Panthara taming puzzle-solving thread

[bardgal]

Question that may (or may not) shed some light on the problems people are having with taming panthara:

When you throw the meat, do you also have the beast targetted? Just now I successfully tamed after throwing the meat with the beast targetted. Then I tried to tame another but it failed, but in that instance I hadn't targetted the panthara before throwing the meat, I only clicked on it to tame.

Maybe it's a coincidence but it makes me wonder.

Hmm, that's an interesting idea. I do believe both times I tamed panthara I had them targetted while throwing the meat, but I can't say with 100% certainty.

I just got done testing taming without targeting the cats. I had 3 meats saved from Thursday - was out of town the last few days and got back today. I hopped on, and followed the taming methods but did NOT target the cat. Trapped, FD to ensure there was no aggro, slipped into Camo, and approached from behind. Threw meat, waited for splatter effect, targeted the cat, hit tame and received the emote. This was on the Alpha down in the Grove that has the blue ones walking with it.

I waited for the trap to drop and everything to reset and tried again. Made sure cat wasn't targeted and dropped meat right on top of it's head, targeted cat, hit tame, received emote and instantly picked up aggro.

Tried a 3rd time but this time, I targeted cat, dropped meat, hit tame, and instant success.

Not sure if anyone else has tested this as the drop rates for the meat are soooo low, but it might be beneficial to the community if others tried it to see if you HAVE to target the cat.

I think you may have nailed it. I did not have the cat targeted when I dropped the meat. And I failed.

[Rikaku]

When I failed 3x to tame the Panthara, two times I had the beast targeted when I threw the meat. The fourth time I succeeded, but also had the beast targetted. Only one time I know the failure was due to an outside source, which is why I'm not including it in my count.

[Funk]

Hi, I'm doing testing on the PTR now.

1) I tamed a panthara without having it targeted when I threw the meat.
2) I tamed a panthara from the front (I thought maybe being behind was important).
3) I tamed a sleeping panthara without freezing it. it stopped eating and attacked me but the tame still went off. I tried taming a pathing panthara without a trap--it reacted to the meat but kept walking. (edit: In hindsight I wonder if it actually did react, as I wasn't able to replicate this fail tame on a pathing panthara) so if you want a panthara that moves around, I would ice trap.

Note:
I am in SV and doing absolutely everything from in camo. No fd. I hit camo, walk up, position myself, throw trap, throw meat, hit tame. That's it. I only fd to get other mobs off me before I camo. As you can see I didn't NEED to use ice trap if the panthara is sleeping or sitting, but if you have a panthara that is stalking around and not stationary, you do need to ice trap. (edit: if you read further you will see that this isn't true. I tamed a panthara that was walking around with no trap and no issues.) I personally would trap anyways, since I wouldn't want to waste meat on live.

Note that I only did one of each trial above. I am willing to do more. These were all done on Mac'Aree panthara. I can try things on the Krokuun and Anthoran panthara too.

I am thinking, as many of you certainly are, that right now this is not a matter of a puzzle we haven't figured out (how to tame them 'properly') but just a buggy taming mechanic. I also think some npcs might be more prone to bugging than others.

I am welcome to suggestions for more trials.

Edit: I am going to do more trials of sleeping panthara without traps. but let me know if specific npcs are giving you trouble.

2nd edit: I just tamed another TWO sleeping panthara with NO traps. Again, they attacked me once they finished the meat, but the tame went off. I simply walk up while in camo, get nice and close, throw meat directly on them, and tame. I didn't have them targeted either time, but successfully tamed.

3rd edit: I just tamed another sleeping panthara. no trap, no targeting while meat was thrown. this time I tamed one with two of its panthara buddies nearby. they both attacked but again the tame went off.

4th edit: I just successfully tamed a pathing panthara with no trap. I was in camo (as always), walked up, and threw the meat in its path. I started taming as I saw the blood splatter. it kept walking and eventually attacked, but the tame went off still.

