As a total side note: I read on the official beta forums that on the PTR right now, once you buy your Journeyman riding that your low level riding mounts all scale to 100%. If this is true and makes it live, I will be so ecstatic! I have wanted this sort of thing forever.

Anyone have any confirmation of this fact, one way or the other? Thanks so much!

@tulip, I'm excited about the scaling, too. The Black Stallion is awesome looking, and there never was a truly black fast horse.

@Claire, there is the Black War Steed (PVP mount).

Unfortunately, all the 100% horses are covered with barding and you can't see what they look like. Even if they do all look like shire horses!

This is going to be so cool!

I'm super happy about the scaling of all ground mounts !

On topic : 250g is trivial for 80's, and affordable for 60's, also is a Cata feature and therefore available to Cata buyers, so yup, no problem with me.

That really is a great change, I hate the armor covered horses. Now I can ride my black stallion mount again. What I wouldn't give to have one of the original epic mounts though, like the white stallion. To think how many people foolishly traded them in for the new ones. I bet they really regret it now. Unfortunately this was all before I started playing so I never had a chance at one.

I'm ok with it too. So this will put the riding training progression at:

level 20 - Apprentice - 4g
level 40 - Journeyman - 50g
level 60 - Expert - 250g and "Old Weather" flying - 250g (Old Weather won't be necessary while questing through Outland and Northrend but will be nice to have when going back to the old world to do holiday quests)

level 70 - Artisan - 5,000g and Cold Weather flying - 1,000g
level 80-85? - 310% flying - ?

310% flying is another 5,000g

BUT if you are cool enough to have one of those nifty 310% mounts, you don't need to buy the training.

OK. I understand the fact that they added a gold cost to Azeroth flying...wait....no I don't. And I don't understand why the comments that are so excited about paying 250g have been uprated. As it was said in a beeee-ooootiful phrase that I'm angry that I didn't coin (Damn you Ghostcrawler!!), why on Azeroth should we (people with one or multiple 80s) have to pay for "old weather flying" when we've already paid for flying, epic flying, and the original, c-prefixed "cold weather flying?" And if 250g is such a trivial fee, then why charge it at all? It's not a goldsink, which makes sense for economic reasons, and it's not free, which would make the most sense, after flying in Outland and Northrend. Did the folks who went to Northrend suddenly forget how to control those wacky flying mounts? Did people who don't want to go to Outland, Northrend, or the new Cataclysm zones discover after crazy, wacky, downright silly hard aerodynamic research a much, much cheaper secret to flying after Azeroth got blowed up by Deathwing?

In closing, I will tell you 2, maybe 3 things. Number one: I work nights, and we went to the bar after work, so I'm drunk right now. Number two: I work nights, and it's fun to have a reason to drink in the morning other than raging alcoholism. And, back to my original point...sweet Jesus, if anybody read this far, and I made a valid point, just reply and make me look good. I'm really not a cheap bastard, I just don't understand the 250g price. That is probably because, as I may have mentioned before, I have indulged in a bit of morning drinking, and I don't really understand what numbers mean.

Thank you, and good night Azeroth (and outlying areas).

The 250g doesn't bother me. It's the double 5,000g hits that annoy me a little. I know many folks have gold pouring out of their ears and that's ok, but now with Azerothian flying and 310% flying, everything seems a off-kilter to me. I wish they would revamp the lineup just a wee bit...

level 20 - Apprentice - 4g
level 40 - Journeyman - 50g
level 60 - Expert - 250g and "Old Weather" flying - 250g
level 70 - Artisan - 2,000g and Cold Weather flying - 1,000g
level 80-85? - 310% flying - 5,000g

So there's some kind of progression.

The only thing I can see that this accomplishes is it cuts off people who haven't bought the expansion from using flying mounts in Azeroth. I dislike this because I won't get to fly around as soon as 4.0 hits and will have to wait until I get the expansion, but I also object because, if it does indeed require Cataclysm, it will cut off new players leveling their mains through Outland or Northrend from flying when they visit Azeroth (assuming they haven't bought all the expansions ahead of time).

I don't see any reason for this; you could make an argument for Blizzard getting paid for their work on remodeling Azeroth, but really those people flying in Azeroth without Cataclysm would be such a minority it's unlikely to be a serious issue.

@Dazaras
It's mostly about keeping people who haven't bought Cataclysm from being able to enter the new zones(hyjal, uldum, ect). The alternative being portals and invisible walls, I'd rather have this.

I can confirm that all ground (and air) mounts scale to your highest ground and air speed respectively. I love it :)

@Blackfish

I don't see why i have to pay $25 for my driver's licence if i already payed $10k or so on a car. Or why i have to go through the whole licensing bit if i already payed for driving lessons!

:P but we must.