Project Lore

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:

"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?

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Blue poster Zarhym on Wednesday night announced some pretty huge mount changes coming up for the next major content patch, 3.2. You'll be able to learn your apprentice, journeyman and expert riding skills all considerably earlier than before and at a reduced cost. As an added bonus, regular flying mounts now will fly at 150% speed, instead of 60%. All of this, Zarhym said, is "to further improve the leveling experience in World of Warcraft." Here's the breakdown of changes to cost and level requirements, according to what Zarhym posted, with my own notes in italics:

• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
  • 60% land mount speed
  • Requires level 20 - a whole 10 levels earlier
  • Cost: 4 gold - way down from 35g
  • Mount cost: 1 gold - instead of 10g
  • Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
  • 100% land mount speed
  • Requires level 40 - OMG 20 levels sooner!
  • Cost: 50 gold - currently 600g
  • Mount cost: 10 gold - down from 100g
  • Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

• Expert Riding (Skill 225)
  • 150% flying mount speed instead of 60%; 60% land mount speed
  • Requires level 60 - Previously level 70
  • Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply) - currently 800g
  • Mount Cost: 50 gold - down from 100g
  • Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)

• Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
  • 280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
  • Requires level 70
  • Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)
  • Mount Cost: 100 gold - instead of 200g

And, after getting lots of questions from other posters about Cold Weather Flying, Zarhym replied that at least that much will "remain unchanged." It looks to me like these changes will help leveling go quite a bit faster, especially when in many of the wide, open spaces common throughout Azeroth. Not to mention the zones in Outland, too! AND the huge price slashes will mean that it's much less of a hardship for players to pay for mounts, especially for those poor alts. Most people in the forums seem to be pretty ecstatic about the announcement, but there are plenty also who are starting to say that the changes are catered toward the casual player (or that they should have been implemented xx months ago!). But these changes will affect everyone across the board - and in my opinion, it's all for the good. It's not about being lazy when leveling - it's about enjoying the game. And I think for a lot of us, mounts are fun. Zarhym also announced that the casting time for summoning all mounts will go from its current 3 seconds down to 1.5 seconds. Which, to me, equals a greater chance that I'll be able to get my mount out in time after breaking stealth and before getting attacked. And maybe you also can successfully escape any other baddies heading your way before entering combat. I guess that would "improve the leveling experience" in my book. Add this to all the other changes coming for Call of the Crusade, and a new battleground, and I'm just giddy. So what does everyone else think about these upcoming changes? FTW? Or FTL?

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