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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCataclysm Beta: Old weather flying will cost 250g
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 9th 2010 at 11:00PM
Zarhym -- New Flight SkillWe've added a new flying skill called Flight Master's License. When World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is released, players who purchase the expansion will see this skill available from flight trainers for 250 gold once they reach level 60. This new skill is required for flying around all Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms zones, including the new level 80-85 zones.
Zarhym -- New Flight SkillThe cost for this is 250 gold. The name has also changed. I've updated my original post with the new information. :)
Previously, during the Twitter Dev Chat in April, the developers responded that more than likely, players would be able to fly from the beginning without purchasing the tongue-in-cheek "Old Weather Flying." As for why Blizzard is now adding such a skill, I have no idea. I don't mind ponying up the gold, considering the rate at which gold is earned in Cataclysm feels much faster than in the original game. My best guess is that Blizzard still wants flying in the old world to feel special and be a goal players will strive to reach for rather than stumble across. Also, it appears that if you do not have the Cataclysm expansion, you will not see this ability as trainable -- if you want to fly in the old world, you'll need the new expansion. What do you think about the Flight Master's License?
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 9)
mingdi9 Sep 9th 2010 11:10PM
"players who purchase the expansion will see this skill available from flight trainers for 250 gold once they reach level 60"
Mystery solved, they're adding it so only people who buy Cataclysm will be able to fly in Azeroth.
tulipblossom Sep 9th 2010 11:13PM
Oh wow, very nice catch. That didn't even dawn on me, when reading the news.
Mathew Sep 9th 2010 11:15PM
Yeah, just added this in. Makes sense to me! Good catch.
Loopy Garou Sep 9th 2010 11:16PM
Ah, that makes sense. Make it a skill and set a nominal fee so it remains Cata-exclusive.
Nonette Sep 9th 2010 11:30PM
Not only that, it prevents players without Cataclysm from entering Hyjal, Uldum and Twilight Highlands without having to make those areas artificially barred to flying into from outside. I don't know if they currently are blocked off somehow on the Beta, but there you go, now it won't be necessary anyway.
Pyromelter Sep 10th 2010 12:33AM
That is exactly what I was thinking. It's not the 250 fake gold they are after, it's the 60 bucks of real money they are "encouraging" you to pay up for.
Matthew Sep 10th 2010 12:41AM
Sounds fair to me. You want the Cat features? buy Cat
250 gold is piddlin's to a 60. Heck, it cost me more than that to learn fast riding! :\
Moorit Sep 10th 2010 12:50AM
@ Nonette,
What if I take my freeloading friend into Hyjal on my rocket mount?
Sean Sep 10th 2010 1:33AM
What a load of crap. 250 gold PER CHARACTER really adds up after the first couple of characters that have to buy it. Why not just have it automatically applied to all characters on an account when you buy Cataclysm, then? You get a free pet when you get an Authenticator, so give free Azeroth Flying when you get Cataclysm.
Like it wasn't bad enough that to go from 280% flying to 310% was 5000 gold PER CHARACTER, now we have this to make us waste our time. This is the biggest mistake (and one of the only) Blizz has made with this expansion.
valkry Sep 10th 2010 1:57AM
Wow vanilla account, lvl to 60, get some gold, get all 3 expansion trials... will you be able to buy it then?
Drew Higgs Sep 10th 2010 2:37AM
Actually you can run into Mount Hyjal via a tunnel in darkwhisper gorge south end of Winterspring (which Ive looked through on live), so for that region anyways flying isnt necessary to get there, so if you have Cataclysm but can't afford 250 gold somehow, no worries, there is a tunnel door for all the poor!
Ice Sep 10th 2010 6:22AM
Ok trying for 4th time to send this now since wow.com comments seem to bug a lot!
You can just do dailies in wotlk and get 600g PER DAY with EACH 80 YOU HAVE. If you start doing dailies now and lets say cata comes in 90 days: you would have 54 000g in start of expansion with 1 alt doing dailies 20+ dailies everyday and if you have 4 80s like me you would have 216 000g total. Gold really is not the issue, now is it?
People HAVE to realize that while the this skill is available at 60 theres NO reason for leveling alt/main to get it at level 60. This is important part of the announcement!
First of all, from my understanding, this ONLY applies to old world and cata zones and you would STILL need to get base flying skill.
When you are 60 you wont be leveling in old world for pretty long atleast, even if its totally revamped. Unless you are making loremaster alt and that really is exception: In this point you most likely have mains with atleast 5k gold combined, because you are bored or have too much spare time, 250g is no problem.
This is only meant mainly for 80+ characters who want to fly in old world and Cata zones. Just because its buyable at 60 it wont mean you should get it, you will be in outland by the time you hit 58-60.
