Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsBreakfast 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 5 of 6)
Mirina Mar 21st 2008 10:48AM
STV=SMV >
Dean Mar 21st 2008 10:54AM
You don't farm mobs or grind dailies to make 20k gold. You grind out about 4-5k then use this to corner the market on an certain AH commodity. More gold you have, more expensive things you can monopolise and the better the return.
Turning a decent amount of money into a massive amount of money is easy.
Andrew Mar 21st 2008 10:55AM
Oh man. anyone who says the epic flyer is not worth has never flown one. it is amazing. As soon as I finished my main's I started grinding for my alt's.
ScytheNoire Mar 21st 2008 11:39AM
Paid for my epic mount after maybe, at most, two weeks. And that wasn't grinding, just doing quests at 70 and selling crap on the AH. So it's not hard to do. It's really easy to do. Just have to want it. And I have to say, an epic mount has changed my gathering abilities so much, I'm making even more money now simply from having it. It's highly worth it. Any one who doesn't have an epic mount high on their list at 70 is a damn fool.
Jack Mar 21st 2008 11:45AM
Regrettably I found out that several of my Guildies bought gold for their epic flying mounts, so yeah I think that it does. But between my wife and myself we have farmed enough Gold ourselves to get 5 toons their Epic Flyers. The proliferation of Dailies has really been a big help (as intended by Blizzard apparently) so it can be done. Keep at it and stop buying gold! :)
Tim O Mar 21st 2008 11:45AM
“Dean said...
You don't farm mobs or grind dailies to make 20k gold. You grind out about 4-5k then use this to corner the market on an certain AH commodity. More gold you have, more expensive things you can monopolise and the better the return.”
Dean is right about using the AH to help you earn gold. In this game time = money, I raid 4 times a week (20 hours) and have a full time job (40 hours) and have over 70k gold. The only “free” time I have to play is Friday nights and Sunday mornings and I do 5 mans those days. I don’t farm/grind/do dailies… so how do I make gold… I buy matts off the AH, make stuff and sell it.
I will buy 3000g worth of ore on the weekend (when is lowest priced) prospect it, sell the cut gems during the week (when gem prices are the highest) and earn about 6k-7k
I buy herbs to make flasks, it cost me about 39g to make a flask and I will only make 40 flasks (the same kind flask) at a time and I will get a proc of 10-18 FREE flasks, so I sell the 40 to break even on the herbs I buy and the FREE flasks is all profit (say 15 flasks sells for 44g each = 660g FREE for doing NOTHING) I do the same for mana and health pots.. and I have a friend that is a pot mastery to make them for me.
As Dean said… look at the AH and corner the market on an certain commodity, on my server Thorium ore goes for 28g - 31g a stack. So I have 2 alt toons parked at Thorium nodes and in 20min I can hit 9-11 Rich Thorium nodes and they respawn every 1hour 15min. So on my “free days” I might hit them 3-4 times a days, on my raiding days I will hit them as soon as I log in and if I’m not too tired, hit them when I log out. And I look at AH to see what is low, buy it all and relist it hint silk ~ mageweave cloth.. hint hint
There a few times I grinded for rep.. gots TON of cloth, made bags… that’s free money too
So with out investing a lot of my time I can (anyone can) make gold easy…. As I’m at work writing this…. I know there will be 500g – 800g sitting in my mailbox waiting for me when I get home from the stuff I put on the AH last night (and last night was a raiding night woot)
Mutak Mar 21st 2008 12:02PM
It's really not that hard.
Step 1: Get a mod that tracks your gold. I like MoneyFu for FuBar.
Step 2: Always make sure your daily total coming in is greater than you total going out.
Step 3: Level to 70. You should make your first thousand just leveling.
Step 4: Do more quests. You can easily make a couple thousand more just by doing easy quests after you hit 70, and that's not even counting daily quests.
Step 5: Dailies. No whining from healers and tanks please - there are several no-fighting quests and you guys have it easy when it comes to finding parties for the dungeon/heroic quests.
idburns Mar 21st 2008 12:13PM
One of my guild mates is almost done making the gold for his THIRD epic flying mount. He is a married dude with a full time job and still raids with us at least 2 nights a week. He doesn't buy gold, he just loves farming. He is constantly donating money to the guild bank and was solely responsible for buying the our 2nd and 3rd bank pages.
Dunwich Mar 21st 2008 12:19PM
I managed it on my main. It was a chore. Spent most of the time selling ore. Then I went and earnt a Netherdrake. Took an age, but I just mined for an hour or two an evening.
Oh, and way back when (You know, when Blackwing Lair was the big thing) I got my Gnome a Swift Grey Ram. 900 on Runecloth, 900 on the Ram itself. Worth it, though.
Smith Mar 21st 2008 12:21PM
Can't speak to the flying mounts but as a druid herbalist, epic flight form was the best money/time I ever spent in this game.
Substantial speed increase, instant cast and not having to shift out to herb has sped up my game tremendously.
Mcscruff Mar 21st 2008 3:14PM
Well, it wouldn't be 'epic' if it was "easy", now would it. :)
Granted, it's easier for some than others, and yes, that's one seriously hefty fee, but it really is pretty cool once you have it.
Theserene Mar 21st 2008 3:17PM
Everything in the game will eventually lead to gold buying because there will always be people out there who think they are entitled to everything NOW without working for it.
Generally the same sort of people who get themselves into massive credit card debt in real life too because they have no sense of actually saving or working for something.
SaintStryfe Mar 21st 2008 3:28PM
if your casual, and want to have fun stuff, then i only have one word for you:
Auctioneer.
Learn it and live it.
