account-wide-mounts
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Patch 5.3 PTR: New mount models, achievements
The intrepid folks over at Wowhead have been busy digging through the patch 5.3 PTR and discovering a host of new models and items associated with the new patch. For mount collecting enthusiasts, the addition of a new mount achievement in patch 5.1 and the Jade Pandaren Kite as a reward was a delightful surprise. For those who have been collecting mounts for quite some time, however, the kite was immediately available upon the launch of patch 5.1, and it didn't appear as though any further rewards would be offered. But mount collectors should be happy to note that there has been yet another mount achievement added in with patch 5.3. Mount Parade is earned by collecting 200 mounts, and offers two uniquely colored mounts as rewards. Alliance players will receive the Armored Blue Dragonhawk, and Horde players will receive the Armored Red Dragonhawk. Wowhead has models of both versions available for viewing -- and frankly, they're really well done. I wasn't sure what to expect with yet another dragonhawk to pile on the collection, but the detail in these models is pretty stunning. Also datamined with the latest round of the 5.3 PTR was the warhorse pictured above. There doesn't appear to be a file for it on Wowhead at this time, but the 3D model is viewable by checking Wowhead's latest news post. As of yet there's no news on what this horse is, where it drops, or if it's even available to players in the next patch. However, another mount has been added to the list -- the Brawler's Burly Mushan Beast. At the moment there is no model available for the mount, but the name suggests that perhaps the Brawler's Guild will be seeing some pretty cool rewards soon. As a mount collector, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the new reward models -- but I'd love to hear what you guys think. Would you rather have seen something else? What do you think of the warhorse? And don't forget to check out Wowhead for a look at the 3D models for the new mounts.
Warring perspectives on account-wide achievements
Yesterday, with a speculative post on twitter, I unwittingly started a bit of an argument between a few of my friends about the 5.0.4 changes to achievements. I didn't mean to, I had been reading the comments on The Queue and was not hugely surprised to note that I was not the only person who wasn't jubilant at the changes. I am ever the partisan, and try to consider both sides of every argument when making a decision, but at this point I can't quite decide whether I like the new achievement system or not. Why? Well, let's see. Making the meaningless less meaningful I was kind of upset at the changeover from Wrath to Cataclysm at the disappearance of the Wrath and earlier talent trees. If you weren't around for those, they were gigantic behemoths of talent trees, far larger than the Cataclysm ones, and featuring far more talents that addes 1% damage onto something, or reduced a cast time or cooldown by some insignificant amount. I didn't miss them because I mourned the loss of any particular aspect of them, or felt they were more complicated or clever, but because getting a talent every level made going from 23 to 24 feel like something meaningful.
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite part of 5.0.4?
Patch 5.0.4 has arrived, laden with goodies like account-wide pets, mounts and achievements. But oddly enough, none of these things were my favorites from this patch. AoE looting is fantastic and was easily at the top of my favorites list before I logged in, but it paled in comparison to something else, something far quieter that I hadn't really considered a huge part of the patch. My realm is a terribly small realm off in the corner of nowhere. I have my character's hearthstone set to Dalaran, partially for the easy access to the Caverns of Time and partially because I like Dalaran. It's a little lonely, but quiet. There are maybe a half-dozen people there, usually. I logged into Dalaran yesterday and was abruptly taken aback because the place was packed. In my excitement over everything else, I'd forgotten all about the cross-realm zones that were being introduced. It turns out my quiet little corner of nowhere was now populated by tons of people from another realm altogether. And it turns out that realm is the home of a friend of mine from Twitter, a fellow blogger. For the first time ever, I got to say hello to her character and pose for screenshots and generally be a silly idiot. I'd forgotten how it felt to be in the midst of a bustling city. I'd forgotten how it felt to have activity at all hours, and I'd forgotten how nice it was to just run into someone I knew out of nowhere. And in that moment of giddy, silly screenshot frenzy, cross-realm zones abruptly shot from something I hadn't even considered to the top of my favorites list. So what's your favorite part of 5.0.4? Is it having all your achievements on all of your characters? Is it finally being able to ride around on all of your mounts? Is your pet collection completely amazing? Or is it the sudden discovery that in the great big World of Warcraft, you're not quite as isolated as you used to be?
