Drake of the North Wind — How to Get the Mount

Reins of the Drake of the North Wind — a rare flying mount from the Cataclysm expansion. This is an elegant storm drake with translucent wings and lightning coursing through its body. The mount drops from Altairus, the second boss of The Vortex Pinnacle dungeon in Uldum, with approximately a 1% drop chance.

• Rarity — the drop chance is less than 1%, making this drake one of the most sought-after mounts of the Cataclysm era
• Appearance — a unique storm drake model with lightning and wind effects. It belongs to the wind drake series alongside the drakes of the south, east, and west winds
• Collection value — a mount from legacy content that players have been farming since 2010. Having this drake in your collection speaks to the owner's patience
• Farming accessibility — the dungeon can be cleared in 2-3 minutes at max level, allowing up to 10 attempts per hour

There are three ways to get this mount:

1. Farming The Vortex Pinnacle — the primary method. Kill Altairus on normal difficulty, reset the dungeon, and repeat
2. Black Market Auction House — the mount is periodically listed by Madam Goya on the Black Market Auction House with a starting bid of 20,000 gold. The final price usually reaches several million
3. Reins of the Quantum Courser — Reins of the Quantum Courser, which drops from Chrono-Lord Deios in the Dawn of the Infinite dungeon on Mythic difficulty, contains a pool of 17 mounts including the Drake of the North Wind

The drop chance does not depend on dungeon difficulty, so farming on normal difficulty is recommended — it's faster.

The Vortex Pinnacle is located in the southeastern part of Uldum, high in the sky. The dungeon entrance floats in the air among the clouds — you will need a flying mount.

For Horde

1. Open the portal to Uldum from Orgrimmar (located in the Valley of Wisdom, Cataclysm portal room)
2. Fly southeast to the entrance coordinates

For Alliance

1. Open the portal to Uldum from Stormwind (located in the Mage Tower near Stormwind Keep)
2. Fly southeast to the entrance coordinates

Entrance Coordinates

/way Uldum 76.6 84.3 The Vortex Pinnacle (entrance)

The entrance is high above the ground. Fly upward until you see the distinctive golden-pearly towers in the clouds. The meeting stone is located near the entrance.

At level 80, your character will instantly destroy all enemies in this dungeon. Optimal route:

1. Enter the dungeon on normal difficulty
2. Run to the first boss — Grand Vizier Ertan. You can ignore the trash mobs along the way by running past them, but Ertan must be killed — without this, the wind vortex transporters to the next platform won't activate
3. Defeat Ertan — at level 80, the fight takes a few seconds
4. Use the wind vortex transporter — it will carry you to the second platform (The Nimbus), where Altairus is located
5. Defeat Altairus — check the loot
6. Leave the dungeon — right-click your character portrait and select "Leave Instance Group," or exit through the entrance
7. Reset the dungeon — right-click your portrait and select "Reset all instances"
8. Repeat — you have 10 entries per hour

A single run takes about 2–3 minutes. In one hour, you will use all 10 attempts in roughly 20–30 minutes, after which you'll need to wait for the lockout to reset.

Best Classes for Farming

Any class at level 80 handles this with no issues. Classes with increased movement speed have an advantage:

• Druid — Travel Form provides a permanent run speed bonus
• Monk — passive movement speed bonus
• Rogue — Sprint ability for speed boosts

Using Alts

The mount is bind on pickup, but the 10 dungeons per hour limit applies to the entire account. You cannot farm on multiple characters simultaneously — the counter is shared. However, you can alternate characters between hourly windows if you want to vary the process.

Time Estimation

With a ~1% drop chance and 10 attempts per hour:

The average result is about 100 attempts, but luck may require as few as 5 or as many as 300+ runs.

• Set the dungeon to normal difficulty before entering. On Heroic difficulty, after killing Altairus the dungeon cannot be reset until the daily reset, giving you only one attempt per day instead of ten per hour
• Use speed-boosting items — engineering Gunshoes provide a significant speed bonus for 25 seconds with a 3-minute cooldown
• Don't forget additional loot — dungeon bosses also drop Cataclysm-era transmog items that can be sold or kept for your collection
• Watch the Black Market Auction House — if you have the gold, buying from the BMAH may be faster than months of farming. Check the listings regularly
• Track your time — if you've hit the 10-dungeon limit, note when you first entered. The counter will reset one hour after that point
• Farm other mounts in parallel — while waiting for The Vortex Pinnacle lockout to reset, visit other Cataclysm dungeons to farm rare mounts: Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake from The Stonecore or Reins of the Drake of the West Wind from Throne of the Four Winds