Breakfast Topic: The price of flight
by Amanda Dean 
Mar 21st 2008 at 8:00AM
As recently reported, Kharmen EU Talnivarr has reportedly paid 20,000 gold for the Amani War Bear. Kharmen reportedly raised the cash for the enormous land epic ride on her which raised questions about how much gold grinding would trigger a gold farming alert.
The 20,000 price tag seems pretty outrageous considering I'm still puttering along, like many others, on my regular Windriders on all of my 70s. If the Artisan Riding Skill were important to me, I'd make more of an effort to save the 5,000 gold for the mount, but I find it to be low on my priority list. There is no indication that the cost of epic flight will be reduced in the future.
The cost is high, but achievable, especially with daily quests available for easy gold. I've known plenty of players who have been much keener than I am on getting fancy flying mounts. They grind and save for weeks or months, and proudly announce their epic acquisitions. I'm sure there are a lot of other people who take the easy way out by buying the gold to pay for the skill.
Do you believe that the cost of epic flying mounts leads to gold buying?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Economy, Breakfast Topics, Making money, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Culhag Mar 21st 2008 8:08AM
Poor, poor dead horse
Edgey Mar 21st 2008 2:54PM
"I often have to run the normal dungeon daily just for cash"
Flat out lie. if you can't make more than 16g in 30 mins without doing dailies you are _doing it wrong_. any class could do that. jesus, most classes could do that with no gear.
don't try and make prot pallies seem like a hard class, they are one of the damn easiest to make money on.
Tridus Mar 21st 2008 8:09AM
Laziness and a desire to have everything right now with no effort leads to gold buying. (Not to mention a profound lack of understanding that gold buyers are the ones who cause all this account hacking to occur.)
The money is completely obtainable in game, its not even that hard anymore with all the dailies and such. Just takes a time investment.
John Mar 21st 2008 8:15AM
Time that we pay real money for every month.
Bryan Mar 21st 2008 9:31AM
It all depends on what your free time is worth to you. Those who have less of it will put a higher price on it. Also when you have more available spending money, it's value relative to your free time decreases.
It's about economics, not "lazy".
Heilig Mar 21st 2008 11:17AM
"It's not even that hard with dailies and such"
That's assuming that you do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE in game. I am the MT of a progressing raiding guild. I routinely spend upwards of 500 gold a week just on repairs, and that's not even counting consumables. I go through every copper I make on my dailies. I often have to run the normal dungeon daily just for cash, which is totally nuts for a T5 prot pally. It takes FOREVER, and costs a fortune in water if there's no mage around.
The new dailies opening up in the patch will help tremendously, but the price is currently too high for any non-dps class, because if you are busy doing anything at all besides farming for your mount, it takes WAY too long.
Manatank Mar 21st 2008 12:52PM
Why would any regular dungeon take "FOREVER" for a T5 prot paladin? What does it take? 30-40 minutes? That isn't really forever in my opinion, but it does seem like a lot of time for 16g.
Kellgrim Mar 21st 2008 8:54AM
I got 4 characters in ounts - 2 in epic mounts
tbh it wasnt hard
in fact it was so easy that I cant eleive more people dont have epic flying
even when I didnt have it I still used my riding crop like crazy ><
all it is is workng hard , doing your dailies (heroic dungeon 25g + 15-50g with drops and shards), and ofc learn your profession !!! I only sell enchant matts / leather / and BoE's that drop when doing dailies - it took me 6 months to get my first 5k skill and 9 days to earn 5.2. for my second
Synergistic Mar 21st 2008 8:21AM
Motorin'!
What's your price for flight?
jonathan Mar 21st 2008 9:19AM
In finding mister right
You'll be alright tonight
Ametrine Mar 21st 2008 11:03AM
You've got him in your sight
And driving through the night
Chinster Mar 21st 2008 8:23AM
Is the price too high? Yes. Does it encourgage gold buying? Yes. Is the epic flying mount worth it? No.
If after hitting 70 you think I'm going to grind out 5000 gold for an epic flying mount then you are bonkers. I can think of ohhhh about 1000 better things to do with any money I earn at this point. Top of that list is maxing out my tailoring and crafting the Frozen Shadoweave set. If I ever find myself with about 6000 gold and have completed most of my other goals then maybe I'll consider it.
Until then my gold will be put to much better use.
imparush Mar 21st 2008 8:56AM
0g-5000g take around 25hours if you know how to play, so why is it hard to get one? is it worth it? yeah. why? you can earn money faster from daily q.
brucimus Mar 21st 2008 8:57AM
'Is the price too high? Yes. Does it encourgage gold buying? Yes. Is the epic flying mount worth it? No."
you are wrong on every single point
Chinster Mar 21st 2008 9:39AM
Well, you convinced me.
LFD Mar 21st 2008 9:45AM
You can get your epic flying mount and full FSW, I know I did on my priest. Sure it took like 2 months of dailies to get the money but I did it and it was worth every copper.
ErsatzPotato Mar 21st 2008 11:05AM
Most agreed with you when BC was new. I posted on this site people making this claim were nuts.
I was right: person gets first epic flight, person kicks self blue for putting it off. I go along to watch it happen.
"Is the price too high? Yes."
Quests completed after hitting 70 give half the required gold.
If you spent minutes to do two dailies, every day, it would take four months for the rest of the gold. That's if the two dailies are your only non-quest source of income. Simply vendoring the unneeded quest rewards bumps it up quite a bit.
I hate dailies with a passion, but they're there. Use 'em.
"Does it encourage gold buying? Yes."
Everything in every MMO does.
"Is the epic flying mount worth it? No."
Saves time*, increases gold production, is fun.
Leveling tailoring and making the FSW set (it's great stuff) shouldn't be costing you gold.
*Seriously. Flight paths are never, ever less time. Sometimes they take twice as long. They also cost money.
Lars Mar 24th 2008 1:48PM
@imparush
It's one thing to say "it's easy to..." Prove it. Lay out exactly how to make 5,000 gold in 25 hours. I will be waiting with pen and paper ready, and if you prove to be correct, I will have a flying mount tomorrow.
Tetelestia Mar 21st 2008 8:23AM
Some people just don't know how to make gold, and if they do, having the focus to sustain the effort and not spend any for weeks to months can be difficult.
kw Mar 21st 2008 8:58AM
Some people don't know how, yeah. I know plenty of those kind of people.
My husband and I have bought four epic flying mounts between us and I have 3k gold toward another. Dailies, questing post-70, a bit of primal farming here and there.. it's easy when you set a goal ("I will make 150g today").
However, I do find myself wishing that Blizzard would sell gold themselves. I really dislike farming and daily quests end up seeming like going to work after I get home from work. I won't purchase gold from farmers as it is too risky (both account banning and hacking, though I pride myself on not having had a virus in over 5 years). If I could pay Blizzard $200 (or so) and get 5000 gold, it would be tempting...