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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts and the Argent Tournament, part 2
by Allison Robert 
Aug 4th 2011 at 8:00PM
The Argent Crusade
The Crusade sells a mount, a pet upgrade, a tabard, and the full complement of player heirlooms in the large tent on the western side of the tournament grounds. Before you start spending seals on mounts, you might want to prioritize the purchase of a Crusader's Tabard, which can be used to teleport you to the tournament grounds. If you're serious about getting all of the good stuff from the tournament and you're there every day, the tabard may save you a lot of travel time, but it will also set you back 50 seals. Use your best judgment as to whether the tabard is worth it.
The Crusade quartermaster is Dame Evniki Kapsalis.
- Argent Charger If you're a paladin, this is an extra mount you can get from the tournament. It's a very cool-looking silver version of the charger used by human, dwarf, and blood elf paladins.
- Argent Warhorse For everyone else, there's the Argent Warhorse, which is a silver version of the 60% horse that human, dwarf, and blood elf paladins use. Many Crusade NPCs around the coliseum are mounted on an Argent Warhorse if you want to see how it looks, and you'll also saddle up a vehicle version for the daily Battle Before The Citadel.
Alliance
The Alliance tent is located toward the northeastern side of the coliseum. Within it, you'll find all of the Alliance faction and Silver Covenant quest givers and quartermasters you'll need as an Alliance player.
- Argent Hippogryph This is sold by any Alliance faction quartermaster and will run you 150 seals. A very attractive mount, but perhaps less compelling to Alliance players, as they have access to the Silver Covenant hippogryph as well.
- Swift Moonsaber 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Darnassian Nightsaber 100 seals. This is an armored version of a cat ridden by Sentinels in Darnassus. If you'd prefer the unarmored version, cross your fingers the next time you're in Zul'Gurub, as High Priestess Kilnara drops the Swift Zulian Panther.
Humans The Stormwind quartermaster is Corporal Arthur Flew.
- Swift Gray Steed 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Stormwind Steed 100 seals. This is the closest you'll get to the now-vanished Swift Alliance Steed from the 10-man heroic version of the Trial of the Crusader.
Gnomes The Gnomeregan quartermaster is Rillie Spindlenut.
- Turbostrider 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Gnomeregan Mechanostrider 100 seals
Dwarves The Ironforge quartermaster is Derrick Brindlebeard. Dwarves are unfortunately saddled with two mounts that look very similar to existing mounts. These are purchases that I honestly wouldn't be tempted to make if it weren't for the Mountain O' Mounts achievement; the differences that do exist are on the subtle side.
- Swift Violet Ram 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals. Personally, I think it looks a little too much like the Swift Gray Ram.
- Ironforge Ram 100 seals. While it's darker than the Stormpike Battle Charger, that's really about the only visual difference.
Draenei The Exodar quartermaster is Irisee.
- Great Red Elekk 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Exodar Elekk 100 seals. In my opinion, this is the most visually interesting elekk model, unless you're a paladin with access to the Exarch's Elekk and Great Exarch's Elekk, which I think we can all agree are significantly better than the regular elekk models.
Worgen Sorry, folks; there's no worgen representation at the tournament, and from what Blizzard's said in the past, there probably won't be. You have to admit, Running Wild is too cool to equal in mount form, but I often wonder -- exactly what would a worgen pet be?
This is an Alliance-exclusive faction of high elves led by Rhonin's wife (and Sylvanas' sister), Vereesa Windrunner. The Silver Covenant quartermaster is Hiren Loresong.
The Horde tent is located toward the southeastern side of the coliseum. Within it, you'll find all of the Horde faction and Sunreaver quest givers and quartermasters you'll need as a Horde player.
Silver Covenant
This is an Alliance-exclusive faction of high elves led by Rhonin's wife (and Sylvanas' sister), Vereesa Windrunner. The Silver Covenant quartermaster is Hiren Loresong.
- Quel'dorei Steed 100 seals. Players will recognize this as a recoloration of the Swift Zhevra given to players who participated in the Recruit-A-Friend program during Wrath of the Lich King. These days, flight capability in Azeroth has made it necessary to give people the X-53 Touring Rocket instead, so the Quel'dorei Steed is the closest you'll get to riding the zhevra.
