Farming for Rivendare's Deathcharger

Something I enjoy more than anything in WoW is collecting mounts.

The mount that started this happy little obsession of mine was the Phoenix mount. Arguably one of the most eye-catching and appealing mounts in the game, I decided that I wanted this ride and would do what I had to to get it. A second, often glossed-over reason was for roleplay purposes; I of course enjoyed playing as blood elves, and can you get much more Sin'dorei-y then a big flaming phoenix? I didn't think so. To cap it all off, my main character's surname is Benu -- which happens to be a form of Egyptian phoenix.

I found out about the Ashes of A'lar long after I decided on Amphi's final name, so I often joke around and call it a freaky little act of fate. :)

I did some research on it, and found out that it drops in a raid, Tempest Keep. My heart fell a little as I found this out -- I'm not much of a raider at all. The upside to this downside was that it encouraged me to find other mounts I could collect, including Baron Rivendare's Deathcharger.

Due to it being usable by both Horde and Alliance players, this mount is often farmed for by players on both sides -- Hordies collect it for its rarity, and Alliance collect it as it is the only skeletal horse available to them (that I'm aware of). It used to be considered one of the rarest drops in the game (this was well before my time in WoW), but has since had its drop chance upped by a fair bit. I thought that this mount would be a good place to start my rare-drop collection with.

I first ran Stratholme with Amphi around level 60, with a couple of guild-mates and a 70 shaman who was helping us along. I wanted to get a feel for the instance as soon as possible, and luckily my guild back then contained a fair few members who did most of their levelling by running instances. I was invited along to Stratholme one evening, and breaking my tradition, I readily accepted and made my way there.

Let's Get to Farming!

The main goal of this post is to share my experiences with farming for this mount, particularly as I was not level-capped when I started, I hadn't read any guides and had to learn from scratch the ins and outs of the Rivendare Run. :)

The instance itself is both very long, occasionally very trying and a little unusual in that it is divided into two connected halves. Most people farming for the mount almost always use the eastern entrance, skipping the first half of the instance entirely. An experienced player can start from this gate and have the Baron dead within ten minutes. However, you do need the Key to the City (dropped by Magistrate Barthilas) to use this gate. That means that if you've never run the instance before, simply start at the normal entrance and, using this map, take a left at the first t-junction and follow the 2s. There is a gate where the furthest right 2 is -- go through there, and the Magistrate should be right there. Kill him and get the Key of the City so that you can use the eastern gate (also called the service entrance) from now on.

I started soloing the Baron when I was mid-70s in level with my hunter. It is relatively easy to do, but some important things to remember (if you're a hunter!) are:

-Don't try farming this place at a lower level unless you're very well geared and comfortable playing a hunter.
-Only bring a Tenacity pet with you if you are good at remembering to turn off Thunderstomp! This will save you having to nuke groups of mobs that your pet accidentally pulls -- in Strath, it will happen.
-Avoid as many groups of mobs as possible. This will not only help you finish the run as quickly as possible, but it will also help keep you alive!

I personally always used my cat whilst farming here, before I was level-capped. I was very comfortable using it as a pseudo-tank, and if I needed to stop and fight, I could pop a Mend Pet and focus on burning down single targets as quickly as possible. If you're level-capped, then the pet that you decide to use is really just personal preference, as you shouldn't have to worry about fighting at all in Strath at 80.

In order to open the gate that leads to the Slaughterhouse, where the Baron is holed up, you first need to bring down three ziggurats along the way. They are laid out in a triangle formation; this map shows the locations. I had no particular pattern as to which order I killed the three bosses in (Nerub'enkan, Baroness Anastari, and Maleki the Pallid) as it doesn't matter.

For Baroness Anastari, dismiss your pet. Fight her either at range or in melee, but dismiss your pet for this fight, as she will mind-control either you or your companion. Every time I forgot to dismiss Serenity, she'd end up mind-controlling me, and Serenity would end up dead. I'm not sure if she goes after specific players for specific reasons, but I do know that needing to stop and resurrect your pet is costly, both time-wise and mana-wise.

The other two bosses can simply be nuked. Nerub'enkan will often root you to the spot using the characteristic Nerubian web, but as a hunter, this of course isn't an issue! Maleki the Pallid can simply be burned down.

Now, killing the bosses is not the important part. To open the gate to the Slaughterhouse, you must enter the ziggurats that the bosses were guarding and kill the mobs inside. This is easy and quick, as they aren't elites. A message will appear in your chat log once the zig's down; once all three have been taken out, the gate to the slaughterhouse will open (it's roughly between Nerub'enkan and Maleki) and you can move on to the abominations.

The abominations can be tricky. If you brought a Tenacity pet, now is the time to switch Thunderstomp back on. Essentially, round up as many as you're comfortable taking on. Kill them all, except one. This is a time-saving tip! When you're down to the last abomination, put your pet on passive and kite the mob to the doors of the slaughterhouse, which will be shut. Kill it there, which will then open the doors momentarily. Go into the Slaughterhouse then and kill Ramstein. Almost immediately after Ramstein goes down, a group of skeletal guards will appear. They are elites, but usually not too much trouble to kill. If in doubt, throw down an Explosive Trap and a Snake Trap, pop a Mend Pet, then Feign Death and let your pet do the hard work.

When these are dead, you can finally take on Baron Rivendare. Make sure your pet has Growl on and send it in, keeping Mend Pet up on it. Focus on making sure your pet keeps aggro, rather than nuking the Baron. Every once in a while he'll stop attacking and start summoning minions -- this will be announced in the combat log, and when you see him start the act of summoning (he'll be surrounded by a purple aura, just like a warlock), drop a Volley on him to take down the skeletons as soon as they rush to him. Just keep Mend Pet up, stop your normal rotation to Volley whenever the Baron stops to summon, and Feign Death if you pull aggro. You should have little difficulty, and with much luck, hopefully you'll have a new rare mount to call your own. :)

I have seen this mount drop twice in my time playing WoW; the first time was my very first run (I lost the roll to a guildie -- what are the chances!), and the second was twenty-five Baron kills later, when the Deathcharger finally dropped for me. I'm helping my brother farm for it now (who plays a 70 Enhancement/Restoration Tauren Shaman) and the Rivendare Run still never gets old for me.

At 80, this is an easy and fast way to kill some time if you're waiting for a heroic, a raid, or just bored, especially if you're an Alliance player -- the promise of an unusual mount for you is great incentive to try this out. It helps that Stratholme is one of the most fun and lore-centred instances out there, in my humble opinion!

This is a brilliant video by the guys at TankSpot that shows what needs to be done, and how quickly and efficiently it can be done:



Happy farming!

♥