Mount

	Riding (Profession)
	Trainers • Mounts

“You don't want to walk forever, do you?”

— Salanar the Horseman^[1]

Reins of the Wooly Mammoth — An undead riding his giant mammoth.

Mounts are a much sought-after form of transportation in which players ride atop the backs of various more or less exotic beasts (or machines). Warlocks, paladins, and death knights can learn to summon mounts as a class perk. Mounted travel is almost always faster than walking/running (amphibious mounts such as the [Sea Turtle] provide only circumstantial speed boosts on land). World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade introduced flying mounts in select areas, which further increased the maximum possible player movement speed and also increased accessibility to various locations previously unreachable. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm introduced flying to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, as well as the new areas exclusive to the expansion.

Mounts were generally expensive in the past, but their prices have been reduced while the training to ride them increased in order to compensate. However, some mounts do not cost any gold or other currencies (such as honor points) and will drop at very low rates from bosses in instances such as Stratholme, Tempest Keep, Magisters' Terrace, Sethekk Halls, Karazhan, and Utgarde Pinnacle. There are numerous other methods to obtain mounts as well, such as class quests, completing achievements, the Trading Card Game, and the Black Market Auction House for older ones from removed content.

Mounts have a 1.5 second cast time, which will be interrupted by taking any damage, moving, or entering combat.

Increasing mounted speed[]

Warhorse-charger — Two blood elf paladins patrolling the streets of Silvermoon City.

Through guild perks[]

The guild perk [Mount Up] increases your speed while mounted by 10% except in Arenas and Battlegrounds.

Through class abilities and talents[]

Death knight
- [On a Pale Horse] increases your speed while mounted by 20%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.
Paladin
- [Heart of the Crusader] increases your speed while mounted by 20%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.

Through items and enchants[]

There are five other methods for increasing your mounted speed, though they only function at lower levels:

[Riding Skill]: +2% (stacking), world drop Enchanting recipe
[Carrot on a Stick]: +3% (stacking), reward from the Gahz'rilla quest in Zul'Farrak.
[Mithril Spurs]: +4% (stacking), world drop Blacksmithing plans
[Riding Crop]: +10% (non-stacking), Leatherworking pattern sold in Old Hillsbrad Foothills.
[Skybreaker Whip]: +10% (non-stacking), quest reward from [25-30] Dragonmaw Race: Captain Skyshatter, must be Honored with Netherwing.

The first three of these effects stack with each other, before being applied as a multiplier to your current mounted speed. Players with all three effects will, therefore, gain a 9% increase. The last two items both increase mounted speed by 10%. However, they do not stack with each other, or the other previously mentioned methods.

Statistics[]

Mount	Base Speed	[Mount Up]/Crop/Whip	[Heart of the Crusader]/ [On a Pale Horse]
Vanity mounts	100%	110%	120%
Apprentice riding (ground)	160%	176%	192%
Journeyman riding (ground)	200%	220%	240%
Expert riding (flying)	250%	275%	300%
Master riding (flying)	410%	451%	492%

Flying in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms[]

Stormwind City from above pre-Cataclysm — With careful use of [Eagle Eye] or [Far Sight], it was possible to see why Flying Mounts were not allowed in the old world until the Cataclysm expansion hit.

At BlizzCon 2009 it was revealed that flying mounts would be available in some form to use in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms with the release of Cataclysm. Blizzard had previously stated that it was unlikely that they would allow flying mounts in these continents since doing so would require them to redesign the continents with flying mounts in mind.

The former state of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor was unsuitable for flying mounts; there were visual glitches like mountains and high buildings whose tops could not be seen, and places where the terrain abruptly changed from one tileset to another, creating a grossly unrealistic appearance in some areas. There were also zones which should be there lore-wise but were empty and unfinished.

Since Cataclysm, players could fly all over Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor but are still unable to fly in Azuremyst Isle, Bloodmyst Isle, Ghostlands, Eversong Woods, and the Isle of Quel'Danas. Attempting to fly toward Ghostlands will be encountered with an invisible wall that stretches from the Forbidding Sea to the Northern Lordaeron area above Eastern Plaguelands and northeast of Western Plaguelands.

