Elite, rare, rare elite and boss

Reading the portrait

The client ships four surrounds for five ranks, which is the first thing worth knowing: a world boss wears the same gold dragon an elite does, so the frame cannot tell you that one is a raid encounter and the other is dungeon trash. What it does tell you is unusual — and unusual is not the same as dangerous.

How much harder each rank is

Health and damage as a multiple of what an ordinary creature of the same level carries, taken as the median over every creature of that rank that spawns in the world. The numbers settle two arguments at once.

A rare is a normal mob with a silver frame. Median health ×1.15 and median damage ×1.00, against ×1.05 and ×1.00 for an ordinary creature of the same level. Rares are scarce, not strong — and their loot tables are short, which is why a rare is so often the best named source for a world-drop item.

An elite is the one to respect. ×3.00 health and ×3.45 damage — the damage is the half people underestimate, because it arrives before the health matters. A world boss runs to ×248.00 health.

Medians, not averages: one creature at ×248 pulls a mean anywhere it likes. “Kinds” counts distinct creatures that spawn somewhere in the world; a creature with no spawn row is in the database and not in the game.

Every rare, and where it spawns

All 258 rare creatures with a spawn point in the 1.12 data, by zone. Coordinates come from the spawn table, so they are where the creature stands rather than where a present-day map puts it — several of these zones were redrawn later.

Every rare elite

The 81 rare elites that spawn outside an instance. Elite health and damage on a rare spawn timer, which is the combination worth knowing about before you pull one while levelling.

World bosses you can walk up to

Of the 95 creatures the game ranks as a boss, these 27 stand outdoors in a zone with a map. The rest are inside raids and dungeons, where a zone coordinate means nothing.

The rest of the basics

• Creature typesThe ten types a creature can be, what can be tamed or skinned, and which spells only work on one of them.
• Schools of magic, and resistanceThe six schools plus physical, what resistance does to a spell, and which creatures are immune.
• Attributes, and what a point is worthStrength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Spirit, with the per-class numbers the server itself uses.
• Which weapons each class can useEvery weapon and armour type by class, what you start with, and where the eight weapon masters stand.