Getting a flying mount at 60 is like getting a cheat code.
Stretch your mind back before patch 3.2, back to your incursions in Outland.
Hellfire Frogger
If you were lucky if you arrived in Outland with an Epic land mount. If you weren’t so lucky, one of the most efficient ways of crossing a zone was ghost running.
Even with the epic land mount it was preparation for Naxx’s Frogger.
Dodge left, dodge right, outrun the aggro.
Exploring a zone completely at the appropriate level either required anal explorer skill at Artisan rank, or maybe a quest-completionist-dysfunction.
On the Wings of XP
The 1st thing I noticed when I got my flying mount was all the zone discovery XP.
Now I think about it, I really should stop questing and just explore Outland for a level or two.
I hit more discovered zones than mobs for a while there.
Why kill-kill-kill-mana, when you can just fly by, or drop in?
Just passing by, saw your light on, thought I’d drop in
That’s where the real cheat code comes in. I reach Zangarmarsh and 1st quest I receive is to kill 30 mobs and their boss.
The boss is at the top of a tower.
A tower surrounded by mobs and water.
Death and a slow movement rate (pre “swimming” mounts at least.) await me.
Gnomeaggedon hated the quest. Kill 2 mobs, sit for mana, get interrupted my a pat. Once I got to the tower I had to kill the mobs at each level, mana up and move before the pat descended the ramp.
50% mana, 50% health and here comes the boss! The boss goes goes down against the odds, but now I have to grind back out through the mobs.
Enter the cheat code…
Fly over the heads of the patrolling mobs.
Laugh manically at their ignorance of the incoming assassin.
Alight on the top floor. 100% mana, 100 % health. Boss dies and I have the choice…
Fly out the window again, or casually stroll down the ramp picking the mobs off?
Stealing through the Circle of Steel
I have now done the same thing with a few of these quest mini bosses. Group 2 or 3 quest.
Pffft! Only if I grind their honor guard 1st.
No, I will hover overhead until their circle of steel is looking the wrong way. Dismount, drop in, kill, mount and fly away.
Who needs stealth when you have wings?
Martin’s Fury was innocence in comparison
I know…
I know…
If I think it’s cheating, it is cheating. Why don’t I play the game the way the developers intended?
Well, I guess you could say I am an opportunist. I didn’t set out to cheat or subvert game mechanics.
But just like Martin’s Fury the Devs put the tools in my hands, or mailbox.
If the vendors sell them, they must be legitimate… Right?
They haven’t just given me the wings cheat code, but also the shoulder, chest, weapon and two trinket cheat codes. There are more of course, but I like the “pure game” experience… cough… cough…
Wallowing in the Muck of my own guilt
I do feel kind of dirty, but I have a water aversion allergy… I don’t want to come clean once I am wallowing in the muck!
You should try it…
Go on, get your hands dirty…
We all love a dirty filthy cheater…
Well, I do when it’s me!
Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!
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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/09/29/
a-flying-mount-is-a-cheat-code/
I dinged 70 back in BC when I was flying around discovering various areas on my map.
Big boost to my “lets just run around and look at stuff” ego.
/cheer for cheaters!
Totally… at level 60 it just changes the whole landscape…
the ability to cherry pick your quests and kills takes the edge off the wariness.
I took out that level 63+ without realizing he was ellite…
I went to take out his buddy and noticed the “+”… decided that was a fight for another day…
they all look like insignificant ants from the air…
I feel less dirty with my druid flying. It somehow feels more natural, I suppose since it is.
I feel even more dirty on my druid!!!
All those “pick 30 things” where I don’t even need to get out of flightform, isn’t that cheating if anything? My poor old mage had to put so much more effort into this.
Yes, if anyone is cheating, it’s the druids. Ha!
yeah I was thinking of you last night… I got to drop in on my target… something I had to pick up…
Unfortunately for me there were mobs there that weren’t happy with the idea…
Unfortunately for them, 5 of them < one of me.
Since struggling through Outland is a recent enough memory that I still bear the mental scars I think this is a ‘cheat’ I’m going to embrace whole heartedily and feel good about, dammit
Yep, wallow in the muck!
Ohh I feel dirty… like an Orc!
LOL you’re totally right! I’ve missed reading your blog, they blocked it at work. Congrats, you have the notice of a major US brokerage firm lol
Damn.. there is some attention I can live without…
Hmm I’m not sure how to look at it. Yes I remember slugging through those quests 7 times on foot… but does the fact that I did it the hard way now make doing it the easier way cheating?
Sure you can say it isn’t how the developers intended… but then I look at a zone like icecrown and Storm Peaks… those zones were totally designed around using flying mounts. Yet the quests consist of the same trivial tasks that you had the previous 76 levels.
Fly to a guy, kill him. Collect some boxes around the area, maybe pick off guys for a kill quest. Then fly back for your reward.
Maybe the large number of vehicle/pet type quests in those zones make it feel different? Or that somehow you deserve to fly after running on foot all those levels?
Flying mount or not… I’ve done the content so many times that I’m on auto pilot anyway. This just means that when I have to check on my daughter or work on dinner that I can just mount and fly a few feet up in the air instead of wondering if I’m going to die to some respawn or random patrol.
Besides you should have heard how excited one of my friends was to be able to fly for the first time at level 60. Instead of hitting 70… flying around… and then putting the gryphon in the bank till 77.
Ohh I share your friends excitement… I don’t regret buying the mount at all. I dare say it is a combination of things that is trivializing Outland, but the flying mount just seems to make life too easy…
It seems to be the tipping point.
BTW, I love to flying mount AFK when I get the call from my son too…
Wish we all got a free 10 minute levitate every hour… no matter what zone we are in.