The Illuminati

One of the more iconic zones in Cataclysm, Deepholm is an area known for Therazane dailies more than anything else. But it's also home to several rares, including two of the most famous ones.

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Aeonaxx (Reins of the Phosphorescent Stone Drake)

 Jadefang (Tiny Shale Spider)

Jadefang is a rare with two purposes: it is a unique model tameable by a Hunter and it also drops a vanity pet. Luckily for both parties who may be tempted to camp this NPC, it's on a relatively quick spawn timer that's much more reliable than other rares. Its spawn timer seems to be anywhere from six hours to twenty-four hours, frequently varying, but never longer than that.

The only difficult part of this rare is actually getting to it. The spider resides deep in the underground caves of Deepholm on a ledge inaccessible to most players. There are several creative ways to get on the ledge, however. The intended way is to pick up Underground Economy which gives you Ricket's Tickers. Set the bombs on a stone near the ledge with your back facing the ledge entrance--you will get blasted backwards onto the ledge. It will take a couple times to position yourself correctly, but is relatively easy otherwise.

Of course, if you don't have the appropriate reputation or if the daily isn't available, you can also try a couple other tricks. For starters, you can kill yourself on the ledge by luring an enemy there; once dead, you should be able to fly back there and get onto the ledge. Another way, albeit more desperate, is to disconnect your router or modem while flying straight into the cave. The cave eventually dismounts you, but if you are disconnecting this is slower, so if angled correctly you should be able to fly right to the ledge while disconnected. It's also worth mentioning that others may have saved the daily and their bombs can help you. Goblin racials also work for rocket jumping up.

Xariona (Xariona's Spectral Gauntlets)

Xariona spawns just above where Aeonaxx spawns, flying at the top of the temple in a circle. She is a world boss rare that drops an epic, a watered-down version of the original green dragons and Azuregos. Instead of 40 players, however, this NPC only takes 5 or so to defeat. 

The dragon is on the timers of the world bosses in general and isn't tied to other rares in the zone. It doesn't require much of a strategy, beyond standing in Twilight Zone when it is put on the ground to avoid taking colossal amounts of damage. Most groups, however, won't even encounter the need for this due to how quickly the mob will die. In addition to dropping her special epic, she also drops a random ilvl 359 BoE and a rare pattern.

All of the following mobs drop a rare BoE with random stats that's named after them.

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Blade's Edge Mountains

• Hemathion is a black dragon found by Ogri'la, a subzone only accessible with flying.
• Morcrush is a large elemental in the eastern part of the zone.
• Speaker Mar'grom is an ogre with a distinctive staff located in all of the zone's ogre encampments.

Hellfire Peninsula

• Fulgorge is a worm that can spawn where other burrowing worms are found. You can tell when he's about to spawn because his pebbles will be deep red instead of white (like the regular worms) and fly higher into the air. Still, this is a tricky rare to find.
• Mekthorg the Wild is a fel orc found either by Hellfire Citadel or Zeth'gor.
• Vorakem Doomspeaker is a demon located by the Legion Front, Pools of Aggonar, and the Throne of Kil'Jaeden.

Nagrand

• Goretooth is a crocodile found in any of the pools in the zone.
• Voidhunter Yar is a large voidwalker by Oshu'gun.

Netherstorm

• Chief Engineer Lorthander, is a blood elf found in several Manaforge caves.
• Ever-Core the Punisher is an arcane annihilator robot found by Manaforges Ara, Ultris, and B'naar.
•   Nuramoc, also a hunter tame, is a purple chimaera that flies along several island ridges.

Terokkar Forest

• Crippler is a bone golem that spawns in The Bone Wastes by Auchindon.
• Doomsayer Jurim patrols the roads to the east and south of Shattrath City. Unfortunately, several friendly guards also patrol the same roads, so they can kill him if you aren't fast enough.
• Okrek is an arkoaa located in several tribal encampments.

Shadowmoon Valley

• Ambassador Jerrikar, a red satyr with an epic weapon, spawns in 5 demon-related subzones.
• Collidus the Warp-Watcher is a disturbing floating eyeball that can either be found patrolling the northern ledge, the southern ledge by Dragonmaw Fortress, or in the center by The Deathforge.
• Kraator is a burning infernal that spawns in 5 areas in the zone.

