Gezzarak the Huntress - Tamed in Beta

Gezzarak's Summoning Animation

Nakari, an Orc huntress, wrote this morning to let me know that she and a paladin friend named Jaydn managed to successfully tame Gezzarak the Huntress — the level 72 black warp stalker that is summoned as part of the group quest Adversarial Blood in Skettis — on the WotLK beta server.

Gezzarak Tamed!It apparently wasn’t a simple tame. Nakari writes:

It took a *very* long time, because she does a frequent knockback, an occasional aggro switch, and is immune to fear and freezing traps (but not to stuns). On top of that, she hits for >2k damage when channeling Tame Beast. Without one (or more) Paladins I’d say it’s impossible to tame her.

But the best thing about her: She keeps her cool summoning animation and appears with a red, fiery lightning strike every time she is summoned!

Nakari sent along the screenshot above to demonstrate the effect. She is also working on a video clip of the summoning animation so I’ll post a link to that as well when it’s done.

[Update] And here’s the video! Egad — that’s amazing! The beams of light are the beginning are cool, but I especially love the roll of flame that reveals the warp stalker at the end.

You can also read all about this tricky tame (in German) in Nakari’s diary.

59 Comments

  1. Theodinn - August 7th, 2008 @ 2:29 pm EDT

    I’m not a big warp stalker fan, but that summoning animation would be worth it.

    Keep up the good work on keeping us up to date! You’re doing a great job! Any word on those “new” exotic pets?

  2. lianardo - August 7th, 2008 @ 2:37 pm EDT

    i want a kodo as a pet as my favorite tauren type pet but if there not gina be tameable then this is a good nother choice but id preffer if it was the lava red they use to be in blades edge

  3. Darknez - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:13 pm EDT

    Really cool. Kudo’s to Nakari.

    I just hope it remains tameable - and that the special effect is included!

  4. Glassdragon - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:13 pm EDT

    I wonder if she is immune to Bear Trap? Since it is a new effect, it might work on her. Maybe I should take a druid to see if roots work as well? Would make it a lot easier.
    I will try it tonight or tomorrow.

  5. Ansawa - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:25 pm EDT

    Awesome! I’d like to hear about their method. :)

    I’ve come up with one myself that just requires a discipline priest and a lot of defense rating, but it’s pure theory at the moment.

    Her summoning animation is gorgeous.

  6. Nakari - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:30 pm EDT

    Well, I couldn’t test Bear Trap (not lvl 75 yet), nor Entangling Roots or Hibernate, though I doubt any long duration CC effect works on her. She was immune to Freezing Trap, Frost Trap, Wing Clip, and Scare Beast.

  7. Liet - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:34 pm EDT

    I’m with Ansawa - we both have paladins /and/ hunters, so we’ll definitely be going after this, but need to figure out a few things first.

    Questions: Does tame beast /also/ make you unable to dodge? Would stacking dodge/agility help with not getting crushed in the face? What about pallybubbling?

  8. Delos - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:36 pm EDT

    Prepare the nerf bat :(

    I hate to be a Debbie Downer but how often has Blizzard let hunters keep cool, non-game-impacting effects like this? Not very often.

  9. Ansawa - August 7th, 2008 @ 3:53 pm EDT

    @Delos: Arikara and her puff of smoke is still in game. :D

    As far as I know, tame beast, like any other spell, makes you unable to dodge, block, or parry for the duration. But mobs can still miss while you’re channeling, which is why my idea involves defense rating and Scorpid Sting to raise the miss chance vs. you. XD

  10. Jaydn - August 7th, 2008 @ 5:27 pm EDT

    Well,

    you cant dodge or avoid the knockback from the boss. That was so nasty.

    Pally Bubbling oder Healing while channeling doesn’t work either, because the beat tame will be broken.

    You should read her beta diary or look at the video tomorrow!

  11. Callenra - August 7th, 2008 @ 5:35 pm EDT

    is she polymorphable? cause 1 of the best ways of taming a pet is polymorph from a mage,i was in a group with a mage in Bot and there was a dragonhawk that i wanted, the 1 i was going to tame had been damaged so the mage polymorphed it and it was an easy tame.

