The right place at the right time

Arcturis

While I’ve been busy messing with my UI the past few weeks, one of the things I’ve been doing is casually looking for Arcturis. Basically, I’d sit at Amberpine Lodge tinkering with my settings, queueing BGs, then hoping to catch Arcturis after one of my BGs was over. Needless to say, there was nearly always at least one hunter parked there, with a handful more passing through off and on.

Well, yesterday I flew back to the lodge after a Wintergrasp battle and…lo and behold…there he was. I have to admit, it was pretty exciting seeing him there. I mean, I have tamed him before, but that was on the PTR. Happening upon him on a live server – when there’s so much competition for him – is quite a thrill. 🙂

Not more than thirty seconds after he was tamed, an Orc hunter flew down to his spawn location, paused for about ten seconds, then flew away. It’s all about timing. Last night was my time, I suppose.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post letting you Arcturis seekers out there know that I tamed him on Kul Tiras just after 11pm PST last night. I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to his spawn times, but I’m willing to bet he popped at exactly 11pm. I doubt he was out for more than a couple minutes at most.

Good luck to those of you out hunting for him. 🙂

49 thoughts on “The right place at the right time”

  1. I was camping for him for about 30 minutes then i got extremely bored and left then i was questing and walked through that part for a quest and well I heard “Hey dude, Hey! my names Arcturis and guess what? today is your lucky day!” so I tamed him and like 3 other guys came by AS I WAS TAMING HIM, so I got extremely lucky. Also he is mostly just a showy pet, but for beast mastery he does some great dps

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  2. OH MY GOD thank you …. thank you so much for this post… i was camped at arcturis’s spawn for about 5 minutes… i wasnt having any luck so i dc’d and looked at this post…. 15 minutes later i logged back in ready to fly off and find something more productive to do and WHAMM there he is… just like that <3

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    • Grats Steria! Apart from actually knowing where to find these rare pets, the rest of it is mainly timing and luck.

      Looks like it was your lucky day. 🙂

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  3. I am leveling my first hunter, and once I hit 74 and GH, i started looking around for Arcturis. I would camp on the spot for hours, only to look up and see two 85’s right above me. Knowing I couldn’t effectively compete with them, I would shove off. Now that I’m in Zul’Drak, I would fly to the spot and log off there. Well, today at around 10:30 edt, I logged on and off went the NPC scan alarm. I nearly dropped right there. I trapped him, and he was tamed w/o me taking a hit in a few seconds. Those were some long seconds though, after reading stories of other hunters pulling aggro to try and take him. Guess I got lucky. At 76… I particularly like the bear model, yet the ferocity talents. Nice.

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  4. Just got this guy myself early this morning on the Icecrown Realm. Sat and camped his spawn point for over 16 hours and was getting really frustrated and tired when he popped for me. Quickly tamed him, no freeze trap, I’m 83. Stoked! Then woke up this morning and on a whim decided to go out and check for Skoll too…he popped as well. Two in one day! Super stoked!

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  5. So i’d been coming back to this spot all night and nada, absolutely nothing, show up this morning at 8 o clock and it’s the exact same thing…then i switch from this article to WOW and bam! there he is! tamed him at 807

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  6. Grats with taming Arcturis. Although a casual hunter myself have been hunting rare pets since I started playing WOW again. Have collected all spirit beasts and most of the rares (the ones with a unique skin). For what it is worth: my stategy was camping and patrolling continously at spawn spots during night and early morning to avoid compitition. What I noticed was that the most of the pets I found was between 4 and 11 o’clock in the morning (I think that those rares are mostly captured somewhere in the late evening and then respawn somewhere in the morning).

    I also have a question about -npc scan (thanks for the tip was very, very usefull) and other add-ons like auctioneer. Is it allowed to use it or not because the other day I got a rather strange whisp by “game master” that I was suspected of using third party software. The only thing that I used at that time was -npcscan.

    By the way thanks giving all the info on this site it is for a casual hunter like me very usefull

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  7. love it, love it, love it, love it, love it, love it,
    I got Arc as well, first spirit beast I ever snatched up, couldn’t find the others.
    Then I paraded that sucker in front of all the less attentive hunters standing around waiting as well (which is the real test in capturing him I think)

    Now my problem is learning now to play BeastMaster since I had never played it prior to this.

    Brian Plumb
    and I’m on FB if anyone is and has pointers. I did post in forums

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  8. Hey Gar,
    Funny story, I follow your site pretty faithfully, but hadn’t been on in a while. I was taking a FP so i decided to tab out, and pulled up your site and started reading this article. Arcturis caught my fancy and did some quick wiki work on him. Well, I tabbed back in and had arrived at my destination, Amberpine Lodge(I was in the area looking for Earth Elementals for the Tripping the Rifts achievement). I stumbled down to Arcturis’ spawn point and there he was, so I did what any respectable BM hunter would, I slapped a trap down and tamed him. Not even before I finished the tame, another hunter flew down right on top of me and swore me out because she had camped a week waiting for him to spawn. I’ve been in those shoes(missed Skoll by a hair, once) and I tried to apologized but she was already gone. You are correct sir; right place, right time.

