BigRedKitty: Mario Andretti Mammoth
by Daniel Howell 
Nov 21st 2008 at 2:00PM
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.
The Traveler's Tundra Mammoth is a vehicle, not a mount. The difference is that a vehicle is part of your party, like a hunter-pet. This means that he can be buffed, just like any other member of your party.
Hunters have a nifty party-buff called Aspect of the Pack that grants 30% increased movement speed to the hunter and all members of the hunter's party, who are within thirty yards of the hunter. Our Mammoth is a vehicle, thus, AotP buffs our Mammoth. We did this movie to show you just how fast a 130% Mammoth is.
Mammoths can accept any buff, like Water Walking! And if you have a party of five people, all on Mammoths, and member of that party is a hunter with Aspect of the Pack cooking, all five Mammoth-riders will be riding at 130%! Who needs Paladins anymore!
You are invited to download the YouTube version (26MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (42MB) 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!
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: Hunter, (Hunter) Big Red Kitty
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zuldim Nov 21st 2008 2:06PM
I WANT.
I want epic flight more though. /sigh
rogue Nov 21st 2008 2:10PM
As a shaman, I'm glad they modified it recently so that you can ride your mount over water with the Water Walking buff on (it used to be mounting up would drop the buff). So with vehicles, does this still apply or would I have to buff the vehicle so it has Water Walking? (Which, I think would mean I need someone else to buff it, since casting a spell would dismount me, right?)
eblume Nov 21st 2008 2:10PM
Water Walking allows mounts to walk on water normally now. You don't need to cast it on the mount - the rider suffices.
Still, very cool!
Amaxe Nov 21st 2008 2:14PM
Yes, the water walking is not lost by mounting now, so you can cast it on your friends and they can run across the water as well.
Of course Aspect + Waterwalking would be good for the pre-Cold Weather Flying
Salacia Nov 21st 2008 2:14PM
As a priest I am a bit sad that levitate doesn't work while we're mounted, but oh well. This was a fun video to watch. I'll never ever be able to afford one of these things in the game (I still don't even have epic flying yet!) but I can dream...
Lab Monkey Nov 21st 2008 3:04PM
No need. You can jump off anything, any height, with the Mammoth. It'll die, despawn and you'll drop harmlessly to the ground.
Rollo Nov 21st 2008 8:33PM
Levitate also allows water walking, not just dropping from heights. But it doesn't work with mounts the way shamans' spell apparently does.
Gnosh Nov 21st 2008 2:19PM
Takes me back to the days before they made Aspect of the Cheetah not work for mounts.
king0lag Nov 21st 2008 2:22PM
Ok BRK, I worship you. But have you done anything since WotLK that doesn't involve your mammoth mount? Come on.
Frank Nov 21st 2008 3:16PM
if i had a mammoth, i wouldn't be doing much else, either! : )
Ogeristrasz Nov 21st 2008 2:23PM
This makes me wonder, does a paladin's Crusader's Aura work on the mammoth even though its not considered a mount like you say? If not I'm just going to stick with my charger
cjshrader Nov 21st 2008 2:26PM
If it's considered a party member like he said, then I see no reason why it shouldn't work. It would be a 100% speed mount with the extra 20% buff from the aura. It'd work the exact same way this Hunter spell works.
Brimoonfang Nov 21st 2008 2:38PM
Yes, the Paladin's Crusader Aura does work, I have tested this myself, with my Feral Druid driving the mammoth and
my Pally friend onboard as passenger.
I don't know about the Death Knight's various movement-related spells and abilities though.
What I'd like to know is: will Aspect of the Pack STACK with
Crusader aura, for Ludicrous Speed?!?
cjshrader Nov 21st 2008 2:56PM
Nah, Crusader's Aura doesn't stack with any other movement increasing effects, so Aspect of the Pack would win in this situation I imagine.
Heii Nov 21st 2008 2:32PM
Technically, it's 260% speed, not 130%, as the base character speed is 100%, an epic mount makes it 200%, and 30% of 200% is 60%, so it's 260%.
Same thing with Crusader Aura and Epic flying making it like, what, 310%?
Rollo Nov 21st 2008 8:38PM
In wow, bonus percentages are added together, not multiplied, for some reason. Divide the lap times from the movie (normal mount 31s/ mammoth 24s) = 1.3.
Gazmik Fizzwidget Nov 21st 2008 2:44PM
Oops. This was noticed in beta, thoroughly reported, and fixed for the motorcycle mounts... guess they forgot to fix it for the mammoths too.
Then again, this might just be a similar issue and not the exact same bug. In beta, the 30% AotP modifier applied to the vehicle's base speed (which is 200% of player run speed), making the actual vehicle speed 260% of player run speed -- almost as fast as an epic flying mount, but on land (and usable in Classic content)! If that were still the case, a 30-second lap would be reduced to under 20 seconds, not 24... so it looks like the 30% buff is merely additive now.
In the earlier state of the bug, Crusader Aura didn't affect vehicles. After all, it's a *mounted* speed increase, whereas AotP modified the base "run" speed of any unit in your party... even if that unit happens to be carrying you.
Anything affected by Aspect of the Pack should also be affected by the Death Knight's Unholy Aura talent, though.
Kanuris Nov 21st 2008 2:44PM
No way Blizzard's letting this slip by.
bendak Nov 21st 2008 3:20PM
Uh oh, someone call the fun police! QUICK!
Genoce Nov 21st 2008 11:15PM
"Uh oh, someone call the fun police! QUICK!"
Most likely its gonna get fixed because its only hunters who can use this "bug"... no one else :p
Give that +30% to the Mammoth as passive imo so its actually worth the 20,000g :D