Riding In Style: Now Even Cheaper!
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Amatera on Monday, September 28, 2009 - 16 Comments Tags: 3.2.2, artisan, burning crusade, discount, epic flying mount, expert, flying mount, honor hold, outland, riding skill, thrallmar
Amatera on Monday, September 28, 2009 - 16 Comments Tags: 3.2.2, artisan, burning crusade, discount, epic flying mount, expert, flying mount, honor hold, outland, riding skill, thrallmar
I was elated when Blizzard announced that they'd be giving you access to flying mounts the moment you hit Outland. Anything that got me out of there just as fast was sure to be a good thing. Sure, there was a point in time when I actually liked running around on ol' Draenor, but now-a-days, it's just a speedbump on the way to Level 80. Buy a fresh flyer at Thrallmar or Honor Hold and you could just cruise through the 58-68 grind! Out of bad habit, I still went all the way to Shadowmoon Valley to get mine, but the overall experience was much more tolerable.
But, wait a minute. Without some really clever playing of the auction house and an amount of resource grinding equal to or greater than that which is required to level, how could you possibly have the 600+ gold required to purchase the Expert Riding skill right away? Sure, once you've quested all the way around Outland, you should have the cash on hand, but not if you're a green-eyed recruit who just popped their Dark Portal cherry. Luckily for my last alt to make the journey, I had a wealthy main who could send the required dough through the mail system, but not everyone finds their experience so serendipitous.
Blizzard apparently felt your pain, and introduced a stealth update in the last patch (that they have now confirmed) which lowered the cost of Expert Riding from 600g to 225g:
Don't fret too much, those of you who continue to see such changes as "dumbing down" the game. Artisan Riding still costs a steep 5000 gold. And, honestly, if you've got that much of a beef, you've probably been playing the game for a very long time. We should be welcoming the charity for all future alts who will eventually have to pass through Outland anyway.
My piece is said, folks. What do you readers think of this discount?
But, wait a minute. Without some really clever playing of the auction house and an amount of resource grinding equal to or greater than that which is required to level, how could you possibly have the 600+ gold required to purchase the Expert Riding skill right away? Sure, once you've quested all the way around Outland, you should have the cash on hand, but not if you're a green-eyed recruit who just popped their Dark Portal cherry. Luckily for my last alt to make the journey, I had a wealthy main who could send the required dough through the mail system, but not everyone finds their experience so serendipitous.
Blizzard apparently felt your pain, and introduced a stealth update in the last patch (that they have now confirmed) which lowered the cost of Expert Riding from 600g to 225g:"You guys are correct, we reduced the expert riding skill price in 3.2.2 to 225g. We also changed the faction discounts for the riding skill vendors in Honor Hold and Thrallmar to use Stormwind and Orgrimmar faction.
There are a couple reasons we made this change. First off, we wanted expert riding to be available to more people at level 60. 600g just did not seem like a reasonable expectation for most level 60 players to have when they roll into Hellfire Peninsula. Especially after purchasing your level 60 skills. The second change, regarding the factions just made a lot more sense this way since you will not have any Thrallmar or Honor Hold faction when you enter Hellfire.
Finally, I want to apologize for this change not making the patch notes. We strive to get every change we make into the notes but this one somehow slipped by. Once again, my apologies on that, but hopefully the lower price will help make up for it. ;)"
Don't fret too much, those of you who continue to see such changes as "dumbing down" the game. Artisan Riding still costs a steep 5000 gold. And, honestly, if you've got that much of a beef, you've probably been playing the game for a very long time. We should be welcoming the charity for all future alts who will eventually have to pass through Outland anyway.
My piece is said, folks. What do you readers think of this discount?
Reader Comments (16)
Awwww, I just paid 600g for my mage's flying mount. I should have waited.
yeah, I honestly think it's a nice change. but my alt will be 60 by the end of today, and I already hve 600g, so I'm kinda PO'd knowing that I lost some time (about 1 1/2 weeks) worth of grinding, whereas I could've been raiding and stuff. none the less, a nice change.
@Jeff, jist look at it this way, you'll already have a head start as far as getting your Cold Weather Flying once you reach Northrend.
@Amatera
You meant "piece", right? ;)
Sneaky change on Blizzard's part, btw. Too bad they couldn't have done it a patch ago. :P
Yeah I really have no beef with changing mount costs. It's not something that really affects gameplay, and except for needing a flying mount for parts of northrend it's mostly just a convenience factor anyway. It'll be nice for future alts to have a little break.
yea i actually found this as a great suprize yesterday when i bought flying. i sent over 600g to my alt and bought the training and realized i had so much gold left over. it does make me alittle made because i paid for it on my main back in BC for the original price but hey its a game and change is necissary if they want people to keep playing
Like Blizzard said in the first place: Level 60 isn't what it used to be. I do admit to being a bit envious, though. It would have been nice to explore the whole of the Outlands via flying mount from the start instead of grinding for a week at level 70 to fill in the map.
And as for whether it REALLY affects gameplay or REALLY makes things too easy.... well, fewer ground trash mobs might just be a dip in the bucket as far as experience points goes, but it's still a slight slowdown on the trip to 80 for some people. It's also fewer random loot drops (and probably a lot of green and maybe even air to the new players.t almost seems a little unfair to the new players.t almost seems a little unfair to the new players.
this is good for me, had sme money from my main and a friend that was quitting so up to 880g+ now i don't have to worry about how much money ill have next with this discount
I had over 1000 gold before I went through the Dark Portal. I just sold anything I didn't need through the Auction house and I was rich before I knew what hit me. And I wasn't on an alt.
Well they should have lowered the 5k imho. not the 600G.
5k is what i hated everytime i lvl-ed a char.
Ok, once you have a few 80's it's easier. but still your first char and then a whopping 5k. well it was to rich for me :) Thank god for rich guild friends with 0% interest rates ;p
600g isn't that much, if I remember right the Epic Land mount used to be 600g or 500g before 3.2. I had that money when I hit 60 and when I hit 70 I had around 2000g, just by questing and selling useless stuff on the Auction House.
ok cheaper normal mounts....check
still to be added: no more or reduced repair costs, reduce or eliminate AH cuts...let's put more gold in the player's pockets.
It's funny that Blizzard's internal communication seemed to be so screwy for this one... not only did this price change not make it to the patch notes, but they got the price change wrong in the post! The actual new base price is 250G, with Stormwind/Orgrimmar reputation discounts... so at Exalted you pay 200G.
@Josh:
No more or reduced repair cost will be fixed with guild levelling.
And eliminate AH cuts? How does that work exactly? If I have a piece of junk that won't sell on the AH I sell it well under the average price just to get rid of it.
What is the point in having gold in player's pockets? Gold is only of use when you have spent it. If you want something, you save up for it, and then it is earnt, and has value. If everyone has loads of gold everything is worth very little, and nothing has value.
Oh well... I guess I blew 400g by getting flying with 3.2. *sigh* I'll live.
Not only did they adjust the rep discount for expert riding with Stormwind/Orgrimmar , they also did the same with artisan. I was on my mage alt lvl58 and revered with SW when i saw artisan cost 4250, a nice alternative for all "Ambassadors" out there who dont want to grind Northrend rep.