Things to do before Shadowlands

With Shadowlands scheduled for release later this year and the pre-patch going live on October 13th, we have put together a list of things you could do before Shadowlands is released. Suggestions include things such as mount farming and earning notable achievements. We have also included a few ways you can prepare for the Shadowlands expansion.

This is by no means a complete list, but hopefully this article will highlight some ideas for things to work towards whilst the content is still current and groups are more frequently being made.

This list is also just an outline, for more details on anything we have included, there are many great resources available from the community.

Addons and helpful resources

• Rarity - An addon used for tracking the number of attempts you’ve had on mounts and rare drops.
• SilverDragon - An addon that scans your surroundings for rares, notifying you with a sound and visuals when a rare is up.
• HandyNotes - An addon that handles specific HandyNotes data addons (e.g. HandyNotes: Visions of N'Zoth Rares by TomCat's Tours).
• TomCat’s Tours - The standalone addon is also nice to use to highlight rares, when a rare is hovered over it shows you the Mount or Toy it can drop.

Where to start

Leveling characters

Between now and the Shadowlands is a great time to level characters. Having extra characters to choose from in a new expansion is always great, but having additional characters available also gives you extra chances for each daily or weekly lockout on rare drops (including some of the ones suggested below).

Once the Shadowlands pre-patch is live you can level up to 50 (equivalent of 120 in BFA) through any of the previous expansions with the new Chromie Time leveling feature.

If you already have a character at level 50, you can purchase Draught of ten lands for 10% experience increase (1 hour per consumable). Also, when the Darkmoon Faire is active, you can gain an additional 10% experience from WHEE or the Darkmoon Top Hat (these don’t stack).

Unlock Flying with Pathfinder

If you haven’t already unlocked flying, it’s worth working towards getting the Pathfinder achievements needed. Once achieved, all of your characters will be able to fly in Battle for Azeroth, you will gain a 20% mounted speed increase and be rewarded with the Wonderwing 2.0 mount. Being able to fly in BFA will help with speedier leveling and more efficient mount farming in BFA zones.

Pathfinder is split into two parts for Battle for Azeroth:

Deadlined & Notable Achievements

Because some content will become unavailable when the Shadowlands expansion is released, we recommend prioritising the ones outlined here if you are interested in the rewards. Not all of these will be unavailable in the future, but making or finding groups might become more difficult.

Uncorrupted Voidwing Going Away

When you defeat N'Zoth on Heroic difficulty or higher you will receive a quest item that rewards you with the Uncorrupted Voidwing mount. N’Zoth will drop a quest item for everyone who has not completed it yet, after finishing a short quest chain you receive the mount.

The quest item for the mount will still drop during the Shadowlands pre-patch but is being removed when Shadowlands is released.

Glory of the Raider & Hero Achievements

Although these will be possible in Shadowlands and the future, often, some of the meta achievements can be slightly simpler when the content is current (e.g. reasonable power levels) and there will be more groups available ahead of the new expansion.

The achievements each reward you with a mount:

Mount Farming

With mount farming, in addition to the mounts you target, you can also aim to collect enough mounts to hit your next milestone (e.g. Lord of the Reins for collecting 300 usable mounts for that character). To see which you’re working towards and your progress so far, check the Collections tab, then Mounts in your achievements and scroll to the bottom. Once you’ve earned a milestone, the next will show in its place.

World Drop Mounts

Zandalar and Kul’Tiras have mounts that drop from regular enemies in a number of locations. The mounts available to drop vary by the type of enemy, each with quite a low drop chance, so you will likely need many attempts before one drops, although it is possible with only a few if you’re lucky. To set expectations, we have witnessed drops at under 2,000 attempts up to 40,000 attempts. A silver lining of these farms is the passive gold from vendoring the drops you receive.

In the group finder, these mount farms are often referred to as “2x4” farming groups; this means there are two groups of 4 people farming in the area that the mount drops. By doing this, there are now 8 people eligible for drops from the mobs (rather than 5) and with additional people killing the mobs the farming is considerably more efficient.

