Killing in the Name of: Mount Drops

I did a guide like this a while ago, but it was rather badly made and I wanted to make a do-over. Not only that, but there’s MORE MOUNTS!

Vanilla WoW

Dungeons

Stratholme

• Deathcharger’s Reins

This drops from Lord Aurius Rivendare. Go in, kill everything, kill him, loot him, swear when you don’t get the mount, reset. You’ll kill everything in 1 hit, there’s no strategy.

raids

Temple of Ahn’Qiraj

• Blue Qiraji Resonating Crystal
• Yellow Qiraji Resonating Crystal
• Green Qiraji Resonating Crystal
• Red Qiraji Resonating Crystal

All of these drop from trash. The red one is rarer than the others, but honestly one run of the place should see all of them drop. The red one awards a Feat of Strength.

The Burning Crusade

dungeons

Sethekk Halls

• Reins of the Raven Lord

Drops from Anzu on Heroic difficulty only. No strategy needed.

Magisters’ Terrace

• Swift White Hawkstrider

Drops from Heroic Kael’thas Sunstrider. No strategy needed here either.

raids

Karazhan

• Fiery Warhorse’s Reins

First boss of Karazhan, literally around the first corner, and hideously easy to kill. Awards a Feat of Strength.

Tempest Keep

• Ashes of Al’ar

This drops from the final boss here, Kael’thas Sunstrider. At 100 it’s an easy fight, though the part where he summons all of his advisors can be tricky if you’re unlucky with getting chain CC’d and flung all over the place. Awards a Feat of Strength.

Wrath of the Lich King

dungeons

The Culling of Stratholme

• Reins of the Bronze Drake

This one’s a guaranteed drop from the Infinite Corruptor boss on Heroic difficulty. You’re on a time limit that begins once you talk to Arthas in Stratholme itself, but you have 25 minutes and you can easily blitz through with time to spare.

Utgarde Pinnacle

• Reins of the Blue Proto-Drake

Drops from Skadi the Ruthless on Heroic mode. I doubt you need a strategy here.

raids

Vault of Archavon

• Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth

Can drop from any of the 4 bosses in here. Most annoying thing about this place is you can’t get in if Wintergrasp is in the hands of the other faction. Other than that, tank & spank those bosses.

Onyxia’s Lair

• Reins of the Onyxian Drake

Drops from Onyxia on any difficulty. Easy for ranged, slightly less so for melee due to her flight phase. Heroic Throw forever!

The Eye of Eternity

• Reins of the Azure Drake
• Reins of the Blue Drake

Both drop from Malygos, an easy boss fight. Drops on either 10 man or 25, and if you’re really lucky you can get both at once!

Obsidian Sanctum

• Reins of the Black Drake
• Reins of the Twilight Drake

The Black Drake drops from Sartharion on 10 man, and the Twilight Drake from him on 25 man. Both require you to leave the 3 sub-bosses (Shadron, Tenebron, Vesperon) alive when you engage Sartharion himself, so carefully go around and clear the trash first. At 100 (even 90!) you can easily beat the DPS requirement to stop Shadron making the fight unwinnable.

Ulduar

• Mimiron’s Head

This wonderful little mount drops from Yogg-Saron on 25 man difficulty with no keepers active, so basically fulfilling the requirement for the “Alone in the Darkness” achievement. At 100 it’s easy to do, though make sure you keep an eye on your sanity. Don’t stare into the chattering skulls in the brain room, and don’t stare into Yoggy’s maw when he’s cackling at you.

Icecrown Citadel

• Invincible’s Reins

Drops from 25 man Heroic Lich King, and awards a Feat of Strength. Easy to faceroll at level 100 by damn near every class, so go wild.

Cataclysm

dungeons

Vortex Pinnacle

• Reins of the Drake of the North Wind

Drops from Altairus on any difficulty, meaning you can go in, blitz the place, curse when you don’t get the mount, reset and try again until you go INSANE.

Stonecore

• Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake

Drops from Slabhide on any difficulty, meaning the advice above applies here too. Good luck.

Zul’Gurub

• Armored Razzashi Raptor
• Swift Zulian Panther

The first one drops from Bloodlord Mandokir. If you don’t go solo on this guy, you need to kill him before his first Decapitate, else lolwipe. Grimoire of Sacrifice, Lone Wolf, leave the elemental at home and don’t go Unholy.

The second one drops from High Priestess Kilnara and she goes down very easily.

