There are a at least 3 reasons I can think of to use regular flying.
Gathering
Hovering
Accidentally clicking my regular mount after I port in and I’ll actually fly 
2 Likes
+1+
Should have.
Ion was looking like a hero with dragonriding being released day one.
Then he had to go and make himself the villian again by making it so lesser abled players who were having trouble with dragonriding waited for going on a year for normal flight…then he pushes salt in the gaping wound with pathfinder that isnt just easy like SL flight, but has to be the month long circus show again.
8 Likes
and
Thats so cute. How you came in here to insult other players who waited all this time for normal flight while YOU got DRing with the purchase of a coke on day ONE, lmao.
blocked, just because I can.
3 Likes
Every time I think that man has actually learned a lesson about the player base and making GOOD decisions, he asks me to hold his beer. lol
two steps forward, eight steps back with this guy.
Every time I think, WOW, Ion has changed. He pulls something petty like this particular pathfnder that only targets lesser abled players having trouble with DRing and slaps me awake from that dream I was having where hes not the same guy from WoD.
6 Likes
It shouldnt be though. If old world content is getting an option to pick between the two then so should the Dragon Isles. It’s becoming an issue of accessibility.
5 Likes
Tbh even past expansions without pathfinder kept releasing new areas without flying. At least in this one flying is still available with dragonriding.
Which is why they are retrofitting for now at least the old dragon mounts to be dragon riding (DR) capable.
Hopefully they do a full GW2 retrofit and allow all older mounts to have some form of something unique to that type of mount, I couldn’t care less if they just straight jack the idea from GW2, but imagine having something like the Mechagon wheel mount that can boost and move super fast on the ground? Or G.M.O.D having a rocket boost function instead of DR?
2 Likes
It’s better in certain situations, say to move 100 yards or to survey a target area.
But to go 100 miles, the dragons win hands down.
So, what’s wrong with having both as an option?
5 Likes
This war on flight is getting ridiculous.
I wouldn’t be surprised if dragonriding was originally concieved of as another attempt to completely replace/remove it (after the failed removal in WoD) only they had to back down on that due to accessability issues and not wanting the backlash of being ableist.
Pathfinder, all that it is, and only adding it in the last patch of each expansion now is one of the pettiest things I’ve ever seen developers do in any MMO ever and I’ve been playing since Ultima Online came out.
If they just stopped going against the grain and put their energy into finding creative ways to work with this system, rather than against it, everyone would be happier.
7 Likes
No, it’s not an issue of accessibility. Players complained about flight not being at the start of the expansions. They gave us flight at the start in DF…people complain.
Now they complain that regular flight has PF…of which has been a thing for 10 years now. I still have to run around SL with alts… because I didn’t finish PF…oh well. I didn’t do what was required, therefore I don’t have it. If I want it, I have to do those things to get it.
This is no different.
You don’t get to decide whether someone else has an accessibility concern. You’re right there have absolutely been complaints about not being able to fly in past expansions, but do you know those were the same people as those having accessibility concerns now? And even if they were the same people making those complaints, preferring legacy flying for some reason doesn’t invalidate someone’s issue with dragon riding being inaccessible.
There is a difference between not being able to fly in an expansion that was designed to be navigated on the ground and not being able to fly in an expansion that was designed to be navigated from the air. Blizzard even made a huge deal out of how the Dragon Isles were designed to be experienced from the skies because of Dragon Riding. What was simply a convenience in previous expansions became a central design element in Dragonflight.
You’re welcome to think that difference shouldn’t play a factor in Blizzard’s decision making. But claiming there is no difference at all feels very disingenuous.
8 Likes
Which is why regular flight is coming.
Once PF is completed.
There’s no war on flying. They’re designing the whole game like they want, you may love it or not, but let’s not be cynical and believe they’re trying to piss us off on purpose.
1 Like
Except there is. They want it gone. Most players don’t. They tried to remove it anyway. A huge amount of people quit in protest, so they had to add it back… but, instead of putting it back the way it was, available for a gold based fee at max level, they put it behind a tedious meta achievement that does not even become accessible until the last patch of the expansion. So they ruined it. It’s like when a child does not want to share a toy so they break it before giving it to their sibling.
I don’t personally see it as cynical, but rather, I see it as naive and overly optimistic to assume the developers do not fall prey human emotions, from time to time, the way everyone else does.
I do believe they do want to make a great game for us, I mean, why else become a game dev? But sometimes artists have a vision they get a bit stuck on regardless of the fact no one else wants to get on board. Even if you genuinely believe something will make the game better, but no one else wants it, then its time to let it go. 
9 Likes
They changed it for the sake of changing it. No one was asking for DR.
PF has been pretty universally despised since day 1. Maybe ask yourself why we are keeping a 10 year tradition that every one hates?
To your first point, “flight at the start in DF”… and it didn’t “break the game”. Why? WoW content all takes place on the ground. You will inevitably have to land to do anything.
PF in 2023 is asinine. Especially when DR was free with just a quest < 1 hour into DF.
If you love DR, more power to you. I do not. I have not legit afk’ed or hopped on flight path this much since vanilla. Sometimes, I just want to make progress on A->B while I setup my playlist, sneeze without flying into something, getting stuck on branch, dealing with vigor for reasons.
Frankly, when I’m out in the world, I just get as much height as possible, then angle down and let it go (which made ZC a nuisance).
WoW is not a racing game, or a flight sim, no aerial combat, no looting mid-flight (save for druid herbalists - which arguably should get patched out). You will inevitably have to land to participate in content.
8 Likes
They changed it cause they listened and wanted to…
PF has been ‘despised’ by a small group of people…that still remains small.
It’s still here after YEARS and it’s what we still have to do now.
They want it gone yet release this expansion with a type of flying day 1 of the expansion? Makes sense.
It makes perfect sense my friend. Dragonriding is nothing like what they call “sky swimming.” They don’t want people to be able to hover. Dragon riding addressed that.
1 Like
It’s quite literally a code config that will take less than a minute to change and voila, regular flying. Your take is about as ignorant as they come.
4 Likes
What is the crteria for Pathfinder?
Also, you still cant fly in Korthia/The Maw. So this seems in line with past Pathfinders