Animal Farm
Mages have the best crowd control in the game using the Polymorph spell. The spell effects humanoids and beasts which make up most of the creatures in WoW. A mage polymorphs creatures into sheep by default. But with research they can use two other forms, Pigs and Turtles. There is no advantage to using one form over another, only the appearance changes. But George Orwell would be proud.
The Sheep
This is what mages normally prefer. Why, we aren’t sure. But we do know there are 4 ranks which increase the duration and the mana cost. Get the highest rank, it’s shearly worth it.
The Pig
As an alternative a mage can polymorph their enemy into a pig. To do this you need to complete a two step quest chain. The first is easy and the second is fun. You start by talking to an archmage’s apprentice named Nyrill out in the middle of Azshara (28,50). He will teleport you up to the Archmage Xylem’s fortress where the Archmage will give you the first quest. You will then go kill Warlord Krellian in the center of the map, which is easy for a level 70. After you return the next quest will be to collect essences from Naga clones. Typically you polymorph the Naga’s and kill their clones with Arcane Explosion, this is the fun part.
The Turtle
A mage can also turtle their enemies, but must find the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle. It’s an item from the optional boss Gahz’ranka in the pre-expansion 20 person raid of Zul’Gurub. This puts it quite off the beaten path and difficult to get groups for. You will not be able to solo this but some have trio-ed it with a tank, healer, and dps. In any case, the odds of this boss dropping the Tome is about ~15%. To make things worse you will need someone in the party with at least 350 fishing skill to summon the boss. If you can’t find a group, keep an eye on the Auction House because the item is BoE. If you get lucky enough for someone to sell it, it goes for 800-2000 gold. If you do manage to find a group make sure to make a stop at High Preist Thekal for a shot at the Swift Zulian Tiger. It’s an even lower drop rate but worth a stop since you are already there. In either case most mages don’t have this ability, making it quite unique. If you have the money or the patience to farm the boss.
If you have more than one type of polymorph you can show off your abilities by using this macro. It will randomly polymorph your target into one of the three animals.
/castrandom [harm] Polymorph(Rank 4), Polymorph(Rank 1: Pig), Polymorph(Rank 1: Turtle)
/stopmacro [noharm]
Remember, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” and have fun on the farm!
Hi, I just grouped with my guild 6-man ftw, GM is a mage, this was his second attempt at trying to get the tome, we only wiped once, but we had fun, we even went and killed the lizard boss in hopes of getting his mount…no such luck on either..but we had fun nonetheless.
It’s fun going to old raids with smaller groups. But running it over and over and getting nothing would suck all the fun out. Making a sidetrip for a shot at the mount on each trip is an excellent idea. I’ll add that in the article.
It is good to see you make a post on this topic, I have to bookmark this web site. Just keep up the good work.