Challenge Mode Guide: Rewards, Narrated Videos, Rules, and Useful Items

By Wowhead Updated: 2013/02/16

Valor PointsRod of AmbershapingClick the cut to read the guide!Challenge Mode Overview

Challenge Modes are timed instance runs in which your gear is scaled down to ilvl 463. This ensures that running these instances will be challenging even in later tiers--you can't outgear it. In addition, the pulls are more complex than on Heroic mode, and mobs do much more damage.

There are three tiers of rewards: Gold, Silver, and Bronze, which are obtained based on how quickly you complete the zone. We've listed these rewards below, which include mounts, titles, teleports, and transmoggable armor with special effects.

Mechanisms have been added to prevent skipping trash, primarily a requirement that you kill a minimum number of trash mobs to complete the zone.

Challenge Modes are an efficient way to get Valor Points. There are daily challenge mode quests that reward between 60 and 80 Valor Points. This is on top of the additional amounts of Valor Points you get for completing a timed run: 5 Valor Points for Gold, 0 Valor Points for Silver, 5 Valor Points for Bronze.

Zones OverviewHamlethereGate of the Setting Sun Narrated VideoMogu'shan Palace Narrated VideoScarlet Halls Narrated VideoScarlet Monastery Narrated VideoScholomance Narrated VideoShado-Pan Narrated VideoSiege of Niuzao Narrated VideoStormstout Brewery Narrated VideoTemple of the Jade Serpent Narrated Video

Zone

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Blizzard Leaderboard

Gate of the Setting Sun

13:00

22:00

45:00

Leaderboard

Mogu'shan Palace

12:00

24:00

45:00

Leaderboard

Scarlet Halls

13:00

22:00

45:00

Leaderboard

Scarlet Monastery

13:00

22:00

45:00

Leaderboard

Scholomance

19:00

33:00

55:00

Leaderboard

Shado-Pan Monastery

21:00

35:00

1:00:00

Leaderboard

Siege of Niuzao Temple

17:30

30:00

50:00

Leaderboard

Stormstout Brewery

12:00

21:00

45:00

Leaderboard

Temple of the Jade Serpent

15:00

25:00

45:00

Leaderboard

RewardshereGold Reward: Transmog Gear

For completing Challenge Conqueror: Gold, you'll get a full eight-piece set of epic transmoggable gear.

These armor sets have unique visual procs when casting certain spells--we've included links to Blizzard's videos documenting these effects.

This gear is initially mailed upon completion of the achievement--if you've lost it, you can buy it back from Challenger Soong or Challenger Wuli.

Death KnightDruidHunterLich Lord PlateCycle ArmorHowling Beast SetDeath KnightDruidHunterNote: The Druid set in the Modelviewer displays neon green planes instead of the glowing set details.MageMonkPaladinPriestElemental Triad RegaliaRegal Lord ArmorHoly Warrior PlateLight RegaliaMageMonkPaladinPriestRogueShamanWarlockWarriorSilent Assassin ArmorWindfury SetBetrayer RegaliaGolden King PlateRogueShamanWarlockWarriorGold Reward: Teleport

When getting the Gold achievement for completing a particular instance, you will get a teleport spell to that dungeon. All teleport spells are on a shared 8 hour cooldown and reset when a Challenge Mode has been successfully completed.

The teleport rewards are pretty convenient with Have Group Will Travel gone. Here's a list below:

Path of the Black Ox

Siege of Niuzao Temple: Gold

Path of the Jade Serpent

Temple of the Jade Serpent: Gold

Path of the Mogu King

Mogu'shan Palace: Gold

Path of the Necromancer

Scholomance: Gold

Path of the Scarlet Blade

Scarlet Halls: Gold

Path of the Scarlet Mitre

Scarlet Monastery: Gold

Path of the Setting Sun

Gate of the Setting Sun: Gold

Path of the Shado-Pan

Shado-Pan Monastery: Gold

Path of the Stout Brew

Stormstout Brewery: Gold

Silver Reward: Mount

Challenge Conqueror: Silver rewards you with a Phoenix Mount.

Ancestral Phoenix Egg will be mailed to you. It is used to redeem one of the following mounts from Kai Featherfall.
Reins of the Ashen Pandaren Phoenix

Reins of the Emerald Pandaren Phoenix

Reins of the Violet Pandaren Phoenix

Reins of the Crimson Pandaren Phoenix

notBronze Reward: Title

Challenge Conqueror: Bronze rewards the title The Undaunted.

