I started camping Arcturis two days ago, at 8:00 PM server time, the moment my hunter hit 74. I'd long been in love with the spirit bear. I knew I had to have him.
When I first arrived, there was another hunter there. We talked for a long time, and decided that since he had gotten there first he would get the first tame. We camped together (sooo much better than camping alone) until I just couldn't stay awake any longer, late in the night. I logged back on the next morning and checked the armory; he had successfully tamed the bear over the course of the night. When he logged back on later that day, I found out the tame had happened at 5:30 AM server time, roughly an hour after I'd logged for the night. I congratulated him and went about my day, leaving WoW open until I had to leave home for a while.
It turned out that I had to be away from home for longer than expected, but I wasn't too worried; I'd read that his spawn time was 20-24 hours and I knew I'd be back before then.
When I got home, though, and started doing more reading, I got a little nervous. There were sites reporting his spawn time as anywhere from 6 hours up to 40(!). The general consensus, though, seemed to be that it was a 12-24 hour spawn time, with an average of 21.5. What if I'd gotten incredibly unlucky and he had spawned at the low end and already been killed? I pushed those thoughts aside and got some food and settled in for the night's camp.
11:30 server time, 18 hours after last known sighting
Boredom was starting to set in. I chatted with guildies. Tonight felt lucky, so I was hopeful. I killed some of the bears and stags in the area and levelled my skinning to 450.
12:30 server time, 19 hours after last known sighting
Nerves were running high. It was starting to get to the upper end of the spawn window. I shook myself out of it; He'd be there, tonight. I was going to have my spirit bear.
1:30 server time, 20 hours after last known sighting
Still no sign of my spirit bear. I chatted with the hunter who had gotten him the previous night. He could sense I was nervous, told me he was sure he'd be there soon. I continued to chat with whatever guildies were on. One of them made me some chocolate cookies and brought them all the way to Grizzly Hills, which I thought was awesome. Bairne snacked on a couple and then stuck them in his bag. My nerves calmed slightly, but I was still very worried. My eyes were starting to droop; it was getting late.
2:30 server time, 21 hours after last known sighting
I watched the clock closely; I'd heard he usually spawned on either the half hour or the hour. I watched excitedly as the minutes slowly approached these thresholds, then sighed defeatedly as they ticked past with no sign of my bear. By this time I was getting really tired. I was afraid I might not be able to hold my eyes open much longer.
3:00 server time, 21.5 hours after last known sighting
My heart pounded as the minutes reached 2:55, then 3:00, then 3:05. Still no bear. I was exhausted. I decided to lay down and set an alarm on my phone for 3:30 server time. I needed some rest.
5:30 server time, 24 hours after last known sighting
I was still asleep. I woke with a start at approximately 5:34 server. I looked at my phone. It was dead. The alarm had never gone off. I nervously woke my computer up and looked at the time. I nearly had a heart attack; I was in a panic. How could I have let myself sleep so long? I had been disconnected from WoW from inactivity. I logged in, heart in my throat. I watched the load bar fill, seeming to take years to do so. The screen came up... and there he was. Almost right on top of me. One of my guildies asked where I'd gone, told me he'd tried to call me when he saw me log. I barely noticed. I snapped a quick screenshot before laying down a trap, right on top of the bear. There was no one around. Shortly after, the beast was tamed. I had my spirit bear. Elated, I told my guild. They all congratulated me. I told the other hunter, who was still online. He also congratulated me. I hearthed to org, but unfortunately there was no one online to show off my cool new pet to. I smiled a happily, elated about my new pet, before settling down to go back to sleep.
Arcturis, tamed by Bairne, level 74 Tauren hunter, 5:35 AM server time, Kul Tiras, US
