I hit level 77 last night and got my Cold Weather Flying skill. After a few unsuccessful hours of searching for the cursed Spirit Beast, I said the hell with it, and started on my Nesingwary chain. I was at 80.3% with no rested XP when I started. About 90mins or so later… DING!
I booked it straight over to the guy at River’s Heart and slapped down the 1000G so I could fly in Northrend. While not as mind blowing of an experience as the first time I flew in Outland, this was a pretty close second in terms of an enhancement to the game. The new perspective of Sholazar Basin from the air is something else.
It’s sort of ironic that one of the places where you train the skill for Cold Weather Flying is a tropical basin complete with reptiles. Oh well, so many things in WoW do not make sense. It’s best not to waste too much time analyzing it.
Apparently Blizzard’s explanation for not allowing flying mounts until the later levels is so that players will be better able to enjoy the scenery and terrain. I can understand that concept, but the idea of a Cold Weather Flying skill is a bit weak. I had thought maybe there was going to be some lengthy quest chain to unlock the skill. Instead it was just a 1000G sink. Even after that training I’m still wealthier than ever thanks to the abundance of skinning in Sholazar. 😀
Of course, once I could fly I then went back to searching for Loque’nahak. Sigh… still no luck.