The future of Mounts and Flying in WoW

I’m essentially copying and pasting my Twitter thread that I made of this, so apologies for any grammar mistakes or lack of conviviality. Here’s the link to the thread if anyone wants to discuss it.

https://twitter.com/krelivane_/status/1486244015549054978

Mounts as convenience is incredibly outdated. Players (for the most part) no longer get excited by simply increasing their movement speed or simply gaining the ability to move on the Z-axis. Mounts need to be gameplay, mounts need to be fun.

The best example; is Guild Wars 2. Mounts in that game have traversal mechanics: speed boosting, jumping, gliding and player input based flying. WoW needs this at the very least, if they want world traversal to be even slightly entertaining anymore. Mount mechanics for a WoW context; take a page from the book of Battle Pets, with Mount Types. Beasts can jump boost & stun on landing. Dragons can fly and land with fire. Aviary can speed boost and push back enemies with a gust of wind. Undead can go incorporeal, etc. The greatest successes in WoW have been when innovation has been a key development philosophy. I can’t be the only one feeling that that sense of innovation has been lacking in recent years - although most certainly not for a lack of tying. We see you, hard-working devs <3

Zones and world content need to be built with “flying in mind”. For too long flying has been that tool of convenience, not a serious tool for gameplay. The last time I ‘enjoyed’ flying in WoW was ages ago; flying up to the floating islands in Nagrand, with no content. Or the Sons of Hodir in Northrend where it was a simple daily quest hub. Expand on this! We need that core innovative philosophy back to recreate a sense of environmental scope into the world(s) we play in. World quests, zones, quest hubs, treasurers, rares, events, etc - need to be built with this “flying in mind”. It’s okay to gate content behind flying; it makes obtaining it incredibly rewarding, just DON’T TIME GATE how flying is obtained (it could still be a grind though).

TLDR; mounts in WoW need to be updated. Give them traversal mechanics and make world content specifically for flying.

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I was planning to write something about this myself, glad you’ve brought it up :>

I think this is a fun idea, one I’ve played with myself, but it might be a little trickier to do this right than at first glance. A lot of players choose their mounts because of what they look like, and a lot of those same players would also want to choose what is perceived to be the ‘best’ mount. Giving mounts traits that make them better than others means everyone will be using those for this and that purpose, think back to how everyone used to ride on the water strider mounts before mount equipment replaced that. If, for instance, it turns out dragons are just the best mounts, now everyone are riding dragons. Mount types would have to be designed with that in mind.

While I do like mount types, I think it would be even better to expand on an existing mount system that is rather lackluster: mount equipment. First, I would make mount equipment fit to individual mounts rather than all of them, or perhaps having the option to give individual mounts the option to wear a piece of mount equipment that would override the one that applies to everyone - or just have the ability to unequip that mount equipment and move it to another mount without destroying it. This would open up for being much more creative with said mount equipment, since you can have multiple different types of it. It could even be used in tandem with mount types.

Generally, I like the idea of having several different mounts that you would use in different situations. I used to have one mount I would use for traveling on the ground, a flying mount for flying areas, and the water strider in case I had to run over some water. Now I’m down to the former two, which fits much neater into my macros, but I feel like I have lost something. It’s cool when you have different mounts that you can use for different situations, they feel like useful tools that you can use to enhance your gameplay.

I would be pretty happy to see more content that you can only access with flying! Hidden areas or even quests that require you to fly around would be pretty neat. My personal favourite moment of flying being used for gameplay was leveling during Wrath of the Lich King, and reaching the Storm Peaks for the first time. With the ground mount, you felt so small in the face of those impossibly tall mountains, only able to access a tiny portion of the zone - and then you’re given the reins to your flying mount, finally being able to conquer the verticality of the zone… a feeling I think will be really hard to recapture nowadays, sadly!

I think a big problem with flying as a tool for gameplay, is that it is really, really powerful and it can be very hard to design content around it. Making content that requires flying doesn’t fix the problem that content that does not require flying feels trivialised because of it - which in my opinion is a much bigger problem.

Flying does not just allow you to get somewhere faster, it also allows you to skip a lot of content, avoid combat and world PvP, for druids it can even allow you to pick up items without going out of flight form to escape instantly in case you aggro an enemy. Restricting flying is actually a good way to combat that problem, although, it can be done without removing the ability to fly outright until you have unlocked it.

A really simple idea brought to my attention after I wrote about this in another thread (9.2 and the increased flying grind) would be to simply design more indoor areas out in the open world; areas where you can’t just fly your way in and avoid everything. You can still fly to and away from the area, but you are going to have to get down on the ground and actually experience the content as it were. Other ideas is to restrict flying in certain areas by adding threats in the air; this already exists in the game, as some areas will dismount or damage you if you linger for too long and/or don’t dodge the attack. I’m sure there are other ways to do this that I haven’t thought about, too.

