In the World of Warcraft you are tied to several methods of transportation to make your way from point A to point B. The first and most common method is walking, which is slow. You can also rely on public transportation to get around, and in most cases it is the fastest method. However to use it you need to get to specific places. That's where the other common method of transport comes in, your mount.

Gaining a mount in WoW is a big deal. It means a 60% speed increase at level 40 and a 100% speed increase at level 60. It allows you to cut down on the downtime between questing by allowing you to get to places faster. It is also viewed as a badge of honor or reward for your work to get to level 40.

However, as of the latest PTR notes for the upcoming 2.4.3 patch, the requirements to actually get a mount are being dramatically slashed. Gone is the level 40 requirement, which is now slashed to a paltry 30. Also gone is the gold requirement, down from 90 to just 35. Is this change just a continuation lessening of achievements in WoW or is it a good thing?

The Cons

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Time to mount up a little earlier

Lets start out by looking at the bad points in lessening the level and gold requirement. The first and probably most obvious is that there will be a drastic reduction in the effort which in turn lessens or eliminates the sense of reward a player feels for getting one. This is important to many players as that sense of reward at having achieved something is what they play a game for.

Next up on the list of negative effects is the potential trivialization of content. Don't forget that the content from level 30 to 40 was created with the thought that players would not have fast transportation available to them. Therefore part of the quest was actually getting there.

The fact that classes with a travel form are now no longer at an advantage at lower levels could be viewed as a con, or as a pro, depending on which class you are. If you are one of the classes with it, this is a detriment to your class by making everyone else the same. However for those regular classes, it's a pro, as why should just a few specific classes get faster travel.

Lastly a big down side could be that it will further speed up leveling. Having recently leveled another character I have seen the huge speed increase in the leveling that occurred due to previous changes. This has the potential to further increase that speed. This could be bad, as I have already seen way to many players in the 50-70 level range that have no clue about their class or the game. This is in part due to the speed at which they can level without putting out any significant effort. They can get through without learning anything, and a faster leveling curve will just make that even more common.

Pros

Next up, lets look at all the good things, and there are a few.

First up is the big one, it will be much easier and faster to get around in the 30 - 40 level range. This is the level range where you really start seeing bigger zones and more travel. This will make getting around in areas such as Darkshire, Stranglethorn and other big areas, much less painful.

The faster travel time will also speed up leveling a little bit more. Now I know many will say, "Wait you used this argument as a con". I know, however, if you have one character already at max level, and are just trying to get another there, there is no reason not to speed up the leveling process. Travel just introduces delays into the action of the game, so the faster you can move form one area to another the less down time you have. The same could be held true for first time players, however, I really feel that going slow and having to fight a few more MOBs helps these players develop more skill than they would get skipping by everything on a mount.

The cheaper price to get a mount will mean that more players can get one, even if it is not right at level 30. Many players that are working on their first character simply do not have the 100 gold by level 40 to get their mount right away. While having 35 gold by level 30 may not be any easier, they will have 35 gold first. This means that while they may not be able to afford their mount right at 30, they will for sure be able to by 32-34.

Messiah's Take On It

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How long until you get epic mounts at 50?

Normally I'm a traditionalist, think of me like the grumpy old man from Saturday Night Live, "That's the way it was and we liked it!". But on this point I think I'm ready for a little change.

There really was no reason to have to wait until 40 to get a mount. This lets you start being a little more mobile a little earlier, and that is not such a bad thing. The only reason to not have a mount right from level 1 is so that you had to encounter MOBs. This allowed Blizzard to control the pace of the game a little bit more in the early levels and keep the zones smaller. Ground based mounts still force to to move around MOBs, allow you to be engaged, and combat to happen. This ensures that you can not just skip content.

On the money front, what was 100g anyway anymore. Everyone is selling low level gear on the auction house with any good stat mix (for example: anything "...of the monkey" leather gear gets 10 gold minimum regardless of level) for huge gold. In fact on an alt I have been leveling, I gave it 100 gold to start with and have spent a lot (400-500 gold) on gear as I have been leveling, and still had over 400g by level 40 and over 800 gold by level 50. This was simply by selling all the good stat mix greens on the auction house. So, really the 100 gold was not an obstacle to anyone but new players anymore.

With the Burning Crusade expansion and raising the level limit to 70, the earlier content became less important. Everyone that plays, whether old or new, wants to be in the Outlands with everyone else. 1-60 has become a race to get through, as the gear and content is better in the Outlands. This will continue and worsen with the release of Wrath of the Lich King. Everyone will want to be playing in the new content and seeing the new zones. While everything is new for new players, being an MMO they want to play with other people, and most of them will be where the new content is. That makes them want to be in the expansion content right from day 1 of playing.

All of the above to say that I firmly believe that dropping the level of the mount requirement down to 30 is a good thing. At this point I would go even further and say that once this happens and WotLK is release, I would like to see the epic mount be available earlier and experience per level required for 1-70 drop even further. This would all help players get into the new content faster. The only concern, and it is a big one, is that even more players will get to the end game content without a clue as to what they are doing. But then that's happening already.

The Messiah has had his say, what’s yours?  Do you like the change? Should players get all mounts earlier? I want to hear your comments and explanations.

Email me at: Byron Mudry - ([email protected]) or post in our forums!

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.