Saturday, November 5, 2011

Time-Lost Proto-Drake - Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake


The Time-Lost Proto-Drake (TLPD) is a level 80 rare spawn that can be found in the Storm Peaks. He has a 100% chance to drop the coveted Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake, as well as a level 76 bind on equip necklace and an abandoned adventurer's satchel. He has 18,900 hp and is non-elite. TLPD shares a spawn timer, spawn points, and flight paths with Vyragosa. This means that they can never be up at the same time. Vyragosa is also MUCH much more likely to spawn than the TLPD. In your time camping for the TLPD you can expect to be seeing a lot of her.

Spawn Timer:

The spawn timer on both the TLPD and Vyragosa is somewhere between 6-24+hours, meaning that after either Vyragsa or the TLPD are killed you will not see either of them spawn again for at least six hours MUCH shorter than it used to be when this article was originally written. People have seen it in as little as an hour, and anywhere up to about 7 hours (updated 4/13/17). It is completely random which one of the two will spawn in next. Vyragosa could spawn 10 times before you see a TLPD spawn or she may only spawn a couple of times in between TLPD spawns.

TLPD being "held" at Bor's Breath, screen-shot courtesy of Reinoverall - Elune (US)
Spawn Points:

The TLPD and Vyragosa have four separate spawn points. These spawn points are Ulduar Ravine, Frozen Lake, the Waterfall and Brunnhildar Village. I have indicated these spawn points with yellows x's on the map below. (If you scroll further down in this post I also have multiple screen shots and video of each location to give a better idea of each exact spawn point.)


When the TLPD and Vyragosa spawn in, they are not flying. I have had Vyragosa spawn on top of me on oh so very many occasions, and when they spawn in they are sort of sticking half out of the mountain. Because they spawn in right on the mountainside in each location, the best way to camp for the TLPD is to pick a spawn location and sit right on top of it until one of them spawns in. IF YOU HAVE A PET MAKE SURE THAT YOU KEEP IT ON PASSIVE! Coming back to a dead unlootable Time-Lost Proto-Drake would be a sad thing indeed.

My spawn point of choice is the Frozen Lake spawn. I prefer this one because there are two other flight paths that pass by it that the TLPD can take after spawning at either the Waterfall or Ulduar Ravine. Often times I also camp with two accounts. When I camp with the second account I park the other toon at Brunnhildar Village to cover the last path that I'd otherwise not see at all over at the Frozen Lake Spawn.

Flight Paths:

As you can see from the map above there are four separate flight paths that the TLPD and Vyragosa will take once they spawn in. Once spawned in and on a path, they will not deviate from that path or cross into other paths. They can both also go clockwise or counter-clockwise on any of the paths. The direction that they will fly is completely random.

Addons & Targeting Macros:

I definitely recommend having NPCScan and NPCScan Overlay if you plan on doing some serious Time-Lost Proto-Drake camping. I do most of my camping while watching tv in another room. I turn my sound all the way up and have the game sound muted. I also have checked off "Unmute for alert sound" so that I can actually hear the alert go off. (See screenshot below.) This way if the TLPD or Vyragosa spawns I can hear that obnoxious NPCScan horn going off.


Click to Enlarge
Your also going to want to make sure that both the Time-Lost Proto-Drake and Vyragosa are not cached before you start camping. For info on how to clear your cache you can read this post.

It is also possible to pick up the Time-Lost Proto-Drake with a simple targeting macro, but I don't recommend this method. If you do want to, a simple /target Time-Lost works fine. The first time I found the TLPD was actually with this method, but having NPCScan do the work for you is a lot easier.

