So anyway, here's my story on the tenacious effort to finding the lion!
I was coasting around Twilight Highlands, and I wasn't the only one. I decided to quest a bit since after about 2-3 hours worth, there was no sign. Feeling a little lazy, I decided to hop on a flightpath despite being able to fly there very fast with 310% flying. Well I was punished for my laziness. NPCscan went off and I was even Alt-Tabbed out! By the time I finally got off that gryphon and flew back and around, it was in vain. The lion had vanished
But, hearing the rumors on Wowhead, I decided to return exactly 24 hours later to locate him at his exact respawn, since I seem to have got him right at his spawn time.
At 9am server time, I managed to grab 3 guildies together to help me camp the 3 spawn points in the west, while I went for the less known spot on the cliff. But after half an hour of waiting through the supposed respawn timer, there was no luck
I apologized to them all and, feeling dejected, I returned to just questing around.Now, for the past 2 days, I had been giving out a bounty on /trade for 1000g for anyone who located Sambas to me and led me to him. I made a point to say he drops no loot, doesn't give an achieve, and if anyone killed him, they were just costing themselves 1000g profit.
To that ad, I had 2 DKs whisper me personally to tell me they would keep an eye. Both were levelling through the area, so they would contact me if I wasn't and they saw him.
Well, exactly 1 hour into my questing after the failed attempt to catch Sambas on respawn, I had a tell from one of the DKs. He was just asking if I caught the lion yet and that he was preparing to enter Twilight Highlands for some levelling. I told him there was no luck today, but since it was exactly 1 hour since my estimated respawn time, his tell reminded me to just give it another shot.
So I flew out, just flew directly to the middle of the patrol path, and then...
*BOOONG!*
...holy shit...
I found him. Right there below me. I saw no red blips that indicated players, only Sambas. I flew straight down and let him wail on me, dismissed Feeney the Tallstrider, and pressed Tame Beast. I didn't even bother typing to tell my guild or of course, to /1. Nothing to spoil that moment.
After a horrible wait, and me cursing my useless haste rating. There was a flash of light. He shrank a bit. But. He was mine.
I erupted on /1 and on /g. Just SCREAMING and WHOOPING and CHEERING.
I was so happy. I sent back a tell at the DK "I found him myself, but you reminded me to check him out again, and for that you really do deserve something!" And then I sent him 500g. It was a STEAL for that little whisper that prompted me to check again!
For now, my lion's name is Samson. But after retelling the tame story, I think I'll call him Karma. Or possibly...TenaciousD ;p