Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent
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Look it up on WowheadHow to get it
Guaranteed from Alani the Stormborn, a rare cloud serpent that circles high over the Vale of Eternal Blossoms behind a shield, Nimbus Shroud. Ten Skyshards, a very rare drop from the creatures of the Vale, combine into a Sky Crystal; using the crystal on Alani breaks the shield and gives the reins to whoever used it.
Time there about 30 min a visit
Guide Wowhead: Through the Years: A Guide to Notable Open-World Rare Mounts
Before you go
- 10 Skyshards for one Sky Crystal: a drop of about 1 in 1,000 from any creature in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, with a small chance from Ancient Guo-Lai Caches too. Skyshards are shared across the Warband; the Sky Crystal is bound to the character that makes it · about 10 h
In all: about 10 h of play, starting from nothing.
Getting there
/way Vale of Eternal Blossoms 43.6 43.8 - Take the portal from Wizard's Sanctum to Jade Forest*
- Fly the rest of the way
- Take the portal from Pathfinder's Den to Jade Forest*
- Fly the rest of the way
/way is for the TomTom addon. Travel times are estimates: flying at 55 yards a second in a straight
line and 30 seconds for a portal. A star marks a portal that needs a quest or other unlock done first.
Notes and sources
No fight is needed any more: the crystal's beam gives the reins and Alani flies off (Wowhead guide; comments of 2019 and 2020). Since patch 8.1 there is one mount for each crystal (comments of 2018), and it goes to the player who used the crystal (Wowhead guide). Wowhead records the reins in 954 of 954 loots of Alani (read 2026).
Alani patrols for 30 to 40 minutes, despawns and usually returns within the hour (Wowhead guide); wow.gg's Russian guide says about 12 hours instead. The time on the spot is an estimate for finding her. The place given above is one point on her patrol: Wowhead's tooltip records her all over the zone, and commenters use the crystal from a peak she passes.
A known bug has her appear without Nimbus Shroud; the guide says to wait for an Alani that has it before using the crystal.
Which Vale: Wowhead's guide says Alani and the Skyshards are in both the original Vale and the Battle for Azeroth one, while a 2020 commenter found her only after having Zidormi (Vale 81.2, 29.7) turn the zone back.
Farming spots players name are the Guo-Lai Halls and the Ruins of Guo-Lai in the north-west, where the mogu also drop the cache keys, and Mistfall Village in the south. Combine the shards on the character that will use the crystal: the crystal itself is soulbound (comments of 2020 and 2022).
Cloud Serpent Riding has not been needed since patch 6.0.2 (wiki), though the mount's own tooltip text still names it. The reins are Bind on Equip (Wowhead guide) and also turn up in Unclaimed Black Market Containers (Wowhead: 2 in 405). During WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria in 2024 a second item for the same mount (224374) was sold for Bronze, 38,500 by a comment from that time; that ended with the event.
Confidence in this entry: medium. Looked up in 2026.
Sources