I remember an old WoW buddy who rarely used flight paths because he knew how long it would take another guildie to actually be ready even for a summon - and would joke how he'd saved enough money by just running to dungeons to afford his epic mount. He was probably not entirely wrong - gold was so hard to come by back then!
@@andromidius Dude I didn't get flying in WOTLK until a friend just randomly gave me enough gold to buy it. The 2000 or whatever you needed. Now it's a joke, and I just send 10K gold to a new alt plus bags and starter gear without blinking an eye.
flight path choices were definitely a financial decision especially before cata because you'd pay EVERY time you passed one, which is ridiculous; it'd be like having to stop and pay for every airport you passed over while flying from one state to another...
One thing forgot to mention was Rental Flying in Wrath. Icecrown, Stormpeaks, and Sholazar Basin were designed with flying in mind including its quests, for those who couldnt afford cold weather flying you could rent a gryphon/wyvern mount only useable in those 3 zones
@@Hurtydwarf Honestly alot of people didn't know it existed, it was an NPC in stormpeaks one of the goblins. Hell i stumbled upon it in wrath back in the day had no idea what it was. Was great for me because i didnt know how to make gold and needed flying to continue leveling in stormpeaks because the rest of the quests were over the frozen waterfall.
As a new player in vanilla, flying was so integral to establishing the expansive feeling and mystique of the world. For example when you fly from Ironforge to Stormwind, you will fly over all those inaccessible areas. But it LOOKS like you can access them. You can even click on the dragons down below. It makes your mind run with endless possibilities on what could be in the world.
As horde, opening up the flight paths in northern Eastern Kingdoms I kept hoping I'd see a glimpse into what was beyond the Greymane Wall. Easily the most memorable and iconic thing for me, discovering it the first time with all those high teen refugees trying to get in, plus Son of Arugal pathing nearby. Silverpine forest... that was the zone that did it for me. Will never forget my first experience leveling there. I started playing in 2006 just when Ratchet got its flight path, which in its time was huge. Stopped for what I thought would be good in December 20009, got back into it a month ago due to HC challenge on era.
I played everquest classic on the green server. The world doesnt feel expansive unless the boat takes 20 minutes to get to where you need to go. The world doesnt feel expansive unless you need a higher level friend to escort you through a dangerous mountain pass to get to the other side of the continent where the other noobs are. Vanilla wow has so many quality of life changes made to it. Everquest p99 feels bigger, less convenient, less forgiving. You never get to fly on a gripon and look down at the mobs.
@@nakfoor1846 I would be playing project 99's green server with my level 12 high elf cleric but there just aren't that many europeans on there. It's more of an american channel. I've already maxxed out 3 characters- - on retail, private-tbc, private-vanilla. I've been there, done that.
If you ever wondered, you can't die while on flight master's mount. You will always remain on 1 HP. I have found this hard way during Cataclysm, when Deathwing was burning Twilight Highlands and he hits me, but I didn't die.
You could in vanilla. There was a trinket which would damage on yourself constantly if you wore it. You could use to kill yourself in flight an skip flight time from IF to eastern kingdoms for example :D
Lots of comments here so this may have been mentioned already, but the Jousting daily quest in Mount Hyjal is a total nod to the 1980's arcade video game Joust, and the mechanics aren't wonky because they are some left over flying combat idea from Wrath, they are that way because that's how they worked in the original video game. Even the platforms floating in the air are present in the original game. The whole thing was a pleasant surprise and I believe pays respect to one of the most popular (and best) video games of the era. Great video btw, as always! Many thanks :) Edit: oh no... is my age showing?
Another note is that pre-Cataclysm launch, you could have 310% flying. This was achieved by Ashes of Alar, Gladiator mounts in TBC. All the mount rewards for raid achievements, Gladiator mounts, Holiday meta mount, Mimron’s Head and Invincible in Wrath. And when Cataclysm launched if you had any of those mounts on a character that character automatically achieved the 310% riding skill and according achievement.
I might have missed it in the video, but another cool fact is that in Wrath the level required for expert riding (outland flying) was lowered to 60 and was now purchasable in Thrallmar or Honor Hold for less gold. That level of flight was also buffed from 60% speed to 100%.
The jousting quest in Cata was a callback to an older arcade game called "Joust" where you flew an ostrich and lanced bad guys off their birds. The Cata quest used the same mechanics but in 3d space instead of the originals 2d space.
Very interesting video. Quite hard to follow though since the talking is sooo fast. I understand it's to keep the video shorter but man, that was hard. Had to pause and go back several times. Anyway, keep up the good work. I had forgotten about most of this that we had to go through. Ps: dragon riding feels niiice!
I didn't play a druid at that time, but didn't you just unlocked the flight form quest at 68? How long did the quest take? Was it as difficult and involved as Paladin and Warlock lvl 40 mounts?
I remember...my friend was a priest and I was the 7th too fly on my server as a druid with flight form....and also 19th flier overall on a server of almost 20k :) years ago
A long time ago, I found it baffling that you couldnt fly in the overworld but years later, I learned the reason for it is despite how big the map seems, there is a lot of it that is just a void, like there is nothing developed or rendered.
@@Bozzigmupp Go to Stonetalon Peak, in Classic. There's a cave to the west called Talon Den. Climb up around the left side of the entrance until you're able to jump on the roof of the Den. Hop around to the roof to the other side, the just wander along and upward and you'll find it
Those Joust flight combat quests were directly from the game called Joust!, had the same mechanics, and the same titles before each wave. I absolutely loved it, however, many players couldn't see the connection to that game.
Personally, i think they should design Zones with flying in mind, like in TBC and WOTLK. Because trying to limit flying while actively selling flying mounts on the wow store seems very counter productive.
Remember when you couldn't queue multiple fight paths in early vanilla? You literally had to get out each stop if there wasn't a direct flight. Like a layover in an airport (and almost as annoying).
In The Burning Crusade, I was the first one in my guild to get fast flying. I wasn't one of the first in the game to get it, though. Heck, I had not even reached level 60 on my main when TBC released. I was recruited to help fund a few fast flight achievements in my guild, since I was pretty good at getting funds. (I was herbalism/mining, not having taken a crafting profession. I spent a LOT of time fishing, though.) I spent a great deal of time at Og'rila, and got to be the first to show several players the nether ray mount. Oh, but that journey to fast flying was still quite a long journey. It took a couple of months. When I finally got it, I spent a good twenty minutes just flying around Outland humming the theme to The Neverending Story to myself.
WoD also had the Aviana's Feather toy, that acted as a scuffed flying system on a 10m CD. I have long maintained that if they just gave us Flight Whistles and this toy (with a shorter CD), I would never need flying in game.
I remember when they introduced this to WoD & you could use it in PvP & in no fly zones. I have so many screen shots of using it in battlegrounds & Silvermoon City.
Was missing the whole thing about how to getting 310% speed from the start, either by getting a rare mount to support that speed or to get the "what a long strange trip it has been".
