Six challenging mounts to collect in The War Within

Collecting awesome mounts is most of the point of World of Warcraft — after all, what’s the point of acquiring epic gear or saving Azeroth yet again if you can’t then ride off into the sunset atop a stylish steed? Last week we looked at some mounts added to the game with the release of The War Within that are relatively easy to come by.

This time we’ll focus on a few new mounts that will take some luck, patience, determination, and a whole lot of bug repellent. Let’s saddle up and rate these rides by the difficulty you’ll have grabbing them as well as how awesome they’ll make you look while atop them.

Soaring Meaderbee

Difficulty: 5/10 Awesomeness: 5/10

A lot has changed in the last 20 years of World of Warcraft, but if there’s one thing that’s been a constant over two decades of adventuring, it’s NPCs who require entirely too much of a strange item. If you manage to gather 900 Sizzling Cinderpollen, you can bring it to Cendvin on the southern end of the Cinderbrew Meadery pavilion in exchange for your very own gigantic saddled bee. Why Cendvin needs players to gather millions of pollen for him remains unstated. The item flavor text mentions the capacity to cause sneezing fits, so count me out of the meadery’s next small batch experiment.

You can harvest the pollen from the elite bees in the woods to the west of the meadery. It appears the local wolves have taken a liking too, because the pollen will also drop from elite alphas and runts in the area. It’s possible to bring an overgeared level 70 alt to just the right spot to farm this, but your best bet is to log on to a character with Skinning, join a group, and spend a few hours swatting bees in order to earn your very own insect chauffer. I’m less excited about this one as it is barely distinguishable from the renown mount from the Council of Dornogal.

Ol’ Mole Rufus

Difficulty: 7.5/10 Awesomeness: 6.5/10

This one is a rare drop with a twist. Scattered throughout The Ringing Deeps are five levers that don’t seem to trigger anything when pulled individually. However, after all five are activated, the Lurker of the Deep spawns in the lake across from the Golemworks. The difficulty level is fairly high due to the low drop rate and the presence of wayward adventurers who will pull levers they come across at random and interfere with summoning the displaced sea horror.

You can try and group up to activate the levers, or you can simply keep an eye on the zone chat while you are questing in the Ringing Deeps. An announcement about rain falling on a lake is your queue to hop on your fastest steed and ride south to the lake. While there are two other mole mounts available this expansion, Rufus ranks higher on the awesomeness scale because he’s the only one of the star-nosed variety.

Alunira

Difficulty: 8.5/10 Awesomeness: 9.5/10

I hope you’re enjoying the scenery and ambient music on the Isle of Dorn, because acquiring the item you’ll need to tame this zappy bird will take a whole lot of adventuring there. You can find Alunira circling atop Dhar Oztan, the highest peak on the island. They are shielded by a Protective Stormshroud, and the only way to bring the shroud down is with a Storm Vessel. You can make one of those by combining ten Crackling Shards which have an absurdly low chance to drop from any mob on the Isle of Dorn.

Let me tell you, I have spent a fair amount of time frolicking around in the shadow of Dornogal in the last month with many characters, and I have yet to see a single shard drop. The good news is that the shards are Warband-bound, so you can take advantage of your army of alts each getting a shard or two. It will be a long path, but a zone-wide background grind for an amazing and unique crackling gryphon will certainly be worth it.

Beledar’s Spawn

Difficulty: 6/10 Awesomeness: 8.5/10

Maybe a long farming campaigns aren’t your thing. Perhaps you enjoy the thrill of acquiring a mount by random chance. If so, this purple aberration should be on your to-do list. Every three hours in Hallowfall, madness descends across the zone as Beledar shifts into its void phase. When that happens, the rare mob Spawn of Beledar will appear in one of twenty locations scattered throughout the zone. If you’re lucky enough to reach it before it gets blasted into oblivion by like-minded collectors, you have a small (but not vanishing) chance to loot the mount.

You can rely on the kindness of strangers to announce the spawn’s location in zone chat, or you can raise your renown with the Hallowfall Arathi to 23 to unlock Beledar’s Attunement, which will mark the spawn on your map. Awesomeness factor wildly increased due to the fact that this void-y figure does not have a saddle, but instead sports a hovering disc above its body that you stand on. Additional bonus points for a matching battle pet.

Siesbarg

Difficulty: 9/10 Awesomeness: 9/10

If you’ve always wanted a hulking nerubian experiment-gone-wrong to ferry you around the skies of Azeroth, now’s your chance. The first step in this multi-quest farming extravaganza is to find a kill Tka’ktath, a rare elite mob that spawns about every six hours in Azj-Kahet. It will appear on a platform just northeast of the City of Threads and drop a vial of blood that begins a quest. You only have to collect 1,500 chitin fragments from just about any arachnid-adjacent mob, then 1,000 vials of venom from stronger nerubians, then 500 bottles of blood from the most powerful ascended soldiers in Queen Ansurek’s army in order to acquire the mount.

With this one being a very long and non-trivial farm gauntlet gated behind an elusive rare spawn, I’ve put it near the highest difficulty level. However, I really do think that it will be worth it — the other mounts sharing this model drop from Queen Ansurek herself (one in Mythic, one in any difficulty). If raiding isn’t your thing, this will be your only chance for your own personal skyrazor. While you’re questing through Azj-Kahet, keep an eye on the zone chat (similar to Rufus) for an announcement that a hungering beast’s shadow approaches.

Ivory Goliathus

Difficulty: 8/10 Awesomeness: 9.5/10

The mounts rewarded from end game “Glory” achievements are typically quite difficult, especially for the casual/solo player. However, there has been a shift in The War Within that caters to this subset of the playerbase with Delves providing challenging dungeon-like experiences that can be tackled without grouping up. The meta achievement for being fantastic at Delving, Glory of the Delver, looks intimidating but actually seems very surmountable.

You’ll need to focus on Delves, know their mechanics, and gear up. There really aren’t any tricky parts to the achievement — getting to Tier 8, running each instance enough times to know and avoid their mechanics, finding all of the hidden treasure chests, and leveling up Brann should all happen if you Delve frequently enough. This one is on a timer, as you’ll need to vanquish Zek’vir in his lair before the end of Season 1. You’ve got a few more months to fine-tune your Delving skills and take out the Hand of the Harbinger. Your reward for completing this meta-achievement is an amazing enormous cave-blind ivory beetle that will be sure to remind you of your spelunking successes each time you saddle up.