At the time of writing this, the following places are where these farming spots are commonly located for each of the mounts:

Goldenmane’s reins

A farm spot for Goldenmane’s reins is located in Stormsong Valley. The mobs that drop the mount include Shipwright Turncoat and Brinebrawn Cannoneer.

Chewed-On Reins of the Terrified Pack Mule

A farm spot for Chewed-On Reins of the Terrified Pack Mule is located in Drustvar. The mobs that drop the mount include Hexthralled Soldier.

Captured Dune Scavenger

A farm spot for Captured Dune Scavenger is located in Vol’dun.

Reins of the Tamed Bloodfeaster

A farm spot for Reins of the Tamed Bloodfeaster is located in Nazmir.

Zone Rare Drops

There are a wide range of mounts available from rare mobs in BFA. You can mark the rares on your map by using a HandyNotes or TomCat's Tours data addon. Below is a list broken down by location/zone. Some of these zones will require you to unlock them through the campaign quest lines, and often, the more characters you have available the more attempts you have when that rare is active.

Warfront: Arathi Highlands

To easily see on the map where rare spawn locations are, the TomCat's Tours: Arathi Highlands addon is really useful.

These rares have a loot lockout of once each time the Arathi Highlands Warfront rares are available (when your faction is defending).

1. The Lil’ Donkey mount drops from Overseer Krix.
2. The Skullripper mount drops from Skullripper.
3. The Witherbark Direwing mount drops from Nimar the Slayer.
4. The Swift Albino Raptor mount drops from Beaststrider Kama.
5. The Broken Highland Mustang mount (Horde Only) drops from Knight-Captain Aldrin or the Highland Mustang mount (Alliance Only) drops from Doomrider Helgrim.

Warfront: Darkshore

To easily see on the map where rare spawn locations are, the TomCat's Tours: Darkshore Addon is really useful. For the mounts with Horde and Alliance specific rares, once the mount has been learned, your characters of both factions can use it. 

These rares have a loot lockout of once each time the Darkshore Warfront rares are available (when your faction is defending).

1. The Ashenvale Chimaera mount drops from Alash’anir.
2. The Frightened Kodo mount is awarded by interacting with the Frightened Kodo, a friendly rare spawn in Darkshore that despawns when the mount is claimed.
3. The Caged Bear mount drops from Blackpaw for Horde or Agathe Wyrmwood for Alliance.
4. For Horde, the Umber Nightsaber mount drops from Athil Dewfire for the Horde or from Moxo the Beheader for Alliance.
5. The Kaldorei Nightsaber is dropped by Shadowclaw for the Horde or Croz Bloodrage for the Alliance. 

Nazjatar

There are two rare spawn mounts in Nazjatar:

1. The Silent Glider mount is dropped from Soundless. The Soundless rare spawns at multiple points in the Coral Forest (on top of the Coral) with quite a long spawn timer. It’s worth checking in the group finder for groups to kill this rare. This rare has a daily lockout for loot.
2. The Fabious mount is rewarded when you take a selfie (using either the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera MkII toy or the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera item) with the neutral Fabious rare in the photo. Fabious spawns in the water wall around the edge of Nazjatar. The mount is received directly into your bag when a successful selfie is taken, so keep taking them until you receive the mount and try to take the photo as close to the rare as you can.

Mechagon

There are two rare spawn mounts from Mechagon, both with a daily lockout for loot and often have camping groups in the group finder:

1. The Rusted Keys to the Junkheap Drifter mount is dropped from the Rustfeather rare. Rustfeather has a respawn timer of 30 - 60 minutes.
2. The Rusty Mechanocrawler mount drops from the Arachnoid Harvester rare.

N’zoth Assaults

Once you have one character that has unlocked the N’zoth Assaults, unlocking it on more characters is quite quick, so you can get extra chances when the mount rares are available.

The rares change availability based on the Assault type. They change on the weekly reset and during the rotating zone’s mid-week swap (Friday evening for NA and Saturday evening for EU). The rares have a daily loot lockout.

