How much would you pay to be guaranteed a Zul'Aman bear mount? Five thousand gold? Ten thousand? If you're Kharmen from the European realm of Talnivarr, you reportedly paid twice that -- according to the forum thread, Kharmen paid 20,000 gold to the guild Torment to take her into Zul'Aman and get her a bear mount from the timed event rewards.As some players in the thread are saying, the mount isn't actually that hard to get, and in fact, many guilds who can raid fast enough to get it will sell it off for much less. But the more interesting story here is just the sheer amount of money involved. Kharmen says that she farmed the money herself, which may be true, but it seems surprising that players can pass that much money around without raising some eyebrows at Blizzard. Just what does it take to become a suspected gold farmer?
At any rate, Kharmen is thrilled that she got her mount, and supposedly Torment is thrilled that they're funded at least until the expansion (unless I'm completely miscalculating the amount it takes to keep a guild raiding -- just how much money do you need for elixirs and buffs these days?). Spending 20,000 on a mount doesn't sound like anything I'll be doing anytime soon, but then raising all of that money doesn't sound that appetizing either.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-20-2008 @ 3:35PM
MechChef said...
This is only slightly less lame than the women who prostituted herself in exchange 5000G for an epic flyer. But then if you have that much time to make that much money, well, maybe you don't have much of a life to begin with.
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3-20-2008 @ 5:55PM
PeeWee said...
Actually, they are exactly the same, Matt.
Equally lame.
3-20-2008 @ 3:36PM
Nati said...
I wouldn't pay a copper. Those mounts are pretty ugly. :/
Raven Lord on the other hand... :)
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3-20-2008 @ 5:28PM
Zamboni said...
Raven Lord, I would pay for (the Zul'gurub tiger would be tempting as well). At a certain point, gold becomes just another way of keeping score - once all your characters have their epic flyers and their profs are all at 375, there isn't much left to buy. Being able to hire a top guild to go in and get something for me out of an instance would be beneficial to everyone (and makes it that much less likely I'll get bored and crash the AH again).
3-20-2008 @ 7:25PM
Super Guest Man 9000 said...
Heh, I snagged the Ravenlord mount a few weeks ago. Its awesome.
3-20-2008 @ 3:42PM
Jack said...
Twenty thousand? Wow. It's going for 5k on my server, and I foolishly thought that was expensive.
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3-20-2008 @ 3:42PM
Rob said...
What's amazing to me is not the cost, but the fact that the guild can 9 man ZA and do the whole timed event to boot. That's full of uberness. Things like this keep guilds who have BT on farm in the game and interested.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:33PM
Greyghost said...
My ZA group sells them for 10k a pop. And you don't have to 9 man the entire timed run to sell the mounts. You can swap the buyer in right before you pull the 4th boss. We do the swap when the third boss dies.
We have a core group of 10 people who do the timed run every time. The gold is divided equally among those 10 people. The person who sits out for the 4th boss so we can get the buyer in gets an equal share of gold.
3-20-2008 @ 3:43PM
Raaliya said...
I'm on US - Lightning's Blade, and guilds are asking 10,000g. I thought that was pretty ludicrous, but apparently it's a steal, haha.
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3-20-2008 @ 3:44PM
brittwilson said...
20k gold is not as hard as it seems. Too much to pay mind you, but Ive already plopped down 5200 for one flying mount, have 6k in the bank, thats more than halfway there and I haven't tried to make money in months. If I went on another mining spree and AH manipulation spree, it would take me quite a bit of time, but its not impossible..... Maybe I'm just lucky though, both my ways don't require me to spend money repairing or getting lucky drops, its a increase of cash with little up front expenditures.....
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3-20-2008 @ 3:53PM
Milktub said...
I'm a mount collector. I might pay that much.
Now, time to figure out cost for paying for a raider.
A flask ... about 30g
Half a stack of buff food ... about 20g
A half stack of pots ... about 15g
A days progression repairs ... 40g
Let's round down for fun ... 100g
So that 20,000g is only paying for 200 player days, or eight nights of 25-man raids. Sort of depressing, to be honest.
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3-20-2008 @ 3:56PM
Necroz said...
The alarming part for me is that you are more worried about Blizzard tracking gold than you are in celebrating her ability to accomplish what she wanted to in game.
You are using very little foresight or you are not really putting pen to paper and seeing that for an end game player 20,000g is something that doesn't REALLY take that long.
It turns out I really like the boringness of Mining and on good days I can yield almost 1,000g.
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4-28-2008 @ 10:38AM
Srinartha said...
Well said Necroz!
A lot of folks out there only see the game as fun from there perspective...lighten up folks, the game world is very similar to the real world in it's diversity of interests and the motivations of the people playing the game.
I honestly like to explore, grind, pick the flowers, and then I hit the auction to see if I can make some coin...Raids and PVP don't really do it for me. The real world friends don't get into it, but then I don't get their constant interest in beating up the villages for no good reason.
Different strokes, for different folks...Hazza to her for getting her mount-on if that is what flies her kite!!!!
Cheers,
Srinartha
3-20-2008 @ 4:00PM
shiplore said...
Or you could wait less than a year and go 5-man it at 80.....
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3-20-2008 @ 4:01PM
Oblivion said...
20k is a ton just for a mount, but it's not that hard to come by really. It's entirely possible for someone to raise that much money (and more) without thinking "gold buyer/farmer". I have epic flying mounts on multiple characters and enough gold to buy another one if I had more level 70s. And, I don't even try to make money, it just kind of happens. If you are smart with how you play the AH and you don't hold on to mats like a lot of people do, money comes pretty quickly and painlessly. I'd be curious to see how much gold I could raise if I actually made it a focus of my time spent in-game.
That is not to say that I'd be willing to spend 20k on a bear mount. I would not. I'd pay 5k for one though. Hell, the Hippogryphs from CE cost 2k, and you'll probably get way more use out of a bear in Northrend since you can't use flying mounts there immediately.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:02PM
mattarin said...
jesus christ, i still havent recoverd after buying my blue lvl flying mount which i probably shouldn't have bought since i hardly use it.
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3-20-2008 @ 5:01PM
Milktub said...
You shouldn't use your blue-level mount very often.
It should be used to reach the TK instances, or for traveling when you aren't in a hurry, but don't want to be bothered by mobs.
3-20-2008 @ 6:22PM
Hazerduz said...
Your kidding right, I have 5 70's, 4 of which have epic flyers. (Haven't bothered with the druid yet, no gathering prof) This isn't that shocking to me cause total spent on mounts in game for all my char is around 30k
3-20-2008 @ 4:21PM
Samael said...
That is pretty crazy, but why would you even bring up:
"Kharmen says that she farmed the money herself, which may be true, but it seems surprising that players can pass that much money around without raising some eyebrows at Blizzard. Just what does it take to become a suspected gold farmer?"
I'm pretty sure if Blizzard did get suspicious they could try and find an insane AH buyout or some crazy trade where she received such a high amount. Or she could have really farmed it herself. Besides, it's not the gold farming thats bad, it's the gold selling. Everyone who plays WoW farms. Not all of them bot though. And Im sure bots wont pay 20KG for a mount.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:25PM
Ryanix-Arthas said...
20,000 really isn't THAT much. The more hardcore players in my guild have epic flying mounts on multiple toons and still have 30-40k lying around with nothing to spend it on.
If you have that kind of gold and NOTHING left to buy in the game except gems and enchanting mats for new gear then why not spend it on a mount you really want?
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