- Silver Covenant Hippogryph 150 seals. Probably the most visually striking of the hippogryph models currently available to players, though we saw evidence of other options two years ago ...
Horde
The Horde tent is located toward the southeastern side of the coliseum. Within it, you'll find all of the Horde faction and Sunreaver quest givers and quartermasters you'll need as a Horde player.
- Argent Hippogryph As with their Alliance counterparts, each of the Horde faction quartermasters can sell you the Argent Hippogryph for 150 seals.
- Swift Burgundy Wolf 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Orgrimmar Wolf 100 seals. As with the Stormwind Steed above, this is the closest you'll get to the now-vanished Swift Horde Wolf from ToC-10, although it's not anywhere near a visual match. You do get the cool Horde symbol shaved/tattooed into the flank of the wolf, though.
Tauren The Thunder Bluff quartermaster is Doru Thunderhorn. As with dwarves, tauren don't really get very visually distinctive options here, which might have something to do with the limitations of the kodo model in general. I really think kodo could use a visual upgrade.
- Great Golden Kodo 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals. Within the game, I honestly have a lot of difficulty seeing the difference between this and either of the epic kodo mounts on offer by tauren vendors.
- Thunder Bluff Kodo 100 seals. As above. It's a Great Gray Kodo doppelganger with a slightly different drum color. With respect to home mount selection, tauren and dwarves kind of get hosed at the Tournament.
Trolls The Darkspear quartermaster is Samamba.
- Swift Purple Raptor 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Darkspear Raptor 100 seals
Blood elves The Silvermoon quartermaster is Trellis Morningsun.
- Swift Red Hawkstrider 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals. Blizzard knocked it out of the park with this one. The Swift Red Hawkstrider's among the more visually striking mounts in the game, and it's probably the only "cheap" mount option at the tournament that's more popular than its 100-seal counterpart. I saw an awful lot of this bird during Wrath.
- Silvermoon Hawkstrider 100 seals. By contrast, this one looks a bit like the Swift White Hawkstrider dropped in Magisters' Terrace, so that might be why the Swift Red is the more popular option.
Forsaken The Undercity quartermaster is Eliza Killian.
- White Skeletal Warhorse 400 gold at exalted and 5 seals
- Forsaken Warhorse 100 seals. This turned out to be another popular option during Wrath, possibly because it's the only Forsaken warhorse with striped trappings.
Goblins Sorry, folks; as with the worgen, there's no Bilgewater representation at the tournament.
Working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on Azeroth's holidays and special events, including new achievements, how to get 310% flight speed with achievement mounts, and Cataclysm reputation factions and achievements.
Sunreavers
This is a Horde-exclusive faction of blood elves. The Sunreaver quartermaster is Vasarin Redmorn.
- Sunreaver Hawkstrider 100 seals. A really pretty-looking mount, but I still saw the Swift Red a lot more, for whatever reason.
- Sunreaver Dragonhawk 150 seals. This is the only player dragonhawk in the game outside of the one you'll get at Mountain O' Mounts, and I've gotta say: It's pretty badass.
Working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on Azeroth's holidays and special events, including new achievements, how to get 310% flight speed with achievement mounts, and Cataclysm reputation factions and achievements.
Filed under: Achievements, The Overachiever
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Okura Aug 5th 2011 7:50AM
It's not a bug that, but intentional by Blizzard.
Reason is, when you swap sides, all your fraction reputation is saved and switched over to the Alliance/Horde equilivant, but quests are typically reset as they can differ from side to side and can be harder to track and balance correctly if you swapped.
Argent Tournament is no different sadly. If you swap sides, the quests have to be reset as you are saved to the Horde quests and switching to Alliance (Or vice versa), which would be a nightmare to try to translate and balance correctly.
So yeah, it's not really something I think is possible and sadly, now it's considered obsolete, probably not gonna be looked at.
