Beat Master Pet Tamer Gutretch

If ever there was a tamer in Northrend worth of the title of "pushover," Master Tamer Gutretch would certainly fit that designation. Gutretch is one of the Northrend tamers you'll need to beat to consider yourself a master of all that Northrend has to throw at you. You probably already have pets in your stable capable of beating Gutretch, so there's no special leveling or hunting required for the "right" pet to beat his lineup.

Gutretch hangs out on the border between Crystalsong Forest and Zul'Drak. To find him, just fly east from Dalaran until you enter Zul'Drak and Gutretch will one of the be the first NPCs you see.

Gutretch's Pets:

• Blight (Critter)
• Cadavus (Beast)
• Fleshrender (Beast)

One of the best teams to whoop Gutretch's team would include Aquatics, because each of his pets has an undead ability called "Consume," which heals according to how much damage it does. Undead attacks don't hit Aquatics very hard, so those heals won't do much for Gutretch's team.

Alternatively (and this was my strategy), you can use some Mechanical pets to beat the Beasts and use a Beast to beat the Critter:

Build some Turrets, use "Metal Fist" repeatedly, and you'll beat Gutretch's pets with ease! Any way you stack it, this team isn't going to take you more than once to beat (maybe twice if you bring a horrid team of pets to the battle).

What pets did you use to beat Gutretch? Got any tricks for making this easy trainer even easier?

Farming Your Unborn Val'kyr: The Best Northrend Route!

Pet farmers know how to camp spawns, but sometimes you it takes a few minutes on a flight path or some wandering around a zone to find a pet. The super-cool Unborn Val'kyr doesn't just spawn in one zone: it spawns all over Northrend, which means that you'll need to do some serious flying to catch a lucky spawn!

If you've got loads of flying alts, you might try parking them in each zone across Northrend, but if you've just got one or two high-level toons, you can still make a full circuit of Northrend in about 30 minutes (maybe less if you just focus on the circuit instead of watching TV at the same time or something).

Getting Ready for Your Circuit:

Conveniently, you can start from Dalaran and Crystalsong Forest, which means all it takes is a quick port to Dalaran (you can use your ring or one of the portals to Dalaran in Pandara's capital cities). I'd suggest that you also have epic flight speed, because flying on a slow mount or actually using flight paths for this circuit will take too long!

Your Val'kyr Northrend Farming Route

When you land in Dalaran, you'll want to fly out toward the east and cover the spawn points in Crystalsong Forest, and then you'll want to cover the zones in this order:

1. Zul'Drak
2. The Storm Peaks
3. Icecrown
4. Sholazar Basin
5. Borean Tundra
6. Dragonblight
7. Grizzly Hills
8. Howling Fjord

Tip: You'll usually want to fly in a counter-clockwise circle around the zone to hit all of the spawn points. Usually, at the end of your time in the zone, you'll be close to the border of the next zone where you need to fly.

Helpful Val'kyr Location Maps:

I was going to create maps of the spawn points for this little creature, but a user at Wowhead already did a terrific job of pegging the maps. Here are the links for each of those helpful maps so you'll know where to fly each time you enter a new zone.

Note that I have these links set up to open in a new window so you'll be able to open up all the windows in a row and click onto each new map as you fly around Northrend.

• Crystalsong Forest
• Zul'Drak
• The Storm Peaks
• Icecrown
• Sholazar Basin
• Borean Tundra
• Dragonblight
• Grizzly Hills
• Howling Fjord

Where I Found My Val'kyr

Interestingly, I completed my entire Val'kyr circuit and was ready to turn in for the night when I got a wild hair to fly back to a nearby spawn point in Howling Fjord. Incredibly, a little Val'kyr was sitting just south of Giant's Run, waiting for me to catch her! I'm not at all surprised that my spawn was at the very end of my route. That's how it always goes, right?

Tips for a Successful Catch

Since the Val'kyr isn't a legendary pet or special pet from a trainer, you shouldn't have trouble catching one with almost any pet lineup. She's an Undead pet, so the best pets to weaken her are critters, and you might want to avoid using Humanoids since Undead pets do more damage to Humanoids.

In my zeal to catch my Val'kyr, I actually had a Flayer Youngling in my lineup and the little Humanoid bugger lasted until the third pet before he expired...

Have you already found your Unborn Val'kyr? How long did it take you to find one?