All it took was one run of the Sporeggar’s “Now That We’re Still Friends” quest to want to repeatedly bang my head into the wall. Grinding on Naga bugs me more than grinding on Ogres does, for some reason (maybe all the slave adds they bring?), and on top of that, you get to deal with approximately 42 other 70s there all camping the spot. Just say no.
But I really wanted Sporeggar rep for my Tiny Sporebat. I was already sitting pretty at Revered because that’s what I had to get to nab the Primal Earth to Primal Water Transmute (aka the Moneybags Transmute), so I just had to get to exalted. Preferably without that naga quest.
But hey, Sporeggar just loves those flowers that you can get in Underbog…
The question then became, “Can I solo enough of Underbog to effectively farm the flowers?”
…apparently, up to the first boss, I can!
Now that two-pull pre-boss is where things fizzle out, because those mobs are un-trappable and they just love to squish hunter pets. But still, I was quite pleased to have gotten that far. It was a crazy ride, I had to trap and kite and maneuver my way out of a myriad of large and hard-hitting pulls, and there were a couple times where I was lucky to escape with a mere 400 HP, but I never once did die, and in the end I wound up with not only 14 flowers but also the realization that I had fallen in love with Huntering all over again, for, oh, the 736th time or so.
Now I could have just farmed that first third of Underbog over and over but at this point the Boyfriend and the Pallyfriend wanted to get in on the action so we stomped through the place a time or two and whaddaya know:
Annoying naga quest? Pfft. Who needs it when you’ve got a bear? =P
(And yes, Bear is now 70, and still nameless. Why am I so horrible at coming up with names lately? /sob)
If you are talking about Sanguine Hibiscus’, then I need to get my Ret Pally butt over to UB! I can jam pretty fast to the first boss on my own. And I have been grinding on Naga from Friendly to Revered, so that is getting a little old 😛 You may have just saved my sanity!
Did you deliberately pick a Tenacity pet to solo the dungeon or do you think a Ferocity would have done just as well? How did some of the fights go?
Watch how your bear runs along with you, then tell me: doesn’t “Bumble” describe exactly what he does? Plus, it’s a cutesy ref to the “Rudolph” cartoons! My 2c on your pet-name, anyway 😉
You could have farmed fertile spores by killing sporebats and marsh walkers while also picking up strange spores for your scooby snacks. That’s what I mostly did while killing naga.
@ Steadfast – In all honesty I don’t think I would have gone nearly as far without a Tenacity pet for this one. The +heal to Mend Pet that you can spec Tenacity pets into made a huge difference. Then again, I am not currently spec’d into Spirit Bond, so perhaps with that, it could be pulled off with a Ferocity pet. It sorta scares me to think about trying that though; Bear did die three or four times and I had to finish things up all by my lonesome, it was a tough lil’ solo-fest. I wouldn’t go in there alone without a Tenacity pet myself.
Grats on the soloing pike.
I’d go with Bearoflittlename. Kinda a play on “bear of little brain”.
Might I suggest Shardik for your bear’s name. If you didn’t know it is the name of the main character in the book of the same name by Richard Adams, same author of Watership Down.
@ Steadfast
Tenacity pets are amazing for soloing dungeons. They have great survivability and the list of dungeons that have been soloed with tenacity pets just keeps getting longer.
Of course congratulations are due for having fun soloing an instance, especially as Underbog isn’t one of the very easy ones like Ramparts.
However I think the biggest thing here is the sporebat love, come on you have to love those little floating-glowing bundles of joy!
Even if their pet special is (still) bugged!
Thanks for the comments on Tenacity pets. Although I find Fiddler (my green wasp) bloody robust, I’d be most interested in hearing how you spend your pet talent points on a tenacity pet. I do not have the Exotic Pet talent myself for the extra points.
@Steadfast. tank pet was the correct choice since mend pet doesn’t tick for nearly enough on it’s own. +healing in pet talents makes a world of differnce, spirit bond adds to this. From the little bit of UB farming I did, the dps pets are too squishy.
@Pike… I ground most of my rep on the nagas, 2 sessions at off peak hours and it was easy after I figured out the best spots to round up mobs enmass with my gorilladin.
Congrats on your tiny sporebat!! I got mine over the weekend by farming the Sanguine Hibiscus. That stuff is EXPENSIVE!! I didn’t take my hunter into the instance but my Feral Druid sure cleaned up. I would clear the bottom floor, head up to the boss, stealth past him and then clear the second level to the Naga.
Farming those flowers is a lot easier than running back and forth between Naga. Not to mention you have an entire instance to yourself where as in Zang. you’re competing with others.
Congratulations!
One of the nice things to note is that the Sanguine Hibiscus actually respawn as you go through the instance. Or they used to, mind; I used to run through the instance with guildies and friends, and then run back and pick up all of the flowers that returned while we were fighting. I even once spent a half hour in the running back and forth to pick up flowers rather than go find the mobs that are being farmed.
Now tame a Sporebat to go with him! 😀
Congrats on the tiny Sporebat! I did the Skyguard grind not too long ago just to get the Nether Ray Fry, myself.
I recently rolled a Tauren alt and ran her all the to Dun Morogh to tame Mangeclaw at level 11. I ended up naming him Arcturus because of the meaning from Greek mythology. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcturus#Etymology_and_cultural_significance)
Ok, I have to ask: Why the bear?
My understanding is that it only hits the multiple targets that are “in front of it.” Is that true? If so, then what do you do to maneuver your bear around to face both targets, since the mobs automatically attempt to get behind your pet?
I’m loving Gorilladin, mainly because the stomp hits every target that is within range.
I like the idea of the bear, and I would love to have one from Wintersprings…but, it just seems like such a pain. Please, let me know how to use the bear effectively. Feel free to email me.
thanks,
Z
Zwingli – The bear is not as effective as the gorilla for AoE tanking.
But I’ve wanted a bear forever and goshdurn it I’m gonna have one.
Well, there ya go!
Good reason, imo.
Z
Nice work Pike! I did this just a few weeks ago myself with a Gorilladin instead. Sure was fun.
I know, i leveled this hunter with a bear and I’m never getting rid of him!
Of course i also have a gorilla…and a turtle…and i’ll be picking up a rhino tommorrow. TOMMORROW!
er tomorrow
Yay for Huntering 🙂 I love those moments when you once again can say to yourself, “And THAT is why I do this.”
And grats on the cute new companion!