Downing the Time-Lost Proto-Drake after he's left his spawn point: 

If you do come across the TLPD and he is in the air, you are going to need to be careful. The safest way to pull him is a body pull by just flying into him and then flying toward the nearest surface for you to fight him on. Depending on which spawn location that he spawns at and the direction that he's flying, he could potentially be flying very high. If your afraid that someone else may tag him, it would be advisable to tag him in the air and have some method to slow your fall. It is also possible that the TLPD will dismount you if just trying to body pull. Either way, have something to slow your fall. An easy one to get very close by is Snowfall Lager which is purchasable by both horde and alliance from two different vendors in the Storm Peaks for the cost of only two Relics of Ulduar.

SCREENSHOTS & VIDEOS OF ALL FOUR TLPD SPAWN POINTS:

FROZEN LAKE SPAWN POINT (Click screen-shots to enlarge):







WATERFALL SPAWN POINT (Click screen-shots to enlarge):







BRUNNHILDAR SPAWN POINT (Click screen-shots to enlarge):





ULDUAR RAVINE SPAWN POINT (Click screen-shots to enlarge):









73 comments:

  1. You've inspired me to actually try to farm this thing. There's so much useful information here that I didn't know before when I tried to farm him. ;__; I had NO IDEA about the other dragon, or the multiple spawn points. Yeesh. I might as well have went into it blind. This is super helpful though and I feel like I can't fail after reading through it. :) Thank you. Wish me luck!

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  2. I hope you have a lot of patience, or booze! Either way, good luck!!! ;)

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  3. Will just say i read this before i camped for 10 mins and then the drums of NCPscan went off :)

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    1. nobody cares

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    2. No need to be an absolute twat about it. I care about it.

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    3. And so do I! That's awesome dude, lucky you! :D

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  4. Thanks to this I got my time-lost on a early morning log in, Thankyou very much! Got him on the frozen lake

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  5. Just wondering, did the respawn timer on these 2 change lately, i killed vyragosa earlier at 3pm server, and just saw a horde kill him around 8:10server

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    1. I'm pretty sure the timer was decreased. I haven't seen it yet myself, but I've heard the same thing from other friends I know camping for it.

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  6. i got tlpd after 6 days of solid daytime camping, i do alot of rare find whilst doing archeology and they all seem to spawn alot after weekly maintenance. so if u wannt camp make sure ur camping straight after maintenance cos this is when i got tlpd.

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  7. Thanks you for this page I got mine today first try also.Killed Vyragosa and waited 6 hours 30 min and time lost spawned. I'm a level 71 hunter. It's wicked. Camped and flying the paths after waiting 6 and a half hours.Then was sitting in the first spot (frozen lake).
    Thanks again.

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  8. So far I've killed Vyragosa twice in the two days of camping and have yet to see TLD. When you kill one of the drakes does the other spawn next? They sure named this drake properly. Thanks for the info you've collected!

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    1. No, unfortunately it doesn't work that way. When one is killed you can take a break for a few hours and then the next one could be Vyragosa again or the TLPD. Odds are though, that it will be Vyragosa because she is the far more common spawn. GL in your search!!

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    2. I read your info again about the spawns. I could be here forever! Hope TLD shows up soon. :-)

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  9. the minimum time between spawns is actually 45 minutes in cataclysm sadly

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    1. I've never heard this before (or experienced this myself) in months and months of camping. Is this something that you witnessed personally? I've heard that it had been reduced since Cataclysm, but not to that extent.

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    2. All rares in Northrend are now connected meaning if you kill one another one will spawn 5mins after, but only 3 rares can be up at the same time. That way if you are alot of people (Maybe from guild or something) you can camp the spawnpoints of all rares and force it to spawn, meaning it's minimum spawn that has been witnessed is 45min. I believe in this even though I've never seen Vyra or TLPD spawn after killing a rare. But my friend helped me once by flying around and when he killed one a couple of minutes later Putridus spawned and alerted NPCscan. another example - He killed Griegen and then Dirkee popped up. So I actually think 45 mins is possible, with abit of luck of course ;)

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    3. Also I was wondering if Putridus has a "special" connection to Vyra and TLPD? I've heard stuff, like if Putridus spawns it means that Vyra or TLPD will spawn within 5 hours.. I've also heard that if he spawns it will only be Vyra spawning..? And another thing I've heard is that if Putridus spawns it means that TLPD is the next spawn, but it will take minimum 10 hours for it. Meaning that TLPD will spawn 10 hours after a Putridus spawn..?

