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by Daniel Howell 
Nov 4th 2008 at 9:00AM
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.
If you've mastered the art of the Auction House, if you've cornered the subtleties of capitalism, if you've bribed your grandmother to use your toon all day while you're at school or work and made her farm until her fingers bled, perhaps you have the deep pockets one needs to buy the Reins of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth.
Twenty thousand gold, foshizzle. Is it worth it? Watch the movie and decide for yourself.
You are invited to download the YouTube version (35MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (54MB) here.
As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!
From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.Filed under: Items, (Hunter) Big Red Kitty
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
dcwdvl Nov 4th 2008 11:08AM
Anyone of your faction can use the vendors, even if they are not partied with you.
BigFire Nov 4th 2008 9:38AM
the vehicle works on all outdoors area where you can mount.
Axolotl Nov 4th 2008 9:44AM
And just imagine all those 'goto' quests your friends will be able to take your alts to, faster leveling, dashing to quest-targets ... any guild wanna invite me with full permissions on a bountyfull guildbank? ... must ninjaloot for mount ... need 20K gold ... will not buy from goldsellers ... do not wanna ... grind it out ... -- starts foaming from the mouth and uthering some dead languages not meanth for the world of the living --
Frank Nov 4th 2008 9:45AM
i ride an elekk, so the next logical progression for me is a mammoth! i want one so much! dammit, i'm a poor, poor mage -- i'm never gonna be able to afford one... BRK, you are killing me!
Bumcrumbs Nov 4th 2008 9:46AM
What would be cool, and help cut the sting of that 20,000G price is if all money made by the vendors that come with the mount went to the owner...
For example, if I use BRKs repair guy, and it costs me 10G to repair, BRK gets either all 10G or a certain percentage...
Hmm... I like this idea even more now that it is typed out and not just free-floating in my head.
David Nov 4th 2008 9:49AM
WOO.. Thanks BRK! Been waiting for a video showing exactly how it works. I have 18k right now. Planning on having 20k on launch night.
So question... will I be able to just walk into Northrend and buy this thing on day one? I was happy they took off the rep price reductions so now I'm not tempted to wait until 80. I'll have this thing for my whole 70-80! woooo
Koroc Nov 4th 2008 9:52AM
I'm still very much undecided as to whether or not I want that mount. Sure, it's good for -other- classes - I play a mage and a warlock. The warlock does not need any reagents, and the mage.... well if you run out of Rune of Portal or Rune of Teleport on your mage, you need to get a reagent stocking addon.
So I see this being useful for rogues... hunters... engineers? maybe. Neither of my two characters need the food or water sold from the first vendor, and neither of my two characters need the reagents / poisons / parts sold from the second vendor.
It makes me wish I rolled a druid or a hunter for my main.
Oh well I guess that's 20k gold that I'm not spending for useless vendors.
For those of you saying that now you can vendor stuff faster when grinding/questing/farming.... It takes an extremely long time to grind out 20k gold in junk, which is basically what you need to do to justify paying 20k gold to vendor junk items while grinding/questing/farming. According to my achievements frame, I've looted 440g since achievements came out, and most of that came from raid bosses... I'd say that I've looted about 100g in junk by now. So buying the mount just to have vendors when I grind is still a bad idea.
david Nov 4th 2008 10:08AM
Consider this K...
20k gold seems like allot now... come lvl 80 it will still be a considerable amount but not nearly as much as you would think. I have read that dailies give 30g+ in Northrend.
And 20k gold isn't THAT hard to get really IMO even now. I pull 200+g just from isalnd dailies and vendor trash with only 40minutes/day investment. Now sprinkle in 10 more world dailies which making a routine isn't that hard, you can pull 500g a day with less than 3 hours investment by plotting a daily route (with an epic flyer of coarse).
Vendors may not seem like that great of an idea but consider the fact that you will NEVER have to worry about bag space. Your bags will never have to be stocked with food or water. A mere two slots will suffice sicne you can always pop out your mammoth and buy more. All your vendor trash will instantly be sold. The time you spend running back and forth to do daily routines adds up queicker than you think. Less time heading back to the city over the coarse of a year will easily add up to thousands of gold IMO.
