Yetis for fun and profit

[Hecklerkoch]

-- Edited: Made mistake on lvls at end. Updated.

I've tried most of the places mentioned in the 30-38 hunting posts. Some worked well, some didn't. Some were good at certain lvls while others were better at others. For anyone in the L36 area (didn't try at 35 might be good for that as well) I'd cast my vote for the Yetis in DL. First the summary:
Pros
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- Good xp. Was getting 1/2 blue per at 36 and getting 40% blue per at 37.
- Not bad on loot, avg 2pp per. Plus lots of the Datura flower things drop which sell for close to 2pp each. Yeah there's other places where loot might be better but personally I think 2pp per isn't bad in the 36-37 range.
- Yetis not too tough with better than avg equip. I have mostly moderate equip with 4-5 "twink" like gear; i.e., blood earring of rage, Cloak of pernicity, and the like.
- While Yetis con KoS you can pull one from right next to another and the 2nd won't aggro. Much like the Brutes around the Dalnir entrance in WW.

Cons
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- Bind is either in FV, PoK, or Shadow Haven. I picked Shadow Haven and use the Luclin spires in Nexus to get to DL. Probably closer to do PoK and take the stone to FV and run through DL to the caves in the West. /shrug.
- No close escape areas. All the Yeti caves are in the far W part of the zone. If you get in trouble you either have to run like heck to BW or FV. Think you might be safe running into the Valley with the Spires but only did that once and, although my pursuers never showed up, don't think that's a valid enough test to say "yay" or "nay".
- Until you get the hang of getting them out of the very windy tunnel it can be tough getting them outside (see Details).

Details
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There are 3 caves. 1 NW, 1 S, and 1 near KC in the middle. I discounted the middle one without even going to check it out because, just from its location, I figured adds would be a problem. Might be correct might not, didn't try it though. I did try the other 2 caves.

The 1st was the NW one you get to by going left as you come out of the Valley with the spires. I hunted this for a little over an hour and just couldn't seem to get a hang for the spawn and how roamers worked. It seems to me, based on my time there, that roamers spawn outside in the valley and head to this cave. Again, since I didn't stay there for hours and hours, I'm not sure their pathing or actually where they might be coming from. All I know is more than once I'd be running out of the caves only to run into 1 or even 2 heading in. There's also other mobs that get pretty close to this entrance, particularly Drachnids that get close enough I think you'd aggro them coming out. I set up on a hill to the right of the cave entrance as you come out and there was an occasional Drachnid that showed up right at the bottom of that hill. Definitely close enough to aggro if I had come running out at the time.

The 2nd one I tried, and the one I highly recommend, is the one on the S wall. If you have maps it's easy to see. If not, either hit the S wall from KC and head W till you see it or from spires turn right as you exit valley and just hug the wall, around the SW corner, till you hit it. Set up here turned out to be a breeze. Standing at the entrance you notice there's snow all around except a patch of rock texture that widens as you follow the wall heading E. The end of the rock patch goes down a steep grade and you'll see the beginning of a frozen lake (on a map you can't miss the lake).

I set up my pet about 1/2 way up the rock patch from the entrance. The only buffs I had were my own. There were times my pet had Mardou, Girdle of Magi'Kot, and 2 Ixblats. Other times he had nothing but Spirit of Inferno on him. I ALWAYS have a bag of bandages. Anyway, with pet about  middle of the rock patch with /pet guard here, I head into the caves. The roamers in here, there are 2, will walk up and down the tunnel. On rare occasion 2 would be in there at the same time, 1 obviously spawning somewhere near the cave entrance. Once you've taken out the roamers the single cave room holds 4. 2 are located left of the room entrance and 2, standing side-by-side, in the back middle of the room (can't miss these guys they are literally touching each other at their spawn point).

