Bosstone has it. If you mouse over an opposite-faction flightmaster, you get the sword icon instead of the fly icon. Clicking will initiate an attack. Ask me how I know this, btw…
Gah, yes, elementals are exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote that. The thing I hate about dying elementals is trying to figure out where to click while they’re going through that death animation. Their bracers are always a good bet, but during the animation, they’re up here, then they’re down there … at least with other mobs the entire corpse is clickable, not just one small part of it.
I just assume that, after almost two solid years of these threads, with mostly the same participants, people are going to be familiar enough with each other’s posting styles and attitudes that it shouldn’t be necessary for me to preface every criticism and complaint with a string of qualifiers clarifying that I’m talking about just some players in certain situations, not every player in every situation. Like when you asked how I would feel if you made a blanket statement about “everyone who isn’t a hardcore raider is too stupid…”. My short answer was that I would recognize the statement as an absurdity; the long answer is that I’m familiar enough with your style and attitudes after two years that I would know you would recognize your own statement as absurd and that you don’t actually hold that opinion.
Oh, I’ve done this myself a few times myself since Cata dropped. But when I do, I just feel it’s polite to not do so while mounted on top of a questgiver/completely obscuring a doorway.
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But this right here is what’s frustrating me in this debate. My argument and your counterargument have precisely the same root: Wasted Time. I’m “frustrated and annoyed” because the extra steps required to interact with the obscured NPC Wastes My Time. You would be “frustrated and annoyed” by being required to mount and dismount because it Wastes Your Time. We both have exactly the same problem/harm, and are arguing it from opposite directions.
But as to whether something “harms” anybody, judging by the official WoW forums there are tons of raiders and PvPers who are irreparably harmed by the fact that my level 80+ toons are wearing purple gear despite never having set foot in a raid, or that I could potentially earn a certain PvP title 
(Seriously — I wasn’t around for Vanilla, so maybe somebody who was can tell me: did crowds of people really follow raiders around, marveling at their gear, like these guys make it sound?)
Yeah, I went and looked it up the second time I came across it in-game (I can’t recall now where the other place is … in the draenei starting area, where those Alliance ships are stranded because goblins stole their charts, maybe?
Heh. Thing is, she wouldn’t be nearly as upset about losing a rudder. Lose a rudder, cut down a tree and make a new one. But charts, rutters, captain’s logbooks, etc. are virtually irreplaceable and were often considered “proprietary” information (what we would call today “intellectual property”) and were closely guarded. Most ships’ charts included the captain’s own navigational notes, comments and warnings about previously-undocumented hazards, and the like. If they were lost, they could possibly purchase new charts at the next port, but all their personal additions would be lost.
Cataclysm dungeons: I don’t know if I’ve just missed something, or if my pally and mage just aren’t high-level enough yet (82 and 81, respectively), but I haven’t come across a single breadcrumb quest leading me to the new 80+ dungeons in either Vashj’ir or Hyjal. My lowbie toons have found all sorts of dungeon breadcrumbs while questing in level-appropriate areas, but so far it’s been zero, zip, zilch, nada for my 80+ toons. Am I supposed to just wander around until I stumble upon the entrances to these places? (Okay, wait, correction: I think my mage did get offered a trip to BRC, but I declined because it was offered right in the middle of another quest chain she was currently into.)
I spent most of late last night getting my worgen druid from where he left off at level 6, all the way to level 13. Finished out the worgen starting area, made it to Darnassus, and then to Lor’danel, where he did the first couple quests before I decided it was time to call it a night. I was quite saddened to stumble across the corpse of Gwennyth Bly’Leggonde on the beach. She was one of the first NPCs to really “get my attention”, and one of my very earliest screenshots (dated Jan. 4, 2009), and also the source of the very first spelling/grammar “bug” I ever reported. I was struck by how un-nelflike her surname was. I mean, Swiftfire, Feathermoon, Whisperwind, and … Bly’Leggonde? WTH?
Anyway, playing another baby druid reminded me once again why I get so frustrated, so quickly, with druids. Dying over and over and over purely because the spells are so expensive relative to their damage output that you’re constantly running out of mana and you become utterly helpless if you end up with more than one mob at a time beating on you (which, with the current fast respawn rates, is going to happen even more often than normal). My lowbie clothies have never had this problem, just my lowbie druids, and I figure the druid Spell Cost:Spell Damage ratio is the issue. I run out of mana so quickly that I can’t even heal myself if the mob doesn’t die quickly enough or if I get more than one on me. Fortunately, getting cat form at level 8 mostly solved that problem, and I think it was a good decision by Blizzard to switch Bear and Cat form availability. Back when Bear form came first, you ended up with a choice between “Balance”, where you did damage but died every time you ran out of mana, or “Bear”, where you survived but did almost no damage. Giving Cat form first strikes a nice balance.
