Mission Accomplished

26 December, 2006. 437 words.

I finally got it! I saved up 80 gold and bought my Night Elf Hunter a riding cat (72 gold for training and then 8 gold to buy the actual saddle). It took me from level 40 to level 45 to save up the money. It would have taken even longer except I just happened to find a rare blue item and sold it to some clueless sucker at the auction house for 11 gold.

You better believe I harbored much rage and antipathy toward anyone I saw riding around on a mount after level 40. Twinks! Korean gold-farming, guild-handout-taking twink bastards! One indication of how prevalent buying gold from Korean gold farmers is: I didn’t see one single person over level 40 on a road without a riding mount. Not a single one.

Anyway, now that I’ve got the cat I’m experiencing buyer’s remorse. What real good is it, anyway? Sure it looks cool, but I’ve found it’s surprisingly unhelpful in a variety of situations. First of all, it takes a moment to “mount up.” You have to stand there for a second stirring an imaginary pot before your cat appears. And you have to stand still while doing it. That’s annoying. I’m used to just hitting the “Aspect of the Cheetah” button and bam-o I’m instantly going faster, even when I’m already running. Not so with the riding cat. You have to stop, mount up, then go again.

You can’t do very much while riding. You can’t talk to vendors. You can’t take a ride on a hippogryph. You can’t swim. You can’t, um, go through a cave. In fact, you can’t go anywhere that’s considered “indoors,” including some of the tree stumps in Darnassus, without getting knocked off your cat and back onto your feet. You can’t even give your cat a name. And it doesn’t show up in your portrait on the “pick a character” screen. What exactly did I pay 80 gold for again??

Basically all I’ve got is a slightly faster method of transportation when I’m traveling long distances on the ground. And it’s really not even that much faster than Aspect of the Cheetah. Riding is supposed to be 60% faster (versus AotC which is 30% faster), but it doesn’t seem that much to me. For a hunter, I’d have to say that the level 40 riding mounts are a big fat waste of 80 gold. I would have been better off training some new skills or buying some new gear.

But it is fun to look down and laugh at all the low-level people walking around on foot. :)

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