Early in vanilla, there was also no connected Fp. flying from Auberdie to Tanaris takes about 10 min and you had to sit at your computer more or less, so you could send your char on the next part of flight. There was also no FP at Ratchet. This was no big deal for horde that had a FP in X-roads, but was a huge pain the ass for alliance, as a lot of quests had you go back and forth from the shimmering flats to BB or SW. Even if you could HS to IF, (everyone had their HS in IF back then, as it was the only ally city with and AH). Going to BB, would require you to first fly to SW, then fly to BB. After delivering the quest you was back to Shimmering flats, then you could either take the boat and run there, on foot as most of these quests was for lvl 30-40. or fly to SW, then fly to IF, then fly to Menthil, take the boat, and then continue flying 1 FP at the time. Glad Blizz sorted out that part.
"These tomes could be bought by any Cold Weather Flying trainer" I'm pretty sure only one NPC in the entire game sells this and it's Hira Snowdawn in Dalaran. There are two other CWF trainers, Roxi Ramrocket and Pilot Vic, but to my knowledge neither of them sell the tome.
Speaking of that airfield in Dun Morogh, I remember learning of a way to get up there back in the Vanilla days, through very tedious wall-walking, but I managed it, and it was really cool to get to run around out there, where we weren't supposed to go XD Honestly, though, the opening up of flight was a huge breakthrough moment for me in WoW, and I am really happy they did that.
Flying should have been a short term duration with a cooldown so you could reach places like the airfield for 80-85 quests in Cata. With the Catazones all acting as max level zones. Reg flying is a 1 min duration with a 5 min cooldown. Epic flying is maybe a 2 min duration and 3 minute cooldown. It would let you reach the extra places and explore. But you can't numlock fly across a continent to explore the whole thing.
I personally think flying was a mistake in hindsight. Azeroth felt a lot bigger from the ground and flying kind of shattered that illusion. But once it became an option there was no turning back because you couldn't take it away without outrage. It was a Pandora's Box.
@@wm1573 Yeah you're right actually! In fact, all this commuting to places is such a waste of time! We should just be able to teleport everywhere! No need to even move just click where you want to be on the map and pop right over there. No need to explore. No need to see anything. There, perfect game according to your apparent preference.
@@Gboy86ify who said anything about teleporting to everywhere? Flight paths are more than fine. You’re the 0,1% minority who wants to waste their time and run to places because that’s good gameplay. Yes if a game is new then running to places is fine at first. But that does not make a good gameplay. You’re delusional
@@Gboy86ify I get what you mean. I personally never spent a lot of time in wow, however I played gw2 for quite some time. Mounts are basically common there and you do EVERYTHING with them. Combine mounts + a cam that's scrolled out as far as possible and the experience is so drastically different from default fov and no mounts. You could literally cross a zone in like 25 secs on a fast mount. Running on foot would take you minutes. Sometimes I wish that mounts were more restricted in MMOs
Everquest classic didn't have flightpaths. Didnt have mounts. And the boat took 20 minutes to get from freeport to Butcherblock. People who played the game back in 1998 still revisit that game.
I remember when Blizzard announced that there was no way in hell we would ever see flying in vanillas Eastern Kingdom/ Kalimdor. Lol. They didnt know their fanbase very well when they said that because one of the most profitable choices they ever made was adding flight to those zones. The forums were on fire for weeks when they announced they were working on figuring out how to apply it in the future. I resubbed specifically for that reason. I do miss the old days of having to hoof it to SM for dungeons at level 30 but its a bitter sweet memory. When you got your first mount at level 40 it really made it a special moment. As they reduced the level requirements for many things, mounting included, the impact of having it diminished. Like the whole class abilities, You use to have to wait until end game levels to gain the abilities that your class was known for. Leveling a Lock was a bit of a pain but if you found its niche you could do it fairly easily without having those sweet sweet dots. Pallys didnt have DS until end game-ish. When they made all of these abilities available at essentially level 10, it took so much of the games soul and threw it in the garbage. Yes it sucked to be weak at lower levels, but it kept alot of the casual players outside of the raids and pvp. Some might argue that this was a good move, i dont know if i agree. Im a firm believer in earning your way, in life and in games too. Wow use to make you sweat and bleed for even the most trivial of rewards. It didnt only make the achievement of these things alot more meaningful, but it also made the journey towards that goal alot more special. This is why i think alot of the games original players believe that the game began going downhill since Cata. From Vanilla to LK it gradually became a bit easier, little by little. But by the end of LK and start of Cata, so many hard to earn rewards became easily obtained by the worst players among us. Im a believer in equality of opportunity, but not equity. The better players should be the ones that have the better gear and abilities. The best the game has to offer should be reserved only for the best players around. And i say this knowing i was far from the upper echelons of the games ranking members. But i was ok with not having the best of the best until i earned it fairly by being the best of the best. I could be wrong here, but i feel like, from my perspective, WoW turned into a giant game of "Participation Trophies". But what the hell do i know, im just a random nobody on the internet, lol.
As a note, the joust quest in Hyjal wasn't really trying for the same mounted combat as WotLK tried, it was emulating the old game Joust which one of the developers was a fan of. It's why it had the wonky mechanics as it's, essentially, a 3D version of that game.
Hot take but I *don't* want Dragon Riding to be the new normal going forwards. I miss just being to mount up, press up and then hit auto-run while I tab out or whatever.
Ya no regrets that my main was a Druid in BC, you got Flight Form for near free from a class trainer when you did the quest for the form and then I was an herbalist who just flew around Netherstorm collecting Netherbloom and selling it to get epic flight speed faster than most in my guild.
Surprised you missed the fact that in alpha/beta/early vanilla flight masters could only send you to adjoining flight points and not to anywhere on the map.
My favorite thing on my paladin main was Aura of the Crusader and obtaining Invincible from WotLK after getting What A Long Strange Trip It's Been that gave you the highest flying skill! After getting the achievement way long ago. How fun it was to out speed most players on my server and raid groups to make it to that one rare, ore deposit, or raid/ dungeon entrance, sometimes so fast I had enough time after landing that the other player I was racing didn't even see said ore deposit upon arrival or I was already fully buffed and ready to go into the experience before they ever landed. 😊 Good times back then. Miss playing WotLK.
It's funny how so many people complained about being able to fly at the start of Cataclysm, but everyone loves being able to fly at the start of Dragonflight. I personally think the dragon-riding flying is the best part of the new expansion and wouldn't have it any other way going forward.
Kinda wish they kept improving the Flight Master's Whistle. I know it wont get used as much but might help in some places where flying yourself isn't allowed.
In vanilla, Wow didn't pioneer the waypoint transportation system as it already existed in DAoC a few years before, where you could ride ground mounts from town to town for a fee, similar to flight paths, only you could also dismount midway to get to some middle point (also it kinda sucked when it happened on accident)
Just a very small tidbit, is that Blizzard added the Flying capability along the way to mounts that didn't have it. For example: Spirit of Eche'ro, unicorns like Lucid Nightmare, etc. Originally they were land-only mounts.
