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Comment by molarm

Attacking the Highwind Albatross will make it pick you up. If you do not attack it again after this, it will go back to its path of flying high above the Timeless Isle, over hard to reach areas of the Isle like Ruby Lake or plateaus that sometimes hold Sturdy Chests, eggs, etc. When you want to land somewhere or be dropped off, that is the point at which you should begin attacking the albatross again.

Since you might be high up after attacking the albatross, or where the albatross might drop you off might be high up in the air, I might suggest stocking up on Noggenfogger Elixir, being a mage (Slow Fall), a priest (Levitate), a warlock (Demonic Leap plus Glyph of Falling Meteor), a rogue (Safe Fall and Glyph of Safe Fall), a paladin (Glyph of the Falling Avenger or Divine Shield), a death knight (Glyph of Path of Frost), a warrior (Heroic Leap before you hit the ground, or Charging an enemy where you are falling to) or being a pandaren (Bouncy), or some other way of mitigating falling damage.

Also, be aware that flying through the Celestial Court can sometimes be dangerous, especially if the world bosses have been engaged in combat, as the AoE attacks of the August Celestials reach far up into the air, and can kill you. Have fun flying Albatross Airlines!

Comment by EiaOakley

It should be noted for hunters that for hunters (at least on the PTR) if you are in flight and attack erroneously you can Feign Death and the bird will go back to flying around the isle.

Comment by Lycaon

A nice spot to catch one of these guys is right at the top of the stairs to the Celestial Court. Wait for the one that is pathing south. He should fly plenty low enough to hit him (once!). Hitting him again will cause him to drop down to "you won't die if you fall from here" height and he'll begin attacking you. Once you kill him, you'll fall to the ground and take minimal fall damage (in my single experience, anyhow. I await to be proven wrong, as Murphy's Law demands).

If you face east directly looking out over the Court, you'll see the bird come in from the upper right. He will path RIGHT above the serpent statue. At that point you have about 10 seconds while he is in range. On my second attempt, I noticed that this npc only swoops down into range for a short time before ascending again. Be quick about smacking him, it's an annoying wait waiting for him to path around again ><

Comment by 18349

If you happen to have your legendary cloak or some other item that is going to proc damage, you ought to bag it first. If you get a proc off of your initial attack, you'll need to wait for another albatross to come around. Depending how congested the area is, another chance may take a while as other players tagging the same albatross will prevent it from flying away with you. Save yourself the hassle if you can!

Comment by churlish

If you're a feral druid and get stuck out of shapeshift, like I did, you can use Might of Ursoc or Stampeding Roar to get into bear form.

Dash should work for cat form as well (I didn't try that one).

Comment by Taliesen

These birds fly pretty slowly, but luckily you can use profession skills while being carried by them. No better time to mill herbs or make potions!

Comment by Dragomir

A guildie alerted me that the best spot to find one is on the north shore of Mossgreen Lake. Worked well.

Comment by Furydeath

too bad NO ONE know what you are doing with this and seems to ALWAYS kill it. Really wish they would just fly faster.

Comment by Auraia

Fun fact: The Highwind Albratross spawns where the sturdy crate is on top of the hill just north of the Alliance fp. Nearly scared the pants off me when it happened. Coords: 26,64. Not a useful tip, really, I just thought it was interesting. :)

Comment by Yutto

This is the single most ridiculous form of transport ever implemented.

Blizzard, why on Earth did you ever let them be attackable by other players once they had someone in their beak?

WHY?

It's a griefers wet dream! Who thought this would be a good idea!

Comment by heartcrash

ive been searching for about a half hour and cant find a spot where they fly low enough to attack them. does anyone have any coords they could share?

Comment by xoddie

In order for the Albatross to pick you up, you need to actually do some damage to it. Taunting does not make it pick you up. It will start to pick you up and then just drop you back on the ground.

While flying with the Albatross, any ability which normally removes you from combat will work to make the bird stop attacking you and continue on its path. This is very handy if you are in mid-flight and accidentally hit the bird or if you attacked on purpose and then decided you have chosen a poor spot to land. You can drop combat and let it continue flying to a better spot.

Comment by 1096577

If you're a paladin don't keep seal of truth up when you tag the mob, the dot will cause your albatross to stop and attack you as soon as it picks you up.

Comment by Mormolyce

I've had more luck catching them from the plateau just before the broken bridge to Ordos. There's often one flying below your level, I jump into the air and shadowstep to it, quick attack before I fall to my doom and voila. Might be easier on a ranged class.

Comment by Jubyleee

If you attack a bird that is already carrying someone and wish to drop aggro, the fastest way is to just log out and log back in.

