Jadefang and the Tiny Shale Spider



"I are the green LOL"

 As Deathwing broke free from the Plane of Earth the very crust of Azeroth's earth cracked and boiled, allowing us to travel into Deepholm to explore the fantastical geo-biological life underground. The Shale Spider is one of these fantastical creatures. These critters are generally small and peaceful, mainly found feeding and gathering near crystal and rock formations showing their affinity to the earth.

Shale Spiders are a curious beast, though they are called 'spiders' they only have six appendages as to the eight that their more widely known fleshy cousins have. This could originate from their physical composition, a being comprised of shale, stone, and crystal that would make them hardier and more resilient than your regular everyday spider. We can also assume that the shale spiders live off of the earth and will take on the same mineral makeup of what they are near.

Of all the shale spiders, there is one known to be larger than the rest, and it is made up of a different composition giving it a jade green hue: Jadefang. Jadefang seems to be a mature shale spider, being about ten times larger than any other seen in the wild so far. It lives inside an isolated cave within the Crumbling Depths in the deepest part of Deepholm. Perhaps Jadefang has lived within the Crumbling Depths all its life while consuming or synthesizing with the essence of the green crystals around it that gives it a unique green hue.

Beast Mastery specced hunters looking for a unique Tenacity pet may consider the Hunt for Jadefang. This is quite an easy "hunt" as Jadefang only has one single spawn point, and that the only trick to taming it is actually knowing how to get to its cave.

Taming Jadefang

The "regular" method of taming Jadefang requires that you have the Deepholm/Therazane dailies unlocked by doing the various quest chains in the zone. I believe it this means you have to do the ENTIRE quest chain (go figure). Once that is complete, you have to wait for a certain NPC goblin called "Ricket" to give you a quest called "Underground Economy". Ricket is located several yards into the entrance tunnel of the Crumbling Depths. The reason for this is because the quest giver will give you bombs that you can use to explode yourself up into Jadefang's cave. Jadefang resides at the very back of the cave.

If you've never been in this cave before, or easily get lost in them (such as myself), a written description may prove frustrating. Now if you're like me, and are too lazy to wait 30 seconds for a youtube video to load, perhaps my supreme artistic abilities will come in handy:






"I'm a map LOL"

Here we have a beautiful hand drawn map of the Crumbling Depths. Now to reach Jadefang here is what you do:

1. Talk to Ricket and get his bombs.

2. See the angry mean Gyreworm that is circling the next area? Run past him, past the dead end corner to your right, and run out into the Main Chamber.

3. Once in the Main Chamber, you will see a Green Stone in front of you. Above this Green Stone is Jadefang's hidden cave.

4. To the right of Jadefang's cave you will see a lower ledge, which is accessible by riding through a tunnel to your right and by looping back around. Go find it, its hard to explain!

5. When you are at the Dead End Ledge, mount up and jump onto the Green Stone.

6. Once on the Green Stone, place a bomb in front of you with your back towards Jadefang's cave.

7. Explode, and fly free!

8. If you're lucky, Jadefang will be waiting for you at the back of the cave.

Jadefang is a level 85 elite with over 100K hp, so before you go on a taming spree make sure you are level 85! Also make sure you are in your Beast Master spec, as Shale Spiders are considered Exotic Pets! Now Jadefang can also be killed (as with everything) for the companion pet that it drops, the Tiny Shale Spider. This mini-pet is an exact mini replica of Jadefang.

For myself, I kind of like the "pchaa" whipping sound that Tame Beast makes followed by the assault of mini hearts! Also, I find it hard to be killing a Silver Ringed rare mob that can be a potential companion. I logged out in Jadefang's cave and tamed it one morning, and killed it the next for the pet!


Turby crouches dramatically on a rock in Twilight Highlands with Jadefang with Jadefang Jr.!

Turby the Hunter

A Good Pirate Knows to Find a Good Parrot: Aotona

After a night of flying a friend around Outlands getting free exploration experience and his first Medium Rare achievement (on a level 29), and running some old world dungeons, I set my Wormhole to direct me to Sholazar Basin. Aotona was the last rare tameable beast that I had on my radar. He goes very well with my now almost permanent pirate costume when I would "role play" an obnoxious gnome hunter pirate. I'm not really sure what a gnome hunter pirate does amongst landlubbers, with a very deadly parrot but I'll figure it out as I go along. I circled Aotona's several spawn points in central Sholazar not expecting him to show up. As I entered the range of the north-western point my scanner picks up the bird and I immediately land, with a pet in tow! Luckily I had an "abandonable" pet on me, my poor Firefly Benny. I will have to retame Benny as I do like the Firefly models. I hope Benny finds his way back to Zangarmarsh somehow, I drew him a map, told him to fly to the Zeppelin and take the Outlands portal when he was back in Orgrimmar.