With this announcement as fact it pretty much says that you would still need to buy flying skill if you wish to fly in Outland or even fly AT ALL. But you can just get "Loaned mount" for free if you are just breezing thro northend in cataclysm times and even in outland.
So to recap:
You need to get flying skill+this one to fly in old world and cata zones. There is no need to buy flying when you are doing outland and northend as they are easily done by land mount like they were designed and done before the whole mount revamp. The saved time is only marginal when you do LFG and are decked in helmet, cloak, chest, shoulder, weapon, trinket heirlooms.
I had chest and shoulders and was 65 before I even left hellfire as I was also doing dungeons thro LFD with my recent alt and I had ZERO need for flying mount during that time, I never needed to cross hill to save whopping 2 seconds or 20 seconds to "not kill 5 mobs near the quest item".
When you are done doing quests in outland and northend you easily have more than enough gold just from questing itself. Northend questing gave easily one thousand gold at first time without LFD, as that didnt exist that time. Since you are did not spend that on northend flying or outland flying, you can get this 250g flying without hurting gold flow you are never going to use for anything else, anyway.
By the time you are 85 you prolly have gotten 2k gold from questing itself, just like in northend.
Jack Miles Sep 10th 2010 7:26AM
Aww man. I know i'll be getting the expansion anyway, but it means we'll have to wait 'til release to explore Azeroth, which is when we'll probably be leveling in the new zones.
I was hoping we'd have a coupla weeks to hunt down all the new tauren pallies and gnome priests.
Tbah Sep 10th 2010 8:02AM
@Valkry:
I'm not sure, but I don't think you can get a trial over a trial. So you can ask: a lvl 60+ char, WotLK xpack and a trial of Cata. Can I buy it?
That I don't know. I don't believe so, though.
Utakata Sep 10th 2010 12:54PM
Well...it's a good catch, but one that should not be surprising. Since we had to pay for the other expansions in order to get our flying priveledges, why should this be any different? The only real differences this time is that they're not taking us to the gold sink cleaners in order to aquire it.
Sehvekah Sep 10th 2010 4:38PM
@Moorit
I'm pretty sure that mount has ejector seats(at least according to the in-game mail you get with the rocket), so that'll explain that nicely. Get too close to the Cata zones and they'll be thrown off the mount(also note that no parachutes are included with the mount... ).
Mardoc Sep 9th 2010 11:10PM
Pointless?
If their goal is to make flying on Azeroth feel special, then 250g isn't enough of a barrier. But they can't charge too much higher because a lot of the new content will have been designed with flying mounts in mind, and cutting off a lot of the playerbase from the content is a no no.
Ultimately, I couldn't care less about having to pay, 250g is nothing, but it's a shame... not only that Blizzard have gone back on their word, but that they think that this 250g will have ANY affect whatsoever.
chilisizzle Sep 10th 2010 12:36AM
lol "their word"? I don't remember them promising anyone anything (pony!!!), just saying "more than likely" we wouldn't have to buy new riding skill.
Mardoc Sep 10th 2010 3:12AM
Perhaps I chose a bad turn of phrase. As I stated before, I couldn't care less about having to pay for Old Weather Flying. But my point still stands that if they charge too much more than 250g in order to make flying in Azeroth feel special (as the article suggests) then they'll alienate those who can't/won't raise the thousand(s) required. Likewise, by having no charge at all, they run the risk of making flying mounts in Azeroth a "right" and not a privelege. You should, of course, have to expend effort in order to reap rewards, and if spending a bit of gold is considered an adequate amount of effort required to obtain the reward of flying mounts in Azeroth, then so be it.
However, I don't think it's necessary to put this levelling tax in. Let's be fair, who can't afford 250g these days? It seems to serve no purpose. In my opinion, for what it's worth, if Old Weather Flying is supposed to feel special, as epic flying did back in TBC, then the cost of obtaining the riding skill should be much MUCH higher. 250g won't make a difference, either to making the player feel that they've earned something, or to remove excess gold from the economy. If this is their aim, then 250g isn't enough. And if it isn't their aim, and they only want those with the expansion to get flying mounts, why have a charge at all? They've already made their money through expansion sales.
PictoKong Sep 10th 2010 11:23AM
The only reason they putted a price is because, as always, nothing is free ;), they could have sold it for one copper, i could not care more. If you read correctly, this is only to PREVENT thoses without the expansion from having an expansion FEATURE. Likewise, they are not allowing people without WotLK to get in northend.
Also, by making flying "expansion buyers only", they dont really need to install all of the new zones in the pre-cata patch as you will not be able to see them without this skill (without the expansion, that is). They have always gated the content before, and right now, in the beta, hyjal, vajir (sorry for spelling), uldum and TH arent part of any loading screens. IIRC, Outlands and Northend are on a separate loading right?
So really, 250g? i got 20k and i didnt saw it go up. go do 1 day of dailies that is.