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Carrot on a Stick: It's time to bring back the riding crop
Yes, we're going fast these days. My flying mount in Pandaria clocks in a 451% of normal. I'm zipping around like no one's business. But I want more. There was a time when everyone had a Carrot on a Stick or a Riding Crop. These were simple items that increased your mounted speed by 3% or 10%, respectively. They were trinkets, and every time you flipped on your mount you'd put your riding crop on and be all that much faster flying around the Outlands. Then, with patch 3.0.2, launched on October 14, 2008, the riding speed enhancements became useless for any character over 70. Gone were the days of just that little extra boost to set you apart, and gone were the days of riding outfits and other such fun. But you know what, Azeroth? It's time to bring the fun back. It's time for the riding crop to make its return. It's time for the stick to get an even bigger carrot. There's a two good reason that's make now the perfect time for these toys reintroduction.
The Queue: Wherein we learn new slang
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's (almost) daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today we're going to hit a bunch of quick, short questions, which means today's edition of The Queue might be a wee bit short compared to some of Allison's epics. Picture above completely unrelated to anything written below. It just looks pretty freaking sweet, doesn't it?ikandiman asked..."I have been trying to get the last Brewfest achievement for my Warlock, but every time I get smashed and jump off the elevator in Shattrath (with my Skyguard's Drape to slow fall) I never get the bloody Drunken Stupor achievement. Had no problem with my mage and paladin. What gives?"
WoW Rookie: Saddle up your mount at level 30
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.UPDATE: Progress gallops forward and mount requirements have changed ... Visit our updated WoW Rookie mounts post for the latest mount information.Hitting level 30 is a major milestone in today's World of Warcraft: the level at which you get your mount. Up to this point, you've spent plenty of time hoofing it, getting to know the lay of the land. On the back of your trusty steed, you'll be able to zip across increasingly larger zones and quest areas in style. You'll start off on a standard ground mount, such as a Horse, Wolf or Kodo. Later, you can upgrade to faster versions of those creatures and eventually to mounts that can fly (in Burning Crusade and Wrath content).Mounts used to become available at level 40. Now that the game extends to level 80 and early character progression has been sped up, you get to speed up at an earlier level, too.
Ask a Beta Tester: Murlocs, mounts, and minimaps
You want mounts? We got mounts. Just waltz on through the intimidating portal above flanked by deadly drakonids, and they're giving em out like candy! Actually, no, I'm lying. Kind of. Locke asked... Any word on new flying mounts or anything like that?A little, but not a lot. We're not seeing a cornucopia of mounts yet. The ones we have seen are pretty cool, though. As I mentioned yesterday in my post on the Obsidian Sanctum, they're running with the design of Zul'Aman and offering mounts as special rewards from completing 'extra challenges' in raid zones.The Obsidian Sanctum offers up a Black Drake Mount for completing the special challenge in the 10 man version, and it seems you get a Twilight Drake from the 25 man version, but I haven't seen that personally. Either way, these drakes are pretty hard to get, at least at first. They're not quite giving them out for nothing. Other colors of drake mounts have been datamined, but we haven't seen them drop yet.For more answers to your beta questions, read on!
Horde scarf and a Carrot-on-a-Stick keychain
It's just starting to get a little chilly here in Chicago, so the timing on this Horde Scarf is just perfect for me -- it looks really comfy, and wrapped around your neck, it's just Warcraft enough to get noticed by people in the know, but is still classy enough that it looks like a cool design if you don't happen to recognize the Horde symbol. I like the look of black and red (would go great with my black overcoat), but amlowi, the seller over on Etsy, will do it up in any colors you like.And speaking of doing things by request, this Carrot-on-a-Stick keychain is awesome, and the artist who makes it (she paints in acrylic and then coats it in enamel) will make it out of any icon you like. Carrot-on-a-Stick seems perfect for a set of car keys, but it's not going to be in the game forever, so if you want to put a class or faction logo on there, she says she can do any icon in the game.Always astounding to see what these industrious WoW crafters are up to. If you've seen a cool DIY WoW-related item, let us know.
