Old BG Mount haunts Karazhan
by Michael Gray 
Jul 16th 2008 at 6:00PM
Akussa sent us this ghost of Battlegrounds-past, which he and some guildies spotted being rode outside Karazhan. (You can see that it's relatively recent in that it's open to the Blood Elf race ... kinda.) The source of interest in the item comes because it only requires level 55, for a "very fast mount."
What some may have thought was a bug, a patch change, or even some kind of clever exploit is actually a remnant of times gone by. A veritable gremlin of the wonder-years of a battleground where -- to get the really good stuff -- you competed against every person in your own faction.
Back in that day, you'd try and outplay every person in your own faction to earn the top-dog spot. The better you did against your faction-mates, the higher rank you got. Then, in the old Honor system, if you got to Rank 11, you could buy your faction's honor mount pretty simply.
When they changed the mount system (making training expensive, and mounts cheap instead of vice versa), if you had the Rank 11 Mount. . .you got grandfathered to have the riding skill. WoW Insider extraordinaire, Daniel Whitcomb, reports still seeing the occasional 59 twink hanging out upon ancient War Wolf. I, on the other hand, ain't seen one in forever.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mizatt Jul 16th 2008 6:08PM
This post is very confusing. Somebody saw someone riding it outside of Karazhan? Somebody sells it? What? The picture just shows the tooltip... how am I supposed to know what's going on here?
Creid Jul 16th 2008 6:13PM
Yeah, i'm confussed. Did it drop or what mizatt said they see someone ride it out karazhan?
Phi Jul 16th 2008 6:21PM
I was thinking the same thing. I read this and thought, "Wait, what was that about exactly?"
Nathan Jul 16th 2008 6:50PM
From what I read. Akussa and his guildies spotted someone riding 'Horn of the black war wolf' outside karazhan. Somehow they got the details of the mount via tooltip and screencapped it. They then sent the screencap into WoWInsider.
Now, the article is a bit of nostalgia in that the mount was from the old PvP days and was rideable from level 55 and up, despite being an epic 'very fast mount'.
Another WoWInsider blogger stated to this blogger that he has seen the occasional level 59 twink riding the old PvP mounts, however the OP hasn't seen one ever.
Basically its a bit of nostalgia, written in a slightly confusing manner. The part that I don't get is where the tooltip came from, as you can't inspect another player and see their mount details unless you mouse-over the buff that the mount gives, but even then, you don't get the kind of detail that ss provides, unless they have a mod that does that.
Yeah...
Justin Jul 16th 2008 7:04PM
Glad I wasn't the only one... lol
Ace Jul 17th 2008 10:12AM
@Nathan I they would have asked what he was riding and the guy posted the link in chat thats the only way I could think it happened unless someone has some sort of bag inspector
Mediator Jul 16th 2008 6:30PM
"WoW Insider extraordinaire, Daniel Whitcomb, reports still seeing the occasional 59 twink hanging out upon ancient War Wolf."
I'm calling BS on that, 59s received less honor in the old system than 60s, and you had to be one of the top players to be able to push to rank 11 in the old system. Also, my ex-main was a rank 11 and I don't take offense in saying that it takes no skill to get high rank, only time, please change the wording on this post because you didn't have to outplay anyone to hit rank 11, just waste a couple months of grinding 24/7 (non-stop, or you'd lose honor and have to start again)
Erixx Jul 16th 2008 9:57PM
I do recall seeing someone back then at 59 who had the lvl 60 mount. However in probably over 500 battlegrounds, that was the ONLY one i saw.
BTW: You didn't have to be a top player in the old system. You had to just play a WHOLE lot.
And back then, it also never hurt to actually get invited to the raid xD
Mediator Jul 17th 2008 9:02AM
"You didn't have to be a top player in the old system. You had to just play a WHOLE lot"
I meant top player as in, top /played time, I said in my post later that the only thing it took to get high rank was just time
Anyways its possible that a very small amount of people played a huge amount of time at 59 and even with the honor penalty (you not only couldn't get as much since you were lower level and it was harder to kill, you lost a % of your honor because you weren't 60), the phrase "occasional 59 twink" makes me believe he's BSing, since at most there's 10-20 of these 59s with rank 11 mounts spread across all WoW servers
dart Jul 16th 2008 6:40PM
So, he saw a common mount being rode by kara?
Quinion Jul 16th 2008 6:42PM
my rank 11 mount is still riding 75, as it has been forever. GM/HW's DID NOT get riding 150, they just got to keep their mount
Scylloga Jul 16th 2008 8:09PM
WRONG WRONG FAIL FAIL...
My former guildie was grandfathered when they changed the mounts. She had never payed for the epic riding skill. Lucky taht she didnt have to pay but a small amount of silver to get her flying mount since she is a druid. It was her thing to brag that she never had to pay regular price for riding training since she was level 40.
I would have had one on my mage had we not decided to raid SW and IF and the people going crazy killing and not paying attention to dishonorable kills.
Quinion Jul 16th 2008 8:14PM
theres no way in hell u can get rank 11 at lvl 40....honor gain was nerfed by levels as it still is
ZaG Jul 16th 2008 7:19PM
cant you get this with honor points now?
Slayblaze Jul 16th 2008 8:05PM
No. Not the "Requires Level 55" version like that in the pictured tootip.
Angelus Jul 16th 2008 7:55PM
I still have my Black War Tiger from when I made commander on my rogue. I keep it just becuase of that. That... and it was my first fast mount.
Proof is in the level 55 minimum. They didnt say 75 riding skill until after the change.
doobs Jul 16th 2008 9:06PM
I fail to see how this is newsworthy.
Stacy Jul 16th 2008 11:16PM
This isn't a news site. This is a WoW blog. The things posted here don't have to fall under "newsworthy" to be posted.
napolean1994 Jul 16th 2008 9:45PM
are you guys retarded wow back in the good days wit the hold pvp system wich was the shit you could get rank 11 at 40 u just have to be a hardcore pvper...
Suzaku Jul 17th 2008 3:25AM
These comments are full of people that either can't read or lack reading comprehension, or something. Jeeze.
It's a screenshot of an old version of the Black War Wolf mount from the old honor system and the old mount system. You could get these "Requires level 55" mounts by being reaching Rank 11 in the old PVP honor system.
Someone saw someone else riding this old mount around Karazhan and took a screenshot of it.