For most of these rares, keep an eye out for groups in the group finder to either camp the spawn point or groups saying the rare is up already.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms

There are 4 mounts that drop, and a fifth mount that is available when the Zan Tien Lasso drops and you use it to capture the Ivory Cloud Serpent (a rare spawn).

The Ivory Cloud Serpent is awarded when you use the Zan Tien Lasso (a drop from Zan-Tien mobs in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms) on the Ivory Cloud Serpent (a rare spawn). It's a friendly mob that flies around the Vale at speed. You need to be on your own flying mount (Druid flight form won’t work) and use the Lasso when close to it to start the cast. There are often camping groups available for this rare spawn.

In the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, all of the rares with Mount drops are in a single Assault type (the Mogu Assault), so keep an eye on when that one is active.

1. The Rajani Warserpent mount is exchanged for a Pristine Cloud Serpent Scale that drops from the Rei Lun rare (inside the Guo-Lai Halls).
2. The Xinlao mount drops from Anh-De the Loyal.
3. The Ren’s Stalwart Hound mount drops from Houndlord Ren.
4. The Clutch of Ha-Li mount drops from Ha-Li.

Uldum

There are 3 mounts that drop from rares in Uldum, a mount that is available when you feed the Friendly Alpaca for seven days (7 days in total, not 7 days in a row) and a mount rewarded for doing a chain of daily quests (the Shadowbarb Drone).

The Reins of the Springfur Alpaca mount is a reward for feeding Gersahl Greens to a Friendly Alpaca (a rare spawn) for a total of 7 days. It’s worth farming the Gersahl Greens needed ahead of time to make it easier. They are found in Uldum and don’t require herbalism to collect. Check the group finder as there are often groups made for the Friendly Alpaca spawning.

1. The Reins of the Drake of the Four Winds mount is dropped from Ishak of the Four Winds during the Black Empire and Aqir Unearthed Assault.
2. The Malevolent Drone mount is dropped from Corpse Eater during the Aqir Unearthed Assault.
3. The Waste Marauder mount is dropped from Rotfeaster during the Amathet Advance Assault.
4. The Shadowbarb Drone is rewarded for completing the daily quest line to raise the mount from an egg. The quest line is started from an egg, found in the Ankhaten Harbor (left side of Uldum) and the NPC that gives the daily quests is located in Ramkahen.

Raid Drop Mounts

Glacial Tidestorm (Jaina Mount)

The Glacial Tidestorm mount drops from Jaina Proudmoore on Mythic difficulty, the last boss in the Battle for Dazar’alor raid.

Although you can still farm this mount after Shadowlands is released, the guaranteed drop of 2 mounts is removed, making it a 1% drop chance and the boss can only drop 1 mount. For a much higher chance you should attempt it before the next expansion launches later this year. Especially as there are likely to be groups made during the pre-patch whilst the last boss still drops 2 guaranteed Glacial Tidestorm mounts. 

G.M.O.D Mount

The G.M.O.D mount drops from High Tinker Mekkatorque in the Battle of Dazar'alor raid on Normal, Heroic and Mythic difficulty. In Looking for Raid (LFR) difficulty, it has a chance to drop from Jaina Proudmoore (the last boss of the raid) instead of High Tinker Mekkatorque.

Dungeon Drop Mounts

These mounts drop on either Mythic from a specific boss or from the Challenger's Cache at the end of a Mythic+ difficulty key of the mount’s respective dungeon.

The Aerial Unit R-21/X mount requires you to complete the Operation: Mechagon dungeon on Hard Mode, the mount is a guaranteed drop from the end boss, King Mechagon.

Mechagon & Nazjatar achievements

Both Mechagon and Nazjatar zones have a mount attached to an overall achievement for each. To unlock each of the mounts, you need to complete the respective meta achievements for that zone.