Comment by Coztume

They no longer seem to stop when other people attack them, get your chests now without getting frustrated!

Comment by perculia

Hotfixed to be less annoying:

Highwind Albatross already carrying a player will no longer have its flight path interrupted when attacked by other players. Players who have been picked up by an Albatross can still interrupt its flight by attacking it.

Comment by Cymre

The Highwind Albatross can help you access areas on the Timeless Isle (a no-fly zone) otherwise inaccessible to players. All you need to do is get in range of one of the birds and hit it (flay, shoot, etc). Use any ability you have to drop threat (Spectral Guise) and take off your legendary DPS cloaks. The bird will pick you up and carry you around until you reach your destination. As soon as you are above the drop point, DPS it until it's dead. Once you've completed your objective, you can usually wait until another albatross comes along and continue your path (provided you're still in range of one).

Three pick-up locations may be found at:

the path which leads to the Celestial Court (where this video begins)
the grassy area between Mossgreen Lake and Red Stone Run
and at the top of the Blazing Way (close to the Gleaming Crane Statue).

Watch the video to see the entire flight path.

Four reasons to use the albatross:

Ruby Lake - the location of Garnia - a rare spawn who drops the Ruby Droplet pet
Skywisp Moth - battle pet found on the high peaks
Sturdy Chest - found on a couple of high peak areas
Scenic flight of the entire isle

~~Be aware that if a bird is carrying a passenger, it can still be attacked by other people.~~

Hotfix (13/09/13): Highwind Albatross already carrying a player will no longer have its flight path interrupted when attacked by other players. Players who have been picked up by an Albatross can still interrupt its flight by attacking it.

Comment by datundra

Not sure if it's intended or a bug, BUT, it's best to get your bird down low in health "BEFORE" you get to your landing spot... Today is really bad, I'm not lagging or anything but 3 times now it stops when I start to attack, but a few seconds later it starts flying again... I know my dps is not the best in the world so it takes me some time.... I got it down to about 10% or lower and it works fine.. Also, AOE's will make another bird mad and swoop you up if you attack when it's in range.

Comment by InDimLight

One of the closest locations:
The Highwind Albatross starts to become targetable at exactly 37,57 inside the celestial court (in-line with NPC Galu Wellspring) giving you a 1.5 yard advantage to make a ranged hit before the players located at the stairs can.

Comment by Silversage05

Somebody really needs to reward this taxi service with Breaking the Sound Barrier.
But for now Slow and Steady is the way to go...

Comment by Eruionmel

If you are a DK trying to catch one of these when you're at the red lake, you'll need to take the Death Siphon talent. It is the only DK ability with a 40yd range, and you must have 40yd in order to reach them from the ledge. Even jumping off the edge to get closer doesn't get you within 30yds. Death Siphon allows you to just stand there and pop it as soon as they're in range, no jumping required at all.

Comment by Driva

It's possible to make a death defying jump from a high peak towards an albatross, unfold your Golden Glider, throw an axe at the bird at the last second of it being within your grasp, having it grabbing you as you're halfway falling towards a squishy demise, and thus narrowly avoiding an untimely end. Just saying.

Comment by ratspootin

It's important to note that attacking the bird does not drop you, killing it does, so get it's health down while you're sightseeing the island.

Also, from what I've experienced, you can't catch it while you're mounted.

Comment by OldWolf2

Around 50,57 is also a fairly nice place to catch them. They come down low and if a bird wasn't on 100% it probalby didn't make it this far

Comment by Fonjask

Fastest way to get on one seems to be to be at 47.14, 49.32. It drops below 40yards above the ground then.

Comment by Slyre

Beware, @#$%^&*s will grief and kill your taxi.

Comment by IAmTarly

Here is what worked for me....make the following macro:

/target Highwind Albatross

/cast (what ever single hit spell you have)

makes it like 1000x easier

Comment by anhsieh

If you attack another Highwind Albatross while you're already being carried by a Highwind Albatross, you'll get tossed to the other one. If you use a DoT, like Moonfire, you'll get tossed back and forth in some pretty great hijinks.

Comment by Amogo

To be picked up by one of these albatrosses you have to attack it once!

The second time you attack it will throw you off, so dont do it until you are there you will land, you would also want to land softly.

So you should go and buy Golden Glider unless your class has any spells who makes you to land softly
(ex. Slow Fall)

An easy way to find the Albatrosses:

Make this macro:
/target Highwind Albatross
/focus

The reason to use the focus is to see them at the Minimap!

Then you run around the Island like a crazy, spamming the macro until you find one who isn't taken.

