To Advertise or Not to Advertise: Paying for a rarespawn?

[Icharia]

So day five is coming to a close in my hunt for Sambas. I've come back to find him cached over six times (whether I missed him or someone popped the pet on me remains to be seen). I've lost him by a matter of seconds due to a hasty logout, and I've failed to see him or his corpse for the entire duration.

So what about a friendly macro to the population of the Highlands advertising that I'm willing to pay a large sum of money to tame this lion? What are some of the pro's and con's associated with this move that you have dealt with? I've been reading a lot of the success stories and a vast majority of them seem to include the use of a macro/expressing the hunt to general chat. Though this is not always the sole reason for taming it does seem to give a lot of people more information than one typically has.

I'm on the fence about it because while I have seen a few Horde hunters off and on near Sambas' spawn points I rarely see other Alliance members which makes me wonder if perhaps Sambas isn't that well known? Would I be drawing undue attention to him, would I start a bidding war where the highest bidder might win? So I come to you, oh fellow Petopians, to see what your experiences have been using this method. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the downright nasty.

[Ryai]

Don't. Just don't. Offering to pay for pets is what started griefing on other servers where assholes realized these pets are priceless. And by priceless I mean a kings ransom in gold, in their eyes. Some have demanded 500/1k/5k to not kill rares or held rares in ransom threatening to kill them if hunters don't show up. And on a few occasions they still kill the rare even after payment.

And before, I never ran into assholes that would gank my tames, rare or not. But after the shattering, I have started to run into dubious people who would sooner gank your pet than let you be.

If you do see other ally hunters, you should try and set up comunication with them. I have with a horde hunter I helped get Chromaggus, and I have had other friends who keep an eye out for rares when I'm in another castle zone.

Perhaps you could try to be real ID friends with the horde hunters? Mean it couldn't hurt, and it would benefit you all, and no one would be out any cash or possibly start any bad ideas.

[Cialbi]

The only time that offering gold for a chance to tame a rare pet will work is with rares that spawn in instances (namely, Deadmines parrots). Players that want to help you in return for the gold will go run the instance solo, and do so repeatedly in order to increase the chances of their getting the rare beast to spawn and thus getting paid the bounty. No ganking by griefers is possible, and you only need to pay one person. Finally, this won't lead to ransoming - at the most, you may find people trying to sell access to saved instances in which the rare has spawned.

When you're camping a rare, this doesn't work so well, as Ryai explained.
_

Personally, I'd never offer (nor accept) gold for taming rare spawns, but that's simply my attitude. Just throwing that out there as a disclaimer.

[Icharia]

Thank you very much for the information. I was really on the fence about it, I'd certainly pay 10k to tame him, but I didn't want to run into the instance where someone would demand more and more (as I figured would happen due to my general pessimism). I just wanted to make sure as some people seemed to have good luck with using it and I'm starting to become fairly hopeless. I tend to talk to a lot of Alliance hunters when I run into them, but I hadn't alted over to speak to any of the Horde (although I've had only positive experiences so far, I can be grateful enough to say). I think I'll take both of your advice and stick to quietly meandering through his spawns and hope for the best.

[Mychelle]

Listen to Ryai, just dont. Its a really really really really really bad idea sadly. Not everyone can be trustworthy, and its just like they said...it might just cost you alot more problems then paying gold outright for it.

[Comett]

Actually, many of my rares were tamed due to a kind soul (perhaps influenced by bribery on my part, lol, but kind nonetheless) messaging me saying they had found a rare I would like that I had been asking for in general. Skoll, Loque and Karoma to name a few off the top of my head.

If you can make the money reward valuable enough - I'd think perhaps 1k+ - and mention that the spawn only drops a 25g grey and gives no achievement, I think it's a good idea.

You're always, always going to have idiots killing rarespawns etc regardless of the gold offered. I pay once I get the tame. When the pet dings and walks to my side is when I open trade - if they don't like that, their loss on [enter offered gold amount here] and I'll wait for the next spawn. Keep in mind if you do post in general you will, about 95% of the time, get some smart ass who thinks he's a genius in saying "oh I killed it 5 minutes ago" or whatever - just ignore them. You might also get people being jerks in general ("that 25g grey sounds cool")... however there's also that very nice chance that someone genuinely kind will find the mob and let you tame it.