Gearing Rules

Any item above ilvl 463 are scaled down to ilvl 463; items that are 463 or below are not affected or scaled up.

Any trinket of ilvl 463 or higher is a valid choice because of the wide selection of unique procs, so you have a wide array of trinkets to consider compared to armor.

For specs with hit, you remain hit capped even in downgraded gear.

Tier set bonuses are not active, and neither are Sha-Touched Gems.

Stats from consumables, enchants, other gems, and profession bonuses are not reduced.

It is currently unknown how scaling effects on 5.2 legendary metagems will work.

Instance Rules

cannot be used in a Challenge Mode.

If you release, you get rezzed at the instance's entrance.

Unlike other dungeons, Challenge Modes can be reset as many times as you like (the group leader will have a special menu option that sends you back to the beginning, respawns the zone, and resets the timer). There is no hourly cap or daily lockout.

Bosses do not drop loot and gear does not take a durability loss.

You cannot swap party members without exiting and fully resetting the zone.

All class cooldowns longer than 3 minutes reset when you reset the zone, as well as item cooldowns like Lesser Invisibility Potion and Invisibility Potion. Ancient Hysteria does not reset though.

You can respec/reglyph during the run, as long as you're out of combat.

Useful ItemsInvisibility

Invisibility Potion:
Grants Invisibility for 18 seconds.

Can only be used out of combat.

Any action ends the invisibility, so make sure to use speed boosts like Stampeding Roar before activating your potion.

Usually used once per zone to skip the maximum allowed number of trash mobs.

If you have a Rogue, Shroud of Concealment can be used instead, which doesn't put your other potions on a long cooldown.

Reagents: Ghost Mushroom, Sungrass, Crystal Vial.

Lesser Invisibility Potion

This is the cheaper version of Invisibility Potion which is sometimes sufficient.

It is taught by Alchemy trainers at 165 skill.

Reagents: Fadeleaf, Wild Steelbloom, Crystal Vial

Invisibility Field

"Permanently attaches thousands of tiny mirrors to your belt, allowing you to attempt to turn invisible while out of combat."

Lasts 15 seconds, on a 3 minute cooldown.

Requires 450 Engineering to use. Reagents are Tinker's Kit.

In past expansions, it appears there was a chance for the invisibility to break early. This seems to have been removed in MoP.

Consider having this on an extra belt and Nitro Boosts on your main belt if an Engineer.

Stats

Drums of Forgotten Kings:
Gives all members of the raid or group the Blessing of Forgotten Kings, increasing Strength, Agility, and Intellect by 4% for 30 min.

Useful if you don't have a Druid, Monk, or Paladin in the group.

Any player can use the drums. It is crafted by Leatherworkers with at least 450 skill.

Reagents: 8x Heavy Borean Leather, 8x Icy Dragonscale.

Runescroll of Fortitude III

Increases Stamina by 8% for all party and raid members for 1 hour.

Reagents: 5x Light Parchment, 10x Ink of Dreams.

Any player can use the scrolls. It is crafted by scribes with at least 580 skill.

Useful if you don't have a Priest, Warlock, or Warrior.

Health/Mana

Restorative Amber:
Allows you to eat/drink twice as fast as regular food (the tooltip is incorrect).

Requires Honored with The Klaxxi to purchase.

Will not break if you are pulled into combat.

Stuns you when you use it, so you will need to click off buff to stand up.

Not usable in combat.

Golden Carp Consomme

If you are doing practice runs and want cheap food, this restores the most mana without overriding your stat food buffs.

It is now sold by many vendors in Patch 5.1.

Movement

Goblin Glider:
Permanently attaches a specialized folding assembly to a cloak, allowing you to deploy a goblin glider and fall slowly for 30 sec.

On a five minute cooldown, requires 500 Engineering to use.

Reagents: Tinker's Kit

Nitro Boosts

Greatly increases run speed for 5 seconds. Your runspeed is increased to 250%, which stacks multiplicatively with other runspeed talents.

Can be activated every 3 minutes and requires 400 Engineering to use.

Reagents: Tinker's Kit

Drums of Speed

Increases movement speed of nearby party members by 15%. Lasts 30 sec, 2 minute cooldown.

Requires Leatherworking 340 to use.