  12. shibumi - August 7th, 2008 @ 5:35 pm EDT

    interesting. not a big fan of warp stalkers but this is pretty cool. I *do* like tames that are tough, whether I keep the critter or not.

    did you get a chance to try ‘really sticky glue’ from Sin’jin village quest (very low level horde quest). likely falls in the same ‘immune to traps’ but worth a try.

    I know in outlands when I had a druid try to root a named spider, it broke the tame (he did it after I triggered the tame). tried in proper order, and I never had enough chance to snag the beast. had to haste my cast to get it.

    grats nakari

  13. Tyrmak - August 7th, 2008 @ 7:06 pm EDT

    DAMN!! Me wants one, mkay?… CanĀ“t wait to get WLK and get to tame that one, even though I _hate_ Warpstalkers with a passion, just the summoning animation would make Gezzarak a keeper! :D

    Although… knowing Blizzard and their ways, the animation will/could be removed soon-ish… hope not, cos I really want this… Bet I’ll be dreaming all night about Gezzarak and that animation now. -.-”

  14. Liet - August 7th, 2008 @ 7:13 pm EDT

    re: jaydn,

    I wasn’t aware she had a blog. ;) I can’t very well read about it if I didn’t know it existed.

  15. Ryai - August 7th, 2008 @ 7:45 pm EDT

    Well I figured bubble/healing wouldn’t work- I experienced this on a lowbie belf alt when taming Mazzaranche, a guy decided to ‘help out’ via healing me when I only had 2 seconds left to tame..

    Anyways, what about putting up threat before getting healed, and throwing down a trap to keep a sort of threat up over the time Tame Beast takes to work? It’s what I’m planning.

    That and getting to lv 75+ lol.

  16. Stupid Mage - August 7th, 2008 @ 8:04 pm EDT

    I would try the piggy/sheepy method.

  17. Empello - August 7th, 2008 @ 8:48 pm EDT

    Can some 1 explain the Quest line? do you need to have a certain rep with Skettis?

    thottbotts explanation isnt all that helpful

  18. Jaydn - August 7th, 2008 @ 8:51 pm EDT

    Have you ever sheeped a 5 man elite boss mob? O.o
    Dont know if its work, but i cant imagine.

    @Liet:
    No Problem, Nakari is a staffmember of the german community site worldofwar.de
    I think, her diary will finished tommorow, including a video of the summoning of that pet.

    check out later :)

  19. Mania - August 7th, 2008 @ 8:53 pm EDT

    I didn’t realize that Nakari was involved with WorldofWar.de or I would have mentioned it. That’s neat!

    Now if only I could read German …

  20. batgrl - August 7th, 2008 @ 8:56 pm EDT

    If a druid goes along try hibernate before roots - I’ve often taken my druid along on hunter taming adventures. Hibernate is great if the hunter’s low lvl and doesn’t have the freezing trap skill yet - also if that trap is resisted at higher level. Might be a big help in this one. Though of course it could resist hibernate too.

    Let us know what you guys try!

  21. Jaydn - August 7th, 2008 @ 9:05 pm EDT

    @Mania:

    Think, we can offer a english version too. have to talk to him.
    But now, think im going to bed, its 3am in good old germany :)

  22. Zuty - August 7th, 2008 @ 10:28 pm EDT

    Wow, very nice to know :D
    My GF will be pleased.

    ~Zuty

  23. Wain - August 7th, 2008 @ 10:34 pm EDT

    Has anyone checked if the Phase Hunter (71-72 elite from Arcatraz) can also be tamed in the beta? That’d be another unique skin!

  24. JayCanuck - August 7th, 2008 @ 11:44 pm EDT

    First off, I gotta say, “CALLED IT!!”

    Secondly, I’m guessing Blizz is gonna hotfix it so he is a demon, or undead or something, just to piss of hunters.

