Bringing Down Ban’thalos

by Garwulf on September 2, 2011 · 65 comments

Ban'thalos

The rare pet hunting has continued to be successful for me since I landed Skarr the other night — the first of the rares I’d tamed since entering the Molten Front earlier this week.

Yesterday I nabbed Ban’thalos, making him the fifth Patch 4.2 rare pet I’ve acquired since Tuesday. The procedure I used for taming this new Spirit Beast was as follows…

Garwulf’s Taming Guide for Ban’thalos

1) Locate the tall tree just left of the monument in the Sanctuary of Malorne.

Ban'thalos Taming Guide

2) Fly to the top of the tree and adjust your position until you are resting on it. Hovering above the top of the tree, use the ‘Sit/Move Down command’ (X by default, but I have it remapped to Shift+X) until you make sure you’re perched atop the tree. This is the place where you will tame him.

Ban'thalos Taming Guide

3) Once Ban’thalos has been spotted, drop a Freezing Trap on top of the tree, get on your mount and fly ‘straight up’ by pressing only the space bar. When you aggro him you will be free-falling, so you need to make sure you fall ‘straight-down’ back to the top of the tree.

Ban'thalos Taming Guide

4) When Ban’thalos is within range, dismount and pull him with a shot. Once he’s been aggro’d — pop Deterrence. You’ll take a little bit of damage from the fall, but Deterrence will protect you from his whammy of a Moonfire attack. As soon as you land atop the tree start Tame Beast. Ban’thalos will pursue you – landing in the Freezing Trap you have waiting for him.

Ban'thalos Taming Guide

Once he’s trapped, he’s as good as yours.

Ban'thalos Taming Guide

He’s definitely a nice looking pet, but I’m still a die-hard Ghotcrawler fan when it comes to my Spirit Beast of choice — he’s just so damn inconspicuous in BGs. He’s like a low-profile damaging blue mist that moves from target to target — where as Ban’thalos really stands out in the, “hey it’s a BM pet, let’s kill it!” sort of way.

Still though… a really cool pet, and a Spirit Beast skin I’ve wanted for awhile.

Tagged as: ban'thalos, patch 4.2 rare pets, spirit beast

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{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Necras September 2, 2011 at 12:26 pm

Grats!

2 Splitsecond September 2, 2011 at 7:15 pm

That tree…that tree is my nemesis…I can’t get on TOP OF IT!!! RAAAAWRRR!

And also, gratz on the tame! Has the tree been patched or something so that it can no longer be mounted?

3 trollaxer September 2, 2011 at 9:58 pm

hey splitsecond yea i fell outta tree couple times but you have to be precise i got him though .Good hunting and keep plugging :}

4 badmofo February 14, 2012 at 7:48 pm: yeah… I had a dirty ally hunter stalking me , racing to tame my pet, but he couldn’t get up on top of the tree like me after a few attempts at trying to do this from the statue i returned to try again at the tree and hit that “EXACT” spot- and from there it was uber EZ to tame him.

Reply

5 Rokatanzki October 23, 2011 at 8:52 pm

tree ain’t been patched,i managed to get him today as per this thread,died 3 times though trying to mount on the tree,u’ll prolly want to drop the freeze trap once you have landed after aggroing him,gives you just that bit more time : )

6 Laylia December 31, 2011 at 3:02 pm

Its really annoying to get on the tree, ur mount wont actually ‘sit’ on it… u have to be at the very top of tree, and hope ur centered right on tree. I tried bunch of other trees before this one, deff one left of Maloone or w/e. After reading post my 2nd try i was on, waited on him, ice trap, flew up, shot, detterance, tame pet, … he didnt even hurt me.

Thx for the post

7 Rimarg June 24, 2012 at 8:50 pm: I found it impossible to tame him.

I followed the instructions exactly but he refused to land low enough to get caught in the freezing trap. I died over and over from his moonfires until my armor was all red.

No issues getting up in the tree or setting the freezing trap or pulling him. He just kept avoiding the trap.

With 150g in repairs I just gave up. Not worth the trouble.

Reply

8 Brandon M January 22, 2012 at 1:15 pm

No as of 1/22/12 you can still land on it.

