I haven’t said anything about Patch 2.1.3 on the Public Test Realm yet because honestly, there isn’t much to say. There aren’t any hunter-related items in the 2.1.3 PTR patch notes and I haven’t run across any undocumented hunter changes either.
I also haven’t run across Hawkbane. I was hoping that whatever is up with him would be quietly fixed with this patch, but I’ve had no luck finding him yet. Just to sum up, Hawkbane apparently went missing with the 2.1.0 patch. I’ve gotten e-mail from a few people who said that they saw him and even tamed him after 2.1.0 (one hunter found him in the southeast of Skettis and two others found him in the cave in the northeast) — and a lot more e-mail from people who tried and couldn’t find him. A number of enterprising hunters tried asking Blizzard Game Masters about Hawkbane and got various answers: that he’s still in-game; that he was moved from his old location to a new one; that his spawn timer is now 7 days; that a technical problem is interferring with his spawn.
My guess is that Hawkbane now spawns more rarely and in multiple locations, but that there is a problem — possibly with one of his spawn locations — that is breaking the spawn cycle. I expect that some distant patch in the future will fix him right up. But in the meantime, I have pretty much given up looking for the little bugger. So let me know if you see him!
i had king b from my upper 40s til i was 60, but when i got level 62 i decided to tame one of those ravagers in hellfire peninsula i stopped leveling him. at 66 i dropped the ravager for my black blades edge raptor i named Grimlock and eventually the dark greenish blue warpstalker. when i got both the raptor and warpstalker to level 6 happiness and level 70 i decided to go back to get king bang up to 70, and after about 4 hours of grinding sporregar faction i gave up because he had only gained 1 level. then when i found out there was a level 70 cat that looked like king b i went and got him the first opportunity i could.
Yeah, Hawkbane is a popular critter — or would be, if anyone could find him reliably these days. :> Not only does he have a near-unique look, not only is that look an incandescent white tiger, but in addition he’s one of only a small handful of level 70 pets. He’s got a lot going for him. I wish he’d come home.