  25. Wain - August 8th, 2008 @ 12:11 am EDT

    I actually thought it didn’t make sense for her to be summonable for that reason… that she was some sort of summoned ’spirit’ of an enemy of Terokk’s from ages past. But I looked it up again, and she’s actually a living, captured descendant of one of Terokk’s enemies, so she could possibly be viewed as a normal (but powerful) beast. But still, I suspect you’re right and they’ll not see it that way, and they’ll block her.

  26. Wain - August 8th, 2008 @ 12:12 am EDT

    … and instead of “summonable” I actually meant “tameable”. :P

  27. Shienda - August 8th, 2008 @ 1:55 am EDT

    As per usual with Blizzard they might keep her tameable, but remove the summoning effect. They have done it before. Or they might make her untameable, before or after the game release. They did it with the Spirit Wolf.

  28. Itsnoteasy - August 8th, 2008 @ 2:16 am EDT

    Great googly-moogly with a hat and a cup of tea with a biscuit! And I thought Arikara was cool.

    “We need a tank? Oh hang on, let me call him over…” *KRA-BOOM*

    Even with the two new slots, there’s just too many awesome-sauce pets in WotLK! :(

  29. Ansawa - August 8th, 2008 @ 2:21 am EDT

    Hmm. If it’s using a paladin, I’m going to assume blessing of sanctuary (or sacrifice) was involved to absorb the damage, plus an opening stun with Hammer of Justice.

    Still want to try the disci priest/defense rating method.

  30. Ryno - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:14 am EDT

    Man, I wanted to do this since I heard about the cap going to 80 in the expansion.

    And she keeps the summoning animation! Awesome. Definately need it now.

  31. Jaydn - August 8th, 2008 @ 5:18 am EDT

    @Ansawa:

    A opening stun from hammer of justice wont work. The “knockback” ability has roundly about 12 sec cooldown, so it cant work. Gezzarak will just kick you away, while you have ~3-6 seconds left to tame.

  32. Zalthor - August 8th, 2008 @ 8:48 am EDT

    What about using that Meta gem Mystical Skyfire Diamond? I had the gem before when trying to tame the Ghost Wolf. Just shift aspects until it procs then start your tame. Might be a big help to cut the tame time in half.

  33. Nakari - August 8th, 2008 @ 9:00 am EDT

    Unfortunately the Mystical Skyfire Diamond was nerfed in one of the recent patches and only gives a spell haste buff (320 spell haste or roughly 20% increased casting speed) instead of halved cast time, and as far as I could tell, the Tame Beast channeling is unaffected by regular haste rating.

  34. Scott - August 8th, 2008 @ 10:02 am EDT

    So… does the tamed Gezzie eat meat? :)

  35. Darknez - August 8th, 2008 @ 10:56 am EDT

    Anyone know if the same is possible for Vakkiz the Windrager, another mob on the same quest? Orange/Red windserpent. Don’t know if it has a special spawn effect as well, or if it’s even tameable.

  36. Ceron - August 8th, 2008 @ 12:49 pm EDT

    @ Darknez

    I was the one who posted Gezzarak as being tamable after that photoshop pic popped up a few news stories down, so I proceeded to check if Vakkiz was tamable also.
    He is marked as untamabled at the moment. I even wittled him down to his Hakkar style skeletal form and his tag switched to Undead. It woulda been awesome if he was tamable in that form.

  37. Zoblek - August 8th, 2008 @ 12:57 pm EDT

    I want to tame Diemetradon (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=9163)! or basilisk…

  38. Darknez - August 8th, 2008 @ 3:09 pm EDT

    @ Ceron

    Thanks for the info. I assume you means he’s still tagged as untameable in the WotLK Beta?

  39. Agravaine - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:05 pm EDT

    Back in the day (about 3 years ago) I tamed Sian-Rotam with the impromptu help of a Horde group. I had already solo tamed Shy-Rotam previously by accident. For Shy, I happened to arrive just after a pair of Forsaken were killed trying the quest, and saw Sian despawn. She was easy with a frost trap.

