How to get the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph Mount

The devs have done it again. Every expansion they always have some awesome rare mount that can be found out in the world, usually with a little dedication (and sometimes luck), and the ways to obtain them keep getting more interesting and (in my opinion) quite fun.

In Wrath of the Lich King we had the Time Lost Proto-Drake, in Cataclysm we had Aeonaxx and Mysterious Camels, in Pandaria we had Alani and then in Draenor we had to find those crazy portals to get the Voidtalon of the Dark Star. Well now we've got something completely different on the Broken Isles, and I find it to be one of the most unique and exciting mounts to find yet. It's basically a cross between a treasure hunt and a race!

The "Time Lost Proto-Drake" of Legion is called the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph, and I love it - IT'S SO PINK!

The magnificent Long-Forgotten Hippogryph

How to get it:

So here's the skinny on this mount - in order to obtain it you'll need to be the first person to find and click five Ephemeral Crystals when they're up in Azsuna. They are a bright pinkish/purple color when found in outdoor areas. When found in caves and under water they look a little less bright and more purple in color. These crystals can only be found in Azsuna on The Broken Isles, and have many, many spawn points (over 100) all over the zone. 

The 7 Mount Dropping Rares of Draenor

I love camping for rares, this shouldn't be a secret to anyone who has been following this blog for the past few years. I like setting up my characters in a safe cozy spot to wait for a prize that could show up in minutes or even days. I actually enjoy the wait, and I cannot convey just how happy I am that Blizzard has implemented some RARE rares back into the game. That feeling - when your target appears after waiting and waiting for what can sometimes seem like a decade - it just can't be beat.

In MoP the spawn timers on rares were so short they hardly felt 'rare' at all. There wasn't even a real TLPD or Aeonaxx equivalent. Alani was nice as her drop was guaranteed, but I never could find the time to farm for shards (I did still get the mount though - Thank You Reinoverall!) and would have loved to camp for SOMEthing in Pandaria.

In WoD there are dozens of silver dragons called 'vignettes' in each zone. They are actually quite common though - even more so than MoP rares (they even loose their silver dragon portrait after your character has killed a particular one). They do however drop some interesting and unique loot. I straight up did not have the time or energy to find all of them throughout beta and go on to post about them. For anyone interested in learning more about these vignettes, Wowhead has some incredibly in depth articles on them for each zone in Draenor. Notable loot, maps, screenies, they have it all. Here they are by zone:

• Shadowmoon Valley
• Frostfire Ridge
• Gorgrond
• Talador
• Spires of Arak
• Nagrand

I did however have time to CAMP! That's right, as soon as I found out that there were going to be RARE mount dropping mobs scattered throughout Draenor, I just knew I had to find out as much as I could about these guys.

Throughout Draenor there are seven, that's right, SEVEN mount-dropping rares. Six of these rares have a 100% chance to drop a mount for anyone who participates in the kill (Source). The seventh drops one mount which will need to be rolled upon. Each of the mounts looks just like the rare which it dropped from.

Moonfang

I don't know about you all, but I've been having a blast so far since patch 5.4 hit. The Timeless Isle is where I've been spending most of my time. Between killing rares for pets, and pet battling for the Celestial Tournament, I have a hard time leaving that place! I've also been driving myself crazy in Proving Grounds on several of my toons trying for the gold. /Shakes fist at waves 9 & 10!

Whatever you've been keeping busy with over the past few weeks -- that's not all of the new content this patch has to offer. This weekend when the Darkmoon Faire floats back from wherever it disappears off to for the rest of the month, we'll have a chance to fight the new boss there - Moonfang!

Now unlike the Darkmoon Rabbit, Moonfang doesn't just spawn in out of the blue. She will only appear after many other (lesser) wolves have been slain throughout the forest. Killing enough non-elite level 89-90 Moonfang Snarlers, will cause a handfull of elite Moonfang Dreadhowls to spawn. The Dreadhowls are more difficult to kill and have a lot more health, but they are soloable. Killing these will eventually lure Moonfang out of her "den". Moonfang spawns right near the "corpse tree" just north of the fairgrounds. I marked the location on the map below. Her spawn timer is roughly an hour.

