Travel north along the shore from Freeport into Hodstock and Tembly. The Shady Swashbuckler is located in the fishing village. He will ask you to speak to the Shady Trafficker in the High Pass Castle.

Coach to HP and speak with the Trafficker. Two HP guards will spawn as will another mob which attacks the Dealer/Trafficker. Assure that the Dealer survives the battle, kill the two triggered HP guards and loot the NTL item from the one of them. THEN talk to the trafficker again....he'll despawn after the battle, then respawn at his original starting point. You must talk to the trafficker, he will take the coins that the swashbuckler gives. If you fail to do this, Rathei in FP won't talk to you and your quest will not advance. Return to the Swashbuckler.

The Swashbuckler will then send you FP to speak with Rathei Slairin. If you are familiar with the Spiritmaster Keika, Rathei is in the building just west of her. After you have done that you will be asked to speak with Yindrius. From Keika, travel east past the city wall, follow it north to the entrance and enter the city there. Yindrius can be found along the southern side of the building. Return to the Shady Swashbuckler.

After you have approached Rolby in MTG and spoken with Shady, he will ask you speak with Cogwhisker in Bandit Hills (N). From Darver Manor travel east into Bandit Hills. Cogwhisker is located in a bandit camp near the lake in the north section of the zone. You have two options: You can either pay him off with tunar or fight him, either is fine. Rumour has it, if you kill him, you get +200 faction with Topi di Ombra. If you do choose to fight him, back-up quickly to avoid argoing the mobs as they spawn. Cogwhisker will con white to the person who triggers him, his henchmen will con dark blue. Insure the person with the quest logged is in the kill-group and return to the Swashbuckler.

He will then send you to the Freeport to speak with Yindrius (see note below). Log the tail quest and farm the appropriate ratweres until you receive the pop-up.

Note: If you cannot log the tail quest with Yindrius, check your faction. Topi di Ombra faction must be minimum 150 to log the tail quest. Should your faction be less than this, kill ratweres to increase your faction.

You can get infected anywhere between 0 and 1700 faction, but cannot complete the 'infection process' until your faction is eqal to or exceeds 1000.

Don't leave the infection part until later! The sooner you start the easier it is to find were's that spawn yellow to you. Killing a yellow is critical to getting infected. Yes, it's possible to get your infection from light blues, and reds, but the percentage chance of getting infected from a yellow is huge in comparison. So, if you're finding were's that spawn too small for you, try a different zone or a different part of the same zone.

On having a level 60 in a group of lvl 30's: There was always a rumour that having a higher level toon in your group to help with the killing would mean your chances of infection would drop almost to nil. Well here's come good information:
Dustyspheres tells us: The rumor that having a level 60 in your low level group affects your chance of infection just isn't true in my experience. The last 9 infections I've gotten or helped get were all with the toons in one group, invised and on Auto-follow. These toons range from 33-39 and were on AF with a 60 bard that did all of the killing. All they did was loot tails and they still got infected. Some were in just a few kills and most were infected before anyone even had the required 1k faction to accept the infection.

"Were" to get infected

level 30-35
Ferren's Hope (S/SE)

level 35-40
Ferren's Hope (C)
Note: At level 37, in FH (c), yellow ratweres will spawn. For some reason, this is a great combination for infection. We have found it easier to be infected at level 37 in FH (c) than in any other part of the zone, or any other level.

level 40-50
Tak 'Xiv West
Wktaan's 4th Talon
Dustyshperes: level 35-40 can get infected in Wktaan's 4th Talon (SW).

level 50-60
Geomancer's Citadel (lvl 60 - confirmed, CON db to wht)
The warrens (lvl 60 - confirmed)
South Barren Coast

You will know you are infected when, on your approach to Yindrius to turn in tails, you recieve a popup that says he must 'urgently' speak to you. (See the note below for clarifications).
Note: you can also check for infection in Oasis. Go to the campfire near the water, severl npc's stand around it. Advisor Gerahl checks for general infection (ie. have you been infected by ANY were whatsoever). Advisor Tihmpra checks specifically for rat infection.

