Patch 7.2 Pet Bonanza: Gon, Lost Spectral Gryphon, Fenryr, and invading other class halls

Wow, what a week it’s been for Hunter pets! We’ve got a new solo challenge to tame Fenryr, two new spirit beasts, and there was also some shenanigans going on with Hunters invading the Shaman and Druid class halls to tame unique pets not available anywhere else.

I guess I’ll start with the first thing that happened early in the week, Fenryr. All of the hype sort of began when I tweeted this out (and posted it on Petopia):

I was not the original discoverer of this method, I was just the first to push it out to a large audience. Wowhead tweeted my pic soon after and Hunters began running Halls of Valor like their lives depended on it. It turned out that if you cleared HoV on Mythic, then left the dungeon and waited about 30 minutes for a soft reset, a tameable version of Fenryr would spawn in his cave. I mean, who goes back into a dungeon they’ve already cleared? No wonder it took a couple of weeks for anyone to notice. But it sure did seem like an odd way to hide a pet.

Fenryr

It turns out that this method was not intended and Blizzard hotfixed it about a day and a half later. The intended challenge is to solo Mythic Halls of Valor up to Fenryr. Upon killing him, a tameable version will spawn for you to tame. This only works if you do it by yourself with no one else in your group.

I apologize to anyone who saw that tweet and went and tried to do that (without seeing my follow-up tweet). I know you gotta wait another week now, and I definitely wouldn’t have promoted this idea had I known it was unintended (because I think the challenge is really cool). Edit: If you’re already saved to HoV Mythic for the week and want to attempt this, have someone who isn’t saved invite you to a group before going inside (but make sure they don’t go inside) then leave the group once inside.

I know what you’re thinking: “I missed the easy way, now I’ll never get it!” This is not true. This is a completely doable challenge for any BM Hunter with a reasonable amount of gear. It might take some practice, and healing legendaries do make it easier, but if you’re getting close to 890 ilvl I think you can do it. If you’re not, you will be eventually. Here’s a few tips:

  • You can skip all the trash. Simply run past it and feign death. For the long hallway between Hymdall and Fenryr, you can also use an invisibility potion.
  • Focus on pet damage mitigation. Use something like a Turtle pet for the Shell Shield. Spec it Tenacity. Use Aspect of the Beast for more damage reduction. Misdirect on cooldown for even more damage reduction. Spam Mend Pet. Your pet can survive these bosses with all that.
  • Use healing legendaries if you have them.
  • Hymdall: Simple tank and spank, keep your pet alive. All you need to do is avoid the drakes and tornadoes, and you’re home free (I know this is easier said than done).
  • Fenryr: Will be tougher without any healing legendaries. Use Aspect of the Turtle to avoid one of the fixates in the second part of the fight. Run from the other fixates (i.e. to the back of the cave, then back outside for the third).

If you can’t do it, come back later after you get some Tomb of Sargeras gear. Even LFR will be dropping some pretty high ilvl gear there. Beyond that, you can also just faceroll it in a future expansion.

Fenryr is a really cool pet. His runes even light up when he runs or attacks. It’s definitely worth the challenge if you ask me. I applaud Blizzard for coming up with new taming challenges like this.

Lost Spectral Gryphon

The Lost Spectral Gryphon was datamined pretty early in the 7.2 PTR, and I’m kind of surprised it took this long for someone to find its source considering where it is: right beside the Stormwind flight master! It was originally found by Rikaku.

Crazy, huh? Though it’s not like it’s just sitting there waiting to be tamed, you have to click a small Spectral Feather that is sitting in the pile of hay on the ground, which spawns the gryphon (picture of feather location). The feather is only visible to level 110 BM Hunters, but once the gryphon is summoned, even lower level Hunters can tame it (though stealing it would be kind of mean). Unfortunately, clicking the feather does not guarantee you the pet if other Hunters are around, it becomes a free-for-all. And yes, the gryphon can be killed.  Despite it being in Stormwind, Horde can tame it if they’re lucky.

As for the spawn time, it hasn’t been nailed down yet. All we’ve gathered is that it’s somewhere in the vicinity of 6-12 hours. If you see reports of very short spawn times, this is likely because of different phases/shards of Stormwind. It’s not like the old days where each server had their one instance of Stormwind and that was it. There are multiple “shards” of Stormwind and you can be shifted around them without even knowing sometimes.