Zangarmarsh

• Bog Lurker, a marsh giant, can spawn in three different locations in the zone.
• Coilfang Emissary is a pink naga located at several naga encampments.
• Marticar is a white Bog Strider that can patrol around several large lakes in the zone.

Blackrock Depths

• Panzor the Invincible, a golem whose name means 'tank,' spawns in the Mold Foundry before the seven dwarves. He drops a decent shield for the level: Rock Golem Bulwark.

Blackrock Spire

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  Bannok Grimaxe is located in the lower-most part of LBRS, normally right before the spider gauntlet. A level 85 can take shortcuts to jump down easily, aggroing all the mobs and dying quickly if he isn't up. He drops the covetedPlans: Arcanite Reaper and a few neat blues like Demonfork.
• Burning Felguard is a felguard every warlock wishes they could own. He drops Phase Blade and Demonskin Gloves but the real fun is enslaving him--great for impressing your PuG group. To access this mob, let theScarshield Warlock cast Scarshield Portal. Mostly, these will be imps but occasionally the felguard will spawn every 5 minutes or so. It's got great AoE with Blast Wave and Thunderclap.
• Crystal Fang, a relation of Mother Smolderweb, is located in the Skitterweb Tunnels. He drops Sunderseer Mantle, the basis for Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle, and Fang of the Crystal Spider, the matching weapon toVenomspitter.
• Ghok Bashguud is good at bashing in skulls, if Hurd Smasher and Bashguuder are any indication. He's located at the top of the ramp next to Halcyon's Den and likes to lay down on the assorted floormats.
• Everyone used to be excited when Jed Runewatcher spawned, but sadly his rares are obsolete thanks to heirlooms--Briarwood Reed was a powerful caster trinket in vanilla. Serpentine Skuller is still a great option for leveling casters. He's located in the main hall after The Rookery, immediately before you jump down to fight in the Hall of Blackhand.
• Quartermaster Zigris is marked as a rare, but he's always up which is great since he drops a lot of neat things: Worg Carrier,Design: Black Diamond Crab, Plans: Annihilator. He's located in The Storehouse in Dragonspire Hall.
• Spirestone Battle Lord is a commonly-spawning rare in Mok'doom that drops the sadistic-looking oversized razor The Blackrock Slicer.
• Spirestone Butcher patrols the corridor to Mok'doom. He rarely drops Rivenspike, an jagged axe with a neat proc that stacked with Sunder Armor.
• Spirestone Lord Magus spawns in Mok'doom and drops his signature glowing offhand with flavor text, Globe of D'sak, as well as some other loot for casters.

The following exotic pets are only tamable by hunters who have specced into Beast Mastery. If you dual-spec out of this talent tree, you will keep your stabled pets but will not be able to use them.

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Chimaeras

•   The Evalcharr is a golden-green rare found to the west of Gallywix's Pleasure Palace in Azshara.
•   Nuramoc, needed for an achievement, can be located along several island ridges in Netherstorm.
•  The Razza, formerly besting champions in Dire Maul's arena, has since moved to southeast Feralas. It's a two-headed icy-blue pet with dark blue accents.

Devilsaurs

• As covered earlier, King Krush is a rare devilsaur found in Sholazar Basin.

Shale Spider

• As covered in our Deepholm section, Jadefang is both sought-after as a hunter tame and for its rare pet.

Spirit Beasts

We've covered some spirit beasts like Ghostwalker and Karoma already; here's the remaining spirit beasts from Northrend.

•  Arcturis, a spectral bear, spawns by Amberpine Ledge in Grizzly Hills. He's out in the open by a flight point, so he'll be easy to find.
•  Gondria, a light-purple spectral cat, spawns in five locations in northern Zul'Drak.
•  Loque'nahak, unfortunately needed for Frostbitten, spawns around Sholazar Basin.
•  Skoll, a lightning wolf, is named for a Norse wolf that in mythology, pursues the sun. It spawns in three places in The Storm Peaks.

Worms

•  Oozeworm is a bright yellow worm with a black belly located to the west of the Stonemaul Ruins in Dustwallow Marsh.

At the Argent Tournament in Icecrown, players complete daily quests to unlock rewards from their respective factions. When you become a Champion of a particular race, you can purchase additional pets and mounts from that vendor. Players can purchase 7 faction-specific ground mounts. Most of the mounts look like those you ride while completing the jousting dailies: home-city mounts in unexpected colors. A level 85 should have no problem doing these daily quests; you'll need to do quite a few anyway to finish Justly Rewarded. Along the way, you'll most likely get Ambassador. If you are changing factions and halfway through the Argent Tournament, buy as much as you can because the entire process will be reset when you switch. It will take you 725 Champion's Seal and roughly 43 days to complete this mount collection, if you've already gotten the Crusader title, meaning you're guaranteed 17 Champion's Seal per day from quests.

