After seeing a few hunters with Direhorns over the last couple of days, I was quite excited about adding one to my stable. The question was where to get one.

First, you have to head to the Isle of Bones, just above Kun-Lai Summit. You’ll have to fly over eel-infested waters, err… a short distance of fatigued water to find yourself on the shore of the Isle. If you head straight for the middle of the landmass, you’ll find two flights (one for each faction) giving you an easy way back if you need it.

Before you attempt to tame the first one you see, you’ll need to loot a tome from the Zandalari Dinomancers called the Ancient Tome of Dinomancy. These trolls can be killed fairly easily (even though they’re elite) but you’ll need an interrupt for their Dino-Mending ability which can last up to 30secs if not interrupted. They tend to cast this at least once, depending on your DPS. At 50% they transform into a direhorn but gain a buff increasing their damage by 50%. I managed to get the tome after only four kills but your mileage may vary.

As soon as I stepped onto the Isle, I noticed several different forms of Direbeasts which were very cool. In fact, I looted the tome from this very Dinomancer I was killing. The best part is, they are not exotic so you won’t need to be specced into BM to tame one but if you have more than one hunter, each one will need to farm a tome for themselves.

Before you decide on a direhorn to tame, why not ride around the isle to see all the different varieties before settling on colour and type? Just remember the level of the direhorn matters so don’t get any ideas about trying to tame the adults :)

On a side note, the Dinomancers drop four battle pets. I managed to get them all without having to do an excessive amount of farming so you may even walk away with extras.

  • Zandalari Anklerender: Has a pale aqua/blue body with dark slate blue blotches, a dark grey helm, white tusks and horns.
  • Zandalari Footslasher: Has a ruddy/rusty colour body with darker splotches and a gold helm with pale horns and tusks.
  • Zandalari Kneebiter: Has a smoky purple body with darker scales, a silver helm, white tusks and horns.
  • Zandalari Toenibbler: Has a white/cream body with a bronze/dusty pink helm, grey tusks and horns.

There’s also a faction-specific vendor who sells an Intact Direhorm Hide which can transform you into a direhorn for a short time. The illusion comes in various colours and may come in handy while manoeuvring around the island and although it’s fun to levitate across the water, I had trouble getting onto the ship in this form.

I settled on one of the first ones I saw as I liked the colour combo the most. I decided to stay on the Isle a bit longer to try out my new friend and to see if I could farm my last dino pet which I managed to do a few kills later. Next, it was a quick hearth back to mog my gear.