There are so many reasons to love the Ghost Saber I’m not even sure where to start. They are always a little transparent like this, and are one of the more difficult pets to tame. This is especially true for Horde toons on PVP servers. But for the twink Horde Hunter it might actually be much harder than getting your hands on Venomstrike. Personally I don’t think there is a single thing you could take to a lvl 19 battleground that is anywhere near as impressive as a ghost saber – especially for a horde hunter on a PVP server. They are simply the most difficult thing for a horde hunter to tame or find and still come in under level 20. However, because they are sometimes very hard to see, I believe it’s worth going after for the fully geared twink Hunter.
There are three issues that make taming this beast tough on horde hunters. Alliance will still use the same methods we talk about here; you just won’t have to run as far.
First, these kitties can only be found in the very far northern reaches of Darkshore. For a level 19 hunter that’s a really long run from the Barrens or Splintertree post through contested and enemy territories. Here is a map of the route you will need to run:
You may want to do this run with some experience left at the very end of level 18 or first thing when you hit 19, since you will get some discovery experience for the trip. Once you pass the grove of the ancients in Darkshore you will want to stay off the road as much as possible, since Alliance have gobs of quests in the area just around Auberdine.
The Second problem with this tame is that these cats come in either level 19 or 20. Not a big issue for the hunter who isn’t twinking, but a potentially serious problem for the level 19 guy. You see, these sabers already know claw 3 and you’re going to need some luck or a few good buffs to survive the tame without your freeze trap – which of course the twink won’t have since you train that one at level 20. This problem just gets worse when you hear what you have to do to get one to spawn.
Which brings us to problem 3: you can only get these to spawn by picking up little cat figurines scattered around the ruins of Mathystra. That doesn’t seem too bad until you get there and discover that the place is absolutely crawling with level 20-23 Naga Warriors and pesky casters. (The level 22 and 23 mobs are rare spawns, but you will find one from time to time).
There are quite a few spawn points for the figurines, but they are a little hard to see since they blend in with the ruins:
When you pick up these figurines, only every once in a while will a ghost saber spawn, and there is about a 50% chance it will be level 19. SO now you can see why you may be in for a long evening. Once you find a figurine and kill the Naga around it, you may have to pick up as many as 10 before a saber will even spawn, and even when that happens it might be level 20 and not 19.
But there’s some relief to all this pain. There are several spawn points on the outer edges of the ruins that generally require you to kill only one Naga to clear enough room to open a figurine. There’s no need to run all the way through the entire ruins looking for the statues. Just stay on the outer edges out of aggro range and you’ll learn to spot them pretty quick. We went there with a higher level toon and there don’t seem to be more than 2 or three of these figurines at one time even though there are more than a dozen potential spawn points. Once a figurine is picked up, it is replaced by another statue spawn in about 2 minutes.
What that means for you is that of the 6 spawn points for the figurines on the outer edges there will almost always be one ready for you to pick up that shouldn’t be a huge problem to get to.
The reason I mention six figurine spawn points is that you may be forced to open quite a few of them before a saber even spawns. Many people report having to open 20 or more before they ever get a ghost saber to spawn. This is particularly hectic for twink 19’s worried about dinging from killing naga to get to the statues. The twink might open 10 statues only to get a level 20 ghost saber spawn! Since we hunters can only tame beasts at, or below our level that situation will nearly make you scream.
With all that being said, these things are also what make the Ghost Saber such a wicked pet to have for Horde. Even Alliance toons are rarely seen with this guy since he can be such a pain to get. But the taming process isn’t all that bad once you claw your way to the figurines:
Just set your trap (if you have freeze trap, twinks are just going to have to try to survive the ride) and hopefully you catch a nice grey cat –
Start your tame right away, because when he breaks out of the ice he hits very hard with claw 3 – especially if you are level 19 or 20. Level 19 toons will need to have some stamina and life buffs or amazing luck to survive this tame. So get some scrolls and potions to take with you. (A higher level friend is even better) But if you make it you’ll have a nice new see-through cat to fight with.
If you survive the tame you get a splendid new cat that you will most certainly keep all the way through BT and beyond into WotLK. This is one you just don’t get rid of.
I do need to warn you about a potentially scary quirk with the ghost saber. Ghost sabers untamed have a despawn timer if they are not killed. The timer is 5 minutes. If a non-hunter opens a cat figurine and a ghost saber spawns and kills them or if they just run away the ghost saber disappears after five minutes so you will never a dozen of them running around without having to open your own figurines.
This despawn timer will scare you to death if you tame one of these and don’t know about it ahead of time. You’ve spent hours opening figurines and dealing with naga – finally a saber spawns and you do the tame. You’re happy as heck and hoofing it out of darkshore when, with a great big “MEOW!” your saber falls down dead as a hammer right at your feet.
At this point you get cold chills of fury. It’s like that sensation you feel when a cop pulls you over – especially when you know for a fact you’re getting a ticket. Skin-crawlies galore. But you can relax. It’s perfectly normal for ghost sabers to do this. All you have to do is call pet and your new kitty will reappear never to suddenly die for no reason ever again. Now you can go really wreck some folk in the battlegrounds.
These guys are can be a little hard to see in some map zones, which is why they can be killer in WSG, your opponents may not figure out what is slashing their face off until it’s too late. But once you can give this fellow prowl they are nearly impossible to see even for yourself or members of your faction.
On top is the regular, fairly hard to see saber, below – the Saber in prowl mode. You’ll be hard pressed to find another cat this cool.
You will see dozens of horde hunters with Echeyakee, and even though he is a quest spawn – everyone can do the quest with no problem or get help really easily, or find someone doing the quest, blah, blah, blah = pet. But you really have to go out of your way to get a ghost saber. Perhaps the only thing harder to get would be a Teldrassil owl, but even that is just a matter of making a few corpse runs through the Darnassian Guards, the owls are a snap once you get to them.
But the Ghost Saber is truly unique, pretty rare and always looks cool. And now you know the finer points of getting one for your stables!
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