Zul’Aman

• Amani Battle Bear

Once you and Vol’jin open the gates, a 20 minute timer will start. This timer increases by 5 minutes once you defeat the first boss. You need to smash Akil’zon, Nalorakk, Jan’alai and Halazzi within this timer, releasing the prisoners after each boss. The fourth prisoner is a troll called Kasha. She’ll run around the room smashing pots like she’s in a Zelda game, and the last one will contain a bag with this mount inside!

raids

Throne of Four Winds

• Reins of the Drake of the South Wind

Al’akir drops this little beauty on any difficulty/raid size. He’s a simple case of tank & spank. Getting to him is actually slightly more complicated due to the boss before him, the Conclave of Wind, though at 100 you can handily nuke them as melee. As a caster, you need to find a way of tricking Nezir into thinking there’s someone on his platform. As a warlock, summon a Doomguard on his platform, then go and kill Anshal. Finish off Nezir after, then duff up Rohash.

Firelands

• Flametalon of Alysrazor
• Smouldering Egg of Millagazor

The first mount drops from Alysrazor on normal or heroic. Simple fight, as she appears, DPS her and collect 3 feathers. Collect the third one as she’s about to ascend, then follow her around. Attack her as you fly through the hoops to sustain your flight. Warlocks, you can CAST WHILE MOVING for this part! Rejoice! Then cry when it wears off and you become a turret again.

The second mount drops from Ragnaros himself on any difficulty, and it’s an easy fight. When he smashes his hammer and descends into the lava, kill the Sons of Flame to avoid large damage. Don’t stand on magma traps, the fall will kill you. Heroic adds an extra phase featuring the hottest legs around, and it’s a DPS race.

Dragon Soul

• Experiment 12-B
• Reins of the Blazing Drake
• Life-Binder’s Handmaiden

Experiment 12-B drops from Ultraxion on any difficulty, and the fight is a massive DPS race. If you’re doing Heroic, you need to kill him before his first Hour of Twilight attack, else he’ll do Twilight Eruption straight after, insta-wiping you. This gives you 56 seconds. Easy enough.

The Blazing Drake and Life-Binder’s Handmaiden both drop from Deathwing, though the latter is on Heroic only. Frankly at 100 you should have no issues. Hop to each platform, kill tentacles and junk, then punch Deathwing in the face. Job done.

Others

• Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake

Aeonaxx, an extremely rare and much-camped rare spawn in Deepholm, drops this. He flies around the big temple in the middle. Have fun.

• Reins of Poseidus

Drops from the rare spawn Poseidus in the Shimmering Expanse in that horrible zone, Vash’jir. It’s Bind on Equip, meaning you can flog it on the auction house if you so desire. For this reason, it tends to be camped a lot by people.

• Reins of the Grey Riding Camel

In Uldum, you can find Mysterious Camel Figurines. Once you pick the correct one (yes, in addition to being rare spawns, there are also WRONG figurines), you get whisked to Feralas with a debuff called Dormus’ Rage. There’s a giant called Dormus the Camel-Hoarder. Kill him, loot the camel.

Mists of Pandaria

dungeons

None! Gasp!

raids

Mogu’shan Vaults

• Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent

This awesome-looking mount drops from Elegon on normal or heroic. MSV can be soloed in its entirety, but Gara’jal is a bit of a stumbling block for those without high DPS and/or a tank spec. Probably best to do this raid with a few people to ensure success.

Throne of Thunder

• Spawn of Horridon
• Clutch of Ji-Kun

These drop from Horridon and Ji-Kun respectively on any difficulty. Though they (and the preceding bosses) can be soloed, it’s probably best to bring a few people to ensure success.

Siege of Orgrimmar

• Kor’kron Juggernaut

This drops from Garrosh Hellscream on Mythic difficulty only. Though normal mode can and has been soloed, Mythic is something else entirely, and would probably require a large number of people for now!

Others

• Reins of the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent

This one drops from the Sha of Anger, a world boss in the Kun-Lai Summit. While it’s possible to solo, for ease of killing I’d recommend dragging a few people along. People LOVE mount runs.

• Son of Galleon’s Saddle

Another drop from a world boss, this time Galleon in the Valley of Four Winds.

• Reins of the Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent

Nalak in the Isle of Thunder is your target for this one.

• Reins of the Cobalt Primordial Direhorn

Oondasta, that nasty dinosaur on the Isle of Giants, is the pinata you need to crack open for this beauty. I’d be warned, this is a pinata that will probably kill you.

• Reins of the Amber Primordial Direhorn
• Reins of the Jade Primordial Direhorn
• Reins of the Slate Primordial Direhorn

These drop from Zandalari Warbringers, easily killable enemies that spawn in Townlong Steppes, Dread Wastes, Krasarang Wilds, Kun-Lai Summit and The Jade Forest. Hunt, kill, loot.

