How to fly through the cold winds of Northrend
by Zach Yonzon 
Jul 27th 2008 at 2:10AM
In fact, the ability or key to fly in Northrend, called Cold Weather Flying, is a reward from a quest chain obtained in Sholazar Basin at Level 77. The so-called attunement process for flying will actually even reward money, rather than cost anything. MMO Champion has screenshots of, and Wowhead has information on the ability and quest chain. It seems like the mad rush won't necessarily be to Level 80, but a first stop at the all-important Level 77.
Filed under: News items, Expansions, Mounts, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
my2cents Jul 27th 2008 2:17AM
Very smart move on Blizzard's part, imo. If it were an item or riding school you had to buy, it would really piss people off after they already shelled out the cash to get the mount in outland. Plus, I'm not a big fan of gold sinks anyway as it just creates more business to gold farmers and justifies the purchase of gold in many players' minds.
Rooonn Sep 8th 2008 10:36AM
sorry to tell ya man but there are screenshots popping up from beta testers now showing that "cold weather flying" is 950 gold.
bundee Oct 1st 2008 5:31PM
I think this is rather stupid. They weren't expecting to implement more leveling content when they created flying mounts? Spending 5K G on something at level 70, then having to wait another 7 levels to use it again (or, as a druid, not being able to use one of your ABILITIES (guess its back to 40% travel form =/) is just short-sighted.
my2cents Jul 27th 2008 2:17AM
Oops, meant *riding skill* =P
xtrjmonaco Jul 27th 2008 2:21AM
Isn't it funny how the quest where you unlock the ability to fly in Northrend isn't even related to flying in cold weather?
Thank you Blizzard, for making 5000 gold investments useless for 7 levels.
Zach Jul 27th 2008 2:25AM
Why was it useless? You use it to the full now in Outlands. I skipped normal mounts and it's been worth every copper. On the other hand, as new player leveling to 70 and then hitting Northrend, you can probably skip on the flying mount training until you reach Level 77. If you plan to skip the rest of Outlands, that is.
If I can't fly in Northrend for 7 levels, it's not so bad. I think we could all use some looking around. You miss SO MUCH when you fly over everything.
Iwanttobeasleep Jul 27th 2008 11:37AM
Blizzard has already admitted that whatever the lore reason behind not being able to fly is, it'll basically be bullshit. At least they're not making us wait till 80, which would still be reasonable, considering flying mounts are a bit of a cheat mode when you're leveling.
DirtyPriest Jul 27th 2008 11:23PM
No way dude. When I got my epic flyer, it was FAR FAR FAR easier to do quests. Even though I was 70, I still went ahead and finished most outlands quests (for money). Doing all those quests were infinitely easier with the flyer. I think Blizzard wants to retain some difficulty and also not to completely nullify any of the terrain design they put work into. At max level (or this case level 77) it's completely optional to finish off any quests so you're sorta allowed to "cheat". :P
There is one quest where you have to plow through enemies to get to 1 named mob. With the flyer I just flew straight to him, killed him and moved on. :P
Besides, I'm so glad Blizzard did this. I don't want to give up my dragon. Though I wish they'd let you upgrade any slower mount to epic speeds though. The 40 pally mount is awesome. I miss it.
Savant Jul 28th 2008 1:36PM
I too was really disappointed in how Blizzard decided to handle this. Yeah I know they don't want people flying over the content, but simply making the mounts 'unusable' is a lazy and simple-minded way to achieve that end.
What would have been better would be to line the skies with flying enemies like the Monstrous Kaliri. If a person tries to fly at a low level, they get shot down and land on a pack of mobs, leading to an early death.
Since the flying mobs would have a level number, as a player levelled up they would not aggro the flying mobs much, if at all, once they were above the level appropriate for the zone.
So I'm not so mad that they wanted to restrict the mounts, I'm just mad they took the easy way out as usual.
Reinard Jul 27th 2008 2:55AM
I know this is unrelated, but, somehow I'd completely missed any and all pictures of Sholazar Basin, so it's mention here prompted a Google search. And, just...it's freakin' gorgeous. I thought I was excited about Northrend before, but now...oh man, I really wanna see that place in person :D
On topic: that's pretty cool. I'm glad it's a quest, and actually *rewards* money rather than taking it. Awesome :)
Charlie Jul 27th 2008 3:17AM
Thank god. I suck at saving money. This way I may actually save up some money while i level and be able to buy an epic flyer.
Arturis Jul 27th 2008 3:26AM
Interesting side note, Mandie was making her way across the Dragonblight three or four days ago when a level 70 Druid in flight form came whipping past her and on down the road. The only thing we could think of to explain it is that there must be a bug (or exploit) in beta allowing Druids to get around the flight restriction.
Slayblaze Jul 27th 2008 10:10AM
Or even better yet, maybe it's working as intended :O
(...after all, birds can fly in the cold in the real world)
Ametrine Jul 27th 2008 12:04PM
Or maybe the druid side of such a quest has yet to be implemented in the betas.
Nick S Jul 27th 2008 3:26AM
somewhat disappointingly similar to the jokes people made - wing de-icers. :-/
i'd prefer that it be disallowed by putting a lot of terribly nasty creatures in the air that lower-level players couldn't deal with. this is fine, though, i guess. not having an epic flyer for 7 levels will be irritating, but... experiencing content and all that. it's not like i'll be stuck in the 70s for long... for players who don't enjoy leveling as fast as humanly possible, it'll certainly be worse.
Snuzzle Jul 27th 2008 4:30AM
This would be an awesome idea. Make level 80 elite monsters flying in the air (such as monstrous kaliri) and then make a level 77 quest which makes players friendly with them (much like the netherdrakes). Voila. No cheezy "wing de-icers" and no players flying around before level 77.
THJ Jul 27th 2008 11:59PM
People would just fly as close to the ground as possible, or hop their flyer.
bundee Oct 1st 2008 5:39PM
All they have to do is design the quests to MOTIVATE you to stay on the ground. If I have to kill 30 mobs on the way up to the boss, I'm not gonna fly up to the boss and bail. I'm gonna have to kill 30 mobs on the way up. BAM. Problem solved.
I mean, really, all they want is a time sink.
PimpyMicPimp Jul 27th 2008 3:31AM
I wish we were forced on the ground until level 80, personally.
You miss so much flying, but once you can fly there is no reason not too.
Balius Jul 27th 2008 3:35AM
I love my epic flier...it allows me to quickly bypass terrain I'm done with in order to get to the destinations I want to be. That said, I'm not done with Northrend, and exploring it is something I'm genuinely looking forward to. Don't tell me people are already so interested in getting from point a to point b that they don't care what the middle looks like...