Warcraft Mounts: News

I had a brief chance to get in game on the Public Test Realms today and find out a little bit more about the level 30 mounts.

Initially I thought that Blizzard might be adding new mounts at level 30, but I was misreading the patch notes. Instead, all of the mounts that previously had a level 40 requirement now have a level 30 requirement. The base price of the mounts is still 10 gold (but you may get reputation discounts), and they still require the Apprentice (75) level riding skill.

And learning to ride is now considerably cheaper: Riding trainers on the PTR will sell the Apprentice (75) riding skill to level 30+ characters for just 35 gold (base cost) instead of 90 gold (base cost). With a 20% Exalted discount, that means that learning to ride and buying your first mount could cost as little as 36 gold (28 gold for the skill + 8 gold for the mount).

On the other hand, you will have 10 fewer levels to reach Exalted reputation before you can buy your first mount. So that may raise the expense a bit. At worst, however, the cost for your first mount has been cut in half.

Do keep in mind, however, that right now these changes only exist on the Public Test Realm — and that they may change without notice before they reach the live realms.

Here’s something I didn’t see coming. From the patch notes for the 2.4.3 Public Test Realms:

• Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
• Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.
• Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to investigate any more right now — I’m already late getting on my plane. But I’ll post more as soon as I can!

Tigole posted today in the WoW Dungeons & Raids forum that the Amani War Bear mount from Zul’Aman will no longer be obtainable after the Wrath of the Lich King expansion launch.

Tigole says:

I wanted to give a very early head’s up to all of you Zul’Aman raiders out there:

Once Wrath of the Lich King goes live, you will no longer be able to obtain the Zul’Aman bear mount by saving all 4 prisoners in the timed run. The Bear Mount will be replaced by a very good, epic item that is level appropriate for people doing the zone. To be clear, the Zul’Aman bear mount is supposed to be an item of very high prestige. We want players who have earned it during the appropriate era (aka before the level cap gets raised) to be recognized for their accomplishment. We have absolutely no problem with higher level players (above level 70) going back and doing Zul’Aman after Wrath of the Lich King is live. We just want to preserve the accomplishment of having saved all 4 prisoners at the intended difficulty level.

We will most likely do something similar with the titles “Hand of A’dal” and “Champion of the Naaru” as well.

Please don’t panic! You still have plenty of time to complete these feats! Wrath of the Lich King is coming along great but is not ready yet! In fact, we’re not even in beta yet! So have fun adventuring for your bears and titles but please consider this your early warning.

You’ve got some time yet, but if you want a War Bear you’d best start working towards it soon!