New Rares and Mounts Coming in patch 5.2

There are quite a few things I'm excited about in patch 5.2. Naturally, one of those things is the addition of a whole heaping ton of new rares. We've got many different types of rares to look forward to as well; new world group bosses on each of the new islands, rare elites requiring a small group to kill, rare soloable elites and other miscellaneous rares will all be making an appearance soon! We're even going to be seeing some new mounts - DINOSAUR MOUNTS - from these guys. Hurrah!

Zandalari Warbringers & Warscouts

The Zandalari Warbringers are five rare elites that will be spread out around the continent of Pandaria. These rares can be found in The Jade Forest, Krasarang Wilds, Kun-Lai Summit, The Dread Wastes and Townlong Steppes. (See map with locations further down in this post.) They each have 21079k health and will require a group to defeat. (On the ptr we were able to defeat them with a group of three - two BM spec hunters and an elemental shaman, however it went much more smoothly with a full group of five.)

Each of these rares drop 3-4 very nice reputation items including: Stolen Celestial Insignia, Stolen Golden Lotus Insignia, Stolen Klaxxi Insignia and Stolen Shado-Pan Insignia. They also tend to drop either a Big Bag of Zandalari Supplies or a Small Bag of Zandalari Supplies. Each of these bags will contain a fairly decent amount of crafting materials, and are basically another version of the bags that drop off of the rares in Townlong Steppes. That's not all these guys can drop though!

Zandalari Warbringers (Click photo to Enlarge)

If you look carefully at the screenshots above, you'll notice that the Warbringers are sitting on different color mounts. There are three colors that they can spawn in, and the color that actually spawns seems completely random. You may ask, Why does it even matter? Well here's why - because these rares each have a small chance to drop a mount, and not just any mount - their mount. The one they are sitting on when you engage them. Killing a Zandalari Warbringer on a Jade Primordial Direhorn will give you a small chance at that mount. At least this is what I have seen so far. I saw these mounts drop multiple times on the ptr, and each time the color that dropped was the exact same color as the one ridden by the Warbringer. It could be coincidence, but until I see otherwise I'm pretty sure this is the case.

Here are some screenshots of each of these new Direhorn mounts (which I think look absolutely fantastic).

How to Kill Alani The Stormborn (Reins of the Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent)

My last Alani post was written and edited throughout various points during mop beta and ended up being sort of a timeline of discoveries, rather than a straight forward, this is how to Kill Alani and get an awesome mount post. I figured it was about time to condense everything into one clean spot for her - so without further adieu:

Like the Time-Lost Proto-Drake, Aeonaxx, Poseidus and even that pesky mysterious camel figurine before her, Alani the Stormborn is Mist of Pandaria's rare that drops a mount. Unlike her predecessors, the method of killing her and obtaining the mount she drops is far different from anything we've seen until now. 

Alani has a 100% chance to drop the Reins of the Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent. She can be found flying high above the Vale of Eternal Blossoms protected by a Nimbus Shroud, which completely protects her from any type of harm.

Rares in previous expansions required us to wait around for hours, days, even weeks on end waiting for them to show up. Many of us would afk with our volume turned up so that if our coveted rare did spawn we'd hear the blazing horn of npcscan and drop whatever we were doing for a chance at downing them. Often times a lucky person questing on an alt would just happen to run into said rare only moments before we could tag them, destroying all hope of obtaining what we had been waiting for for so long. 

Well Alani changes the game entirely, making sure that only those that really truly want her are going to get her. Anyone looking to get their hands on the Reins of the Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent are going to have to farm for it plain and simple. The only thing that will break Alani out of her Nimbus Shroud and make her attackable is a Sky Crystal. A Sky Crystal is created when ten Skyshards are fused together.

Skyshards will drop from pretty much any mob in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The drop chance is incredibly low though (roughly anywhere from .01 - .4%). Mobs with lower health pools that respawn quickly make a good target for farming these things. In the screenshot below you can see my friend Reinoverall farming Stonebark Tricksters in Ruins Rise for his very last Skyshard.