When I think of the history of flying in WoW my mind immediately goes to the Moonglade->Thunderbluff flight at the end of a Horde Druids bear form quest. You could start the flight, order a pizza, do the dishes, take a shower, clean your room, eat the pizza, come back to your computer and still not be finished with the flight. I don't know if it was a dev oversight or what, but there was no earthly reason for the flight to be so long.
Man, those druid form quest where the best, and I have such fond memories of doing them with my friend on our tauren druids (and later on my night elf)... Really glad they added that spirit wolf quest in Exile's Reach for shamans, 'cause I'm a sucker for things like that! Made it feel a lot more special when you had to work for stuff rather than just buying it, or in the case of hunter just starting with a pet instead of learning how to tame one (I remember going from level 7 to 10 feeling like it took aaages back in the day, but _man_ was it rewarding when I finally got that quest).
Suggested topic for another video, go through all the different keys that were added to the game and lost like the key to enter Stratholme or Scholomance for example.
What made it worse is that they lied for over a year saying they planned to add it in a later patch before they admitted they planned to not have flying in WoD or any expansion going forward.
I really enjoy your content, in a way it reminds me to enjoy the little things WoW has to offer and not worry too much about what each expansion has to offer
Things is back in the day you had the time. Nowadays those people have fulltime jobs and a family. The people that are at the age now, back in those days we played wow, aren’t interested in these times of games any more. So to keep your players it just needs to be less time consuming. I do miss those times to, don’t get me wrong. But it just wouldn’t work any more
Since it wasn't mentioned Pre cataclysm there was a few mounts that could go at 310% flight speed natively and this would include Ashes of Alar and the ICC Achievement Frost Wyrms
Soar is still really satisfying in my opinion, since you are literally flying. Feels much cooler. I just wish it was as fast as dragon riding and benefited from vigour etc in the same way.
@@LouisKing995 i felt satisfied from it as well. then doing it for another 5 times the shine begins to fade. thats when i decided to just quit WOW and say to myself that im gonna sit out this entire expansion
You used to be able to restart the client, and it would cancel the flight path and drop you at the next "stop" as the flight patch did indeed go past each node on its way to the end .
I maintain that they dug their own ditch when they put shots of characters on flight paths in their advertising, without being clear about what it was. Watching in an ad, you had no idea that was in effect, a flying single person train. Then when you got the game it was a let down to find out you really couldn't fly. Many other games had ground mounts; they sold this as a new big feature, without actually saying it out loud.
I get what you're saying, but even simple flight paths were somewhat innovative at the time, and probably involved a lot more effort in programing than you'd think. They were likely very proud of the flight paths; the fact that they also create cool visuals probably made them an easy add to the marketing.
I hope they give non-dragon mounts some love in future. From what I've heard, Dragonriding is quite popular. Maybe they shouldn't give all mounts the same treatment, but something a little more fun is certainly in order moving forwards. Also I do hope some form of limited mounted combat is added in future - we have had it in limited forms for some quests, though its often jenky and rough. And it would clearly have to be only usable on mounted enemy units, since it would be weird killing ground based mobs from the back of a dragon. Perhaps each 'type' of mount gets its own unique vehicle mechanics (for example, a fire breath for dragons, a swooping claw attack for birds, a machine gun for mechanicals, etc). Even if its again only used for daily quests in a particular zone it could be fun - and gives people a reason to use some of the many many many many many mounts they have in their collections that never otherwise get used (like how we finally had a 'use' for pets with Pet Battles).
Have you considered a video about the History of Heirlooms? It'd be quite interesting if you mention the never added to the game heirloom rings in Cataclysm.
My issue with DF flying is that I have to be engaged with it. I just want old flying. The new one is fun but I'd rather slower and easier flying that I dont have to plan
@@lessthanperfectgaming5688 fair, but theres plenty of safe spots to afk. Definitely don't see why they restrict you from using a regular flying mount tho too.
It's weird how Blizzard acknowledged flying made Azeroth smaller for years, but the only thing they could really do is force the pathfinders instead of you know, just making the world a bit more engaging. Even the events in DF are so barren when travelling between them (Not to mention, the world events got boring extremely quickly).
I personally liked the pathfinder system. It gave a sense of accomplishment besides the ordinary grind to max level. Plus, it drew you into the storylines a lot deeper than just running random quests with little connection to each other. When it was announced for Legion, I started on my achievements right away and it didn't feel like a chore.
The only thing I don't understand is how would adding more flight points make the world feel smaller. Because you don't have to walk so far to the nearest one? That's nonsense. If anyone, having it would make the world seem much denser, as the old zones feel pretty empty when running across an entire zone to kill a few mobs or collect a single item, and then all the way back.
To fill in some gaps on the Shadowlands part (sorry for reminding everyone) It was no mounting at all in the maw until 9.1 Shadowlands flying achievement was not available on release, think this was 9.1 too? This was account wide
I feel like the whole game opened up to me when i got to level 30 and unlocked flying and ive been flying around on my purple dragon, i went straight to gilneas ruins from stormwind cuz i wanted to see what it looked like after it got sacked
When I was 13 and my parents got divorced my dad had a hippie lady friend that he would hang with sometimes he said and she would play TBC and “fly her magic carpet” he said it was so cool. I didn’t really know what he was talking about at the time but I just remember thinking ‘that sounds so awesome’. Actually that’s probably one of the things that made me want to play it in the first place.. wanting my own ‘magic carpet’… GIGGITY GIGGITY.
Flying has indeed made our lives 100 times easier ofc, but I think it has also taken a big part of exploring and actually getting to see the world... I remember spending hours in bfa traveling around by ground for dungeons or quests before pathfinding and right after getting it I lost all that and it came down to flying high up and auto flying till my destination. It wasn't that "bad" since I did got to explore and see the land all those patches before the pathfinding for BFA and unlocking flying in Zererth Mortis for SL... Dragonflight has some truly spectacular landscape and we have missed everything because of flying... I tried leveling in Azure Spans without flying and only then i realized how fun exploring and how stunning everything is tldr flying is helpful but we are not exploring what is beneath us
Who is we? By all means, feel free to RP walk wherever you want to. Nothing stopping you and you can drop the "But I missed so much" spiel. Do you people have absolutely no self control at all?
There no much to explore btw, just landscapes to see and contemplate 5min and then nothing. There are no puzzles, mysteries, different, hidden or real time quests, etc. Is the same wow has given us for many years; that's why people only flight, because the only reason to play this game is not playing it, but work it. Also no new players, always the same old grinders who go for their 50th character.
The first flightpath I ever took was Tranquiln to Silver moon. It felt like I was flying for real it was great. I don't play WoW anymore but I have the found memories from being a fresh player back in BC.