It's dead simple - download + install Auctionner. Make an AH Mule toon. Scan the AH for a week or two daily or more to learn the lay of your server's land. take some seed money from your main - 20 or 30 g. Scan and search for low level greens people post for thier default values -
SaintStryfe Mar 21st 2008 3:30PM
(sorry, Less then bug bit me again.)
less then 75 silver usually. Most servers, they'll sell for 2+ gold. plow your profits back into buying more items. Watch for deals. Ignore "of the Whale" and "of the Falcon" (No one wants them). Any green/gray items you don't want, send 'em to your alt for sale, either on the AH or to a vendor.
Using the bank alt does a few things: It prevents you from running to a major city daily, it keeps your play time more accurate (if your a geek and care about that like I do), and it keeps the majority of your cash out of your hands and in your "piggy bank".
Last month I convinced my guild leader to allow me to buy a bank tab, and allow members to donate items for sale. Using my AH method above with donated items, three weeks later our guild bank has grown from 50 gold to 2500.
Swear to Valen it's true.
Ashwin Mar 21st 2008 6:05PM
Once I hit 70, I started saving up for a flying mount, I didn't do instances or spend money on enchants or gear, I only hit the AH for health pots.
I also sold all the stuff lying in my bank in a "clearing sale".
I did all the SMV quests and did my dailies regularly
This way I got my epic flyer in 3 weeks, playing about 2-3 hours a day.
The epic flyer paid for itself soon enough.
Oh and to all those who call owners of epic flyers "no lifers", I would like to say I did this while doing uni full time and going out with my mates regularly.
Finally the epic flyer saves you a lot of RL time, I can now get my WoW fix in less time now that I don't spend so much time puttering around trying to earn money or getting from point A to B.
Falathar Mar 21st 2008 6:31PM
I got my Epic Flying mount 2 days ago, it took me almost 2 months of dailys and farming.. I am also a Miner.. I was broke after spending the 5200 for training and mount.. 2 days later i have over 1200 gold back in the bank from dailys and Mining.. is it worth it YES! no doubt in my mind. And like said before let someone fly around for 20 minutes on one and see if they still say it isn't worth the money.!
Suzaku Mar 23rd 2008 8:57PM
5000g is, I found, not difficult at all to obtain. With mining, it can easily be farmed in the space of a week or two, or a couple months just from doing daily quests somewhat casually.
The main obstacles people seem to have are:
a.) They don't know how to save their money.
b.) They take the stance that it's impossible before they even try.
Best solution to a, I find, is to stop wasting money on stuff. The last time this topic came up on wowinsider, a blogger said something to the effect of, "I try to save, but it's not working. I keep spending it on my alts. What am I doing wrong?"
Well, the way you save money is by not spending it. My tactic was to mail it all to a rarely played alt, so that at the end of the day, my main had maybe 50g at most. It's amazing how quickly it starts to pile up.
The solution to b. is to simply not give up before even trying it. If you think it's too hard and don't try, THAT's the reason it's too hard for you. It takes, at most, maximum effort for a quick return, or at the least, minimal effort to obtain it over the course of a couple months. With the expansion being out for so long, there's little excuse for anyone who was level 70 within the first few months to not have been able to obtain the skill by now.
Moreover, with 2.4, there are simply a huge amount of daily quests to perform. On the PTR, doing only the Isle-related quests, I was able to make over 1000 gold in a week, not doing anything else, at all, for a minimal amount of effort.
I also found that obtaining the flying mount was rather freeing, as there's nothing else in the game, currently, to sink gold into. On top of that, it increases your potential to earn gold, allowing you to farm twice as much in the same amount of time, and thus earn twice as much money (or the same amount in half the time). It also opens up the daily quests on the Netherwing Ledge, which in addition to allowing you to farm new (lucrative) nodes in those areas, also award close to 20g each and are (mostly) easily completed.
And, to make things better, knowing that there aren't going to be any new riding skills in Wrath, and that the amount of gold obtained will only increase, it's only going to pave the way for even more riches, and being able to easily afford whatever Blizzard's new timesink might be.
Juliah Apr 14th 2008 5:42PM
"I also found that obtaining the flying mount was rather freeing, as there's nothing else in the game, currently, to sink gold into."
You must not be a crafter. Skilling up = gold sink.
EpsilonDXIII Mar 22nd 2008 1:10AM
If you do every single quest in Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terrokar Forest and Nagrand, along with some instance runs in those zones, you can hit 70 before you even start to explore Netherstorm and Shadowmoon. Now both those areas have an approximate combined wealth of 4000 gold gained after hitting 70 (because you get gold instead of exp).
Both Netherstorm and Shadowmoon can be easily travelled with a normal flying mount, a tad slow but still doable. The gear isn't half bad either so you're not really losing anything here... Combine that with doing the PVP daily, normal instance daily and Ogri'la dailies and you can have 5000 gold pretty easily and relatively fast.
An increased benefit from getting your epic flying mount is doing the netherwing grind which in the end will have given you 3000 gold and a free netherwing drake mount :)
Sure it's time consuming... but it's an MMO, it shouldn't have to be fast! If fast is what you want then go play a racing game or fighting game and stop QQing!!
Angus Mar 22nd 2008 1:28AM
My wife and I started saving up. She gave me a 1400G loan and I got a skyray (guess how I made a large chunk of the Gold.) I went to netherwing. Next day she had 300 back and I still had 100 for repairs. 1 week later she was paid off.
Does it encourage gold selling? About as much as BoE Purples do. Is it worth it? Yep.
I have only used the free ride from Skettis to Ogrila. Everything else is on my mount with a riding crop.
If I see an herb I need, I stop and grab it.
Quests take almost no time.
Bombing runs go from a pain to a 3 minute activity.
It's worth it.