Aeonaxx - Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake

Originally I wasn't going to write up a post on Aeonaxx, mainly because my first attempt at a blog (Find Aeonaxx) was entirely devoted to him and I already have a link to it on my sidebar. However, recently I've noticed a lot of traffic on that blog coming from this blog through the search term Deepholm, and figured it was about time I consolidate some information. 

 

For anyone unaware, Aeonaxx is a level 85 rare elite dragon that spawns in Deepholm and drops the coveted mount: Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake.  Aeonaxx is very similar to the Time-Lost Proto-Drake, as far as having a ridiculous spawn timer and sharing that spawn timer with another npc. The way to kill this rare though is quite different.

The Fight:
 

When Aeonaxx first spawns in he will appear friendly to players and the portrait around his head will show that of the typical silver dragon. Upon flying closer to him when you are in range a green "vehicle" arrow will appear. (See picture below.)

 

Click Image to Enlarge

Once you have mounted Aeonaxx, he will turn hostile and his portrait will turn into a golden "elite" dragon and the text on your screen will read "Kill Aeonaxx before his whelps overwhelm you." 

Time-Lost Proto-Drake - Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake

The Time-Lost Proto-Drake (TLPD) is a level 80 rare spawn that can be found in the Storm Peaks. He has a 100% chance to drop the coveted Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake, as well as a level 76 bind on equip necklace and an abandoned adventurer's satchel. He has 18,900 hp and is non-elite. TLPD shares a spawn timer, spawn points, and flight paths with Vyragosa. This means that they can never be up at the same time. Vyragosa is also MUCH much more likely to spawn than the TLPD. In your time camping for the TLPD you can expect to be seeing a lot of her.

Spawn Timer:

The spawn timer on both the TLPD and Vyragosa is somewhere between 6-24+hours, meaning that after either Vyragsa or the TLPD are killed you will not see either of them spawn again for at least six hours MUCH shorter than it used to be when this article was originally written. People have seen it in as little as an hour, and anywhere up to about 7 hours (updated 4/13/17). It is completely random which one of the two will spawn in next. Vyragosa could spawn 10 times before you see a TLPD spawn or she may only spawn a couple of times in between TLPD spawns.

TLPD being "held" at Bor's Breath, screen-shot courtesy of Reinoverall - Elune (US)

Spawn Points:

Mysterious Camel Figurine - Reins of the Grey Riding Camel

NPCScan Alert

Size Comparison

Mysterious camel figurine is a level 1 item with only 42 health that can be found pretty much all over Uldum. Using the addon tomtom I have indicated most (maybe all?) off the spawn locations below on the map with little green dots. They do not move, they are completely stationary and they are very small. They are also affected by Deathwing. If he comes through Uldum any figurine that is up will be annihilated.

Click Map to Enlarge

95% of these figurines when clicked will become Crumbled Statue Remnants, which is a grey item that vendors for 25 gold. However 5% of the time upon clicking you will be enveloped in a cyclone for a few seconds and then teleported to the steam pools in Feralas. You will also be given a debuff called Dormus' Rage which will allow you 20 minutes to find and kill him.

Poseidus - Reins of Poseidus

Poseidus

Poseidus is a highly sought after hostile level 81 rare seahorse with approximately 55.8k health who spawns in the under water zone Vashj'ir. He has four different spawn points in the Shimmering Expanse (they are shown in orange on the second map below). He also has one spawn point in the Abyssal Depths in the southern end of Underlight Canyon (that is where I found him).

Poseidus has a 100% chance to drop Reins of Poseidus, which is a bind on use seahorse mount that can be summoned anywhere in game under water. I have seen very few of these on the Auction House on my server. The few I have seen have generally be listed for about 100,000 gold. He also drops a hefty amount of gold, when I killed him he dropped around 99gold. He also tends to be very generous with other loot, often dropping item level 359 bind on equip gear and pricey formulas and designs. (When I killed him he dropped Blockade's Lost Shield and Formula: Enchant Bracer - Major Strength.) 

Subdued Seahorse - Learned from Reins of Poseidus

Nobody (other than Blizzard) knows the exact spawn timer that Poseidus is on, but from information I've gathered its a pretty long one. It is probably as least 72 hours, making this mount very rare indeed.