Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Dude, where's my mount?

The defining moment in the lives of many characters is getting the mount. I was an old school player who was used to paying a LOT for the mount and a little for the training. Some time ago Blizzard reversed those requirements. That makes some of the classes that get free mounts or riding skill particularly appealing.

For instance, most characters hit 40 and go buy a mount for 20 Gold (18 Gold Honored) and training for 80 Gold (72 Gold Honored). Not so either the paladins or warlocks. They go train a skill and get a mount and the riding skill to go with it. Total cost 1 Gold (90 Silver Honored). All these mounts are considered 75 Riding Skill mounts and give you 60% increase in run speed.

The level 60 mount again costs gold for the training and mount. The mount itself is 100 Gold (90 Gold Honored) and the training is 600 Gold (540 Gold Honored). The paladins and warlocks are again the exception. Each deserves its own subsection below

Warlock Epic Mount Questlines

Upon reaching level 60, the trainer in either Ironforge or Orgrimmar will send the new warlock to the Burning Steppes. This will set two quest lines in motion which can be completed concurrently. The materials branch of the quest requires:

The questing portion requires purchasing 3 shadowy potions (6 Gold) and Xorothian Stardust (150 Gold). It also requires a trip to Scholomance up to Ras Frostwhisper's room.

Once the materials collection is done, you'll be able to buy the 3 items you need to complete the ritual in Dire Maul. These items are NOT consumed in the ritual and can be supplied by another warlock. This saves 250 Gold if a friendly guild warlock has them. It also requires nearly a full clear of Dire Maul West. Total price will vary based on what items you can get from your own tradeskills, your guild and the auction house.

All in all, probably much less than the 630 Honored Price most classes will pay. And the riding skill is free.

Paladin Epic Mount Questlines

Upon reaching level 60, the appropriate Paladin Trainer will give you quests. I'm not an expert at Paladins. I don't know the first thing about them except that they're always trying to tank things or beat me on the healing meters.

It appears that both horde and alliance need similar things consisting of:
Apart from these quests, it looks like each side has an easily soloable small quest chain costing about 200 Gold. Each side culminates in a quest in a 5-man dungeon. From my reading the horde side looks easier, but I don't know for sure.

All in all, I'm not sure about the paladin side quests. The amount of money and questing may not make it all that much more cost effective go get the free riding skill for the paladin. I might go the normal route and just buy the mount and training. Of course, lorewise, its almost required for the paladin to have his epic warhorse.

That's WAY more than enough today. One day later this week, I'll talk about flying mounts and epics fliers.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

With both a 70 Warlock and a 70 Paladin I have neither of the class-specific mounts. Both of my toons hit 60 after the Burning Crusade came out. Getting to 70 was the goal so I just kept questing. My warlock was first so I quested right to 70 and then picked up my 60 land mount and my 70 flying mount at the same time. With the Paladin I got my mount when I got your favorite aura( Crusader ). The issue with the class-specific mounts is the amount of time. The arcanite bars still run a little large on the AH in Alleria and as it stands the amount of time spent on the quests wasn't enough for me to justify stopping the train to 70. As well, nobody wants to run those old instances!

DaddyGamer said...

My paladin alt is stuck on the last instance run, killing the death knight after Rattlegore in Scholo.

Before TBC, getting all the mats and the right quests done was hard work. Arcanite was expensive then. Now I sit with 20+ arcane crystals in my bank that noone wants.

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