How to farm Crackling Shards in WoW The War Within

Prepare to grind.

A WoW player riding a dragon on top of a mountain peak, with Alunira, a blue glowing gryphon, flying around the peak
Screenshot by Dot Esports

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.

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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

WoW character on a dragon on the beach with crabs and murlocs
Feeling fishy? Screenshot by Dot Esports

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

WoW character on a dragon ascending stone steps
Blizzard patched out this hyperspawn spot, but it’s still worth farming in rotation. Screenshot by Dot Esports

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

WoW character on a dragon on a grassy knoll by the water with lots of Nerubian spider monsters
Head over to the bridge. Screenshot by Dot Esports

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.

Author
Image of Tom Foley
Tom Foley
Tom is the UK Associate Editor for Dot Esports. He's the former TCG Editor for CBR and holds a Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Tom spent six years as a Science Editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, and AstraZeneca before leaving science to pursue his dream career in games journalism at the start of 2023. He loves MMOs, RPGs, TCGs, and pretty much every game by FromSoftware—especially Dark Souls.