No flying mounts in Draenor until the first major patch

[Dante]

No Flying in Draenor Until 6.1 - Wowhead News

"I totally sympathize with people's desire to do that, they want to be efficient and have it be their choice, but we have to balance our intent to create a game against creating a sandbox where anything goes. There's a happy medium there somewhere, but flying mounts in most cases just do too much to undermine too many of our core intentions with the game world, the basis of the game: combat, or guiding players through a game experience, and for those reasons we have continually chosen (when we could) to disallow flying mounts in the 'current' outdoor content. In the past that's meant only while leveling, but in our experiences with the Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle we feel like we can extend that for a bit longer in the new content, and have it be kind of a big deal again once you're able to earn flying in the first big content patch, and in the meantime putting focus on flight paths as well as having some more interesting travel options for players to use."

The blue post tells us that you wont be able to use your flying mounts until the first major patch in WoD. Good/bad thing? Discuss! I really like the way Blizzard is thinking here, and I hope to see some really cool world explorations when WoD comes!

[asdfx123]

I can feel it. Unfinished Zones and lot's of Easter Eggs. So much to explore. Looking forward to this expansion!

[Dante]

I can feel it. Unfinished Zones and lot's of Easter Eggs. So much to explore. Looking forward to this expansion!

And wallclimbing! Don't forget about the wallclimbing!
At the start of every expansion/prepatch, there is usually a "easy wallcimbing" period. I can't wait til that hehe... :P

[asdfx123]

And wallclimbing! Don't forget about the wallclimbing!
At the start of every expansion/prepatch, there is usually a "easy wallcimbing" period. I can't wait til that hehe... :P

Yep haha it will be so much fun for sure

[Dirrrty]

I kind of agree with them really, a whole new(ish) continent that most of the whiners just want to fly over and not discover anything? that would suck, I'm looking forward to crawling around and then pvping the lowbies when I'm levelled haha

[Bippy]

Would I like to fly? Sure. It makes life easier, but I also like the no flying idea immensely. The game has become "grind grind grind to level cap, never visit the zones again". I myself have fallen victim to that style as well. I haven't been to the pandaria zones to do stuff in about a year (aside from leveling). I think this will bring the game back to its roots, even if only for a little while.

[WizardTrokair]

They've done this every expansion (except Cata, for obv reasons), and I agree with it. Leveling should be done on foot.
And clearly it makes for fun exploration, having no flight at first. Love it!

[Jaerin]

They will likely have teleports to the important areas once you unlock them. Flying will only make overall exploration of vast tracts of land unreasonable for the masses.

Although I think this does have to do with some unfinished stuff and whatnot, I think it is also to extend the life of the content. It makes gating much easier as well. Not to mention no flying will WAY slow down the gathering bots.

Honestly this might also be like the riding crop items. They took them out and said they will come back, and they never did. I'm not saying flying will go away entirely, but it might only come back in a very restrictive way.

[Indistinct]

I friggin love this part of new expansions. Mountains and landscapes in general just feel way.. more unkown - which is the feeling I believe we all loved back when we first started playing this game, having this mystical touch to a whole world. Outland (and Northrend for that matter) felt more massive when you were limited by foot. The feeling of more - more to explore! weehau!

[Koruun]

There may be no flying for the playerbase, but WE will fly. Every time the players are restricted, our wings grow back that much more...

[Dirrrty]

Lol I still have riding crop equipped on some of my old characters and the carrot :-) think I may even have the riding crop pattern, will have to check.

[Dante]

There may be no flying for the playerbase, but WE will fly. Every time the players are restricted, our wings grow back that much more...

Word!

I think we'll see lots of new zones in WoD that are unable to fly in, such as timeless isle.

[Leonim]

These news are like 5 months old
They stated several times that they don't know when they're going to add flying mounts, they don't even know IF they're going to add them. They want to get rid of flying for a lot of reasons, but won't do it if there's a massive outcry. It's possible that there won't be any flying mounts at all in WoD.
BUT! There won't be any unfinished content either... If they decide to add flying mounts, they can't have unfinished content. Plus, there will still be gryphon/flying masters to take you places and they stated they will no longer take sight-seeing deroutes.

I love this, it means more exploration and stuff to do

[Xel]

It's ironic; what used to be a curse became a blessing. Go ahead, cut our wings, it only makes us more eager to fly - and as always - we'll find a way.

[akspa420]

After exploring the alpha, I almost expect vanilla-style world smoothing to be going on between zones (read: none). Part of the love I have for this game is how each zone has its own environment and when you get in between zones, you end up in unfinished zones still retaining developer areas that were intended to be off-limits to players. It's that extra sense of exploration that keeps me playing the game.