World of Warcraft news » Mastering the Many Mounts

In this series of blog posts, we’ll look at some of the content in World of Warcraft where you might need a helpful nudge in the right direction—maybe you’re stuck, maybe you got sidetracked, or maybe you don’t even know how to begin! Join us as we travel all over Azeroth and Draenor to uncover and thoroughly tackle the many different little adventures available to any player.

In this edition, we’re looking at some of the more fun and interesting ways to grow your collection of mounts. If you haven’t done much (or any) mount collecting since the launch of Warlords of Draenor, you’re in for a treat, as the latest expansion introduced more than 40 new mounts to the game. Some are exceptionally difficult to obtain, but this article focuses primarily on mounts that more easily attainable—but still require a bit of effort and know-how.

What follows is intended for players who haven’t already overcome the content, though keep it mind it will contain minor spoilers. If this particular information isn’t for you because you’re already a mounted master, then well done! In the comments below, let us know what you’d like to learn how to master in a future blog post.

There’s No Place Like Home

Your Garrison offers you the most direct way to get your reins on 10 new mounts, eight of which are available via the Stables. If you don’t have a Stables, it’s a building that requires a large-sized plot, so you’ll have to demolish your Barracks, Bunker/War Mill, Gearworks/Workshop, or Mage Tower/Spirit Lodge to make room for it. Don’t worry if you want to demolish the Stables later once you’re done with it—any mounts you earn from the Stables will remain in your collection permanently.

These six mounts are obtainable via quests that pop up in your Stables each day:

• Trained Icehoof
• Trained Meadowstomper
• Trained Riverwallow
• Trained Rocktusk
• Trained Silverpelt
• Trained Snarler

The quests will require you to track down wild beasts in various zones, lasso them, break them, and ultimately tame them and make them love you.

Once you have all six, you can take on the achievements Advanced Husbandry and The Stable Master. The first rewards an Armored Frostboar, and the second grants you the Armored Frostwolf. This is where things get tricky.

The achievements require you to go to Nagrand and kill each of six named enemies while mounted on each of your six trained mounts. Additionally, you have to have a debuff item in your possession. For Advanced Husbandry, you’ll need to have the Black Claw of Sethe, and for The Stable Master, you’ll need to complete all 36 kills while under the effects of the Garn-Tooth Necklace. Look around your Stables for those items, and be ready to move slower and take more damage on your trained mounts when you’ve got them.

For an in-depth walkthrough of the Stables, check out the Guide to the Garrison Stables on Wowhead.

It’s also possible to obtain two more mounts using your Trading Post:

• Armored Irontusk (Alliance—requires Exalted with Sha’tari Defense)
• Ironside Warwolf (Horde—requires Exalted with Laughing Skull Orcs)

In either case, you’ve got to build a Trading Post, advance it to at least level 2, and gain a lot of rep. Once again, Wowhead has the lowdown with their Laughing Skull Reputation Guide and this Sha’tari Defense Reputation Guide.

Let’s Go Camping

There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when a rare NPC spawns after you’ve spent a long time waiting for it, and you capture the mount of your dreams. In Draenor, there are eight such mounts, and six of them are a guaranteed drop for any character who takes part in the kill:

• Bloodhoof Bull—dropped by Nakk the Thunderer in Nagrand
• Great Greytusk—dropped by Gorok in Frostfire Ridge
• Mottle Meadowstomper—dropped by Luk’hok in Nagrand
• Sapphire Riverbeast—dropped by Silthide in Talador
• Sunhide Gronnling—dropped by Poundfist in Gorgrond
• Swift Breezestrider—dropped by Pathrunner in Shadowmoon Valley

The most basic way to acquire any of these mounts is to hunt down the rare creatures that drop them, usually by spending some time in each of the spots where they are known to spawn. Over on Wowhead, a community member named Obtain has published a handy map of their spawn points, and if you’re looking for more detail, check out his Warlords of Draenor Mount Collectors Guide.

The key to wrangling these rare mounts is patience. The enemies that drop them spawn very infrequently, and in only one of several possible places, so a fair amount of luck is required. Wherever you place yourself, you’ll likely be far away from most of the other spawn points, and these rare creatures are usually taken out quickly. However, once you’ve collected most of them, it will get easier to find the others, since you’ll have so much less territory to cover to do so.

You Can’t Take It With You

You may have overlooked or never known that there are seven mounts available to you to purchase in Warspear for gold and Apexis Crystals (and more are coming in Patch 6.2!).

• Breezestrider Stallion (Horde—requires Exalted with Vol’jin’s Spear)
• Domesticated Razorback (requires Exalted with Steamwheedle Preservation Society)
• Dusty Rockhide (Alliance—requires Exalted with Council of Exarchs)
• Mosshide Riverwallow
• Pale Thorngazer (Alliance—requires Exalted with Wrynn’s Vanguard)
• Shadowmane Charger (requires Exalted with Arakkoa Outcasts)
• Swift Frostwolf (Horde—requires Exalted with Frostwolf Orcs)

If you’re interested in gathering Apexis Crystals to pick up these mounts, refer to Wowhead’s Farming and Spending Apexis Crystals in Warlords of Draenor guide.

Or We’ll Come To You

One very good reason to participate in a Garrison invasion every week and go for the gold rating is actually four very good reasons:

• Garn Steelmaw
• Giant Coldsnout
• Shadowhide Pearltusk
• Smoky Direwolf

You can only find these four mounts in the Invader’s Forgotten Treasure left behind after you earn a Gold Rating in your defense. The chance of finding each in your cache is quite small, so you’ll want to keep defending your and your friends’ Garrisons each week. For some good advice on getting a gold rating, check out the Garrison Invasions guide on Wowhead.

Are you hitting any snags expanding your mount collection in Draenor? Tell us about it in this forum thread in our General discussion forum. Master mount collectors are standing by!