Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Flying in Wrath

Right off the bat, I'm going to have to admit that I am thoroughly disappointed with Cold Weather Flying. I think there's a few things that kind of irk me, and they're probably mostly based on past experiences and expectations.

Think back to when you first hit 40 (or now 30) with your first toon. You had to do your normal routine of going to a major city every 2 levels to train, but then you also had to go off somewhere special to plop down your hard earned cash to get your mount. You had to go off to special nooks such as Menethil Harbor, or Eastvale Logging Camp, or Darnassus (yep, it's that far out of the way). At 60, you had to again break the bank and head off to these same people.

At 70, you had to head out to Shadowmoon Valley to be able to fly. And, oh the freedom! You get to soar above all these trash mobs that you didn't want to kill anyway. You could swoop down on unsuspecting mining nodes. The sky was the limit! (Okay, there is technically a ceiling, but it's still in the sky.) And the incredible speeds you achieved once you learned to fly those epic flying mount... well... that was just stupendous.

But now... at 77. I have get to port back to Dalaraan, pay my 1000g, and I get nothing new. Not another level of riding skill. Not a faster mount. Just the ability to do what I've done since hitting level 70, but now in Northrend.

Furthermore... because I still need to do quests, and I want to get the xp from the mobs, I find that the flying mount (with only 100% ground speed, if I'm not mistaken) isn't all that great. I hit a small hill and take off causing the mobs to evade. It's great for killing those named mobs, dropping out of the sky as if performing a death from above, but I've been doing that for years now.

I certainly don't know what I was expecting. I knew this was the deal all along. I'm certainly glad that I can now put the game on "pause" by flying up into the air in a random spot. I just find that I'm so under-whelmed with the non-newness that I had to post about it.

Edit: I thought of another example of this underwhelming in Wow as well. Druid's have these semi-epic quests to figure out how to turn into a bear and water form. Then at level 20, the trainer just teaches them how to become a cat. The expectation was set in the first 2 forms, and then completely dropped for the next 4. At least for swift flight form there's a quest you have to do at 70... oh wait... you can now train it at 71. Still... unlike Coldweather, at least you're learning something new in these examples.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with how underwhelming "regaining" a skill is. At least it was nicer when it was a quest and not a money sink. Don't make us pay for something we have already paid for.

Leiandra said...

I made an edit to my post. Somehow your comment made me remember that point that I meant to make.

Unknown said...

There's a spot in the Storm Peaks where you're shot down by anti-air defenses if you try to use your flying mount. I wish they had used that mechanic elsewhere. Instead, they've removed existing air defenses and even Icecrown and Wyrmrest temple airspaces are quite safe despite all of the fighting going on.

Captain The First said...

I definitely agree. I hit 77 not too long ago, bought my cold weather flying skill, hopped on my regular flyer... and... nothing.
I didn't even feel mildly excited over being able to fly again, if anything I felt cheated out of 1k gold to purchase something that gives me nothing, not even a spiffy little waft of smoke following me when I fly or anything.

If nothing else they should've at least strapped an achievement to it so that you at least have the feeling that your 1k gold means something more than a bloody gold-sink.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree. It's kind of disappointing. Just recently started another paladin alt, but this time I won't have to complete an epic quest to get my Charger at lvl 60. I can just train it.

Same with the cold weather flying. Got the ability to fly again and it was great, but lackluster in it's approach.

Anonymous said...

I love flying. I love the fact that I can swoop down on mobs. I'm not going to look this gift horse in the mouth and say they should make it harder to get. I think the whole purpose behind cold weather flying was to force people to enjoy the beautiful landscapes they created and not quickly hop from quest to quest. While I don't necessarily agree that this benefits the gameplay, I don't think it's a horrible approach. It would be nice to fly a little faster, maybe a 20 second turbo boost like on those quest gryphons in dragon blight.