What to expect from patch 5.0.4
Patch 5.0.4 will be here on Tuesday, Aug. 28. As with other pre-expansion patches, 5.0.4 will include some important changes that will reflect gameplay in Mists of Pandaria. To be perfectly clear, while this is a pre-patch for Mists, it is not Mists itself and shouldn't be confused with the game we'll all be nabbing on Sept. 25. While there are some features from the beta that we'll see go live with this patch, others will not be released until the new expansion goes live in September. This is a confusing time for some players, because they're not quite sure what to expect when it comes to the pre-expansion patch. Will new features be rolled out? Will we see new instances or profession changes or playable pandaren? To avoid confusion, here's a short primer on what you will and will not see in patch 5.0.4.
Mists of Pandaria: Gold sink mounts will be account-wide
One of the most anticipated features of Mists of Pandaria is the fact that many things are going account-wide, including mounts. But this change will not affect all mounts, as Mike Sacco clarified recently in The Queue. "Gold sink" mounts, so called because of the large amount of gold needed to acquire them, were included on the list of mounts not going account-wide. Blizzard changed their stance on this today, as Game Designer Mumper explains below. Mumper We have been discussing this issue the last couple of days and we made the call to make the following mounts account-wide: Traveler's Tundra Mammoth Grand Expedition Yak Mechano-Hog Mekgineer's Chopper Sandstone Drake Grand Ice Mammoth Ice Mammoth Jeweled Onyx Panther (all color variants) Cloud Serpents (all color variants) At this point, the only mounts that are not account-wide are either class specific or rewarded from PVP. We feel like both these types of mounts should still be character specific. Thanks for your feedback on this issue! source This is in response to a post in the Mists of Pandaria beta feedback forum. Blizzard is listening to your suggestions -- keep it up! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
The Queue: Avatar
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. If you haven't watched Legend of Korra yet, you're a bad person. The first season ended this past weekend, so it's a perfect time to catch up on the whole thing. CowboysFTW asked: I have 4 85s. A Combat Rogue(main), Arcane Mage, Ret Pali, and an Unholy DK. My question is simple, going into MoP, what would be the most fun to play through to 90 first? I'm curious about trying out a Monk but I simply want to hit 90 ASAP. Any suggestions?
How flexible is too flexible when it comes to gameplay?
Way back in the days of vanilla WoW, your character was something you were stuck with, as well as your talents. If you wanted to unlearn your talents, you were certainly welcome to do so, as long as you didn't mind paying a lot of gold to do so. Once you made a character on that server, it stayed there. Once you chose your gender, hair and facial features, you were stuck with them. If you chose Alliance, that character remained Alliance for good. Over the years, we've had a lot of small things introduced that allowed us a little more flexibility with the characters we love to play. You can change realms, factions, hair, gender, race -- you can completely change who your character is at the drop of a hat. Mists of Pandaria is introducing a host of new features intended to give the game some added flexibility by allowing characters to share achievements, mounts and pets across an entire account. This means that players are no longer limited to what character they play. You can switch between characters and still have the same benefits. There's just one thing that Blizzard has never, ever wavered on, one last point of rigid inflexibility when it comes to the characters we play: class.