I didn’t have any trouble with the catapults. The worked perfectly for me, but judging by General chat, some other people were having exactly the same problem that somebody here was having with them. Which leads me to suspect that specific catapults may be bugged, similar to the way one particular abomination was (and still is) bugged for the “That’s Abominable!” daily in Icecrown.
Do guilds sometimes “front” a new member enough g’s to buy a mount and train for riding?
I ask because I’m fixin’ to hit level 18 with my Belf and I only have about 10 gold (which was withdrawn from the guild bank btw). I probably will hit 20 either tonight or tomorrow.
Also, why does he have to ride an ostrich? Elves ride horses, don’t they?
Thanks
Q
Happened to me early in my WoW career. I was in Winterspring in Everlook and saw the flightmaster but didn’t notice the red flag, so I clicked on him, and, as Boss says, he came after me really hard. Don’t remember for sure, but I think his mounts and some bystanders also came over to have a word or two with me.
That was good for a real nice adrenaline rush, lemme tell ya.
I think I yelled “shit” as I furiously back-pedalled to no avail.
Just one of the many mistakes you’ll only make once, adhemar!
Q
Once you get to “Exalted” with Undercity, you’ll be able to buy a horse. Of sorts. Now, if you’re a belf paladin, you get to ride a real horse, because they get the same warmount summons that the Alliance gets. Which I think is stupid…they should get a decked-out hawkstrider, like those guys in Shadowmoon Valley.
ETA: Of course, I also think that paladins and warlocks should be able to summon a flying mount like they do a ground mount, too. Maybe a kind of fell beast for locks and some sort of golden shining angelic thing for pallies.
adhemar, one thing you may not have noticed yet is that there are Neutral towns out there. The closest one to you right now is Booty Bay on the south tip of Stranglethorn. There are other notable ones - Ratchet in the Northern Barrens, Gadgetzan in Tanaris, Everlook in Winterspring, and so on. These are mostly staffed by goblins, though gnomes may hang out there too, due to their mutual love of engineering. Both Alliance and Horde can shop there, use the inn, etc., though they usually have separate flight masters.
One thing you’ll need to watch out for is that there are now goblins that are completely pro-Horde. Most of these were introduced with the Cataclysm expansion; before it was mostly the guys who flew the Horde zeppelins around, that kind of thing. The Horde goblins are called the Bilgewater Cartel. There are also hostile-to-everyone goblins out there. So I’d take some time to mouse over a goblin from a distance before running up.
Not these elves, Quasi! You’ll ride a chicken and you’ll like it!*
*The chickens are the the main reason my only Belves have been paladins or warlocks. They get their own class mounts instead.
I don’t remember how much the first level of riding costs, but it’s not a lot. If you need some cash we can work something out.
As far as breadcrumbs to the new instances, you only get sent to Throne of Tides when you complete the entire zone of Vashj’ir. But you can go there on your own at any time to “discover” it.
Someone in my guild chat called it “Vaj” the other day. Thank god I have decent laugh control…
ETA: I LIKE the battlechickens! They’re very Joust-esque.
Just chiming in to say I’ve noticed this and it annoys me too. While it’s annoying with just about everything that dies in Cata, it’s especially irksome with elementals.
I’ve only been through Vash and Deepholm so far – the breadcrumb in Vash for Throne of Tides happens after the very last quest in the zone, so if you’re waiting for the breadcrumb, it’s going to be quite a while. The breadcrumb in Deepholm to go to Stonecore happens roughly halfway in, but that’s an easy one to discover early, as it’s right above the central hub where you first show up.
The chickens and Elekks are part of the reason I have a star pony. Man, those look bad.
Heroic attunement for most TBC dungeons, with literal keys that had a rep requirement, was a giant pain in the ass and didn’t do anything to really ensure that the person was geared or knew the fights. IIRC, though, MT required you to kill the fight on regular to unlock Heroic. I also ***really ***like your idea of an optional Heroic boss at the end of a regular dungeon that will key you to the Heroic if defeated.
There is no interaction between you and the opposite faction NPCs. The only time you will be able to interact with an NPC of a Horde race is when it belongs to a neutral faction, like the Argent Dawn or the Guardians of Cenarius. You can’t rez at (or even see) Horde graveyards, you can’t buy from or repair at Horde NPCs, you can’t get Horde quests, you can’t use Horde flight points, etc.