Warlords of Draenor

Dungeons

None so far!

Raids

Blackrock Foundry

• Ironhoof Destroyer

Drops from Mythic Blackhand, and no, I doubt you can solo him just yet.

other

• Solar Spirehawk

Drops from one of the new world bosses, Rukhmar, in the Spires of Arak.

• Garn Nighthowl

Drops from Nok-Karosh in Frostfire Ridge. Soloable if you’re REALLY good at kiting. So, Frost Mages then. Sellable, much like Poseidus, and only 1 drops per kill, even if you’re grouped.

• Swift Breezestrider

Pathrunner in Shadowmoon Valley drops this one. This one and the following 5 are received by every player that participates in the kill, and are on long spawn times.

• Great Greytusk

Gorok in Frostfire Ridge drops this snuffly pig.

• Sunhide Gronnling

Poundfist in Gorgrond drops this awesome mount.

• Sapphire Riverbeast

Talador is your location, Silthide is your target. Good luck, Bond.

• Bloodhoof Bull

Nakk the Thunderer in Nagrand drops this. It’s rather big.

• Mottled Meadowstomper

Also in Nagrand, look out for Luk’hok.

Black Market Auction House

A number of the above mounts can be purchased from the Black Market Auction House in Nagrand. These are:

• Ashes of Al’ar
• Mimiron’s Head
• Reins of the Drake of the South Wind
• Reins of the Onyxian Drake
• Smouldering Egg of Millagazor
• Deathcharger’s Reins
• Flametalon of Alysrazor
• Invincible’s Reins
• Son of Galleon’s Saddle
• Clutch of Ji-Kun
• Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent
• Kor’kron Juggernaut
• Reins of the Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent
• Reins of the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent

Not only that, but you can purchase Unclaimed Black Market Containers, which MAY contain more mounts, but this is a very random chance.

 

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The Tough Thing About Alts

So we come to that time of the expansion cycle when there’s a heavily speculated date for the next expansion pre-patch. Numerous people seem to be hyping the 14th/15th of this month as the date when we’ll finally get 6.0.2. We’ve had the PVP Season End warning yesterday, which traditionally heralds the coming of a new patch 2 weeks later.

It therefore comes to the time where people are deciding what characters and classes they will play in the next expansion. Naturally, it’s always subject to change, even halfway through the expansion, but we start off with the best of ideas.

What Will I Do?

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to focus on 3 characters in Warlords of Draenor. Raenah the Warlock was the first one. I write about the class after all, why would I not continue to use her? The other two being the Shaman Shamwhoa, and Lixiu the Hunter.

“Hey Gul’daaaaaan. What’re you doing?”

Since then I played as a Warrior on the beta, and while I was still underwhelmed by the gameplay of Arms and Fury, the new level 100 talent for Protection that gives Gladiator stance is IMMENSE fun! Finally, a sword & board DPS! I have no qualms about saying that I will use my Warrior, and she will be a gladiator. I just need to get an appropriate transmog for her…

As a knight she looks cool, doesn’t scream “GLADIATOR!” though

That increased the number of characters I wanted to play as to 4, and therein the issues began.

There’s Always Something…

I watched the Lords of War video featuring Maraad, and it made me want to race-change my Paladin to a Draenei, give her a badass 2h sword, and smash the crap out of everything.

She sure looks the part.

Then I realised I actually LIKED the Retribution play style. I wanted to play it MORE. Having a 2-hander heirloom from Garrosh for her certainly helped matters too. She wouldn’t be at a disadvantage levelling, as she’s got a powerful weapon to take the heads off of orcs with.

That bumped me up to 5. But wait! Inxy, the Horde Warlock is another! I already know how to Warlock, I have a Hellscream’s War Staff for her, and she’s guaranteed the Green Fire title as Raenah has it. She makes 6, but she’s the only Hordie. I said I want to play both sides of the story this time around, so she is a definite.

Then I played the Monk. Lunchi, my blindfolded homage to Chun Li.

But it’s more than being an homage to the First Lady of Fighting Games. Monks are fun to play as. Storm, Earth and Fire is probably one of my favourite abilities in the game. Monks look BEAUTIFUL when you play them properly. The movement, the animations. They just look stunning as they carve their way through the battlefield.

Plus, 2h Agility heirloom. Can’t go wrong.

I want to level up Vanlew as well. She’s my lockbox opener if nothing else.

Also a master of disguise

So basically, so far I have narrowed it down to “not the mage, not the druid”.

I think I need to refine my choices again.

#wow #warlords #beta

Affliction Test and Grumpy Panda

Affliction

I said I wouldn’t test Affliction because I was bored of it, and didn’t want the hassle of going to Stormwind to respec.