9 Zalliaa February 8, 2012 at 2:15 pm

use a gryphon not a drake

10 Belhades February 29, 2012 at 9:10 am

landed fine myself you need to edge in and use ‘x’ to fly directy down and the ‘spacebar’ to fly directly up eventually you find ‘x’ does nothing. this should be the spot to then plant your trap

11 Anorac July 17, 2012 at 6:26 pm

Alright, i just tamed him, and this is for all you hunters out there, you dont have to get on the tree to tame him. Just dismount, shoot him, and 20ft off the ground, disengage, this will get rid of the fall damage. Now just pop Deterrence and tame.
Tamed him 7:20 Server time (Darkspear)
Enjoy

12 Anj September 2, 2011 at 11:35 pm

Grats Gar.

Too many hunters forget that Ban’thalos is a Spirit Beast. So it’s a good reminder to potential tamers that you’d have to be in BM spec to tame.

I’ve also seen Ban’thalos being tamed on the ground. As long as a hunter can shoot and break the fall to avoid dying, the hunter can still do the trap, deterrence, tame.

13 The Dancing Hare September 3, 2011 at 12:23 pm

If you have a buddy who is willing to die for you (heh heh), they can aggro him down into range while you wait on top of the tree. That’s how I got him ^^

14 Skaadi September 11, 2011 at 4:02 pm

Tamed Ban’thalos on Argent Dawn tonight, about 22.25 GMT.
First try didnt work, pulled him with Concussive Shot, trapped and hit tame, but kept getting “evade” !!
Another hunter told me to use a more damaging shot to tag him, so this time used Arcane Shot, Detterence, trapped him and tamed easily!

15 Delacour @ Mok'Nathal September 20, 2011 at 8:47 am

LOL – Gratz Gar. I saw a Pally when Ban popped while I was questing. A quick ‘hey man can you aggro that bird down to where I can tame him’. He pulled him down right on top of me… Pally took the Moonfire hit. I tamed him before he could hit me, not even a scratch. Tipped the Pally 500g for his troubles. He took the tip with some urging, and graciously said that he would help me whenever I needed with no more tipping. Gotta love the support classes.

16 Evilwendy October 3, 2011 at 1:37 pm

I can confirm the tree is still mountable but you have to be dead-on accurate to stand on it. My rule of thumb was if my mount couldn’t go down from where I was perched I was good to go. Got mine at about 5:30 server time on Executus.

17 Eledora October 9, 2011 at 9:44 pm

Tame Ban’thalos tonight at apprx. 1:15 EST on Moon Guard.

Funny story, I saw a little dot moving around on the map and thought, “I wonder if…OMG, IT IS! IT’S BAN’THALOS!” So I quickly tabbed out, opened Chrome, typed in Ban’thalos Tame, and it sent me here. I read up real fast how to tame him, followed the steps and…died the first time. I totally forgot to put Tame Beast on my skill bar and couldn’t get my spellbook open in time before he destroyed me.

So I ran back, resurrected and tried again. Only to fail again, because I was facing away from him. This put Deterrence on a two-minute cooldown. In this two-minute window, I saw another player try to attack him and end up getting killed. Served ‘em right, I say.

Finally managed to get everything back in order, on top of the tree, set up a skill bar so I could just rapidly click through the skills I needed and BAM! Tamed him with about 1% of my health left.

What surprised me was that I even had time to do all of this, including setting up my skill bar and the failed attempts. It must have taken me upwards of 15 minutes to do everything right. I thought for sure someone else would have successfully tamed him, but lucky me, they didn’t.

18 Rokatanzki October 23, 2011 at 8:55 pm: Haha that’s exactly how i died 1st attempt,rez an redid spell bar hehe now he’s mine

Reply

19 Furygan October 11, 2011 at 3:51 pm

Found Ban’thalos today and was trying to tame him from the tree without much success when another hunter came along and blatantly took the tame from under my feet when I died on i think my tenth attempt after I died every time before that too. Now I used to think that there was an unwritten rule when it came to taming that you dont do that sort of thing. If someone is there first, its there tame. No matter how successful (or unsuccessful in my case) they are being, first come first served. I even said to him about how long I had been there trying as he watched me and that I was determined to get him. What do the other hunters out there think? I think we get bad press from the other classes and thought there should have been a bit of comraderie there, an offer to help, not to steal him. Anyone else have bad experience’s like this or is it just me?

20 Rokatanzki October 23, 2011 at 8:57 pm: Mate…. some people are just scumbags in this game,care for only themselves

Reply

21 Joan October 18, 2011 at 12:58 am

This works perfect! Tamed on first try, thanks!

22 Daetur November 4, 2011 at 10:56 am

FANTASTIC guide, worked like a charm!! Thanks so much.