I wish flying was implemented with short term durations as a way to reach higher places. Not used as ways to just numlock fly across a continent. Normal flying is a 60 second duration with a 5 min cooldown. Epic flying is 2 min duration with a 3 min cooldown. That kind of thing.
ahhh the soulcrushing moment when you are on a flightpath, and you see a rare spawn, and you are stuck on a flightpath and cannot pause it, fuck man, this is especially true on wrath classic.
Limited amount of means of travel made the world feel much bigger and increases the immersion. Flying and being able to see the world in a different perspective was fun but unneeded
Oculus* was the flying mounted combat dungeon. I loved that place. Can't believe how much hate it got, apparently blizzard overestimated players ability to push 2 buttons
you say blizzard pioneered this waypoint system but I remember a similar system in Dark Age of Camelot which was earlier than WoW. It was horse travel thru a network of stables.
5:32 Howling _Fjord_ is pronounced ‘Fee-yord’ the J is like a Y. Think of the German word for ‘yes’ (Ja). It’s pronounced ‘ya’. The ‘jord’ would be like ‘your + d’. Hope that helps. 😜
@@generalgrievous3731 - Yeah, but that could be due to his highest level of education completed. I don’t rag on that, but a mispronunciation of a well-known word is different.
Only nitpick id say is that calling shadowlands another pathfinder feels a bit wrong since there was no meta achievement, it was just a reward on the renown track early in 9.1
I think its the single biggest change to make the game not feel like an MMO. You know that really cool and dangerous world with made? Well now you can freely move in the seemingly infinite Z axis of our game to ignore it all and never cross paths with players Speeding up things was important, but the way it was implemented was bad.
@@Lizard1582 Nonsense statement. You have to experience the world grounded before you unlock flight. Instanced content doesn't have flying unless specifically implemented. Encountering other players on the road was already a small fraction of the total interaction between players. Even in Classic players would spend most of their time in a city, and flight paths existed. Modern WoW has world quests which provide interaction between players. The game still very much feels like an MMO and flying was implemented just fine.
@@Bepples Why should "experiencing the world" be limited to being a 1-time thing when theres different questing routes and multiple classes? The need to do things only once sounds more like a gameplay loop problem rather than a reason to praise a path of least resistance. Instanced content is adjacent being lobby game. League of Legends isnt an MMO simply because I interact with players. You look for people in group finder/trade chat who want to do the exact same thing as you and voila, you get teleported where you want. Dailies and world quests did improve this years later, yes. Some of the most MMO-feel zones over the years were beginning of space where u couldnt fly yet, Timeless Isle, Argus, Mechagon etc. Its just a fact that opening the empty Z axis for free movement means space between Blizzard's designated points of interest are virtually dead. 90% when you see people in WoW outside of a city, you know exactly what they're doing because they're already unmounted (or about to, or flying away) doin the content that Blizzard appointed to be done in that area. On the ground, everyone is on the 0 Z axis while travelling, so you see more people and have little idea where they're going. Seeing people traverse the world matters. Blizz doing no flying at the beginning of every xpac since WoD is just proof of how detrimental they think it is to the MMO feeling. Flying is convenient and necessary in the game as it is now, but contextually when implemented in TBC, it killed the immersion of the world that they nailed down so well in vanilla.
I remember when picking a flight path was a serious financial decision, but now I never think twice about it
I remember an old WoW buddy who rarely used flight paths because he knew how long it would take another guildie to actually be ready even for a summon - and would joke how he'd saved enough money by just running to dungeons to afford his epic mount.
He was probably not entirely wrong - gold was so hard to come by back then!
I remember back in vanilla taking the flight point from Silithus, to Darnassus I estimated took about 11 to 12 minutes.
I used to take the tram between IF and SW just to save on the minimal flying cost, as the econonmy in vanilla wow was so tight. Great days.
@@andromidius Dude I didn't get flying in WOTLK until a friend just randomly gave me enough gold to buy it. The 2000 or whatever you needed. Now it's a joke, and I just send 10K gold to a new alt plus bags and starter gear without blinking an eye.
flight path choices were definitely a financial decision especially before cata because you'd pay EVERY time you passed one, which is ridiculous; it'd be like having to stop and pay for every airport you passed over while flying from one state to another...
One thing forgot to mention was Rental Flying in Wrath. Icecrown, Stormpeaks, and Sholazar Basin were designed with flying in mind including its quests, for those who couldnt afford cold weather flying you could rent a gryphon/wyvern mount only useable in those 3 zones
Oh that's right! And it was unfathomable slow haha
Never heard of this before! Thanks for the lore!!
They were the speed of the original flying mounts from tbc, 60%.
I played at launch in Wrath and dont remember this. Who sold the rental mounts?
@@Hurtydwarf Honestly alot of people didn't know it existed, it was an NPC in stormpeaks one of the goblins. Hell i stumbled upon it in wrath back in the day had no idea what it was. Was great for me because i didnt know how to make gold and needed flying to continue leveling in stormpeaks because the rest of the quests were over the frozen waterfall.
As a new player in vanilla, flying was so integral to establishing the expansive feeling and mystique of the world. For example when you fly from Ironforge to Stormwind, you will fly over all those inaccessible areas. But it LOOKS like you can access them. You can even click on the dragons down below. It makes your mind run with endless possibilities on what could be in the world.
As horde, opening up the flight paths in northern Eastern Kingdoms I kept hoping I'd see a glimpse into what was beyond the Greymane Wall. Easily the most memorable and iconic thing for me, discovering it the first time with all those high teen refugees trying to get in, plus Son of Arugal pathing nearby. Silverpine forest... that was the zone that did it for me. Will never forget my first experience leveling there.
I started playing in 2006 just when Ratchet got its flight path, which in its time was huge. Stopped for what I thought would be good in December 20009, got back into it a month ago due to HC challenge on era.
I played everquest classic on the green server.
The world doesnt feel expansive unless the boat takes 20 minutes to get to where you need to go.
The world doesnt feel expansive unless you need a higher level friend to escort you through a dangerous mountain pass to get to the other side of the continent where the other noobs are.
Vanilla wow has so many quality of life changes made to it.
Everquest p99 feels bigger, less convenient, less forgiving.
You never get to fly on a gripon and look down at the mobs.
@@villiamkarl-gustavlundberg5422 Are you saying you prefer WoW?
@@nakfoor1846
I would be playing project 99's green server with my level 12 high elf cleric but there just aren't that many europeans on there. It's more of an american channel.
I've already maxxed out 3 characters- - on retail, private-tbc, private-vanilla.
I've been there, done that.
What areas are inaccesible
If you ever wondered, you can't die while on flight master's mount. You will always remain on 1 HP. I have found this hard way during Cataclysm, when Deathwing was burning Twilight Highlands and he hits me, but I didn't die.
That's cool
Your gryphon must’ve done a barrel roll.
...i had crystallized, and now I'm a glamazon bitch ready for the runway
You could in vanilla. There was a trinket which would damage on yourself constantly if you wore it. You could use to kill yourself in flight an skip flight time from IF to eastern kingdoms for example :D
@@phantom0456 huh?