Then I remembered I can make a level 100 premade Warlock and make it Affliction!

It is just not interesting. I picked Grimoire of Supremacy and Demonic Servitude, because I wanted to play around with the new demons too. His Doom Bolts do more total DPS than your Corruption!

All you are doing is making sure you have 100% uptime on DoTs, throwing out Haunts to keep the debuff up as much as you can, and channeling. It got almost mind-numbing.

Affliction needs something. Anything. Give us another DoT, a proc to watch out for/react to other than Nightfall, ANYTHING.

Again, bear in mind I am not an amazing player, but that’s just terrible. It’s a full two thirds of the DPS of Demonology, and Destruction isn’t much better. Thankfully, these are the two specs that have seen the least tuning as of yet. Demonology got a few changes recently, let’s hope the next build brings something for the other 2. 6.0 may seem like it’ll be a while away, but time has a habit of catching up with you.

Grumpy Panda

Recently on the live servers, I made a Pandaren named Ikralla. Yes, that’s my Twitter/Wordpress name. For some reason, I am getting a great amount of amusement portraying him on Twitter as a grumpy, miserable old bastard of a bear.

He laughs at your feeble army!

He’s a monk, he’s just left that infernal turtle, and he’s got the whole wide world to explore. Though I’m not on an RP realm with him (he’s on Runetotem-EU, because it’s connected to Nagrand-EU and that’s where most of my characters are based), I’ve decided to make his journey to level 90 a little story. He will travel Azeroth, bringing joy to all.

“BOO, YOU SUCK!”

Since arriving in Stormwind, he’s been disdainful of the architecture:

“Rebuild your statues, but leave your park a smouldering ruin?”

Nearly picked a fight with a child over race:

“Oh no you DIDN’T”

Been amazed at the stupidity of his comrades:

“Jojo, it’s what helps us see in the dark. For goodness sake.”

And assaulted royalty with a chop to the groin:

“Come on, Pandaren! HIT ME!”
“I DISLIKE AUTHORTITY FIGURES TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!”

Ever since, he’s work a mask to hide his identity from those wanting to bring him to justice, and has taken to getting drunk before going out:

“Nobody’ll recognise me now!”

He’s at the level range for Westfall. He’ll head there tonight, and I will post an update on progress when I have made… progress.

“Your tenuous grasp of the English language has put me RIGHT off my dinner. Thanks.”

#warlords #wow #beta

3 Up, 3 Down: A Look Back at Mists of Pandaria

The expansion is grinding to a close now, and excitement for Warlords of Draenor is reaching fever pitch. What better to do than reflect on what I think went right, and what was wrong, with this expansion!

Obviously, this is MY opinion. Agree? Disagree? Make your own list! Share it with us! I look forward to seeing what you have to say!

THE GOOD

Pandaren

*kapow*

When the expansion was first announced, I admit I was skeptical. Pandas? That seems too out-of-place and cutesy for TOUGH AND GRITTY WARCRAFT. I was, of course, ignorant of the fact that pandaren as a race have been present in the Warcraft story since Warcraft 3 back in 2002 (initially as an April Fools joke, but then implemented properly).

Oh man was I wrong. Not only was the story of Mists not cute and cuddly as many expected, but pandaren in general really stuck a positive chord with me. I like pandas anyway, they’re my second favourite animal, but these pandaren were MIND-BLOWING. Sure, the worgen and goblins introduced in Cataclysm look great, but these new models were a whole different level.

With the new character models in Warlords, the old races will be brought up to the same level as the pandaren, but those crazy pandas have cemented their place as my favourite race EVER.

(goblins and humans come a close second and third though)

“CLOSE?! I think not.”

My hope for the future is that the pandaren don’t get left behind and forgotten now that their expansion is over. I want Ji and Aysa, the pandaren representatives for the Alliance and Horde, to actually DO things in future expansion, rather than become the new Greymane/Gallywix. I want to see Lorewalker Cho occasionally, wandering the Eastern Kingdoms, or exploring Draenor, pushing buttons in dungeons he really shouldn’t be pushing. I even want to see Taran Zhu, even if it’s to get another lecture from him. I don’t want the pandaren to be never seen again outside their continent.

Flexible Raiding

This here can probably be called the biggest general success of the expansion. Introduced in patch 5.4, it was a raid difficulty higher than that of LFR, but not as hard as Normal, and it scaled the encounters based on how many people you had in the group.

This was fantastic for my guild, as we’re a pretty damn casual bunch who never raided normal modes, as we either didn’t have the experience, or the gear, to actually make a dent in any of the bosses.

