The Facts about Silver Rares/Elites in the World of Warcraft

As you journey through the lands of Azeroth or Outlands, you may encounter a mob that seems different from other mobs. They sometime stand out by different colors or seem bigger then nearby mobs in the area. They sometimes even have unique names. Are these bosses or some kind of special mob? They could be Silver Rares!

1.) How can you tell if its rare or not?
Answer: Well, he will have a "silver" color dragon around its portriat. Silver rares will drop better then average loot everytime you kill one.

2.) Are there different kinds of Silver Rares?
Answer: There are 2 types of silver rares, normal and elite. You can quickly identify by seeing if the silver dragon around the portrait has wings or not. An elite will have wings where as a normal one will not. This also seperates them on how tough they are. A normal rare will have average hitpoints/damage similiar to most mobs around their level where as elites are usually 4 levels higher then what it is with increased hitpoints/damage. Always be cautious when trying to solo an elite that is below your level.

Silver Rare (normal)	Silver Elite Rare

3.) Where do Silver Rares spawn and how do I find them?
Answer: You can find Silver Rares in most outside zones/dungeons. Some spawn in one area, some can spawn in multible areas throught a zone. Some will roam or patrol after spawning, some will be static. The important thing here is doing research. On this website you will find the most detailed info and screenshots anywhere. Or, you can also check out Blizzard's WoW Atlas where they tell you the rarity and estimated location of some or read the forums from people's experiences with finding them.

4.) Will killing other mobs in the area trigger or quicken a silver rare to spawn?
Answer: One myth that lots of people believe is that killing other mobs in the area will make the rare spawn quicker, which is false. This is true in alot of other online games such as EverQuest where you sometimes must kill placeholders to have the rare mob spawn but not the case in Warcraft. Killing other mobs will do nothing except keep you occupied while waiting. 99% of silver rares are on their own unique spawn point and timer.

5.) What is the difference between the rarity?
Answer: There are 5 different types of rarity on silver rares in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. They are uncommon, semi-rare, average, very rare and uber. It depends on the level and the average time it takes to spawn upon each death or server reboot. Down below is the official Silver Rare spawn times and rarity key.
Example: server just rebooted and the silver rare you are looking for is level 23. You learned its a Sem-Rare mob so your looking at 8.5 to 12.5 hours time span from the Rarity Key. So if the server just came up at 1:30pm, you should start looking for the rare at roughly 9:30pm - 1:30pm.
Silver Rares spawn a bit differently in Outlands and Northrend. They don't follow the rarity key down below. Most of them seem to have a spawn timer of roughly 6 hours to 18 hours depending on the silver mob.

6.) Do Silver Rares spawn differently in dungeons/instances?
Answer: Silver Rares are very different in instances. Normally when you enter an instance, you will have a certain percentage of whether or not he will be in the zone. The rough estimate from my personal experience is about 25% chance the silver elite will be up in the instance. Karazhan is a bit different. Normally you have to kill most of the mobs in the basement for one of the 3 silver elites to spawn. You can repeat the process over and over by clearing the basement and getting them to spawn. Outlands and Northrend dungeons are void of silver elites which stinks... :P