What’s up guys, Syiler here, bringing you a guide on how to get the Heavenly Golden Cloud Serpent. This mount will require a few things before you can get it: the first having Artisan riding, next being exalted with The Order of the Cloud Serpent, third being exalted with Emperor Shohao and finally obtaining 100,000 Timeless coins from the Timeless Isle. The mount once learnt will be Account Bound but will require your alts to also have Exalted with The Order of the Cloud Serpent to be able to use the mount. This is by no means an easy mount to obtain and will require you to put a lot of time into it but in my opinion is completely worth it as it is an awesome looking mount!
So we are going to take a look at how to achieve each step of the process to getting this mount, the main focuses of the guide will be Emperor Shohao Reputation and gaining Timeless Coins but I will also cover Artisan Riding and The Order of the Cloud Serpent Faction.
Artisan Riding
First up is Artisan riding. This is one of the easier steps for getting the mount but is absolutely required as without 280% speed or more flying, you won’t be able to learn the mount and it will just sit in your bags until you can learn it! Artisan riding is obtained from any Mount Riding trainer that you can interact with and will cost 5,000 gold by default but you can reduce the costs depending on your current reputation with the faction. For example if you are Exalted with Orgrimmar then you will want to talk to a NPC aligned with the Orgrimmar faction as this will reduce the cost to 4,000 gold so try to go to an NPC that you have a stronger reputation with to get a cheaper price. On top of this if you join a Guild that is Level 24 or higher you will also benefit from the Bartering Guild perk which will reduce the price even further making the lowest possible price you can pay 3,500 gold.
In terms of actually affording the gold I will leave that up to you, but a few methods of earning gold are as follows, completing any unfinished quests in Pandaria (Once you hit max level you will gain additional gold instead of experience, along with the quest greens/blues you will obtain that can be vendored for some gold) this can be a great way of earning extra gold. Another method is making use of the Auction house, selling profession materials, battle pets, transmog BoE’s and other items you are able to get your hands on. The final method I will suggest is running things like scenarios or Looking for Raid, Scenarios will provide you will a box per run which will contain a portion of gold and a Blue/Epic item which can be vendored, inside the boxes you will have a chance of getting some spirits of harmony as well, which can be turned into profession materials and sold on the AH. You will get a decent amount of gold from just looting mobs within the scenario to complement the boxes, just make sure you loot everything even if its just vendor trash it still earns gold. These are just a few simple methods for earning gold that you can use but WoW has a vast system for earning gold so just choose a method that suits you best and keep at it until you have enough! Between 3,500 gold and 5,000 gold shouldn’t be to hard to obtain.
The Order of the Cloud Serpent
The next task is getting Exalted with The Order of the Cloud Serpent, this is another requirement to be able to learn the mount and you will need to do this for any additional Characters you want to use the mount on, unless it gets changed in the future! (Which it most likely will when Warlords of Draenor is released) There are a few options you can do to get exalted with The Order of the Cloud Serpent, the first being the daily quests located in the Jade Forest at The Arboretum you will need to unlock the dailies by first doing the basic quest chain and once it is completed you will have daily quests with The Order, to complete all the daily quests you will need to have secondary professions but don’t worry if you don’t as their is a fairly decent amount to do outside of those quests. The second method is once you complete the introduction quests and unlock the dailies you will be able to hand in Onyx Cloud Serpent eggs which can be found on the Windward Isle but if you are on a high population server you might have trouble finding them so I would suggest either getting a friend on another server to invite you so you can check for eggs or just wait until less popular times (at night or in the morning) to check for eggs. The final method is within the Timeless isle, killing Huolon and the Crimsonscale Firetorm’s and looting them will have a chance of giving you a Quivering egg which can be turned into Elder Anli at The Order to gain 1000 Reputation per handin, I would recommend this method to most as you can also get Timeless Coins from this which will be needed to purchase the Golden Heavenly Cloud Serpent.
Tips
Keep in mind once you hit Revered you will be able to purchase a Order of the Cloud Serpent Commendation that allows you to gain 100% additional rep with this faction and these can be sent to alts so they can gain additional rep from Neutral-Exalted. Also you can set The Order of the Cloud Serpent to be your stared reputation allowing you to gain Reputation once per day through a Heroic Dungeon, Scenario and Heroic Scenario so this will help build additional Rep per day.
