Around 5 years ago, some clever Hunter devised a way to tame a Worgen – back before they were a playable race, of course. Once I got wind of this taming exploit I naturally had to give it a try for myself. I mean, the thought of having a werewolf for a pet…how badass was that..?!
In the Howling Fjord there is a quest chain that leads up to the killing of a Worg called Garwal. Once Garwal reaches 50% he shifts out of his Worg form and into a Worgen. Some clever Hunter out there – an Orc Hunter, I think – came up with a way to time the tame just right so that he was able to begin the tame while Garwal was in his beast form, then ending the tame at the precise moment he transformed, thus successfully taming Garwal as a Worgen.
I don’t remember exactly where I spotted this, but back then I was pretty active in keeping up on news, rumors, etc…unlike today. 😉 The second I found out that this was possible, I read up on the strategy and headed out to Howling Fjord on my werewolf taming mission.
The tame itself was very tricky. Reason being, the tame had to complete at the exact moment that Garwal shifted. A second too soon, or too late, and you’d fail. It’s also important to remember that back in those days Tame Beast was on a very long cast timer compared to now, which gave mobs plenty of time to interrupt the taming. Another possible issue with this tame was that if you’d already completed the quest chain, this NPC would no longer be available to tame. Lucky for me I’d started my Northrend journey in Borean Tundra and all but skipped over Howling Fjord, so the Garwal quest was still available to me.
The successful taming strategy involved chipping away at his health, then hitting him with Wyvern Sting. The idea was to get him to around 40% or so, so that you could then hit him with Wyvern, wait for a bit, then start the tame so that it completes at the exact second that the Wyvern Sting poison gets applied – taking him to 50% and causing him to shift. If you timed it perfectly, Garwal would shift at the precise moment that the tame completed, allowing you to tame a werewolf.
It was a huge exploit, and one I was pretty certain would be hotfixed quickly, so I never grew too attached to my Worgen pet, but it was fun while it lasted…which, if I remember correctly, was only about 3 or 4 days.
If you want to read the original blog from about 5 years ago, as well as see a video of the actual taming, check out this post. If you want to see what Hank looked like with Big Red active, see this short video.
The excitement of completing this tame successfully, along with the novelty of having a Big Bad Werewolf for a pet, made taming Garwal a most memorable WoW moment.
These days Mist Howler is nothing special, apart from him being a rare spawn, but back in the day he was a prized pup. Mist Howler was one of the few pets available with a very fast attack speed, which was most beneficial for caster interrupts in PvP. There were a handful of faster pets, but Mist Howler was one of the few wolves with the fast attack speed, plus he was the only FAS wolf with the “wolf” model, as opposed to the “worg” look.