All 9 Pre-MoP Spirit Beasts tamed in 12 hours real time

[chrth]

Ok, I hate to do this because it's almost bragging (ok, who am I kidding, it is bragging) but I thought I'd share it because I just need to tell someone

TL, DR:
My Hunter captured all 9 pre-MoP Spirit Beasts in roughly 12 hours real time, 1.5 hours of play time. Steamwheedle Cartel-US, RP server for CRZ purposes

Full account:
I decided to try out BM spec on my main alt hunter because my raiding hunter is thinking of switching to BM for some fights and I'm out of practice.
My alt hunter had never been BM before, so I needed to determine which pets to get - not only for the buffs, but for the aesthetic as well (decked out in his Pride of Ironforge mog set, Chrth tends to like reddish pets that complement the look). As always the notion of Spirits Beasts make me groan as there's no common one to acquire; my main got Arcturis way back when and hasn't cared to look since.

I start considering going after Degu, because he's red and often up even if harder to tame than the others. I like Arcturis because Bears are part of the Dwarf Hunter motif (altho I've always been more inclined to Boars myself). I end up deciding to just look for an easier tame so I don't have to go nuts with talents, etc., to get Degu, and instead save that as a backup plan. I review the spawns and "tricks" for all the Spirit Beasts on Wowhead and build a "naked" armor set in advance. Then I go hunting.

Since Arcturis is my first choice of the rest, I head to Grizzly Hills. Not there. I resume the old path I had taken years ago when I tamed Arcturis on my main - up through Zul'drak to look for Gondria, around Storm Peaks to look for Skoll (and *cough* Time-Lost Proto-Drake) ... and then reverse the path and finish back in Grizzly Hills with no luck (I never bothered looking for Loque because his uptime historically is less due his status as an achievement criteria).

Ok, so, no luck yet. I decide to try the Regrowth in Mt Hyjal because there are three possible ones there, and they're not a hard taming challenge at 90 (or in the case of Banthalos, if you're an Engineer with Goblin Glider). And there I find Magria. Ok, a quick change to Naked, get in range, Tame Beast (Glyphed) ... hooray! A Spirit Beast ... whose name I misspelled as Magira and will need to get license to change. Oh well, I was happy enough to already be done looking for a Spirit Beast. But since I'm here ... let me look for Ankha and Banthalos.

Ankha wasn't around (does she share a spawn with Magria?) but Banthalos was. I'm a huge fan of owls (altho I wish Banthalos was bluish like Olm rather than greenish) so I figure I'll tame Banthalos as well. Dismount, Goblin Glider, Arcane Shot, land on cliff, tame. I now have two Spirit Beasts.

And I start thinking ... well, it'd be cool to get some others as well (I've been spending too much time Pet Battling/Collecting lately). So I decided to check for Karoma and Ghostcrawler - fingers crossed I had unlocked enough of Vash'jir to be able to look for him. Fortunately I had, but neither Karoma or Ghostcrawler were found. I was going to call it a night, but I decided I really would like to have Arcturis if I was going to have any, so I decided to do one more sweep of Northrend - including Loque this time - but none of them were up. It was now 12:30am and I had been doing this for almost an hour, so I decided to end it. But just in case, I decided to log out at Arcturis' spawn point in the hopes he'd be there when I checked in the morning.

I woke up at around 6:15am, logged in, and sure enough, Arcturis was there! And so now I had the one I really wanted.

But for some reason I had it in my head that the spawn time for the Spirit Beasts was around six hours (I have no idea if this is true; to be fair I was tired when I had this thought), and I did the quick math and realized all the Spirit Beasts should've respawned since I logged out (I was tired so my quick math was a little off). And if Arcturis, the easiest to camp was up, maybe ...

I fly my usual path and there right at the stairs into Zul'drak is Gondria. Tamed him. Proceeded into Storm Peaks (where I was still looking for Time-Lost Proto-Drake) and when Skoll wasn't at his first two spawn points I figured I wasn't going to find him - but he was at his third spawn point. And now I had 5 Spirit Beasts, all you really need for a Full Spirit Stampede.

But I just couldn't quit now. So I flew over to Sholazar Basin and hunted for Loque ... but he (she?) was not to be found. My streak was broken.
Twilight Highlands was my next destination, and Karoma was also nowhere to be found. I was thinking at this point my luck was out, but I kept on going.
In Mt Hyjal, Ankha was there! Once more I stripped naked (except for my Ironforge Doublet and Tabard) and easily tamed her (and got the name right too). Only Ghostcrawler left to check for.

I make the long seahorse ride over to his spawning grounds and find nothing. Not really wanting to go to work, I decide to make a second circuit, knowing that he can sorta phase in and out and on the second pass ... there he was. He tried to hit me with his nerfbat, but as I am Hunter, I was immune.

Seven down, Two to go. I go to work, and after I get a haircut during lunch, I head home for a few minutes.

I check for Karoma first as I expect to have more luck with him. But I am unable to find him.

I try to take the Waygate from Un'goro to Sholazar, but apparently this Hunter hasn't unlocked it. Oh well; I had picked out a Silithid over in Tanaris to tame so I went to get him. Then I went to Dalaran, and then Sholazar. I figure I'm more likely to find Loque over by the Hardknuckle camps, but I was south of Nesingwary's camp when I found him! Another Spirit Beast tamed ... and while it shames me to admit it, the temptation to kill for the cheev credit was higher than it should've been. But I was good.

Before heading back to work I indulge the OCD part of my brain and head back to find Karoma, figuring I'll just log out in TwiHigh and check later ... but he was there! I don't know if I missed him via my pathing last time, or if he phases like Ghostcrawler does, but I was able to grab him.

Nine Spirit Beasts in about 12 hours. Never expected it'd be possible in the world of CRZ, but I did it.

... now about those three porcupettes ...

My armory:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/s ... -pet#38453

[Bodhran]

First off UBER gratz Chrth!

I'm mega jealous of your Loque tame. Been hunting for that guy (his mate is the same skinned cat chained up in Zul'drak) since hitting his lvl on (one of my many) hunter alt Aoi. Only time I've seen him on Aoi was dead.

I don't think you have to do any of Vash'jir to be able to get Ghostcrawler. I've only did it up to getting the mount and had no trouble getting him on Bro, Vargr and Bod. Dunno though. And I don't think that Karoma phases at all unless it is CRZ phasing.

Much props to you on this marvel of taming luck! (Do you have a shrine to the RNG Gods? ) Reminds me of going on a taming spreed with Bro when he hit lvl but that was before CRZ and not even as much luck as you.

Heres to your luck with Degu and his siblings!

[chrth]

Thanks

To clarify: yes, you don't have to have quested in Vash'jir to get Ghostcrawler ... but it's a lot easier because you'll have the ability to use the Seahorse and you'll have the Water Breathing buff.

As for RNG, me and RNG aren't on very good speaking terms right now due to the Secrets of the Empire and normal raid drops. I prefer to think that my timing was fortunate that others weren't trying to grab the pets that day

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention:
I didn't use NPCScan or any other addon to find them (mostly because NPCScan scares the living crap out of me when it goes off). I simply created a /tar macro listing the ones I needed and spammed it whenever I got near a spawn point.
Wowhead has cleaned up the spawn point maps (with the exception of Ghostcrawler) so it's easy to see the exact spawn points to check.