I’m of the opinion that the problem is twofold; it’s not just level design that doesn’t take flying into consideration which is a problem, it’s that flying is just too good. Nerf flying!.. I’m joking. Sorta. I wrote in the other post I linked above that:

I understand why no one wants to change this system as it exists now, though, because people might find it jarring to have this insanely convenient system made more complicated.

And I would be pretty upset if I read in the patch notes that flying was just straight up nerfed, myself, and I’m here advocating to change the system - if it’s a tough sell to me, it’s a really hard sell to people who want no changes. It would be a really unpopular decision to change how flying works right now, even if I think that is probably going to be healthier for the game in the long run.

I’m actually really interested in hearing devs’ thoughts about flying: what are the challenges with flying, how does it influence level design, have any changes ever been considered to the system?

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Thanks for the detailed response! It’s good knowing that I’m not the only one a little bored of mounts where they currently stand.

This is a great compromise and seems a lot more practical. It also adds a layer of customisation and player agency that would be very appealing. Mount equipment as ways to enhance movement, avoid enemies/being dazed, deter enemies or straight up traverse the world in various fun ways - sounds perfect.

This. I used to have a flying and ground mount separately bound but now that the “random favourite mount” button exists, I just use that. Now it just feels a bit boring - all that changes are the textures in the centre of my screen; mechanically though, it’s all the same.

Balancing something as powerful as flying is, undoubtedly, a hard task. I just know that there is a more creative, involved and gameplay driven solution that can bring mounts as they are, out from being stuck in 2007.

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I totally forgot mount equipment existed

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Which goes to show how little of an impact it’s had so far. Expanding on this already existing system could be great.

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I couldn’t be any happier with the Dragon Riding system… Well👏 done👏

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I agree, the dragon riding is really cool and I hope it’s going to be well-enough liked that we’ll get to see more of it in the future :>

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Aerial PvP!!!

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“A big push was to make the experience of moving around the world feel more three dimensional,” Jeremy continues. “That idea of conservation of momentum, of caring about when you stop, because you don’t want to stop, you want to keep going fast. How do I get from A to B as fast as possible? Finding those different spires to jump off of becomes an interesting thing to look for as you’re traversing the world.”

I read Jeremy Feasel’s interview with Ausgamers and just have to gush about what’s been said on flying. I’m super happy that it’s a very active process, something that requires your attention and something that rewards your skill in flying. I wrote about this in another thread:

… and they’ve gone and made it much better than just flapping your wings! Momentum, physics, reading your environment… this is how you fix flying. I’m really hoping the Dragon Isles is going to be designed with this in mind, too, because fixing the process of flying is half the job - level design is also important!

I really hope this standard of movement is going to go forward into the future as well, and I hope we’re going to get to do this in old zones as well - and doing it with old mounts, too. Perhaps they get separate types of flying, going back to the suggestion of mount types having different means of flying… but that’s probably a bit too far into the future to really start talking about :>

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I’m happy in the sense that Blizzard is willing to take such a bold risk. If done properly, it could quite fun. If done poorly, it could make traversing the zones in Dragonflight tedious.

It sounds like that our regular flying mounts will be grounded in the Dragon Isle zones. The only way to, “fly” will be utilizing the new Dragonriding system.

I’m somewhere in the middle in regards to that aspect of it. I’m willing to see how it plays out, get me information about it, test it out for myself if I get into Beta.

Cool concept with the potential to be good if done properly. I’m willing to give it a chance.

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As per this interview:

This is a terrible decision. (The fact it already has 177 comments, most of them negative, should be a good indicator.)

Why is this terrible? Because you guys told us that the dragons we train aren’t just “mount up, fly where we need, and be done” No. It’s described by Muffinus as a minigame where you have to build altitude and speed before you can really go anywhere, and that things like speed will be capped until you unlock further training.

I don’t want to play a minigame anytime I want to fly to a rare spawn that gets called out, go back to a questgiver, etc.

Yes, we can use a ground mount, but by giving us the option to fly - that you’ve stated will be faster than traditional flying mounts eventually - there’s no reason to ever use our ground mount.

Which invalidates hundreds and hundreds of mount choices in an entire expansion.

We need clarification on if this is a permanent thing through the entire expansion, or if you’ll give us access to our flying mounts later in the expansion similar to how Pathfinder was gated.

I do not mind if you don’t have regular flying mounts at launch. Add it in 10.1 or 10.2.


Not to mention, I have serious concerns about the alt-friendliness of this system. Will the flying mount research be account-wide? Or am I going to have to start out with the same old slow dragon every single time I start a new character in the Dragon Isles?

Having something that you guys have said is integral to traveling in the isles do the sheer size of the continent, tied behind a progression system will feel horrible if there isn’t alt-friendliness from the start.