Lots of comments here so this may have been mentioned already, but the Jousting daily quest in Mount Hyjal is a total nod to the 1980's arcade video game Joust, and the mechanics aren't wonky because they are some left over flying combat idea from Wrath, they are that way because that's how they worked in the original video game. Even the platforms floating in the air are present in the original game. The whole thing was a pleasant surprise and I believe pays respect to one of the most popular (and best) video games of the era. Great video btw, as always! Many thanks :)
Edit: oh no... is my age showing?
Yes and you seem to be quite a legend ❤️👍🏻
Your age shows no more than someone with a knowledge of classic literature.
Another note is that pre-Cataclysm launch, you could have 310% flying. This was achieved by Ashes of Alar, Gladiator mounts in TBC. All the mount rewards for raid achievements, Gladiator mounts, Holiday meta mount, Mimron’s Head and Invincible in Wrath. And when Cataclysm launched if you had any of those mounts on a character that character automatically achieved the 310% riding skill and according achievement.
I think you left out the Time-Lost Protodrake and the Star Pony.
Holiday mount came with 310 % build-in :)
I think Onyxian Drake also had 310% flying speed
got the violet proto drake on 2 different characters for ~cheap 310 flying(and a swaggy mount)
I might have missed it in the video, but another cool fact is that in Wrath the level required for expert riding (outland flying) was lowered to 60 and was now purchasable in Thrallmar or Honor Hold for less gold. That level of flight was also buffed from 60% speed to 100%.
5:52 these trainers also made it so you could train flying with a SW/org rep discount, bringing down the cost of 280 flying from 5k to 4k at max rep.
The jousting quest in Cata was a callback to an older arcade game called "Joust" where you flew an ostrich and lanced bad guys off their birds. The Cata quest used the same mechanics but in 3d space instead of the originals 2d space.
I was about to come say this. Seems not to many people got the reference even back then
I dont even know why people hated it so mutch. It was a boring quest, sure, but its not THAT bad....
@@Fion355 i liked Cata just fine. but there were quite a number of boring quests
Very interesting video.
Quite hard to follow though since the talking is sooo fast. I understand it's to keep the video shorter but man, that was hard. Had to pause and go back several times.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I had forgotten about most of this that we had to go through.
Ps: dragon riding feels niiice!
This video is such a trip down memory lane! This was great, thank you!😊
I just love your channel. It's awesome to look back and consider where we've come from.
So I love your videos! Been watching them for over a year now and I watch them all the time! ❤
Nice vid. Just a clarification: in TBC druids could learn the slow flying skill and flight form at level 68 and didn't have to wait till level 70.
I didn't play a druid at that time, but didn't you just unlocked the flight form quest at 68? How long did the quest take? Was it as difficult and involved as Paladin and Warlock lvl 40 mounts?
@@knighthawk3749 the questline was for the epic fightform, not the normal, slow one.
@@knighthawk3749 The quest for the normal flight form was basically "Go talk to trainer and spend gold".
Was a considerable discount for them too.
I remember...my friend was a priest and I was the 7th too fly on my server as a druid with flight form....and also 19th flier overall on a server of almost 20k :)
years ago
Always enjoying your content Hiru, been watching them for years
I still yearn for the flightmaster's whistle to this day. I kept it in my bags throughout BFA and SL "just in case" 🤣
i always keep it on me and use it at times on the Broken Shore even though ive been able to fly there for years
Ahm, you could use flightmaster's whistle in BFA. In fact it was very convenient in certain outlying spots in Northeastern Nazmir.
@@mattalan6618 It's also great to use on Argus, Where you can't fly, but you had to unlock it.
@@knighthawk3749 it wasn't hard to get but it was just tedious
@@knighthawk3749 It was meant I keep it in my bags for post BFA, hoping SL would give me the same. It def helps with Argus and Nazmir.
A long time ago, I found it baffling that you couldnt fly in the overworld but years later, I learned the reason for it is despite how big the map seems, there is a lot of it that is just a void, like there is nothing developed or rendered.
Yeah, I remember the one you could climb to above the cave in Northern Stonetalon Mountains
What where?
@@Bozzigmupp Go to Stonetalon Peak, in Classic. There's a cave to the west called Talon Den. Climb up around the left side of the entrance until you're able to jump on the roof of the Den. Hop around to the roof to the other side, the just wander along and upward and you'll find it
Those Joust flight combat quests were directly from the game called Joust!, had the same mechanics, and the same titles before each wave. I absolutely loved it, however, many players couldn't see the connection to that game.
Excellent job explaining WOW flight history! I enjoyed this and I can tell you put a lot of effort into this.
Personally, i think they should design Zones with flying in mind, like in TBC and WOTLK. Because trying to limit flying while actively selling flying mounts on the wow store seems very counter productive.
Remember when you couldn't queue multiple fight paths in early vanilla? You literally had to get out each stop if there wasn't a direct flight. Like a layover in an airport (and almost as annoying).
In The Burning Crusade, I was the first one in my guild to get fast flying. I wasn't one of the first in the game to get it, though. Heck, I had not even reached level 60 on my main when TBC released.
I was recruited to help fund a few fast flight achievements in my guild, since I was pretty good at getting funds. (I was herbalism/mining, not having taken a crafting profession. I spent a LOT of time fishing, though.)
I spent a great deal of time at Og'rila, and got to be the first to show several players the nether ray mount.
Oh, but that journey to fast flying was still quite a long journey. It took a couple of months. When I finally got it, I spent a good twenty minutes just flying around Outland humming the theme to The Neverending Story to myself.
WoD also had the Aviana's Feather toy, that acted as a scuffed flying system on a 10m CD. I have long maintained that if they just gave us Flight Whistles and this toy (with a shorter CD), I would never need flying in game.
I remember when they introduced this to WoD & you could use it in PvP & in no fly zones. I have so many screen shots of using it in battlegrounds & Silvermoon City.
@@johnrea8173yeah... alterac was 200% more epic with this "toy"
Was missing the whole thing about how to getting 310% speed from the start, either by getting a rare mount to support that speed or to get the "what a long strange trip it has been".
Early in vanilla, there was also no connected Fp. flying from Auberdie to Tanaris takes about 10 min and you had to sit at your computer more or less, so you could send your char on the next part of flight. There was also no FP at Ratchet. This was no big deal for horde that had a FP in X-roads, but was a huge pain the ass for alliance, as a lot of quests had you go back and forth from the shimmering flats to BB or SW. Even if you could HS to IF, (everyone had their HS in IF back then, as it was the only ally city with and AH). Going to BB, would require you to first fly to SW, then fly to BB. After delivering the quest you was back to Shimmering flats, then you could either take the boat and run there, on foot as most of these quests was for lvl 30-40. or fly to SW, then fly to IF, then fly to Menthil, take the boat, and then continue flying 1 FP at the time. Glad Blizz sorted out that part.
Yay! A proper Hiru video. Thanks dood
History of the classes would be a cool series.