• Undersea Usurpa is the achievement for Nazjatar, with the reward of the Snapback Scuttler Mount (crab mount).
• Mecha-Done is the achievement for Mechagon, with the reward of the Keys to the Model W mount.

Other Mounts

Bloodflank Charger & Ironclad Frostclaw

The Two sides to every tale achievement rewards Bloodflank Charger (Horde) and Ironclad Frostclaw (Alliance). Completed by leveling a Horde and Alliance character to max level, then completing the required achievements and quest lines for both.

Great Sea Ray

The Great Sea Ray mount is fished from any water in BFA (not specifically pools), for example in the Port of Zandalar or Boralus. It’s worth mentioning, this mount has a low drop chance, so it can take some time if you don’t get lucky. Anyone can fish this mount, you don’t need a particular fishing level or fishing gear. Also, take note that you can only hold one mount at a time per character (if you intend to fish for more than one).

Slightly Damp Pile of Fur

The Slightly Damp Pile of Fur mount drops from the World Boss, Dunegorger Kraulok, in Vol’dun. Keep an eye out for when this World Boss is available in the rotation, the world quest for the boss is Sandswept Bones.

Reins of the Elusive Quickhoof

The Reins of the Elusive Quickhoof mount is rewarded when you feed the Elusive Quickhoof, a friendly rare spawn in Vol’dun, with Seaside Leafy Greens Mix (a consumable purchased from vendors). You can check in the group finder for groups camping for it to spawn. 

You only need to feed it once, and you will get the mount. To feed it, click on the Elusive Quickhoof NPC and click the dialogue option to give the alpaca the Seaside Leafy Greens Mix.

Royal Snapdragon (Nazjatar Paragon Mount)

The Royal Snapdragon mount has a chance to drop from the Unshackled (Horde) and Ankoan (Alliance) reputation paragon supplies in Nazjatar. Complete world quests and keep an eye out for the Unshackled Emissary Quest (to complete 4 Unshackled dailies) to earn 1,500 reputation towards getting Exalted or your next paragon reward.

Nazjatar Blood Serpent

The Nazjatar Blood Serpent mount is a guaranteed drop from the Adherent of the Abyss. To spawn the Adherent of the Abyss, you need to combine 20 Abyssal Fragments which are dropped from world mobs and can be traded (including on the Auction House). 

Once you have 20, you can combine them to make an Abhorrent Essence of the Abyss by clicking the Abyssal Fragments whilst at the Abyssal Icon (found behind the waterfall in Stormsong Valley at coordinates 73.50, 23.55). 

Finally, you need to use the Abhorrent Essence of the Abyss at The Abyssal Flame, located inside the cave at coordinates 46.75, 36.36. When used, you will spawn the rare mob (with around 1.2 million health) that you need to kill to collect the mount.

Note: If you don’t successfully kill the mob, you will have to repeat the process (including collecting the Abyssal Fragments). Other players can help you kill the rare mob that spawns.

Allied Race Mounts

When you unlock each of the Allied Races (Horde and Alliance) you will earn a themed mount for that race. To unlock each of the Allied Races, after the pre-patch is live, you need to complete a questline and/or a set of achievements (the Exalted reputation requirement was removed in the pre-patch). For example, the Mag'har Orc requires you to have completed the Ready for War achievement.

These mounts can be used by any character of that Allied Race's faction (Horde or Alliance).

Horde Allied Race Mounts

Alliance Allied Race Mounts

Mechanized Lumber Extractor (Collecting Toys)

Similarly to mounts, there are a wide range of toys available and there are rewards for collecting milestone amounts of toys. At 300 toys collected for the Remember to Share achievement, you earn the Mechanized Lumber Extractor mount.

Island Expedition Mounts

Although it's unknown if Island Expeditions will be changed in the future to allow you to enter them solo, now is a great time to grind some Island Expeditions for the end of island drop chance and to accumulate Seafarer’s Dublooms. With the addition of the purchasable Salvage boxes, costing 175 Seafarer’s Dublooms each, you can increase your chances and target the mounts you want. The Salvage vendor changes which Salvage is available on the weekly reset.

