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The real reason I hate the Timeless Isle
I hate the Timeless Isle. I hate the lack of clear objectives. I hate the pseudo-platformer elements. I hate the pouncing tigers, stomping rock monsters, and the shield bearing Ordon yaungol (all of which have abilities I'd be perfectly happy to deal with in a dungeon but am inconvenienced by when I just want 50 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune for the week). There's also the unconventional grummle mailbox that requires two clicks instead of one, and the apocalyptic typhoon of random consumable items wrecking my bag space. But above all of those there is one thing I hate more than anything about the Timeless Isle ... The yaks.
This is a very, VERY fast mount
While exploring The Veiled Stair, I found myself on a mountain cliff overlooking the very northwestern sliver of Jade Forest, on the border of Valley of the Four Winds. Down below me was a river, the green hills of Jade Forest, and ... Ooh a gold elite! Base jumping off the cliff, I began my merciless attack on the Sungraze Behemoth, a monstrous, sleeping Mushan. For a gold elite it didn't put up much of a fight (though it did have a lot of health) so I was quite surprised when I looted a mount from the Mushan's corpse. Wait -- no, that's not a mount. After reading the tooltip over a couple of times I realized that I had looted a curious sort of mount that could only be used in Valley of the Four Winds, and only had three charges. But it was a very, VERY fast mount, the tooltip told me. What could that mean? And only three charges? Since I hadn't finished leveling yet, I wondered if maybe I should save it for long trips between quest hubs. Not long after finding the Oddly-Shaped Horn, I was wandering around Kun-Lai Summit, just south of Shado-Pan Monastery when I found another gold elite with a name: the mountain goat Zhing. After killing the goat, I looted Bag of Kafa Beans and at this point I was too curious to care about it being a limited use item. I clicked on the bag and woosh! Off I went! Off a cliff. Yep, that's fall damage. Ow. Ow.
More mounts in the Mists of Pandaria beta
The most recent beta patch has added a handful of new mounts -- including yak mounts, which are automatically super-awesome because they're shaggy ol' yak mounts, and that's awesome. Don't argue with me. And if for some reason you're not willing to clutch a yak mount to your bosom (perhaps you're cruel, wicked, evil and wrong as wrong can be -- I don't judge), you can content yourself with the Amber Scorpion or the Crimson Riding Crane. The Crimson Riding Crane is going to be a frontrunner in the Mounts That Look So Wrong with a Tauren Perched on Their Back contest. I just know it. Personally, I want both the Grand Expedition Yak and the White Riding Yak, and I want to ride them by standing on their backs, one foot on each. But I'll settle for just being able to ride them -- because, yaks. Did I mention that yaks are awesome yet? Sorry if I left that out. Yaks. 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!
Yak mounts lumbering your way in Mists of Pandaria
Yak mounts? In my Asia-inspired continent? It's more likely than you think, according to Blizzard community rep Bashiok. Today, he confirmed on Twitter that the shaggy beasts of burden we saw in Mists of Pandaria preview screenshots will be available as mounts when the expansion hits. What wasn't indicated was whether or not the yaks are the official pandaren mounts; I'm leaning toward no, but we'll see. We were actually just discussing what the pandaren mount might be when this news came out. Blizzard joked about it at BlizzCon, with its mockup of a pandaren mount as a huge bouncy ball with a seat on top. Mat McCurley's personal opinion is (verbatim) "probably, like, a big frog maybe?" I feel it'll probably be something a little more dignified. Like a rickshaw. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!
