As a World of Warcraft player, you know the situation with sneaky elite monsters that always appear when you least expect them. In the special, Quirin introduces you to a selection of his personal anti-highlights of elite monsters in WoW.
You know that for sure: You’re just comfortably questing in World of Warcraft, collecting objects and beating up opponents, but suddenly the earth starts to shake, the picture shakes and before you know it and can even fathom the situation, the disaster is already there smashed over you. ZACK DEAD! The Fel Reaver has struck again.
WoW: Death creeps up
Well, in the case of our mechanical friend in Hellfire Peninsula, “stealth” doesn’t quite apply. Because he is one of the huge elite mobs in WoW, which you can see approaching from a great distance – at least most of the time. Nevertheless, he always manages to catch careless players ice-cold. But what exactly are elite mobs and what is their role in the game?
We’ll look into this question for you and introduce you to the most dangerous elite free-runners from Azeroth. From bloodthirsty gnolls and primeval dinosaurs to monsters fit for the imagination of Dr. Frankenstein might have sprung, to giant whale sharks and a cranky Deathwing.
WoW: Jagged border = evil
It is best summed up in this simple formula. If you encounter an opponent in WoW whose character portrait is surrounded by a jagged golden dragon symbol, you should be careful.
This is an elite mob that has significantly more life points than its peers of the same level, deals a lot of damage and could also have one or the other nasty trick up its sleeve. In dungeons and raids, you’ll encounter elite opponents around every corner.
In the wild, such enemies are rarer, but usually all the more dangerous – simply because you are mostly solo.
Probably the most famous is up to mischief in the forest of Elwynn and has sent countless low-level characters to the spirit healer during his career: Hogger. Just the sound of the name raises the hairs on the backs of adventurers’ necks. It’s not for nothing that the beast had exactly 666 life points in Classic times – if that’s not a sign!
Nowadays Hogger is even twice as dangerous as before, pay attention to his life bar (2x 666 life points). So many players fell victim to the gnoll that Blizzard even dedicated a sub-item in the game’s statistics to him: “Deaths by Hogger”. If you spot an elite mob like him, it’s best to keep your eyes peeled for a “WANTED” board. Such opponents are often the target of group quests.
WoW: The Terror of Darkshire
Another elite celebrity that has taken the lives of many low-level alliance players is called Kleiner. That’s right: little one. However, contrary to what its name might suggest, the mob is a terrifying monstrosity that roams around Duskwood.
And you, the player, are to blame for unleashing the walking undead fleshmount on the world. In one quest series, you fall for the NPC Embalmer and unwittingly help him to create the dangerous creation in the first place.
But why was Kleiner so dangerous in Classic times? Unlike Hogger, who can always be found in the same place, Kleiner used to march between the Raven Hill Cemetery and the town of Dunkelshire.
Fresh from level 20, most players thought they were safe from enemies on roads and trails, so it was a good time to take a short break and go AFK. Or you stand next to protective NPC guards. puff cake! Kleiner marched straight towards the city and whoever got in his way had to die. The guards even called for help before falling prey to Kleiner’s butcher’s cleaver. Cowards…!
WoW: Too dangerous for Azeroth
With Kleiner’s patrols taking the lives of so many players, Blizzard decided to defuse Kleiner as part of their old world redesign. In today’s quest version, your little one fights in a postponed phase of Darkshire – meanwhile all other players are safe from him.
However, spreading fear and terror in Azeroth is no longer enough for Kleiner; therefore he rages in the future on the battlefields of Blizzard’s online strategy title Heroes of the Storm.
WoW: Heroes and their pools of blood
Some elite opponents just roam around to liven up the world. In Desolace, for example, a hunter – half orc, half ogre – made his rounds with his faithful bear companion in Classic times. We’re talking about Rexxar, a hero of the Horde. Many alliance raids attempted to kill him.