5th edit: tamed another sleeping panthara, no traps. same deal. camo, throw meat, hit tame.

At this point my hunch is that the panthara are scripted to shimmer as a reaction to taming being initiated, not their own 'awareness' of it. ie. they must be distracted when we initiate the tame but after that we are good. I am going to try and test this further.

6th edit: I just tamed another pathing panthara by throwing meat in its path, not directly on it (but I had it land close to the panthara still). I hit tame as soon as I saw the splatter. success.

I have another thought, but it may be irrelevant? Is it possible that they have been fixed on the ptr in anticipation of a live fix? In any case, I am having considerable success on the ptr.

My final observations:
The panthara must be not be distracted by other shit when the meat is thrown (no aggro, nothing). if you get aggro of the cat, THEN feign death to drop it. then pop back into camo. you can throw ice trap AND the meat from camo without it breaking. only initiating the tame breaks camo. in none of my >10 trials where I did not freeze the cat did them attacking me ruin the tame. they didn't shimmer. this is why I wonder if something is in the works to be fixed. I'm going to do 1 trial on live servers and report back.

Final edit:
I have successfully tamed a panthara on live servers with no traps and without having it targeted when I threw the meat. I just walked up in camo, made sure it was not aggro'd on anything, chucked the meat and hit tame as soon as I saw the splatter. Again, it attacked me, but the tame was successful. I think camo is the key, as traps and meat throwing don't break camo. the cat needs to be distracted by the meat when you hit your keybind for tame beast.

Note that, as with stealth, sometimes NPCs will turn to face you if you get too close while you are camouflaged. Simply back up and wait for them to return to their previous state (sleeping, sitting, whatever) before you position yourself to throw the meat.

note that mm has access to camo via a talent as well.

[Novikova]

I wonder if someone else throws the meat if I can do the tame? I had a friend on another realm with meat who wanted to help.

[Funk]

I wonder if someone else throws the meat if I can do the tame? I had a friend on another realm with meat who wanted to help.

I think this would almost certainly be possible. Both of you should spec into camo, and they can then they throw the meat without ever becoming visible to the cat. You both just need to be in sync. both walk up in camo, get in distance, have them throw the meat, hit tame as soon as you see the blood splash. worth a try, if they're willing to try.

That said, idk if there is some kind of hidden tag or something for taming. I doubt it.

[Funk]

I wonder if someone else throws the meat if I can do the tame? I had a friend on another realm with meat who wanted to help.

I think this would almost certainly be possible. Both of you should spec into camo, and they can then they throw the meat without ever becoming visible to the cat. You both just need to be in sync. both walk up in camo, get in distance, have them throw the meat, hit tame as soon as you see the blood splash. worth a try, if they're willing to try.

That said, idk if there is some kind of hidden tag or something for taming. I doubt it.

also, you could also both give it a trial run on the ptr first. just transfer over their character with the meat and your hunter.

[bardgal]

I am thinking, as many of you certainly are, that right now this is not a matter of a puzzle we haven't figured out (how to tame them 'properly') but just a buggy taming mechanic. I also think some npcs might be more prone to bugging than others.

I'm thinking this is the issue.

I also think it's specifically the meat itself that is bugged. People have had the cat targeted and not when meat-tossing... and successfully tamed. And some have thrown the meat right on the cat and still failed... I did that today. And I realize I never saw the blood splatter. If there's no splatter, then there's no tame.

Question: Does the meat just drop like crazy on the PTR?

[Funk]

I am thinking, as many of you certainly are, that right now this is not a matter of a puzzle we haven't figured out (how to tame them 'properly') but just a buggy taming mechanic. I also think some npcs might be more prone to bugging than others.

I'm thinking this is the issue.

I also think it's specifically the meat itself that is bugged. People have had the cat targeted and not when meat-tossing... and successfully tamed. And some have thrown the meat right on the cat and still failed... I did that today. And I realize I never saw the blood splatter. If there's no splatter, then there's no tame.