Plus, it's a FRIGGEN MAMMOTH!!!
koroc Nov 4th 2008 10:43AM
@david
You're right, 20k gold is not a lot. I have 22k gold across 3 characters right now, so I could afford the mount on day 1 if I really wanted it immediately.
You seem to have missed the part where I said I play a mage and a warlock.
Mages will be able to conjure refreshment in Wrath. That's one stack that gives me mana and health back. So buying food and water is actually wasting space and gold.
Warlocks don't need food and water. I pick them up sometimes in groups / bgs, but seriously? With Life Tap, Fel Armor's HoT, and various health-regenerating spells and bandages, I will never need even 1 slot for food / water. I vendor the food and water I pick up. It's vendor trash.
You are correct that having a vendor would save time in the long term if I spent a large portion of a single day farming. I find from playing Burning Crusade that I honestly cannot stand more than 2 hours of farming or questing in any single day, and I have to break it up with an instance run or just logging off for a while. With big bags (4x20slots inventory) and only a single gear set (cloth-lol) I don't hurt for bag space when farming.
The mount is very cool, but it's not for everyone. People who need bag space will love it because they can vendor stuff faster. People who spend hours at a time farming (whether it's just one day a week or it's more regular) will love it since they don't have to go back to the city as often for vendoring, repairs, and reagents. Rogues will love it for poisons. A lot of people will love this mount.
But for me it's not worth getting. I don't need a repair npc following me, I don't need to buy reagents while I'm farming, and I don't need to buy food and water. I especially don't need to shuttle people around (and who knows? that might change later), so basically I don't need any of the features this mount has.
Other people's experiences and needs will vary.
Ice Princess Nov 11th 2008 10:18PM
As a mage, I always carry 20 stacks of those important reagents. Light Feather, Dust, Runes.
I'm glad these pets are no longer stored in my bags coz that's what made my bags full, back then.
I've just spent 6k for my second 70's epic flyer when she dinged. 200g, 800g and 1,000g in less than 30 seconds. I'm glad I did it though. There's nothing worse than flying around in a slow mount.
OMG my mage sooo soo needs this. She's my main and my pride & joy, I want to spoil her with everything!
Koroc Nov 4th 2008 9:54AM
It's sold in Dalaran, so unless you play a mage and hit 71 on day 1, or you find a level 74 mage to port you there on day 1, you won't be able to get it until you get to Dalaran.
David Nov 4th 2008 10:01AM
Can I just trek it to Dal? Should take too long with an epic mount I assume. Or is there some kind of limitation to getting into the city by foot?
Nadrysta Nov 4th 2008 10:11AM
@David
Dalaran floats in the air, and is thus inaccessible without a flying mount with cold weather flying, a mage portal, or the quest you get at level 74 to port up there.
Shame, really. Suppose it's back to Shattrath for a few more days.
LiaG Nov 4th 2008 9:59AM
Well, I'm trying to save that amount of gold, but it's going to be very hard ... at least, since I won't get WoTLK right away, I'll try to balance lvling in Outland (for a few days) and doing dailies.
No Haris Pilton bag for me ... for now.
Radiophonic Nov 4th 2008 10:21AM
20k? Easy mode. After selling a plethora of lifelike toads I managed half of that since 3.0 came out. Top that off with all the quest rewards coming from wrath and I'm g2g :)
mora Nov 4th 2008 10:27AM
2nd
I have been selling Cat carriers like crazy! buy them for 32silver and sell them for 3-4 gold.
Ice Princess Nov 11th 2008 10:19PM
Mwahaha I've been selling alliance pets for 15-20g at BB or Gadget.
Gotta love it! I LOVE YOU HORDE! You are my best customers! ^_^
mbenitez1992 Nov 4th 2008 10:33AM
DAMMIT I just got leading the cavalry and the designer bag a while back. Now I gotta farm in anticipation!
Netherscourge Nov 4th 2008 11:05AM
20K Gold?
I thought they reduced it to 15K Gold?
Rainier Nov 4th 2008 11:09AM
I already got the amount of gold, it's buyable immediately after the launch of the expansion? Would help me terrificly with questing...