Hunters who have been around awhile will definitely recall the significance of this rare cat. Long before Northrend, prior to the portal opening to Outland, and back when not all pets were created equal, there was one that stood out above all the rest. This pet possesses the most average looks, some might even say it has a homely appearance, but at one time it was one of the most sought after pets in WoW.
I played this game for a few months before I knew what a rare pet was. My first sidekick was a Moonstalker Runt I picked up in Darkshore. Ultimately I had my sights set on a wolf, so that was my pet of choice once I hit Ashenvale and got me a Ghostpaw Howler. I continued on with my trusty wolf Odin for nearly 20 more levels, when finally someone asked me if he was a rare. I replied, “rare..? what do you mean..?” That was when I found out about Petopia and Thottbot.
I was already quite enchanted with the Hunter class, but this idea of seeking out and taming these hard-to-find rare spawns was pure bliss for me. When I found out that some even had advantages over other pets I was determined to get one. After a little research, I concluded that since I was level 38 and he was 37, I needed to set out on a journey to the Badlands and find the fabled creature with the lightning fast, caster-shredding attack speed. This was of course, Broken Tooth.
After studying up on spawn locations and tips for finding him, I headed out to the Badlands to find the rare pale-faced mountain lion. I headed over to the spawn location on the hillside near the ogres, not far from the back door to Uldaman, but he wasn’t there. I then windowed out of WoW to check the other spawn points, and to verify that I was in the right spot. When I brought my WoW window back up I saw this cat pacing about who wasn’t prowling like the rest of the cats in the area. I then targeted him… “OMG..! It’s Broken Tooth!!!!”
My heart was racing so fast. I had read dozens of stories from Hunters who had spent days and weeks looking for him and tales of botched tames due to other players killing him during the taming. I dropped my trap, started the tame and then prayed I was alone out there. After a 20 second eternity… success! I remember how excited I was when I saw the blue swirly animation above him, and then the title showing that he was my pet.
I quickly fed him some meat to happy him up (pets used to split on you back in those days if you didn’t keep ’em happy), and then announced in my guild chat what I had just accomplished. I don’t think any of my guildies understood the significance of what I’d just accomplished, not to mention how lucky I had been considering it only took me maybe 10 minutes to get him. Oh well, how could I have expected those people playing their silly lesser classes to understand anyway. 😉
I was giddy as a schoolgirl. Not only had I tamed my first rare pet, but it was Broken Tooth! Coincidentally, I had an open GM Ticket right at that time for something or other. The GM responded to the ticket and after our conversation I said, “by the way, I just tamed Broken Tooth”. He replied, “Congratulations on taming the best pet in the game”! I was already really excited about this latest achievement, but the GM’s response put me over the moon.
I was a Happy Hunter that day.
Hi there, for all time i used to check blog posts
here early in the dawn, because i enjoy to learn more
and more.
I remember this day as well! As I wa playing on my friend account, the first time I tamed it took me about 2 weeks of logging late at night or so to find it…
Second time on my own account I was luckier, found it walking around.
I remember how fast my heart was pounding especially as I failed my first attempt to tame it.
I remember it being the only pet to have the 1.0 attack speed. After that, the ZG bat had the same speed so I went solo there to tame it. Took me 3 hours but I was so pleased!
If I’m correct there was the BRD wolf as well which was a hard task to solo tame (furious hawl rank 4). Good old days ^^
That was almost three years ago. Long before TBC and back when BGs were comprised of only the players from your server – no x-realm. The good ol’ days. 😉
Another thing that was cool about BT was that he had Dash level 2 at level 37, instead of 40 like all the other pets at that time. After you tamed him, he’d have the skill until either he died or you logged out.
I’ll be posting more about the old school pets every so often, and what made them special.
dang, that gm comment was pretty cool, was that back in pre-bc?