Notes[]

Most mounts have a special emote they can do: this can be invoked while motionless on the ground, either by the /mountspecial slash command for flying mounts or by pressing the Space key for ground-bound mounts.
Flying mounts can perform a loop! Press Pitch Up or Pitch Down (normally ⌤ Ins and ⌦ Del) while in flight to perform a loop. On a Macintosh, the Help key, or the Fn+⌦ Del combination (on the laptop) will start it.
Additionally, while in a loop, you can use your strafe keys.
There are mounts that allow other characters to ride as passengers (such as the [Mekgineer's Chopper], the [Reins of the Grand Ice Mammoth], the [Reins of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth] and [Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth]).
- There are also flying mounts that allow passengers. Such as the [X-53 Touring Rocket], [Heart of the Nightwing], [Vial of the Sands].
During the World of Warcraft beta, tauren were meant to use the [Plainsrunning] ability instead of being able to use mounts, but this was eventually cut before release.

Patch changes[]

Patch 6.2.2 (2015-09-01): The maximum size of a mount is now capped at 150% of base size for cosmetic effects (up from 100%). Additionally, the minimum size of a mount is no longer capped.
Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14): All flying mounts are now able to be used as a ground mount in areas that do not allow flying.
Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Upon reaching level 20 and level 60, characters will automatically receive a new quest directing them to visit the racial riding trainer and mount vendors.
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): All non-class specific mounts are now account-wide.
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12):
- All mounts now scale to the appropriate riding skill. This means that all 310% speed mounts earned from achievements or were awarded from this patch onward are 280% in order to match the current max riding skill, Artisan. Players who already have a 310% mount are grandfathered into the system.
- Mounts that are both ground and flying will no longer need to be dismounted and then re-mounted to switch between types. This will now be automatic.
Patch 3.3.0 (2009-12-08): Knockbacks no longer dismount players. If on a flying mount, you will be knocked back a short distance before being able to resume flying.
Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04):
- The cast time for summoning any ground or flying mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
- Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20): Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You're not seeing things.
Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14):
- Mounting is now permitted in Ahn'Qiraj.
- New Vanity Pet and Mount changes: Players will now be able to access their non-combat pets and mounts by clicking on the pets tab in the Character Info panel. These pets and mounts will be now learnable much like spells or abilities. Once a vanity pet or mount is learned, the icon will disappear from within a player's inventory and reappear in the appropriate tab under the pet tab under Character Info. Say goodbye to your vanity pets and mounts taking up bag and bank slots! Lost pets and mounts (one time quest rewards) can be recovered by visiting a stablemaster.
Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22):
- Swift Flying Mounts: All the swift flying mounts will now display as epic items, rather than superior-quality items.
- Using abilities and casting spells that cannot be used while mounted will now auto-dismount players as needed. This can be disabled by turning off the auto-dismount option in the UI options.
Patch 2.0.3 (2007-01-09): New macro command: /dismount
Patch 1.12.1 (2006-09-26): The riding skill has been changed. A riding skill of 75 is now needed to ride level 40 mounts and a skill of 150 for level 60 mounts. Those that already have mounts will automatically be granted the appropriate level skill.
Patch 1.12.0 (2006-08-22): The Items that summon mounts have been changed in their color/quality. Items that summon normal mounts are now blue (superior) items and items that summon swift mounts are now purple (epic) items.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Clarified the error message when trying to attack while mounted.
Patch 1.5.0 (2005-06-07): Many of the Swift Mounts have gained eye glows and some have had other tweaks made to them to improve their looks.
Patch 1.4.0 (2005-04-19): Level 60 mounts purchased at vendors now have a whole new look. Faster undead mounts already have a different look and so have not changed. The new mounts can be seen standing near the mount vendors. If you have one of the old fast mounts, you can exchange it for one with a new look at the mount vendor.
Patch 1.3.0 (2005-03-07): Mounts now are Horde or Alliance restricted in the tooltip. We do not intend to allow Horde players to ride Alliance vendor-purchased mounts and vice versa.
Patch 1.2.0 (2004-12-18): Players will now be able to purchase and train mounts from other races in their faction. However, you will first need to obtain "Exalted" reputation status with that race in order to do so. Mounts of the opposing faction are not available for purchase.