How do you pace yourselves when looking for rares?

[Jyaki]

I sadly sit at my desk for hours on end constantly pathing through hyjal look for the cats, turtle and bird pets.
What I am wondering is how long do you guys limit yourselves looking for mobs?
How many times a day you look. how late you stay up, whats your strategies?

[Novikova]

Depends on the rare, how I'm feeling and how many hunters. I tend to take quick little patrols, use NPCscan and a targeting macro. I also tend to be nice to other hunters in the area. I'm looking for X, you want Y. Let's keep an eye out. I answer questions in general, offer advice, read, play DS or PSP (still have so many games to beat T_T), chat on Petopia, talk to people and 'keep busy' without keeping busy. If there really is nothing to do in game or on the web, I set PC to 'stupid loud' and listen for AWOOOOOOGAH' then do some chores, exercise or mess with my cats.

That said, I'll sit for hours if I have to. I won't skip work, eating, bathing or any RL needs for camping though - seems a bit silly to make yourself sick in addition to the stress of camping as it is.

[Acherontia]

I camp when I can't be bothered doing anything else. Usually I just check spawnpoints now & then instead.

If I decide I REALLY want something, like a TLPD camp-until-I-get-it camp, I'll play Robot Unicorn Attack (not joking) out of window, or Bejeweled addon in-window (be warned, the announce doesn't actually turn off /g announce...). In these cases, I'll camp till I get it, leaving only for bathroom/food briefly, sometimes for a couple days straight or until I just can't stay awake anymore. I'm stubborn as hell so I tend *not* to limit myself, which winds up being really unhealthy in the long run.

[Aeladrine]

I generally use NPCscan, so I'll tab out, set my WoW sounds off, set it so NPCscan will temporarily turn the sounds back on when it goes off, and watch TV or browse the internet or play my DS. I basically do whatever I was going to do anyway, but with WoW running in the background. I find it a lot easier.

[Zeilla8]

I sit there til I pass out, literally and do it over again when I wake up til I get what I want. I'm very stubborn ><. I usually watch tv or edit videos on my other monitor while I'm sitting there. Going on day 33 of my Aaeonaxx camp.

[Moore]

I just sit in the spawn spot, and talk to people/listen to music/ put WoW in a window and watch movies. Got better things to do than CONSTANTLY stare at my screen waiting for a dot to show up

[Kurenio]

I play MMOTPS game at the moment. Chat with peeps of fourms.

[Kalliope]

4.2 has meant a lot of afk-camping for me. I am so grateful to not be camping pets with multiple spawns or long paths.

Not that I need to be camping. But you know what I mean.

Course, low pop server....I'm biased.

[Novikova]

That's true. That these tend to have confirmed spots and the worst patters are Magria/Ankha who seem to have steady spawn spots means AFK camping is a viable tactic - also nice.

Feathermoon is a medium to high pop server, which means it does feel a bit dicey somedays.

[Kurenio]

That's true. That these tend to have confirmed spots and the worst patters are Magria/Ankha who seem to have steady spawn spots means AFK camping is a viable tactic - also nice.

Feathermoon is a medium to high pop server, which means it does feel a bit dicey somedays.

Same with my realm, but it's all about speed and I seem to be faster then all the other hunters on my realm.

[Shade]

I sadly sit at my desk for hours on end constantly pathing through hyjal look for the cats, turtle and bird pets.
What I am wondering is how long do you guys limit yourselves looking for mobs?
How many times a day you look. how late you stay up, whats your strategies?

I sit there til I pass out, literally and do it over again when I wake up til I get what I want. I'm very stubborn ><. I usually watch tv or edit videos on my other monitor while I'm sitting there. Going on day 33 of my Aaeonaxx camp.

^Pretty much what she said! (And good luck Zeilla on Aoenaxx. He shocked me out of the sky the other day, and that is a gorgeous mount. )

I'm damned stubborn. Once I decide I want something in game that requires camping, I will sit there until I get it. My Articus camp for my second hunter took 19 hours-and I already had the bear on my main toon (and rarely used him).

