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?

Click to read more ...

So I'm sure many of you are running around in WotLK, leveling up your toon, gaining profession points, maybe a few new achievements. And with all of that 'living' in the World of Warcraft, there's a price: food, water, reagents, ammo and repairs.

But here is what some of you may be missing: Always shop where people know you. In other words, only buy and repair from people you are exalted with or you will lose tons of gold in the long run. Since patch 2.3, your toon's status with a faction can get you great discounts at exalted. These discounts of 20% are huge for guilds that try for world-first boss kills or grind on trash mobs in places they don't have the gear to go into and kill the boss. "But I'm leveling. I don't have time to go to SW or Thunder Bluff. And what's a few more copper anyway?" Okay, okay. you might be right. You might be willing to pay a little more for a service that's right in front of you rather than going to Shatt and porting to IF or Undercity. And really what's the difference on a 10% discount? What does it really matter? Well there may come a day when you might want the epic flying mount riding skill or maybe cold weather flying? That's the day you'll wish you'd repaired at SW or Undercity. Get a little addon called FuBar_DurabilityFu (requires FuBar) or something like it. It will show you exactly how much you save by repairing with a faction that really, really likes you. Now riddle me this: Do you do that in RL? Well? Do you shop at a convenience store for basics like milk, cookies and bread? Do you take your car to be repaired at a big dealership who know you only by your license plate number? Do you spend thousands of extra dollars on on an education or a house because you took the first loan you got approved for by some huge conglomerate who might know who you are if you give them your social security number? Well? So take a look at the game, and the players who have loads of money, already rollin' around on those mammoths you want so much. Take a look at the system of commerce, and really watch it. And then you'll start to see that it really is who knows you, who you're exalted with, that gets you the best deals, the best stuff and those special little things that they won't even consider giving to just anyone. Always shop where people know you. You will save in the longrun and you will get better deals that you ever thought possible.

Click to read more ...