PTR notes: There's no such thing as a free Netherdrake
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Apr 14th 2007 at 1:07PM
The announcement of a Netherdrake flying mount in the next patch was a beacon of hope to broke people like myself, who hoped we could quest for the mount while continuing to blow our hard-earned cash on epic gear and new recipes. Unfortunately, our hopes were in vain. The Netherdrake quest line apparently requires 300 riding skill to begin.
Andrevv of World of Raids provides a nice guide plus screenshots of the quest line, which I'll summarize here. First, you have to swear yourself to the Netherdrake faction (which requires doing the Kindness questline for neutrality.) Then you get asked to disguise yourself as a Fel Orc and join the Illidari! Awesome! I always wanted to be Illidari. You then head out to Netherwing Ledge and get a couple of quests as an Orc. You can either gather 40 of some special ore/herb/etc. if you have a gathering profession, or pick up 40 crystals if you're not. Then you can head over to a goblin mercenary, who will give you some quests to help the Netherwing faction by sabotaging the Orcs. You can gather fel glands to poison orc peons or collect Netherwing relics from a skyway.
There's no information on where the questline goes after that, but the ore/crystal/poison questlines are marked as "Daily," and Andrevv got 250 Netherwing reputation for turning in his first 40 ore. The Daily quests seem to be meant to limit the amount of grinding you can do in one day -- but since there are screenshots of PTR characters with drakes already, this may not be working as intended.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bronori Apr 14th 2007 1:17PM
the reason that people are getting them so quick on the PTR is that the timer is reseting when the server restarts.
EVERY 5 MINUTES!
Savok Apr 14th 2007 1:55PM
I honestly can't see how any sane person thought the drakes would give us free epic flying. It's 5000g, five god damn thousand gold, even running the questline through the Black Temple would of never taken away the 5k cost, because it's 5000g.
Kirby1612 Apr 16th 2007 8:22AM
The 5000g price was mentioned a LONG time ago. There was never going to be a free Netherdrake because then everyone would take that route instead.
Sylythn Apr 14th 2007 7:36PM
I never expected them to be free - but I was hoping for something like a really complex expanded Epic Warlock/Paladin mount (just as I was hoping those classes would get quests for special flying mounts). I'd rather spend a lot of time and effort on quests than simply saving up cash.
Mats Apr 14th 2007 9:10PM
You need to spend alot of time and effort on doing quests aswell as spending 5K of gold.
I don't get why people can't get in into there heads that you don't pay 5000g for a epic flying mount, you pay 5000g for RIDDING SKILL!
Epic flying mounts only cost 200g, and other mounts are all quest based, or drops, they don't cost you anything, stop this infernal whining.
Savok Apr 14th 2007 9:22PM
I think Druids confused people with the free upgrade they get when they pick up their flight form.
But really, 5000g, you aren't avoiding that.
drakar Apr 15th 2007 10:47AM
yeah, i have no idea why people thought it would be free. It's been in the forums for a long time that you would still need the riding skill, which is what costs the 5KG. Another 2K to go for me, but it's really not that hard. Even for a casual player.
Sylythn Apr 15th 2007 12:21PM
It's not that it's hard, it's that there's a hell of a lot that 5000g could go to that would benefit me and my guild far better than a faster mount. The cost of it has pushed my netherdrake to the bottom of my priority list - and I was hoping the quest sequences and hard work would have enabled me to do it in parallel. But if I'm sitting on 5000g, I'm going to be using it to get new tailoring/enchanting patterns, supply my alt with funds for blacksmithing and helping out my guild - not blowing it all on one item.
As to the ease...maybe it's easy if you're farming, and that's all you have to do...but I've spent the past couple weeks questing whenever I can to raise money for my regular flying mount, and I'm only up to 700 as it is. At this rate, it'll take me 2 months or more of solid questing (at which point I'll likely have run out of quests) and that's without spending a single copper on anything other than repairs and necessary consumables. I would so much rather spend that time working hard on epic-mount style quests, than raising gold.
novelty22 Apr 16th 2007 1:30AM
Are these even any faster than the current epic mounts? From what i read they are the same speed....
eMarkM Apr 17th 2007 12:07PM
@8, same speed as now. I believe there was a blue post about it. So, if you have the riding skill you're only going down this line to get something because it looks all bad ass.
Supposedly, there will be something for PvE players to get a fast one like the PvP guys do as the ulitmate Arena award that will be as equally rare. Probably something in Hyjal or Black Temple or other high level raid reward.
Personally, I can't wait. Got my epic already and would love this. I guess I know what part of my daily grind is going to be when this comes out.
Dralnuu Apr 27th 2007 2:42PM
Your link to Andrevv's guide (http://boards.worldofraids.com/topic-3335-1.html) does not work unless it is on the link's end that isn't working. Either way, I'd like to have a copy of his guide (w/screenshots) if possible. I'm really eager to find out all I can about the rep grind to be well prepared when the patch comes out.
Thanks ^_^