If you want to learn more about the Argent Tournament, we've got a guide here here.

• The following mounts cost 500 and 5 Champion's Seal. For all other races besides your character's own faction, you will need to be exalted in order to purchase these mounts, as well as a Champion of that race. To increase reputation, you can buy tabards from capital cities, as well as commendation badges such as Thunder Bluff Commendation Badge for Champion's Writ, if you're deep into Tournament dailies.

  • Alliance: Great Red Elekk, Swift Gray Steed, Swift Moonsaber, Swift Violet Ram, Turbostrider.
  • Horde: Great Golden Kodo, Swift Burgundy Wolf, Swift Purple Raptor, Swift Red Hawkstrider, White Skeletal Warhorse.
• Five additional mounts for each faction are purchased for 100 Champion's Seal, meaning you'll have to do a fair amount of dailies.

  • Alliance: Darnassian Nightsaber, Exodar Elekk, Gnomeregan Mechanostrider, Ironforge Ram, Stormwind Steed.
  • Horde: Darkspear Raptor, Forsaken Warhorse, Orgrimmar Wolf, Silvermoon Hawkstrider, Thunder Bluff Kodo.
• Players exalted with The Silver Covenant / The Sunreavers will have additional vendors unlocked; those who have completedA Silver Confidant / The Sunreavers will have additional Argent Tournament dailies unlocked. Respective faction vendors sell Quel'dorei Steed / Sunreaver Hawkstrider for 100 Champion's Seal.
• Both factions can purchase Argent Warhorse for 100 Champion's Seal, obtainable after completing Exalted Argent Champion of the Alliance / Exalted Argent Champion of the Horde.

These mounts are rewards for completing complex achievements--you will find them in the mail, along with a fun note from a major lore figure thanking you for your hard work.

• Reins of the Drake of the East Wind is a reward for completing the t11 meta, Glory of the Cataclysm Raider. This meta achievement requires you to defeat every hardmode except Heroic: Sinestra, as well as complete specific achievements related to every boss. As of now, these drakes are difficult to obtain and Blizzard has not stated they are being removed--so organizing achievement runs later in t12 may be feasible for more players. As it is, Stay Chill is incredibly difficult to coordinate.
• Reins of the Volcanic Stone Drake is a reward for completing the Cataclysm dungeon meta, Glory of the Cataclysm Hero. It's a blue stone drake with hot pink accents. This drake is fairly easy to complete now and working on the meta grants a ton of achievement points.
• Reins of the Dark Phoenix is unlocked and obtainable from Guild Vendors upon completing Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider. It looks like the (less cool) purple version of Al'ar and costs 3,000.
• Reins of the Albino Drake is a reward from Leading the Cavalry; a white drake with light blue accents and tan wings.
• Reins of the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher is a reward for completing Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 player) andReins of the Icebound Frostbrood Vanquisher for completing Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player). Both of these mounts are skeletal drakes with fun details like earrings and unique armor. The metas require players to complete all hardmodes save for The Lich King as well as achievements specific to each boss. Formerly tricky achievements like All You Can Eat (25 player) should be trivial at 85.
• Reins of the Rusted Proto-Drake is a reward for completing Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10 player) and Reins of the Ironbound Proto-Drake is a reward for completing Glory of the Ulduar Raider (25 player). These mounts are reminiscent of Razorscale, Thorim's mount who was captured by Loken. They require players to complete all hardmodes (save for Alone in the Darkness (10 player) and Observed (10 player)) and annoying achievements like Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare (25 player).
• Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake is a reward for completing the holiday meta, What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. This used to be the only way one could obtain a 310% mount outside of arena or raiding. It requires players to constantly work on holiday achievements, dealing with RNG and PvP whether they like it or not. Along the way, you'll collect a lot of fun pets, titles, and achievement points though.
• As covered earlier, Blue Dragonhawk/ Red Dragonhawk are rewards for completing Mountain O'Mounts.
• New to 4.2 is Green Fire Hawk Mount, speculated to be a reward for completing the t12 dungeon meta.