As I am dismissing my current pet to summon my Firefly to release, Aotona flies out of range and I start to panic. "Oh no, that warrior that only exists in my mind is going to come down and murder Aotona!" Luckily I am just crazy and the tame went off just fine. Though it is sad for now I have no more reason to fly into Sholazar, which I could say is for the better. I have circled this zone so many times, and have become so familiar with the terrain and the landscape while hunting for Loque'nahak and King Krush.

"....awkward."

Turby the Pirate

King Krush Caught: At a Hefty Price

Something interesting with RNG is that it will favor you when you are least expecting it and will not grant you the satisfaction of success when you are actively seeking it.

This proves troublesome for us hunters, especially when we are specifically looking for certain pets. How can we just "happen" upon an old world pet when we have no business in an old world zone, and if for any reason we are in this zone we are probably looking for the old world rare pet?

(This also applies to the STUPID world drop non-combat pets)

It's all in your mind. See, I logged in after work and decided to do my daily Scholazar Basin rounds early. I flew around not really expecting to see King Krush after six weeks of not even seeing a glimpse of him nor his corpse. Then I completely zoned out. Removed from this alternate reality. Actually I had been watching Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video, trying to convince myself that there was some meaning to this song. I think this song really helped from displacing my mind from reality as well.

**This all takes place within the time frame of about ten seconds**

Anyways, I see my character flying and all of a sudden NPC Scan goes off and it's King Krush right in front of me! "NO WAY" I think! I dismount, and sadly I had to abandon my semi-trusty grey parrot Beakers. I am sure Beakers made his way back to the Deadmines safely, as I saw him there later during a dungeon run. I approach King Krush and begin to cast my Tame. I knew he would fear me and I knew at that moment of fear a warrior would swoop down and kill him. Yes, always a warrior. I don't know why. I'm usually really calm for my pet tames but for this one Dinosaur with his fear and super rarity I was slightly shaky.

Then my heart sank. I saw that King Krush was already targetting another player, chomping at them. "Damn, someone's killing him for the achievement" I thought. "Oh well at least I got to SEE him for once". But then I noticed that Krush's HP was not going down, and he was chomping on someone who seemed to be AFK on their flying mount a couple yards above the ground. I'm still approaching Krush as this is all happening. Now this person is either fighting the mobs around them or they have aggroed onto him, but I'm thinking "oh maybe this warrior has seen me and is going to let me tame him instead of killing him, or he's still afk". I begin the tame. Krush fears me, his HP is untouched, my worst fear did not come into fruition, I retame. 8..7...6...5...4...3...2...1...ding! I see the person in the background extremely low on health now so I run forward and kill the aggroed rhinos.

I'm about to whisper them and say "thanks for letting me tame" when he runs out from the fray and whispers me "fck u" and I'm thinking "huh?" I mouseover him and he was a level 77 hunter!

OH NO I'M THE PEOPLE I FEAR! So what you're saying is essentially I stole this poor person's tame right from under his nose? But he wasn't taming when I got there, he was floating in mid-air. Say I had been AFK camping a spawn point and I hear my scan go off and see another hunter taming the pet, I would probably be frustrated but at least I know not to look for the next many hours and I would probably say to them "uggggh grats!".

If I was in mid-tame and somene came along and killed or tried to tame-away my pet I would be quite offended. But wait is it even possible to tame a pet that's already being tamed? Do we essentially "tag" something when we initiate the tame? If that's the case, Krush had not been tagged by anyone until I began my tame. And if he had been tagged by my tame, if someone came along and tried to murder him, does he not count for the achievement?

Now I had up to the point until he whispered me assumed this other person was a warrior, and in the mess of stumbling off my mount and trying to gather my composure, me end goal was: Tame Krush, prevent his death.

What if I was calm and steady? I would have checked to see if he was a hunter, asked if he wanted to tame Krush. He would probably be on his way back to the keyboard, at 50% health. He'd say "yes", and I'd watch him attempt to tame Krush the first time and die. I would then risk Krush's death by waiting for him to res and re-attempt the tame. Too much risk!

So should I have waited and risked the tame? Was I just five seconds luckier? Was their two worded response appropriate for the situation? But let's not dwell on the past, this new Devilsaur shall help me find a new Parrot!

Turby the Hunter