23 Fiddlestixx November 7, 2011 at 2:29 pm

Ok so there’s no statue in Sanctuary of Malorne? I see the picture but when I go there its just a bunch of broken down ruins with a flightpath? Do I need to be in a certain phase or something? Also all the trees look dead.

24 Brandon M January 22, 2012 at 1:37 pm: yes you need to complete the hyjal quests then the quest leading up to the
molten front

Reply

25 Booyakah November 12, 2011 at 12:21 am

I used this strategy (which is dead on accurate and awesome at the same time).

Just wondering though, if it would work where you attack him in the air, reset fall damage with deterrence (rocket boost if you’re a goblin), deterrence, trap, then tame? Might be easier than trying to get on top of the tree, lol.

But an easy tip for getting on the tree, hit X. That will send you straight down. If you’re not able to go straight down then it means you can safely dismount on top of the tree.

At any rate, thanks a ton for this guide. You made this new Ban’thalos owner very happy

26 Booyakah November 12, 2011 at 9:31 am: Whoops, meant reset fall damage with disengage

Reply

27 Nick Pippin November 15, 2011 at 6:44 pm

Saw him tonight November 15, 2011. I follow instructions, tried to tame but these faggot ass horde came and killed him.

28 Mani November 19, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Thanks for this guide! Just got him and am very happy! However, another hunter of my faction tried to steal the tame from me after I put so much effort into. Got the tame off just as the jack ass opened fire :-/

29 Nereide December 5, 2011 at 2:34 pm

i managed to catch ban’thalos at 5;33 server time on silvermoon by hovering above the head of the statue of malorne then dismounting and arcane shotting him as i fell.
damage is still taken but if you’re fast enough to drop the trap before he comes down it’s not too hard to tame.

30 konirgz December 5, 2011 at 2:55 pm

i just tamed ban thalos, so happy….. ive been searching for this beauty for 2 weeks… i pass there like 8 times a day..
so lemme explain how i tamed:
when i said that beauty flying up me i just entered heart attack..
arelady had tame beast on a action bar and i just realised i was with MM and Surv spec : 100% CRITICAL STRIKE AT MY HEART. lucky i had inn right to sw dwarven district : changed spec i spammed every button to do a quick talent tree like a boss and get 31 point in less then 5 seconds.. all the time i was panicing cause was a hunter right down the altar.. lucky was afk.
after getting bm my first try i used my engineering : pulled ban thalos and used parachute quick: result : when i was falling still to ground he pwned me:
more heart attack
when i rezzed quick thanks to blizz for spec ghryphon..
i pulled him and used parachute when i was like 5 yard from ground
putted a freezing trap and waited he get on it.. then just got tame beast it and ofc got a print screen of the rare catch
its so beatiful worth the hours camping it.. good luck

31 Silfrvarg December 7, 2011 at 7:56 pm

Was just doiing my dailies today when I saw this yello dot hanging around the santuary of malorne and went looking to see what it wa, flew up, saw the birdie amd thought “hmm, how on earth am I goig to get him down to tame him?”
Opened up google, read up on how to do the tame and went for it.
The first time I accidentaly broke the ise trap by shooting him and he wiped the floor with me, but the second time I got him trapped and the tame was nice and easy.
This makes four spirit beasts I have tamed so far, Loque’Nahak, Skoll, Karoma and now Ban’Thalos.
Thanks for the taming guide, it made things a lot easier than they would have been had I sat around trying to figure it out for myself.

32 Aqusiana December 15, 2011 at 1:34 am

Helped a friend on stormscale at 4:34 am Stormscale US

33 TheSangwinSaint December 28, 2011 at 2:18 pm

Superfab tips!!! Worked like a charm and I got in on the first try…then picked up the cat Ankh a few minutes later 8) Thanks a bunch!!!

Heather

34 Rocky Williams December 30, 2011 at 8:14 am

Tamed him first try, no dying or deterrance. Dismounted, shot him as i fell, set freeze trap and tamed. Oh and I did steal him from another hunter who was unsuccesfully trying to tame him….and at the rate he was going would have never tamed him….but now he know how because he saw me do it…..if that makes me a scumbag….so be it.

35 FaeSupernova December 30, 2011 at 5:18 pm

This is the first place I got when I googled how to tame him, died once or twice but I got him. Thanks so much!

36 Pandaluna January 28, 2012 at 6:22 am

Thanks for the advice, only fell out of the tree once. Forgot to Deterence but still managed first attempt.

