Legion Flying is not hard, it is time consuming

I’m still playing WoW Legion after returning 3 months ago – specifically I’m trying to see the story (meaning world quests, dungeons, and raid content on scrub level), and get the Flying Achievement. For the first few 5-6 weeks I didn’t think I cared about flying as it seemed a task for later, but now it frustrates me watching other players swoop in, complete something, and swoop out. I’m now 5 weeks into playing scrub/casually and creeping up on the farmable reps, and the (huge) zone quests in Suramar.

Legion Flying takes dedicated attention to get because it requires completing all the zone quests, considerable effort in reputation farming, and making sure you have travelled everywhere. Those tasks unto themselves are worth it because they help/force the player to see the content. I dislike how unfriendly to roadways and cumbersome some of the zones are (High Mountain is a disgrace). So Legion Flying is essentially very easy when compared to very difficult content like the Mage-Tower fights, however it takes a concentrated effort of many months when you play very casually.

If I get Flying, see the raids, and a second Legendary drop by the time the expansion ends then I will be happy. … In the pic blow is Mortigen wearing a terrible clown-suit leveling drops surrounded by a few ghouls (unholy spec), a bodyguard, and a quest follower.

First thoughts on Launch night

Logged in late-ish due to real life, but was able to get almost all the way through level 80 in about 4 hours time. So levelling will be faster than I expected if that remains consistent. My guess is 4-6 hours per level if doing chained quests and instances.

• Login took about 15 minutes.
• This is the first launch night I’ve been able to play, and I did not have a single crash or outage. That is both as it should be and impressive.
• The two new dungeons I tried were good, with solid basic mechanics and only a small amounts of trash. If you followed the strategy they were very easy, with only a small chance of major screw-up, if you don’t then everyone will be in pain. That is the lesson we need! With the gear we have they can still be brute forced, but I suspect/hope that will be different for the heroic modes.
• The giant tentacles and the jelly fish lift in the water instance where the source of a few off colour jokes. I had to mute vent when the “Cave Penis” comments started, especially as the tentacle has a knockback affect.
• I suspect that the drops we saw are not upgrades on 251+ gear, but they are usable by level 78s and there was a huge amount of BoE blues and greens dropping, so I’d say that my alts will be well geared when they need to start. Any gear around 245 might be replaced though, which is great for characters using 187s and 200s.
• Thus far the new gear models are nice.
• Flying in old world is great.
• Going back to Dalaran was the quickest way I saw to learn the new Blacksmithing, Mining, First Aid skills above 450. I have both a Kirin Tor ring and the Argent Tabard, so getting back to Northrend is easy. Likewise getting to the old world with the Death Knight gate spell. No idea where to set my hearth to as yet.
• Player compression in the new zones is as expected, and will stay heavy. I was still able to get some of the quests done, but decided that doing the 5 mans was a better way to spend time.

Fly at 68 in Northrend?

Just in via Wow.com in the PTR – our Alts might be flying at 68 in Northrend. Awesome-sauce.

Guess what! Zarhym responded just a short time ago to a thread on the official forums clarifying the change. It looks like this could very well be making it onto the live servers. Zarhym said:

Just to confirm, Tome of Cold Weather Flight is actually a new heirloom item planned to go into patch 3.2. At level 80 players can buy this heirloom item from the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran for 1,000 gold and send it to an alt of the same realm, faction and account. The tome can be used to learn Cold Weather Flying at level 68, consuming the tome in the process.

Please note this feature is not yet in the newest version of the public test realm patch notes updated today. The item and its functionality are subject to change during the testing process.

Note that the cost shown in the picture (900g) is due to the faction discount.

/drool + /happydance all in one. I love a good Ptr rumor.

This might just be a PTR thing to assist with some testing, but hey it looks legit, and it is not April 1.

Epic Flying Priest

I could not help myself, or stand to crawl through the air when I knew that a faster option was available. Yeira the (soon to be Shadow) Priest has her epic flying skill, and a new Blue Gryphon.
Anyone got any change?

Flying Priest

Once more my Priest can fly very very slowly while leveling. Hindsight tells me that I should not have blown all that gold on the epic flying skill for my Druid, Paladin, and Warlock. The need for gold will keep me doing my daily quests in a quasi-regular manner.

But then I treat hindsight like I treat my sense of right and wrong; like a red headed child whining at my hip for attention. /slap and move on. Fun to be had, and nobody like a know it all.

If/when I get the epic flying skill, I think Yeira won’t be treated to some silly strange or expensive mount. It’ll be something functional and inexpensive. Mortigen the Death Knight is the glamour whore who gets the good stuff.

Other flying mount ideas

BA Shared topic: Flying Mounts for classes.

Shaman = Wind Funnel / dervish. They fly like a superman/woman through the air with a swirling mist around them. Shaman are in tune with the elements, so make the elements move them around. You could use a version of the cyclone affect.

Warrior = Brutally stronger looking warhorse. Make the model much more like a Clydesdayle. Solid, thick necked, and about 10% bigger. Like the warhorse from Ladyhawk.

Paladins = Pegusus. The discerning Paladin’s mount of choice, available is a range of colours and styles…

Priests = Give’em wings, like those used in the Draenei quests in the starting area. You’ve gone so far into being a representative of the light, that you’re now almost angelic. People will re-roll priests to get this, which won’t hurt the healing community either. Think Gabriel in the film Constantine.

Mage = Levitate, unlike the Shaman, they just fly. Mages in a huge range of games and themes can fly. The hard part will be them not getting their capes caught in the Warrior’s whirlwind. Like Magneto in the XMen films. Oh, and of course brooms and carpets, but something avail to the Mages.

Druid = More skins for their current modes. Dragonwhelp, butterfly, sparrow…

Warlock = A demon akin to the Nazgul in PJ’s Lord of the Rings. A mutated, demonic, mottled dragon-ish hell-thing. An undead dragon is not going far enough. It has to be Demonic.

Hunter = Let’em ride giant owls, and all sorts of “natural” fliers. Even those snake-serpents are just as viable as the Ogrilla/Skettis squids as mounts. Also pet dying means no flying mount till they res it and make it happy.

Rogue = Don’t know. Maybe a flash powder affect that makes them invisible, and then they move that way. “I leave you now! *poof* ” Its the one class I can’t think of a good creature that matches them. Perhaps they miss out on a special.

Diamon’s epic flyer

Today my Paladin finally has an epic flying mount. To get it I sold a huge amount of mats banked over the last few months, and stripped all the gold from my other toons. It is well worth it. That makes x2 epic flyers now, and I have no interest in a 3rd. Larger pic here.

The speed is excellent, especially when combined with his Crusader Aura.