Comment by datgrl

Gnomes and Goblins, the best spot is the Celestial Court walkway. I spent a lot of time trying other places and this was the only one that worked for me.

Comment by shadowblade457

Is it just me or do these birds not want to drop you very easily anymore? They don't seem to drop down closer to the ground when you attack them the second time and even while attacking, they seem to start to fly again sometimes. It makes it harder to drop onto the the tops of the hills. Anyone else experiencing this?

Comment by 218218

Fun fact: When you're trying to kill one of these guys, if you use an AOE while another gull is passing by, he'll steal you from your first gull. So if you're doing something time-sensitive, be careful!

Comment by kryzflavored

Hunters, be aware--these birds will sometimes grab pets that attack, leaving you still on the ground.
Submitted a screenshot of said pet-napping.

Comment by Qarthos

Anyone else seeing the One Piece reference in this?

Like the second or third episode, Zorro and Luffy out on a boat. Luffy gets hungry, slingshots himself to catch a bird, find out it was much bigger than he expected. Just kinda freezes awkwardly flying through the air for miles, held on by his head in the bird's mouth.

Comment by mtmeade3

The Absolute Easiest place to hitch a ride on these birds is to stand on the North Shore of Mossgreen Lake, right next to the very large rock grouping that is right on the edge of the lake next to the big tree. I believe this to be the best spot because this is where they do their little turn about in their flight pattern so they stay in this area a bit longer than any other and fly a bit lower. There also seems to be no shortage to the amount of birds flying over this area. I never had to wait long for one to fly by and it only ever took ONE shot to get picked up. I un-target it after the first shot so I don't keep hitting it with my auto attack. I learned this by unfortunately killing the first one I tried to hitch a ride on, :(((

Once you are in flight, I found it quite easy to kill my bird over a sturdy chest atop a high pillar of land, loot the chest, and shoot the next bird flying by to continue on my way flying around the island. I did this several times to loot chests and then finally dropped down where the quivering firestorm eggs were near the crimsonscale serpents. I was a bit disappointed to find that these did not give you the actual egg but were only lootable just like a chest and gave you coins as opposed to the actual egg. However, this is the way it goes I suppose. Just wish I hadn't taken a second tour around the entire island to have to find it out, hahaha!

Anyway, even if you just want to take a scenic ride around the island, everyone should take at least one flight tour on these fantastic modes of transport! Have Fun and thank you for flying Albatross Airlines :)))

Comment by 786963

My warrior only has one ranged attack...and apparently it is not enough to get the bird to bite. And it has a long leadtime. Guess it's time to get a cycle.

Comment by 1219230

Just so you know if you have some sort of pet you need to put it on passive. I've used these birds several times without a hitch but the last time i tried my pet managed to hit it first (still not sure how) and the bird carried my pet away :(

Comment by Amitur

If you exit (assuming logout and crash apply too) while you're riding, you'll log back in falling to your death.

Comment by smashmykeyboard

When you just can't shake the heavy weight of living...

Comment by bartsachs

I discovered a funny trick with this guys. You can actually use these birds as a way to avoid ground attacks. I once kited a High Priest of Ordos to one of these birds and aggroed on it by accident. By picking me up, it actually prevented me from getting hit by every spell from the priest but at the same time also prevented the priest from escaping. By conveniently poking the albatross every once in awhile to prevent him from flying me away, I actually managed to take down the priest without getting hit by any of his spells.

This trick probably only works if you're ranged.

Comment by Cerebulon

Whatever you do, don't kill it with a multi-target spell and end up stuck on another full health bird. Not that I'd know...

Comment by MinisterJames

If you cast demonic leap while you have falling meteor and being carried by a Highwind Ablatross, demonic leap will do nothing and you will still be able to attack the bird, but falling meteor will activate when the bird dies and you fall.

Comment by Briandris

These birds should despawn if they are abandoned. Or at least reset after 30 secs or so. I've been sitting at the courtyard for 10 mins now waiting for one that hasn't been tagged to come along. They are all half dead and won't pick me up:(

Comment by 195601

These guys have been hit hard with the stat squish. As a Balance Druid, my moonfire's DOT killed it by accident.

So beware!

Comment by Baqra

I had trouble as a lvl 100 Feral Druid, because my Moonfire (Lunar Inspiration) killed it before I got anywhere. So I tried Soothe (has a 40y range), which worked perfectly! It makes the albatross pick you up, but the birdy doesn't take any damage. Hope this helps some of you :)

Comment by wisedada

Reminds me Wilbur the Albatross from Bianca and Bernie, since like those two mices, we use an albatross as a taxi :)

Comment by geekygirlish

Did they nerf the path these birds now take to get past the trick of being dropped in Ordon Sanctuary? I got a ticket to ride on two of them and besides being the slowest mount ever, it just took a useless circuit and returned to pick up point. Am trying to finish off the rares on TI and don't have the cloak to jump across the bridge.

