Swarming Guardian

[Nevrah]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Just want to post some pictures of my latest pet. Here is the Swarming Guardian.






I didn't really see this combination of graphics and effects in the Cat Database. It's a tigerskinblack color on a hunchback instead of the spotted look like the Cursed Offspring of Har'koa. It also has the glowing red eyes. But the real gem is the glossy shine in it's coat. The pictures really don't do it justice. You have to see the way the shine highlights the cat while he moves in his idle animation. I haven't been able to find this model elsewhere.

The cat spawns as part of the Auriaya boss encounter. It took a raid of 5 level 81+. The cat spawns during Auriaya's Swarming Guardian ability and is level 81. I used an Elixir of Mighty Speed and had a Shaman pop Heroism. During the fight, the tank held the boss away while the raid killed every add. When Auriaya casts the ability Swarming Guardian on a raid member other than yourself, kill them all. When Swarming Guardian is cast on you, have your Shaman pop Heroism/Bloodlust and begin to tame. I've read that they despawn after 6 seconds so I tried to get some decent haste. Also the cats only have around 4k HP so if anyone uses an AoE, it'll kill them easy.

Good luck to those of you in search of this beauty.

[Kurasu]

Awwww. I was shooting to be the first to give that tame a try. They are really *gorgeous*. That's a cat I can get behind!

[Miraga]

ummmm... that is REALLY cool! That sounds like it's tough to get!! grats on your fantastic pet!

[wildstormz]

@ Nevrah Would you explain how you tamed it ? because telling us that dosen,t really explain much like where we need stand do we need trap them stop them despawn after 6 seconds or something would be good if you could tell us more about it

thanks!

[Wain]

Well done!!

That answers our earlier question. It used to be the black gem skin on the hunched model. They must have changed it to just black when they made it tameable, and it appeared in the Wowhead database that way, but nobody had confirmed that yet. Now we know

What do her other cats look like now? The ones that follow her before the battle, and the other ones that spawn during battle (I think)?

[Griffley]

Awesome pet! nicely done, will try get one later too

[Nevrah]

@ Nevrah Would you explain how you tamed it ? because telling us that dosen,t really explain much like where we need stand do we need trap them stop them despawn after 6 seconds or something would be good if you could tell us more about it

thanks!

Sure.

First the 5 members of my raid cleared out the 2 giants on the right side of her path so that she could be pulled cleanly. The next task for your raid is to kill the cats that escort her as she patrols her path. The tank can safely tank the boss and the adds. Once the escort cats are dead, my raid just waited around for the adds to begin spawning. Auriaya spawns 2 different types of cats. The first ones are called Feral Defenders. These cats use the Cursed Offspring of Har'koa model and if you are interested in taming this model, I'd recommend just taming the Cursed Offspring instead since it's much easier. The second type of cat that she summons is the Swarming Guardian. This is the unique graphic model cat that I tamed and have posted the pictures of.

You're going to want your raid to quickly kill off the Feral Defenders. They can be quite annoying if left alive during your tame. Auriaya will then summon roughly 10 Swarming Guardians. The way Swarming Guardians works is that Auriaya summons them and commands them to attack a particular raid member. If they are commanded to attack someone other than yourself, have your raid kill them off. There isn't enough time to Distracting Shot them off and tame so it's not worth it. Wait until Auriaya commands them to attack you. If you target Auriaya while she's casting Swarming Guardians, you'll see ahead of time who's going to be attacked. When you see yourself being targeted and she begins casting Guardian Swarm, pop your haste cooldowns and potions and have your shaman cast Heroism/Bloodlust. It helps if your Shaman also knows to look for Swarming Guardian to be cast on you.

Target any one of the Guardians and begin taming. Don't bother with an Ice Trap. You're going to have 9 other Guardians beating on you at the same time so the trap doesn't matter. Also make sure you trust your raid enough that they don't AoE the Guardians while you're taming. If all goes well, you'll have the tame. At the end of the fight, your pet will despawn. Simply resummon him using the Call Stabled Pet.

Another awkward issue I had with this pet was renaming him. It seemed as though it was bugged and I couldn't rename him. I relogged and that seemed to have resolved the issue.