      Have you heard anything about this? Or know the answer?

      Thanks for all your info! Best info by far!

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    4. @ Xoysus - regarding Putridus: As far as I'm aware Putridus doesn't have any special connection to the TLPD or Vyragosa - unless something has been changed recently. I kind of doubt it though.

      I've had npcscan go off for him on many many occasions while I was camping for the TLPD (because as most people are aware npcscan will pick him up from across the entire continent), but I don't think that's what you were looking for - and that has nothing to do with their spawn timers.

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  10. It's not that his timer has decreased it's that vyra now shares spawners with the rest of the northrend rares. Before cata all rares, expect vyra, were linked, meaning kill one and another spawns somewhere else (max 3 up at one time.) Vyra was different as she was on a separate timer (and as we know TLPD is a rare replacement of vyra) so it didn't matter how many rares you killed pre-cata once Vyra or TLPD spawned they did not show their faces again for a min 6hrs.

    Come cata vyra's spawn is now linked to the rest of the Northrend rares and she no longer has her separate timer. Many many TLPD hunters have noticed that now if you go out and actively hunt down the rest of the rares of Northrend (Skoll and Gondria included, this has nothing to do with Frostbitten) it increases the chance of vyra/TLPD spawning... all this really means is high populated realms or realms where there still is high Northrend activity will see vyra/tlpd spawn more often and they will see spawns within that 6hr rule that she used to hold. For low populated realms or realms where Northrend is dead you'll most likely see no change.

    Personally the 45min respawn is total BS because no actual corpses or kills were documented, that 45min was based off armory documenting a vyra helm 'loot' then 45mins later a time lost neck 'loot'. If you go to AH and buy a vyra helm then 45mins later buy a time lost neck these will show up on your armory because they're blue items (armory documents every time you get legend/epic/rare/BoA items.) I try and get the TLPD on all my alts as well as try and help my guildies get him and the earliest I've seen is a 5hr 45min respawn on average I'm seeing, on a high populated realm, 14hr respawn.

    This site is by far holds the best correct information on TLPD (I own a TLPD on 17 toons now so believe me when I say this.) There are other popular websites/resources out there on TLPD but what many fail to see is that detailed information on those sites is for one or two realms only. RNG is different on every single realm, you may think you see similarities but unfortunately that's just coincidences, if they were the same gold farmers would have it easy street.

    Thanks for going into great detail! Best TLPD current information since cata.

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    1. Forgot to mention... I've never camped at Frozen Lake. At Frozen lake you have no idea if someone is on top of Waterfall or Uld spawn spots, if there are your 3 paths (75% chance of TLPD) has been cut down to 1 (25% chance) and it's often you get someone who parks their alt out at uld and they camp waterfall (which picks up brunn as well.) ... just saying.

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    2. Wow! Thanks for the incredible amount of helpful information! You have no idea how much I appreciate helpful comments such as this! ^-^

      TLDP on 17 toons!?! Sir...or ma'am...I salute you. You have more dedication than I could ever hope for!

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  11. Thanks for this useful information I tryed farming the TLPD for the first time ever last night , I did a route of the whole area first see what route he will take then I went to the frozen lake the one you recommended and was there for about 15 mins and all of a sudden my NPC starts going crazy but it was the TLPD but the other drake , but I'm going to persist an hopefully some day I will get my drake , thanks for your guide and wish me luck xD

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    1. Don't be surprised if you see more of Vyragosa before you find the TLPD, you never know though...maybe not! ;)

      Good luck in your search.

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  12. I see some NPC"s names are kinda highlighted does that mean they are up or have not been killed or spawned yet?