Cheers

37 Aili O January 30, 2012 at 3:06 am

This totally works. Getting on the tree is a pain, but the rest is simple. thanks, I just got him today. =)

38 Orlin February 2, 2012 at 5:27 am

Got him today! luckily i read your post on which tree to climb, as shortly after 2 other hunters arrived but i had the tree! Thanks Gar

39 badmofo February 14, 2012 at 7:54 pm

if yer facing the statue of malone, the leafless tree on the right hand side, behind the monument–> the highest one. that’s the one to do it from.

40 Ullror (Eldre'Thalas) February 23, 2012 at 8:44 am

The person who thought up this tame is a genius! Just got him 30 minutes ago and the tree top was perfect I landed on it first try! haha the tame (with deterence) couldn’t be more perfect! So thank you foe the tame info I was flying up there with banthalos for a good 30 minutes before I decided to check the lodge haha. Thank you for the info!

41 Calypsew February 24, 2012 at 10:23 pm

I just tamed him a few minutes ago and im so excited! The tree move turned out to be a bit more complicated than I imagined so I gave up after dying a few times. What I did do is fly up closer to a ledge, dismount, hit concussive shot to pull and pressed disengage followed my deterrence. The disengage shot me back to a lower ledge and I tamed him with half health from the fall! Super pumped it actually worked!

42 Spyshaman March 1, 2012 at 7:55 pm

Hey so what if you were to fly up to him, fire a shot and then fall but disengage before hitting the ground, hence taking little to no fall damage. Would it pull him out of range? Or is it possible that this would work? I use this disengage strategy a lot in battlegrounds such as AV, AB, and EotS, and very rarely does it not work due to bad reflex timing or server lag. Any feedback on this would help.

43 Alex March 8, 2012 at 5:12 pm

I couldn’t get on the tree. I died 3 times trying. So i had a pally guildie pull him and safe fall and I trapped him and tamed him.

44 Kyle March 20, 2012 at 2:58 pm

Just tamed the beast. Did it on top of the Statue though. Much easier. Just make sure you put the trap at the top of the head and then move down to the snout. Other wise it doesn’t trip. Cool pet, very excited.

45 Syrrus - US - Stormrage March 28, 2012 at 9:36 am

Great post and guide. Wife found him randomly this morning and I came across your guide for grabbing this awesome sucker. Your guide worked spot on first time through. Good call on deterrence. Quick-easy one shot tame for a new pet!

46 Mark RiGGs April 4, 2012 at 3:29 pm

Its hard to tame such a fine, fine, pet that rules high in the sky. But there are several ways to do it, I’ve indeed tried the hardest ways there are myself ^_^ i had a very… very big repair bill haha

Don’t look forward to an easy way out of taking damage
~ Good luck on risky tames

47 ibow April 27, 2012 at 3:19 pm

hey, nice tame! when i go to the sanctuary there is no deer statue, is that because of a quest? and if i dont do the quest does that mean i wont be able to see ban’thalos? thanks

48 Brandy May 16, 2012 at 1:34 pm

If you cant land on the tree go directly above the antlers of the stone deer fly just high enough to target and shoot land on antlers lay freezing trap and run down the deers back then tame!!!!!!!!

49 Elyn July 12, 2012 at 4:30 am

Great post. After a few minutes of trying to land on the tip top of the tree, which I finally did, I laid the freezing trap, targeted Ban’thalos, flew straight up, and shot him once to aggro. I fell straight down, landing on top of the tree again. Ban’thalos came right after me. He tried casting moonfire, but I popped deterrence. By then, he was caught in the freezing trap and I tamed. Fortunately, it was all very simple for a change. As someone else mentioned, there is plenty of time to do all this with no worries.

50 angelelf July 20, 2012 at 7:26 am

its pretty easy to land on the tree.
just zoom ur camera all the way in.
and position yourself like that ul see the top of the tree better trust me worked everytime for me

51 angelelf July 20, 2012 at 11:44 am

guys listen up! if you go on the highest tree behind the statue you wont even need detterence he’l hit you once! thats all!
he’l fly right above your head shoot distracting shot pop ice trap and thats it easy tame without taking any damage not even fall damage!

52 bengga July 29, 2012 at 7:03 am

If you’re having difficulty with getting to the “exact” spot on the tree, I suggest going to the statue (monument). Stand between the antlers, and do as gar says: put down the trap, fly straight up and wait until banthalos is in range, shoot him and as you fall down, pop deter and start taming. Had so much trouble with the tree, I started looking for other high places. Hope this helps.