Question: Does the meat just drop like crazy on the PTR?

No, I've just been copying my character on live over with the meat I farmed in her bags. I've copied her over several times now.

I have also not been able to replicate fail tames on live or ptr, sans 3 or so instances where I messed up and aggro'd the thing as I threw the meat (all on the ptr). Roughly 20 tames (all but 2 on the ptr) have been successful. My two on live have been successful. I can't replicate the fail tames or figure it out, which is why I think npcs might be the problem. But I don't know. I'm going to try more stuff tomorrow.

Also, make sure the cat isn't distracted when you throw the meat. If my hunch is correct, avoid npcs scripted to play with each other or pounce on critters.

[Wain]

Funk, that's an incredible amount of work you've done! Thank you so much. It's a shame there are still uncertainties, though I guess there could be random factors with the servers and client that we'll never solve.

[Ambush]

I suggest you target the beast. Look at it this way. If you throw the meat and it lands just right, then you get lucky and tame, w/o targeting it. BUT if you do target it you have a 100% chance of knowing where to drop the meat, exactly on his target ring. So yes SOME are getting the tame w/o targeting. Do you want to risk it?

[Golden]

I've now literally wasted two meats, because apparently I'm still doing this all wrong.. Even after following the instructions to the letter: freeze, feign, throw meat, tame. Is this outdated information, or am I just really unlucky? x-x

[Wain]

It's not outdated. Sometimes tames just don't seem to work and we don't know why.

All you can do is ensure you remove any gear that may proc anything, clear the area of any other creatures that may interfere (I wonder if an itinerant critter that wanders in at the last second could absorb the meat buff instead?), and target the beast to ensure your meat drop circle is exactly on target.

[Quiv]

Buggy hardly covers it. I've tamed some without avoiding things like trinket procs or other mobs (not even trapping). I just run in to meat range, feign, throw meat, tame. Done this on live and PTR many times. Yet it doesn't always work, even on the same mob. Sometimes it just shimmers and I'm literally doing the exact same thing.

Of course, those who are having difficultly should do anything they can to help ensure a successful tame, by all means.

[Pent]

I wonder if someone else throws the meat if I can do the tame? I had a friend on another realm with meat who wanted to help.

I have seen a YouTube video of an Alliance throwing the meat and a Horde doing the tame, so it can be done.

[Pent]

I have farmed for meat off and on for five days, and only had one drop. I went to tame a green one doing the step-by-step in BM and then failing, and I was all, "ah man..." Trick tames that are relatively easy like this one are so much better than having to deal with a spawned mob that has a random timer AND having to deal with multitudes of other hunters wanting the same pet. I will try the SV method next time.

I am not that upset over not being able to tame one of the cats yet because I know it is doable, and the only thing that slows down the process is farming the meat.

I have easily spent several hours running around killing the talbuks for the meat to drop, but after spending 4+ hours in Endless Halls (with over 1300 rooms mapped) for the new mount chain last night... I just can't get upset over the drop rate of the talbuk meat right now.

[Nachtwulf]

Does anyone know where to find the Blue-Gray Panthara on live, other than Mac'Aree?

These are the 'alphas' in Krokuun. I got one in the petrified forest but you may have more luck checking in the 'stone forest' areas further down the path like the Grove of Naroua since petrified forest has a lot of people questing and you may get yours aggroed while you're scooting around trying to be sneaky.

[Funk]

The point of my trials were to establish whether or not targeting the pet while throwing the meat or trapping the pet are required in order to tame. They are not. I've confirmed this many times on the PTR and once on live. However, I personally would still do both, to make the tames easier.

The other thing worth noting is that I did not use the trap > feign death > throw meat from feign method. I could not get that to work consistently. I'm thinking this is the crux of the issue, because if there is a bit of lag then the cat notices you before the meat and the tame will fail.

