World of Warcraft: The War Within’s Skyriding Changes Make One Type of Mount Useless

Highlights

• World of Warcraft’s Skyriding system will now be unlocked at level 10, rendering normal ground mounts effectively useless.
• Skyriding, formerly Dragonriding, is now an evergreen system, making flying mounts more versatile.
• Possible solutions to save ground mounts include giving all mounts the ability to fly or adding unique traversal abilities.

World of Warcraft recently updated its new Skyriding system in the War Within beta to be unlocked at level 10 – the same level characters unlock normal mounts in the game. Once The War Within makes this change, normal ground mounts in World of Warcraft will become all but useless.

Skyriding is the new name World of Warcraft is using for Dragonriding now that it is being transformed into an evergreen system. When WoW first announced the Skyriding system, it revealed players would unlock it starting at level 15, and that nearly every flying mount in the game would be able to use it.

However, in the months since that first announcement, World of Warcraft has made even more improvements to the system. According to reports from WoW content creator MrGM, as of a recent build of the WoW: The War Within beta, Skyriding is now unlocked at level 10, rather than 15. While unlocking the feature that early is exciting, it is also the same level players unlock ground mounts, calling into question the purpose of these slower mounts in the first place.

The Struggle of Ground Mounts in World of Warcraft

When they were first added in The Burning Crusade, getting flying mounts required a lot of gold, making them challenging rewards to earn. In subsequent expansions, gaining the ability to fly in zones required players to complete the challenging Pathfinder achievement, which took a lot of time and effort. These requirements were lessened in later World of Warcraft expansions, making flying much easier to unlock – and ground-only mounts less relevant. This expanded even further in Dragonfight with the advent of Dragonriding, but it seems like The War Within may be the nail in the coffin for these mounts.

That said, there are a couple ways World of Warcraft could save ground mounts. It could give every mount the ability to fly, similarly to what Final Fantasy 14 did with its own mounts during Shadowbringers. Alternatively, it could take the Guild Wars 2 approach and add special traversal abilities unique to its ground mounts. World of Warcraft players discovered strings that suggest dynamic ground mounts could be in development, so Blizzard may already be working on something similar.

Nevertheless, the changes coming to Skyriding in World of Warcraft are huge. Capitalizing on one of the best features in Dragonflight is a great decision, and players can’t wait to unlock the system automatically while leveling up. What’s more, as of right now, all but one flying mount, the Otherworldly Ottuk Carrier, are Skyriding-enabled. So long as it can eventually fix the dilemma with ground mounts, the Skyriding system will be perfect.