Where To Find A Maw-Worthy Mount

The Maw is the deadliest and most forbidding of all Shadowlands realms. It poses unique challenges before the heroes who dare to travel its infernal landscape. Friendly sanctuaries are far and few between, while the rest of its expanse teems with angry spirits and bloodthirsty monsters. In some places, the land itself will work against the intrepid explorers, weakening them with debilitating effects. Worse, their presence will draw the baleful gaze of the Eye of the Jailer, the realm’s grim ruler (and the ultimate villain of the expansion). This unique mechanic means that characters visiting the zone will face increasing peril the longer they stay there, ranging from aerial bombardments and monster attacks to an unstoppable life-draining power used by the Jailer himself.

Reasons to do activities in the Maw

There are good reasons to venture into this dark realm, including story quests, perilous but rewarding endgame content like Torghast, Tower of the Damned, and the opportunity to collect Stygia and build a reputation with the local vendor Ve’nari. However, if you do decide to go there, you will clearly want to travel as quickly as possible. This is where another unprecedented hazard of the Maw makes itself felt: almost none of the riding options in the game are up to the task of traversing its treacherous terrain. Natural animals, supernatural creatures, and ingenious machines alike will fail to work, as will most personal speed-boosting items. Slowness may mean death, but for the most part, characters will need to rely on their own natural speed and planning to get around in this harsh zone.

It makes sense that the Mounts that could get you through the Maw would be especially prized. As of this writing, the only Mounts up to this task are this hellish plane’s native shadehounds, normally employed to hunt the Jailer’s enemies and souls trying to escape their torment. Unsurprisingly, those sinister magical creatures have no difficulty navigating this domain, but for the most part, they appear as enemies.

Where to find a mount

There are several methods of making one of those monsters work for you. The easiest method is to kill one of the Mawsworn Outriders that patrol the zone, granting you access to a Bridled Shadehound. Several people can benefit from this stolen mount at a time, but it will only tolerate its new riders for a minute before escaping.

If you want a permanent ride, your best bet might be to seek shadehounds in the Beastwarrens that serve as their home. Gaining access to this area of the Maw requires earning an Ambivalent standing with Ve’nari and completing the quest unlocked at this relationship level. After that, you will be able to take part in the bi-weekly Hunt: Shadehounds event in the Beastwarrens’ Prodigum. Defeating the Gorged Shadehound has the chance of spawning the Mawsworn Soulhunter, a permanent Mount capable of taking you through the Maw.

Alternately, you may wish to seek shade round Mount in Torghast, Tower of the Damned. This option might be more reliable than a random drop, assuming you possess the skills and allies needed to take on The Twisting Corridors in the Eighth Layer. However, this difficult five-player, 18-floor raid challenge can take many hours to complete even under the best of circumstances, so it is not guaranteed to be a faster option. Still, if you manage to complete it, you will receive the Corridor Creeper, a local shade round variant that is just as good at transporting riders through the Jailer’s domain as its Beastwarrens kin.

Future updates may add other Maw-capable Mounts to the game, but for the moment, those hard-to-get armored monstrosities remain the only options. Still, there is something to be said for turning your enemy’s tools against him, and the relief from trying to tear through the Maw on foot may be well worth the effort.