There are two methods to getting this pet. The first is to just do the hardcore camp. Don’t server hop, just sit and wait. It will spawn eventually (though it could take up to 12 hours!). The second method is to server hop. This isn’t so easy anymore since you very rarely get hopped unless the group you’re joining is also in Stormwind. However, sometimes logging out and back in will put you in a different shard/phase.

Server hopping is eventually how I got it. I joined a world boss group and it moved me to another realm where only 1 AFK Hunter was present. It did eventually spawn there (after being given some luck by a fellow Hunter who had just tamed Gon). It wasn’t all luck though as I did spend a lot of time camping before that.

Unlike the gryphons coming with Feathermane taming in a couple of months, the spectral gryphon does not fly. It stays on the ground and stabs the crap out stuff with its beak (seriously this thing looks like it’s having a seizure with Dire Frenzy attack speed).

Gon

Gon is the Horde’s answer to the Lost Spectral Gryphon. It’s one of the most striking spirit beasts yet. Pictures don’t do it complete justice as it also has a subtle animated component to its texture. The other cool thing about Gon is that while he is a Raptor, he is the size of a Devilsaur!

Instead of a feather, you’ll find a Spectral Eggshell inside the Warlock training hut in the Valley of Spirits (picture of egg location). Clicking it spawns Gon top of the pile of skulls, and like the feather the eggshell has a long respawn timer.

I frequently visited Orgrimmar, looking for my opportunity. I’d perch myself above and scout with Eagle Eye. Most of the time it was packed with Horde Hunters, so there was no point in landing and camping that way because I’d just be attacked. So I stalked from above, server hopping when I could (tip: sometimes simply relogging puts you on a different shard).

Yesterday night I decided to have one last look before logging off, so I took the boat to Ratchet and landed in my familiar spot. I used Eagle Eye and spotted 2 Horde Hunters sitting in the hut. Bummer. But then I took a closer look, and there was the egg shell. Why weren’t they clicking it? I didn’t know, but I flew down as fast as I could, clicked the egg, threw on a Cobra Shot (to help keep aggro), popped Aspect of the Turtle, and began my tame. Success! Gon almost died in the process, but he was mine. I disengaged out of the hut, feigned death, and flew away to view my prize.

If you’re easily frustrated, you may want to wait a while before attempting these spirit beasts. Camping and watching it be killed when it finally does spawn is not a fun experience. I witnessed one gryphon being killed before I got mine. There was a group of Horde Hunters flying just outside the flight master area, and they swooped in and blew it up right as it spawned. Not cool. I wish Blizzard had locked the pet to whoever clicked the item. I know such a thing is possible, as that is how Gara works — other Hunters can’t interfere with the Gara you spawn for taming. Maybe Blizzard wants the competition, who knows?

They’re awesome pets though, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until I got them in my stable.


Disclaimer: The next two pets are no longer available. 


Dreamway Prowler Pup

It turns out that you could get into some class halls without being a member of that class. Well, at least you used to. I’m pretty sure it’s fixed now. It was accomplished using the Recuit-A-Friend summoning system, summoning in a Warlock who could then summon in other people. The Prowler Pup was originally revealed by Wamo at the Petopia forums.

It’s exactly what it looks like, a wolf pet that looks like a giant battle pet puppy. For some strange reason, Blizzard placed tameable versions of these in part of the Druid class hall. They should’ve known we’d get in there to tame it somehow!

Summoning Hunters into the Druid Class Hall

Several groups were setup in the group finder to get Hunters inside the Druid hall. Then we all took turns taming the pups (only 1-2 spawned at a time). Most of this was organized in the WoW Secrets discord and Petopia forums. It was a pretty awesome example of the Hunter community coming together, not something I’ve seen on this scale since maybe the hunt for Gara on the WoD beta.

Unfortunately for puppy fans, these were hotfixed fairly quickly and made untameable. Then later on they applied another hotfix that automatically teleports any non-Druids out. The question now is do we get to keep our pups, or will Blizzard change their appearance? I can only recall two instances in the past where Blizzard changed the appearance of tamed pets — one was a worgen and the other was a patch of fire on the ground (yes, really). At one point you could tame baby direhorns and those were not removed, so I guess we’ll wait and see.

