Camping and You: A guide on rare-hunting etiquette and maintaining sanity.
By Santa Claus Thrall Loque'nahak 'Nub'
Camping in this sense refers to locating the spot where the rare spawns(or one of many, often) and waiting there until it shows up.
For many, it's about as exciting as it sounds. Camps can range from a few minutes to a few months, depending on what you're looking for and how many sacrifices you've made to the RNG gods lately. When you dedicate yourself to a camp it is best to go in expecting a long wait - some rares have up to(and even over) a 24hr respawn timer. That means spending a full day - possibly more - sitting in one spot. With that said, camping does not have to be painful - it's a chore, definitely, but if handled right the boredom can be lessened greatly.
To reliably - and easily - camp for a rare and conserve your sanity, I recommend the following:
Add-ons:
- _NPCscan: One of, if not the most well-loved rare-tracking add-on, this beauty replaces the macros you would otherwise have to spam by hand and does it for you. Complete with a pop-up notifier and a relatively diverse set of alert noises, NPCscan is pretty much invaluable should you choose to camp with add-ons.
- _NPCscan Overlay: An add-on of an add-on, Overlay maps out the spawn and wandering points of various rares in neat little colored blocks on your minimap as well as zone map. This lets you know if you're camping in the right spot or not. The downside to this is that there are no overlays for old-world(or Vanilla) rare spawns - there are simply too many.
- SilverDragon: NPCscan's little brother of the add-on world, SilverDragon is on-par with NPCscan but has some added bonuses. Silverdragon can track things that are already cached, which NPCscan can not do. Silverdragon will also alert you to Vanilla rares, which NPCscan does not do by default. The two addons are totally compatible and many rare-hunters run with both.
- Food: Depending on your proximity to the kitchen, it may be best to make some foods prior to the camp. Precooked things that can be warmed up, salads, sandwiches, etc. are all good and have the bonus of generally filling you up more than chips or snack foods. Do not ignore hunger to keep camping. Plug your speakers in and crank up the volume before heading out to the kitchen. If you find anything, _NPCscan will let you know loud enough to wake up the dead.
- Drinks: Even more important than food in many respects. While soda is usually the first option, things like tea and juice or even water work just as well and tend to be healthier. Always make sure you have something to sip on in case you get thirsty.
- Entertainment: As your character will be sitting idle for quite a long time, you will need outside entertainment seeing as you can't actually play the game. I personally have a Gameboy Advance emulator and tons of Pokemon ROMS - but I know people who read, draw, knit, clean, sleep, text, surf the 'net or talk to guildmates. This is the key point to not getting worn out over camping. Find a way to keep yourself entertained.
- Sleep: Gasp! Yes, crazy, but sleep is still important and is needed to function properly. A lack of sleep can make you irritable and slow your reaction time, so be sure to catch some shut-eye sometime. If you are so inclined, leaving your headphones on and turned up can give you quite the wake-up call if your rare does spawn.
My top ten tips for camping courtesy are as follows:
10. Don't trip someone else's scan. Hunters, have a bit of courtesy for your fellow class-mates and dismiss your pet before going into the zone you tamed it at. Nothing is worse than seeing your scan go off only to find a hunter and her Terrorpene fishing in the lava pools.
9. Be nice. No one says you have to love the people you're stuck camping with, but making enemies will just make the camp twice as hard. Being polite and sharing information among campers is not hard and can often save you some camping time if the rare spawns in a different area.
8. Respect those who were there first. If Bob has been sitting out there for three hours, it's beyond rude for someone who just flew in to land on and/or try and take Bob's spot. Doing so means you're willing to fight over the rare - in the case of tameable beasts, this rarely ends well and usually equals a dead pet and two very upset hunters.
7. If the spots are all taken, try again later. Linking into number 8, if you can't find a spot that isn't already occupied, it's probably best to come back later and try again.
6. General chat. Both a blessing and a curse. You can use General chat to offer money in return for the unharmed rare, or simply ask around to see when it was last killed or tamed. This method has limited success however, and there is no guarantee that the words posted in chat are true.
5. Three Ts. Tag, trap, tame. For non-hunters, this can be changed to T&K. Tag, then kill. By tagging your mob with an instant attack or DoT, you ensure that in the unfortunate event of the rare's death by someone else, you get the loot. A small consolation for hunters, but important if you are hunting something for a drop.
4. I saw it first. It hurts to miss your rare by seconds, but trying to wrench it away from the person who is fighting it does not make you look good at all. If they've already hit it, you can give it up now as they have tagged it and you will not get loot. If they're running towards it, the same thing may as well apply. Swooping in to snag the kill is just poor taste. Log the time, take a nap, and try again later.
3. Taming tug-o-war. Hunters can tame pets only if they have aggro from the pet itself. A somewhat underhanded way of 'stealing' a tame is to distracting shot(or simply shoot) the beast until it turns to you, and then begin to tame. Unfortunately for the would-be pet ninja, most hunters who camp something for any long amount of time will shed blood to make sure they keep it. What usually follows is a brief, painful tug-o-war game between two hunters and a pet who may be several levels lower than them. Unless one side gives in, the pet will eventually die. If you see a hunter taming something, don't mess with it. As in number 4: log the time, take a nap, and try again later.
2. Hunt with a brain. For non-hunters who are camping in zones with tameable rares, heed the mantra spoken by every camping hunter in the Catacylsm zones since release: These pets drop no loot. It's true, and they aren't just trying to con you out of a blue. No tameable Cataclysm rares(Terrorpene, Karoma, Sambas, Madexx of any color) drop anything besides a gray item that can be vendored for a measly 25g and are not part of an achievement. It is much more effective to give the pet a home and earn the thanks and trust of a hunter than it is to camp for some pocket change you could have made killing regular critters in the zone.
1. Never do, say, or emote anything to anyone that you wouldn't like done back to you. Karma is a female dog of the nastiest sort, and if you steal a rare mid-tame you have no room to complain when the same thing happens to you. Be a jerk to other people, and they will feel justified in being a jerk right back.
That aside, I hope this was helpful in some way - or at the very least helped you pass the time while you camp. Typing it shaved off a few hours of my Terrorpene camp, at the very least. :) Good luck, and happy camping!
-Nubhorns
It was fun to read, and well put together. I would add that another good way to keep yourself from getting bored is to get a friend to chat and/or camp with you.