Finding Farahlon

As I moved around some things in my garrison, I came across a map of Draenor. I could only assume that one of the peons moved it while cleaning and forgot to put it back where it belonged. As I walked back to the town hall with the map in hand, I noticed one corner was servery damaged. It looked like it was almost cut, but the person decided that was a bad idea and tried to erase the island on it. They didn't do a great job because I was still able to make out the name "Farahlon". Now where did I hear that name before? Oh yes, a garrison mission I previously sent followers out on.

Immediately I left the town hall and questioned a few of my followers. After a bit of interrogation, they confessed to me that they never found the island and the item they brought back was a staff that was picked up by the Laughing Skull clan. Hearing those words awoke the explorer inside of me once again. I had to do it; I had to go looking for Farahlon! I couldn't convince any of the ships I had recruited to take me out there, so I decided to go alone. It was just me, my raft, and the ocean.

I first stopped by the Laughing Skull village and listened as they told me tales of the magical island lined with large crystal formations and lush environments. There were even whispers of a treasure they called the pearl of Farahlon. A pearl!? Could this be yet another connection to the importance of pearls in Azeroth? I couldn't run out of the village fast enough, but they stopped to warn me of the seas surrounding the island. They were extremely rough and stormy; it would take a skilled ship fleet to survive. That still didn't deter me since I have survived death already.  As I paddled out further and further into the sea, I noticed my skyline change from a beautiful blue to a gloomy orange.

I kept going... and going, and going. I'm sure by now you're wondering what exactly did I find out there? Well, I found fish, magical flying fish to be exact! This group of fish would jump out of the water and fly around for a bit before plopping back into the ocean. I also found a large gron-like skull that had been in the ocean for quite some time to have so many mushrooms growing from it. Perhaps both of these items marked a hidden passage to get to Farahlon, but I sadly couldn't find it.

I pushed my raft around for a while longer before I folded up my map and took my hearth back to my garrison. I can't be the only one who had sent countless followers out there to check for something, yet they all turned up empty handed. I will definitely mark this one down in the books to "try again later". Someday I do believe we will find Farahlon, but sadly today was not that day.

If you would like to see the flying fish of Farahlon (as I like to call them), you can fly over to 90,40 in Gorgrond. If you look around under water in that area, you will also find the big skull I talked about in the post. Happy hunting!

Voidtalon of the Darkstar

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was looking into getting the Voidtalon of the Darkstar mount. I had honestly forgotten it even existed, but someone on Twitter mentioned it, and I became obsessed with it. At the time there were so many rumors going around about how to get it, but most of it was speculation. On February 27th, there was finally confirmation. Someone on Twitter posted a screenshot with the mount. To my knowledge, she was the first one with it, and she was kind enough to provide details on how she got it. Not long after, other accounts of people getting the mount started pouring in. I thought I would give my experience on getting the mount, and some tips to help you get it for your collection.

First off what you're looking for is a portal called Edge of Reality. Now I know the first image of a portal that comes to mind is probably a mage one, but it doesn't look like that. It looks more like a wispy purple-ish portal. I honestly think they are smaller versions of the wispy demon portals outside of Black Temple.

If no one is around to click the portal, it will eventually despawn and move to another location. I'm not sure how long the portals stay up in each area or how long it takes them to reappear in a new area. I'm also not sure on how long it takes for another portal to respawn after a player clicks on it. I'm seeing reports that range from 13 hours up to 48+ hours. Another wonderful thing is that once a player has the mount, they can never see the portals again. This is great and definitely cuts down on people trying to grief others trying to get it.

Edge of Reality portal

Next is location. There are several spawn points where these portals can pop up at. Someone over at Wowhead was kind enough to make a map of some approximate spawn locations. If you mouse-over the points, you will get a direct coordinate for each spawn. The portal I found (which isn't on that map) spawned in Gorgrond at 51,38. They are usually always around Apexis daily areas and almost never inside them. I think there is one or two that is an exception. I recommend downloading the Handy Notes addon so you can add each portal spawn to your map.

Once you click on the portal, you are queued up for a scenario called Edge of Reality; fitting enough, right? I don't think I've ever clicked on something so fast in my life, even though I was the only one around. Anyway, this is pretty cool since it's a sub-zone of the Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, and the same place you fight Ner'zhul.

Yes... step into the Void. (RIP little Raptor)

Once inside, there is a dead Void Talon and an egg. You click on the egg and you loot the mount. That's it! It's a little lackluster, but I think the pretty mount makes up for that.

If you do plan on camping this mount, my tips would be to look for the portals right after a server reset. I ended up parking my characters by a few of the areas. Gorgrond was where Vel was parked at, and she was the last character I checked. The portal happened to be up by The Pit area next to a little raptor (see above image for dead raptor). It was around 12:05 AM. I also recommend going to a place that has spawns close together that way you're not running around too far between each spawn location. Before you know it, this one will be added to your collection too! Good luck and happy hunting!

Here's Poundfist!

I will be honest, I never thought I would camp for this mount just because of all the hype surrounding it. While looking through the new mounts, I had my heart set on getting the Sapphire Riverbeast from Silthide, but I never decided to camp for it. I figured I should work on gearing out my main and leveling up her professions. Well on Sunday I planned on fishing and maybe starting to capture rares of all the wild pets of Gorgrond. When I got to the zone, everyone was in a buzz about Poundfist starting to spawn on EU realms. My interest shifted from pet battling to camping. I ended up looking through group finder until I found a raid that was just forming on the Venture Co. realm. Being on a PvP realm always makes me feel a little nervous, but to my surprise, everyone was well behaved. We were even working with the small group of Alliance that were camping also. After about 8 hours of waiting, he spawned. I am happy to say that not only did the entire 40 man Horde group get a tag, but the Alliance group did, and a few others who came when it was announced in trade.

So yesterday I went on with what I had originally planned to do Sunday. Skywall/Drak'thul seemed to be one of the last servers to get the Poundfist spawn, and it wasn't nice at all. From what I gathered from chat, even though there were multiple groups waiting for him, a small group had him spawn close to Breaker's Crown and nuked him down without telling anyone. Needless to say a lot of people were heartbroken, and my heart definitely goes out to them.

Hope is not all lost! He will return! After clicking through numerous threads on the forums and reading WoWhead for information, I've compiled a small list to help people who feel hopeless with this rare spawn.

- 48 Hours: It seems that the server has to be up for at least a full 48 hours before he begins to spawn again. Keep this in mind with server restarts.

- Spawn Locations: He has 5 spawn locations that are easily cover able by a large group. I personally set my heartstone to Breaker's Crown since my group was camping north, and if he were to spawn around there it would have been faster for me to hearth instead of wait for a summon or try to run.

- Teamwork: On the rare occasion where each faction is willing to work together, this is a great advantage. We don't live in a perfect world, but it's worth a try to see if the opposite faction would be willing to make friends for at least a little while.

- He's up: CC can be used on him to help ensure everyone from your group can get to him (NO Mind Control at all because I've read that it can cause him to despawn).

Now for the bad stuff. There are the people who try to kill it as fast as possible just to upset everyone else. This is exactly what happened on my main server. Another frustrating issue is server phasing. I've read reports of people on the same server having issues seeing him because their group was in a different phase. Sometimes he appears on the multiple phases, and sometimes he doesn't. I guess this is just the luck of the draw.

Of course, if you still don't get him, there is always next time. Don't burn yourself out over a mount. Warlords of Draenor isn't going away any time soon, and chances are the hype surrounding him will also fade away in time. Good luck to you all and happy hunting!