You have a typo at 12:37. Not big enough to change the whole video I just thought I should let you know. Keep up the good work
"These tomes could be bought by any Cold Weather Flying trainer" I'm pretty sure only one NPC in the entire game sells this and it's Hira Snowdawn in Dalaran. There are two other CWF trainers, Roxi Ramrocket and Pilot Vic, but to my knowledge neither of them sell the tome.
Funnily, you could still buy the tome for a while, even when it was made obsolete later.
Speaking of that airfield in Dun Morogh, I remember learning of a way to get up there back in the Vanilla days, through very tedious wall-walking, but I managed it, and it was really cool to get to run around out there, where we weren't supposed to go XD Honestly, though, the opening up of flight was a huge breakthrough moment for me in WoW, and I am really happy they did that.
Flying should have been a short term duration with a cooldown so you could reach places like the airfield for 80-85 quests in Cata. With the Catazones all acting as max level zones.
Reg flying is a 1 min duration with a 5 min cooldown. Epic flying is maybe a 2 min duration and 3 minute cooldown.
It would let you reach the extra places and explore. But you can't numlock fly across a continent to explore the whole thing.
I personally think flying was a mistake in hindsight. Azeroth felt a lot bigger from the ground and flying kind of shattered that illusion. But once it became an option there was no turning back because you couldn't take it away without outrage. It was a Pandora's Box.
Yeah bro running for 1 hour everywhere is so cool and immersive for the rest of the games life. So good gameplay
@@wm1573 Yeah you're right actually! In fact, all this commuting to places is such a waste of time! We should just be able to teleport everywhere! No need to even move just click where you want to be on the map and pop right over there. No need to explore. No need to see anything.
There, perfect game according to your apparent preference.
@@Gboy86ify who said anything about teleporting to everywhere? Flight paths are more than fine. You’re the 0,1% minority who wants to waste their time and run to places because that’s good gameplay. Yes if a game is new then running to places is fine at first. But that does not make a good gameplay. You’re delusional
@@Gboy86ify I get what you mean.
I personally never spent a lot of time in wow, however I played gw2 for quite some time.
Mounts are basically common there and you do EVERYTHING with them.
Combine mounts + a cam that's scrolled out as far as possible and the experience is so drastically different from default fov and no mounts. You could literally cross a zone in like 25 secs on a fast mount.
Running on foot would take you minutes.
Sometimes I wish that mounts were more restricted in MMOs
Everquest classic didn't have flightpaths.
Didnt have mounts.
And the boat took 20 minutes to get from freeport to Butcherblock.
People who played the game back in 1998 still revisit that game.
I remember when Blizzard announced that there was no way in hell we would ever see flying in vanillas Eastern Kingdom/ Kalimdor. Lol. They didnt know their fanbase very well when they said that because one of the most profitable choices they ever made was adding flight to those zones. The forums were on fire for weeks when they announced they were working on figuring out how to apply it in the future. I resubbed specifically for that reason. I do miss the old days of having to hoof it to SM for dungeons at level 30 but its a bitter sweet memory. When you got your first mount at level 40 it really made it a special moment. As they reduced the level requirements for many things, mounting included, the impact of having it diminished. Like the whole class abilities, You use to have to wait until end game levels to gain the abilities that your class was known for. Leveling a Lock was a bit of a pain but if you found its niche you could do it fairly easily without having those sweet sweet dots. Pallys didnt have DS until end game-ish. When they made all of these abilities available at essentially level 10, it took so much of the games soul and threw it in the garbage. Yes it sucked to be weak at lower levels, but it kept alot of the casual players outside of the raids and pvp. Some might argue that this was a good move, i dont know if i agree. Im a firm believer in earning your way, in life and in games too. Wow use to make you sweat and bleed for even the most trivial of rewards. It didnt only make the achievement of these things alot more meaningful, but it also made the journey towards that goal alot more special. This is why i think alot of the games original players believe that the game began going downhill since Cata. From Vanilla to LK it gradually became a bit easier, little by little. But by the end of LK and start of Cata, so many hard to earn rewards became easily obtained by the worst players among us. Im a believer in equality of opportunity, but not equity. The better players should be the ones that have the better gear and abilities. The best the game has to offer should be reserved only for the best players around. And i say this knowing i was far from the upper echelons of the games ranking members. But i was ok with not having the best of the best until i earned it fairly by being the best of the best. I could be wrong here, but i feel like, from my perspective, WoW turned into a giant game of "Participation Trophies". But what the hell do i know, im just a random nobody on the internet, lol.
As a note, the joust quest in Hyjal wasn't really trying for the same mounted combat as WotLK tried, it was emulating the old game Joust which one of the developers was a fan of. It's why it had the wonky mechanics as it's, essentially, a 3D version of that game.
Hot take but I *don't* want Dragon Riding to be the new normal going forwards. I miss just being to mount up, press up and then hit auto-run while I tab out or whatever.
Ya no regrets that my main was a Druid in BC, you got Flight Form for near free from a class trainer when you did the quest for the form and then I was an herbalist who just flew around Netherstorm collecting Netherbloom and selling it to get epic flight speed faster than most in my guild.
Thank you for the content
Surprised you missed the fact that in alpha/beta/early vanilla flight masters could only send you to adjoining flight points and not to anywhere on the map.
My favorite thing on my paladin main was Aura of the Crusader and obtaining Invincible from WotLK after getting What A Long Strange Trip It's Been that gave you the highest flying skill! After getting the achievement way long ago. How fun it was to out speed most players on my server and raid groups to make it to that one rare, ore deposit, or raid/ dungeon entrance, sometimes so fast I had enough time after landing that the other player I was racing didn't even see said ore deposit upon arrival or I was already fully buffed and ready to go into the experience before they ever landed. 😊 Good times back then. Miss playing WotLK.
It's funny how so many people complained about being able to fly at the start of Cataclysm, but everyone loves being able to fly at the start of Dragonflight. I personally think the dragon-riding flying is the best part of the new expansion and wouldn't have it any other way going forward.
Kinda wish they kept improving the Flight Master's Whistle. I know it wont get used as much but might help in some places where flying yourself isn't allowed.
In vanilla, Wow didn't pioneer the waypoint transportation system as it already existed in DAoC a few years before, where you could ride ground mounts from town to town for a fee, similar to flight paths, only you could also dismount midway to get to some middle point (also it kinda sucked when it happened on accident)
No one remembers that game sadly.
@@EclipseWarlordI do (thanks private servers)
Just a very small tidbit, is that Blizzard added the Flying capability along the way to mounts that didn't have it.
For example: Spirit of Eche'ro, unicorns like Lucid Nightmare, etc. Originally they were land-only mounts.
Interesting video idea. I know this is an old video, but it got me thinking about something that might be interesting, Top 10 takeaways from MoP Remix
When I think of the history of flying in WoW my mind immediately goes to the Moonglade->Thunderbluff flight at the end of a Horde Druids bear form quest.
You could start the flight, order a pizza, do the dishes, take a shower, clean your room, eat the pizza, come back to your computer and still not be finished with the flight.