Also for those of you interested in taming him, wait until you see this guy in Camouflage. He's definitely an amazing looking pet.

[Nevrah]

Well done!!

That answers our earlier question. It used to be the black gem skin on the hunched model. They must have changed it to just black when they made it tameable, and it appeared in the Wowhead database that way, but nobody had confirmed that yet. Now we know

What do her other cats look like now? The ones that follow her before the battle, and the other ones that spawn during battle (I think)?

The cats that patrols with her at the beginning of the fight and the Feral Defenders that she summons during the fight both share the Cursed Offspring of Har'koa model.

I too was hoping for the Black Gem Skin model. I was sad to see that they changed it, but at least it's still a unique graphic. Let's cross our fingers and hope that we get to see a tameable Black Gem Skin cat in the future.

[Mousie]

Just tamed this pet as well. Had haste gear equipped as well as haste food, pot and BL. The tame itself was easier than I thought it would be. The mobs stayed up for quite a long time, I got feared during the tame attempt and had to start my cast over.




The feral defenders and her two guardians have the cursed offspring of Har'kora skin, while the swarmed have been turned into the black panther skin (darn! Was wishing for the gem skin!)

[Naiaara]

Thanks for the information! After learning these guys were tameable, I went in and put a raid together. I invited another hunter, who didn't know that they were tameable.

The model is so awesome! I've loved the black panther model since I started playing WoW, but I truly fell in love with the swarming skin!

[Tilo]

ok for confirmation the gem skin is still untameable & now it's just the shiny red eyed panthers she has?

[SgtMakkie]

Grats.. But curse you Blizzard ! I'd been looking forward to going into Ulduar for the Gem Cat.... /sad face

[malikith]

So no Gem Cats then?

[Wain]

It may not be made of stone, but this really is a beautiful appearance.

I got some info on this that I think I can relate. Apparently the Swarming Guardians always came in two colours: black and black gem. I never realized this, but can't say I ever paid that much attention in the middle of battle. As Wowhead only displays one colour for NPCs with multiple skins, it displayed the black gem one and people assumed that was its only skin. With the change to tameable, it was given a stable skin which happened to be the natural one.

I'm still hopeful that gemstone cats will appear as tameables in the future (see the untameable skins stickied thread for pics of all of them). They probably all deserve to be very rare. I've suggested rares in Deepholm (since they're stone beasts) or Uldum (which is the home to stone cat people) would both fit really well.

[wildstormz]

This picture been post up the top dose it still have that gem look on it body or it been removed fully?

[Ryai]

I'm still hopeful that gemstone cats will appear as tameables in the future (see the untameable skins stickied thread for pics of all of them). They probably all deserve to be very rare. I've suggested rares in Deepholm (since they're stone beasts) or Uldum (which is the home to stone cat people) would both fit really well.

No Wain, no, just no I have to argue about them deserving to be very rare. It doesn't really make a skin any better or worse, for being rare or not. Rarity is just a 'oh look at me I have time to kill and shinies to show off'. There's also the fact you would be still having to camp against not only other hunters, but people stupid enough to either gank these said rares out from under you out of spite or think the rares are for an achievement or just not care.

There's also the fact Uldum and Deepholm are very busy, what with the dailies, the rares already [rare pet, rare mount]. While it wouldn't be bad for a few to be rare, locking them all away for a 6-25+ hour respawn timer would be killer.

Remember rarity doesn't = special, Wain. I'd dump Karoma in a second most likely for a real ghost wolf :c

[Wiborg]

Can you let this pet die without it loosing its buffs?

[TygerDarkstorm]

Can you let this pet die without it loosing its buffs?

This isn't a gimmick, buff tame pet. It's a normal pet that you can use just like any other. Same with the tiger model in Uldum and the Cursed Offspring of Harkoa in Zul'Drak.

[wildstormz]

Can anyone just answer my question please ???? THE PICTURE ON THE TOP DOSE IT STILL LOOK LIKE THAT? OR IS IT BEEN REMOVED ?

[Wain]

Can anyone just answer my question please ???? THE PICTURE ON THE TOP DOSE IT STILL LOOK LIKE THAT? OR IS IT BEEN REMOVED ?

I believe that is how it now looks. There's been no mention that it's changed from that.