Get Reins of the Blazing Drake mount

Reins of the Blazing Drake — a flying mount from the Cataclysm expansion, added in patch 4.3 alongside the Dragon Soul raid. It is a fiery-red dragon with smoldering scales, visually resembling the offspring of Deathwing. The mount is rare: it drops from the final raid boss — Madness of Deathwing — on both Normal and Heroic difficulties. The drop chance is approximately 1%, so most collectors farm the raid on multiple characters every week.

Today Dragon Soul can be soloed at maximum level (90 in the Midnight expansion) in just 10–15 minutes. This is one of the most popular weekly runs for mount hunters: in addition to the Blazing Drake, you can also obtain Cataclysm-era transmog sets, achievements, and battle pets.

• Flying dragon model mount — unique fiery coloring that stands apart from other Cataclysm dragons. Lore-wise, this is one of Deathwing's offspring who retained their fiery nature but were untouched by his corruption
• Rare collector's item — roughly 1% drop chance makes it a coveted trophy and a standout addition to any mount collection
• Account-wide unlock — once obtained, the mount is unlocked on all your characters regardless of faction or class
• Fast run with bonus rewards — while farming the drake you also have a chance at the raid's second mount Experiment 12-B (from Ultraxion), plus tier-13 transmog sets
• Connection to classic lore — the raid concludes the Cataclysm storyline and the final battle with Deathwing. The drake that falls from his corpse is literally a living trophy of that encounter
• Can appear on the Black Market — occasionally listed by the Black Market Auctioneer, providing an alternative path to obtaining it for gold

The raid entrance is located in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris, Eastern Kingdoms.

1. Open the world map and teleport to the nearest hub. The fastest route is a portal from your faction capital to Uldum, then fly north along the coastline to Tanaris
2. An alternative route is through the portal room in Stormwind/Orgrimmar directly to the Caverns of Time, if that portal is available to your faction
3. Fly into the Caverns of Time and follow the tunnel down into the large open hall. In the far section of the hall there is a corridor with burning trees
4. This corridor contains three portals: to the introductory Cataclysm dungeons and to the raid. The Dragon Soul portal is the central one, between the End Time and Hour of Twilight portals
5. Exact entrance coordinates: /way Caverns of Time 62.2 28.2 Dragon Soul

Before entering, set the raid difficulty through the character menu: Normal or Heroic, 10 or 25 players. The mount drop chance is the same across all these modes.

The raid contains eight bosses, but to get the mount you need to defeat Madness of Deathwing — the last one. You cannot skip previous bosses: the route is strictly linear.

1. Morchok — a huge stone golem. Dies in a matter of seconds
2. Hagara the Stormbinder — a phase-swapping boss (ice/lightning). Ignore mechanics, just burn her health down
3. Warlord Zon'ozz — a dark giant in the portal hall. Simply deal damage; ignore the orb
4. Yor'sahj the Unsleeping — boss with colored oozes. He also drops the pet Faceless Minion
5. Ultraxion — aerial combat. You now only need to destroy 5 Twilight drakes before the boss (previously 15) — changed in patch 11.0.5
6. Warmaster Blackhorn — fight on the deck of the ship Skyfire. After patch 11.0.5 changes, waves of Dragonmaw spawn immediately after the previous ones — no waiting required
7. Spine of Deathwing — the penultimate stage. Previously the hardest solo boss in the raid. After patch 11.0.5 changes, on Heroic and Looking for Raid the Hideous Amalgamation only needs one stack of Corrupted Blood (previously 9) to explode and remove an armor plate. On Normal the old mechanic remains — keep that in mind
8. Madness of Deathwing — the finale. Speak with Thrall at the platform, sequentially attack four of the dragon's limbs, then finish off his head. The Reins of the Blazing Drake have approximately a 1% chance to drop from his corpse

The mount drop chance is identical on Normal and Heroic, as well as in 10- and 25-player formats. Your choice depends on your goals:

Optimal strategy: run Heroic 10 — this gives simplified mechanics

Weekly Cycle

The raid lockout works by ID: each character can kill Madness of Deathwing once per week for each raid size (10 and 25 are separate). This means a single character can get two chances at the mount per week — one 10-player run and one 25-player run.

1. On Wednesday after the reset (for European servers), enter the 10-player raid and clear to Deathwing
2. Then exit, switch the size to 25, and repeat the run — this is a separate loot lockout
3. Repeat on all alts

Multi-farming with Alts

With roughly a 1% chance, the expected number of attempts before the first drop is about 100. Running 2 attempts per week (10 and 25) on a single character, that's about a year. With ten alts, the average time drops to about 5 weeks.

• The mount unlocks account-wide, so you can farm with any class and faction
• Best classes for fast farming: Demon Hunter, Druid, Monk. The key is mobility, not damage — bosses die at a touch

Time per Run

• A full clear of the raid takes 10–15 minutes at maximum level
• The bottleneck is flying between platforms and landing phases in Madness. The actual fights last 10–30 seconds each
• After the 11.0.5 changes, the most tedious segments (trash before Ultraxion, waiting on Blackhorn, Spine of Deathwing) have sped up considerably