I don't know if it was a dev oversight or what, but there was no earthly reason for the flight to be so long.
Man, those druid form quest where the best, and I have such fond memories of doing them with my friend on our tauren druids (and later on my night elf)... Really glad they added that spirit wolf quest in Exile's Reach for shamans, 'cause I'm a sucker for things like that! Made it feel a lot more special when you had to work for stuff rather than just buying it, or in the case of hunter just starting with a pet instead of learning how to tame one (I remember going from level 7 to 10 feeling like it took aaages back in the day, but _man_ was it rewarding when I finally got that quest).
set your hearth to Thunder Bluff. Druid portal to Moonglade. Hearth back to Thunder Bluff?
@@cheezdoodle96 Ungodly long class quests like that might have been fun the first time. They were not as fun the second time.
What's the music hiramaredx uses in his WoD good Video at 7:24??
11:13 not a leftover, unless you also understand that this whole questchain is a reference to the classic Joust video game.
Suggested topic for another video, go through all the different keys that were added to the game and lost like the key to enter Stratholme or Scholomance for example.
I think he already did
At first Blizzard wanted to remove flying in WoD, until pressure from the players to add the crazy meta achievement was added by Blizzard.
What made it worse is that they lied for over a year saying they planned to add it in a later patch before they admitted they planned to not have flying in WoD or any expansion going forward.
I really enjoy your content, in a way it reminds me to enjoy the little things WoW has to offer and not worry too much about what each expansion has to offer
Things is back in the day you had the time. Nowadays those people have fulltime jobs and a family.
The people that are at the age now, back in those days we played wow, aren’t interested in these times of games any more.
So to keep your players it just needs to be less time consuming.
I do miss those times to, don’t get me wrong. But it just wouldn’t work any more
Since it wasn't mentioned Pre cataclysm there was a few mounts that could go at 310% flight speed natively and this would include Ashes of Alar and the ICC Achievement Frost Wyrms
I miss using my other mounts. Dragon flying was neat at first, but now I just want to get to where I need to go.
yeah i feel the same way. its also one of the reasons i recently stopped playing. the novelty of Dragon flying gets old once you do it more then once
Soar is still really satisfying in my opinion, since you are literally flying. Feels much cooler. I just wish it was as fast as dragon riding and benefited from vigour etc in the same way.
@@LouisKing995 i felt satisfied from it as well. then doing it for another 5 times the shine begins to fade. thats when i decided to just quit WOW and say to myself that im gonna sit out this entire expansion
I just want to be able to hover in DF...pain to have to fly in circles over something.
@@semaxwell1 you enjoying the Dragon Isles? i stopped playing after my 5th lvl 70. and decided that i was sitting the entire expansion
You used to be able to restart the client, and it would cancel the flight path and drop you at the next "stop" as the flight patch did indeed go past each node on its way to the end .
In vanilla some flight paths where so long that I would go make a brew while I waited.
I playing with wotlk classic and from Sw to lights hope is nearly minute :)
I maintain that they dug their own ditch when they put shots of characters on flight paths in their advertising, without being clear about what it was. Watching in an ad, you had no idea that was in effect, a flying single person train. Then when you got the game it was a let down to find out you really couldn't fly. Many other games had ground mounts; they sold this as a new big feature, without actually saying it out loud.
I get what you're saying, but even simple flight paths were somewhat innovative at the time, and probably involved a lot more effort in programing than you'd think. They were likely very proud of the flight paths; the fact that they also create cool visuals probably made them an easy add to the marketing.
All I have to say is I love dragon riding and I hope it's gets expanded to more mounts and stays after this xpac.
@@vegan4life901 as an avid mount collector, this I agree with.
i have to say, i had so much fun with the flying achievements
i really enjoyed it
I hope they give non-dragon mounts some love in future. From what I've heard, Dragonriding is quite popular. Maybe they shouldn't give all mounts the same treatment, but something a little more fun is certainly in order moving forwards.
Also I do hope some form of limited mounted combat is added in future - we have had it in limited forms for some quests, though its often jenky and rough. And it would clearly have to be only usable on mounted enemy units, since it would be weird killing ground based mobs from the back of a dragon. Perhaps each 'type' of mount gets its own unique vehicle mechanics (for example, a fire breath for dragons, a swooping claw attack for birds, a machine gun for mechanicals, etc). Even if its again only used for daily quests in a particular zone it could be fun - and gives people a reason to use some of the many many many many many mounts they have in their collections that never otherwise get used (like how we finally had a 'use' for pets with Pet Battles).
Have you considered a video about the History of Heirlooms? It'd be quite interesting if you mention the never added to the game heirloom rings in Cataclysm.
Druids got their flight form at lvl68 in TBC, making it the earliest you could fly in the game.
My issue with DF flying is that I have to be engaged with it. I just want old flying. The new one is fun but I'd rather slower and easier flying that I dont have to plan
flight path
@Lizard1582 i cant hover over a point while checking my map, waiting for a spawn or just chill without mobs hitting me on a fp
@@lessthanperfectgaming5688 fair, but theres plenty of safe spots to afk. Definitely don't see why they restrict you from using a regular flying mount tho too.
@@Lizard1582 yup give us both. Im done all the timed trial achievements I just want to use my old mounts again
I want hover ability.
It's weird how Blizzard acknowledged flying made Azeroth smaller for years, but the only thing they could really do is force the pathfinders instead of you know, just making the world a bit more engaging. Even the events in DF are so barren when travelling between them (Not to mention, the world events got boring extremely quickly).
I personally liked the pathfinder system. It gave a sense of accomplishment besides the ordinary grind to max level. Plus, it drew you into the storylines a lot deeper than just running random quests with little connection to each other. When it was announced for Legion, I started on my achievements right away and it didn't feel like a chore.
i hated it. i dont play the game for lore
The only thing I don't understand is how would adding more flight points make the world feel smaller. Because you don't have to walk so far to the nearest one? That's nonsense. If anyone, having it would make the world seem much denser, as the old zones feel pretty empty when running across an entire zone to kill a few mobs or collect a single item, and then all the way back.
maybe one day hiru will pronounce Fjord right 🤣
During WotLK the Proto Drake mount obtained via the Meta Achievement in Ulduar had a flight speed of 310%.
Oh shit, new hiru video
I heard ret paladins divine steed is going to be a flying mount and have a passive freedom now in pvp, you forgot about that to...
Didn't the ashes of al'ar and the gladiator mounts also give 310% back then?
To fill in some gaps on the Shadowlands part (sorry for reminding everyone)
It was no mounting at all in the maw until 9.1
Shadowlands flying achievement was not available on release, think this was 9.1 too? This was account wide
No mention of 310 Flying speeed in wrath being tied to ultra rare mounts?
wait a year and do all events: violet proto drake at your service :D
One to MoP:
The First Dismount Item from a Rare Mob!
... this was Awesome...
