Vial of the Sands

Thortok's guide to getting a Vial of the Sands!

Sandstone Drake. Two passenger flying mount. You actually transform into a dragon that has nobody sitting on your back, and can fly around that way or offer someone in your group a ride on your back. Don't have to be an Alchemist to become a dragon. Do have to be an Alchemist (and an Archaeologist) to make a vial. Don't have to own one to ride on someone else. Gives an achievement to have it: Vial of the Sands.

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2. (Alchemists Only) Get to (at least) 450 Archaeology, and 525 Alchemy.
3. 
   
4. (Alchemists Only) Continue to do Archaelogy on the Kalimdor continent, specifically Tol'vir digsites if possible, until you get Canopic Jar. Good luck!
5. 
   
6. (Alchemists Only) Open your [item=64657] and hope it contains a [item=67538], and if so, then learn it. Good luck! Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as necessary. While it is possible for the recipe to appear even if you are not yet at 525 Alchemy, it will only appear to Alchemists of a certain level of skill; so I recommend staying on the safe side and getting to 525 Alchemy first. You'll need it anyway to actually learn the recipe!
7. 
   
8. Gather 12x Truegold, 8x Flask of the Winds, 8x Flask of Titanic Strength, and 8x Deepstone Oil. Hopefully you can figure out how to do this on your own.
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10. Save up 29000 gold or the following items: Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial will cost 5000 gold. 8x Sands of Time will cost 3000 gold each for a total of 24000 gold. These mats can only be bought from [npc=49406] in the far northwest of Uldum. Finding any of these mats for cheaper than the listed price on the Auction House is unlikely, but possible*, so make sure you check because it could save you money. Obviously, don't buy them for more than the listed price. Duh.
11. 
    
12. The mats from Steps 4 and 5 will be used to make the vial. If you are not an Alchemist, you will need to find one that has completed Step 3 and you'll have to give them the mats to make it.**
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*The mats in Step 5 are bought from a vendor so the guild perk [spell=83964] can be used for a discount. No other forms of discounts are currently known. If you do not have this perk, you can check the Auction House to see if someone who does is selling at a discount. Since it could potentially save you money, why not check?

**Make sure you protect yourself! If you get scammed, GM's can and will take action to get your gold and/or mats back, just open a ticket. In order for them to confirm it was a scam, make sure the entire transaction is negotiated using in-game text chat so the GM can read the chat log and confirm that you have been scammed. (Hopefully this won't happen anyway, but 29k+ in mats is a respectable chunk of money, so make sure to cover your bases.) This 'scam protection' is provided for all forms of scams, including the 'give you the mats to make an item and you keep them and give me nothing' scam, as scamming is against the ToS!

I recommend, for Alchemists making this for yourself, after you make your first one, check your realm to see if there's anyone willing to buy this for extremely high prices (like, 60k or higher, perhaps even 80k). If you get enough profit, make another one and attempt to sell it. Keep going until you don't get any buyers for awhile, making and selling one by one, and then if you go a long time and can't sell your current one for a profit, THEN learn it yourself.

Depends on if they are an ass.

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• I reckon crafting fees to be around 500-1500g nowadays. Provided that the customer provides all materials.
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• There is no cooldown when creating the vials. You can spam your gold away!
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• I can confirm that with [spell=83964] and Best Deals Anywhere the vendor materials cost 16800 + 3500 = 20300g. (Patch 4.1).
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• Blizzard did not like the goblin racial affecting the price of this so they set the minimum price to: 21600 + 4500 = 26100g.
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• Putting the vendor materials on the AH/Neutral AH costs LOADS.
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• This is probably one of the best ways of transfering gold between servers.
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• As of 4.1 there is an achievement for obtaining and learning the dragon (Vial of the Sands). Keeping it in your inventory won't work.
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• [item=67538] for learning to create this mount this is thought to have around 9.5% drop chance from [item=64657] (Tol'vir Archeology) according to this wowhead survey. RNG is however RNG, and only RNGesus can control it.
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• Putting the finished mount on AH costs 7.5g per 24 hours.
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• The craft can NOT procc. It doesn't matter whether your elixir/potion/transmution. All alchemists with the required skill can learn and craft it.
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• As of 4.0.6 you can no longer use shapeshift items while in 'drake-form'.
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• To eject a passenger, use the following macro:
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/run EjectPassengerFromSeat(1)