Roamers will go into this room and bounce around a bit before heading back out.  Getting them out of the tunnel is tricky. If they get hung up for any length of time they will pop on your head. Once they get hung up you can cast on them but before you can get a 2nd cast off they will pop on you. If you go here you'll see there are 2 places where they really seem to get hung up, both look very similar and both have places where you can move up, get the Yeti moving again, and still not worry about getting hit. Be careful though because even if you're around a corner and close enough they will hit you. Once you find these places it will become part of your pull. Sorry it's just too hard to describe in sufficient detail but once you try it you'll see where I'm talking about. Also, the 2 that spawn to left of room entrance will get hung up inside the room if you pull them and immediately run down the tunnel. You have to just go down the tunnel a little to the 1st corner and wait till they come out of the room. Another  place they'll get hung up is at the entrance IF you come out and immediately turn right to head down to where your pet's sitting. If you come out and head straight a little bit then go right they'll come out and continue following you.

The reason you might go immediately right coming out are the other mobs that roam around the left side of the entrance. None get close enough to aggro you if you come out and go immediately right. Some get close enough that I think should you come out and go straight for a couple seconds they might aggro you. What I did was, as I came out of the entrance, if there were mobs I could see I just immediately went right and let the Yeti eventually pop on my head outside in my set up area. If I didn't see anything I ran out straight a little bit and pulled him as normal.

I pulled with Sicken. Once I hit the 1st place where they seem to get hung up I purposely tried to get them hung up on that corner and, if they do get hung up, hit them with Tainted Breath. Then I'd move back toward them (again you'll see a little spot where you can ease in and they'll come off of the corner they're stuck on) until they cleared and started following. Next I'd tried to get them hung up on the 2nd corner where they tend to hang. I'd hit them with Drowsy and, as before, move up to dislodge them. Then I ran to entrance, looked to make sure I hadn't lost my fan club, check to see if any mobs out aways, and either run right or run out a little to get them clear of the entrance. As I got to my pet, if I'd been hit anywhere along the way, I'd hit my /pet back off key so he wouldn't run up to get them (more on that in a sec), as soon as the Yeti got next to pet hit /pet attack, and then nail him with Ice Spear. Next just tank him till dead.

The reason I wanted to make sure the Yeti made it to the middle of the rock patch (my set up area) is due to their run path. In the middle of the rock patch they run and head down the slope where I saw absolutely nothing roam that might add. Oh there's some roamers down there but they all stayed on the other side of the hill. In fact more than once another Yeti showed up there so I pulled him next. After mob dead I'd Bind Wound to 70 (actually got pretty good at getting up to 72 off a Bind Wound) and start again. They hit avg in the 50s and will on occasion nail you with a double in the 70s but mostly dmg is not too bad at all.

The other area you can pull from, and I DEFINITELY recommend Yetis since Drolvargs gave me almost no xp for the rick and giants kicked the crap outta me the 2 times I tried them, is the area to the left of the cave entrance. There's as many as 4 mobs that'll be around there. A number of times they were Yetis. I spent all off 36 and 37 here. In all that time I got 2 mobs twice. Both times I got a roamer coming into the tunnel when I was heading out. On at least 2 occasions I ran past a roamer coming in and got no aggro whatsoever.

If you have really good equip, get a Temp, C, and pet toys, there's no reason you can't tear these things up without much problems. If you're equipped to the point that there isn't enough mobs here then I'd suggest trying the NW caves. There's roamers (as previously mentioned), at least 2, 1 in a little alcove as you get to the x-roads to the rooms, and at least 4 in each of the rooms (there's 2 rooms). Like I said, I didn't take the time to figure out the roamer thing and the other mobs that showed up pretty close to the entrance made me go to the S one.

GL. Good hunting.

Heck

[Hereki]

I believe that the other caves have a set of significantly higher level yetis in them.

The NW caves I have hunted.  There are 2 chambers with 3 static spawns, and a niche in the passage which has one static spawn.  Then each chamber has a wanderer that roams between the middle of the chamber and to roughly just outside the niche.  Spawn time is slightly shorter on the two wanderers than on the statics.

There is a regular outside wanderer that comes close to the entrance of the caves, but not very close; he can be a yeti sometimes.  I fought inside the caves, and didn't have any problem.  They do run when low, rather than stand and fight, but they do it slowly.

One spawn near here seems to often path inside the mountain, and aggro people in the tunnel to the hidden valley; if he does that to you and you are camping yetis, he can rarely warp to you at an inconvenient moment.