WoW Forever Mounts Guide: Riding Skill, No Flying, 3 Ship Routes and Paladin Chargers

Blizzard moved the mount cost into the riding trainer, the way Burning Crusade did. You pay the trainer once, you learn riding, and a mount is granted with it. There is no separate vendor mount to buy for your 1st ride. The gold you used to save for the mount is now the gold you save for the trainer.

Blizzard has not published Forever’s riding level or the trainer’s price. In Classic the 1st riding skill came at level 40, and every plan in this guide uses 40 as the working level. The number is updated here the day Blizzard prints it.

Blizzard measures every addition against the spirit of the original game. That is why Forever has no flying mounts and no level scaling: Azeroth stays a dangerous world where the road matters. The ground mount is the fastest thing you will own for all 60 levels.

The sea got faster instead. 3 new ship routes link the continents, and 1 of them matters most for leveling. The Steamwheedle dock in Tanaris now sails to Powderfuse Port in the Riverglades, the new zone for the mid 30s to mid 40s. The port is run by neutral goblins, so both factions use it. The Stormwind to Auberdine line puts humans and night elves in each other’s starting zones from the 1st levels, and the Menethil line stops at Southshore on its way to Auberdine.

The Skyborne Heroic Pack at $29.99 includes the Cerulean Prideclaw, a ground mount. The Skyborne Epic Pack at $59.99 and the Warcraft Forever Collection at $79.99 add a 2nd ground mount. Blizzard’s own pack copy adds the rule that matters: the riding skill is still bought in-game. A pre-order mount sits in your collection until the character has learned to ride.

So a pack buys the look, and the trainer buys the ride. Nothing sold by Blizzard skips the riding skill, and nothing sold by Blizzard raises your level. Blizzard has no plans for a paid character boost or a WoW Token.

Undead Paladin is 1 of the 6 new race and class combos, and Blizzard gave it its own mount story. Forsaken Paladins are sent to Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood of Tirisfal Glades at about level 10, and most of their class quests come from there. At 60 they embark on an epic mount quest of their own. Alliance Paladins claim their charger in the name of Redemption. The Forsaken ride in the name of Retribution.

The charger is a class quest, and the riding skill is still required. Blizzard has not published the quest steps or any gold cost on top of the training.

Leveling 1 to 60 takes about 150 hours of play, and about 80 of those hours fall in the 40s and 50s. That is exactly where the mount arrives. Quest hubs in the Riverglades tail, Krol’dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison and Hyjal are far apart, and a mounted character spends its hours questing instead of walking. Riding is the best purchase on the route, which is why every leveling order buys it the moment the character can. If you would rather skip the climb, a booster can play it for you through WoW Forever power leveling.

The date that matters is 9 December, when the raids open. Solo at 3 hours a night, you reach 60 around 24 December, 2 weeks into the raids. With a booster on the character from launch day you are 60 in 14 days, riding bought on the way, with 3 weeks of dungeons and gold before the 1st raid.

When the character reaches 40, the booster buys the riding skill from the quest gold the route has earned, and confirms it in the order chat. There is no mount product and no gold fee for it. Quest gold, bags, gear and reputation stay on the character.

You get a short report after every session: level, zone, gold. We re-check the hour estimates during the beta. The price of a placed pre-order never goes up. You get a full refund if you cancel before the 1st session.

Leveling the character yourself and short of gold for the trainer? Forever gold starts at $49 per 100 gold, delivered in launch week on your faction and ruleset.