he's toting. Be advised that he can also spawn within the manaforges themselves or in the cave under Manaforge Ara. Ever-Core the Punisher, a silver arcane guardian, can spawn around Manaforge B'naar, in an arc around the southern portion of Manaforge Ara, or in a circle around Manaforge Ultris. Nuramoc, a purple and turquoise chimaera, can spawn on the ridge west of Forge Base Oblivion along the southern portion of the southwestern plateau (the one Area 52 is on) or north of Manaforge Duro. I've found him as far east as the field outside the zone's easternmost flight path (i.e., the one you landed at to hit Tempest Keep or the heroics). He will occasionally be sought by hunters on the lookout for rare pets, so keep that in mind.

• Shadowmoon Valley Ambassador Jerrikar, a red satyr, can spawn in a number of different locations around the map, so I'd advise looking at Wowhead. Curiously, he is not confined to the areas with lots of demons, and he's very, very easy to pick out if he's at Coilskar Point, Eclipse Point, or the Dragonmaw Fortress, since he'll be surrounded by naga, blood elvs, or fel orcs respectively. He also has one of the game's more amusing mob abilities in the form of Diplomatic Immunity. Collidus the Warp-Watcher, a red floating cyclops thingie (I really don't know what the hell these mobs are supposed to be called), can be found west of the Hand of Gul'dan around the Deathforge on the zone's southeastern ridge south of both the Sanctum of the Stars and Dragonmaw Fortress, or northeast of the Altar of Sha'tar and northwest of the Black Temple. You really have to investigate some of these areas, as he's often tucked away in little unseen nooks in the mountains. Funnily enough, he drops only Eye-related head gear. Unfortunately, he's a very popular rare to hunt, because these items can fetch a lot on the Auction House for transmogrification purposes, and he may be a very difficult mob to land. Kraator, a large infernal, can be found at 45,12 far north of Coilskar Point, at 31,45 north of Illidari Point, at 42,40 northeast of the Deathforge, at 59,46 at Warden's Cage, or at 42,68 southwest of Eclipse Point.

Enjoy working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on patch 4.3 achievements, our guide to Mountain O' Mounts, and a good, hard look at what's wrong with archaeology and how Blizzard could fix it.