Netherwing Reputation Guide — Every Step to Your Nether Drake

Netherwing opens with Phase 3, and it's the only path to the six Netherwing Drake mounts in The Burning Crusade.

It's also one of the longest reputation grinds in the game — 17 days minimum if you do every daily and never touch an egg. Egg farming is what cuts that number down, and understanding the maths before you start is the difference between a two-week project and a five-week one.

This guide covers the riding requirements that gate the whole thing, the full daily progression, realistic timelines, and where to actually find eggs.

Quick Facts

The Riding Requirements — Read This First

There are two separate riding gates, and confusing them costs people a lot of wasted time.

To reach Netherwing Ledge and get to Neutral: level 70 and Expert Riding — a standard 60% flying mount. Any flying mount gets you onto the ledge and through the entire opening questline.

To progress beyond Neutral: Artisan Riding — 280% epic flying. This is not optional. Every quest after the opening chain is locked behind it.

What this means practically: you can complete the intro questline and reach Neutral standing with a basic flying mount, but you will hit a hard wall there. If epic flying isn't trained, the entire daily quest system — and therefore the entire reputation grind — is closed to you.

If you're planning to farm Netherwing at Phase 3 launch, epic flying is a prerequisite, not a nice-to-have. Budget for it before you start.

Getting Started — The Free 42,000 Reputation

The opening chain begins with Mordenai at the Netherwing Fields, /way 60 59. He wanders around the western section of the fields, so give it a moment if he isn't at the exact coordinates.

The chain runs:

1. Kindness

2. Seek Out Neltharaku

3. Neltharaku's Tale

4. Infiltrating Dragonmaw Fortress

5. To Netherwing Ledge!

6. The Force of Neltharaku

7. Karynaku

8. Zuluhed the Whacked

9. Ally of the Netherwing

The last quest awards 42,000 reputation in a single turn-in. That takes you from Hated all the way to Neutral in one step — the entire negative reputation range cleared by finishing the story.

Nothing before it awards any reputation at all, which trips people up. Don't abandon the chain thinking it isn't working. The payoff is entirely at the end.

Note for anyone with a rep bonus: the 42,000 gets multiplied by percentage reputation buffs. With a human's racial and a guild perk both active, that single quest pushes you meaningfully into Friendly rather than depositing you at 0/3000 Neutral.

Daily Progression by Standing

Your daily reputation income scales as your standing rises. Here's what each tier unlocks.

Neutral — 4 Dailies

Complete a short chain from Mordenai (Blood Oath of the Netherwing through Your Friend On The Inside) to open the first daily set.

The gathering daily: three variants exist — Nethercite Ore (Mining), Netherdust Pollen (Herbalism), Nethermine Flayer Hide (Skinning). You can only complete one per day regardless of how many gathering professions you have. Having two doesn't double your income.

Daily total: 1,000 with a gathering profession, 750 without.

Friendly — 7 Dailies

New quests from Taskmaster Varkule Dragonbreath on Netherwing Ledge, /way 66.0 86.4.

One-time chain: Rise, Overseer! (250), The Netherwing Mines (75), Crazed and Confused (350), Overseeing and You: Making the Right Choices (250).

A hidden one-time bonus: loot Murkblood Escape Plans from a Sludge-covered Object, dropped by Black Blood of Draenor. This opens two one-time quests — The Great Murkblood Revolt (350) and Seeker of Truth (500). That's 850 reputation most players walk straight past.

Three new dailies unlock: Picking Up The Pieces (350), Dragons are the Least of Our Problems (350), The Booterang (350).

Daily total: 2,050 with gathering, 1,800 without.

Honored — 8 Dailies

A chain from Varkule opens the Dragonmaw races and one more daily.

One-time quests worth grabbing: Stand Tall, Captain! (500), The Soul Cannon of Reth'hedron (500),  Subdue the Subduer (500).

The Dragonmaw races are a substantial one-time reputation block: 350 + 350 + 500 + 500 + 500 + 1,000 = 3,200 reputation across six races. Do all of them.

New daily: Disrupting the Twilight Portal (500).

Daily total: 2,550 with gathering, 2,300 without.

Revered — 9 Dailies

Another Varkule chain, this time split by your Shattrath allegiance — Aldor and Scryers get different versions. You'll need to have declared a faction.

One-time: Hail, Commander!  (500), Kill Them All! (250).

New daily: The Deadliest Trap Ever Laid  (500).

Daily total: 3,050 with gathering, 2,800 without.

