mounts

Late last night I finally got exalted reputation with the Frostsaber Trainers, and finally got my Winterspring Frostsaber mount! Isn't it beautiful?

It only took me 22 (real life) days to go from 75 points into neutral all the way to exalted reputation. I started this grind on July 13, and casually ground out the requisite quests whenever I could. Though I had the idea to try to track my actual in game time, I lost track early on. Based on some tests I did, I estimated between 27 and 30 in game hours. I believe I was pretty close to those estimates.

Though Blizzard has substantially decreased the amount of time it would have taken to complete this reputation grind, 27-30 hours is still a lot of time. Anyone who has ever ground out reputation by doing repeatable quests knows that it can be quite tedious and make it seem a lot longer. However if you allow yourself distractions, it won't be as bad, or at least not feel as long as it really is.

Grinding out these quests, you'll naturally end up killing quite a few mobs and of course get a few bagfuls of stuff. There's not much gold to be made from the mobs themselves, but there are occasional drops that you could sell on the AH, or vendor. I ended up collecting everything and vendoring the trash, disenchanted any greens, and any sellable items made their way to the AH.

While doing the Frostsaber Provisions quest you'll end up with a lot of grey items that don't stack, so either don't pick them up or just make frequent trips to the vendor. While doing the Winterfall Intrusion quest, you'll get an occasional green item, a few leatherworking patterns, and quite a bit of Winterfall Firewater. If you are are able to get some "bonus honor" from Timbermaw Hold, then a lot of Winterfall Spirit Beads will drop (I ended up with 327 of these beads). Doing the Rampaging Giants quest, you'll get frequent drops of Recipe: Greater Frost Protection Potion. If you still have the Cache of Mau'ari you'll be able to collect the various E'ko from your kills and turn them in for different Juju. These Juju are battle elixirs that grant you different buffs depending on which E'ko you turn in. The Juju are soulbound, but the E'ko are not.

So was the grind worth it? For me it was, I got a lot more out of it than just this mount. The biggest one was finding a guild I enjoy being in. Remember that level 65 shaman that was trying to get this mount at the same time I was? Well she is the GM of the new guild I joined recently, so finding a good guild was the direct result of this grind. Though not as big a deal, I went from unfriendly to revered with the Timbermaw Hold just by turning in those spirit beads. I thought I would get to exalted, but it looks like those enchants from Timbermaw will have to wait.

I actually saw quite a few people grinding out reputation for this mount, so perhaps word is getting out that this grind isn't as bad as it use to be. Though this reputation grind was worth it for me it may not be for everyone. I was at a point where this grind was right for me as I wasn't doing much else in game besides dailies and the occasional instance. Will it be worth it for you to do it? That depends. I do have some suggestions though for those that are even thinking about doing this reputation grind.

• If you are less than 60, you could grind out a few of these quests to help you level, but I wouldn't do more than that. You'll get your level 60 epic mount and you should move ahead to Outlands.
• If you are less than 70, you should skip this grind for now. You should level to 70 because the mount you really need is the flying mount in Outlands. This mount opens up a whole new world and a lot of quests are unobtainable until you have one.
• If you are 70:
  • Don't have flying mount - don't do this grind. Seriously, get your flying mount. It's that important.
  • Broke, meaning no gold - definitely don't do this grind. Dailies, dailies, dailies. A conservative estimate of 100g per in game hour means you'll lose the opportunity of ~3000 gold. It's a no-brainer.
  • Have regular flying mount but not epic - you could casually do this grind. I know it takes a lot of time to gather the 5000 gold for the epic flight training, so to break that up, stop by once in a while and grind out a couple of quests.
  • Raiding - got time before the raid but not enough time to do anything else? Here's a good way to get some grinding done while waiting.
  • Have done it all - by all means grind out this quest. It's a very nice mount to add to your collection and it's one of those rarer mounts that just look awesome.
  • Bored - Depends. If you are bored of doing other things (like dailies) then this may be enough of a distraction or incentive to break up the boredom. However if you are truly bored with the game perhaps you need to take a break or find other ways to reinvigorate the game experience (have you tried dual or multiboxing?)

I'm quite happy now that I've gotten my Winterspring Frostsaber mount. It was a long grind but well worth it.

If you want to catch up on the entire experience, check out the previous stories here.

Patch 2.4.3 is live! So mount up because we now have level 30 mounts!

Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.

Once I heard that mounts were going to be obtainable at level 30 in Patch 2.4.3, I did what a lot of people did, put their characters that still haven't gotten a mount in an Inn to rest up and wait for the patch. There was just no need to spend all that extra time running, when you could just wait a little and ride in style.



Team DoubleD mounted up and ready to ride.