If the Horde got wind of it, there were often larger PvP battles between the factions. In the online card game Hearthstone, Rexxar now also goes hunting as a hero. In addition to dangerous quest opponents and patrols, elite mobs appeared in an even more insidious way.
In the classic Eastern and Western Plaguelands, Heroes’ blood spawned in random places. As an unsuspecting player, you were of course curious about what it was about and collected the pool of blood from the ground.
However, as soon as you did that, several elite level 58-60 enemies would immediately appear and stop you from escaping with a slowing AoE battle cry. “Oh, blood of heroes” – often mentioned last words. By the way, the blood that was tied when you picked it up was very popular at the time. It was needed for epic quest rewards, leg enchantments, or to summon one of four random bosses in the 20-person raid Zul’Gurub.
WoW: primeval dinosaurs behind every hedge
The Un’Goro Crater Devilsaurs are a must on any “Most Wanted” list of World of Warcraft’s most devious elite mobs. Behind every bush of green level hell one of these predators could lurk.
A certain editorial member (Nico *cough*) even developed a real paranoia and felt constantly pursued by the hungry dinosaurs. Despite their size, they always managed to sneak up unnoticed to eat our heroes.
If you managed to kill the beasts, you could make valuable sets out of their leather. When hunters were able to tame these elites in WoW Wrath of the Lich King, the servers were teeming with dinosaur companions for a long time.
But not only primeval monsters manage to sneak up despite their size. By the time the earth shook, it was usually too late! Of course we’re talking about the Fel Reaver of Hellfire Peninsula – when the elite mechanical behemoth was nearby, the whole screen shook!
Durn, the glutton, who was wanted in Nagrand by arrest warrant, flattened countless adventurers on his way towards Oshu’gun, but the developers in Northrend were no slouch either. The Storm Giant, for example, went Fel Reaver 2.0 and flattened anything and everything that approaches it in the Howling Fjord; By the way, the giant carries the shields of his victims on his boots. Thrym the Hope Killer, on the other hand – where do you think the name comes from? – shows up in stylish shorts and proudly looks back on a long list of riveted visitors to Zul’Drak.
WoW: Achievements – Whoop Whoop!
With Cataclysm, elite mobs attracted attention with new traits. Good looks and fashion were no longer enough to get players noticed. The whale sharks in Vashj’ir, for example, circle leisurely and are easy to avoid. Who wants to mess with a massive elite that doesn’t have any loot? However, many players want to mess with an Elite if there is an achievement for it.
WoW: What’s worth fighting for
In WoW Mists of Pandaria there are almost only rare champions instead of dangerous elite patrols. Their character portrait is just as jagged outlined as that of elite mobs, but colored gray. These opponents have never been particularly dangerous – until now!
The “rares” in Pandaria, which belong to one of the eight new races such as Hozen, Mantis, Saurok or Jinyu, have three different abilities per race.
And if you don’t dodge those abilities in time, at least you’ll be in the dust – and faster than you can see at low level and with poor gear. The rewards are usually fun items, raw material packages or even epic items. At Nessus the Oracle, for example, you can get hold of a turtle shell that you can use to shoot enemies off your mounts – Mario Kart style!
The flip side of the coin is that those memorable encounters with dangerous elite mobs – annoying as they often were – are a thing of the past in Pandaria. The world somehow lacks that certain something. The knowledge that something is out there just waiting to send you across the Styx.
After all, in Warlords of Draenor you can’t just flee to the flight mount as soon as danger is imminent. Where in the primeval zones of Draenor the next elite is waiting for you, we will not reveal at this point. After all, it is precisely the unknown that creates the thrill of exploring new worlds. Who knows what nasty tricks the next grim fellow will use to ambush you.
Have you had similar traumatizing experiences with your WoW hero and lurking elite monsters in Azeroth, or are you fearless of the strays? Let us know in the comments. You can find more specials, information, news, videos and guides about World of Warcraft on our topic page.
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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