On the collecting end of pet battles in World of Warcraft I am running out of easy pets to catch. I’ve scoured most of the open world and the few pets I have left to catch there have some special circumstances like there needing to be a weather event in the zone, needing to stay up until midnight, or the season needing to be summer in the real world.
That in mind, I began looking into what other routes I would need to pursue to continue collecting, starting with some of the pets I see recommended over and over again. Mr. Bigglesworth gets mentioned now and again, and while he didn’t make that top 20 list over at Warcraft Pets, I decided to see what it took to get him.
He is actually the reward for the Raiding with Leashes achievement and, as it turned out, I wasn’t too far off from getting that. In fact, I needed to collect just one more pet.
Just one missing from the list
The Viscidus Globule comes from the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj, AQ40 of old, a raid I have been in more than a few times in search of pets, mounts, and other items. The drop rate is alleged to be pretty high for the pet. The problems was killing the boss, Viscidus, who has one of those special mechanics.
In order to slay Viscidus you have to freeze him by spell, enchant, or weapon, and then hit him 75 times in 75 seconds or less to finish him off.
Vikund, my default “do all the things” character can wander through AQ with impunity, but soloing Viscidus is another matter. I found him a weapon that would freeze the great blob via frost damage, but no amount of haste was going to get me those 75 hits in time to slay him.
Fortunately at this point I have a selection of level 100+ character to choose from and, in reading about how people have taken Viscidus down solo, the beast master spec’d hunter seemed to be a viable option. All you had to do was get a ranged weapon that put the freeze on the slime, something you could do via various enchants or oils.
None of those seemed to be available at the Auction House however, and the long neglected enchanting skill on one alt came up dry as did another alt that was an alchemist. However, there was a bow available from a Wrath of the Lich King quest line that would do the job. However, while the bow was available from a vendor, it was bind on pick up, so Vikund, who had done the quest line up in the Storm Peaks could buy it, he couldn’t hand it off.
And Tistann, my hunter, had not done the quest line. So it was off to the Storm Peaks with him to get it done. Fortunately getting far enough down the quest line to be able to buy the bow didn’t take that long and, of course, being level 110 meant there being no risk while doing it. Soon he had the Brunnhildar Bow.
This bow freezes stuff
From there it was off to the instance. I had to think for a moment as to what would be the best way to actually get there. Getting to Darnassus and taking the griffon the length of Kalimdor was my first thought. But then I seemed to recall a portal to Uldum in Stormwind from back during the Cataclysm expansion. The portal was still there and I was soon winging my way to the target.
Once there I was quickly trotting through the now familiar instance to Viscidus, avoid what I could walk around and slaying what I could not. There is one stretch where you end up with dozens of arachnids chasing you that I usual just AOE once they all collect on Vikund. With Tistann I avoided even that by just feigning death once I was through, speeding my way to the fight.
Spotting Viscidus
Getting in there and stuck into Viscidus wasn’t an issue. His health was hardly a barrier. Had he been a tank and spank boss and level 110 could have one-shotted him. Instead he sits a minimum health until you do the special routine.
Viscidus waiting for the right moment to die
As the frost attacks built up Viscidus first changed color and then, when he was frozen, there was an announcement and a graphical indicator on him.
Viscidus frozen
At that point the counter was running and I needed to get in those 75 melee attacks, so I unleashed all the pets and called on Stampede and fired away, all of which easily totaled up to the required number of attacks and Viscidus went down.
Viscidus defeated
He just didn’t drop the pet.
I had to wait for the instance lockout to run down and try it again a few days later. The second time around the Viscidus Globule dropped and, on collecting it I also got the Raiding with Leashes achievement and Mr. Bigglesworth as a reward.
Pets obtained!
I put Mr. Bigglesworth at the top of the leveling queue and had him up to level 25 the next day, so I have him ready if I need him.
Mr. Bigglesworth Ready
Obtaining Mr. Bigglesworth also put me another cat along in the quest for the cat collecting achievement.
Not quite crazy for cats yet
I need two more cats for that and the Crazy Cat Man title. I think at this point I have all the easy ones off of that list. I guess I should have purchased a Guardian Cub back in the day.
And now I have move on to Raiding with Leashes II.
The second achievement
I am actually not doing bad on that one either. I’ve been to Kharazan for other things like transmog and such that Vikund is exalted with the Violet hold. But the drop rates for the pets are not so generous as they were with the Viscidus Globule.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 