Recently Blizzard put some changes up for testing on the PTR servers. The one that has many players talking is the change to the level at which you gain your mount. Blizzard is very likely to drop the level requirement from 40 to 30, and reduce the gold requirement to purchase one as well. Byron "Messiah" Mudry looks at this change in his editorial this week in an attempt to find out if this is a good or bad change for most players.
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Next up on the list of negative effects is the potential trivialization of content. Don't forget that the content from level 30 to 40 was created with the thought that players would not have fast transportation available to them. Therefore part of the quest was actually getting there.
I think that developers need to get over the whole mount as a reward for reaching a certain level thing. Even if they go the path that Vanguard did and have scaled mounts, so that at level 10 you can get a basic mount that gives you a 10-15% speed buff, level 20 gets a bit more, level 30......you get the picture.
I think one point you didn't address, was that, with the increased leveling speed, travel quests didn't make any sense to do. If you're leveling in <2 hours; it makes no sense to spend 20 minutes traveling, to do one delivery quest, that's going to give less XP than a regular quest in your orginal zone. Lower level mounts will swing the balance back twords travel quests.
Another thing to think about, is that not alot is being done in old world content. Everything is being pushed to the higher end of the game. I understand the need to experience the game. but if noone is doing the lower instances, because they're replacing the equipment too quickly, why should the new players. The good stuff is in Outland, so get them there.
As far as this causing alot of players not knowing how to play their class, just because you have a level 70 warrior, doesn't mean you know how to play a priest. A main does not excuse one from learning how to play their alts. There already too many people in outland that cant play well, and thats fine, its their character. But they got their mount at 40, and it didnt help. Getting it at 30 wont change much.
I think the mount reduction is a good thing. I never have felt that the 30-40 level quests were intended to prepare you for life at 40. I personaly skipped alot of quests because of travel time, and this will make me rethink how my next alt will level up.
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I don't see a problem with the drop to level 30 although I'd like to see at least a token quest chain for the paladin and warlock mounts. The question is, will this affect the druid travel forms, currently available at level 30? If these aren't lowered to say 20, the same as the shaman ghost wolf form, I can see them being ignored in favour of the mount.
Gathering professions become much easier and more profitable with a mount. Will the lower level players having more mobility I wonder what effect it will have on the server's economy?
Someone else somewhere mentioned it would make the druid travel form obsolete...but I disagree .
You're in STV at level 33 and you're fighting a mob and it runs off and brings two more....youre at 40% health and it is looking bad. What do you do? Summon your mount...wait you cannot do that in combat....but you can hit instant travel form and get the heck out of dodge. That's why it will be effective .
Kikoko - I have always felt that WoW is two games - leveling and endgame. I've gotten each class to 70 and basically found at 70 and in 5-mans and KZ that the rules change. Yes you know your toon and the basics of running dungeons but it is the intricacies of your class - and knowing the fights - that make all the difference. It took me a while to get acclimated on my warrior to the 70 dungeons and this is with the experience I had while she at 60 pre-TBC. So yeah it is true there are a lot of people who are getting little to no experience in dungeons as they are leveling (my mage was a prime example) but they are having to learn a lot of this in the 5-mans and it can be frustrating especially in a PUG.
Annatar - I like your idea about the mount being scaled based on level. Something definitely to be said for that. I will say for Alliance I leveled 8 of my 9 toons through STV pre-2.3. When they added the Alliance flight path at the Rebel Camp in the northern part of the zone with patch 2.3 it made travel much easier with my mage and even helped with Duskwood. I think the mount will help with zones like STV and with the amount of traveling you need to do - anyone Alliance run from Astranaar to Nijel's Point in Desolace?
As for me I have my BE paladin in the TTH guild on Hydraxis. She is 32 and I might just be playing her a little more if she had a mount .
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...anyone Alliance run from Astranaar to Nijel's Point in Desolace?
I did that with one of my toons once... and because of that experience all the rest of my toons have avoided setting a finger on Stonetalon and Desolace. <shiver>
I'm all in favor of mount at 30, at reduced price! (especially since I know we get epic mount at 60 and legendary mount at 90 )
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I remember all too well the running in Stranglethorn Vale. It was horrible. My little gnome feet are still aching
And as i got my mount at level 40, i felt really cool when i just flew past the "below lvl 40's" when i occasionally did a quest there It was about time they added that Flight Path to Rebel Camp though.
My shaman alt just hit 30, and well Ganklethorn is the way to go, and she will be speeding down that way on a big Elekk
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My one problem with some of the arguments is that new players, who don't have prior experience at all with the game, don't necessarily 'know' that Outlands is so much better -- I certainly didn't when I started playing. Whether or not they really learn their class at the lower levels, the fact is there is much content to enjoy on the way to 58/60 (OK, so some of it isn't enjoyable, but the same can be said for Outlands, too). Those of us with lvl 70's say 'Ho, hum, get me to Outlands', but when my first toon was lvl 35, I wasn't thinking that way -- I was thinking, 'how the heck do I heal my party, anyway?' Right now, I think I'm able to level my warlock (he's currently at 41) by doing about 4 quests per level -- I'm missing whole entire zones at this point. Maybe it's only an issue because I know that I'm missing content.
Ultimately, I suppose it's actually good for the game. Even though it will facilitate increased levelling speed -- which I think is already too fast -- I believe it will help players get through some of those large zones like Desolace and STV (Not that anyone actually goes to Desolace; I did, but there's never anyone there), where it seems like you spend hours running, running, running. I sure wish I had my Warhorse during those days!
Editorial - Should Mounts be Available Earlier?
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