wow Mount Series: Obtaining the 300 Mounts Achievement (Part 1)

[Valks 2,375]

Our new WoW series on mounts has begun!

Our new WoW series has just started! Check out our first installment in this mount collector's series, where we will detail the different and fastest ways to collect 300 mounts.

The Artifact Series has now come to a close and we are ready to get going on the next series! Welcome to the "Road to 300", where we will take you step by step through the different ways of obtaining every mount in the game, the fastest routes to farm them and everything you can do to speed up your runs. In this introductory post, we're going to be looking at the best ways for you to prepare before embarking on this journey.
 
I'd like to put out a PSA and inform you all that you cannot expect to farm these mounts overnight. You will have to throw everything you have into this, spending time, effort and huge amounts of currency on the mounts. You might even have to throw your computer at it too. I came pretty close!
 
The first rule of any mount collector is to understand RNG. I could describe to you all the various statistics of mount collecting, but I think an example might illustrate my point better. As an avid mount collector, I hunted Invincible's Reins for an extremely long time. The mount did eventually drop on my 512th run and I was overjoyed. The fact that it took 512 runs, 16 characters and so much time shows exactly what RNG is. It's random.
 
There is no way to guarantee the drops of mounts from raids. Doing a backflip and running through the door sideways on the way to the Lich King won't make the mount drop. These are nothing but superstitions started by one individual in the community who did it and made the mount drop.
 
RNG is RNG. The only thing you can do to fight RNG is give yourself as many chances as possible against it. This leads us on to the first topic of conversation for today's article: characters and classes.
 

Series Posts 

 

You can check out the rest of the series below:

• Introduction and Preparation (Part 1) [You are here now]
• Dungeons and Raids in Classic, Burning Crusade and WOTLK (Part 2)
• Dungeons and Raids in Cataclysm, MoP and WoD (Part 3)

Characters for Mount Farming 

 

I cannot stress how important this part is. As I stated above, RNG can be an incredibly unfair thing. You need to have as many characters as possible to farm with, so that you give yourself the maximum number of opportunities each week.
 
I'm sure you're thinking something along the lines of: I don't have time to level all my characters to 100, what's wrong with this guy?
 
That's the beauty of it. You don't need mount farming characters to be level 100. Let's take Icecrown Citadel as an example. There is no need to go and level a character to 100 if a level 90 can do the same thing, but slightly slower. It's important to understand which instances and raids can be completed by different classes. This also applies to certain fights within raids, for example Alysrazor in Firelands. The buff there allows some level 85s to solo the boss, but they would struggle on other bosses.
 
Understand your limitations, but also understand what is necessary and what isn't. If you want to farm Throne of Thunder, I can understand leveling to level 100, but there is no need to do so for farming lower level raids. This can also apply to dailies, such as at the Argent Tournament, where level 80s can easily complete them.
 
Now that we've discussed level, let's take a look at the other half of the discussion: class.
 

Best Classes for Mount Farming 

 

This is an interesting topic because quite a few of the classes shine in very different ways. The first class I'll cover is the Death Knight, since they are extremely unique in their ability to solo.
 
The Death Knight is an amazing class for mount farming since you can roll them on different servers at level 55, meaning they can be leveled way faster than other classes. They are excellent at soloing, meaning you can only level them to 85-90 and still comfortably solo many raids. On the other hand, they are extremely weak for speed farming. The class is incredibly slow in regards to movement speed, so you'll need to look elsewhere for this. I'd recommend a Rogue, especially when it comes to farming dungeons. The Rogues have an incredible ability for speed farming with the use of Stealth and Burst of Speed.
 

 
I would strongly recommend any serious mount farmer rolls some form of Rogue alt, since they are simply unparalleled in their ability to farm dungeons such as Stratholme, Stonecore or Vortex Pinnacle. They also can skip large areas of raids, such as Ulduar or Black Temple via the use of Shadowstep.
 
You can also use a Mage, due to the added bonus of their teleports. It's important to note, however, that there are a number of items that can help with this. We'll detail these items later in this post.
 
The other classes that I would recommend rolling are Warlocks and Hunters, due to their ability to pet tank bosses, but there is of course the problem of leveling them. If you are serious about mount farming, I would recommend just leveling multiple Death Knights as fast as you can, getting 1 Rogue to 100 and then farming!
 
When Legion releases, Demon Hunters will be the class to roll, since they will enter the world (after their starting zone) at level 100, meaning they can already solo most raids. They use a tank spec with decent toughness, so there should be no issues there. 
 
Now that you've got your levels and classes sorted, let's take a look at some of the gearing options you've got for your characters!
 

Gearing Characters for Mount Farming 

 

 
There are a few tricks you can use to ensure your characters are suitably geared in order to start farming. Make sure you follow these for each character to ensure that you can farm to the maximum potential:

• Always remember to purchase the overpowered Bind-on-Equip gear for certain levels, for example, Steelforged Greataxe on a level 91 Death Knight can cause some serious damage.
• The old Justice Points vendors can be extremely useful, since they sell normal level gear that is still good. For example, a level 85 Death Knight used to solo Utgarde Pinnacle can fill their slots with 397 gear from the vendors.
• Tag along with any group going to raids at your level. If you have a friend to help it's even better. You'd be amazed how powerful some of the Heroic/Mythic trinkets can be and you'll have no competition for them from the higher levels. The same can be said for some of the older tier sets, such as the Throne of Thunder set for Protection Warriors, which allows them to heal through the constant use of Victory Rush in combat.
• As a level 90-91 character, the Timeless Isle can provide a good basis to build gear from, since it still provides plenty of 496-535 gear. It can be an easy way to fill some of your less important slots.

