(I'm a druid, so this is my experience with druid tracking, you classes' mileage may vary) I went to Shar Vahl, Divided. I was wandering in the Pit. I had tracking up with the sort as 'Track Sort: normal'. I could see about the top 30 results without scrolling the Tracking Window. No rare mob (named) was showing in those top 30. Then I practically stumbled upon a rare mob right in front of me. Now, from my experiences, 'normal' sort uses a mysterious method. However, one nice thing about it, is that if any rare mob that is anywhere nearby (and the 'nearby' is quite large) will show up in the top 10 or so results. This is a great thing, as I can just pop up tracking and know if there is a rare mob nearby without having to scroll though what could could be 70 mobs or more. However, in Shar Vahl, Divided, while rare mobs do show on track, the 'normal' Track Sort was not acting as I am accustomed to and I would like some input from others if there is something wrong or not. Thank you.
Normal is newest spawns at the top, oldest at the bottom. Only reason you have that perception is the older a zone is the less mob churn there is. Everyone is killing everything in all the zones so named are bound to not be the newest spawns.
Here is how I use track. 1. Zone in and check track normally. Scroll down to look for named. If I see something on the bottom half of the list, I move in to kill it (because it's been up for quite some time and it must not be camped if it's that low). If there is a named on top of track, I leave it be because whoever spawned it is probably getting ready to kill it. [You can also track players and track by distance to see if anyone is near the named if you aren't sure if something is being camped, or even track players and track normal to see if certain players have been in zone longer than the named... if the named has been up longer than the player, then the player probably didn't spawn the named.] 2. After I determine there are no named to kill by random chance, I track using alpha to confirm that the ph's I am looking for are up. If they all are, that means no one if likely at the camp I want to go to. 3. Once I get to camp, I use track by alpha to find and kill all the ph's. 4. Once all ph's are dead, I track by normal again and keep an eye out for ph's that freshly spawn and the named that I am seeking. Another option is to ask the zone what's being camped... but I don't like doing that as if those others are anything like me, I tune out half of what is being said in ooc and shout.
Yeah, what Soulbanshee said. Not sure how you had the impression you did, normal has always been spawn order, newest spawns at the top. I usually find it the least useful of the modes, except in cases where I've locked down PHers for a named, and just want to see when they respawn. For looking for names in a zone, I always use "ralph" (reverse alpha). Some small percentage of names have "a " or "an " preceding their names, but most are proper names which will always be at or near the top of a "ralph" sort.
Also make sure is tracking is on normal and not distance. but yea if there is mass killing alot will spawn in clumps.
I noticed a change to the way track worked on beta. rAlpha used to put rares at the top, now it doesn’t. But there is a sort by con, so I use that now.