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    1. Are you referring to an addon? Where exactly are you seeing these npc's highlighted? I'm sorry I don't know how to answer your question at this point because I don't know what your referring to.

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    2. Im referring to the rare spawn NPC names in the NPCSCAN search box

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  13. under the NPC customs tab not the 2 achievement tabs

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    1. Ahhhhhh, gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up. ;)

      It highlights the rares that are in the same zone as you. For example, I logged into a toon in Stormwind and all of the rares in The Eastern Kingdoms were highlighted.

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    2. that doesnt make sense you are saying two different things

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    3. It makes perfect sense, perhaps I should have explained in greater detail. Open up NPCScan and look at that tab in Stormwind or Undercity - wherever it doesn't matter, then head over to Darnassus or Orgrimmar on the other continent and watch the highlighted rares change to the match the zone/continent/area your in (under the "World" column in that tab).

      Example - I logged into one of my hunters in Stormwind and all of the rares labeled under "Eastern Kingdoms" that were not cached lit up. Then I logged into one of my other hunters in Ashenvale and saw that all of the uncached rares labeled "Kalimdor" were lit up.

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    4. I see what you are saying now but not all the NPCs were lit in the zone only TLPD was lit Dirkee or none of the others were lit on the list.

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    5. Were they cached? They won't light up if they are cached.

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    6. no they were not cached that was cleared.

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    7. It's hard for me to tell without actually seeing what your looking at, but the non-highlighted ones are the ones that are not being tracked. They are tracked based on proximity, whether or not they have been cached, or completed as part of an achievement. Make sure your cache is cleared and that you have checked off "search for completed achievement npcs" and you should be good to go.

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    8. Awesome guide! >:)
      This was actually really informative, and i am now hunting TLPT.
      You should do one of these for that dragon in deepholm. Aeonaxx.

      But yeah, awesome guide. :)

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    9. Heh, thanks and good luck in your search.

      I actually have another blog dedicated to Aeonaxx called Find Aeonaxx , I wrote up a brief post on this blog as well Aeonaxx - Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake =)

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  14. How long did it take you to find the TLPD

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    1. The first time I found it I wasn't actually looking...I was leveling up in Storm Peaks and just kind of "ran into" it.

      The second time I camped for a month or so, mostly while watching TV in the evening.

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  15. I can confirm the connections of the rares in the Northrend zones. I have been camping the tlpd for 5 days now, and just gotten Vyragosa kills every 6+ hours. My guild mates pointed me to this page and we wanted to test out the idea that rare spawns are now connected. I killed Vyragosa at 1 pm my server time, and was assuming the next spawn would not take place until 7, so instead my guildees went and started killing Rare mobs in Northrend, immediately after the 6th rare kill the Time Lost Spawned above me at 5:05. Killed it. Win. Thank you so much for this site, hope the information helps!!

    (P.S- Do not kill him near the side of any mountain... If you do his body may fall halfway into the mountain and get stuck where you can't loot it :[ This happened to me. HOWEVER. If you have a nice person with the touring rocket you can hop in and still loot while in the passenger seat, so yay!)

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    1. Thank you for not only testing this theory out, but for sharing what you found. =) Great advise with the 2-seater mount to solve your looting issue as well. I've never been unlucky enough to have him land where I couldn't loot him before, but if that ever happens to myself or another reader we'll be making some frantic tells (or even phone calls) for sure! ;)

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    2. Haha no doubt! My friends and I have been camping for the past month or so now, and gotten 2 regular spawns, but this one took the cake, we really had no idea that the spawn was going to happen and literally after the 6th rare kill it spawned right on top of me, I couldn't be happier! :D Hope it helps with other people as well

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    3. Congrats on your kill, and this is very helpful info thanks again!