Update: Blizzard has transformed all the tamed puppies into regular wolves. RIP Puppies. 🙁

Personally I think the scaled up battle pets are mostly a fun gimmick. I’d like it better as a pet if it was about 50% of its current size. It’s not something I’m going to use as my main pet very often, but I’m glad to have it. If you’re wondering why I never made a post about them, it’s simply because I knew they’d be fixed quickly. By the time I got a post ready, it would’ve been fixed, and then I’d just disappoint people who saw the post and weren’t in time to get into one of the summoning groups. Trust me, I got enough flak for the Fenryr thing.

Emberspit Scorpion

The Emberspit Scorpion was found in a special Shaman-only version of the Firelands, which I take it was linked to one of their quests (but they could also revisit it after completing it). Emberspit Scorpions also exist at the Molten Front, but they do not look like this. Once again, a unique tameable was hidden away in a place Hunters could not get to.

By the time most of the summoning groups had formed for this one, Blizzard had already hotfixed the scorpion and made it untameable, but there was one very big caveat: Scorpions that had already been spawned prior to the hotfix could still be tamed.

At least Shaman and Hunters wear the same armor class… so I’m not totally out of place

So I made it inside the Shaman-only Firelands thanks to some folks at the WoW Secrets discord, but every scorpion available was untameable. There are a lot of scorpions here, so I checked them all. No luck. That’s when others started posting that scorpions were available to tame on their realms. All it took was leaving the original summon group, then getting invited by someone with pre-hotfix scorpions. I was lucky enough to find someone who invited me and I snagged one.

This is a really cool scorpion. It leaves fire trails when it moves and has those cool glowing claws and stinger. For those of you who want it, I hope Blizzard makes this look available somewhere else some day. There’s no reason this skin shouldn’t be tameable.

I like to think there are still some tameable scorpions out there, on some realm no one decided to look, but unfortunately those will disappear once the servers go through their weekly reset in a few days.

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26 thoughts on “Patch 7.2 Pet Bonanza: Gon, Lost Spectral Gryphon, Fenryr, and invading other class halls”

  1. A lot of pets have had their appearance changed retroactively, in fact. There was a white (legal notice: not “polar”) bear skin that was changed in, I believe, Draenor, which is one example dear to my heart (because I had to go tame a bear that had the old appearance afterward to get away from that scruffy scraggly white (legal notice: not polar) bear skin they saddled him with) Fortunately, Bjarn (in Dun Morogh) still rocks the old skin. Point being, there are a lot of pet appearances that changed that didn’t get noticed because they’re not “hollywood” enough.

    1. Bears had their models updated globally, but the original looks are still available as you said.

      I’m talking about unintended pets. Usually Blizzard lets people keep them, i.e. oil-stained wolf, green slime, etc.

      1. What about the ghost wolf from Dustwallow (pre-cata)? I seem to recall they were allowed to keep them, but not sure. There was also a ghost cat in Darkshore that you can’t get anymore (spawned when you clicked a little cat figurine) which I kick myself for getting rid of in retrospect. Any idea?

  2. Congrats on Gon. As a horde hunter I think I will wait for the hype to die before I try for the gryphon. As a Zandalari Troll hunter, I have been waiting for this day to have a SB dinosaur and when Gon was datamine, I NEEDED him. You are right that pics do no justice to Gon, besides his MASSIVE size and coloring that’s all people see but when you actually see him up close, his scales have an unique effect, they shimmer or flicker like the flames he emerges from, it is quite a sight to see in person. I love that Blizzard is getting sneakier in rare hunter tames, WHO would have thought to look in the major cites for a pet, also Gon seems to have more lore behind him. His name alone is a clue and where he is summoned makes me think that Gon has some relation to the Loa raptor God, Gonk or it could just be my Lore/Rp side of my mind thinking this.

  3. Ahh yes, thanks to the people @ petopia who RaF’d and the dude who paid for Legion for me to get a warlock into shaman class hall Firelands… lol. Many US-Horde scorps. I think my lock is still logged out there. Oh boy.

  4. If you locked yourself out of Halls of Valor Mythic you can still get Fenryr without waiting for the weekly reset.
    I just had a guildie who wasnt saved inviting me to a group, I entered the fresh HoV, he gave me leader and left. And I could solo the whole thing to then tame him.

  5. @Bendak They don’t have to wait until next week! I did the same thing, brought a friend with me and then was very sad. But! You can use another lock out by having someone invite you who isn’t saved and then you walk in. They leave group and you’re all set! This is how I got him! It doesn’t work if you invite the person, they have to invite you. They don’t need to be at the instance or go in. I tried it twice and it worked with two different people. When I tried to invite someone, make them leader and then go in it didn’t work.

