World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Mounts Guide

WoW Patch 3.2 is here, and there is a whole herd of mount changes stampeding into your stables. Here's a quick rundown of just what's changed about all the things you ride in patch 3.2, from updates to when you can buy mounts and for how much, new tweaks to old mounts like the Ulduar Proto-drakes and the TCG items, and brand new mounts like the hippogryphs from the Argent Tournament and the long-awaited Ravasaur.

Mount costs, level requirements, and speed changes

The biggest news is that Blizzard has made major changes to when you can buy your mounts, and how much they cost when you do. When the new patch goes live, all of the mounts will have their level requirements reduced: Regular land mounts will now train at level 20, epic land mounts will be trainable at level 40, regular flying mounts will be trained at level 60, and epic flying will be trained at level 70. This means that you'll be riding at an epic speed from level 40, and you'll be able to train flying mounts at level 60 (so you'll be able to ride around Outland with a flying mount from the first time you step in there. Here are the full details on all of the riding skills and their new costs.

Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)

60% land mount speed Requires level 20 Cost: 4 gold Mount cost: 1 gold Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)

100% land mount speed Requires level 40 Cost: 50 gold Mount cost: 10 gold Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer Expert Riding (Skill 225)

150% flying mount speed; 60% land mount speed Requires level 60 Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply) Mount Cost: 50 gold Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde) Artisan Riding (Skill 300)

280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed Requires level 70 Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply) Mount Cost: 100 gold Cold Weather Flying will remain unchanged, so you will still have to have your first character get to level 77 before training to fly in Northrend. However, the Tome of Cold Weather Flying will be able to be purchased at level 80, and will allow your alts, level 68 or higher on the same server and faction, to fly around Northrend as they level up. So you'll only have to level through Northrend on foot once.

Travel abilities for various classes (the Druid, Shaman, and Hunter travel forms, as well as the Paladin and Warlock mounts) have also had their stats adjusted. The various spells will be available at level 16, and the mounts will match regular mounts above in speed and level requirements.

As you can see, Blizzard has majorly streamlined travel time by mount. Additionally, they've lowered the casting time on both flying and ground mounts, from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. So it'll take you less time to get moving as well.

New and old mounts

There will also be new mounts found in various places in the game. The Ravasaur mount will be available to Horde players as a companion to the Alliance's Winterspring Sabers. To get the mount, you'll need to visit Mor'vek in Un'goro Crater and start a quest there. The patch 3.2 notes mention that you'll need to survive a "deadly poison," so bring your antidote-injecting skills.

El Pollo Grande will be available from the trading card game, and there will likely be new mounts attainable from the Argent Tournament as well.

There will also be mounts available inside the Crusaders' Coliseum (spoilers), though these will likely be part of the story in there, and not player-owned (they'll work more like vehicles than mounts).

We had heard that the Ulduar Proto-drakes, available from achievements in the instance, might be removed in this patch, but that's not the case. We're still waiting for the one-month heads up on their removal.

Other changes

Two more minor changes with mounts coming into the game with 3.2:

Trading card mounts (with the exception of the Riding Turtle for some reason) will no longer be Bind-on-Pickup from Landro Longshot, the TCG vendor. This seems intended, but we're not sure why yet -- it definitely seems as though it makes scams and RMT more likely. And while we haven't seen them yet, we're expecting new mount achievements to go along with the new mounts in the game. It's not likely these will go live right with patch 3.2, though the current achievements will definitely be easier with more possible mounts to get. The ability to have faster mounts earlier (not to mention a much earlier chance to fly around Outland and Northrend) came as a bit of a surprise when it was first announced, but anyone leveling up an alt after patch 3.2 will definitely appreciate the changes.