RareScanner

RareScanner is an addon for World of Warcraft that includes a group of tools to help you track rare NPCs, treasures and events while you play. 

The notable tools that RareScanner includes are: 

Alerts from nearby rare NPCs/treasures/events

This is the main feature of RareScanner. The addon displays a button in the middle of the screen with information about all the entities detected nearby. Around the button information related to the entity is displayed, such as a miniature (in the case of an NPC), the name of the entity and the loot that you could obtain after killing/collecting it. 

World map information

RareScanner adds icons of every rare NPC, treasure and event that it tracks to your worldmap. When you hover your mouse over these icons you will get extra information in a tooltip. 

It also shows all the spawning spots for every tracked entity and for some entities it also adds some guidance icons to help you reach to its position, force its spawn or unlock it.

Starting with Dragonflight, now RareScanner integrates with the new control that highlights reputation sources in the world map, so when you select a faction it will also highlight every rare NPC and container that grants reputation with the faction selected.

You can customize all the information displayed in the map and the tooltips from RareScanner options panel.

Rare NPCs explorer

RareScanner is designed to help you track every rare NPC/treasure/event in the game, but usually you will be more interested in finding NPCs that drop useful loot, like missing mounts or pets that you want to add to your collection.

While you can use the world map to check the loot of every NPC/treasure by hovering the mouse over their icons, it will take a lot of work to find exactly those missing items, so here is where the explorer comes in handy.

Custom NPC

RareScanner allows you to add your own NPCs (even if they aren't rare), so you can get alerts whenever you pass by them. 

Filtering entities

Out of the box RareScanner will be tracking every entity in the game, however you might be interested only in a few. Using the previous tools (the world map interface, the explorer, the button with the alert or RareScanner options), you can configure the addon to track only for what you are interested in. 

More information

Visit the pages for this project to learn more about the addon.

How to detect rare NPCs in Classic versions

Nameplates

In Classic versions (including Forever), the game doesn't include vignettes, which is the system used in retail to detect NPCs in the distance. In Classic, the addon relies mostly on nameplates, so you need to enable them in your game to allow the addon to automatically detect NPCs around you.

Nameplates have a short range in Classic (though it seems to be larger in Forever). To increase this range, run the following command:

/run SetCVar("nameplateMaxDistance", 80)

Macro

RareScanner offers an option to create a macro that you can manually spam to detect all rare NPCs around you. You can enable this under RareScanner options -> General.

Once enabled, drag it from your Macro window to your action bars and simply keep clicking on it.

Elite import lists for WoW Classic Hardcore

Here you can find lists to import normal elite NPCs in RareScanner if you want to get alerts for them or to check where they spawn.