Drakes

Ever strolled out onto the Landing in Dalaran and wondered why some of the Dragon mounts look better than the others? That's because they are Proto-Drakes!

I'm Exhalted with the Wyrmcrest Accord so I could easily go any buy a normal drake but why waste the money when I'll only want a Proto-Drake? There's 5 Proto-Drakes available at the moment with another 2 possibly coming in Uludar (3.1 patch) - an Ironbound and Rusted Proto-Drake.

So, how do I get my hands on one of these Proto-Drakes? Good question and here's how I plan on doing it:

Blue Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44151

This is a 1% drop from Skadi the Ruthless, 3rd boss in Utgarde Peak Heroic. Now 1% chance and assuming you're in a group of 5 with all rolling need gives you a 0.2% chance and if the heroic is run once a day that could take 100/0.2 = 500 Days!

Green Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44707

At Exalted with the Oracles you can buy cracked egg which has a 7 day cool down and you have a 2% chance of getting it from this. 100/2 * 7 = 350 Days!

Plagued Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44175

Completing the raid achievements (normal) will get you this Proto-Drake. Assuming you're in a good 10 man team, it's quite achievable, no relying on luck!

Red Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44160

This is the reward for completing all the 5-Man Heroic achievements. Having a solid team of 5 is more likely than a team of 10 above and with better gear this will get easier and easier. Again, not relying on a lucky drop.

Time-Lost Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44168

This is a guaranteed drop from the Rare-Spawning Time-Lost Proto-Drake in the Storm Peaks. Who knows how long it could take to spot this?

Valilor's Conclusion

I don't like relying on luck and if you see my rolls you'll probably know why! I'm going to aim for the Red Proto-Drake as I think it will be the easiest to get and then the Plagued one. Saying that, I won't go out of my way for the other 3 but it would be a bonus to fluke them! When I get to exalted with the oracles I could just buy the egg every 7 days, not much bother..

Gotta be in it to win it! Which one do you prefer?

*UPDATE 03.03.2009*

I missed out a drake:

The Black Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59976

This comes from completing all the heroic raid achievements, which includes the hardest thing in WoW to do (apparently) - killing Saph with all 3 drakes for the Twilight Zone achievement.

Another thing I forgot to add was that all these proto-drakes have a 100% land speed and 280% air speed, apart from the Plagued/Black proto-drakes which are 310%!

The bad news is that they are going to be removed shortly, probably in line with the 3.1 patch, as they will be too easy to get with T8 gear from Uludar - and they could be replaced with the Ironbound/Rusted Proto-Drakes I mentioned above!

Better get them quick!