I'll stay until I have to sleep-but even then I'm like, "I've sat this long, he'll spawn as soon as I shut down" Thus I usually end up not being able to sleep and logging back in all blurry eyed and grouchy. I should get that looked into. OCD about a virtual rare spawn is probably not healthy.

As to strategies-I make nice to every hunter in the area. If they are the opposite faction, I'll wish them luck and keep on camping. If they get the tame I cheer for them and go right back to camping. I've had other faction hunters I've done that for help me in a tame later. So good Karma and all that. If I see someone in the same faction camping I'll talk to them. I make some very nice hunter friends that way. It also sets up a spirit of cooperation. I promise other hunters to let them know if and when I see a spawn that they are after and ask that they do the same. And some actually bother to let me know, but I always send a note telling them spawn time and location if need be. I'll do the same for the other faction hunters I see who I know are also camping. That is one of the best 'strategies' a hunter could have-and it is one all should. Common courtesy is worth a ton.

I have never really limited myself in the amount of time I spend looking, except for the new tames on the front-I've about given up on those until those zones are less crowded. Right now, at every point of the day there is at least one or two other hunters camping the spawn points of pretty much everything. Not worth the trouble. I run by the spawn points for Skarr and Deth before I log out and then when I log in also check on them. Usually.. sometimes I forget to go park myself. But that is about all that I'm doing for them until things calm down a great deal more.

[Lotusii]

When I'd hunt for rare spawns I'd pick a camp spot and park there with npc scan on and do quick flybys every so often while doing other things so I didn't go crazy. I'd stop when I had to go do something important like work or sleep. I never force myself to stay up if I'm tired because being exhausted while hunting would just cause me to get frustrated and it will spawn eventually.

[vanquished14]

I usually set my alarm for odd hours like 4:00 am, 4:30 am, 5:00 am, 5:30 am and try my luck at the late night/early morning rares. I have gone crazy all day camping--I did for Arcturis... and about a two week camp for Aeonaxx--but that was because it was last SB (at the time) and rare spawn mount I needed. I was able to get Frostbitten and Bloody Rare using the early morning method so I suggest that to any "casual" rare camper.

[Golden]

I usually spend as much time camping a single spot as possible (shadowmelded of course - Night Elves FTW!) - meaning whenever I have access to my computer. If I get bored or frustrated, I'll do something else for a bit, either finish my main's dailies or quit the game altogether.

When I'm camping.. It's usually all about having my sound turned up, and either talking to people, perfecting my UI (for some reason stuff likes to spawn when I'm working on my UI <.<) or simply browsing some forums and such. If the camp is really important for me, I'll plug in my wireless headset and carry it around my neck whenever I have to go afk.

[Konor]

I usually park at a well known spawn point, turn my computer's volume up and go about whatever I would do anyway. Clean, watch TV, play with my dogs, etc. If I am actually playing the game at the time I'll usually do an occasional circle camp every so often or while I'm waiting for a random queue to pop. Currently camping the TLPD is slowly driving me mad. You'd be surprised how camped that freaking dragon still is.

[Sasrei]

I read posts, and talk to people while camping. I also read the daily blink.. its hilarious.

[SgtSplacker]

I'll just logoff at the camp spot, if I wake up in the middle of the night i'll log quick and check, when I wake up in the morn i'll check, at odd times i'll check. Eventually i'll get my pet..

[Nubhorns]

I don't really 'camp' anymore since the last time I did it made my anxiety worse. :x

If I want a pet I do something similar to SgtSplacker - log on, do a fly over, do something else for a while, check again, etc. etc. I found Skoll that way after maybe 3 days while checking every 4 hours(Northrend Teleporter!) or so - it's not the fastest method of camping and I'm sure I could have snagged him sooner, but I'm not in any rush at all.

[pengupuff]

"How do you pace yourselves when looking for rares?"

I don't. When I really, really want a rare, I obsess over it and camp for hours.

Luckily for me, none of the new rares really tickled my fancy, except for maybe Skitterflame, but I don't want him SO badly that I'm camping for hours on end.

To put everything in perspective though, I camped 10 hours non-stop for Madexx, 16 hours for Karoma, and even camped 10 hours for OCJ back before his spawn timer was reduced.