Emperor of Shaohao
Now onto getting exalted with Emperor Shaohao, this is going to be one of the longer parts in getting this mount. To start with, complete the introductory quests on the Island to the point you get dailies with Emperor Shaohao you can do each day to gain some Shahao rep, once you are done with them prepare to grind! There are three key areas for grinding reputation and each area gets significantly more difficult but is also more rewarding in terms of rep, you can farm rep in a group but if you do it in a raid group you will no longer get Timeless Coins so try to keep the farming from 1-5 people to maximise the farming. I will now talk about the mobs in each area and the difficulty rating.
Firewalker Ruins
The Firewalker Ruins contains the Ordon Candlekeeper, Ordon Oathguard and Ordon Fire-walker. These mobs are the easier to handle and would be the place I recommend lower geared players and groups farm for rep.
Ordon Candlekeeper
Breath of Fire – Breathe fire, dealing 74,000 to 86,000 fire damage in a cone in front of the Ordon Candlekeeper
Burning Sacrifice – At sub 20% HP the Ordon Candlekeeper will sacrifice its remaining life to Ordos, dealing 185000 to 215000 Fire damage to all enemies within 7 yards and knocking them down.
Shaohao Rep – 5
The Ordon Candlekeeper is located within the Firewalker Ruins and is one of the easier mobs to face. Anyone with an item level of around 470 onwards should be able to deal with these mobs, the auto damage isn’t to high and even if you get hit by the Breath of Fire you should only lose around 20% hp.
Tips for dealing with them – The Ordon Candlekeepers are the easier of Ordon Mobs you will come across, they are fully subseptable to CC so make use of Stuns, Fears etc if you are struggling. The Breath of Fire can be out ranged or avoided if you can react quick enough and the Burning Sacrifice can be avoided by either killing them before the cast goes off or simply moving out of the 7 yard radius. I would recommend these as a farm target for lower geared players.
Ordon Oathguard
Craclking Blow – Deals 740 – 860% of weapon damage as Physical damage to enemies in a line in front of the caster.
Defensive Shield – Raises a shield, deflecting all ranged attack and spells and blacking all melee attacks from the front.
Oath Guardianship – Reducse the damage taken of the caster’s allies by 75% for 20 sec. Channeled.
Shaohao Rep – 10
The Ordon Oathguard is located within the Firewalker Ruins and a the second easiest mob to face on the Timeless Isle that will award reputation. Anyone with an item level of around 480 should have no issues with dealing with this mob as the majority of its damage comes from an avoidable attack. The difficult part is dodgying this ability while taking down its 3.2 million HP.
Tips for dealing with them – Make sure you either stop him during Defensive Shield with a stun or some form of CC or move behind him as you will not do any damage during this time if you attack from the front. Cracking Blow has a short cast time so just move to the side when you see it happening and you will avoid the damage. These mobs are easy to deal with but can take some time thats why the higher ilvl recommendation for dealing with them.
Ordon Fire-Watcher
Pyroblast – Deals 83250 to 96750 Fire Damage
Falling Flames – Conjures forth a rain of fire, inflicting 18500 to 215000 Fire damage to enemies in a 2.5 yard radius of the impact locations.
Shaohao Rep – 10
The Ordon Fire-Watcher is found within the Firewalker Ruins. Although it has less HP then the Oathguards located in the same area I see theses are more difficult as it is easier to die to one. But a skilled player should be able to deal with these in around 470-480 Ilvl
Tips for dealing with them – The Fire-Watcher’s only have 2 abilities which makes them easier to deal with but these abilities are dangerous and can easily kill you if you mess up or aren’t paying attention. The Pyroblast is a cast and can be stopped with an interrupt or CC. The Falling Flames summons a large amount of falling projectiles so ensure you are zoomed out enough to tell where they will land.
The Blazing Way
The Blazing way contains the Burning Beserker, The Eternal Kilnmaster and the Blazebound Chanter. These mobs are a lot more difficult to handle but yield more Reputation per kill so I would recommend this area for higher geared 510+ players and groups!
Burning Berserker
Fiery Charge – Charge the enemy, inflicting 400% weaon damage as Fire and knocking down the target.
Blazing Cleave – Spin around in a blazing circle, inflicting 185000 to 215000 Fire damage to enemies within 6 yards.
Burning Fury – Increases the attack speed by 200% and burning the caster for 5000 Fire damage every 1 second for 6 seconds.
