World of Warcraft

Hello Argent Dawn!

I decided to put this post together both as a Q&A about the Vial of the Sands mount, as well as to advertise my crafting services. I've had quite a lot of questions from folks in the Horde trade channel. These are usually asking about the materials, the recipe and where to get them. I hope I have covered most of these in this post.

Please feel free to contact me on Tekuta (Horde side) about getting this recipe made. I have included more detail about the costs of crafting in one of my paragraphs below.


What is the Vial of the Sands?

Tooltip: Vial of the Sands teaches you how to transform into a dragon, allowing you to fly very fast and carry an ally on your back.

Although this mount was originally Alchemy only. Blizzard changed their mind and the crafted mount - Vial of the Sands - is now bind on equip, allowing anyone in the game to use this mount.

<<Just to note, there is currently a bug with this mount. At the moment the passenger sits in the air below the dragon. Although quite amusing, there is a fix for this on its way according to a blue post. >> This early bug has been fixed.


Where does the recipe for the Vial of the Sands come from?

The Recipe: Vial of the Sands comes from Archeology. In order to get this recipe, you need to be an Alchemist with an Archeology skill of 450+. Non Alchemists will not see this recipe drop.

The recipe has a chance to drop from the common Tol'vir Artifact, known as the Canopic Jar. Wowhead lists the recipe drop rate at 4%, however I expect that Wowhead's data includes non Alchemists. I obtained this out of my third Canopic Jar, and at a guess from the comments on Wowhead, I would say that this is a one in five drop for an alchemist.

To get to my third Canopic Jar, I went through a total of 15 common Tol'vir artifacts, and three rare artifacts. If you want this recipe, you either have to get ridiculously lucky, or do a lot of digging!


What Materials do you need?

1x Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial (5000g)
8x Sands of Time (3000g each)
12x Truegold
8x Flask of the Winds
8x Flask of Titanic Strength
8x Deepstone Oil

Since this is effectively the new version of the Mechano hog, the Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial, and the Sands of Time are special items that have to be purchased to create this mount. They can be bought from Yasmin in Uldum for a total of 29,000g. If your guild is at least level 24, you can get a 10% discount on the materials.


To make the flasks and oil yourself, you will need:

96x Volatile Life
96x Azshara's Veil
192x Whiptail
16x Crystal Vial
96x Cinderbloom
<8x Albino Cavefish

To make the Truegold Bar's yourself, you will need:

36x Pyrium Bar OR 72x Pyrite Ore
120x Volatile Fire
120x Volatile Air
120x Volatile Water
12 day's of an Alchemist's Transmute

If you happen to have a Transmute Alchemist handy, this will hopefully save you some money. On average a transmute alchemist gets 120% extra material out of transmutes. Therefore, on average, you only need materials for 10 bar's.


How much does a craft cost?

Given the time and effort needed to obtain the recipe, a craft with your materials will cost you several thousand gold. Please feel free to contact me in game on Tekuta if you would like a craft. I will be happy to hear from you either in a whisper, or in a mail.

<<The best way to buy the Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial, and the eight Sands of Time, is to use a Goblin since they can get a 20% discount as part of their racial ability. A goblin can purchase these for 24,000g. This will save you 5000g over the normal price!>> Goblins no longer get a discount on this vendor, therefore the only way to reduce the price is to be in a guild with at least level 24.

For those of you who don't fancy the hassle of grinding all of the above materials I am prepared to create a complete Vial of the Sands for a price. I do occasionally have one on the Auction house, however this is generally overpriced due to the 5% auction house fee. I'm happy to reduce this for a sensible offer.


Who can craft this recipe on the Alliance side?

Although it is theoretically possible for me to craft for folks on the Alliance side, this is probably more effort than its worth. Alliance crafters with this recipe please feel free to post your names. I'm happy for Horde crafters to do the same. :)

If you do decide to post your names, I'm curious to know how many Canopic Jar's it took you to obtain your recipe. :)


Alliance Crafters
Contact Torniquet for names (#3)
Binki (#11)
Tectonic (#12)
Esmao (#16)
Glalyn (#17)
Dargen (#18)
Kreyja (#19)

Horde Crafters
Tekuta (#1)
Twoo (#9)
Zanjarah (#14)

It'd be useful to get a sticky on this, if that's still possible. I dare say there are a fair few people on just Argent Dawn alone that would appreciate reading this thread.

I clicked through the report option, but they all seemed rather... Negative.

29/12/2010 9:41 PMPosted by Marttus

It'd be useful to get a sticky on this, if that's still possible. I dare say there are a fair few people on just Argent Dawn alone that would appreciate reading this thread.

I clicked through the report option, but they all seemed rather... Negative.

Use "other" and state sticky, Atleast thats how i did it! *hihi*

I also know a few people that can craft it. If you're looking for someone on the alliance side to craft you one of these fine vials contact me and i'll see which one of them got time to craft you one!

(Not mentioning their names until i get permission to ;) )

Wow, thank you all for the sticky requests!

I hadn't really expected this to be stickied, and certainly not so quickly!

the wonders of reporting!

30/12/2010 2:11 PMPosted by Victorion

A+ thread, was looking for info on this...

Thanks man!

P.S: Can anyone try to explain to me why I don't feel like leveling to 85 AT ALL?

Just go for it and read the quest descriptions it was alot of fun doing so. Its always boring to lvl just by following the quest helper.. But reading the quests for the first time makes me a happy panda!

30/12/2010 2:11 PMPosted by Victorion

A+ thread, was looking for info on this...

Thanks man!

P.S: Can anyone try to explain to me why I don't feel like leveling to 85 AT ALL?

The drudge feeling of another zone, it goes away once you get into the new area's though! Promise! Oh yeah, great guide!

Happy to craft this with your own mats, for a small fee!

Wohooo obtained my Vial of Sands ! ;)

Alliance crafter here, got recipe from first jar few weeks ago.

Please add me to list.

Just found my recipe, finally, if you could add me to the list! Thanks.

Grats on finding the recipe Tectonic. :)

Updated crafters list to here. Since we have a few names on either side I've changed the thread title to something more appropriate.

Add me to that list. (Edit: Thanks, Tekuta.)

It was in my first jar (third Tol'vir solve in total), so I didn't have to grind much at all.
Got it a while ago (didn't even have 500 alchemy back then) and haven't bothered to advertise.

Got this recipe today aswell :)

You can add me to the list of crafters as well.
Though, it doesn't seem like crafters are super rare anymore. :o)

Can make this now as well.

I got it in the first Canopic Jar. >:D

What is the lowest lvl a goblin can be to purchase the sands of time?