Panda Steve’s OFFICIAL Best Mounts List

Yes, I’m here to tell you definitively what the best mounts in the game are.

The list will be limited to mounts I actually HAVE, which means no Mimiron’s Head, or that sparkly thing that Elegon drops. Which by the way both don’t exist, I am sure of it.

“whatever could they be?”

Ashes of Al’ar

It’s AL’ARming (*snort*) how pretty this mount is.

But Lunchi, could you look more enthusiastic?

This shiny, shiny bird drops from Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep, and will make you the envy of all your friends. I like it because it makes colours and patterns in the sky as you fly. It’s hypnotic, almost.

*flies into fatigue area*
*dies*

Invincible

“but I can see it!”
*glare*

When this dropped from the Lich King  (25hc for those who don’t know) I actually squealed a little. It’s a badass undead horse! He’s also probably glad to be in your possession, considering the Lich King would have rode on him in damn heavy armour, and you weigh a LOT less.

Red Flying Cloud

It’s not necessarily as FANCY as some other mounts, given that it’s a cloud with a disc on top, but it’s the only mount I can think of where you can stand with your weapon out like above, and it looks IMPOSSIBLY AWESOME.

Flametalon of Alysrazor

It doesn’t fly, so I don’t use it much, but it’s still awesome looking. Burning birdy!

When I’m unable to fly, this is one of the mounts I tend to default to.

Twilight Harbinger

It’s a fabulous pinky/purpley dragon. What’s not to love?

Grand Gryphon

While I’m a sucker for bright colours, the muted palette of this mount actually makes it my preferred gryphon over any other. Plus, it just looks generally higher-quality than the others. Probably comes from it being a Mists of Pandaria mount, rather than having been in the game for forever and a day.

Volcanic Stone Drake

Again, it’s the colours I like, though this time it’s the striking contrast between the dark colours, and the red that juts out from it that makes this a really eye-catching mount.

I tell you, if THIS was the mount that Slabhide dropped, I might care about him more to farm him. As it stands, this is Best Drake, and Slabhide can go swivel, dammit.

So, what are your favourite mounts? Do you disagree with mine?

Well, you’re wrong. This is, of course, THE OFFICIAL LIST, but you can feel free to be wrong in the comments.

Though if you’re just going to say Mimiron’s Head or the sparkly Elegon constellation mount, I may have to fight you. Put up your dukes.

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So GOLD In Here

Current favourite thing in WoW: Going transmog hunting on the Warrior, and taking pretty screenshots of her while doing so.

What’s even more fun is getting lots of gold for doing 25 HC Cataclysm raids! Each boss drops around 125G, as well as lots of lovely transmogs and vendor items. Some DS trinkets and weapons vendor for 40+ gold each! And with each boss on 25 man dropping LOTS of items, the gold quickly mounts up.

Blackwing Descent is a wonderfully easy little jaunt, the only slight issue may be Maloriak, but as long as you smash him before all his aberrations reach you, you’ll be fine.

Nefarian has bugged a bit once, where the lava phase is meant to start and just DOESN’T. That was annoying.

Chimaeron you can probably kill shortly after the first Massacre. Heal a little bit after he casts it.

Bastion of Twilight is also easy, though Halfus and Sinestra do occasionally have hairy moments. The former due to a MASSIVE healing debuff, and the latter can just be generally hurty. Smack them until they die, before they kill you!

Sinestra requires you to kill eggs either side of her before you can damage her properly. Don’t forget that.

Theralion and Valiona also have a hurty part, but there’s a large gap between uses of that ability (Blackout) which allows you time to either heal up or just smack the dragons down.

Firelands is so, so easy. Shannox is the only worry, and that’s due to his stupid dog Rageface, but wonderful news! So long as you engage him in a tank spec, he won’t rage on your face! This means going in with Defensive Stance instead of Gladiator.

Majordomo Staghelm stands out not as being difficult, but being BORING because of his ridiculously large healthpool. Bring a book, maybe.

As usual with Dragon Soul, the only difficult encounter is Spine of Deathwing, and that requires you to be patient and concentrating on the matter at hand. Thankfully somebody wrote a guide to soloing that boss (it was me, I wrote that).

