21/10/2019

Level 40 & A Mount

Last week I wrote about how making money for my first mount was very much on my mind as my hunter crept closer and closer to level forty. I kept flip-flopping on the question of how I felt about it - some commenters reminded me that it really wasn't that big a deal, and I also ran into other characters in the low forties who hadn't been able to afford their mount yet. But then I'd have some sort of windfall and feel spurred on again, because just a few more of those and I'm there!

My favourite of these was when I earned a tip of two gold from crafting an advanced target dummy for someone in Thunder Bluff, and from their own materials no less. I would have done it for free as the recipe was yellow for me at the time and therefore likely to be a skill-up, but then they handed me the gold when I traded the finished product back to them and I thought sure, why not. Fastest two gold I've made so far.

Other money-making operations didn't go so well, mind you. After I saw Kurn post about making money from re-selling the pattern for runecloth bags, I checked the price for it on the Pyrewood Horde auction house and was wowed: just re-selling one or two of that item would have been enough to push me over the line towards my mount.

So I stripped down to my cloak and tabard again and made the death run to Winterspring. Much love to the kind human warlock who spotted my cow on the road in Felwood and started aggroing all the wolves in the vicinity in what felt like a clear attempt to protect me - if I'd been smarter I'd have stayed near him, but I blithely ran further ahead while he fought the wolves and then died as soon as I got in range of the next one.

The moment I hit my screenshot key, I heard a loud roar behind me and had to leg it inside the town in order not to be eaten by a bear.

The problem was that when I finally made it to Everlook I found that this clearly wasn't some super secret insider tip as there were already several people camping the vendor (a goblin named Qia). When I looked it up on Wowhead to see if they had any more info on just how often the pattern respawns etc. there were whole instructions on how to write a macro that will buy all the rare recipes the vendor has as soon as they appear as long as you are willing to stand there and spam click on her for a couple of hours.

I quickly decided that I couldn't be bothered with such insanity, so the run was eventually for naught. I did check back a couple of times just to see if I'd maybe stand a chance if I checked early in the morning or something like that, but I had no such luck: I never saw Qia surrounded by less than three people, no matter the time of day.

I also tried to make some more money with fishing but it has very much remained a mixed bag. I got super excited when I found Lordamere Lake completely uncontested one evening and managed to fish up several stacks of Greater Sagefish there, but then it turned out that their price had plummeted over night (of course, that's probably why everybody else stopped bothering) and those stacks didn't end up making me much money anyway.

Still, I persisted with my personalised strategy of doing my daily mining round in Thousand Needles, and this made me enough money that I eventually decided to invest in one final push, so that I had just enough to buy the mount when I hit forty, as long as I ignored my class training for the moment (as that would have cost another twelve gold or so just for my level forty abilities).

And I've got to say: I do not regret it. A mount may not be all that in terms of usefulness, but the matter had weighed so heavily on my mind that it was a huge relief to be able to stop worrying about it. After this there aren't any more expensive purchases that feel like they should be made as soon as you hit a certain level, so I can focus on other things as and when I feel like it.

I hadn't realised how much it had bothered me to have this "problem" (wanting my mount at forty but not having enough money for it) and no clear solution to deal with it. Being able to check that item off my list was such a huge relief, I pretty much flew through the next couple of levels from sheer joy. Now other challenges await!

11 comments:

  1. At Level 47 I have 60 gold. I hadn't checked how much a mount cost until this morning but I had it in my mind it was somethig like 40g for the mount and 20g to train the riding skill. Turns out it's actually 80g +20g so 100g altogether.

    My loose plan is to get one when I turn 50 but if I have to wait a few more levels that won't be a problem. I tend not to use mounts even when I have them unless, as in EQII, you can have them permanently on without it affecting anything else you do. Unless I'm on a long run with nothing else to do I find mounting and dismounting more annoying than having a slower run speed.

    In fact, the more I think about it, the less I like the entire concepts of mounts. I get them in virtual worlds like Fallen Earth, where the mount really is an entity in its own right, but in most MMORPGs mounts are just irritatingly-implemented run speed buffs. I'd rather just have the buff and do without the mount.

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    1. I really like the feeling of graduating from being a footman to being cavalry that I get when getting my first mount. I do think they are somewhat overrated in most modern games, especially when you're supposed to collect hundreds of different skins that all do the same thing and you can only show one at a time anyway... but I do like my basic mount in Classic.

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  2. Congrats!

    I currently sit at L40 and have, I think, about 15 gold. I figure that I'll get one before L50, but I've already started making decisions about not getting some newer poisons that I'm not going to use much (the anti-healing poison, for instance, because that's more a PvP thing). The price of Rage potions has been rising recently, so maybe it's not a bad idea to go farm for some teeth to create some stacks of those potions.

    Still, I'm not overly concerned, as the longest run I've dealt with so far is SM, and I'm finally moving on from that.

    The only real annoyance about not having a mount is that I frequently end up being the one to spam Trade Chat and LFG for people for 5-mans. Not sure why, but even when I join a group that's being assembled, I get the buck passed to me.

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    1. I'm not sure I get the connection between the mount and spamming trade chat? Do you mean that you're then the last one to make it to the instance?

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    2. Well, when everybody else gets a head start to the instance and I'm stuck in Ironforge or Stormwind, I'm usually bringing up the rear in getting to the instance. I do have Swiftness Potions that I make just for this purpose, but those have a 2 minute CD on them. And the speed boost Rogues get has a 5 minute CD....

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  3. Congrats!

    As I hate grinding for gold there was no chance I could've done this at 40. Luckily I have someone in the household who already had a char at 50ish when we hit 40 so I could borrow 65g. Still need to pay back 50, but we're only Level 43, so it hasn't been long. :)

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    1. I also have a shaman at level 35 - I'm hoping the hunter will be able to help her out with her mount, simply because mobs drop more valuable things as you go up in level and things definitely get a bit easier in that regard the higher you get.

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  4. Congratulations. :) Getting a mount at 40 is one of those milestones that feel so good to finally reach. I always hated when I was slower than everyone else during Vanilla & BC, because I felt like I was slowing the group down.

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  5. Congratulations! I also bought a mount 2 days ago. Fortunately I had to grind only 25-30 gold, so I just cleared RFC again and again until I got all the money (and my eyes started to bleed). It's not very profitable, like 3-3.5 gold per hour (and two clears). If I could heal, probably I'd go to WC instead. WC grinding might be slightly more effective.

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  6. This entire issue is one of the reasons my first character up is a warlock. I took mining and skinning as my professions, so I may hit 100 gold by 40 anyway (though right now it's looking more like I'll have 70 or 80 tops). I will say it's taking a lot longer for prices on gathered goods to ramp up than I expected. Light hides are still selling for about 2x the vendor price on my server, and cloth is so cheap it made more sense to start a tailoring alt than actually trying to sell wool or linen (I'm not listing something to try and make one extra silver a stack . . ).

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  7. Yipes, I wasn't stressed about my mount yet but reading this I realize I probably should be. My warrior is 31 and I have maybe 5 gold…? I am never ever going to be near being able to afford my mount at 40, that's just the harsh reality of it. Oh well, if I've been running the entire time this far ^^

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