Patch 4.3's mounts and how to get them
by Mathew McCurley 
Nov 30th 2011 at 6:00PM
- Blazing Drake and the Life-Binder's Handmaiden drop from the Madness of Deathwing encounter on normal and heroic difficulties respectively.
- Experiment 12-B is a rare drop from Ultraxion on normal or heroic mode. It appears to be a chromatic drake mount with a purple hue.
- Swift Lovebird will be bought from the Love is in the Air holiday vendor for 270 Love Tokens. It looks like a pink tallstrider.
- Swift Springstrider is purchased from the Noblegarden holiday vendors for 500 chocolates. It looks like a white tallstrider.
- Twilight Harbinger will be the mount reward for the Dragon Soul meta achievement, Glory of the Dragon Soul raider.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Phredreeke Nov 30th 2011 6:12PM
Hmmm... Could this mean existing holiday mounts will also be purchasable with respective holiday's currencies? :P
Starsmore Nov 30th 2011 6:20PM
Doubtful. Imagine the shitstorm if they made the Horseman's Reins purchasable.
"ZOMG! YOU NERFED MY (totally random in the face of the horrible RNG) ACHIEVEMENT!!!"
Noyou Nov 30th 2011 7:46PM
I agree. I don't have one and I don't think it really diminishing another persons accomplishment or enjoyment, but I don't think it would be right. If you notice, these two mounts are totally new, and It looks like they are also ground mounts.
Erzfiend Nov 30th 2011 6:14PM
Nice to see some new holiday mounts that don't depend on getting lucky with drops!
Ves Nov 30th 2011 6:30PM
But in a way they do.
The Lovestrider depends on getting lucky and gathering hundreds of lovely charms as quickly as possible.
The Springstrider depends on getting lucky and picking up 500 eggs before the other 500 people trying to collect 500 eggs snatch them away from under your nose.
(cutaia) Nov 30th 2011 7:02PM
Neither of those really require luck. Just a time investment...
Blayze Nov 30th 2011 7:29PM
I've said it before on other subjects and I'll say it again:
If luck merely dictates how quickly I can get something as opposed to whether or not I can get it at all, then the system works.
I look forward to hoarding candies.
Noyou Nov 30th 2011 7:46PM
I don't see how/why it matters to collect the eggs "before someone else does". You go at your own pace. Yes you do have to race some people at times but the more people collecting, the faster they respawn. Once you learn where they spawn, you are golden.
This is another one of Blizzard's great tricks. They just sucked hundreds of thousands of people back into doing holiday events just to get a mount. Makes you wonder why they haven't done this before. I love it. My hand is already aching from all the clicking I will be doing...
Starsmore Nov 30th 2011 8:21PM
I prefer the time investment to the RNG aspect. The current mounts, you get 7 - 14 chances (if you played every day), no more, no less, regardless of time put in. Connect for five minutes, there's your chance. Play for 5 hours, queue for 5 minutes, same (shitty) chance.
At least these new mounts are obtainable beyond just praying to the God of the RNG. It might take you a bit of legwork to collect the tokens necessary, but it's possible if you want to spend the entire event doing so.
You can't say that about getting the Horseman's Reins, not anymore.
brain314 Dec 1st 2011 2:34AM
I agree that the current random holiday drop is plain stupid. You have 1 week to do it, 1 chance per day. If you (surprise, surprise) don't get it, no probs, just wait AN ENTIRE YEAR to try again!
At least with dungeon drops, it's available all year to attempt, so I'm willing to accept that. If you must have your completely random 0% skill chance at a mount drop, keep it in the dungeons.
On a positive note, I'm glad Blizzard is (slowly) improving the holiday events. I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers how frustrating they were years ago, especially for people going after the long road achievement, and the mount that goes along with THAT. That drake would have been the mother of all RNG mounts.
GuyverIV Dec 1st 2011 9:19AM
I hope this implies that the next time Brewfest and Hallows come around that we'll have that option for associated mounts.
HOWEVER: I don't necessarily want the current mounts switched to tokens. What I think would be a nifty compromise is if, for brewfest, you could purchase what WAS the 60% mount from tokens, but the 100% mount was still RNG drop from the boss. That way you feel you can earn *something* nifty, mount-wise, but you can still get that epic feeling of "hot damn, lady RNG loves me!" with a rare drop.
For Hallows... I dunno. Maybe a purchasable, all-year-long, magic broom with a cast time, leaving the Horseman's mount as Dumb luck? Or a Ground-only purchasable Horseman's mount, with the flying ability only gained if you have the drop version?
*shrug* just some thoughts.
Matchu Nov 30th 2011 6:16PM
People reporting the Experiment 12-B dropping on normal.
nomoreprinces Nov 30th 2011 7:50PM
Oh you mean like the "How do you do Jaina?" jokes which are being responded with "Dunno ask Arthas."
Joe P Nov 30th 2011 6:15PM
Did the Gilneas mounts ever make it in?
Cyno01 Nov 30th 2011 6:38PM
Yeah, vendors next to their tree in darnassus.
(cutaia) Nov 30th 2011 7:01PM
Yeah. There is a Mountain Horse vendor hanging out around the Howling Tree or whatever in Darnassus.
Also, Tyreal's Charger is available for pickup from your mailbox if you did the annual pass.
There will also be two mounts available from the Darkmoon Faire (The Darkmoon Dancing Bear and Swift Forest Strider), each available for 180 Darkmoon Tickets.
Arbolamante Nov 30th 2011 6:15PM
And, if you are working on the mount gathering achievements, you can now get a couple of fairly plain looking horses from the new Gilneas mount vendor in Darnassus.
Hensonite Dec 1st 2011 3:23AM
I think those need to be mentioned in the article as well.
They Gilneas faction mounts can be bought after reaching exalted with the Worgen. You cannot do the Worgen starting area quests (unless you are a Worgen), but need to find the scattered Questgivers (going Loremaster puts you roughly at 1/2 revered).
You can also farm Gilneas reputation by buying a Gilneas tabard from Lord Candren (Darnassus west near teleport). Wearing that you can run classic dungeons for rep.
For Alliance: The quickest way seems to be running stockades. Doing ONLY the three bosses and AOEing hallway trash gives you ~400 rep points. For maximum points per time I recommend skipping the cells and resetting the dungeon instead.
yagamimoon Nov 30th 2011 6:19PM
inb4 mounting alexstraza jokes
StClair Nov 30th 2011 6:53PM
It's not her, just one of her handmaidens. :)