We've known for a little while now that our existing flying mounts will not be usable straight off the bat in Northrend. The reason for this is that they don't want us little level 70s hopping onto the frozen plains, mounting up, and zipping right off to Dalaran or Arthas or wherever; in short, they don't want us to skip content. After all, imagine if you had a flying mount at the beginning of Outland – you would've gone to Shattrath even sooner. We also know from the WWI Q&A live blog that there will be some kind of "attunement" process for getting our fliers working up there, which has jokingly been referred to as "mount mittens" (it's cold in Northrend, you know).

What we haven't known is precisely when the mounts will be usable (though Ulduar's Halls of Stone, a level 77-79 dungeon, was said to require flying mounts), and whether the "mount mittens" (or whatever they actually implement) will be a tremendous gold sink. Today Bornakk puts as all at ease, by saying that flying mounts are currently set to be usable in Northrend at level 77, you will use the same mounts currently used in Outland, and it is not expected that "a large sum of gold" will be required (for another tier of mount skill or something). As always, this could change before the expansion goes live, but for now, it seems that we can look forward to not spending several thousand gold on griffin defrosting equipment.

I have to admit, I was a little bit astonished by news of patch 2.4.3. We know that Blizzard is ramping up for the release of Wrath of the Lich King, as they did for the Burning Crusade. The two things that stand out most to me are the Cheat Death nerf and the reduction of riding skill level requirement to 30. Even as a Cosmo Girl, I don't really care much about Harris Piltion's new line of designer bags. (Unless those bags have 24 slots and don't have tacky, brand-name logos on them.)

I think we can expect more changes in the not-too-distant future. We've already seen the death of most raid attunements. I expect to see the cost of epic flying skill reduced considerably in future patches. The same thing happened with epic land mounts, and long ago Drysc hinted that such a change may be in the works. I'd also like to see an additional character slot or two added to each realm.

What changes do you predict will occur prior to Wrath's release?

I had to look twice at the 2.4.3 patch notes before I could bring myself to believe that the developers are planning on reducing the level requirement for ponying up. It makes a lot of sense, as we ramp up toward Wrath of the Lich King, it will progressively longer to reach the endgame, especially for new characters and particularly new players. The change makes sense to me, and I'm looking forward to Desolace being a less crummy place to level alts. No, you won't get a refund on previously purchased mounts, but nobody got refunds when the cost of the level 60 riding skill decreased either.

The community seems to be having primarily positive reactions to the news that basic mounts will be purchasable by characters at level 30. Ithnnin of Scarlet Crusade (posting on a level 40) feels that this change is an added insult to the game. He feels that Blizzard has spent too much energy catering to a "small new audience." He feels that the changes to make leveling easier have a negative effect on the accomplishments of those who when through the process when it was more difficult.

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In the World of Warcraft, 40 is a magic number. Once you hit this level you get access to a 31 point talent, which usually does some pretty nifty things for your class. You really start specializing into your role as a healer, tank or DPS character. The best part about 40 is getting your fancy new mount. Once you get used to traveling the world on you pony (wolf, nightsaber, raptor, ram, etc) it can be really hard to go back to hoofing it on foot.

As recently reported, Kharmen EU Talnivarr has reportedly paid 20,000 gold for the Amani War Bear. Kharmen reportedly raised the cash for the enormous land epic ride on her which raised questions about how much gold grinding would trigger a gold farming alert.

The 20,000 price tag seems pretty outrageous considering I'm still puttering along, like many others, on my regular Windriders on all of my 70s. If the Artisan Riding Skill were important to me, I'd make more of an effort to save the 5,000 gold for the mount, but I find it to be low on my priority list. There is no indication that the cost of epic flight will be reduced in the future.

Bornakk plays it super safe on a question of whether there will be new mounts in Northrend (sometimes I think Bornakk is just a script that is programmed to post "There are no plans to do that at this time" periodically on the forums), but I can tell you for sure: there will, no doubt, be new mounts found in Northrend.

The question, however, is what they'll be. We've also heard that Blizzard won't be allowing flying mounts at least in the early parts of Northrend-- they claim that flying allows players to skip content, and they don't want anyone skipping content. But we will be able to use them eventually, and considering the steps that Blizzard has taken (in changing the riding/mount prices), it is almost assured that we'll see a few different mount options come out of Northwind. We've already seen dragons there, and the Blue Dragonflight will be there as well, so that points toward another type of dragon (other than Netherdrakes).

Of course, there's another type of vehicle we'll be riding around on in Northrend-- those siege weapons. It may be that, as Bornakk says, we don't get another riding skill rank to train, but there may be training purchases involved in letting players drive and use siege weapons as well.

Malleus from Wildhammer says he's found WoW's Bigfoot. He saw a level 70 on a non-epic mount, and for some reason, thought it was so rare that he just had to have a picture of it.

Frankly, a level 70 on a non-epic mount isn't all that rare. My level 66 rogue is still riding around on a slowpoke Undead pony (just because he's an alt I was never willing to spend that much money on), and lots of Paladins and Warlocks just never got the chance or resources to get their epic mount quests done. For a main, it might be a priority to get a fast mount, but for alts, most people are usually pretty apathetic about it.

Not that there are any excuses any more. With money flowing the way it is in Outland, 900g is no more than a few days' work. And while a flying epic mount is really the best for gathering professions (nothing more fun than dropping in, grabbing a mine node, and jumping back into the air), an epic ground mount really helps with both grinding and questing-- the faster you get somewhere, the sooner you can start earning XP. Not to mention that for the BGs, it's practically a must. Not having an epic mount after 60 doesn't make you a total freak (Malleus didn't really need to take a picture), but there isn't any really any excuse not to get one either.