I can has a mount?

It was with Catja – human mage that I made my first grind to 40 in Wow. Gaining a mount might be one of the single most exciting milestones a player reaches. Tack and Catja were still the same level back then and we hit 40 on the same evening. Tack had no problem with the horse mount provided to humans. As a warrior the classic horse seemed fitting. Catja had different plans. A cat mount. Yes, definitely.

“I’m all magical and mana filled and girly and I love kitties and yes I would like a saber mount, please.”

And then that snooty b*&#* Lelanai – animal handler said, “No.”

“What? But I’ve waited 40 levels for this.”

So I spent a very upset evening reading forums about why the heck I couldn’t buy my Saber. Not enough reputation with Darnassus. Now I could be wrong about this…but I believe at this point in time the patch hadn’t been released to solve the rep/level problem. (The bulk of quests that grant Darnassus rep are for levels 1-30. So as a 40 doing these quests would grant me little to no rep at all. Now they have changed the system so that a player will still receive full reputation for a lower level quest.) It was impossible for me to get enough reputation with Darnassus as a human.

/fell asleep on a tear stained pillow

Fast forward to when I was leveling Cerwyn up to 40. I did my forum research and found that I need to be revered with Darnassus to get my kitty mount. (Wait, did she say revered? /sigh Yes, I said revered.)

So as soon as she got to level 10, I fled from Azuremist Isle and hit the shores of Darkshore. Then for 20 levels I did just about every quest in Darkshore and Ashenvale. Somewhere along the way I hit revered. “Yes, I’m ready.” And then I chose to do the rest of my leveling to 40 in Stranglethorn.

So 40 rolls around and go see if Lelanai is ready to talk business.

“No.”

WTF. After some more forum research I realize that I have been misinformed and I need to be exalted to get a Saber mount.

I chose to keep leveling and work on the Saber slowly. I would rather be a 70 riding an Elek than a 50 riding a cat. So a Teldrassil quest here and there, a little runecloth, a little morrowgrain.

And at 58 I finally got my Saber mount.

I got the white saber with spots. He looks like Caedmon inversed.

I will admit though, there is definitely something wrong with the animation for a Draenei riding a cat mount. It looks fine from the front and side I guess, but from behind it’s…well…awkward. Almost painful to watch. They sit too stiffly or something. I don’t know if they use the same animation as when they ride an Elek or what. She just sits to rigidly and the saber is very fluid. And then she is also sort of floating above the seat. Eh, I’m thinking when I get my epic the saddle will help mask the problem.

▲ The section up above was actually drafted out about two weeks ago and then never finished. Since then I have purchased an epic. The saddle and the faster speed have seemed to help the problem quite a lot. In the future I’m going to try and post a comparison video.

Ironically/coincidentally as I’m writing this post my boss shows up with her new Porsche…just released from customs after being imported from Europe.

http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/911/911-targa-4s

Now that is a mount.