How to get flying in Burning Crusade Classic
@honorshammer
After years of riding the game’s flight paths on majestic Gryphons and lithe Windriders, players would take the reins themselves in Burning Crusade. Flying mounts let us explore the world in ways never before possible and helped us take amazing screenshots along the way. It also provided new opportunities for both ambush and escape in open-world PVP, and generally changed how we approached the entire game world.
In Burning Crusade Classic, we’ll have the chance to experience the wonder of flying for the first time in Classic — but before we can fly, we’ll have to hit max level and save up quite a bit of gold. Here’s how to train flying and take to the skies over Outlands.
What will flying cost in Burning Crusade?
The flying mount system mirrored the WoW Classic mount system: you had to purchase training to learn how to ride the mount, as well as the mount itself. (Unless you played a Druid, which we’ll talk about in a second.) Like with our ground mounts, flying mounts could be either Normal (+60% speed) or Epic (+100% speed on the ground and +280% speed in the air). If you wanted to zoom through the skies, you needed both Epic flying and an Epic flying mount, and those costs really added up.
Here’s what you’ll pay to get airborne:
- Normal flying training: 800g
- Normal flying mounts: 100g
- Epic flying training: 5,000g
- Epic flying mount: 1,000g
Like purchasing your first mount training WoW Classic, the cost of Normal flying training was something you had to plan and save for, but you could reasonably buy it not long after you hit 70. But Epic flying took serous farming, Auction House machinations, or maybe a loan from a friendly guildmate.
With the economy in as bad a shape as it is on many WoW Classic servers, and with no gold cap for those who continue onto Burning Crusade, the cost won’t feel near as prohibitive for those veteran players with piles of gold.
Where to train flying in Burning Crusade
Once you hit level 70 and have enough gold, head to Shadowmoon Valley to find your flying trainer. Note that you will need to have trained previous levels of riding skill before you can train flying. You’re looking for these these NPCs:
- Ilsa Blusterbrew in Wildhammer Stronghold for the Alliance
- Olrokk in Shadowmoon Village for the Horde
Hand over your coins and you’ll have all the training you need to get airborne.
Where to get flying mounts in Burning Crusade
Once you have flying training, you’ll need to get a flying mount. Fortunately, there are vendors who will sell you basic wind riders and gryphons. You’ll find them just next to the trainers in Shadowmoon Valley:
- Brunn Flamebeard in Wildhammer Stronghold for the Alliance
- Dama Wildmane in Shadowmoon Village for the Horde
But there are quite a few other flying mounts to find:
- Drops: Ashes of A’lar from The Eye in Tempest Keep
- Crafting: Flying Machines from Engineering
- Reputation: Netherwing, Cenarion Expedition, and Sha’tari Skygaurd all sell you mounts at Exalted
- PVP: High-ranked players had unique, armored Netherdrakes
How fast were the flying mounts in Burning Crusade?
Flying didn’t necessarily mean fast. Normal flying mounts moved at 160% speed — which was slower than an Epic ground mount on the ground, you get from point A to point B “as the crow flies,” which opened up some shortcuts. But Epic flying mounts moved much faster, and feeling of speed and freedom the first time you took off on your armored gryphon was amazing.
Here’s how fast you’ll be moving when you fly:
- Normal flying mounts: +60% speed
- Epic flying mounts: +280% speed
- Special flying mounts: +310% speed
While most mounts only went up to +280% speed, certain special flying mounts — Ashes of A’lar and the PVP netherdrakes — moved even faster, at +310%. Very few people are likely to get their hands on these rare mounts, but they add a big burst of speed if you can snag one.
Druids get Flight Form rather than flying mounts
Instead of buying flight training, Druids train Flight Form (equivalent to a normal flying mount) as a spell at level 70 for the cost of 8 gold and 60 silver. Druids could learn an Epic version of Flight Form, but the 300 riding skill and its 5,000g cost was a part of the quest line.
Unlike mounts, Flight Form is instant cast, so Druids could do all kinds of shenanigans like jumping off the cliffs in Nagrand and hitting Flight Form on the way down. Druids could also gather while remaining in Flight Form which made them a premiere choice for your farming alt. Many veteran WoW Classic players may be tempted to boost a Druid for just that reason, which could have further ramifications to the economy.
What flying mounts can I get in Burning Crusade Classic?
Vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade had fewer mounts than we do today — eac mount had to take up one of your precious bag slots, so it wasn’t practical to have a huge collection. That’s not to say you were without options for your mount of choice. These are all the flying mounts you’ll find in TBC Classic.
Basic mounts
- Gryphons for the Alliance
- Windrider for the Horde
PVP mounts
- An armored Netherdrake for the top 0.5% of Arena players in each Arena season
Reputation mounts
- Netherwing: Unarmored Netherdrakes are available at Exalted
- Buy from: Mount Vendor Drake Dealer Hurlunk in the Netherwing Ledge Outpost in Shadowmoon Valley
- Speed: +280%
- Cost: 200g each, and your first Netherdrake is free. However, you can’t do the quests without already having a flying mount.
- Available colors: Azure, Cobalt, Onyx, Purple, Veridian and Violet Netherdrakes.
- Sha’tari Skyguard: Nether Rays are available at Exalted reputation
- Cenarion Expedition: Cenarion War Hippogryph are available at Exalted
- Buy in: Fedryen Swiftspear in Zangarmarsh
- Speed: +280%
- Cost: 2,000g
Drop mounts
- Ashes of Al’ar (+310% speed) is a 1% drop from Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep, which will be available in Phase 2
Engineering mounts
- Flying Machine (+100% flying speed)
- Turbo-Charged Flying Machine (+280% flying speed). This is the coolest mount in Burning Crusade and still one of the best mounts in all of World of Warcraft. It’s reason enough to go Engineering. This is my hill, and I will die on it.
Into the wild blue yonder!
While flying is something we’ve grown accustomed to over the years, its introduction in Burning Crusade was a game changer. Burning Crusade Classic won’t be able to fully recapture the feeling of that first flight out of Wildhammer Stronghold, but it will give you the chance to once again see the world from above.
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