#flying mounts

[tomoleary]

Jack Kirby “Creature in oxygen tent,” “Flurren’s robots,” “Flying mounts,” “Lava creature,” “Molten steel poured in robot molds,” “Silicoid creatures,” “Sorrot’s robots,” “Wasps-size of cat” Thundarr the Barbarian Ruby-Spears (undated)

[veridianora]

Thoughts on flying mounts

Even though as players we see many other players with grandiose flying mounts all the time, I’d imagine that in-universe it’s rare to own a flying mount and even rarer to own anything other than the standard gryphon/hippogryph/wyvern. 

Like can you imagine being a peasant farmer and seeing a gigantic glowing skeletal dragon swoop over you? You’d be running for your darn life from the dragon and from whoever was crazy enough to ride it.

So why are they rare? First, I’d assume that most common folk of Azeroth have no real need for a flying mount. Farmers and fisherman can carry their goods by land or sea routes, while most crafters likely set up their shops in cities so their clientele come to them. Travel to other cities is relatively easy - flight masters already have trained mounts to get you all around the world inexpensively, and there are communal ferries and zeppelins. Why learn to fly and take care of another animal if you don’t have to? 

Second, they are expensive. Even in-game, a few expansions ago many players would have to wait and save their gold for flying training, and even more for the mount itself. And the players are adventurers, probably with more income and less expenses than most people. Flying mounts then are almost like private jets or helicopters, again, for common folk, seen as somewhat useless and expensive.

However, I think that in some cultures in which flying mounts are an integral part, such as Wildhammer dwarves or Skyhorn tauren, money is less of a factor. To learn to properly ride a mount and then obtain your own would more likely be a rite of passage or a mark of honor rather than a measure of one’s socioeconomic status. It is likely that most, if not all, members of these communities know how to fly.

So what about flight masters? Always known as the one NPC to avoid when attacking your rival faction’s town, I like to think they are ludicrously OP for multiple reasons. These people are either obviously very rich or just that good at training animals that they have multiple highly disciplined mounts, ready to fly anyone anywhere or defend their master. It makes you wonder how they got these positions in out-of-the-way towns; are they perhaps retired adventurers like us? Breeders of high quality mounts? Part of an elite community of riders that have displayed their skills to be inducted into the flight masters? I think they all must communicate somehow, since all flight routes are connected, but it makes you wonder.

Finally, again for those adventurers who have saved up, the standard faction mounts probably don’t make too much of a sensation. However, our mount collections have expanded to include dragons, of the sentient flights, which is obviously a great honor to anyone. It not only says, “Hey, I’m a badass adventurer,” but also “and these ancient beautiful dangerous beings think I’m amazing and let me ride them,” and for this reason I think we shouldn’t take our lovely dragon mounts for granted.

In conclusion, being able to fly in Azeroth is still wild and wondrous, allows adventurers to keep adventuring, and is something somewhat unique to player characters. And let’s keep the common folk in mind and try not to scare them with our dragons.

[travelers-chosen]

Finally flying in style

[tagnoob]

Reflecting on Flying in Wrath Classic

Flying is certainly one of the more contentious features introduced into World of Warcraft.  People love it, people hate it, often simultaneously, and Blizzard, having introduced it as a feature, has struggled with how to deal with it, vacillating between going all in on it with some expansions and suggesting they might not even enable it with others. Leaving Dalaran in a flying machine Having…

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[tagnoob]

Flight in Pre-Patch Outland

Flight in Pre-Patch Outland

Flying mounts were one of the big features of Burning Crusade back in the day.  There have been plenty of arguments since it was introduced as to whether or not it was a good idea or not, and Blizzard has spent a lot of time since trying to figure out how to put that genie back in the bottle.  But it has been part of the game since early 2007, so naturally I splurged the day it became…

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[lonehuna]

Dragon Rider by Antonio J. Manzanedo

[lonehuna]

Dragon Rider by Antonio J. Manzanedo

[resto-druid]