Hello and welcome back to Raresbane’s Hardcore Journey, the only World of Warcraft classic blog with its eyes on every Rarespawn the game has to offer! Today we are hunting Timber, a level 11 timber wolf that spawns on a small island at the center of Iceflow Lake, West of Kharanos in Dun Morogh. 

There is a small settlement at the southern tip of Iceflow Lake called Brewnall Village and this is where we will be making our first stop. We meet Marleth Barleybrew here and get ourselves involved in A Bitter Rivalry between the Barleybrews and the Thunderbrews of Kharanos. She has asked us to sneak into the Thunderbrew cellar and replace a barrel of their ale with a barrel of Marleth’s.

All of the other tasks being offered by the various NPC’s here in Brewnall are unfortunately off limits for us. It seems the Village is having problems with Trolls, Troggs, and Leper Gnomes, all of which are Humanoids so tough luck because I got bigger fish to fry. 

Speaking of fish! There is one other NPC here in Brewnall that caught my attention and her name is Gretta Ganter. She has fishing gear and tackle for sale. I have a sneaking suspicion it was Gretta that chipped out the fishing hole I spotted at the north end of Iceflow Lake. And, I have a feeling Gretta was using the island as her own personal campsite before Timber claimed the territory and muscled her out.

I paid the women for the supplies and promised The Defenders of Anvilmar would clear out the beasts so she could get back to her business. 

Over the course of an hour I rotated between clearing out wolves and fishing while waiting for respawns. Here’s the thing you don’t know about me gang but my two favorite things to do in World of Warcraft are mindless grinding and fishing. I kid you not I have farmed 0.01% drop rate items for fun, I have won The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza multiple times (including in classic).

I’m out of the loop these days but I had all the cool stuff back in the day! Mr. Pinchy and the Sea turtle in Burning Crusade, damn near all the achievements in Wrath of the Lich King, heck, want to catch a Dark Herring? Check out my Wowhead Guide lmao. 

Fishing and grinding mobs on Iceflow Lake was sublime. I popped in my headphones and tuned into the Cox & Crendor Podcast and the hour flew by. About the time I reached level 75 fishing Timber finally spawned in. It was time to resume the Hunt.

Timber spawns as a level 10 and is joined with its pack of 2 level 8 wolves. By this point I am well above their level from the hundreds of wolves, leopards, bears, and boars I had been killing, and the job goes on without a hitch. But, before we move on, let’s discuss Pack Mechanics and why they are important to keep in consideration as we continue our journey across Azeroth.

Packs of mobs are commonly found amongst the Humanoids of Azeroth and can quickly become an overwhelming force for players. Packs are dangerous and should never be underestimated but there are tactics every class can deploy in order to safely handle a pack of mobs. While packs are not as common with beasts I think it is important we discuss them here and now in preparation for more lethal packs I am sure we will encounter in the future.

Generally speaking the most effective way to deal with packs are with crowd control effects, and these come in the forms of hard and soft crowd control. Hard effects refer to anything that totally incapacitates the target and soft effects refer to anything that temporarily ‘slows down’ the target. Terrain manipulation can also be an effective tactic when dealing with packs but requires more preparation and is not always an option.

Hunters & Warlocks have access to pets (In some special cases other classes can gain access to pets as well), who are our greatest boon in both dealing damage and dealing with packs of mobs. As we level up we will gain access to other forms of crowd control and will make use of terrain manipulation to deal with mobs in creative ways, but for now we will rely on Goobie.

I don’t think it useful to get into the weeds of Aggro generation and its mathematics (it’s not that complicated), but I will put it into the simplest terms I can for yall:

IF NUMBER BIG MONSTER ATTACK YOU.

That’s right! If you are doing most damage, generally speaking, the monster will attack you. The most important concept when using a pet to draw aggro from the monster is to let it front load its damage. This means letting it get a few hits before you start dealing damage. 

Boars in World of Warcraft have a unique ability called Charge that will trigger as soon as it is in range, propelling it forward, dealing bonus damage, and stunning the target (a form of hard crowd control). Charge gets Goobie into combat with Timber instantly, front loading their damage, and locking down Timber all at once. 

When I fire my gun into the pack with a basic Hunter rotation: Autoshot, Arcane Shot, Auto shot, Poison String I deal huge damage that instantly draws the aggro from the two remaining wolves but not Timber because Goobie front loaded its damage and has drawn Timber’s aggro. 

In addition, Hunter pets have something most other pets don’t have, a special ability called Growl, that will instantly generate additional aggro and effectively keep Timber and Goobie engaged in combat. 

I have no problems with the additional wolves attacking me because as we discussed early on in our Blog, Grey enemies have a reduced chance to hit you and deal less damage (assuming you have been raising your defense skill and gathering better equipment)!

With Timber downed and the sun setting behind the snow capped mountain peaks of Dun Morogh I knew it was time to get back to Kharanos for a mug of the Barleybrew we smuggled in earlier and maybe even some fried fish for dinner. Next time we set out we will have our eyes on Bjarn the Polar Bear, the final rare of Dun Morogh, and if we succeed in this hunt we will finally unlock our next zone.

Till next time folks’ and Happy Hunting!