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  16. I am currently building and testing a theory based on the ones above me in regards to vryagosa's shared spawn timer. At 7:09am server time, she spawned and was felled. I am on a VERY low pop server, only 3000 here. I then set out to slay all rare spawns. I killed dirkee, high thane, putridus, aotona, loque'nahak, old crystalbark, flumbub gearwind, indo'le survivor, tunkemuth, seething hate, perobas,king ping, and the terror spinner. So far we are at 14 of the 23 rare spawns. It was stated that there can only be 3 rare spawns up at any given time. I think thats true for active servers, however for the inactive ones, when the timer on an npc is up, they pop. I dont believe that I was able to kill 14 rare spawns in 45 minutes of one another with only 3 being up at a time.

    With that said now, I believe that my server is now considered "active" so NOW there can only be up at any time. With that said, I set out again and found Syreian, Vigdas, and the zuldrak sentinel, which brings us up to 17 out of 23. It's been about 20 minutes now, so I'm going to make another pass, which should have given the server enough time to spawn the next rares.

    My ultimate goal on this is to reduce the spawn timer to its very bare minimum, which Ive heard to be 3 hours now. If a server is constantly active and rare spawns are being slain left and right, new ones will have to spawn in their place. With vryagosa being the first rare slain, I dont believe any other rare that I've slain will spawn before her. This is all speculation and theory right now, and we are coming up on the 3 hour mark so maybe we'll know something harder soon.

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    1. I look forward to hearing how this turns out. Thanks a bunch for sharing!

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    2. 11 hours after I killed Vryagosa and still nothing. Putridus has respawned after 10 hours though. Theory busted.

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    3. Do you think the spawn points are set around certain times? For the past three days I have camped at Brunnhildar and every day around 1pm Cyragosa has spawned each day. Coincidence?

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  17. sorry about my typo : Vyragosa

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  18. Thanks for this guide. Im actually camping for TLPD with my account set on the Waterfall spot and my girlfriends account on the Ulduar spawning spot. I saw Vyragosa's corpse at around 02.00. I started my camping at 06.00, now its 09.00 and still no new spawns. Wish me luck.

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  19. Big thanks for all this information. I managed to get my TLPD this morning.This was a huge help. Thanks

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    1. I owe you another thanks - I grabbed tlpd on the morning on one account and grabbed Aeonaxx on my other account later the same day! Aeonaxx was so easy with a shadow priest. Unbelievable! Thanks for all this information.

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  20. Thank you for this guide.
    I'm still camping at the moment (I'm on the Waterfall, I like it there as it's noone around and most likely more ppl are on the frozen lake).
    I like to return to this page once in a while, just to see the pics ;)
    Cheers
    -Mork-

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    1. Good luck, hopefully the tlpd shows up soon! =)

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  21. Do you know how long you can fall before he reset or despawn? I mean if you are so high up and slow down to the ground. How long time can TLPD fly before it does not wanna attack you anymore? Do you know or got some facts? :)

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    1. It's pretty much like any other flying mob in that respect. It'll follow you for a short while, but if you get too far it will definitely reset.

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  22. I can't help but notice that peple are killing TLPD either on the hour or 10 past. Just an observation.

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    1. [05:50:07] _NPCScan: Found “Time-Lost Proto Drake”!
      The previous two spawns were vyragosa at 1848 yesterday and around 2200 the day before. I could have missed a spawn between 2200 - 1848 as I logged out (no NPCScan message saved).

      What I would like to point out is that now with patch 5.0.4, people from other servers on your battlegroup can kill the spawn on your server. Or the spawn might now be shared across the battlegroup. I saw Vyragosa health drop and die in front of me, then moments later a hunter "phased in" to loot and skin, then phased out. I thought it was camouflage, but he would have dropped camo when he attacked. This means that you are facing phased competitors who can see your spawns, just not each other. It might be advisable to camp the spawn point.

      If vyra/TLPD really does have a higher chance to spawn when other rares are killed, this cross realm feature may reduce the average spawn timer. Otherwise more players are "sharing" the same spawn which is pretty facepalm. This is just my observation and conjecture. My apologies as I do not have more data than this to provide as I've been camping him on and off till recently.