I'd recommend using something like this (similar to what I used):
Hi, I'm offering 5k gold for a Sambas (rarespawn lion) tame. He gives no achievement and drops only a 25g grey. Please let me know if you spot him - thank you!

I don't know, everyone is saying don't do it but I'm pretty certain I'd be without at least 3 highly treasured pets by now if I hadn't offered gold.

[Comett]

Oh: Also, the only other thing I can suggest if you do decide to use general is not to spam it out. I usually posted a message perhaps every 45 minutes or so, while doing your own rounds, or before you leave the zone or enter a dungeon etc. Otherwise you get people who just get annoyed at your "spam" (heh). But 45 minutes to an hour seems to be a pretty safe limitation.

[Lisaara]

I always say if they want the gold, the tame is to be successful first. It tends to work and keeps the scammers away.

[Neith]

I wouldn't. There are genuinely people out there who find it far more rewarding to cause someone in the game some grief, than get a reward of even 10k gold for helping them get a rare spawn tamed. It's horrible, but it's reality. "Keep it secret, keep it safe."

[Jin]

TBH I think it's an ok thing to do. It's just a personal guess but perhaps 5% of the people are genuinely out to grief you for no reason, 5% will be nice and helpful for the same reasons but the rest won't care either way and will simply do what's best for themself. Now if they see a rare they will kill it on sight obviously, hoping for loot or an achievment so I honestly believe that making sure that the big mass knows that rare is worth absolutely mosat to them alive is the way to go when the zones are crowded. Are they quiet I wouldn't say anything!

[Bundia]

I personally do advertise in General. You just have to have a thick skin, plenty of knowledge on your target and don't be gullible. People will screw with you. They think it's funny. And you just can't let it get under your skin especially in a highly populated zone. You'll quickly become the new laughing stock. I have personally tamed Loque, King Krush, Skoll and now Karoma with this method. Though I haven't spent a copper on any of the tames. Most people that are nice enough to give you genuine information will not take your money. With Karoma my Ad basically gave me a timeline from her previous kill. But the great thing about your spam is that if you make the reward reasonable but enticing to a random quester (around 2000g personally is my max) you will quickly get people asking what to look for, and they'll keep an eye out. Hell they want free money for just seeing a rare spawn. Who wouldn't? Not only that, but you may come across other hunters in the zone looking for another rare, and you can share spawn timers of your respective desired times if applicable.

All in all, I think it's completely and totally worth it to advertise in General. I hit my macro about every 20-30 minutes as to not spam. And I am critical of every response I get but also extremely polite. The worst thing you can do is get into a tiff with people in the zone. They'll kill your pet in spite. And most decent people will respond well. It's extremely easy to ignore the idiots that want to grief you. You're better than them anyhow, and it only makes them look dumb.

[Icharia]

Lots more valuable information! It's so tempting to make a macro and I think getting the knowledge out there that the pet isn't worth an achieve/blue is good. Especially since I'm not seeing him anyway maybe it'll save someone else grief. It's a hard decision but now I'm kinda leaning toward making one, if only for all the feedback I'll get.

I think a lot of my concern comes from the fact that TH is turning into Barrens chat 2.0 due to the CoC quest, and it overall seems to draw in a lot of less reputable types. Perhaps I'll try it once or twice and see the reaction and go from there. We have rolling restarts tomorrow so it'll be a good chance to try to snag him again anyway.

Thank you so much everyone I love all this feedback.

[Acherontia]

I always advertise.

It lets others know you're after it--if the JERKS find it first, they'd kill it anyway. If the NICE people find it, maybe they'll remember that 5 minutes ago some hunter was offering gold.

I also say in my ad that the Cata rares do NOT give drops or achievements, and that my 1k gold is the best they'll get. Some people make fun, but at least the info is out there, so that people who run into the rare and normally would kill it due to not knowing better will remember you instead.