Exalted

Bow to the Highlord from Varkule leads to Lord Illidan Stormrage and a meeting with Illidan himself. The chain ends in Shattrath City with your choice of drake.

One practical warning: the final flight sequence is extremely long and you cannot dismount. Don't start it five minutes before your raid invite goes out.

Realistic Timelines

Here's what the grind actually looks like from Neutral to Exalted, doing every available daily.

The takeaway: dailies alone are a two-and-a-half week commitment. Even modest egg farming — three or four a day, which is roughly the incidental rate while doing your dailies — cuts a full week off.

Beyond about seven eggs per day the returns flatten hard. Going from 7 to 13 eggs daily saves one additional day for nearly double the farming. Find your comfortable rate and stop optimising past it.

Netherwing Eggs — The Real Accelerator

Your first egg turn-in awards 350 reputation. Every subsequent turn-in awards 250, repeatable with no limit.

Where Eggs Come From

• Ground spawn nodes across Netherwing Ledge and Dragonmaw Fortress — the primary source

• Mob drops from enemies in the area

• Nethercite Deposit — 4% chance, requires Mining

• Netherdust Bush — 2% chance, requires Herbalism

The Efficient Route

The three productive zones aren't equal. A solid run splits roughly as:

• The Netherwing Mines — the densest area, usually the largest share of a run

• Netherwing Ledge surface — good spawn density, fast to cover mounted

• Dragonmaw Fortress — smaller but worth including on the way through

A focused twenty-minute circuit hitting all three can produce around a dozen eggs on a quiet server. Expect considerably fewer at peak hours on a high-population realm — Phase 3 launch week in particular will be crowded, and layer hopping is worth trying if your realm supports it.

Timing tip: run your egg circuit shortly before the daily reset. You collect eggs on the old day and turn them in alongside fresh dailies on the new one.

Speed Optimisations

Human characters gain 10% extra reputation from their racial. Over a 17-day grind that's roughly three days saved.

Guild reputation perks stack with the racial for a combined 20% bonus. If you have a choice of character for this grind, a human in a guild with the reputation perk is meaningfully faster.

Percentage bonuses apply to the 42,000 opening quest, which makes them more valuable than they look at first glance.

Avoid running this during Midsummer Fire Festival. Bonfire buffs remove the Dragonmaw illusion — the effect that makes the NPCs friendly to you. Without it you can't interact with eggs or herb nodes, and the peon quest becomes impossible. Flying out of the area and back restores it, but that's a lot of wasted time when you're deep in the mines.

Prepare These Before You Start

Epic flying (Artisan Riding). Non-negotiable past Neutral. Have the gold ready.

Materials for The Soul Cannon of Reth'hedron — this Honored-standing quest requires 2 Felsteel Bars, 1 Adamantite Frame, and 1 Khorium Power Core. Buy or craft these in advance so the quest doesn't stall your progression for a day while you shop.

Pick your Shattrath faction. The Revered chain splits by Aldor or Scryers allegiance. If you haven't declared, do it before you get there.

The Grind Pays for Itself

A full set of nine dailies at Revered standing awards roughly 48 gold per day — seven quests at 4.40g each and two at 8.80g.

The one-time story quests across the entire chain total around 148 gold.

That doesn't make Netherwing the best gold farm in the game, but over a two-week grind it substantially offsets what you spent on epic flying. If you're weighing whether the riding investment is worth it, factor that in.

The Rewards

Netherwing has no quartermaster and no gear vendor. The reputation exists for one purpose: the drakes.

At Exalted, the final quest chain lets you choose one of six:

The other five can be purchased from Drake Dealer Hurlunk at Dragonmaw Base Camp once you're Exalted. You're not locked to a single colour forever — just to one free one.

Common Problems

"I finished eight quests and got no reputation." That's correct. The entire opening chain awards nothing until Ally of the Netherwing, which pays 42,000 at once.

"I can't get any quests past Neutral." You need Artisan Riding — 280% epic flying. Expert Riding gets you to the ledge and no further.

"I can't attack netherdrakes for a Netherstorm quest." Reaching Neutral with Netherwing makes their drakes non-hostile, which blocks Getting Down to Business and Securing the Celestial Ridge in Netherstorm. Declare war on the faction in your Reputation tab to fix it — your standing will not drop below zero from those kills, so you lose nothing.

"I have Mining and Herbalism but only get one gathering daily." Working as intended. One per day regardless of profession count.

"The final flight takes forever." It does, and you can't dismount. Plan around it.