When Flex rolled around, however, it allowed us to have a go at this whole “raiding” thing. We teamed up with another guild on Nagrand, all got onto Mumble, and we all chatted shit while beating up internet dragons. It was bloody FANTASTIC. Our raiding team fell apart as people started to lose interest the longer 5.4 dragged on, so some people moved to another guild to carry on raiding with them when Nagrand got connected to Runetotem and Kilrogg.

While we don’t raid anymore, the experience (and gear, of course) we got from Flex mode allowed us to have a crack at normal, and you know what?

I am incredibly proud of the fact that our little social guild got those 3 bosses down. And as for my own progress in Normal mode, after Siege became cross-realmable?

I got my Garrosh kill. I’m happy.

The Warlock Revamp

A potentially controversial one, this. I know there’s a lot of people who despise the changes brought to warlocks with Mists, but in my opinion it revitalized a class that, frankly, hardly anybody played.

Each spec became vastly different from the other. Affliction was the one that was most unchanged, it was still about the DoTs and the curses. Demonology became the spec focused most on the demons; not only did it make your demons stronger, but you could build up your demonic fury, and unleash the demon within! Destruction was the spec that took the sledgehammer approach to defeating an enemy; relentless streams of flame to build up your resources, then spending them on massive bursts of chaotic energy that seemingly grew more powerful the more unstable your soul was.

I’d recommend running.

Honourable Mention

This song. Seriously.

THE BAD

Patch 5.4

Here’s the obvious one. The patch content itself is/was fine. Siege of Orgrimmar is a great raid instance with some awesome boss encounters. The Timeless Isle is a fantastic place to explore. The Shaohao reputation grind has a rather twisted feeling of fun, if you let it. The conclusion to the legendary questline, and getting that awesome cloak, was really well done.

It also gave us the chance to see my two favourite characters this expansion together!

So what on Earth was wrong with patch 5.4?

The sheer length of time it has been out. It’s over a year now, and we’re still waiting for Warlords. We KNOW this to be because of a huge delay after they employed a boatload of people, because just having more people doesn’t mean things will be done quicker, especially if said new people need to be brought up to speed, trained, etc.

It still stings though. It’s a big factor into why some people have probably quit, and this gap itself feels really jarring when you consider how quickly the previous patches came out this expansion.

Going forward though, we know that they’re actively working on the next expansion after Warlords of Draenor, and they’ve learnt their lesson from this. Will we see a huge content gap next time around? I’m hoping no, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one, won’t we?

Daily Quests/Rep Grinding

Another of the obvious faults in my eyes. It’s not a wholly negative experience, per se. Patch 5.1 showed how daily quests can be done VERY right; as part of a storyline that gradually unfurled itself the more you engaged in it.

The 5.0 dailies were not this. They were repetitive, slow grinds which you needed yo do to build reputation with the factions of Pandaria if you wanted to be useful in PvE. Reputation vendors sold gear, you see, which gave you a leg-up in raiding, but they also sold very important recipes. The August Celestials were a particular annoyance, as not only did they sell the best bracer enchants, but also the 28 slot bag recipe for tailoring. The Celestial rep itself was gated off until you built up your reputation with the Golden Lotus first, which was another annoyance.

If you decided you didn’t want to do these rep grinds, but still wanted to be competitive in PvE? I hope you have a lot of gold for the auction house, or friendly guildies who’ll give you top-level enchants at a cut price.

Not something I could have done, I’m dirt poor.

Cross Realm Zones

Oh my goodness me, this one is a personal hatred of mine.

I get why they did it. They want low-level zones to feel populated, like the high-level ones are. I get that. It’s a lovely, noble goal. The technology that was used for this has been used in one of my favourite parts of the expansion, Flexible Raiding.

The trouble is, trying to level a character, you don’t WANT other characters around. They’re competition. They’re stealing your kills, whether they’re a level 13 in Westfall who wants to kill the same coyotes as you, or a level 90 killing those same damn coyotes to level up their skinning. Spawn rates for quest mobs are unchanged, yet you have 4 people from Magtheridon and 2 from Aerie Peak vying for the same targets as you, little person from Nagrand.

“FINE. Have that kill. I didn’t want it anyway”

With PvP realms comes an added annoyance. You’re trying to quest, along with the 6 or 7 people from other servers, and along comes a level 90 from another server, kills you, and buggers off again.

Ganking on a PVP server is not uncommon, but it is annoying for the one being ganked, and cross-realm zones only increases that likelihood, because you have to look out not only for the enemy faction from your server, but from every other one too!

Not even a meatshield can help you.

(Dis)honourable Mention

Screw you, Durumu.