53 Sombina August 4, 2012 at 8:18 am

The way I did it was to fly over the stone statue, and when I was in range, dismount, shoot him, pop deterrence and land on the stone. He then killed me, at the same time another hunter tried to tame him, I was kinda pissed because it was mine. I just managed to fly back as spirit and resurrect. The hunter was still trying to trap and tame him, but he eventually died. Then it was an easy task… $!#” you! he said… well, I was first! I named him the same name as the hunter who tried to steal him!

54 Antigone August 19, 2012 at 8:27 am

Thank you so much for posting this advice on how to tame him. It took me a while to actually mount up and then dis mount in mid air to aggro him because I was afraid I’d just fall out of the tree lol but when I did it it worked the first time I did it and I tamed him :] Very happy with this tame.

55 Antigone August 19, 2012 at 8:28 am

56 ninja666 August 24, 2012 at 8:56 pm

thanks for guide, got me owl today, first shot too, used the deer statue, easy as, even forgot to dismiss current pet but with ice trap still had time to dismiss pet and then tame lol

57 Dave September 2, 2012 at 1:15 am

no longer tamable as of 2/9/12

58 Chumley131 September 3, 2012 at 3:53 pm: My gf just tamed this today at 2:50pm server time on Bleeding Hollow. It is still able to be tamed. She sat in the tree behind the Sanctuary of Malorne and used a trap to freeze him in place, popped a haste potion and tamed him. I’d have to say, the hardest thing about taming him is fighting off members of the other faction. Best of luck to everyone!

Reply
59 Garwulf September 3, 2012 at 3:55 pm: Dave, were you in either a MM or SV spec when you tried to tame? This pet is BM-only.

Reply

60 Tozurk September 3, 2012 at 9:19 pm

Just tamed Ban’thalos tonight. If you’ve unlocked the Sanctuary it’s much easier to drop onto the top of Malorne’s back rather than trying to use the tree; now that 5.0.4 has dropped, also make a point to get Wyvern Sting and Glyph of Tame Beast; it makes it so that once you’ve got him tagged, you can put him to sleep and have him tamed before he wakes up.

61 Theossy October 9, 2012 at 1:49 pm

how do you know when you’ve completed the necessary quest steps? I assume I’m there, having come to a point where I got the dailies INSIDE the Firelands (Molten Front?)

As you can tell, I wasn’t around whenever that patch hit (4.0.6?) so I’m not too confident about the quests. Since I’ll be doing a lot of waiting for Ban’Thalos anyhoo, I just wanna make sure I don’t wait too long, because I simply cannot enter his “phase”.

Thanks in advance

62 Garwulf October 10, 2012 at 4:37 pm: Ban’thalos is one of the first pets to be unlocked, so if you’re able to enter the Firelands, then Ban’thalos will definitely be available for taming.

Reply

63 Theossy October 15, 2012 at 5:02 am

Dear fellow hunters!

I REALISE that you’re supposed to complete a series of quests and unlock a daily hub related to the Firelands, in order to be in the same phase as Ban’Thalos. I did this. Or so I believe. I’ve gone so far, that I now have daily quests available to me at Sanctum of Malorne outside, and inside the portal at The Molten Front.

Whenever I take the flight master’s hippogryph to Sanctum of Malorne, I SEE Ban’Thalos flying where he’s supposed to be. However, as my gryphon lands, he phases out and is gone. It’s as if I enter another phase in which he is not there upon landing the gryphon.

I find this super strange, as (to the best of my knowledge) I was supposed to have unlocked the phase by coming up and until the dailies?

- If anybody has any idea what’s up, or a possible solution I’d be extremely grateful
Thanks,

64 Tannim January 2, 2013 at 1:27 am: What’s up is the Cross Realm Zones. When you take off on the flight path you’re in one particular zone in one server, and when you land you shift to a different zone on another server that shares space with other server populations. Unfortunately.

Reply

65 Turzzock October 16, 2012 at 9:07 am

I’ve only been playing this hunter since about 2 weeks before MoP, so I had no spirit beasts. I’ve been rushing like a madman trying to level. I was doing dailies (at lvl 90) on the Molten Front when I saw him flying around. Like stated below, I just used disengage to negate the fall damage and tamed. Easy. At level 90, no freeze trap is necessary. On the other hand, I didn’t know you had to get nekked to tame Ankha… he one-hit me 3 times at lvl 90 before I looked up how to tame him :p. Great website!

Bringing Down Ban’thalos

Garwulf’s Taming Guide for Ban’thalos

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