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  9. Congrats! I actually just got mine this morning. Being an engineer I usually check between him and Nuramoc in Area 52. I just finished looking for Nuramoc and thought I’d give it a go. BAM! There he was in all his glory. Probably the one I’m most excited about that I’ve gotten.

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  10. grats Gar on the tame and a great ui.
    I was camping him the other night as you did, getting some HKs farmed and he appeared. Popped trap and got taming halfway through when a DK just popped out of nowhere and deathgripped him and killed him, LOL’d at me and flew off. Needless to say I went berserk at him and got reported for my outburst. The gm was nice though and didn’t ban me. I will get him though :<

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  11. This was fun to read, Gar, because I stumbled upon him just two nights ago myself and tamed him. I had to Abandon a pet, swap over to BM and still got the tame. I was just running up the river looking for salmon spawns and there he was! I’d been on fishing runs up and down that river for months, seen dowzens of “campers” sitting there /AFK presumably waiting for him and finally got him myself, my 1st Spirit Beast.

    Maybe there IS something to only finding certain things when you’re not really looking for them, eh?

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  12. Somtimes you need a bit of beginner’s luck. A few months back (before the 4.0.1 “got 20 empty stable slots to fill frenzy” started) I decided I wanted a new pet; before that I hadn’t been that interested in rare pets so much. Mostly just used my Nightsaber that I had levelled with, plus occasional outings with a dragonhawk I picked up in BC and a Broken Tooth that I hadn’t even bothered to level beyond late 40’s.

    Anyway, in an idle five minutes I lighted on an article about rare pets, and seeing Loque, thought he would be a stylish accessory to fill my empty fifth stable slot. Headed over to the Basin ready to camp, and within a minute of arriving, found Loque and tamed (even managed to get that right first time with no panic!) All in all I think it was a grand total of five minutes from discovering the beast even existed to acquiring it.

    I have since added Numaroc to my collection (easily as Outland is pretty empty most of the time now). Been camping for Arcturis for weeks since 4.0.1 with no success; maybe I should have bought a lotto ticket that day I got Loque instead of playing WoW as my allocation of luck seems truly used up.

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  13. After camping him for a week I finally got him which just leaves me needing Loqu for the set. Picked up King Krush today while looking for Loqu so I am a happy hunter.

    –SC

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  14. Deja Vu! 24 hours after your post, I finally found Arcturis: right place at the right time. It was 2:52am server time on Farstriders, and there were only 2 other people listed in LocalDefense in Grizzly Hills. Less than 10 seconds after I finished the tame, another hunter landed by my newly tamed spirit beast and swore at him, then logged off. I’m glad to have gotten there first!

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  15. Nice one Gar so soon after gaining Skoll too 😀 I too share your fetish for the Rares i currently sport
    The Beast, Loque, Skoll, Gondria, Acturis, Nuramoc

    and i have you to thank for my Beast tame after tireless attempts and suffering the interrupt effect who’d of thought simply switching to haste gear could make it such an easy tame 🙂

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    • Impressive stable you have there Wuss. Ha… in fact, I just realized I have all those as well, with the exception of Gondria. Seems we do share the same affinity for the rare and uncommon. 😉

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  16. Tamed him on Thunderhorn EU yesterday. Made a right hash of it – tried to tame, got this mob could not be tamed error. Hit him – oops, he’s at half health. FD. Realise I’m a muppet and still in SV spec. Get up, he starts beating on me whilst I run around trying not to die whilst FD on CD. FD. Respec. Run after him and whack a tame on (no traps, nothing fancy).

    Amazingly, no one was around to spoil my fun – or anyone that was was just so flabbergasted by my ineptitude it rendered them incapable of interfering!

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    • Oh man… that’s funny. That happens a lot more than people care to mention. Thanks for having the balls to entertain us with your taming follies.

      We all make mistakes like this at one time or another, so I’m sure this is something pretty much everyone can relate to in some way. It’s certainly fun to laugh about it later.

      Grats on taming Arcturis Corbetti. 😀

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  17. Grats Gar. Must have just missed him myself. My hunter is on KT as well and I was there at 10:45. Maybe next time will be my time:)

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  18. Congrats Gar!

    I actually was in the process of taming Arcturis one evening when a guildie of mine who I know had been camping him for over a month logged on in the area…..I was having on of those right place at right time moments, I had flown out there on a whim deciding I wanted to try for him and BAM! there he was. However I have a conscience so I stopped the tame and started screaming in GChat for my oher hunter friend to get their butt in gear before my conscience grew wings and tamed him anyways! Needless to say I had a very rare opportunity to do the nice thing…….NEVAR AGAIN!!! LoL 😛

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  19. Grats Gar! I agree with you about timing. In my case, two of us were camping that spot. When _NPCScan blared it’s warning, I quickly activated my taming macro, hoping at the same time that I’m in range, and that the other hunter (who was now jumping and circling Arcturis and me, won’t attack (I remember saying “Just try it, man.” lol )).

