5000g is just too much for an epic flying mount
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 14th 2007 at 3:42PM
I've hit 70. I bought my flying mount (and spend way too much time exploring the air around Outland). I'm even attuned for Karazhan, and my guild is working through it. And yet I feel no pressure at all to raise that 5000g for an epic mount.Like Moonfalin, I'm pretty "meh" about the whole thing. Yes, flying around at high speed would be cool, but is it really necessary? I'm the highest level, and I'm keyed-- where do I need to go so fast? I know that some of my guildies farmed for cash and have already picked theirs up, but I'm not bothering with it-- I've already earned about 1000g just from my normal questing and instance running, so I assume I'll hit 5000g at some point, and I'll just get there when I get there.
The exception to this, of course, is the nether drake mounts that are coming. Those I really want, either from PvP (although the PvP one is hard-- as a resto shaman, I'm really terrible in the arenas) or PvE, and I'll be willing to farm whatever I need to to get one of those. So what about you-- did you farm your way up to 5000g quick (it wasn't that hard when BC first came out), or are you taking your time for a reward that just doesn't seem that great?
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Economy, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
hawkspur Mar 14th 2007 3:56PM
5000g price makes them semi-rare which is how it should be. They are not overly difficult to get, I got mine with about 2 weeks of farming.
Seper Mar 14th 2007 4:29PM
As a druid Ill be saving up for it only cause i get a free one :)
My guildies are not as keen on getting the epic though. Most of them are more then happy getting there basic flyers and they have no plans to work towards there epic flyers.
On the other hand... people who are just hitting 60 are doing there darndest just to raise enough for ground epics.
steve Mar 14th 2007 4:06PM
As a holy priest, I will never see an epic mount.
ever.
cheesebanana Mar 14th 2007 4:03PM
Took me no time at all. Finished ALL quests. Did some instances and grinded a bit.
5000G is nothing and its only scary to people that haven't play enough to deserve it yet tbh.
Sylythn Mar 14th 2007 4:13PM
I'm with you Mike - I'll farm and farm and farm to get that Nether Drake...but I'll only buy the epic flying if I happen to come across a bankroll of 5000g with nothing else to spend it on. I'd rather use that cash for professions, gear, consumables, etc.
Halicante Mar 14th 2007 4:18PM
My guild is so busy with raiding that my time to farm is limited (real life job ftl) and tends to be just farming for the guild. In addition, I've ended up donating a large portion of my gold to members for their non-epic flying mounts so we could get them quickly keyed for kara, so that put a large dent in my gold. I'll get one eventually. They are cool...they just don't seem like a necessity though at this point. I should probably buckle down some weekend and farm and quest away.
Gnomercy Mar 14th 2007 4:19PM
"3. As a holy priest, I will never see an epic mount.
ever."
Cause rolling a holy priest prevents you from leveling a warlock/mage/rogue.
I used my lock for gold farming. I made 5k gold in about 2 weeksish. A friend loaned me 3k, so I could have a quick mount for faster farming tho, so otherwise it may have dipped into 3 weeks. and that was MAYBE 3 hours of farming a day, and only 4-5 days a week, since I rarely play.
Matt Park Mar 15th 2007 10:28AM
I'm almost 55 and I don't have a normal mount yet. Yeah I've got my riding skill, but I'll probably grab one when I head to Ogrimmar next, but I just haven't stopped there for a while.
Of course, having ghost wolf helps tremendously.
FadedReality Mar 14th 2007 4:23PM
With as much as mats cost/take to farm for the really nice crafted stuff (the tailoring items currently have no equal in regards to + damage or + heals), the fact that I can get up into the air at all and skip the whole "run, dazed, shield, psychic scream, renew, run, mount back up" cycle is enough for me.
Karl Mar 14th 2007 4:23PM
5000 gold is not as much as it sounds anymore. I am thankful for Blizzard making the change, as it has seemed to level out the issues of people paying for gold farmers, and the best items in the game seem to all be BoP. This means fewer people running around with items they paid for and did not play for. Things like the flying mount is more of a luxury (as a previous poster stated), and doesn't really put us at a great disadvantage for not having. I suppose maybe on a PvP server, a guild of epics Paladins flying after you (Crusader Aura is scary) could cause some issues, but otherwis...life is good.