Try not to ping it more often than every 10 minutes, though, or you may irritate people--and making enemies while looking for these pets is the LAST thing you want.

[Novikova]

I usually ask and offer gold - granted I'm a Chatty Cathy and tend to natter about everything from Soda to 80s rock with people. I've a few people help and I've also helped a few folks. I try to build the good karma. And like Acherontia said, haters are gonna hate - whether or not you advertise.

[Icharia]

Haters are gonna hate regardless, that's also a very good point. I will definitely have to consider this for next time. I suppose I also always feel sort of bad for other hunters in the zone. There's usually 10+ 85's and what if some of them can't afford or don't want to pay gold? I mean from a capitalist standpoint money buys everything (even happiness in this case) but there's also the flip-side of that, the one person who is gold capped willing to drop 100k, perhaps even to one-up you and keep him or herself ahead of the game?

When you guys were using your macro's were other people? How did you feel going into a zone and seeing someone else spam first, would you post yours or simply wait for them to leave? Personally I would think, well...I don't want to start a bidding war so I won't post mine, but at the same time I'd be sort of peeved I didn't get to post it first. I wouldn't want to cause dissent with hunters who (if you befriend) can be beneficial in the future rather than be the hunter to shoot the mob you're taming.

[Novikova]

I usually don't really use a macro and ask politely. Like 'Hi there, <zone>! I'd like to tame <bleah> and would gladly tip for it. Thank you. Or please let me know if you've seen/killed/tamed it recently.'

[Isaba]

honestly... my offering to pay 2500g was what got my sambas by my side, I would hit a macro every ten min or so and I'm not sure if my case is special but only twice did people try to grief me about it... and each time they were met with a whole zone of people defending me saying 'this poor guy had been here for 'so and so' days give him a break' or 'you'd be an idiot to turn down that much gold just to kill it' and such things, I had people whispering me messages of good luck when they moved on, checking if I managed to tame them when they were out doing randoms, people doing passes with me to help, some camping spawn spots, and when I finnaly got him it was a little war who only knew I was looking and didn't kill him cus of my posts, I was the only one there using the macro and one guy one said he would pay 3k but I'm unsure if he ever got his tame, there was one point when I found out he had been killed I said I might give up and the entire zone told me to keep trying

[Icharia]

That's really great Isaba. I would have definitely resorted to using a macro tomorrow if I hadn't gotten lucky tonight. It sounds like the benefits of such far outweigh any extra flac or attention you might get. I had started to just whisper people when it was getting close to one of his hour markers, if I saw them near his spawns dpsing owls or deer. I'd do the usual shpeal I'm looking to tame this rare, he only drops a grey and has no achieve, I will make it worth your while not to kill him. All responses to my whispers were 100% positive, some were even alts of hunters. I just wasn't sure if I should include the whole zone. It does sound like I will be in the future.

[Kurasu]

I generally don't advertise openly. Usually it's not common for a rare to get me so excited that I would pay to get it. King Krush was the one exception for me. My ad was quiet, though: I whispered someone in the zone politely, ask if they had seen the rare. From there, mentioned I'm looking for the tame and that I'm offering 1k for it. They whispered me a half hour later when they saw Krush.

Post-Cata, I did the same with Arcturis, though I wasn't offering money: every time I thought about looking, I'd check the zone. If there was someone in there (and there occasionally wouldn't be, post-Cata; it's very unnerving!) I would whisper them asking if they would peek. And if he wasn't there, I'd be obliged if they could keep an eye open in the area while they quested.

I guess I eventually would have done the same with Terrorpene, had my check-ups not worked.

[Aquillian]

The closest I've been to paying for a rarespawn was paying a priest to help me tame King Krush. Personally I see nothing wrong with the idea, but... I would never do it. I DO NOT want to encourage people attacking rarespawns and offering them to people for gold, demanding gold while interrupting tames, or generally even associating the new, lootless rarespawns with gold at all. Imo, just make a macro that says you're looking for the spawn, say you'd really appreciate any helpful information, and see how you fare. That's worked just fine for me in the past. Just my thoughts!