And yes be careful at high lvls now you don't kill it. I dotted it with my warlock, but forgot to tell Voidy to heel. Voidy SMASH.

Comment by Jaebn

As of 7.0.3, I can't get off one while playing an Enhancement Shaman. None of my attacks work while on them.

Comment by braxynglet

These new changes to retribution is fun. Realized when i was just above Garnia that i couldnt hit the albatross cause i needed to be facing it, which i actually did. Resulted in not being able to get off the albatross. The only spells that can actually hit the albatross for rets now are aoe talents, gg.

Comment by 1188522

Use a Red Rider Air Rifle to call your taxi without killing it.

Comment by HubrisPanther

Did they change this because whatever I do I can't get off this bird :(

Comment by Duxjan

As of Legion it's pretty easy to get up there without the birds.

Buy a Goblin Glider Kit from the Auction House.

Run up the the road (Blazing Way) all up to the Crane statue. (it's right after you cross the bridge on left hand side).
Click the statue.
You will get an option to "touch the statue".
After been shot into mid-air, clear the buff by right clickin it.

EDIT: You have to clear the buff, otherwise your glider will be slowed down and you won't make it to the top of the hill!

Immediately after clearing the buff deploy your Goblin Glider Kit and glide to the Ruby Lake on top of the mountain (North East).

Don't make the same mistake I made: complete the 2nd clue quest first! Rolo's Riddle
If you don't, the treasure will not unlock.

Happy flying!

Comment by VoixMortelle

For disc/holy priests, Dispel Magic works to pull the bird without one-shotting it.

Comment by Rethilgoreau

If you are 110 and trying to get on one of these without killing them taunt works and they will come pick you up.

Comment by jovven

These birds never land. Look for them in the air, not on the ground, and use a low damage weapon to hit them.

Comment by cxarli

Molarm and Cymre have most of the answers. (Kudos) I will add that since we are now up to Level 120 and easily one-shotting 90 Elites, you'll want a low-to-no power method of getting the Highwind Albatross's attention. Druids in Bear Form can use Growl and Warriors can use Taunt. Any other Taunt-like ability - or for mages and warlocks, a wand - is great. And you can use it again to get the bird to drop you.

One bit of advice is to change your camera view to first-person and tilt it to be looking straight down. This will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes where you fall to your doom 2 yards short of the pillar with the chest or battle pet you were going for.

If you have Wisdom of the Four Winds, and a Goblin Glider Kit, you can swim or raft out to the "Fatigue" zone offshore, get on a flying mount, and you'll have ample time to get lots of altitude before flying back over the Isle. Have your finger or mouse over the glider and hit it as soon as your mount disappears. You should be able to reach any point on the Isle if you get enough altitude before flying back on shore.

Comment by Lyssandria

As a priest in BFA, any of my spells would one-shot this bird and we obviously don't have taunt. However, using dispel magic on the bird created aggro and it picked me up. Hope this helps any other over-levelled priests out there who want to get to Garnia or other hard to reach places on the Timeless Isles :)

Comment by Hallheal

For Hunters BM at least use scare beast

Comment by UnciaAmethice

For classes that don't have scare beast, targeted dispels or other non-damage aggro abilities (like rogue), you can use the fruit basket toy to pull these without one shotting them.

Comment by yvesicle

I used the bird as a BM Hunter to get to the sturdy chests on top of the mountains. I unequipped my bow, dismissed my pets and used Tranquilizing Shot once it was in range, he picked me up and flew me to where I needed to be, when I was hovering over the chest I used Relic of the Frozen Wastes trinket. It killed the bird and dropped me directly on the treasure, I used Soul Shape (NF Covenant ability) to hit the ground without taking damage. Hang around for the next bird where you landed and repeat.

Comment by Smokingwolf

I was having a really hard time to find any coords to even interact with him. I finally found a place where I could taunt him as a warrior - 42: 54, just left from the lake.

Comment by Britalje

Confirmed at march 19th 2024! You can travel with the Highwind Albatross by using the Fruit Basket toy.

Fruit Basket link: https://www.cuckhead.com/item=119083/fruit-basket

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Highwind Albatross

This NPC can be found in Timeless Isle (181).

Guides

Rolo's Riddle, a Guide for the whole Questline and Achievement. Secrets of Pandaria Wowhead's 5.4 Battle Pet Guide Wowhead's Guide to the Timeless Isle

Highwind Albatross

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