    It’s just a matter of seconds! And once again, a taming macro (and luck) got me yet another Spirit Beast.

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  20. Congrats Gar. That hunter was probably me lol. It’s funny because I use to raid with you back in the pre BC days. I had a NE Warrior named Shannaria. What a small world.

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      • Lol guess it wasn’t me after all but o well. It seems that every hunter and their mother is going crazy over spirit pets. I have been camping and searching for any of the pets for about a month now with no luck. Maybe I will get lucky and get that crazy spirit crab coming in Cat 🙂

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        • Don’t forget about the new Spirit Wolf too!

          Even though he’s more or less a part of the “no skin will be left behind” mantra that Blizz has adopted. *frowns*

          So much for individuality in Cata…

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  21. To be completely honest – I dont even know how you read your UI stuff. Id prob go blind after a week and need glasses after struggling my eyes to read my dps or even chat.

    Very clean and neat though i have to admit but hell no.

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  22. Grats!! Seriously, there needs to be an achievement for taming all these spirit beasts. The time we spend camping, and the risk of an encounter with opposition? It ain’t easy being a hunter.

    It’s been a while since I was under 80, we’re able to tame pets higher level than us, right? Or did we have to at least be the same level? *planning ahead for Cata spirit beasts*

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  23. You should come to Icecrown, I swear I see Arcturis almost everytime I’m in the area. I always check to see if another is around and wants hime, but I’ve probably killed him 4-5 times. Skoll and Loq are a different story:(

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  24. BIG GRATZ!!! Who doesn’t love taming the rare spawns, amirite?
    Your philosophy on “right place at the right time” could not be more true. I was kicked out of Isle of Conquest over the weekend when I was reported for being afk while I went and checked on my kids upstairs (I really wasn’t gone very long…I think someone in the group was reporting people afk if they rezed and didn’t move). I was MAD because the BG was nearly over and the Alliance was on the verge of a rare (for my battlegroup anyway) victory. So I get ported back to the Basin where I resumed my search for Krush and Aotona at the Glimmering Pillar. I drop down from the Pillar to the area surrounding River’s Heart and BAM!….Aotona!!!! I am now the proud master of this magnificent bird! My daughter came down to name him and chose ‘Daffy’ (most likely due to the fact she was in the midst of gettin’ her Looney Toon on). =)
    Had I not been kicked out of the BG, I’m sure I’d still be hunting him. Thank you, Mr. Jerkwad afk reporter. =P

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  25. Got Loque yesterday after hanging out in Sholazar for weeks. Was on the phone with my ex-wife and there he was, dropped my phone on the desk. Ice trap and started taming to pull him out of the Dreadsabers. Leveled him to 80 on level 81 elites in Icecrown in short order. Need a good name for him though.

    Anyway Grats to both of us!!

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  26. Grats Gar. I’m a casual player, but luckily I too have Arcturis by my side. I don’t have the time to camp out and so would swing by his spot from time to time. One day I logged in having forgotten that I had previously logged out at his spawn location and there he was… and yes it is a thrill.
    Anyway… good to know I’m in your company on this one. Looking forward to trying the updated UI… thanks again for all your posts and work.

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  27. Congrats Gar,
    I just had a mini epic moment myself taming Gondria. I was doing the same camping his spawns spots in between bgs with no luck. Then when I logged in last Friday I saw the yellow dot! I quickly dismount and drop a trap and cast dismiss pet but my chimera is on aggresive so i have to kill the 2 mobs he aggro’d. Drop trap again then realize I do not have Tame beast on my action bars, find it, cast it from spellbook but he was out of range get close and hit it again as I am taming I notice an orc hunter melee fighting a bear with a frost trap in between him and gondria! Then yet another hunter dropped from the sky just as I finished the tame (10 sec felt like 10 min lol) So I did the next logical thing , went to the fridge grabbed a Michelob and pondered what to name him 😀
    But yeah its all about timing and freaking crazy luck!!
    Cheers,
    Carnage-Elune

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  28. I am on Arygos and have tamed Arcturis,gondria and skoll . I haved camped them for weeks seeing many hunters also checking the known spots.Then just a quick check with not much time to do more there they were. There is alot of talk about spawn times but nonw of that really seem to help it seems to be oin the Luck factor. The right place at the right time does seem to work best. Thx Gawulfr for the ui also, have been using it for awhile works great

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  29. gratz m8 , its realy all about timing.
    i was once lucky to tame gondria and skoll on the same after camping for a few months.
    realy gives a shot of andrenaline when they finaly spawn.

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