So, you've got your gear, classes and leveling sorted. Let's take a look at how you're going to be getting around the world in order to start farming!
 

Modes of Transport

 

 
We're going to start this off by looking at the various portals and transport vehicles you should be aware of in order to properly mount farm. There are a number of them that can really cut down on your travel time, such as:

• The capital city portals in Vale of Eternal Blossoms, as well as portals to Shattrath and Dalaran.
• The Blasted Lands portal, located in either the Mage Tower in Stormwind or the Cleft of Shadow in Orgrimmar. This provides quick access to both Karazhan and Zul'Gurub.
• The Caverns of Time portal in Dalaran, which provides quick access to Dragon Soul. You can also fly up from here to reach Onyxia's Lair as Alliance.
• You can also teleport to the Caverns of Time by speaking to Zephyr in Shattrath City. You need to be revered with the Keepers of Time for this.
• Mages can provide portals to Theramore, a quicker route to Onyxia for Alliance, or Stonard.
• They can also provide a portal to the old location of Dalaran in the Hillsbrad Foothills.
• All of your Challenge Mode teleports (should you have done them) will allow you to teleport around the world.
• Death Knights can bring themselves to the Eastern Plaguelands, very close to Stratholme.
• There are boats to Theramore and Howling Fjord from Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands.
• Ratchet provides boats to Booty Bay.

As I'm sure you can see, the list of portals and boats, zeppelins and flight paths really does go on. There are a lot more, but they are very well known to most players. I'd like to instead cover the items that can teleport you around, since many players are actually unaware of these items. I'll warn you all, these can cost a lot of gold, so be prepared to spend a lot if you want them. I personally have all of them on my main character and it saves a great deal of time.

• Cloak of Coordination and Cloak of Coordination - these can be purchased from a Guild Vendor once your guild has earned the achievement Master Crafter. It costs 500 gold and requires a revered reputation with the guild.
• For any of you that earnt it while it was still available, Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian allows you to teleport to Karazhan.
• Boots of the Bay allows you to teleport to Booty Bay. You need to have chosen these as a reward for either winning or coming second in the fishing competition.
• Pit Fighter's Punching Ring will teleport you to the Brawlpub, which is located in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. It costs 20,000 gold.
• Direbrew's Remote can send you to the bar in Blackrock Depths. It is obtained from the Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest during Brewfest.
• Baradin's Wardens Tabard or Hellscream's Reach Tabard can teleport you to Tol Barad for the dailies there. This requires Honored reputation with the relevant faction.
• Ring of the Kirin Tor can teleport you to Dalaran. It costs 8,500 gold, but can be reduced through reputation with the Kirin Tor. At exalted it will cost 6,800 gold.
• Jaina's Locket is dropped after killing the Lich King with Shadowmourne. It allows you to open a portal for your party to Dalaran. Prices can vary depending on the server.
• Argent Crusader's Tabard allows you to teleport to the Tournament Grounds for dailies. It costs 50 Champion's Seal.
• Blessed Medallion of Karabor, if you earnt it prior to the questline being changed, can teleport you to the Black Temple.
• Time-Lost Artifact allows you to teleport to the Timeless Isle, in order to farm Huolon. It costs 7,500 Timeless Coin.
• Engineers have a number of items at their disposal, such as Wormhole Generator: Pandaria, Wormhole Generator: Northrend, Dimensional Ripper - Area 52, Ultrasafe Transporter: Toshley's Station, Dimensional Ripper - Everlook and Ultrasafe Transporter: Gadgetzan. I would recommend that any of you try to level up Engineering on your characters, since it also allows you to skip parts of raids, such as the glider jump from Blood Queen to Sindragosa in Icecrown Citadel.
• Hearthstone, which should be set to Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• Garrison Hearthstone, which allows for quick travel to Ashran through a level 3 garrison.

As you can see, there are plenty of items for you to collect when attempting to travel around the world quickly. You don't need all of them, but they can be incredibly useful when it comes to mount farming, since they can cut down your travel time immensely. Get what you can and use them.
 

Group Farming - Is it needed? 

 

For some of the mounts that you're going to be farming, you will need groups. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that you are going to solo Glory of the Hellfire Raider. Blizzard are actually making a step towards ensuring that old achievements are soloable by removing achievements from the older metas. You can read more about this here. 
 
If you refuse to play with others, you'll find yourself making this entire ordeal a lot more difficult than it needs to be. Work with others when you can, as long as it won't affect your drop rates unless necessary. There's no point trying to solo a set of achievements if you could have brought a few friends and made it 10 times quicker.
 
Group farming can also be beneficial when you need to farm a reputation for the mount, such as with Emperor Shaohao and the Reins of the Heavenly Golden Cloud Serpent.
 

You are [deleted] prepared! 

 

 

Illidan can't believe how quickly you became prepared.

 
We've had to modify his words slightly, but hopefully you're feeling prepared to go on this journey! In the future, we will present videos along with the text to ensure you are kept well informed along our trip together. Despite them removing Holding Hands from Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider, we can hold hands and embark on this together! The Road to 300 begins.

[Rossypossy 2]

Looking forward for the rest of the series.  Currently sitting at 136 mount and a little lost as to where to start my grind to 300.  

[Valks 2,375]

Looking forward for the rest of the series.  Currently sitting at 136 mount and a little lost as to where to start my grind to 300.  

 

The next portion of the series should be releasing sometime this week, keep an eye out for it in the featured banner! It'll be the Dungeons and Raids section, it's a pretty huge task so it has taken some time.

[Sansatusa 0]

I love mount farming! Can't wait to see the rest of the series