Omar the Test Dragon
Once upon a time I had a Carrot on a Stick. Then I copied my shaman to the Wrath beta server. To my surprise, when I logged onto the beta realm for the first time, waiting for me at the mailbox was the curious message above. Now, we've covered the riding enchantment ground already (that is, it may not ever go live), but what I want to talk about on this post is my new buddy, Omar the Test Dragon.I think I have a crush on him. I wonder what he looks like. I expect Omar looks like a cross between Mr. T. and Justin Timberlake -- ohhh, dreamy! Is he a Troll, a Goblin, or is he really a member of the Dragonflight? How wonderful that would be! Nighttime flights above Netherstorm or setting fire to ogres in Stonemaul. How romantic! But if Omar really is a dragonIflight, he speaks differently than I expected. His language style is utterly intoxicating. I mean, his use of exclamation marks alone is enough to give a girl the dizzies. Maybe that's why he doesn't reply to my emails -- perhaps there is a language barrier between us? O, my dear Omar, if you can hear the sound of my voice, I have but one message for you. I am no dawg, just a simple bovine from Mulgore. Peace out.
Riding Crops and similar items to be removed
The Riding Crop and similar items have been in limbo since the beginning of Wrath's beta (maybe even the alpha). Originally, those items were turned into enchantments that are applied to a single mount so you didn't need to worry about them in your trinket slot anymore. Then mounts became abilities that you learn rather than items that sit in your bags, to free up bag space. This broke the new implementation of the Riding Crops, and Blizzard has been trying to decide what to do with them since then.They've decided. Riding Crops, Carrots on a Stick, Skybreaker Whip, all of that jazz? Gone. Done. No more. They're being removed entirely. (Edit: Okay, they're gone after level 70. So they're mostly gone. Riding Crop has a level 69 requirement, you get to use it for about 2 levels.) I hope you had fun farming up those Primal Mights to make Crops for all of your alts. I also hope you didn't want to keep them, because you're out of luck!Spells/abilities like Crusader Aura and On a Pale Horse will still work, but items will not do anything. Ghostcrawler says they have plans for new implementations of improving mounted speed, and my money is on sucking another 1,000g out of you for a flat 10% speed increase. After all, that's about what it costs to fly in chilly climates, apparently.
Made in Azeroth: Arts and crafts inspired by WoW
How can we amuse ourselves while we wait for Wrath of the Lich King to come out? One word: geekcrafts. Sure, you could go to Jinx or CafePress and buy some stickers or T-shirts, but then again there's all that waiting, what with the shipping and everything. Plus, although somebody made it, they didn't make it. By which I mean, it wasn't crafted. So, you know, it's like a BoE item instead of an engineers-only item. Am I making any sense yet? No? Hm. Okay. Let me try again. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, so pick up some art supplies and start learning a new hobby. By way of inspiration, take a look at some of these cool things other people have crafted from their love of WoW.
One player's trinket is another player's trophy
I always thought of trinkets like Carrot on a Stick and the Chained Essence of Eranikus as bag-space wasters rather than trophies, but 35 Yards Out makes an excellent case for them as memorable trinkets. I do agree with the Mark of the Chosen and the Hypnotist's Watch (and I've even gotten the Watch to drop aggro for me) -- there are some trinkets and items you come across in your travels that might be trash to everyone else, but are the rarest of possessions for you and your character.The Ravager is probably my biggest personal trophy -- everyone else told me that the proc was trouble (and in fact, I did have to switch out of it in instances to avoid breaking CC, though that may have changed since I last used it), but I just loved the idea of spinning around with a giant axe so much that I just had to have it. And longtime readers will know of my fascination with the Tier 0 Shaman shoulders -- most people aren't big fans, but for some reason, I love them.It's true -- one player's vendor trash in game is another player's treasured dream loot. What exactly is it that makes us pine for a certain item -- certainly class and playstyle have something to do with it, but it seems like Blizzard makes these items so wild and varied that no matter what you find out there, something will definitely appeal to you more than other players.[Via Mania]
Trading mount trinkets for mount enchants
As Eliah reported in the undocumented changes post yesterday, MMO Champ has done a little searching through the PTR files, and come up with some interesting changes to mount speed items. According to the code found yesterday, Blizzard was trying to change items like Carrot on a Stick and the Riding Crop to mount enchants (like the Shoulder or Head enchants available from many places for rep) so that they simply enchanted a mount with a faster speed rather than taking up a trinket slot. Sounds like a great way to cut down on trinket space, right?Not so fast -- (ha! get it? "fast"?) as Dariusmdev points out, this would actually mean that you'd have to buy even more Riding Crops, probably even throwing up the price on the servers. Because instead of getting one mount trinket and using it for all your mounts, you'd have to get one enchant per mount that you have. Good news for Leatherworkers if the change goes through, not so good for people who like to use a lot of mounts.Which may be why Blizzard may have decided against the change at all -- according to Eliah, this change isn't actually implemented on the PTRs yet. So mount enchants are only in the code for now, and not actually available in the game. But it does show that the folks at Blizzard are actively trying to come with ways to help us handle trinket management, and that's definitely appreciated.