I feel like the whole game opened up to me when i got to level 30 and unlocked flying and ive been flying around on my purple dragon, i went straight to gilneas ruins from stormwind cuz i wanted to see what it looked like after it got sacked
you forgot to mention. in tbc ashes of al ar and gladiator mounts were 310% speed
I swear i remember as a kid when you flew on a path you'd occasionally drop some copper
When I was 13 and my parents got divorced my dad had a hippie lady friend that he would hang with sometimes he said and she would play TBC and “fly her magic carpet” he said it was so cool. I didn’t really know what he was talking about at the time but I just remember thinking ‘that sounds so awesome’. Actually that’s probably one of the things that made me want to play it in the first place.. wanting my own ‘magic carpet’… GIGGITY GIGGITY.
ooh yes, tailors can do that :D
Flying has indeed made our lives 100 times easier ofc, but I think it has also taken a big part of exploring and actually getting to see the world... I remember spending hours in bfa traveling around by ground for dungeons or quests before pathfinding and right after getting it I lost all that and it came down to flying high up and auto flying till my destination. It wasn't that "bad" since I did got to explore and see the land all those patches before the pathfinding for BFA and unlocking flying in Zererth Mortis for SL... Dragonflight has some truly spectacular landscape and we have missed everything because of flying... I tried leveling in Azure Spans without flying and only then i realized how fun exploring and how stunning everything is
tldr flying is helpful but we are not exploring what is beneath us
Who is we? By all means, feel free to RP walk wherever you want to. Nothing stopping you and you can drop the "But I missed so much" spiel. Do you people have absolutely no self control at all?
There no much to explore btw, just landscapes to see and contemplate 5min and then nothing. There are no puzzles, mysteries, different, hidden or real time quests, etc. Is the same wow has given us for many years; that's why people only flight, because the only reason to play this game is not playing it, but work it. Also no new players, always the same old grinders who go for their 50th character.
One thing forgot to mention is that they removed the bfa pathfinding requirements in Df
Lol my closed captioning said that there are “various petroleum bombs” in the outlands
OMG, did I really sink that much time into Pathfinder achievements :)
Typo at 4:32 Egineering should be Engineering. Good video btw 👍
Forrealz
The first flightpath I ever took was Tranquiln to Silver moon. It felt like I was flying for real it was great. I don't play WoW anymore but I have the found memories from being a fresh player back in BC.
Mmm, just how I like Jords, howling.
Howling Jorts.
Meanwhile, the history of flying in Perfect World:
2005 launch - you can fly anywhere in 3 dimensions with full control
I wish flying was implemented with short term durations as a way to reach higher places. Not used as ways to just numlock fly across a continent.
Normal flying is a 60 second duration with a 5 min cooldown. Epic flying is 2 min duration with a 3 min cooldown. That kind of thing.
ahhh the soulcrushing moment when you are on a flightpath, and you see a rare spawn, and you are stuck on a flightpath and cannot pause it, fuck man, this is especially true on wrath classic.
Just a little clarification: you could fly at 310% speed in WotLK already, but only specific mounts allowed that - the Violet Proto Drake for example.
Yep, and the Phoenix mount. I'll never forget the day I won roll in EoE for it.
Limited amount of means of travel made the world feel much bigger and increases the immersion. Flying and being able to see the world in a different perspective was fun but unneeded
Oculus* was the flying mounted combat dungeon. I loved that place. Can't believe how much hate it got, apparently blizzard overestimated players ability to push 2 buttons
did you speed up your voice
I love that as a druid i got flying at lvl 68. 2 lvls before every none druid class :D and for like 8 gold as well
I never understood, why they didn't try making some flying BG's. Where you could use nets, rockets etc.
Video suggestion: Top cinco momentos
Top cinco mejores momentos del mundo de la Warcraft
you say blizzard pioneered this waypoint system but I remember a similar system in Dark Age of Camelot which was earlier than WoW. It was horse travel thru a network of stables.
5:32 Howling _Fjord_ is pronounced ‘Fee-yord’ the J is like a Y. Think of the German word for ‘yes’ (Ja). It’s pronounced ‘ya’. The ‘jord’ would be like ‘your + d’.
Hope that helps. 😜
He also said "more easier" and "more harder" in the video
@@generalgrievous3731 - Yeah, but that could be due to his highest level of education completed. I don’t rag on that, but a mispronunciation of a well-known word is different.
@@sisterspooky I'm finishing up my associate's degree now and I think my pronunciation is better than his.
you didn't said that dragon riding from dragonflight is basically same like guild wars 2
8:40 and then effectively broke it in Legion with Demon Hunters. Just hearthstone up to highmountain and glide down to wherever you need to be.
What was flying in shadowlands like? The fourth pathfinder was a bit glossed over.
Only nitpick id say is that calling shadowlands another pathfinder feels a bit wrong since there was no meta achievement, it was just a reward on the renown track early in 9.1
I always thought that for the dev team, flying was a pandora's box they probably wished they'd never opened.
I'm pretty sure the devs already admitted this was true a number of years ago. If memory serves, there was a panel interview where this was discussed.
@@corksterx1 Well Hazzikostas said it but he is a notorious moron. Flying is a good thing.
I think its the single biggest change to make the game not feel like an MMO.
You know that really cool and dangerous world with made? Well now you can freely move in the seemingly infinite Z axis of our game to ignore it all and never cross paths with players
Speeding up things was important, but the way it was implemented was bad.
@@Lizard1582 Nonsense statement.
You have to experience the world grounded before you unlock flight.
Instanced content doesn't have flying unless specifically implemented.
Encountering other players on the road was already a small fraction of the total interaction between players. Even in Classic players would spend most of their time in a city, and flight paths existed.
Modern WoW has world quests which provide interaction between players. The game still very much feels like an MMO and flying was implemented just fine.
@@Bepples Why should "experiencing the world" be limited to being a 1-time thing when theres different questing routes and multiple classes? The need to do things only once sounds more like a gameplay loop problem rather than a reason to praise a path of least resistance.
Instanced content is adjacent being lobby game. League of Legends isnt an MMO simply because I interact with players. You look for people in group finder/trade chat who want to do the exact same thing as you and voila, you get teleported where you want.
Dailies and world quests did improve
this years later, yes. Some of the most MMO-feel zones over the years were beginning of space where u couldnt fly yet, Timeless Isle, Argus, Mechagon etc. Its just a fact that opening the empty Z axis for free movement means space between Blizzard's designated points of interest are virtually dead. 90% when you see people in WoW outside of a city, you know exactly what they're doing because they're already unmounted (or about to, or flying away) doin the content that Blizzard appointed to be done in that area. On the ground, everyone is on the 0 Z axis while travelling, so you see more people and have little idea where they're going. Seeing people traverse the world matters.
Blizz doing no flying at the beginning of every xpac since WoD is just proof of how detrimental they think it is to the MMO feeling.
Flying is convenient and necessary in the game as it is now, but contextually when implemented in TBC, it killed the immersion of the world that they nailed down so well in vanilla.
The first flying mount in BC was only 60% speed