The list below shows the mounts available from Island Expeditions and which Salvage boxes you will want to purchase for a chance at them:

There are also two additional mounts that can be purchased directly for Seafarer’s Dublooms from the vendor:

• Saltwater Seahorse for 500 Seafarer’s Dublooms
• Siltwing Albatross for 1,000 Seafarer’s Dublooms 

Alongside farming for the mounts, you may also get the Island Expedition transmog items, pets and the reputation items (that start a hand-in quest) drop as a bonus.

100 Exalted Reputations achievement

By completing the 100 Exalted Reputations achievement you will earn the Pureheart Courser mount reward. A useful tip for this is the reputation buff you get during a timewalking week (e.g. Sign of the Destroyer for the Cataclysm Timewalking bonus event), experience from combat and quests in that expansion is increased by 50%.

For Battle for Azeroth and Legion reputations there is a similar reputation buff during the World Quest bonus event. Also, don’t forget to get the Darkmoon faire reputation (and experience) buff from WHEE or the Darkmoon Top Hat (these don’t stack) for a little extra bonus reputation when the Darkmoon Faire is active.

Vendor Mounts

If you have gold to spare, there are a variety of mounts that can be purchased from vendors for gold or other currencies (note that most vendor mounts require some reputation to unlock their purchase).

Below is a list of Battle for Azeroth vendor mounts and the cost of each (some costs include a reputation discount):

• Horde
• Alliance

Mount	Location	Requirement	Cost
Green Marsh Hopper	Gottem (Nazmir)		333,333
Blue Marsh Hopper	Gottem (Nazmir)		333,333
Yellow Marsh Hopper	Gottem (Nazmir)		333,333
Reins of the Palehide Direhorn	Talutu (Dazar’alor)		500,000
Reins of the Mighty Caravan Brutosaur	Talutu (Dazar’alor)		5,000,000
Inkscale Deepseeker	Dazzerian (Nazjatar)		150
Crimson Tidestallion	Mrrl (Nazjatar)		*
Wicked Swarmer	Wrathion (Chamber of Heart)		100,000
Reins of the Alabaster Hyena	Hoarder Jena (Vol’dun)	Voldunai - Exalted	10,000
Reins of the Expedition Bloodswarmer	Provisioner Lija (Nazmir)	Talanji’s Expedition - Exalted	10,000
Reins of the Cobalt Pterrordax	Natal'hakata (Dazar’alor)	Zandalari Empire - Exalted	10,000
Reins of the Captured Swampstalker	Provisioner Lija (Nazmir)	Talanji’s Expedition - Exalted	72,000
Reins of the Voldunai Dunescraper	Hoarder Jena (Vol’dun)	Voldunai - Exalted	72,000
Reins of the Spectral Pterrorwing	Natal'hakata (Dazar’alor)	Zandalari Empire - Exalted	72,000
Unshackled Waveray	Finder Pruc (Nazjatar)	Unshackled - Exalted	250
Rustbolt Resistor	Stolen Royal Vendorbot (Mechagon)	Rustbolt Resistance - Exalted	419,430
Wastewander Skyterror	Provisioner Qorra (Uldum)	Uldum Accord - Exalted	19,200
Sandy Nightsaber	Provisioner Mukra (Dazar’alor)		350
Rubyshell Krolusk	Provisioner Mukra (Dazar’alor)		200
Bloodthirsty Dreadwing	Provisioner Mukra (Dazar’alor)		750

