Hydraxian Waterlords

The Hydraxian Waterlords (or the Warlords) are water elementals that made their home on the islands east of Azshara. They are sworn enemies of the armies of Ragnaros. Acting on rumors planted by Moira Thaurissan, they worked to banish Ragnaros back into the Elemental Plane, offering aid and rewards to anyone who would challenge the Firelord.

World of Warcraft
Adventurers heard about the Hydraxian Waterlords from the gossiping Grim Patrons in Blackrock Depths, some of them being worried that the water elementals could shift the balance of power in their struggle against the fire elementals.

Prior to patch 3.0.8, Duke Hydraxis offered quests leading players to the Molten Core including a questline to obtain Aqual Quintessence used to douse the runes found near most bosses in Molten Core. This was required to summon Majordomo Executus, the penultimate boss, and, after his defeat, to summon Ragnaros himself. Since there were seven runes, any raid needed at least seven players to bring a Quintessence if they wished to finish the instance. However, after the patch, Executus automatically spawns once the other bosses have been defeated.

Duke Hydraxis could once be found at the coordinates in Azshara. Despite his removal from the game, and thus the absence of any known Waterlords in the game world, the Hydraxian Waterlords still exist as a reputation faction.

Legion
During the Burning Legion's third invasion, the Waterlords were in Azsuna on the Broken Isles and sent for help to the shaman of the Earthen Ring at the Heart of Azeroth in the Maelstrom.

Aquelian Honor Guards accompanying Champion Aquaclease to the Broken Shore are members of this faction.

Battle for Azeroth
Duke Hydraxis, Champion Aquaclease and their Honor Guard are present in Nazjatar. Neptulon himself can't cross the waters and only observes them from behind.

Reputation
All of the bosses in MC reward reputation until Exalted. However, it takes only a few MC runs (or a dedicated afternoon of trash farming) to get to Honored. If you're working on your Hydraxian reputation by yourself, or are below level 70 and can't get a group together, you may prefer to start by grinding elementals in Silithus; getting from Neutral to 5,999 Friendly requires about 1,800 kills, and thus requires several hours, but it will reduce the number of weekly lockouts required. At level 85 it is also possible to do a "Trash Run" of Molten Core, killing as many of the trash mobs as possible without engaging the bosses; roughly 2,500 reputation can be gained from each trash run, and it takes about 20-30 minutes. If you didn't kill any of the bosses, you can then leave and reset the instance and do another trash run immediately. Thus you could possibly go from 0 Neutral to 11,999 Honored in about four hours.


 * Majordomo Executus within Molten Core is worth zero rep, but must be defeated to unlock Ragnaros.


 * Getting from Neutral to Exalted reputation will take 20-25 full clears of Molten Core, depending on reputation boosting items and abilities.
 * Until Revered, a full clear gives about 4,500 rep before perks, meaning five full clears are required to reach Revered.
 * Until Revered, a trash run gives about 2,500 rep before perks, meaning nine trash runs are required to reach Revered. However, a trash run does not save you to the instance, and you can do as many as you want each week.
 * Only Molten Core bosses give reputation through Revered, for a total of 1,050 reputation per week before perks. This means another 20 weeks of boss kills are needed to reach Exalted.
 * Once reaching Exalted, another 2-3 runs would be needed to reach 999/1000 Exalted, as only Ragnaros and Golemagg the Incinerator will continue to give reputation points.
 * Even though you can check "at war" with this faction, it is impossible to lose reputation with the Hydraxian Waterlords. Killing a Hydraxian Honor Guard will not result in any loss in reputation (nor any loot). The lowest possible reputation with the Hydraxian Waterlords is thus 0/3000 (Neutral).
 * As of Patch 3.0.8 returns are no longer diminished based on level and all bosses grant reputation through 20,999/21,000 Revered. Only Ragnaros and Golemagg grant reputation through Exalted.

Quests
Hydraxian Waterlords currently offer no quests. Before the Shattering, Duke Hydraxis provided a series of quests; the NPC and his quests have since been removed from the game. Players gained no reputation from turning in these quests, except A Hero's Reward. The purpose of these quests was to lead players to the raid instance itself, and to other activities that improved Hydraxian reputation.

Neutral - Friendly

 * Poisoned Water / Stormers and Rumblers
 * Eye of the Emberseer (quest)
 * The Molten Core (quest)

Friendly - Honored

 * Agent of Hydraxis

Honored - Revered

 * Hands of the Enemy
 * A Hero's Reward +500 rep.

Revered - Exalted

 * Once the player reached Revered, Duke Hydraxis offered a self-replenishing Aqual Quintessence to douse the runes of Molten Core. As stated above, seven players would need to use the Quintessence to unlock the last two bosses.  This is no longer necessary, as the final bosses now spawn once the first seven bosses have been defeated.  The Quintessence can no longer be obtained (see Patch 3.0.8 note below).

Exalted

 * The only reward for reaching is the Hydraxian Waterlords (achievement) achievement. Reputation can still be gained by killing the bosses in Molten Core.