Bliz, stop being a charity case

Q u o t e:
I'm sick of working hard to get rare mounts like xorothian dreadsteed only to have them patched in later and obtainable by level with absolutely ZERO EFFORT. Why dont you just go ahead and give everyone epic flying mounts since next expansion pack you probably will.

Part of the issue relates to the evolution of the game over time. Getting the dreadsteed today is nothing like it used to be before The Burning Crusade released. It's quite difficult these days to complete all of the quests needed to get the dreadsteed at level 60 without some friends in higher places. The reasonable approach to obtaining the mount through the quest line these days would involve level 80 characters walking level 60 warlocks through instances. The quests weren't designed with that being factored into the equation; and given that we're lowering the level at which a player can ride an epic ground mount, the way the dreadsteed can be obtained needed to be changed.

Changes made to the game to keep older content updated over time are not meant to diminish your experience of that content before it was changed. If you've had fun achieving certain things in the game like I have -- including completing that quest chain as I did all those years ago -- nothing should tarnish your memory of those experiences. There are still plenty of ways in the game to distinguish yourself as an accomplished player. In some cases those achievements will be made easier over time as we continue to expand the game, but there will always be new feats to conquer. The point is to have fun in the process. :)

Q u o t e:


Can we still do the quest chain? Because when I make my Warlock, I want to do the chain.

It'd be like a paladin not doing their Charger quests. IT JUST DON'T WORK THAT WAY.

The quest line is still available, just optional. If I remember correctly, completing the chain nowadays means you don't have to pay for Journeyman Riding. This is mainly because the materials required to complete the quests are roughly equivalent in cost to the riding skill. Of course that cost comparison will no longer be true in patch 3.2 when Journeyman Riding will be made quite a bit cheaper and available at level 40.

Q u o t e:


This is flawed in so many ways.

Part of the fun of achieving high end gear/mounts/whatever is that you know you worked hard to get it and that not everyone will have it. It's rare, unique, and valued BECAUSE it was hard to obtain.

It's like handing out the medal of honor to everyone and then pretending like it has the same value.

As in the case of the Amani War Bear, there are times where we will remove the ability to obtain certain rare items if we feel the difficulty in obtaining those items is compromised by the evolution of the game. The dreadsteed is a very different case. It's a class mount and was never made extremely difficult to obtain. It required Scholomance and Dire Maul runs, a bit of running around and a fairly healthy junk of gold (at least in its time). Today it's very difficult to do that quest line in the same manner it was intended to be done when it was created. People aren't running those dungeons consistently at level 60. The fact that it's the signature mount for warlocks hasn't changed. If we wanted it to be rare we would've required Kel'Thuzad's head (pre-BC Naxx). But then we would've removed the ability to even get the mount a long time ago.

It really depends on the circumstances behind what is either made, or determined, to be valuable.

Q u o t e:


Lul.

Really? I mean you really think that the dreadsteed was rare? Maybe in the first few months when the quest was put in... but after that seeing a warlock WITHOUT it was the rare thing. That being the case it's likely you were never special because you had the mount, so stop complaining about stupid crap like this.

I remember being very stoked on completing the dreadsteed quest chain. It was pretty epic and took a bit of time to work through. As others have stated in this thread, I'd love for up-and-coming warlocks to be able to experience that quest line as it was designed. Unfortunately this is one of those situations where the natural evolution of the game into higher levels and newer territories makes experiencing that quest chain as designed impossible. Perhaps there are ways we can revamp the chain, but it would have to be completely redesigned in order to be doable at level 40. We'll see.

But now that you mentioned that seeing a warlock without that mount was rare after a period of time before The Burning Crusade released, I'm reminded of my decision to start riding around on the Stormpike ram mount. I was doing a lot of Battlegrounds at the time and it was much more rare to see other warlocks on a ram than it was on a dreadsteed.