Mount	Location	Requirement	Cost
Green Marsh Hopper	Gottem (Nazmir)		333,333
Blue Marsh Hopper	Gottem (Nazmir)		333,333
Yellow Marsh Hopper	Gottem (Nazmir)		333,333
Reins of the Palehide Direhorn	Tricky Nick (Boralus)		500,000
Reins of the Mighty Caravan Brutosaur	Tricky Nick (Boralus)		5,000,000
Inkscale Deepseeker	Crafticus Mindbender (Nazjatar)		150
Crimson Tidestallion	Mrrl (Nazjatar)		*
Wicked Swarmer	Wrathion (Chamber of Heart)		100,000
Reins of the Admiralty Stallion	Provisioner Fray (Boralus)	Proudmoore Admiralty - Exalted	10,000
Reins of the Dapple Gray	Sister Lilyana (Stormsong Valley)	Storm’s Wake - Exalted	10,000
Reins of the Smoky Charger	Quartermaster Alcorn (Drustvar)	Order of Embers - Exalted	10,000
Reins of the Proudmoore Sea Scout	Provisioner Fray (Boralus)	Proudmoore Admiralty - Exalted	72,000
Reins of the Stormsong Coastwatcher	Sister Lilyana (Stormsong Valley)	Storm’s Wake - Exalted	72,000
Reins of the Dusky Waycrest Gryphon	Quartermaster Alcorn (Drustvar)	Order of Embers - Exalted	72,000
Ankoan Waveray	Artisan Okata (Nazjatar)	Ankoan - Exalted	250
Rustbolt Resistor	Stolen Royal Vendorbot (Mechagon)	Rustbolt Resistance - Exalted	419,430
Wastewander Skyterror	Provisioner Qorra (Uldum)	Uldum Accord - Exalted	19,200
Sandy Nightsaber	Provisioner Stoutforge (Boralus)		350
Azureshell Krolusk	Provisioner Stoutforge (Boralus)		200
Priestess' Moonsaber	Provisioner Stoutforge (Boralus)		750

* For the Crimson Tidestallion you can purchase it from Mrrl after doing various trades with Mrrglrlr, Grrmrlg, Flgrrl, and Hurlgrl’s vendor items. It’s a long series of trades, so it may be best to look up a guide for this one.

Horrific Vision Mounts

There are two mounts you can obtain from Horrific visions. One of the mounts is a rare spawn (from mailboxes) and the other is a reward for completing a collection of achievements.

Mail Muncher

The Mail Muncher mount is a guarenteed drop from the Mail Muncher mob that has a chance to spawn from clicking on the mail boxes within a Horrific Vision. If the Mail Muncher spawns in your Horrific Vision, everyone in the group can obtain the mount once you defeat the mob. 

Black Serpent of N'Zoth

The Black Serpent of N'Zoth is obtained by completing the achievement Through the Depths of Visions which requires you to do the following:

• Complete a full clear, 5-mask run in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
• Upgrade your cloak to rank 15.
• Purchase all the research items in the Titanic Research Archive.

Shadowlands Expansion Preparation

Below are just a few ideas for how you can prepare for the new expansion. We wanted to list some things you can do that can sometimes be overlooked until the expansion, and a little extra time might help avoid higher costs or missing an opportunity.

Sell extra Battle for Azeroth materials

If you don't have long-term plans to hold onto BFA materials, selling them earlier might get you a higher price whilst also freeing up space in your bags, bank or reagents tab for the new Shadowlands materials.

Stockpile useful items & consumables

At the start of Shadowlands you won’t be able to fly and generally the difficulty of the zones and the enemies you will face will be challenging. For previous expansion launches, having a stockpile of the following items can be useful to maneuver the terrain easier and to give a little boost when the mobs are particularly difficult:

• Goblin Gliders
• Comfortable Riding Saddle (Daze prevention mount equipment, with less water to walk across, this could become a preferred alternative)
• Tome of the Tranquil Mind

Goblin Gliders can be made at no cost, by purchasing materials for Garrison resources at your Warlords of Draenor Garrison Trading post or farming the materials directly.

Tome of the Tranquil Mind can be made by doing the Felwort world quest in Legion with characters with herbalism, then milling them down and making the Tomes with a character with Inscription.

Gearing up Characters

Gearing up a character before the leveling starts in Shadowlands can make a big difference in how difficult it is to level in the new expansion.

Something important to note is that corruption is being removed from all gear when the Shadowlands pre-patch is live, so focusing on item level for Shadowlands will be most effective.