World of Warcraft Mounts and Achievements Part III

There are only two professions as of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion which have recipes to create mounts: Engineering and Tailoring. Choosing your professions solely based on the mount-collecting opportunities is a bold move and shows real commitment to the "Mountain o' Mounts" achievement! Going to this type of extreme is usually not recommended, at least, not for a main character. This may not be completely necessary, however, since the motorcycles must be crafted by an engineer, but can be ridden by anyone.

• Tailoring (Flying Carpet, Magnificent Flying Carpet)
• Engineering (Flying Machine, Turbo-Charged Flying Machine, Mechano-hog / Mekgineer's Chopper)

Some mounts are rewarded by certain bosses, either randomly or by having a party satisfy a condition. Knowing which bosses drop what rides is only half the battle, however. Running some of these dungeons a few times a week keeps you on your toes and has the potential for great reward.

• Deathcharger's Reins: Baron Rivendare has a 1% chance to drop his mount in Stratholme. While the drop rate has been increased from the original .02% chance, it is still an extremely rare mount.
• Bronze Drake: Running the Culling of Stratholme on heroic mode and completing the timed challenge summons a mini-boss near the end of the instance. If the challenge has been met, this mini-boss will drop one Bronze Drake for the party to roll on.
• Swift White Hawkstrider: In Magister's Terrace, Kael'thas has a small chance to drop the reins to his mount when the dungeon is completed on Heroic mode.
• Reins of the Raven Lord: This mount has a chance to be dropped by Anzu, a summonable boss in Heroic Setthek Halls. You must have a Druid in your party who is either on or has completed his quest for epic flight form. Training the form post-Wrath doesn't count, as the quest itself rewards the Stone necessary to summon the boss.
• Fiery Warhorse: Attumen the Huntsman in Karazhan may just hand over the reins to this mount upon his defeat.
• Swift Zulian Tiger: Has a very slight chance to drop from in Zul'Gurub
• Swift Razzashi Raptor: Has a very slight chance to drop from in Zul'Gurub

As of Wrath patch 3.3, there are only a few seasonal-themed mounts available in WoW. This is not counting the temporary mounts that don't factor in the achievement, like the flying brooms from Hallow's End or the Preserved Holly which makes your mount a reindeer for a brief time.

• Headless Horseman's Steed: has a chance to drop from the Headless Horseman seasonal boss found in Scarlet Monastery's Graveyard during the event.
• Swift Brewfest Rams / Great Brewfest Kodos: Coren Direbrew, seasonal boss in Blackrock Depths, has a slight chance to drop one of these faction-specific mounts for your party during the event.

Completing the Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, and Warsong Gulch battlegrounds until you have collected 30 of each type of Mark of Honor leads to the purchase of the following PvP mounts.

Horde:

• Black War Kodo
• Red Skeletal Warhorse
• Horn of the Black War Wolf
• Swift Warstrider
• Whistle of the Black War Raptor

Alliance:

• Black Battlestrider
• Black War Ram
• Black War Stead Bridle
• Reins of the Black War Elek
• Reins of the Black War Tiger

Alterac Valley

• Frostwolf Howler (Horde) Purchasable with 50 AV Marks of Honor
• Stormpike Battle Charger (Alliance) Purchasable with 50 AV Marks of Honor

Running Wintergrasp and downing bosses in Northrend dungeons while one's faction controls the zone allows the player to accumulate Stone Keeper Shards which can be turned in to purchase a Black War Mammoth. Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth, which is able to carry two passengers, drops from any of the three bosses in Vault of Archavon, both regular and heroic modes.

It's unlikely that players would spend so much of their time and gold in the game on collecting the various types of mounts if the related achievements didn't have a substantial reward. Luckily, that's just the case. Once a player as accumulated 50 different mounts, from any method, he will earn the "Filling Up the Barn" achievement and his own Albino Drake. The drake isn't completely colorless; rather, it sports golden wings and greenish-tinged scales on its back. It is, however, still relatively rare and therefore a great symbol of the dedicated player.

Once the Albino Drake mount has been learned, a new achievement becomes available: "Mountain o' Mounts." Players that manage to gather 100 mounts will have access to either the Red or Blue Dragonhawk flying mount (depending upon faction). Suddenly, that stable becomes half-empty rather than full, and the chase for the next milestone has begun.

• Black War bear ("For the Horde" and "For the Alliance")
• Albino Drake ("Filling up the Barn")
• Red or Blue Dragonhawk ("Mountain o' Mounts")