    Sian, however, kept breaking out of frost trap and fearing, and could not be tamed until a Druid was called in to hibernate him.

    I sure hope that works with Gezzarak…

  40. Ceron - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:34 pm EDT

    @ Darknez

    Correct. He’s currently untamable in beta.

  41. Ansawa - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:36 pm EDT

    @Jaydn: So how did you do it, then? XD I’m only theorizing at the moment.

    @Nakari: I’m assuming that Drums of Battle, Heroism, and Power Infusion would still work though, yes?

  42. nobbie - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:44 pm EDT

    Greetings,

    just in case someone on the WotLK beta wants to get Gezzarak now by completing the required quest chain: It seems Blizzard has capped the quest line via a hotfix at the “Hazzik’s Bargain” quest. Hazzik’s package does not spawn in the hut at the moment, only the sparkles in its spawn location can be seen. I’ve tried it without and with the Elixier of Shadows. Will try again after a server restart just in case it’s a simple spawn bug.

  43. Ansawa - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:46 pm EDT

    And Mania, there is a video up now!

    http://wow.gamona.de/index.php?unid=12521#newstext

    But still no details on the taming process. :(

  44. nobbie - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:55 pm EDT

    The taming is in Nakari’s diary, but it requires German language knowledge:

    http://wow.gamona.de/index.php?seite=pp&pid=364&sid=1

  45. Mania - August 8th, 2008 @ 4:58 pm EDT

    Thank you for the links! I’ve added them to the post.
    And that’s one amazing video. I’m just in awe. :>

  46. Ansawa - August 8th, 2008 @ 5:04 pm EDT

    Ahh, thank you, Nobbie.

    Fortunately I know enough German to muddle through. ;) I’ll post a synopsis once I’m clear on it myself, and hopefully Jaydn or Nakari can check how badly I fail at German when I do.

  47. nobbie - August 8th, 2008 @ 5:15 pm EDT

    Patch incoming — we’ll see what happens to Gezzarak, and the new exotic pets like more chimeras Blizzard has recently promised :)

    Regarding the taming: I think it could be done easier with the help of a druid; will check that soon.

  48. mirozik - August 8th, 2008 @ 5:21 pm EDT

    woooot, that is a really cool vadio, well done Nakari!

    ps: that wrap stalker is female…..- -?

  49. Ansawa - August 8th, 2008 @ 5:25 pm EDT

    @Nobbie: My personal bet is on a priest, because Prayer of Mending assigns aggro to the hunter, not the priest–that, and Pain Suppression and Power Infusion are part of my plan. ;) Plus, a priest spec’d for Holy Nova can spam that to heal the hunter as well–HN causes no threat for the damage it does or the healing it causes.

    Hopefully she’ll stay tameable!

    And from reading Nakari’s post, with a bit of help from the horrible translation service at Babelfish (which resulted in some lols–HAMMER OF THE JUSTICE!), the basic factors in taming were a lot of luck and a well-timed hammer of justice, as well as a lot of healing from Jaydn. (Nakari simply shot Gezzarak long enough to maintain threat against Jaydn’s healing aggro.)

    The biggest problems in taming her are a knock-away that interrupts spell casting and her tendency to warp to another target in the area who’s in combat with her, whether or not they have aggro. Nakari’s luck came when Gezzarak warped to Jaydn; Nakari started the tame just as Gezzarak started running back. Jaydn stepped in with a timely HoJ stun, after which Gezzarak (luckily) decided not to knock-away or warp again.

  50. Jaydn - August 8th, 2008 @ 6:12 pm EDT

    I hope, i can explain it a little bit better.

    The biggest problem is the short cooldown if that knockback. Even a small heal can break the taming and thats, what happend twice in our first session, where Nakari killed Gezzara.

    The cooldown is about 12 and 15 seconds, Gezzarak doesnt use it always when its ready, that makes it difficult.

    Like

  51. Jaydn - August 8th, 2008 @ 6:28 pm EDT

    Please kill my Post above.
    ___________
    I hope, i can explain it a little bit better.