Recipe is obtained by reaching Honored with Kurenai or The Mag'har.

Materials are very easy to get: 6x Heavy Knothide Leather and 4x Wind Scales for 50 drum charges.

Crowd Control

Embersilk Net:
3 second root that also deals fire damage.

Can be used up to 35 yards away, on a 1 minute cooldown.

Requires Tailoring 425 to use, costs 6x Embersilk Cloth to make.

Rod of Ambershaping

CCs the target for one minute, or until damage is taken. 5 minute cooldown.

Dropped by Ski'thik, a rare in Kun-Lai Summit.

Combat

G91 Landshark:
Uncapped AoE of around 40,000 per target. 1 second cast, 1 minute cooldown. Usable by all players.

Schematic trained by Engineers at 525. Materials are 2x Ghost Iron Bolts and 2x High-Explosive Gunpowder

This is also commonly found in Blingtron 4000 Gift Package.

Nearly Full Vial of Polyformic Acid

Does additional damage against Darkmaster Gandling with the buff Polyformic Acid Potion.

Can be obtained during a normal-mode run of Scholomance.

After killing Professor Slate, all players can loot Empty Polyformic Acid Vial and fill it with the acid potion on the table.

Battle Horn

Lets you aggro everything in 40 yards easily, on a 2 minute cooldown.

This item is not a trinket--it does not need to be equipped to be used.

Drops from Blackhoof in Valley of the Four Winds.

Comments

Comment by 1120174

Very nice guide been wanting to do challenge mode for a long time but hard to find group. Really want the teleport spells

Comment by snippyk

Awesome guide :)

Comment by xinaro

Please note: G91 Landshark shares a cooldown with pots!

Comment by Elfeaterdk

I must say I find this guide much more thorough, though I do thank you very much for the Drums of Speed note which is missing in the other.

You have "updated" this for 5.4 according to the note, but if that is the case there are some items you have missed:

G91 Landshark
You have not put in that G91 Landshark counts as a potion like Xinaro wrote mid-summer - which means a clear dps loss to use (imo it shouldn't even be on a list for what you need for CM - unless to warn NOT to use it).
Metagems
It is no longer "currently unknown how scaling effects on 5.2 legendary metagems will work" - they are disabled and people should get hold of an old hat to stuff a normal meta in it, or they will basically run it without any meta-effect at all.
After that you should probably note that the legendary cloak effect is also disabled, but it remains a good cloak for CM's due to it having a socket.

Comment by 1064015

Great guide except that:

1. Goblin Glider is 3 minute cool down.

2. Nitro-boost is not 250% speed it is +150% of you current speed, for example if I use a speed up for +100% my speed will be 200% so it will be +300% so 500% speed!

Nitro boosts are awesome but unfortunately engi only :(

Comment by solitha

Need to update this guide to reflect the announced change to the Phoenix reward. That being, if you've earned one, when the CM season ends you will have all four, and they will be account-wide.

Comment by Sw1nk

Here's a spreadsheet that provides a list of gear that is believed to be BiS for Challlenge Mode content: World of Warcraft: Challenge Mode BiS List

It also has some valuable information about macros and WeakAuras in Challlenge Modes.

Tracking and taking advantage of trinket procs will help a lot for DPS classes. Here's a WeakAuras display that includes the trinket, enchant, and profession procs that I use for CMs. It should be easy enough to duplicate the icons I've made to add in any trinkets not already tracked.

Comment by 398394

Path of the... lands you in/at... in or near...

Black Ox Townlong: 36, 84 Isle of Thunder
MoP Valor/Justice QM
MoP Zandalari

Necromancer W Plaguelands: 70, 75

Scarlet Mitre/ Trisfal: 85, 30 Scarlet Monastery
Scarlet Blade

Setting Sun Vale: 16, 77 MoP Honor/Conquest QM

Mogu King Vale: 80, 34 MoP players' hubs
MoP Archaelogy QM

Shado-Pan Kun-lai: 37, 49

Stout Brew Valley: 36, 66 Halfhill Farms

Jade Serpent Jade Forest: 56, 58

Comment by kunglao

out of mana to quick on resto

Comment by dustcloud

If one earns Conqueror Silver or Gold, are the rewards for the lower achievements (Bronze and Silver, respectively) awarded automatically as well?

Challenge Mode Guide: Rewards, Narrated Videos, Rules, and Useful Items

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