The OverAchiever: The curious case of the Grey Riding Camel
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we begin an epic search for transportation across the Uldum sands.
The developers' strangest and most eccentric additions to the game often wind up numbering among the things that make World of Warcraft truly great, and -- fortunately for this column -- many of them are achievements as well. Today, I'd like to talk about something that, strictly speaking, is not yet an achievement. As of the most recent PTR build (13750), we know that it's going to be one in patch 4.1, and I am highly delighted that the Grey Riding Camel is now fair game for OverAchiever.
If you've followed Cataclysm zone or reputation news at all since the beta hit, you've probably known about the two camel mounts available at exalted with the Ramkahen faction. Getting them is a pretty straightforward process: Quest in Uldum, meet the kitty people, buy the kitty tabard, get the kitty people to fall in love with you -- and sooner or later, a Brown or Tan Riding Camel will result. Actually, that makes the process sound a lot more salacious than it really is, but I digress.
The Grey Riding Camel has always been different, and in order you get one, you'll engage in a little quest worthy of the zone's Indiana Jones feel. As with all Indiana Jones stories, it all starts when you find a valuable artifact after an agonizing search ...
The search for the Grey Riding Camel can be broken into two parts: Uldum and Feralas. Of the two, Uldum is by far the more involved, but Feralas is more fun.
While I've searched for my own special little camel on the live realms, I didn't think to take any pictures at the time, as it wasn't then the subject of an achievement. Consequently, we're going to abuse Wowhead liberally today, folks.
Uldum
Here's the deal: All over Uldum, Mysterious Camel Figurines spawn. They look like small gray camels, they're about the size of an average critter (which is to say tiny), and they spawn in a set pattern all over the zone. You'll always find one next to something -- a tree, a building, a grave, or random objects scattered around the scenery -- so stick to the many ruins and digsites of Uldum rather than the open desert. Fortunately, the figurines count as NPCs rather than objects, so if you make a /tar Myster macro, you can (and should) spam it while running around the zone. The addon NPCScan can also be a big help, but odds are good you'll run through a lot of camels before you get the one you need. If you're not someone who wants to spend a lot of time clearing your cache out in order to keep the mod useful, just use the target macro instead.
The most frustrating part of the endeavor is the sheer nuisance of finding figurines. Even if you're the only player out looking for them, they're horribly, horribly rare. As a note on this, I hit the patch 4.1 PTR to try to get pictures for this article, figuring there'd be less competition than on the live servers. After three hours of fruitless searching with only myself and one other player in the zone, I gave up. The only way to keep yourself sane is to look for them while you're questing through Uldum, or combine the search with a mining/skinning/herbing trip. The latter is actually quite lucrative, as there are a lot of gathering nodes and skinnable mobs within sight of figurine spawn points.
Once you find a figurine, right-clicking it will cause one of two things to occur:
The vast majority of the time, you'll get Crumbled Statue Remnants. This isn't what you're after -- but hey, it's a free 25 gold from a vendor of your choice.
Once you finally luck out, you'll find yourself helpless in a cyclone for a few seconds, and then you'll be forcibly teleported to Feralas. Don't panic.
Feralas
After the teleport, you'll find yourself in the Steam Pools in southern Feralas (they're on the map between the Ruins of Isildien and the Writhing Deep, though elevated) among a huge pack of neutral camels and a not-so-neutral Dormus the Camel-Hoarder. Dormus is an ettin-type mob with 271,215 health, weak melee, and no major abilities of note with the exception of a nature damage AoE that you can simply move from. You've only got 20 minutes to kill him before he despawns, but that's plenty of time, assuming you can manage ... uh, 226 DPS. Sneezing once or twice in the direction of your keyboard should be sufficient.
The Grey Riding Camel is a 100% drop off Dormus that, as of patch 4.1, will also award the achievement Scourer of the Eternal Sands. Enjoy your sweet new ride!
Working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on Azeroth's holidays and special events, including new achievements, how to get 310% flight speed with achievement mounts, and Cataclysm reputation factions and achievements.