A lot of NPCs will ignore you, though they will be attackable. Guards will run after you. NPCs will defend themselves if attacked, however, and some of them have powerful ways of doing so, like Flight Masters, who summon flying adds to help them.
Except that I’ve proven that if you can’t interact with the NPC when there are people on top of it, it’s because you’re doing something wrong. Versus having to dismount, walk up, walk away, and remount, which would add probably at least 5-10 seconds to every NPC interaction.
Not exactly. But epic gear really was epic, even somewhat still in TBC: “fully epic’d” was something you’d actually advertise when looking for a group.
Most of them have their quests inside. I think some require longer chains before you get in–for instance, once I was Friendly with Therazane and flew to their quartermaster to pick up a tabard, the big fat stone bitch gave me a Stonecore quest. I also got the initial breadcrumb for the other Stonecore quests, which I’d already finished well before I got to that point of questing in the zone itself.
I think the breadcrumbs are mostly just spaced far enough down the questing line that we’re not hitting them yet. Plus, e.g., if you’re questing in Hyjal, there’s no five-man in that zone yet.
It’s an anagram of “leggy blond.”
I’ve got cash over there that I’m not using at the moment–I’ll try to remember to send you some when I get home before I head over to my main for more rep and gear grinding.
In WoW, they gave horses to Humans as their racial mount. Night Elves get big cats, and Blood Elves get [del]chocobos[/del] Hawkstriders.
Didn’t I hear a rumor that they were finally going to be giving Paladins chargers related to their race, the same way that each Shaman race has its own totems?
This reminds me of a question I meant to ask of any Horde players who have played through Hinterlands.
Prior to Cataclysm, all of the trolls in Hinterlands, other than the ones in Revantusk Village, were hostile to both Alliance and Horde. There is some suggestion in the text of a few Alliance quests there that at least one of these previously-hostile troll tribes (the Witherlimb (sp?), I believe) there is now part of the Horde, while the Vilebranch tribe is still hostile to all. Is this the case, from the Horde perspective? They’re all still hostile to Alliance, so I can’t tell.
Reason I ask is that, in that huge troll city (the terraced one over in the south-east corner of the zone, but above the cliffs/beach), which is full of Vilebranch trolls, there is a small, walled-off area to the left of the main entrance to the city, and in that little area there are several named trolls that also happen to be designated as vendors of various types. However, their tooltips don’t have the “PvP” indicator, so I can attack them without flagging myself for PvP — something I’ve not seen before. They also lack the new “!” that quest mobs get on their nameplates, so they’re not quest targets. So I’m left wondering if these “vendors” are friendly to Horde. But if they are, it’s still curious that I can attack them without getting flagged.
So, any Hordies seen this and know what’s going on?
I was doing some archeology at that big temple last week and didn’t notice any friendly Trolls, but I wasn’t really looking for them. It’d be interesting to check out though.
They’re both vendors and questgivers. Killing them annoys Horde questers who are already tearing their hair out over the idiotic quest design of that particular chain.
SFG: I know that Tauren pallies get keen-looking special kodos. Dunno about BElves, though.
Mister Rik: I haven’t seen that but it wouldn’t surprise me. There are a lot of zones with non-flagged NPCs that are friendly to one faction and hostile to the other. In Arathi, for instance, there’s that orc-run farm that’s south of Hammerfall (the Horde outpost) which doesn’t flag Alliance, last I knew.
I did ride through the Hinterlands post-change, but the thing that stood out the most to me was how closely the Alliance built to the path leading down to Revantusk. 
So I saw a lvl 84 Worgen the other day. Please tell me this is the result of someone having played the beta for a couple months as opposed to someone insane enough to do it since Cata launch.
Most likely they race-changed a preexisting 80.
Thanks, SFG, that’s very kind.
Pity I didn’t research Blood Elves’ mounts before I created Usumbij. He’s already jokingly being called a “pretty boy”, I have him dressed as a walking Christmas tree and now he’s gonna be gavottin’ around on a chicken!
See, I thought with a name like “Blood Elf” that those guys were some mean sumbitches.
Now I feel like the central character in Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue”. :o
Quasi
That’s possible. I haven’t played a pally to 20 on any race since 4.0.3a.
For all their big, muscular upper bodies, they sound like Stewie Griffin. I don’t hold out much hope for any “macho” showing up in Eversong…when you’re high enough level, you should go to Hillsbrad Foothills, though, and do a quest at the big front gate where YOU give out quests to people, then do the quests in the Sludge Fields. I think you’ll find both pretty funny.