Well, ah like tae get from A to B in style and there’s nothin’ better than gliding along on the back ‘o a nightsaber or, if ye feel like takin’ tae the skies, a nether drake. Tae be honest wi ye, ah think ah’m gonnae huv tae start my own stables wi all the mounts I have!

Blame Fim for this post… and the title. It’s his fault. No really. He’s ‘the man’ when it comes to post-title-jokes which invariably make me groan. Go check out some of them here.

Mounts are our companions, always with us and taking us to places we wish to go faster than we could on foot. They are a cornerstone of the WoW economy - with many people spending the majority of their gold on getting one. They can be a status symbol, a roleplaying companion or simply a fast way from A to B but for a few people one is not enough!

Personal Mounts
I loves them all even though I don’t really have any special ones. A while ago I posted about getting my mist ’saber - a mount I’ve wanted for quite some time and was asked if I had named it. I haven’t yet, but I’ve not been averse to doing so in the past when I’ve been so fond of a mount or worked hard to get it.

Mharai, my first druid, was on an RP server. Her ’schtick’ was that she was an avid collector and breeder of oversize mounts for the use of Tauren. I’m not really into ‘epic’ roleplaying, can you tell? *ahem*

I’ve never owned a kodo on Mharai and set out to get a wolf for her at 40. It took me until level 43 to get it (not sure why) but I was happy and that wolf was the first mount I ever named: Ice. She was a brown wolf but I named her for the glacier-ice green/blue of her eyes. At 60 I got myself a white wolf and then set out towards Outlands with a greedy eye on all of the mounts I could now work towards.

I was always sorely disappointed that Tauren couldn’t ride some mounts - with a happy moment coming when I found that pvp raptors were Tauren-approved. I spent some time in battleground and came out with a rather huge lizard. If you’ve never seen a Tauren on a raptor you’re missing out. Doubly so as you’ll never have seen them on a raptor with the Sen’jin village buff, Winterfall Firewater and Bloodlust! (and, I’ve been told, the cookies from the Halloween Event also stack).

Collecting
Anyway! Like many others I enjoy collecting mounts and will go to silly degrees just to get myself one. I really do like how Blizzard has noticed the love of new mounts and made them available by, for instance, relatively easy rep-grinds. It’s something a little easier than pet collecting (though I do that too) but with more of a presence (I mean, who doesn’t gawp when someone rides by with the Anzu mount?)

Prior to patch 1.something it used to be the mount which cost (for example) 80 gold and the training was cheap. When this was changed (and subsequently the riding skill was changed to be across the board for all mount types) it meant that mount collecting was within the reach of more than just a rich few.

Mounts are something which you can get by yourself, with a group and pvp-ing - they have been integrated into all the common aspects of the game and something relatively rare is available to pretty much any level of player. They are not just a creature / flying machine to get around on but, like our gear, are status symbols. They also have the added benefit of increasing individuality in a world where often everyone is wearing nearly the same thing within their class!

The Burning Collectors?

Burning Crusade has catapulted mount collecting to a whole new level, in my mind. Before TBC, you were limited to your faction’s mounts and even getting some of those were hard (Troll and Nelfen mounts come to mind). PvP ones weren’t so easy to get and there were only a few rare dropped mounts in high level instances / raids (Tiger and Raptor from ZG, Baron’s Mount from Stratholme).

Burning Crusade changed all of that. Blizzard seem to have tuned into the fact that mounts were coveted and people would grind / pay rather a lot for them. Ok, they knew this already but half of that was a speed issue. What they had discovered here was the fact that people would pay or grind for a visual change rather than just a speed one. TBC saw an explosion of mounting options, not to mention a whole new category added - flying mounts.

Netherwing drakes were some of the first previewed (or, at least, some analogue thereof - I think they used the old drake model for the announcement) and I was terribly excited at the thought of riding around on a huge dragon! It felt so damned fantasy. Then, when I finally got to Outland, (rerolled at the start of TBC, mind) I realised this was in no way my only option. They had added not only the drakes to the basic selection of gryphons / wyverns but also Nether Rays and a plethora of ground mounts.

The talbuk seems to have been a huge hit as do the Amani Bears and players seem to love the inclusion of the other low-drop-rate mounts (Anzu bird, Midnight, Phoenix, White Hawkstrider). For some reason people didn’t seem to ‘click’ so well with the Cenarion Expedition hippogryphs, but maybe their expense is why I see so few!

Of course, there was also the addition of new racial ground mounts - Elekk’s and Hawkstriders. Both seem to have taken some ribbing (eww ugly huge mount and chooocooobooo or chicken) but I think each has their own loyal supporters.

Back to the Future?
I’m shying away from writing anything about Wrath at the moment as I really don’t think it’s worth commenting on stuff which hasn’t even gotten past alpha yet and will likely change a whole lot but some of the things concerning mounts piqued my interest. The following quote comes from the official website, for instance.

“Certain types of vehicles and mounts can now carry passengers, making it possible for players to, for example, break a prisoner out of a tightly guarded compound by attempting a daring escape on horseback… Even beyond the ability for vehicles to hold passengers, Wrath of the Lich King introduces an aerial combat system that will add a new dimension to gameplay.”

Looking at this and thinking in general terms I was wondering how Wrath might affect the ‘mount scene’ and what the new tier of riding skill would give us. I had, at first, assumed that we’d simply been given a riding ‘pass’ to allow us to ride in Northrend - some crazy quest thought up by gnomes which meant we had to have some type of license. However, it seems the next ‘tier’ will be one which effects not only ourselves and our speed but also our gameplay. Mounts, in Wrath, seem to have become more integral to play than ever before.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what WotLK brings by way of new mounts looks-wise. I’ve seen pics here and there of polar/grizly bear mounts and zhevra mounts. Both of these would be awesome (I mean, c’mon, a dwarf on a bear? That right there is win) as would being able to ride those new Shovel Tusks - hell, I want to know why I couldn’t get a Clefthoof mount!

An awesome resource for mounts is Mania’s new project Warcraft Mounts. Go check it out and see if there’s anything you fancy working towards!