Believe me, my friend who loved her Crusader title on her Blood Elf paladin was horrified to lose her Crusader title when she fraction changed to a Draenei, and has been struggling to push herself to earn the title back for him.
jrb Aug 5th 2011 9:11AM
i disagree. the quests are exactly the same for both factions. there is nothing faction specific about them, other than the quest-givers that give them. And we have plenty examples of identical quests given from faction specific quest givers that are marked complete when you faction transfer. We even see the mounts transfer to faction specific faction mounts when you faction change.
The unlocks open up the ability to boost your city-specific reputation, which at the time was a major thing. Now, with city tabards it's not valid.
the only real reason i can think of is the vanity pets are BoE, and still fetch hefty prices on AH, especially the cross faction ones. but still, faction transfer is a paid-for service. if you wish to pay £30 to transfer twice then that's up to you.
still, i guess it's something to do in-game when all the other content is done, and stale.. now raiding heroic firelands this is fast approaching.
wow Aug 5th 2011 8:59AM
Hmm, Worgen Mount. I have it!! A Wolf with the opposite color of your Worgen Character. If you have a black Worgen, your mount will be White or light grey and vice versa. Since, Worgen are essentially Werewolves, why not have Wolf Mounts. :)
Shinanji
Amaxe Aug 5th 2011 10:18AM
The whole vehicle mechanic of jousting made AT an unplayable experience for people like me with Satellite internet. I spent my time hoping that they would open an alternate way to advance for those of us who couldn't do the jousting.
Personally I'm of the opinion that the whole vehicle mechanic was annoying at best and extremely frustrating when it was necessary to advance in quest lines.
I would hope that Blizzard learns that if they want a mandatory vehicle quest to be part of advancement, they should make sure that **anyone** can do it.
Better yet, make options so a person can choose to either do a vehicle quest OR a non-vehicle quest.
Cromlech Aug 5th 2011 12:20PM
It was AT jousting that finally made me give up clicking in favour of keybindings.
Can't work out how I coped for so long now.
Zabre Aug 5th 2011 10:39AM
If I did this it would get me up to 100 mounts easily. Then I think of the 100 days it will take me and I then go and farm for rare mounts instead. I don't know which is worse. I can barely make it through 1 day of those awful dailies let alone 100 days.
Eirik Aug 5th 2011 3:44PM
Then do one day of dailies a week. Or a quest every other day. Or whatever. You never LOSE seals, so any progress you make, you keep. Do the dailies when it pleases you to do so. Say, when waiting for a dungeon finder instance and you're tired of archaeology.
The mountain is worn away one grain of sand at a time.
Or, when the metaphor isn't looking, but the sudden landslide that takes out the peaceful village down below before going back to the stoic "I didn't do nothin', it was always like that" pose.
Caz Aug 5th 2011 12:50PM
I enjoyed the Argent Tournament. I don't have all the pets and mounts yet, but I'll probably go back and finish them up at some point soon (when I get the Molten front done).
I found the jousting is actually pretty fun - it just takes a while to get used to it.
Ocypete Aug 5th 2011 7:04PM
For me one of the best things about WoW is that there is loads to do, and yes you have to be pretty determined to get all the rewards in the quickest time possible, but it is nice that you can go back and do these quests and still get something out of it.
Eirik Aug 5th 2011 3:45PM
I haven't seen a Firelands Overachiever yet.
While a lot of the achievements can be summed up as "grind everything, open everything", there are a few that bear comment.
Allison Robert Aug 5th 2011 3:50PM
Hi Eirik - I actually intended to run a guide to Firelands achievements this week, but had a family emergency Tuesday night that's unfortunately still eating a lot of time. I decided to run the AT guide instead as much of it was already written. With luck, I can run the Firelands edition next week!
Shinae Aug 9th 2011 2:59PM
@Allison
I hope everything's ok!
Shinae Aug 9th 2011 2:54PM
Are there any plans to update the guide for "The Insane"?
http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/04/09/the-overachiever-insane-in-the-membrane/
Hasn't some of the things involved changed in two years? I know the the Shen'dralar rep is no longer a part of it. For getting Bloodsail rep, the Booty Bay guards are not soloable, even for a well-geared 85. Others parts of it would seem like they'd be easier now, but I haven't looked into it yet.