Shaohao Rep – 15
The Burning Beserker is found within The Blazing way and is a greater challenge compared to the previous discussed mobs. They give 15 rep so I would recommend farming these in a party or if The Firewalker Ruins are crowded and you have a high enough Ilvl that they aren’t a challenge. I would recommend around a 490 onwards ilvl for attempting to deal with these mobs.
Tips for dealing with them – The burning Berserker’s main threat is the Fiery Charge, if you leave its melee hit box it will charge you dealing a large amount of damage and stunning you for a short period, to deal with this mechanic just ensure you stay close to the Burning Berserker.
Eternal Kilnmaster
Fiery Charge – Charge the enemy, inflicting 400% weaon damage as Fire and knocking down the target.
Blazing Blow – Deals 462 to 538% Weapon damage as Physical damage to enemies in a line in from of the caster.
Conjure Eternal Kiln – Summons a Flarecore Golem to assist the caster.
Shaohao Rep – 20
The Eternal Kilnmaster’s are located in both The Blazing Way and the Ordon Sanctuary, they are a tough mob with a large HP pool. Similar to the Burning Beserker they will charge you if you get out of range but in addition they will follow up with a Blazing Blow which can result in a one shot. These do give more Rep but are a tough challenge for lower geared players so I would only recommend farming them in a party!
Tips for dealing with them – Stay in melee range, move through him during the Blazing Blow and kill the Eternal Kiln that they summon to reduce their damage. For these mobs you want to have around 500+ Ilvl to be able to deal with them comfortably but as I said being in a party is the best way of handling the tougher but more rep earning mobs!
Blazebound Chanter
Greater Pyroblast – Deals 185 to 215% weapon damage as Fire damage.
Cauterize – Heals the caster 25% of maximum health, but causes them to burn for 1% maximum health every 1 second for 30seconds.
Fire Storm – Summons a storm of fiery balls, dealing Fire damage at the impact locations.
Conjure Flarecore Golem – Summons a Flarecore Golem to assist the caster.
Shaohao Rep – 20
The Blazebound Chanter can be found in The Blazing Way and the Ordon Sanctuary. They aren’t to difficult to farm and give a high amount of rep so it is worth getting a party together to farm these mobs!
Tips for dealing with them – Interrupt the Cauterize as main priority as even though they lose HP over time you don’t want to be fitting it for that long. Be zoomed out for the Fire Storm so you can tell where the fiery balls will land so you can avoid them. Kite the Flarecore Golem as they do a lot of damage if they melee you and are desummoned once the Chanter dies so no need to kill them.
Just keep farming these mobs and completing the quests/dailies until you reach exalted, it will take some time but also gives you time to reach the 100,000 Timeless Coins required to purchase the mount.
Tips for Shaohao rep – I would recommend heading to The Blazing Way in a 5man group, remember to make use of things like Guild banners, The Darkmoon Faire etc for Reputation boosts! I missed out a few mobs that are located in the Ordon Sanctuary but in my opinion they aren’t worth mentioning as they have a crazy amount of HP and damage while only giving slightly more reputation.
Timeless Coins
The final step is getting enough Timeless Coins to purchase the mount, timeless coins come from a lot of places within the island, the first being from Rare Mobs. Depending on the Rare you kill will depend on how many coins you can expect to get, the Rarer the mob the more generally you will get for example the Emerald Bird will give a low amount as it is very common while The Ghostship will give a large amount as it is more uncommon. The next method is from killing mobs within the Timeless Isle, every mob here you kill will grant coins and luckily for us the mobs we kill to gain reputation with Shaohao will also give coins, so I recommend those being your farm targets while killing rares when they spawn. The next method is from Chests on the isle, The Moss-Covered, Smoldering, Sturdy, Skull-covered and Blazing chests all contain coins. Events on the isle will also reward timeless coins, they can normally be identified by crossing swords on your minimap. It will generally require you to do something to trigger them, such as talk to an NPC or kill a certain type of mob, there are a few secret events on the isle so make sure you keep an eye out as they won’t all be crossing swords on your map. Some of the dailies within the Timeless Isle will also reward coins and can generally be easily completed without going out of your way to do it, so I would recommend picking them up when you arrive on the Isle each day. The final method of obtaining coins is to loot containers, they will appear as boxes, eggs, sand piles and more, basically objects you can interact with and loot. The issue with these is they don’t reward many coins (Normally 1-20) but can be found in large quantities so its a slow but safe method of farming coins if you aren’t able to kill the mobs.