The Need for Steeds: World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth Mounts

New expansion, new WoW mounts – that’s been the trend with World of Warcraft for quite some time now. The same goes with Battle of Azeroth. So, if you want to ride into battle in the snazziest way possible, check out this guide!

Other than Horses

With Battle for Azeroth’s focus on the reignited conflict between Alliance and Horde, it’s fitting that many of the mounts for this expansion are not only faction-exclusive, but also reflective of the faction they belong to.

For the goody-two-shoes Alliance, you get solid but pretty vanilla options, as they’re all horses.  There’s the black Smoky Charger, the beige Admiralty Stallion, and the Dapple Gray, whose color is pretty self-explanatory. To obtain them, you’ll first need to get Exalted-level reputation for a particular faction. For example, if you want a Smoky Charger, you’ll need Exalted-level reputation from the Order of Embers. As for the other two, you’ll need the same level of reputation from the Proudmoore Admiralty and Storm’s Wake, respectively. Only after then will you be able to buy the mounts from their respective NPCs for 10,000 WoW gold.

For the brutish and sometimes grotesque Horde, there’s a wider variety of mounts. There’s the spider-like Expedition Bloodswarmer from Talanji’s Expedition, Alabaster Hyena from Voldunai, and Cobalt Pterrordax from Zandalari Empire. Unlocking them is very much like unlocking Alliance mounts – get Exalted-level reputation for a particular faction and buy them for 10,000 gold.

Mounting Oppositions

Other than the fixture faction mounts, Battle for Azeroth will also be giving players access to additional mounts when the player unlocks Allied Races as playable races. For the Alliance, unlocking the Dark Iron Dwarves grants them the Dark Iron Core Hound –which is much cooler and edgier than the other Alliance mounts. As for the Horde, unlocking the Mag’har Orcs gives you theMag’har Direwolf. Finally, for both Alliance and Horde, getting the Zandalari trolls means getting the Zandalari Direhorn. Given the lack of diversity in the Alliance’s mounts, they’ll need it more than the Horde does.

Another way to get Alliance-exclusive mounts would be through Rated Battleground PVP. By participating in this kind of PVP, you’ll earn saddles, which in turn is used to buy mounts. For Alliance, it’s the hippo-like Vicious War Riverbeast, for the Horde it’s the Vicious War Clefthoof, and both factions can buy the Vicious War Basilisk, whose armor varies depending on the faction.

Rides Outside the Team

Outside of the Alliance and Horde dichotomy, there are the more traditional ways of getting WoW mounts.

First, there’s the PVP Arena mounts. For top-tier teams for a particular season, they’ll be getting a Proto-Drake. Currently, the only one confirmed is the Dread Gladiator’s Proto-Drake, which is for Season 1. From the game data, however, it can be seen that this World of Warcraft mount comes in six other colors: black, blue, gold, green, pale, and purple. It’s not yet known which proto-drake will be for which season, but it’s without a doubt that all of them command bragging rights.

And for World PVP, players can unlock the Conqueror’s Scythemaw by unlocking the Conqueror of Azeroth achievement.

For the mounts dropped by the dungeon bosses in Mythic-level runs, they are the following:

• ·         Tomb Stalker – King Dazzar in King’s Rest.
• ·         Underrot Crawg – Unbound Abomination in The Underrot.
• ·         Sharkbait – Harian Sweetie in Freehold.

Yet another way to get mounts and at the same time have fun exploring would be through Island Expeditions. Although it’s a random and slight chance, the mounts unlocked this way are pretty cool and colorful nonetheless. There’s the purple dragon-like Twilight Avenger, Surf Jelly, the simian Craghorn Chasm-Leaper, Squawks the parrot, and Qinsho’s Eternal Hound.

Battle of Azeroth has a lot in store for both Alliance and Horde, and mounts are just a small part of that. Mind you, these aren’t even all of the mounts this expansion has to offer. So, what are you waiting for? Go out into a bigger and better Azeroth and get yourself a good mount.