After you have received the infection pop-up, assuming you have the correct faction etc, Yindrius will ask you to defeat Trissen in Bobble by Water. The mob will con red to the person who triggers him, bring assistance.

Note: If you get the popup that Yindrius has something urgent to tell you a couple notes:
-First, if all he'll do is give you the tail quest again, check first-is your faction with Topi di Ombra 1000 or more? If not, get more faction by killing more weres. Second-if your faction is good, delete the tail quest in your quest log, re-speak to Yindrius who will now give you the final part of your were infection quest.
-Next, when Yindrius does give you his speech Do NOT take the antidote, or you lose your infection. Do NOT continue to hunt tails.

The following stats are at level 60. The first form is a quest reward and is level 30. The second form costs 50 cms and is a level 40 spell. The third form costs 25 and is a level 50 spell.

 

	Ratwere	Feral Ratwere	Dire Ratwere
Dex	45	80	120
Agi	45	80	120
AC	0	130	150
Int/Str resistable with Max AR

Level 40 Spell Quest

Warning: It is my general belief now that many of the level 40 spell quest mobs are triggered and not on spawn timers. If this assumption is correct, that means if someone happens to defeat the mobs before you reach it you will not be able to complete the quest unless you relog your quest with the NPC quest giver. It is recommended that you scout the spawn location before triggering the mob to assure no one is camping your spawn.

Speak with the appropriate class specific NPC in Temby. They will ask you to speak with Nunnie in Urglunt's wall. Nunnie can be found close to the large cyclops house east of the main gate. Although she may be red-faced,s he will not attack you. Return to the NPC

The NPC will now ask you to speak with Trick Trune in Broken Skull Rock (NW). He can found near the beach. Return to the NPC.

Your next task is to defeat an Tae Ew Trader in Cazic Thule (NW) The mob is triggered and see's through invis. Roam the area until you con the mob or are jumped by it.

Having done that, the NPC sends you to Tak Xiz South to defeat the Tae Ew Horder. Cross the river into the (W) or (C) and search for a small hill surrounded by a thick green mist. He will trigger when you approach and see's through invis. He cons white and is not soloable. Bring assistance.

Return to the NPC and collect your reward.

Spells

Cunning Subterfuge
Cl Sha Drd
90 cha self-buff at level 59

Swarm Mentality
Wis Enc Nec Mage Alc
400ish group max-power buff

Distracting Squecks
Rge Brd Ran
Ac debuff. Ranges from 200-300

Defence of the swarm
War Sk Pal
67 str/342 Ac group buff at level 60
*Saark, an East Human Ratwere Defender of CoES states that this ability is modded by wisdom. At lvl 60, with 600 wisdom, you will get 125str and 420AC.
Note: Clerics AC Order is group based, so it would take precedence over this spell if a Cleric is in the group, but would stack with a Druid AC buff (which is target based). See the Ability Stacking Guide

Were-tips

Necrowafer wrote:

Killing mobs spawn BOTH Great Ratweres and Great Bearweres in The Warrens (e) and (ne). I am a lvl 60 Nec and they conned lb to me. I would suggest running up and down the valley and wiping out all the mobs. The respawn is somewhat slow so you can quite literally kill everything in that valley and then just wait for them to spawn. I was getting as many as 4 to 5 Great Rats a night and saw plenty of Great Bears as well. Hope that helps.

Tried to get infected in Ferran's Hope S and SE at level 30-39, but couldn't. Tried the tougher mobs in Wicks and SBC, but they were too far outside my level range. Had Max faction for 2 months, no infection. Then got tip from woodenhead to try Ferran's Hope (C) -this is on the other side of the Blacktongue camp. Not much wildlife to kill, had to con around a lot. But finally killed about 6 rats, and got infected!