Ongoing Search for the Spectral Gryphon

[Qinni]

when i was dicking around eye of azhara my fp was a ghost gryphon. :s may that mean something? ive been looking around also

[Valnaaros]

I don't think so. That has been there since launch. You can also summon one randomly with the whistle.

[Qinni]

Well I've now looked everywhere, I'm just going to look at recently added items...

[Kurasu]

So, just out of curiosity: has anyone managed to identify what this place is for?

[Amyliz]

Not yet, I found it, too. Exploring around for that new underwater mount. They look like Jinyu ruins!

[viaradda]

That said, I still suspect we may have to wait on it; being able to tame a spirit gryphon before we can tame normal gryphons might be excessive. I suspect that it's somewhere you need flying to get to. Just a guess.

I don't think any such places exist. Even without flying there are still gliders and other items which will allow you to get pretty much anywhere.

[mpd_84]

Kinda wondering if those new inky potions have anything to do with being able to see it?
Had a dream we found it by forming a dedicated raidgroup to check every single zone one at a time. Spread out and spamming target macros from one end of the zone to the other. I forget where we found it though.

[Valnaaros]

Myself and others have thoroughly searched every zone, and we have been using target macros. Haven't found anything. At this point, we can rule out them being in the open. They are spawned by an interactable item or by killing mobs.

[Golden]

I've been thinking of something.. Most Stable Masters have a "I'm looking for a lost companion" option, which just opens a vendor window with a Rope Pet Leash. What if the Lost Spectral Gryphon is spawned by an item that rarely shows up as something a Stable Master could sell?

In addition, the Stable Master at Deliverance Point, Pan the Kind Hand, has a different dialogue for this: "Have you tracked down any rare finds?" Could this be a hint that at least one of the new still undiscovered pets can appear at a Stable Master?

Edit: Well apparently she has the same dialogue option at the Trueshot Lodge. I admit I've never realized that before, so I don't know if she's always had this.

[Quiv]

You're thinking outside the box, which is probably going to be what it takes to flush these out. If someone gets a hunch, I say check it out.

Now back to searching Deepholm.

[Valnaaros]

The dialogue for Pan was added in 7.2. When you have unlocked the Wolfhawk mount, the other two you don't have (and the tome) will show up in her vendor tab.

[Dialga]

I've checked 7.2 added NPCs and items and haven't spotted anything that even hints at it.

[Valnaaros]

Likewise. I did so during the ptr and Live. Nothing stands out.

[Wain]

Did anyone try Alterac Valley BG? . That's a gryphon area. I'm not much of a pvper.

[Valnaaros]

Whilst I wouldn't rule it out, I just highly doubt they would throw a pet into a BG that, easily, someone could kill or something for the sake of trolling.

[soukyugurentai]

I really don't think the spectral grypon would be in a dungeon or raid considering no other spectral hunter pet has been in one.

Is there a hint from an NPC anywhere the way there was a hint for Lightning Paw?

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=118338/watcher-danuser

The Night Watch knows a thing or two about tracking. In Duskwood, creatures lurk in every dark nook and cranny.

Sometimes you catch a glimpse of their beady little eyes, peering at you from the bushes.

<The watcher tries to suppress a shudder.>

Why, just the other day I sensed an unfamiliar creature stalking me in the forest, watching from the shadows.

[Wain]

Whilst I wouldn't rule it out, I just highly doubt they would throw a pet into a BG that, easily, someone could kill or something for the sake of trolling.

Agreed, though at this point I'm trying to think of anything that hasn't been checked before. :/

The problem is that "Lost" in its name could mean it's well out of its usual range, i.e. could be damn well near anywhere that doesn't necessarily make thematic sense. Has anyone checked the Firelands??

[Golden]

To me, "Lost" could also indicate that it was left behind after some dramatic event.

Think of any place that has had a Gryphon flightmaster in the past, but something happened. The Blasted Lands and Theramore are prime examples. Both could also employ a string of actions where we found something in the past, maybe befriended a Gryphon while it was still alive, and then changed into the later phase where we could somehow trigger the same Gryphon to spawn, albeit dead this time.

Eastern Plaguelands was also interesting for me, because there used to be a Spectral Gryphon Master at one of the towers before Cataclysm. One of the former fp mounts could've easily been forgotten there.

Mind you, these are just rough ideas that I've done my very best to investigate, but maybe someone can think of other places where this could be possible?

As for no such items or objects having been datamined, they could be absolutely anything.. It could be a single conversation option at an NPC, or something else that wouldn't show on WoWDB. Or it could be an item with a name that in no way suggested it would be related to this.

Then there's also the possibility that the Gryphon's spirit has been corrupted in some way (lost its mind, so to speak), causing it to appear as a generic spirit until something would cause it to snap out of it.

[Valnaaros]

I wouldn't rule out dungeons and raids, seeing as there have been new pets added to them in the past.

But no, there haven't been any new hint npcs added. It is possible that there is an npc somewhere with additional dialogue, though.

As many have said, Lost could mean a lot of things. Just a matter of determining which meaning.

[soukyugurentai]

causing it to appear as a generic spirit until something would cause it to snap out of it.

I think you're giving Blizzard a lot of credit for making things interesting. When has a spirit beast ever done anything interesting besides look nice in an outdoor world?

I wouldn't rule out dungeons and raids, seeing as there have been new pets added to them in the past.

Every spectral in the game has been lazily slapped in the outdoor world except for maybe Gara. That was a little more involved, but essentially it was still found outdoors and was just a recolor of zone trash.

Come to think of it, it seems there have been spectral pets found in vanilla and all expansions except for Burning Crusade. Is that right?