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  23. Just got him 10mins back! Thank you for your all the information you shared, and to all that contributed. I was about to mop the kitchen, but headed back to my room to grab some stuff when NPCScan went off. The fear faded after I realised I had successfully tagged him. There so MANY botters in Storm Peaks flying some route script.

    Best of luck to those still hunting this elusive drake, and thanks once more!!

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  24. i am now sitting and waiting for server restart and testing the theory that he spawns when server restarts

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  25. so after seen someone in Orgrimmar with the time lost proto drake, I knew I had to have it because it looks sick as hell. So he told me to go to Bor's breath. I got there but then I didn't really know what to look for so I asked him and he told me I should get NPC scan so I did and then I went on YouTube and saw video that was on your blog so I read it and now I'm really pissed off because he can be a lot of places. And I don't know when he's going to be there. So then I looked a little further and saw your migration patterns on the TLPD and that scared me even more so right now as you gave me advice I am sitting at frozen lake spawn. it's only been 10 minutes so far but I just want to thank you for the advice that you gave me and I'll let you know the result!wish me luck!

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    1. Good luck, it can be a long wait - but definitely one that's worth it! If you don't want to drive yourself crazy, the best advise I can give is to turn that volume up and wait for that npcscan horn to go off while doing something else. Hopefully it'll show up soon! ^-^

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  26. Just wanna say thanks to this website. Got my TLPD this morning at waterfall spawn point. 2 days camping worth now.

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  27. With Mists of Pandaria i have witnessed a spawn under 6 hours. It was 4 hours and 45 minutes.

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    1. They did shorten the spawn timer to account for CRZ.

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  28. Just wanted to post my experience so far. I saw TLPD spawn (missed him of course do to having num lock off, /cry). This was at 1:30, later that day Vera spawned at the same location about 5 hrs later. Confirming that they can in fact spawn in less than 6 hrs, GL to all. I live with my fail forever.

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  29. Hey I have been camping now for 11 hour now and seen none I have even had a mate of mine fine to other spawns check whilst Iv camped the same spawn and visa versa. So far nothing we have not seen vyragosa or a corpse same with time lost plus a reset has happened so is there some thing were doing wrong here or are just very very unlucky here ?

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  30. I saw the TLPD once.. but completely ignored it! I thought it was a regular mob... >.< When I found out that it dropped a mount.. well, let's just say my brain hurt.

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  31. As of patch 6.0 NPCScan will no longer give an auto-alert once the mob spawns due to a change in the way the game caches mobs. You have to actually mouseover the mob for the alert to trigger. (Check out what happened on the addon's Curse page.) This has made camping for it more of a chore than it already is. The simple target macro offered in this thread is pretty much exactly as helpful as NPCScan now after the changes. This means TLPD could spawn near you and fly away in the one minute you're on the john now, and you may never know and continue camping, thinking nothing's happened.
    NPCScan made camping quite fun. Now all that is gone and it's back to being pure frustration most of the time.

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  32. NOOOO :< I've been camping him for such a long time and today I said "screw that" and started looking for Dirkee. That's when NPCScan went off and guess what it said "NPC FOUND! Time-Lost Proto-Drake". I got all excited, but he was anywhere near me. I LOST HIM ;__;

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  33. This rare... is painful... Been camping for around 36+ hours. No sleep. Was prepared for EVERY single condition that would have made me go out of my room; I sat here for almost 2 days, with NPCscan, cache cleared, a bot that spammed a /tar vyragosa /Tar Time every 3 seconds, and nothing happened. Nothing spawned. I have camped with 2 computers, 2 different accounts, one horde, one alliance, both spamming a macro /who Storm Peaks every 30 seconds, and aside rare exceptions, no one came there. (The exceptions are people who came and left in less than 1-2 minute, probably heading toward Ulduar, or there by passage).
    ...Do the Time-Lost and Vyragosa even really exist or is all of that some evil trolling...?

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    1. If you're using bots, you don't deserve TLPD

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