    The biggest problem is the short cooldown if that knockback. Even a small heal can break the taming and thats, what happend twice in our first session, where Nakari killed Gezzara.

    The cooldown is about 12 and 15 seconds, Gezzarak doesnt use it always when its ready, that makes it difficult.

    Like Ansawa said, Gezzarak ports often and use that knock-away-ability. Nakari and i standing about 30yards compare to eachother. Gezzark used teleport and give me a knockback. Nakari started taming and Gezzark went to her. About ~1k HP left on Nakari i have stunned the warp stalker and give Nakari a Holy Shock (~4k Heal).
    I dont think, that Nakari have built so much aggro, that i can chain-heal her. Its broken to often before.

    Gezzarak hits for 2k each 2 seconds, that means ~20.000 Damage. The distance at the start of the tame-try buied us 4-6k HP. But HP isnt the main problem. You can group whit a priest and Pally for Kings, wearing arena-gear or level 80 Stuff whit simple bufffood will result in no problems. The biggest problem is the knock away.
    any other class, except the Paladin, cant stun whitout damage. Even a Mage or Rogue cant do that.

    The first Hammer of Justice buys 6 seconds, the possible second at least 3-4 seconds. What this means, should be clear. Grouping whit 2 Pallys makes it really easy, the knock away ability has a to great cooldown , what makes it really simple.

    Important Notes:
    - a group member has to get the knock away before you start taming. The Knockback will cost you about 2 seconds and will cause damage, what has to be healed. No so cool
    - doing it Easy-Mode isnt cool! I like the storys in Teamspeak or Ventrillo, when the Players starting to tell story: Did you know, how hard it was, to get my Pet X and Y? - Yeah that was really funny ….
    - Maybe there are more ways of weakness of Gezzarak, we couldnt try out all, but the most things of a hunter dont work.
    Maybe there is more usability from a Mage or Druide, but i dont think so. A 5 Man Elite Boss, that you can Sheep or set Sleep? :) Gezzark versus root or snare-effects is useless.

    So, i think, thats all, i know and what i would share whit you. So have fun trying to tame him, that pet will, even if im a Pala, be something sppecial.

    Greets,
    Jaydn

  52. Liet - August 8th, 2008 @ 9:57 pm EDT

    Ansawa and I are already scheming wildly six months or so ahead of even being able to try. Current idea also involves a naked rogue with level 1 daggers building up Kidney Shots.

  53. Featherkitty - August 9th, 2008 @ 2:48 pm EDT

    Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! PEOPLE YOU SHOULD GET A CHIMERA!

  54. Ansawa - August 9th, 2008 @ 3:14 pm EDT

    Not to mention a deep discipline priest, a second hunter with scorpid sting, and a tree druid for lifebloom healing.

    I’m also thinking we may use fire traps instead of frost or freezing. ;) Nice burst of extra threat for the taming hunter when Gezz runs across them.

  55. Jaffer Roshak - August 10th, 2008 @ 8:36 pm EDT

    In theory, if the pali stun works, can’t you just get an army of them and chain stun?

  56. Fireshade - August 12th, 2008 @ 4:11 am EDT

    I applogose in advance if someone has already suggested this but I do know that if you get a preist or Pally to bubble you before you start the tame it will not prevent the tame but will protect you from damage and some intterups for the durration of either the bubble or the tame, wichever ends frist.

  57. Bonk - August 22nd, 2008 @ 2:20 pm EDT

    … Maybe I’m missing something, but why aren’t folks using Free Action Potions for taming this beastie? I’ve tamed knockback critters using them since… well, since I could make em. Years.

    They last a long time and take you thru almost the entire taming process - you just need to get lucky on the last tick or so.

  58. Kelvar - October 24th, 2008 @ 8:51 pm EDT

    I know someone probably wont read this but, can anyone test if hibernate works?

  59. Lerk - November 14th, 2008 @ 7:15 pm EST

    Gezzarak cant attack players… a BIG problem atm.

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