Rare mob A rare mob or monster is on a different timer than normal mobs in the area or sometimes only spawn s X out of every Y instances you enter . Like elite mob s , rare mobs have a dragon around their portrait ; however , unlike elites , this dragon icon is silver and lacks a wing on the side . They can also be elite ( aka Rare Elite ) , in which case the wing is present . Rare mobs also have a unique name that distinguishes them from normal mobs , and unlike elite mobs ( unless they are elite too ) , no " Rare " will appear after their name in the tooltip . The loot dropped from rare mobs is unique and locates almost exclusively within the uncommon table and below it ( Low level rare mobs will often drop common loot . ) Rare mobs found in instances may also drop an item from the rare table , which will frequently bind on pickup . Rare mobs found in Outland will only drop rare loot , which are all bind on equip . Rares are sometimes erroneously referred to as " silver elites . " However , unlike elite mobs ( which have a gold dragon around their portrait ) , rare mobs are generally not tougher than normal mobs of the same level . Rare mobs typically have comparable health and DPS of a mob their level , but tend to have an extra skill or two . This skill can often be guessed by their name . There are also some mobs that are both rare and elite . Previously , such mobs had a portrait identical to that of an elite mob ( gold dragon with a wing ) , making it indistinguishable without consulting some outside source . As of patch 2 . 0 . 1 , elite rare mobs have silver dragon , like regular rare mobs , but with a wing , like elite mobs . Rare mobs are always named , although not all named mobs are rare . Rare mobs are never quest objectives , but some drop quest - starting items . Rare mobs in the main game world have respawn times that are generally at longer intervals than normal mobs . Although it is difficult to determine the exact respawn rate of any given mob , some rares may take as many as several hours between spawns . As a result , some rares that are actively hunted by players may be very rarely seen , such as in Storm Peaks , which drops highly valued mount , . Elite rares . Some rare mobs are also elite mob s , so they are both hard to find and at least 30 % stronger than the typical normal mob of their level . Elite rares , as expected , should typically drop even better loot than a typical rare mob , but this is not always the case . Minimap . With Legion , the rare mob minimap icon will be a small star ( ) . Prior to Legion . On Pandaria or Draenor , rare mobs will show up with a icon on the minimap . Achievements . Rare mobs are linked to several achievements : AddOns and other assistance . There are a number of tools available to assist in locating the rare mobs for the above achievements . First , targetting macros can be created that will target the first mob found from a list of partial names entered . See Medium Rare and Northern Exposure for cut - and - paste versions of those macros . There are also addons that assist with the task . ( Note : these addons may not have been updated to the latest version of WoW ; WoWwiki does not maintain these . ) Once a target is acquired with one of the above addons , it can be difficult to identify in which direction the mob lies . A nice tool for addressing that is the Focus Lens ( made by Jewelcrafting ) , which comes in three color variations : , , and . Using a focusing lens creates a beam between the user and his target ( in this case , the rare mob ) .