The OverAchiever: Q&A on account-wide achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, things are about to get a little easier. Between Ghostcrawler's blog post and Zarhym's additional notes on the forums yesterday, we now know a lot more about how account-wide achievements are going to work. No preamble this week, folks -- let's get right to it. A lot of questions were answered, but there are still a few unknowns. Question: Will all of my achievement titles be accessible from every toon? Answer: Probably, but there may be restrictions on their use. I've been looking to farm some nice titles out to alts that have done absolutely nothing to deserve them (who isn't?), and what we do know is that Blizzard's looking for a way to do this. From how GC's written about it, I'm wondering if this might actualy go live after Mists of Pandaria has already shipped, because Blizzard's talked about the technical limitations previously, and it's apparently still at work on it. We also don't know when these titles will become universally accessible. For example, your level 1 monk may not get access to Kingslayer until level 80 or Defender of a Shattered World until level 85, which is sensible insofar as my level 1 monk was not in much of a position to save anyone with Jab as the full extent of her repertoire. For now, put this firmly in the category of "Probably going to happen, but don't expect a firm date."
Zarhym clarifies account-wide achievements
Ghostcrawler did a pretty good job explaining the upcoming account-wide achievements, but some players still have questions regarding both achievements and account-wide mounts, as well. Community Manager Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym on Twitter) further clarified the account-wide achievement and mount system earlier, as well as clearing the air about the question regarding account-wide reputation. Zarhym We don't want to make reputation account-wide. We think that removes too much of the gameplay of having an alt. Harkening back to the blog, the goal is for players to feel free to play their alts. If you have a cool mount on character A, then that might be an issue. Being exalted on character A so that enchants are easier to buy doesn't seem like the same issue. (What I mean is, it's a short step from there to saying character A has better gear so you aren't going to play B). We can understand where the desire to have reputations function in this way stems from, however. For this reason faction rep is going to work a little differently in Mists of Pandaria and, we think, will feel better for players with multiple characters. source While we don't know exactly how faction reputation is going to work as of yet in Mists, it's nice to see that Blizzard is addressing the concerns of those with multiple alts. But the biggest question so far regarding account-wide achievements and mounts is what exactly the definition of "account-wide" is. Is it account-wide or Battle.net-account-wide? The wise floating skull cleared that one up for us, too.
All you need to know about account-wide mounts (so far)
Am I excited about Mists of Pandaria? Oh heck yes, I am! Of course, this is mostly from playing through the story so far. It's been pretty amazing and has just enough twists that I'm chomping at the bit for Blizzard to open the next zone or two. But I was even more excited when I saw that account-wide mounts had been implemented last week -- and for good reason. I'm a collector, and I've got over a hundred mounts on my main character. But my alts are woefully short on the mount front. With account-wide mounts, all those cool mounts I ride around on with my main will be available to all my alts too. And while I may waffle back and forth on account-wide achievements and whether I'll like them, I'm definitely behind letting all of my characters ride all of the cool things I've farmed up over time. But there is a catch here -- just because we're seeing this feature on the beta doesn't mean it will make it to live. And if it does make it to live, it may look a little different than it does right now. And right now? Things are just a little weird in spots.
Mists of Pandaria beta: Account-wide mounts are a go
It looks like those waiting for news of account-wide mounts don't have to wait any longer. The latest iteration of the Mists of Pandaria beta has introduced account-wide mounts on all characters. This means that any mount you currently have on your main will be granted to your alts as soon as they reach the appropriate level to obtain them, as well as any achievements associated with the mounts. I tested this on a level 85 premade monk as well as a freshly copied-over level 81 druid just to see what would and would not copy, and I was pleased to see that the Amani War Bear from the original version of Zul'Aman made the transfer. I was even more delighted to see that the Violet Proto-Drake, granted from the achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, was also included in the list. Master Riding, required for 310% speed flying, is not granted along with it. Characters who do not have Master Riding will still have to purchase it from a trainer, regardless of the mount being available to ride. However, as far as I can see, there are no exceptions to the list of mounts as of yet. Obviously this may change as the beta progresses, but for now, players can look forward to enjoying all of those sweet mounts on all of their characters in the beta. Edit: It appears that mounting the Violet Proto-Drake on my level 81 without the Master Riding ability gave the character Master Riding. Whether this is something that will make it to live or not, we don't know -- but it's certainly something to enjoy on the beta! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
