Wither Skeleton spawning pad

The Wither skeleton spawning pads were a stack of four spawning pads in a lava lake-surrounded Nether fortress that were created by Etho for the purposes of farming Wither skulls. The pads existed on the Season 3 MindCrack Vanilla server. Although the pads do not exclusively spawn Wither skeletons, the pads are optimal for hunting them because Wither skeletons that spawn are too tall to move. An ice-lined pathway extends far from the complex to allow anything that has spawned on the pads to despawn, therefore resetting the mob count and allowing more Wither skeletons to (possibly) spawn.

Etho introduced his first efforts at building the Wither pads in an episode that he released on November 1, 2012. However, his attempts to build the pads were interrupted when the MindCrack server became inaccessible due to flooding in New York City caused by Hurricane Sandy. By the next episode he released, which debuted on November 4, 2012, he had largely completed the pads with the assistance of Docm77. Zisteau contributed substantially by covering nearby netherrack formations with lava, thereby boosting spawning rates on the pads. He also created a safe house at the other end of the ice-lined pathway so that one could conveniently enchant after hunting on the pads.