Mike Schramm Mar 14th 2007 4:24PM
"that was MAYBE 3 hours of farming a day, and only 4-5 days a week"
See, for what a standard epic flying mount gives me, this just isn't worth it. I'm not saying I don't want one-- I'll get one eventually, because I'm making money via my normal instance running and such. But specifically farming for money 3 hours a day just to go a little faster? No thanks. It's not "scary" to me, it's just not worth it.
NerdblurbSteve Mar 14th 2007 4:26PM
Just out of curiosity for you two week farmers..what did you farm? If it only takes two weeks, i think i could stomach that...
Mats Mar 14th 2007 4:39PM
Since you need 300 skill to ride the Netherdrake, it's not like you don't have a reason to start farming money right now. After all, a Epic mount only costs 200g, it's the skill that costs 5000g
Jchc Mar 14th 2007 4:41PM
If you have ever world pvp'd or just went on a gankfest with others that do have an epic mount you will see just how awesome it is to have an an epic mount! I almost say its necessary :p
I didn't want or care for one at first but now I'm farming away to get my 5k, I should be there in a little over a week now.
Argent Mar 14th 2007 4:58PM
i finished leveling my first alt to 70 yesterday and decided to pick him up his non-epic flying mount -- and god, is it slow compared to the epic mount my main has.
in general, if you have a gathering profession, an epic flying mount is pretty much a must. if you don't have one (my alt doesn't, f.e.) it's fairly optional, but it inhibits your freedom to move a fair bit (i still use the regular flight routes to get to places with a non-epic -- whereas with my main, i just fly anywhere i need to go, skipping the flightpaths.)
eMarkM Mar 14th 2007 5:02PM
When I hit 70 I got the regular flying mount and had about 1200g left afterwards. I'm a skinner/miner and I AH everything and only spend gold on repairs, ammo and drinks, so money for the regular flier was not an issue. So now I'm 70 doing all of these quests that now give cash instead of XP and before I knew it I had around 3200g. All this with really no explicit farming, just picking up mining nodes and leather as I came by it in questing.
At that point I decided to just suck it up and farm the remaining 2K. It took about a week, 3-4 hours a night, of basically killing Elementals for Primals, mostly Air on the Elemental Plateau. On my server, at the time, I could make about 75-125g/hr.
The 5000g price tag seems about right to me. You can't expect to just ding 70 and go and get one. Money does rain from the skies in Outland, but you still have to be frugal with it. The amount of work I put in seemed about right for something that should be fairly rare.
For me it's been worth it. It's not just a little faster, it's a LOT faster. Say goodbye to flight paths forever, you have one in your pocket now. Except for direct connections between two FPs where we both start standing next to the flight master, the epic will beat FPs out everytime. I can rape a zone of all it's minerals in about a 1/2 hour, man, mining runs are a breeze now. Ok, and I'm the first in my guild to get one and I can feel my guildmates turning green when I speak with them on vent :)
I figure, here we are just a couple months into the XPac and I already have one of the crown jewels of the game and now I don't have to worry about raising the cash for it and I can enjoy it for months to come. I'm already back near 2K gold and now I can concentrate on buying crafted gear (Riding Crop....must...go...faster!), enchants and raid consummables without having to worry about this anymore.
And, yeah, that Nether Drake you covet still requires the 5K for the riding skill.
rogue Mar 14th 2007 5:23PM
You wouldn't "rape" a zone for its resource nodes, you would however "pillage" it.
Sorry, it's just one of those way overused words that frankly shouldn't be.
Blacksabre Mar 14th 2007 5:50PM
5000g is a joke, and Blizzard ought to be hung by their thumbs. It's not bad enough that just functioning in Wow is difficult, but when Blizzard goes out of their way to generate huge inflation by tagging prices like this, they have no right to whine about gold farming and buying. Everything in Wow is predicated on money, with Blizzard leading the way, and if people buy gold to offset this, it's only fair. If prices like this idiocy persist in the future, I hope Blizzard chokes on its gold spying programs.
Drakar24 Mar 14th 2007 6:02PM
As for the netherdrake comment, no doubt that I want one too, but don't you have to still pay for the riding skill? Like the black pvp mounts? You'll still need the 5000g riding skill. The actual mount is only 200g if I recall correctly.
I could be wrong though.
Adys Mar 15th 2007 12:47AM
Didn't take me too much time - now, having had many rare enchanting recipes I had a fair bit of money when BC came out.
But I definetly see a huge difference beetween the epic and normal flying mounts, and it is in my opinion worth 5000g. What else would you spend them on anyways?