Hagara is not difficult, but again potentially boring because you need to kill her before she does her special thing. She USUALLY does the Lightning Storm one first (at least she does for me), and as you can’t do that solo (unless you have a pet you can use to make the chain) you have to sit and wait for like FOREVER.

Ultraxion is a DPS race. Bring Drums of Fury, they work as a slightly less powerful version of Heroism/Bloodlust.

Throne of 4 Winds is actually surprisingly easy to do solo on 25 HC. I thought Conclave would be my stumbling point and I’d have to knock it down to Normal, but apparently not. Just hop to each platform and smack each boss until it dies. Move quickly!

Cataclysm Bosses That Apparently Drop Mounts

Yeah right, they don’t exi… wait, they do?

• Ultraxion (Dragon Soul N/H): Experiment 12-B
• Madness of Deathwing (Dragon Soul N): Reins of the Blazing Drake
• Madness of Deathwing (Dragon Soul N/H): Life-Binder’s Handmaiden
• Alysrazor (Firelands N/H): Flametalon of Alysrazor
• Ragnaros (Firelands N/H): Smoldering Egg of Millagazor
• Al’Akir: (Throne of the Four Winds N/H): Reins of the Drake of the South Wind

 

Mounts! Pets! Random Drops Of Evilness!

So why solo anything at all? Well, there’s bragging rights, of course. There’s also gold to be made, both from the bosses themselves, as well as the items they drop.

Today, I’d like to focus on something else. Some enemies, whether super-tough raid bosses, lowly dungeon bosses, or rare spawning enemies out in the wilds of Azeroth, have a chance to drop mounts and battle pets! Let’s have a look at what Vanilla yields for us!

Vanilla

Fairly sparse for mounts, we have the Deathcharger’s Reins that drop from Lord Aurius Rivendare in Stratholme first. The good things about this mount are that you can reset the instance when it inevitably doesn’t drop, and everything is hilariously easy to kill because it’s probably half the level you are.

For our raid mounts, we’re going to the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj. There are 4 varieties of Qiraji Resonating Crystal; Blue, Yellow, Green and Red (the rarest of the 4). These drop from every enemy in the sprawling dungeon!

Lower Blackrock Spire has 2 battle pet drops. Quartermaster Zigris drops the Worg Carrier, and Mother Smoulderweb drops the Smoulderweb Hatchling. Deadmines has the Green Wing Macaw which drops from the various pirates later in the instance. A number of pets drop from raids too, for the Raiding With Leashes achievement. Temple of Ahn’Qiraj holds the Mini Mindslayer from The Prophet Skeram, the Anubisath Idol from the Twin Emperors, and the Viscidus Globule from Viscidus.

Blackwing Lair holds the Untamed Hatchling from Razorgore, Chrominius from Chromaggus, and the Death Talon Whelpguard from Broodlord Lashlayer. Molten Core has the Harbinger of Flame, Corefire Imp and Ashstone Core from Sulfuron Harbinger, Magmadar, and Golemagg respectively.

Burning Crusade

Pet-wise, we have the Phoenix Hatchling from Kael’thas Sunstrider in Heroic Magisters’ Terrace. The Lil’ Bad Wolf, Menagerie Custodian, Netherspace Abyssal and Fiendish Imp drops from The Big Bad Wolf, The Curator, Prince Malchezaar and Terestrian Illhoof respectively in Karazhan. Serpentshrine Cavern holds the Tideskipper from Morogrim Tidewalker, the Tainted Waveling from Hydross the Unstable, and the Coilfang Stalker from the frustrating Lady Vashj. Tempest Keep holds the Pocket Reaver from the Void Reaver, the awesome Lesser Voidcaller from High Astromancer Solarian, and the Phoenix Hawk Hatchling from Al’ar.

Speaking of Al’ar, he drops as a mount from Kael’thas Sunstrider in the same instance, Tempest Keep. His dungeon counterpart in Heroic Magisters’ Terrace drops a mount as well as the above pet; the Swift White Hawkstrider. Attument the Horseman in Karazhan drops the Fiery Warhorse’s Reins, with a disgustingly low drop rate.

