Mount race restrictions lifted, Tauren rejoice
by Michael Sacco 
Dec 11th 2008 at 5:30PM
As the newest member of the WoW Insider team, I thought it'd be a good idea to introduce myself before diving right into news, news, news. We might not be total strangers, though! I was the blue poster formerly known as Belfaire (the talbuk). A good number of you may be familiar with my work already, and may have even wondered where I'd gone off to in the past two months. Now you know!
That's right--I've given up the animated avatar and moved on to greener pastures. I'm still the same incorrigible talbuk you knew, though, and my unique experiences make me a real...WoW insider.
With the obligatory terrible puns out of the way, let's talk shop, yeah?
Mounts! A subject near and dear to my heart, having been one in my past life. With today's posting of the patch notes for PTR patch 3.0.8, we've discovered that mounts are no longer restricted by race, which means that any mount available to your faction is yours to ride as you see fit. Tauren, this means you can ride that skelly horse you've been after, or even a choc--err, hawkstrider. It also means that if you're a human, night elf, or draenei, you can ratchet the ridiculousness level up to eleven and ride a mechanostrider if you so desire.
Lifting this restriction also helps a number of races with getting those mount collection achievements, including the reported new one, which tasks you with collecting a square hundred mounts. Your reward? A dragonhawk mount -- surely just the thing to break you out of those "riding a huge red dragon is so boring" blues.
I've always thought that the race restriction on mounts was kind of silly and likely a legacy thing from vanilla WoW. I'm glad that, with all of the other cosmetic and customization changes Blizzard's added for Wrath, that they rethought the restriction and put all races on equal footing (or hoofing, as the case may be).
Good news for those who want to look hilarious and comical. Great news for Azerothian animal chiropractors!
Filed under: Tauren, Patches, News items, Factions, Mounts, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Rem Dec 11th 2008 4:49PM
I am not even kidding, I have been looking forward to this since I started playing WoW.
Mechanostrider, you will finally be mine...
marty.hartwick Dec 11th 2008 4:54PM
You've been waiting since you started playing for this? Why not just roll a dwarf or gnome??
Fyve & Boomstick Dec 11th 2008 6:02PM
the only bad thing about this post is that DAMMIT! Gnomeregan rep just became the most important rep to grind for my NElf, SW and EX are closer, but ow it needs to be Gnomer.
I never wanted a mechanostrider... until i started warming to the idea of a Mechano-Chopper.Suddenly, i craved the lil ugly noisy things.
tristan Dec 11th 2008 6:13PM
@marty.hartwick
Maybe he plays a shaman or a druid. Or, like me, maybe he thinks that dwarves and gnomes are terrible.
Rem Dec 11th 2008 6:21PM
Pretty much the latter. ;)
I don't have any problems with them, I just don't want to actually play them.
Justin Dec 11th 2008 7:58PM
me to
Stormkoopa Dec 11th 2008 11:34PM
Does this remove ALL race restrictions? Lets say back before 1.12 you sold a wolf across the cross faction AH before they were BOP; could an alliance player theoretically ride it now? I almost did that back then when I heard that they were dropping different riding skills and I'm going to kick myself if now it would pay off.
crsh Dec 11th 2008 11:40PM
How does this matter? Mounts are BoP as you said, no amount of twisting around can get your Alliance toon a Horde Mount (or vice versa).
Stormkoopa Dec 11th 2008 11:51PM
Pre 1.12 it was possible for an alliance toon to get a horde mount, they just couldn't ride it do to needing the skill wolf riding and the race restrictions. Now with both of those dropped I'm assuming if you still had it in the bank you could have an alliance toon with a horde mount.
Snuzzle Dec 12th 2008 1:33AM
Same here! I was so disappointed when I found out my night elf wouldn't be able to get herself a beloved mechabird.
Divinian Dec 11th 2008 4:50PM
"Mounts! A subject near and dear to my heart, having been one in my past life"
For a second there I thought you were making a sex joke ^_^
AndremedaSC Dec 11th 2008 4:54PM
thanks, I just spewed water all over my desk laughing :-D
sickbox Dec 11th 2008 8:09PM
eeewww who would mount a talbuk in such a way?!
Firestride Dec 11th 2008 9:29PM
Another talbuk or a species closely related who was a little confused?
toddcore Dec 11th 2008 4:51PM
Belfaire? WI might be worth reading again!
Alex Dec 11th 2008 5:03PM
Apparently you never stopped reading.
joerendous Dec 11th 2008 8:37PM
i lolt.
flameflash82 Dec 11th 2008 4:52PM
Now if we could only champion the Gnomes...
The_Reflection Dec 11th 2008 4:53PM
Finally! Time to start grinding Gnome rep, i wants me a mecha-chicken.
kesherz Dec 11th 2008 5:59PM
I found it a lot easier to just grind battlegrounds for the PvP Black Warstrider on my dwarf.