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I think calling it a minigame is about as good of a description as calling moving around on the ground with your abilities a minigame. The way dragonriding is described is as having to actively put in some effort in order to be more efficient at traveling around, just like how you’d actively try to be more efficient by using abilities like sprint, heroic leap, disengage or shadowstep. The reward being that you get there faster than you otherwise would have with the passive flying that exists today.

I do share some minor concerns over this, if flying is mechanically tricky or clunky, it’s going to feel bad. From the little footage we got, however, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be that much more complicated than regular flying, maybe it’ll be slightly more complicated if you want to get somewhere as fast as possible.

This has always been true as long as there’s been flying available. I don’t use ground mounts in Shadowlands either, unless flying is disabled in an area such as the Maw. The concern that you’re never going to get to use your other mounts is a somewhat more valid one; it depends a lot on how often you’re traveling in areas where flying/dragon riding is available. I would have liked it more if I didn’t have to fly a dragon to use this new way of flying, but I wouldn’t be surprised if dragon riding is a test run for something more universal in the future.

It ought to be, there shouldn’t be direct catchup for alts, it should just be shared across all characters from the get-go.

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Just to touch base back on this, I’ve been having discussions with others on the regular general forum, I agree with with a lot of what has been said.

I feel that at some point later on in the expansion, flying mounts should be enabled in the Dragon isles. Not behind a Pathfinder achievement, but after a certain bulk of time has passed and everyone has had a chance to get full use out of their Dragonriding experience.

I understand that the developers have designed the zones with the new Dragonriding system in mind. I absolutely respect and appreciate that fact. With that said, I don’t think that they should double down on Dragonriding to the point where they never allow us to fly using our own flying mounts while in the Dragon Isles at some point while the expansion is still active.

The reason why I don’t think it would be a good idea because it would be a disservice to people. Just like even the developers themselves, I’m sure they have enjoyed collecting flying mounts over the years. I’m sure they enjoy expressing themselves using whatever flying mount they want. I am the same way, I love to use druid flight form, to never be able to do that at any point during Dragonflight wouldn’t feel very good at all.

I really hope that the developers and anyone that works on the team really takes this into consideration.

Being able to fly in a new expansion has been a hot topic and debate going all the way back to WoD. Let’s not put another wall up and start a new debate, just allow both to coexist at the same time, even if it’s later on in the expansion, a healthy and elegant compromise and solution as far as I’m concerned. Thanks for listening.

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I think this is a good compromise. It’s probably going to be faster and more efficient to use dragon riding anyway based on how it’s been described, but having the option to use regular mounts is good in my book.

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I agree, the last thing the next expansion needs is another system that players have no choice but to be subjected to. Personally, I think just allow flying with any mount and just make Dragonriding so good no one wants to use their other mounts. That’s how you will know you’ve made something fun, people will keep playing it. You only need forced systems to make people do something they don’t want to do.

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Couldn’t have put it better myself. Allow both, while making Dragon Riding feel and perform better.

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I would like to take the announcement of Dragonflying adding more complexity to air travel to reflect on the possible improvements for world PvP. In the past mounting up on a flying mount meant you basically got away when having max flying speed.
In Dragonflight you have to be aware of your current position and possible escape routes since other player pursuing you might be able to catch up anyway.

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The details that we have for Dragon Riding do bring to mind the potential of world PVP; and moments of narrowly escaping an enemy player due to differences in terrain and momentum.

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Would be really nice to see how it plays out honestly as long as its not like dragon mounted means you always get away like druid flightform

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Ok, ok, i’m a necromancer and i want to revive this topic to expand proposals for mount utilities.

Mounts for Multiple Characters

I’ve always had the perception that mounts offering the capability to transport other players give them a sense of being useful to others in some way. I believe it would be interesting to provide more mount options with these characteristics in the game and for purchase in the store.

In other MMORPGs, players have the opportunity to acquire mounts in the store that can accommodate two, four, or even eight players, corresponding to the maximum size of a raid in the game without the need for the recruit-a-friend or requiring a large group questline like the Hivermind mount, which restricts its use only to players who have completed the quest.

This possibility could be expanded in WoW, and there is no shortage of ideas to expand these options. On the Reddit forum, a suggestion made by a user last year (2023) received over 3,200 likes. This suggestion proposed a carriage-type mount, where four characters could sit inside while one would be on top, guiding the mount.

Furthermore, offering the option for players to customize the carriage, allowing them to swap out the horses they have collected in the game, would be a rather unique feature.

In Dragonflight, the option to carry up to two additional players, totaling three, could also be made available. In Warcraft 2, there were troop carriers that could be implemented as a maritime option in the future, along with other options already present in the game.

In summary, there is room to expand these features in mounts both within the game and for purchase in the store because the old recruit-a-friend mounts are no longer available or only appear at specific times in the game.

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