Through all of my trials (described in my previous post), I used camouflage. I only feigned to get mobs off me as I navigated packs of cats. When I selected a cat I wanted to tame, I hit camo, walked over to get into meat throwing range, made sure I hadn't distracted it (they will get up and face your character sometimes if you get too close--if you do distract it just move back a bit and let it reset), then i threw the meat on the cat (instinctively, nearer to its face but I haven't tested if this matters yet), saw a blood splatter and tamed. I did this well over 10 times on a variety of npcs, and it all panned out exactly the same way every time. I also replicated this on live. Note that I didn't use trap here. You could add a trap in without problem, as trapping doesn't break camo. This is important: throwing a trap doesn't break camo, and throwing the meat doesn't break camo. Remember camo lasts an entire minute. That's actually quite long for pulling this off.

I haven't tested this on all npcs (and likely wont) but I have seen incredible success this way.

My recommendations if you are struggling taming are:
1) try a different method
2) try a different npc
3) transfer your hunter and a piece of meat to the ptr to practice

My recommendations (to any relevant blizz employees reading this) for making this less of a nightmare:
1) larger radius of attraction to the meat (once it's thrown i mean)
2) higher drop chance on meat
3) have the meat fully distract the cat. have the cat lose aggro to focus on the meat. (this may not be the best suggestion since it might be counter to the original design idea, but it would help many.)

through my trials i am not convinced the meat is bugged but the cats just don't like it enough (or the programming equivalent of this). if there's any distraction, they don't want the meat. i want to test this more later, but i might wait to see if any changes go live tomorrow before i spend more time testing.

[Vephriel]

I'm inclined to believe that feign death might be one of the factors affecting tames. Both of my successful ones relied on camo alone and not FD. I don't think FD is necessary if you're in camo and stay a short distance away.

[Talithia]

Greetings fellow hunters!

First, I would like to thank all the wonderful people who figured out how to tame these magnificent cats, and grateful for the time you dedicated in help out us fellow hunters in the taming process.

And, second, I would like to share a couple of thoughts that occurred to me as I tamed this particular feisty beast.

I believe that this cat was meant to be tamed while in the Survival spec, because if you read the Camouflage flavor text, it is very similar to the "shimmering" emote the cat is constantly spamming. Though feign death drops aggro from the beast, I think you are not meant to pick up any aggro from the get go, and Camo seems to do the trick.

Second, (and I tried one of the fresh meats to test this out) I noticed that the "bloody" effect is not necessarily on the cat itself, but from the meat you drop. I dropped one of the meats just to see what happens, and a nice juicy steak just appeared where I dropped the item. So I thought, well, what if you have to throw the meat in front of the cat, not on top of it, so I did that, and the cat stopped, and then started to eat the talbuk steak. And so, after hours of farming for more steak, I finally got a couple more drops and then proceeded to tame both an Alpha and one of the blue ones.

Here is what I did: I removed any trinkets/weapons/etc that might cause any procs, just in case. Went into camo, then approached one of the sleeping alphas that was by itself. Then I threw the meat, not on its body, but on it's head, then the cat woke up and started eating. As soon as it started eating, that is when I hit the tame, and voila! Got me a panthara! So I am guessing that the "blood" effect is just to show that the cat is bloody faced from the feast, and thus unable to go into camo mode.

I hope this helps out if you are still having issues with the taming bugging out, it sure seems like a crazy thing, but thinking about how cats behave, it does make sense. :p

Good luck on your tames and good hunting!

[Rhaenia]

I'm inclined to believe that feign death might be one of the factors affecting tames. Both of my successful ones relied on camo alone and not FD. I don't think FD is necessary if you're in camo and stay a short distance away.

Possibly, but all of my successful tames have been from FD, and a couple of my failed attempts were from camo. I'm at a loss for what the common factor is for everyone's failed attempts, because so many different methods work for different people.