I’m not sure how many of you out there are mount collectors or really care about this sort of thing, but there’s a pretty big roadblock to getting a Winterspring Frostsaber that exists in Vanilla that does not exist in TBC onward.
Now in TBC, they introduced the more expensive Apprentice and Journeyman Riding skills with cheaper mounts. Apprentice lets you use all faction applicable 60% mounts and Journeyman gets you all 100% mounts.
Because of this, you could get types of mounts without needing a particular type of animal riding. This was a good way to get a Black War mount of another race without getting exalted. Winterspring Frostsaber instead of Danassus sabers.
In Classic, we’re back to the Tiger Riding, Raptor Riding, etc. in addition to expensive mounts. So not only do Black War mounts require animal-specific riding (you need to be exalted with Orgrimmar and learn Wolf Riding to use the Black War Wolf), but so does Winterspring Frostsaber. Not only does it require you to be exalted with Wintersaber Trainers to buy the mount, you need exalted with Darnassus (if you’re not a Night Elf) to get Tiger Riding.
Keep that in mind, Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes, that want to get the mount. Even if you don’t plan on using the Darnassus sabers, it’s still probably better to quest as much in Kalimdor as possible to mitigate Runecloth turn-ins since you’ll still need Tiger Riding for the Wintersaber.
They really decided to screw up the mount system. It wasn’t even like this by 1.12, but they just claimed that it should be, and are going to do it anyway. This is not a good sign. “We’re going to do this change but not that change.” Fortunately for me, I just get a steed and stick with it, but for mount collectors, you guys are really going to get ripped.
Rare Drop mounts don’t require any sort of training to use!
So you can use a Swift Zulian Tiger, Swift Razzashi Raptor, or Rivendare’s Deathcharger without ever buying a riding skill.
We were off by a tiny patch! 1.12.1 introduced the Apprentice/Journeyman Riding Skill system in preparation for Burning Crusade’s Expert and Artisan Riding.
It was like this for the entirety of Vanilla, except for the last 2 sub-patches. 1.12.1 was released September 26th, so for an entire 70 days, Vanilla had the TBC mount system, out of more than 700.
They changed the mounts to be pre 1.12.1, because they felt that the change was gearing for TBC, and since Classic wouldn’t roll into TBC, it was an unnecessary change and didn’t fit Vanilla. Additional benefits included adding a proper gold sink for the game.
Yes, these dropped mounts have no requirement to learn a certain type of riding, e.g. raptor. Also the dropped mounts, Frostwolf Howler, and Black War Wolf (requires Orgrimmar exalted + Wolf Riding) are the only non-Kodo mounts a Tauren can ride.
I thought they ‘strengthened the backs of Orgrimmar Wolf mounts’ before the end of Vanilla and Tauren could ride both Kodo and Wolves until 3.0.8 (where restrictions were removed)?
That’s a terrible logic to stand behind because there’s tons of other things that we didn’t have for most of classic, which they’re still doing, simply because of 1.12. “We want everyone to have the optimal 1.12 experience”, not with the mount system, apparently. What would have been smarter is to put it in a late phase, if they didn’t want it in at the start.
Except that by their logic those changes were made to improve Vanilla whereas the only reason for this Mount system change, was to prepare for Flying in TBC which Classic will never have.
It is what it will be in Classic, and was what it was for most of Vanilla. It’s what everyone remembers Vanilla being, for mounts. And personally, I think its a great change.
That must be, out of curiosity I checked the tooltip on them classic . wowhead . com and they do say Tauren. One of those changes that I had forgotten about.