Wrath of the Lich King

Pets! We have a small number in Naxxramas. Maexxna drops the Giant Bone Spider, Loatheb the Fungal Abomination, and Gluth the Stitched Pup. Let’s hope the next expansion adds more pets to the other raids! Raiding With Leashes 3 or 4 maybe?

There are two dungeon mounts! Both drop from heroic instances, and one is a timed run. The Culling of Stratholme drops a mount. From the point where you have to fight 10 waves of enemies, you have 25 minutes to get to the last alleyway to kill the Infinite Corruptor. He drops the Reins of the Bronze Drake. Skadi the Ruthless in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle drops the Reins of the Blue Proto Drake.

Sarthation in the Obsidian Sanctum drops 2 mounts; one on 10 man, one on 25 man. Both require you to leave the other three bosses in the raid alive as you engage Sartharion. Reins of the Black Drake drops on 10 man, Reins of the Twilight Drake on 25. Malygos is another double-dropping dragon, but these can be won on any difficulty. Reins of the Azure Drake and Reins of the Blue Drake are your (possible) rewards for mashing 1 1 2 3 repeatedly.

The bosses in the Vault of Archavon all have a chance of dropping the Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth. All of them are easy to kill, but the Ice Watcher is moderately tougher than the others. Reins of the Onyxian Drake drops from who else but Onyxia! It’s a fabulous purple colour.

The two more difficult kills drop possibly the best mounts in the game. Yogg-Saron on 25 man mode with 0 keepers assisting has a chance to yield Mimiron’s Head, and heroic 25 man Lich King has a chance to give you Invincible’s Reins. Not every class is able to solo these, so try and assemble a small group if you want, and run it until you all have it!

Cataclysm

Slim picking here for pets. The parrot still drops from pirates in heroic Deadmines, and Mojo drops from frogs in Zul’Aman. Use Amani Hex Sticks on them to get a chance at the pet!

Dungeon mounts are plentiful compared to previous expansions! Altairus in Vortex Pinnacle drops Reins of the Drake of the North Wind, and is easily soloable, as is Slabhide in Stonecore. He yields the Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake. Kilnara and Mandokir in Zul’Gurub have a chance to drop the Swift Zulian Panther and the Armored Razzashi Raptor respectively. Zul’Aman has the Amani Battle Bear, which you receive from an NPC after defeating the first 4 bosses within 25 minutes (you start with 15 minutes on the timer, but the first 2 bosses add 5 minutes each on their death). It’s soloable, but not easy!

Al’akir in the Throne of the Four Winds drops the Reins of the Drake of the South Wind, and is an easy solo. What is NOT an easy solo is the encounter before it, and is something I am still working on myself. Do yourself a favour and get a group for this one.

Alysrazor and Ragnaros in the Firelands drop mounts; The Flametalon of Alysrazor and the Smoldering Egg of Millagazor. Alysrazor is a weird fight, but easy to solo once you get the hang of it. Ragnaros is not an easy solo, but doable.

Ultraxion in Dragon Soul is another non-easy solo; as a warlock, you need to be in 570+ gear. He has a chance to drop Experiment 12-B. Madness of Deathwing drops 2 mounts. Reins of the Blazing Drake drops on either difficulty, and either raid size. Life-Binder’s Handmaiden drops from heroic mode only.

Mists of Pandaria

I don’t think most of these fights can be soloed, but hey, you’re welcome to try. The Sha of Anger drops Reins of the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent. Son of Galleon’s Saddle drops from Galleon, shockingly. Nalak drops Reins of the Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent. The awful Oondasta drops the awesome Reins of the Cobalt Primordial Direhorn. People still occasionally form raid groups for the purpose of farming these mounts, so hit up OQ or trade chat!

Zandalari Warbringers located around Pandaria have a low chance to drop one of 3 mounts! Their Primordial Direhorn mounts come in Amber, Jade and Slate varieties. Easily soloable by warlocks, one of my earliest guides details how to do so!

Elegon has a chance to drop an AMAZING mount, the Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent. Horridon in Throne of Thunder can drop Spawn of Horridon, and Ji-Kun Clutch of Ji-Kun. Garrosh Hellscream in Siege drops the Kor’kron Juggernaut with a 100% drop rate on heroic, but this drop chance will be nerfed to stupid-low levels when 6.0 hits.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and get some pets and mounts!