  6. That is a lot of effort for which I’m glad you were well rewarded. I hope that they make that scorpid skin available somewhere else. That is too cool to waste!

  7. Haha! I chuckled when you said ‘It looks like its having a seizure with Dire Frenzy attack speed’ 😛

    I was camping on my Tauren last night trying to get it, for hours I was the only player by the gryphon master but it never spawned….. It was the perfect time for it too because I was guaranteed to be the only one to tame it if it did spawn :'(

  8. Got Fenryr last night (ilvl 899). I had the belt and pants equipped and ran a spirit beast in tenacity spec. Your pet can easily die, so keep spamming heals on it and be prepared to turtle – rez pet when that happens. You can Feign Death to get the adds off you as well without having Fenryr despawn. My guildies didnt think it was possible to solo Mythic Hymdall (found him quite easy tbh) or Fenryr but with the right approach it’s very doable. Having got my BM Mage Tower Challenge done and now Fenryr tame both over the weekend it was a very productive Easter break for me. 🙂

  9. Do we need the hybrid kinship skill for feathermanes to tame the spectral gryphon, I looked forward to taming both of those fabulous spirit beasts

  10. Rather than using an invis pot (or more since I died to Fenryr many times) I switched to Marksman spec with Camouflage, and sneaked past all the trash instead. There’s *some* use for us hardcore BM hunters to switch to MM sometimes 😛

  11. So more stable slots when?

    I’m already full and don’t think I can let go of any more without losing something I either really like or is hard to get. 🙁

  12. I can’t believe people are legitimately killing Gon and the gryphon just so other people can’t have it. Like, I *guess* I can understand, say, Horde hunters ganging up on an Alliance hunter who shows up for Gon, because that’s part of the challenge, but anyone who’s not a hunter should mind their own business and stop being awful.

  13. Just FYI – I believe you have to do Hymdall and Fenryr in one setting (The GM I spoke to did NOT confirm this, but I saw it somewhere on the forums)

    Here is what I DO know…

    I went in to HoV and killed Hymdall and cleared my way up to Fenryr. I had a few (misserable) attempts at him, and abandoned the scheme because I was in a hurry to get out the door all of a sudden. So I just logged off. Inside the instance.

    When I logged back in, I was at the start of HoV – My dungeon progress text informed me that Hymdall was indeed still down, and I could see that the trash up to him was gone. I forged on – the trash to fenryr had spawned, and Fenryr was now in a different location (There are 2 spawn points he can be at initially; First I had found him on the left side and “damaged him down” so that he had moved to the final spot… upon logging off-> relogging later he was no reset to phase 1, and was on the right hand side) I diligently got on with the thing and cleared the whole area.

    I then proceeded to try and get him down, which eventually did happen (zerg tactic with a ferocity pet)

    And then nothing. No spawn of Fenryr.

    I opened a ticket, and the GM told me who could see I’d indeed been inside HoV and done battle with Fenryr. He could not, however, see in his logs that I’d killed him (I call shennanigans). He then marked my ticket as “resolved” as if that bit of information was what I came for.

    I marked it as “still have an issue” and asked “so now what?” to which they replied, that they could unfortunately not award me with the pet nor could they explain why they couldn’t or what went wrong. They said sometimes a bug can occur, but that they were somewhat confident my case wasn’t a bug. But if I thought it was a bug, sure, I should go ahead and file a bug report.

    Very enigmatic… What I gather from this (in accordance with what I read earlier) is simply = Clear the whole challenge in one sitting.

    Sorry for the long post – here’s not a potato, but please imagine one.

    1. Funny thing about your ticket…the reply about “sometimes bugs occur” and basically “badluck, but goodluck next time” and report a bug is such a common response now from GM’s (rather than actually helping us out). I had this with the MM tower challenge as well. I completed the challenge, but then everything just despawned and I didnt get credit and was unable to hand in the quest in Dalaran. Thankfully I am BM main spec and have already finished that challenge, but man…so much effort only to be screwed over and get zero help from Blizz.

  14. Wooooow, I just got the Gryphon! (as horde)

    Mad props to the alliance hunter that got there halfway through my tame and feigned instead of killing it!

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