How to farm Crackling Shards in WoW The War Within

WoW’s latest expansion, The War Within, is packed with optional content and secrets to discover, and one of them requires you to get 10 Crackling Shards. With a stack of 10 shards, you can combine them into a Storm Vessel, which makes Alunira—the blue gryphon flying around Dhar Otzan—vulnerable to damage.

When you defeat Alunira, you unlock her as a flying mount, but getting all 10 Crackling Shards is easier said than done. Keep reading for our best tips to farm Crackling Shards in WoW The War Within.

Crackling Shards farming method in WoW The War Within

In WoW The War Within, Crackling Shards have a very small chance to drop from every mob on the Isle of Dorn. According to players on Wowhead, the drop rate is around one in 2,000. This means you’ll need to kill around 20,000 mobs before you have 10 Crackling Shards, although a few players in the comments reported they got their 10-stack a bit sooner.

The best strategy to farm 10 Crackling Shards is to find the areas with the highest mob density in the Isle of Dorn and fly between them. Players initially reported a few spots where it was possible to trigger hyperspawns, but Blizzard seems to have patched them out at the time of writing.

So, the best farming strategy involves flying between the highest-mob-density locations in the Isle of Dorn. It helps to play a tank character, like my Blood Death Knight, so you can group up lots of mobs and AoE them down with little downtime between kills, then move to the next farming spot.

Glimmering Shore

The first farming spot I recommend visiting is the Glimmering Shore, around coordinates 52, 79. There are lots of crabs and murlocs here that are easy to kill. After you’ve exhausted most of the spawns in this area, move to the next place.

Mourning Rise

Mourning Rise, at 64, 43, has lots of kobolds. This was a hyperspawn spot during early The War Within, but it no longer works. Still, there are enough mobs here (and sometimes a World Quest) for you to gather up a decent number, nuke them down, and then move on.

Rambleshire Bridge

Lastly, there are many Nerubians by the water beneath the bridge leading to Rambleshire, at coordinates 56, 29. You’ll be able to kill all the mobs here in a minute or two.

There are a few other areas in the Isle of Dorn with high mob density, like Cinderwold (69, 37), where you’ll find lots of honey bees—but you’d be better off farming this location in a group since half the mobs are elites.