Grounded in Northrend
by Alex Ziebart 
Apr 6th 2008 at 3:00PM
Why can't we use them in Northrend? Well, the reasoning seems understandable. They want the progression through the Northrend content to feel natural, they want you to experience the setting they've put there. You have to admit, Outland became far less dangerous to you the moment you gained the ability to fly over every single threat there is in the world.
The most common theory on the forums is that you'll need to purchase wing defrosters or wing mittens at level 80 to regain your ability to use a flying mount. A silly, cynical concept, and I don't think that's their only option. Yesterday we discussed weather, so perhaps a blizzard in the Howling Fjord could force you to the ground, or a thunderstorm in the Borean Tundra. Alternatively, a swarm of gargoyles(and frost wyrms?) could be conveniently placed to throw you off of your mount and to your doom should you fly too high in these starting zones.
There are many different things that could be done, and I'm very interested to see which route Blizzard will go with it. You know, as long as I don't need to put mittens on my Nether Ray. Where would I even put them!?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Mounts, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
David Whyld Apr 6th 2008 3:23PM
"You have to admit, Outland became far less dangerous to you the moment you gained the ability to fly over every single threat there is in the world."
Hardly. By the time you're able to fly, you're level 70 and more than a match for 99% of the threats you come across.
Matt Apr 6th 2008 4:12PM
so your saying that on your gorund mount you could run through all the mobs and have no problems...anyways the flight makes it TERRIBLY easy to just avoid mobs. this is a good change, i paid 5k but i knew this was coming, im gonna experience the content either way, but this is a good thing.
Schadow Apr 6th 2008 5:01PM
I think they can incorporate some story and quest elements into it fairly easy. Allow flight from the start, but put a whole bunch of really nasty level-80 flying things that patrol the whole area and completely nuke flyers, or some war machines on the ground that one-shot people.
Then at level 78 or 80, have some quests to get rep with the patrolling faction.
It won't take more than a few spirit resses (died in inaccessable area) to get the hint that it's better to ride than to fly.
And we just LOVE faction grinding, don't we?
Orbit Apr 6th 2008 3:27PM
Why is there an article about this once a week?
Runstadrey Apr 6th 2008 5:10PM
So that idiots like you will have something to post about.
Greg Apr 6th 2008 3:28PM
My guess is something less creative....just dont let you use it until 78 is what they are going to do...Just you cant use that yet or something error.
Corazu Apr 6th 2008 3:32PM
A new level of riding skill to enable you to "fly in the harsh cold of northrend" would likely be the case, with a level restriction on when you can get it..and probably a gold requirement too.
Nick S Apr 6th 2008 3:34PM
while i appreciate their desire for players to experience content, taking away the flying mount is a bit of a slap in the face after a 5+k gold investment.
there are other ways to get people to experience content, other than saying "stop using your incredibly expensive flying mount and look at this thing i made!"
doyesac Apr 6th 2008 3:50PM
My non-epic flyer cost much less than 5K gold. That might explain why I'm less upset about this than you are.
At least there is a real reason why they won't let us us flyers in Northrend. Forcing us to engage with the new content is much less annoying than the fact that... they just don't have the manpower to fix the terrain in Azeroth to let us fly!
rick gregory Apr 6th 2008 4:03PM
Actually this is one reason I've not bought my 5k epic flyer (that and I don't have a gathering profession that it would help with).
One way to address this would be to let people with epic flyers start flying at non-epic speeds at an earlier level than is available to those of us on non-epics. So you'd get non-epic flying at, say, 76 and I'd get it at 78. At 78 you'd get epic speed back.
On the other hand... is this *really* a big deal? I mean we'll level up in 2-3 weeks (allowing for instancing etc). So for under a month I can't fly... I can't get too wigged out about that.
@doyesac - I think the reason they don't want to spend the time enabling flyers in Azeroth is that it's a fair bit of work and there's no level 70 content in Azeroth (Isle of Q'd aside). If they did it, they'd need to do it fully so you could fly over, say, Stonetalon. Now, when's the last time you even thought of going there? On the other hand I'm a little peeved that I can't fly over the Isle.
Suzaku Apr 6th 2008 7:04PM
I forked out 5,000g for my epic flier, and have three epic flying mounts, and I love that they're placing restrictions on it in Northrend.
It would be incredibly easy otherwise. As it stands, I can complete some 12+ daily quests, involving killing enemies over level 70, and collect about 4 stacks of materials, in the space of a couple hours.
As convenient as the flying mounts are, they truly make the game *easy*. You can bypass 90% of all the content, cherry pick your landing spots, get what you need to get, and then take off and head back.
Michael Apr 15th 2008 7:43AM
Why don't the populate the skies and give us the ability to attack and defend from the skies? Perhaps make the skies more dangerous so if we want to we can venture there at our own peril...
Jeff Apr 6th 2008 3:44PM
I think the weather conditions idea is the best fit, and I definitely understand why they'd want to keep us grounded while we level in Northrend.
Jeff
http://www.wowdungeon.com/forums/
Dan Apr 6th 2008 3:47PM
it is understandable, but at the same time I think it's a shame that they can't integrate flying in to the level design like in blades edge.
enkafiles Apr 7th 2008 1:46AM
what makes you think they won't?
Xioyn Apr 6th 2008 3:51PM
I don't mind running but how about just letting us Skim across the ground on our Epic Flyers
imparush Apr 6th 2008 6:48PM
maybe they will so when you try to fly it say you are to heavy lose some weight ;P
Slayblaze Apr 6th 2008 3:58PM
All Blizzard needs to do is to make plenty of areas in Northrend which are only reachable *by flight* - that way we can use our flying mounts there AND experience all the content. They could also place more flying mobs around, if they really are going by the "danger" theory where they don't want us to feel too safe by just flying over everything.
I'm also not really sure why they don't just make all future areas and zones in the game much much larger than current zones. That way it's almost like you NEED an epic flyer to get around - kind of like old Azeroth felt like pre-epic mount. Everything they've put in lately (thinking of Sunwell, but also all of Outland) is so small and cramped, and Northrend looks to be more of the same. They just need to strrretchhhh out the landscapes to contain a much larger space in my opinion. the side benefit would be that the mounts we have spent so much time and gold obtaining will actually be useful instead of just a luxery that isn't really necessary to progress.
Seraya Apr 6th 2008 4:05PM
I wonder if they're going to do this every expansion, take our wings away but not until 88, 98, etc.
Gotta think of the future here. What about an expansion with geography much like Netherstorm? Island hopping so ground travel isn't really an option but flying around will not skip stuff.
Villanimm Apr 6th 2008 6:17PM
This is actually what I expected the new expansion to be like. It'd be way cool if they'd design a whole continent with the ownership of flyers in mind. Mountains, valleys, islands.
Some roads on the ground would be good too, but making it impossible to travel without a flyer would actually the game a lot more interesting. But anyway, maybe this could happen after Wrath, since people are almost guaranteed to have their flyer by 80.